Archive - Aug 25, 2010 - Article

Small entrepreneurs, big future

To understand India you have to see its villages! This dictum is often repeated to signify the hold of tradition on Indian society. Surprisingly, I found signs of entrepreneurship in the few villages of central India I visited which seemed to promise the future. These were all the more impressive as the past was still stubbornly strong in the mix of religion and history that was the mainstay of the folklore of these villages. This was the scene of the struggle between individual vitality and the inertia of group comfort >>>

بزرگ‌ترین جلاد جهان

موج اعدام باز در ایران بالا گرفته است. در چند سال اخیر آمار اعدام‌ها مرتبا رو به افزایش بوده و موارد متعددی از اعدام‌های گروهی گزارش شده است. اکنون خبر می‌رسد که خصوصیت «مخفیانه» نیز به این اعدام‌ها اضافه شده است. تعداد کسانی که در زندان‌های جمهوری اسلامی در خطر مرگ به سر می‌برند عددی چند هزار نفره را تشکیل می‌دهد. جمهوری اسلامی ظاهرا عطش سیری‌ناپذیری برای کشتن دارد و در برابر اعتراضات جامعه جهانی راه‌های تازه-ای برای ادامه کشتار خود پیدا کرده است: قتل مخفی و گروهی>>>

Do we want life to go on in Tehran?

These days, when I talk to my friends in Iran, hardly anyone, even the most politically active, talks about politics anymore. I’m certainly not claiming that my friends are a representative of the entire Iranian population – they certainly are not. But it was at first somehow disappointing to hear them disregard the latest political news the way they did. When just months ago, they were the ones filling me in on things I might have missed. Now, even when I bring up things like “did you read Mousavi’s latest letter?” or “did you hear about so and so’s outrageous prison sentence?” They are quick to change the subject>>>

The Weakness of the Islamic Republic

From the most religious layers of the society to the most secular ones consider themselves part of the Green Movement despite their different perspectives. In other words, it is the Green Movement that has defined itself so widely. But it does have a significant difference with the 1979 revolution. While in the 1979 revolution to be anti-monarchy was the point of agreement of many different and even opposing groups, in the Green Movement to be against the Islamic Republic is not the point of convergence for all active forces>>>

Ma bi’asser

The positive interpretation of ma bi’asser is probably not far away from the concept of ‘Lebanese resilience’ that one hears so much outside the country and witnesses it inside. As an Iranian, I have found this interpretation quite refreshing. An Iranian journalist visiting Lebanon not long after the Israeli invasion of 2006 told me about meeting a family outside the ruins of their house in south Lebanon. ‘That was our house,’ the father had said, laughing and pointing to the heap of rubble nearby, rather than telling a tale of misery, inviting sympathy, or pity.>>>

برده (6)

از سنجار تا نصیبین سفر پنج روز طول کشید. با این حال رنج آن بسیار کمتر از مسافرت از آدیابن تا سنجار بود. هر روز که از سنجار دورتر می شدند هوا خنکتر و ملایمتر می شد و بار دیگر کوهستان جای بیابان را می گرفت. چون دیگر خیلی از آدیابن دور شده بودند دلیلی نداشت باز هم از راه های فرعی و ناهموار به سفر ادامه دهند. بنابراین از مسیرهای اصلی و مطمئن به سفر پرداخته و شبها را هم در کاروانسراهای بین راه سپری کرده بودند>>>

Caravan

Guilty in the pleasure of
not fanning the coals of war,
of not being there,
not holding my voice over
the governing of
my poor countrymen>>>