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Anbar Republic

It is now painfully obvious that U.S. administration has given up on any chance of the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds ever burrying the hatchet(s) and settling in peace under the unbrella of one country (Iraq). Sadly, this may be the only viable way forward. Just as it was the case in the Balkans, the roots of hatred and mistrust go too deep to ever be resolved peacefully. This is not, however, a new option for Iraq. Many politicians, generals and pondits, including the Democratic Senator Joseph Biden, have advocated the "partitioning" of Iraq along the secterian and ethnic lines.>>>

Common grounds

As similar as Israelis and Iranians are, recent Iranian immigrants to Israel experience difficulty in overcoming the cultural shock. The contrast between the traditional values of Iranian society and the liberal currents of Israeli society -- defined by the norms and culture of its European immigrants rather than by its Middle Eastern geography--could not be greater. I once had a conversation with an elderly Iranian Jew whom I sat next to during the bus ride from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. Ehsaq (Isaac), as he was called, spared no love for the clerics in Tehran, but he liked to reminisce about the country in which he had spent most of his life. >>>

Neo-coms

Of all the alternatives that are out there the one that has a special attraction to some diehard Communists-who by the way mostly like to be called Socialist nowadays- is of all things, militant Islam in general, and its poster boy Islamic Republic of Iran’s (IRI) version of it in particular. Just to give some evidentiary weight to this proposition lets take the old axiom of birds of a feather flock together as a road map and see where it leads to. Students of Communism’s history know well that one of the initially widely appreciated arguments of that nascent ideology was its antagonism towards capitalism and the despicable exploitation of the workers, proletariats in Communist lingo, which in varying degree is part and parcel of it.>>>

آه، کلادیوسِ ایرانی، کجایی؟!

هنگام خواندن صفحات زرین زندگی کالیگولا، بعضی تشبهاتِ او و دکترِ عزیزمان احمدی نژاد، توجه ام را جلب نمود! هر دو مدت زمانی را در ارتش (سپاه) گذراندند. هر دو در آغاز قدرت، قول رفاه و عدالت دادند. هر دو در آغاز سخاوتمندی بسیاری (به خصوص به نیروهای نظامی) نشان دادند. هر دو بعد از مدت کوتاهی، نشانه هایی از ضعف و عدم تعادل روانی نشان دادند (اعمالی که به سادگی قابلِ توجیهِ منطقی نبود)! و بالاخره، به نظر می رسد که احمدی نژاد جان هم، مثل کالیگولا، فقط چهار سال در قدرت بماند! جالب تر از همه اینکه، احمدی نژاد هم در تلاش دادن درجۀ کنسول به اسبهاست >>>

لبخند

گاهی هجوم صبح
گاهی میان حادثه  
گاهی من از فرط این همه راه
گاهی کنار ویرانه های گلدان
گاهی کنار چشمه های عسل
...
هنوز می بینم
کمی ترانه در باغ روییده است >>>

دفتر شعرم گاهواره نام توست

جاری ام
هرروز
از ارتفاع شیدایی
با نور آفتاب
بر شانه ی دیوار خانه ات
نشسته ام
به تماشای بوی سیب >>>

Despotism, colonialism, federalism, and...

Anyone who has a child knows that you can never make a 4 year old do anything they don't want to. The best you can hope for is that they stop just long enough, to notice the example you have to set for them. So goes the war in Iraq now in it's 4th full year. Rather than set a proper example for this 4 year old 3rd world child to follow, the US and the greater Western 1st world is guilty of nothing short of child abuse and endangerment.>>>

To the last Baiji Dolphin

Hang in there, buddy
Swim on, no matter how much the river burns
People worshiped you for millenia
You were loved by old, young, strong and weak
But Three Gorges took over
It happens to the best of us. >>>

There is something special happening here

At times, the crowd’s noise overwhelmed the huge amplifiers and the sound system. It was unbelievable! There was a lot of good energy but it seemed that Kiosk didn’t expect such an active crowd and lost focus here and there. Overall, they played very well and performed the songs different from their studio version. There were very good solo performances by almost all of the band members, especially Babak who knocked the socks off the crowd with his guitar solos.>>>

Benedictus

Only 72 hours before a scheduled US attack on Iran. Two estranged childhood friends, one Jewish and one Muslim, born in the same town in Iran, agree to a secret meeting in a Benedictine monastery in Rome to negotiate a price for safety and freedom. The above synopsis is the main plot for the upcoming play Benedictus, an ambitious international collaboration between artists from Iran, Israel and the United States. The collaborators -- Motti Lerner, one of Israel's most provocative contemporary playwrights; Torange Yeghiazarian, Artistic Director of Golden Thread Productions in San Francisco; Iranian-American director Mahmood Karimi-Hakak of Siena College... >>>

احضار

"....فردا ساعت هشت صبح باید دادگاه مستقر در زندان " اوین " باشم. چند دقیقه پیش تلفنی اطلاع دادند. من تنها نمی روم. رئیس توئی، تصمیم گیری های نهائی با توست. فردا با هم می رویم...."

مثل برق گرفته ها تکان خورد. رنگش پرید، و بر عکس همیشه که چکشی حرف می زد تقریبن با ناله گفت:

" ...من چرا؟ تو را احضار کرده اند. آمدن من کمکی نمی کند..."

حرفش را بُریدم...

>>>

Insects infect cultural understanding

Research has shown that in most cases Americans’ attitude toward other nations is a reflection of our government’s foreign policy. This is ever more the case when there are hostilities between two countries and the lives of ordinary people are affected by such hostility. Media frenzy and sensationalism can further reinforce such hostilities and adds fire to the flames of stereotyping, stigmatizing, dehumanizing, and even war-mongering. Unfortunately, this has been the case for the United States and Iran since Nov. 4, 1979, when Iranian students took American diplomats as hostages and held them for 444 days.>>>

Life in two nations

While I found myself concerned about this being another nostalgic look back at Iran through the eyes of an Iranian woman’s memoir, instead I encountered A Mirror Garden as a bildungsroman—a tale of growing up and self-realization—and of the ways that a woman’s perseverance, vision, and good fortune, lead not necessarily to a fairy tale ending, but a rather, a clear sense of being and acting in the world. This is a narrative that indeed runs against the notion what has been so regularly drummed into Americans—that women of Middle Eastern cultures — whether Iranian or Arab — are merely being acted upon and have no agency.>>>

نیاز

دوستت دارم
اما تنها به اندازه ی آن نیاز سراپا مستی
که در رگهایم هست سرشار
به قدر آن شعبده ی ظریفی که در لبخنده ات پیداست
>>>

My real Iranian

Forty-three days ago, my wife and I buried our only son. Although he was a teenager, he was our baby. He was his mother's bright and shining angel and he was my best friend. I feel so broken and empty because now that I have had time to replay his short life in my mind a hundred thousand times, I don't think that I told him enough just how much I loved him and how very much he meant to me. The thing that hurts the most is that I know that there's nothing I can ever do to change any of that now. If God would give me just an hour to sit with my son and tell him goodbye, I would be willing to pay any price, but I know that is not going to happen.>>>