Faramarz's Latest Rambling

M.

It was Just a joke (about joining bashers). You know that, right?   Have a great weekend.  I am signing off for today.

Dear Mehrban

It seems that the blood pulls after all!  I have avoided the bashers and read the love stories!  Thanks :)

Dear Mehrnaz

enough of this agreeing with each other, we need to join the bashers on other threads and have ourselves a ball (kidding of course).   I too am glad we had this exchange to clear the air.  I am looking forward to our future discussions.  By the way, I think you're a pretty good poet ;-).

Dear Mehrban

It DOES make sense.  I know about the anxieties and I share them.  What we need to be wary of is how such real and justified anxieties can be exploited to label people and create black and white alliances purely based on fantasy and projections.  

It is good that we felt able to clear the air and reach understanding. 

Dear Mehrnaz

I am in full agreement with your last sentense.  

The first two paragraphs of my last post are not meant to be accusations, they are my attempt to tell you that my initial objection was not racial but political.  My reaction was due to my anxieties about the political and psychological implications of that idea in the context of present day Iran and its government.    It has nothing to do with what you meant to say,  it characterizes my reaction to what I read.   Does that make any sense?     

Mehrban

You say "Your initial comment which hit me like a lightening bolt at the time, in no uncertain terms assigned the qualities of bravery and beauty to the Arab component of the Iranian genetic make up.  It was not vague or open to interpretation." 

These are YOUR words and your MISPERCEPTION.   And accusations and insults continued despite explanations. 

You also say "I understand the concept that you and khaleh introduced as a response to me.  It was/is irrelevant to the nature of my initial protest". 

You misunderstood.  The concept Khaleh Mousheh, myself and a number of other people felt had to be explained, was not irrelevant to what your protested against.  It was an elaboration, an amplification of the original statement.  And remember the context in which the statement was made was massive racial abuse and personal labeling and insults.  Most of that thread was flagged and deleted but some of the insults remain and they can be found on other threads.  I am sure you are aware what I am referring to!

You say you kept silent when requested your views about the racial bigotry and abusive comments because you did not want to be involved!!  Dear Mehrban, if you look at that thread, you continued your involvement by further insults against me and I consistently refused to reciprocate. 

However, in so far as you say you now appreciate what was meant and in so far as you express your distaste for racial bigotry, then all is good and let's leave it behind us.  It is not difficult to misconstrue meanings and intentions when emotions run high.  The fact remains that we both love Iran and want the best for our country.

Mehrnaz 

Re: Mehrnaz

I stil don't understand what you were referring to when you wrote about "lies and distortions."

If you were referring to my remarks about the events that transpired in Iran after the Arab invasion, then tell me what part was a lie or a distortion.

If you were referring to Mehrban's comments in here or in the blog you are referring to, then I cannot see any lies on his/her behalf nor any "racist" remarks.

You wrote, "Your assertion above indicates that you are very unfamiliar with both old and contemporary history. Have you, for example, heard of the Jewish Holocaust?!"

Hmmm.... Let's see, I guess I have to look up "jewish holocaust" in the internet because I am "very unfamiliar with old and comtemporary history", correct?

And if I am unfamiliar with history, does that make you familar with it? The answer is no. Simply because your interpretation of history is different than someone else's, that does not make the other person "very unfamiliar with history." Actually, it could very much be the reverse.

Still would like to know what was lie and distortion.

Mehrnaz-Shahabi

Your initial comment which hit me like a lightening bolt at the time, in no uncertain terms assigned the qualities of bravery and beauty to the Arab component of the Iranian genetic make up.  It was not vague or open to interpretation.

Political and psychological implications of such an idea in the context of Iran could be immense.  For one, it could argue that Iranians lost to Arabs initially because they lacked in bravery.  Taken to an extreme, it could also justify violence as bravery. It puts Iranians at a disadvantage in general and it is offensive. If what you meant was different from what you wrote (I think so now), I understand and all is well.

About the cut and pastes below- they appear to be responses to a racially bias comment, while my protest had no such content.  It would have been ethical to delete my name if you were just interested in communicating the content with Jamshid.  As you know, Media is a funny thing, take things out of context and sequence and you can create mis-understandings.  

About staying silent about name callings,  I did not want to get involved in policing the site.  I did not voice an objection to your comment because it was aggressive towards another blogger but for reasons I stated above.  But if it makes any difference to you,  yes, of course I think all personal insults are objectionable.   

PS. I understand the concept that you and khaleh introduced as a response to me.  It was/is irrelevant to the nature of my initial protest. 

Mehrnaz

This thread may have a happy ending after all.  You and I can make it so.  I am a little busy to write much more now but wanted to acknowledge your last post.  I will write more if not later today then definitely tomorrow.  

Disappointing really

I turned up for lunch at  the orchid restaurant on Saturday and the Gammon steak and brown Ale were off the menue. Just what sort of a Ramazan lunch do you do?

I just dont know- what is the world coming to? 

Mehrban, Jamshid

Jamshid, the lie and distortion that I responded to was attributing a comment to me out of context.  The context was responding to racially abusive language.  You can read the posts in the link I have provided below and see for yourself.  Most of the comments, including my original comment which was part of that particular thread have been deleted because of the very abusive language.  Decontexulising the comment distorts it and belies its intended meaning.  My comments below have elaborated and contexualised the original comment.  If you have been aware of the original comment and that blog, then you are lying about what I said and believed.  If you were not aware and were just repeating what you had heard, then it is an unintended distortion and hope my explanation has clarified my position for you.  In short, I don't believe Arabs are more beautiful and more intelligent than Iranians, but neither do I believe Iranians are more beautiful and more intelligent than Arabs!  Let's say, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

In fact, I do not spend much time on these blogs.  I was informed by someone that my name was referred to, and only because important issues had been raised on that blog, I responded to elaborate.

Mehrban - If you recall that blog, many nasty exchanges took place.  Bimokh was the most courteous of them all!!  I, in fact, had asked you at the time whether you agreed with those racist and abusive comments and you remained silent.  I too don't wish to engage myself in abusive exchanges. Both in that blog and in the current blog, it has been YOU who started and continued abusing me and not the other way round!  Also nothing has been attributed to you which you have not said.  Unless, of course, you wish to retract what you have said, which I would pleasantly welcome.  I myself still believe mixing and diversity of gene pool makes more beautiful, intelligent and healthier people, and yes, we have suffered and lost, but also benefited from our blood and cultural exchanges with the Arab world.  You might find my assertions offensive.  I wonder why. I don't.  As an Iranian, I am proud of my culture and history and revel in its richness and diversity.   If you wish not to get caught in unpleasant exchanges, then please refrain making offensive remarks and I suggest that you may wish to read my comment below to genuinely appreciate what has been said rather than attributing untruth which would then have to be responded to.  

I hope this clarifies issues.  I am now finished with this blog.  

Peace 

Thank you Natalia

for your post.

Mehrnaz-Shahabi

Bimokh was what you were calling another blogger while making your most disrespectful comment about Iranians.  The original comment has been since deleted.  

I protested your offensive comment and I used your word.  No doubt, it is time to end this unhappy exchange.   Please, from now on, do not include my name in pastes of comments that I have neither made nor engaged.  

Re: Shahabi

"Jamshid, I tend not to waste time on blogs of this kind and do not respond to lies and insults."

You DO tend to waste time on these kinds of blogs, as it is indicated by your reading many comments to the last letter, and taking the time to find your old comments, and then cupying and pasting them here. So please, enough with this untrue "I tend not to waste time on..." statement. We're all wasting time in here.

Now, kindly re-read my post and tell me what parts of it were "lies" and "insults", and what parts were truths and facts.

yeah ....yeah

happy whatever.

Who do we need to see to sign off on this Islam thing in Iran?

Long Live Iran, the land of Cyrus the Great.

Goftaare Neek, Pendaare Neek, Raftaare Neek.

Hear that muslims..........?

Beyond our differences

//www.beyondourdifferences.com/

And on that happy note..

I agree.

I'm just going to leave whatever's hanging hanging.

I'm sure whatever's important will come up elsewhere.

And whatever isn't, won't and that's fine.

Happy Ramazan to all Muslims of the world.

Why all the debate?

Happy Ramezan to all Muslims.

I said 'panic', in other words...

دست که به چوب ببری گربه دزده فرار می کنه.

Mehrban,

For the records, this is your original comment in "How Iran became a free country II - the Caviar Republic":

"Only bimokhs think

by Mehrban on Tue Jun 09, 2009 08:07 AM PDT that Arabs made Iranians brave and beautiful.  Shame on you". 

You were not quoted because your comment was irrelevant, I did not wish to shame you!  It was my response and clarification and Khaleh Mousheh's comment that I copy-pasted because it corrected the distortion by Jamshid (and yourself) and reiterated a concept I hope others can grasp.  As for yourself, what I said and the meaning of it was explained to you by myself (as quoted in my previous comment), by Q, by Khuzestani, by Ananymous 7, by Irandokht, by Khaleh Mousheh and by Q.  I wonder whether your failure to comprehend is due to an inability to grasp simple concepts and facts or is just pure wickedness.  Whatever the case may be, in so far as my comment was not aimed at you, I consider my comment here NOT a waste of time.

The advantage of having smart readers on the site is that

they will see that there are no comment of mine pasted.  Only responses to a distorted version of my initial and unequivocal protest.  

I did not engage any of the responses pasted below as I find engaging in the topic of racism and purity of blood offensive.   This is not my lexicon. 

Faced with their own ugly image in a mirror...

that's all this place is, really. A place where we're all faced with our own ugly images in a mirror. Of black and white letters making black and white words forming black and white lines inside black and white boxes of ugly black and white mirrors.

To be continued.

PS Faramarz, one crucial point I do think you're missing is that my ENTIRE last two posts, every single solitary word of them, were meant to be a joke. Or at very least ironic. And you of all people should know about jokes...

lol

but not really...

The advantage of copy-pasting

The advanatge of copy-pasting people's previous comments is watching them panic when they're faced with their own ugly image in the mirror. Priceless!

You have truely lost it Rosie

Something is really bothering you and its definitely not my blog.

I honestly think you should seek therapy and I don't mean it as a joke or demeaning statement.  

PS Straight from the Orchid Restaurant off 405

"A supreme banquet harmonizing the body and soul".

Faramarz's Feast.

Bon appetit. 

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDbQ6ktcFPQ

Funny how the whole family's showing up for the buffet...

when our host said I was spending too much time on his 'little blog', (which has been in the Most Disgust box since yesterday btw) while I was writing about his entire glorious opus, complete with family photo album--yet he hasn't said that to anyone else . Or maybe my psychotropics are making me not see straight. What do you think, Faramarz? Please don't talk with your mouth full.

Well anyway by all means let's keep the suckling pig roasting! (There, was that offensive enough to the Islamofascists to earn me brownie points no pun intended on the other side of the buffet table?  Jeez, never changes, never will...)

Okay, so Jamshid, I had written a long reply to your last post based on your rather inconspiciuous allusion to me at the end.  The bad news is it won't be ready for a while to throw into the soup. The good news is, guess what! Almost everybody's in it! Even if they weren't here when I drafted it! And what a stew it's turning out to be...

Btw, in Cuba a stew made of lots of leftovers, a little bit of everything thrown in, is called ropa vieja. Literally old clothes, but kind of with the image of a heap of old laundry.

It never ends, does it?...black and white letters in black and white lines in black and white boxes and all you can do is take the box to the laundromat and still all the words come back,...black and white.

What is the point, I keep asking myself. Not for all of you. It's different for you. You all obviously share a common point for being here, although what it REALLY is damned if I know. But I do know that you share it and that it's fundamentally the same. But what about me? Other than habit, addiction, fear of letting go...what have I accomplished? What can I accomplish? What will ever be accomplished here other than a stronger sense of Iranianness in Black and White, which I will never share?

Rhetorical questions.

____________________

ps 1471 views and counting. Just about what Jahanshah got for his last photo essay over the first two days. (Now at 2607 after five days on the home page, versus this one which was only on it for two). Yeah, I keep an eye on things like that. The newly installed counter is a fascinating toy. Some little blog.

For anyone else who may care,

I have the deepest respect for all races and ethnicities including and especially Arabs.   I have contempt for people who in these times of trouble, specifically declare that "Arabs made Iranians brave and beautiful".  I also have contempt for tactics much like the ones of the Islamic Republic, that unethically and unfairly, present partial and manipulated material to implicate bystanders.

I am sorry to have had to comment on this thread. 

Jamshid - "This is not the Arab's fault", I agree!

"This was not the Arab's fault. It was the fault of their religion. A religion that "commanded" moslems to kill the non-fidels, permitted" them to (literally) enslave the women and men of the defeated nations, encouraged them them to impose heavy taxes on non-moslems, and "commanded" them to impose Islam by force of sword".

Jamshid, I tend not to waste time on blogs of this kind and do not respond to lies and insults.  However there are some issues that need clarification from the point of view of enlightening and educating:

1. Your assertion above indicates that you are very unfamiliar with both old and contemporary history.  Have you, for example, heard of the Jewish Holocaust?!  Were the perpetrators Muslim, or was it a religious undertaking?!  This stain upon humanity was a modern secular phenomenon and in essence has continued by other perpetrators against other victims, 

2. You say: "Unknown to her, our Jewish lady friend in here had influnced me to stop writing about Islam for the good of the cause of unity against the IRI regime. But sorry when there are people who claim "Arabs made our gene pool more beautiful" - Mehrnaz Shahabi", or "Islam made our culture more beautiful - Q", I just want to vomit and can't stay quite".

My original comment on Q's blog, //iranian.com/main/blog/q/how-iran-became-free-country-ii-caviar-republicpage1, was deleted along with comments in an offensive thread, but the comment below reiterated my point: 

"Mehrban: be mehrban and open-minded

by MEHRNAZ SHAHABI on Tue Jun 09, 2009 09:36 AM PDT

"Be mehrban and not racist.  I did not say Arabs made us brave and beautiful.  If you are familiar with history and have the tinniest familiarity with the science of genes you would understand that no group of people are 'pure' and there ARE no 'races'.  These are ideological constructions.  Furtherfore the mixing of blood and diversity makes people (and animals) healthy and beautiful.  Inbreeding (and insulation) breeds disease, physically and mentally". 

Khaleh Mousheh too left a very good and informative comment on that thread for those whose brains are so packed with racist hatred that no room is left  for scientific appreciation and humane reflection:

Arabs and Iranians- Bringing evidence

Ex-programmer

I lived in iran for so many years and never in my life i witnessed Anybody being "forced" to do anything. Fasting is totally voluntary, there are no such thing as special working conditions and/or altered buisness hours. I guess every country possibly have they own rules.

 No to give any credit to the snake-eating, alligator-raising Mullahs. The thing is that if you are caught in the public doing the nasty thing thatyou should not be doing, then that is when you will get your behind whooped. The same goes to the member of all other religions as well.

Sassan

I could agree with you that islam tends to spread its influence througout the entire system of governace in a given society. You are right. we do not Have to choose to speak or pray to our god in arabic. We do not have to say and follow anything that Islam dictates to us, however it happens because some of Us, via our genes or by choice, simply choose to walk on that path. Of course we do say prayes in farsi. I know so many who pray in farsi, starting by saying Khodaya or khodavanda, and continue all the way in farsi.

And god does understand all forms of dialects and languages and here i can say that you are just using this to degrade the religion. Prayers have traditionally been said in arabic. If you don't want to do it that way, you certainly have the option to pray in your heart and within your soul in farsi. there is no such as thing as god giving preferential treatment to Arabic.

I am not sure if a Lybian or a palestinian, would have  taken it nicely if you had said these words right to their faces, that you guys are generic arabs. For one thing, you are not an arab from those countries, i doubt that you even lived there, and so i don't think you would be in any position to make the comment as to what extent their native culture or language has been eroded. You probably would have been challenged to an honorable fist fight:)

We are not who we once were?? based on what Hedayat and other writers said? What esle did they say that does not apply to us, today's iranians?

You should leave the choice of wanting to feel iranian or feeling and living like an arab, to each and every individual.