Mash Ghasem

It's more about not having a sense of collective responsibility

and trying to be "zerang" at the expense of others.  I was at a restaurant the other day, and when I went to the bathroom to wash up, I saw this guy who had just finished washing his hands grab a couple of pieces of paper towel and wipe the area around the sink like it was his own house.  Can you imagine an Iranian doing that at a public restroom?  Hell, have you seen people on Iran's streets?  They're two feet away from a trash can and they still throw their trash on the sidewalk.  Until and unless we have a collective sense of responsibility for our own destiny, we will never get anywhere.

And as far as our work ethic in general...give me a break!!!  We need to get rid of our afternoon naps first.  I mentioned it once in this blog:

//iranian.com/main/blog/anonymous-observer/why-iri-nothing-nazi-germany

And some people said that I was "racist" against Iranians for saying that we're not quite as efficient as the Germasns!!! :-))

Zood behemoon bar mikhoreh....  :-(( 

At last ...

some quasi-intelligent blog from Ghasem - thanks to copying Max Webber!!

 For an Islamic democracy

پیمانه چو پر شود چه شیرین و چه تلخ

پیمانه چو  پر شود چه شیرین و چه تلخ
چون عمر به سر رسد چه  بغداد و چه بلخ
می نوش که بعد از من و تو ماه بسی
از سلخ به قره آید، از قره به سلخ

و این اجرای قشنگ گروه ارمنی "کشتی شب" به دوست خوب اهل  عمل ما ، میرزای
عزیز . به هر رو این مقال خشک  نظری را بعضی اوقات میشود "عملی" کرد! ============================

Night Ark - You've Got A Friend

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_2KjglDIRM

MG dear: I still blame Saadi for all of this ... as in Boostan

منت تریاک را "من و قله" که کشیدنش موجب حیرتست و تجارتش وفور نعمت. هر پکی که فرو میرود مفرح حال است و چون بر میاید مزید خیال. پس بر هر پکی دو نعمت موجود است و بر هر نعمتی شکری واجب!

از ... گشاد که بر آید

کز عهده ترکش بدر آید؟

بنگی همان به که به تدبیر خویش

منقل و وافور بیارد به پیش ...

جبر جغرافیایی

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH05Hjhw1S8

سعدی و حافظم رو قاطی‌ کردم؟

زلیخا مرد از این حسرت که یوسف گشت زندانی

چرا عاقل کند کاری، که باز آرد پشیمانی ؟

سیلی نقد به از حلوای نسیه!

It's a question of motivarion

When it comes  to work ethics. The work ethics which propels a nation into capitalism from Feudalism.

The motivation could be religious zeal (protestant work ethics per northern Europe/North america), Political Zeal (post revolutionary Russia, China, even cuba , dare to say), or purely greed  (all above mentioned countries, except cuba, at least so far). No doubt,  abundance of resources would severly impact the economic and scientific progress of a nation. Some (not myself) believe and argue that it could even shape the genetic make up of a nation so far as the key qualities of inventiveness and work ethics are concerned (e.g. northern Europe's harsh environment and lack of resources, compared to present day ME rich with oil revenue generated, let us not forget in the first instance by the ingenuity and work ethics of the anglo saxons, who discovered, engineered, drilled, refined, shipped.......)

BTW, a refreshingly  good blog, a good topic of discussion.  Thank you.

"Personal business must yield to collective interest."

چرا عاقل کند کاری !؟

A very funny new take on the famous Hafez verse, invented by our very spirited, yet very easy going, citizens of Shiraz.

...

Sorry for the bad taste, but that's more or less what I was looking for,  a strong reflexive response,thank you.

I don't have a problem with the general theme of the blog

My problem is only the first sentence that sets out to prevent others to discuss issues that are important to "them" and in subsequent comments - in defense of the initial attempt- it is said that certain issues are "timely" and others "untimely".  Which is nonsense, all issues are timely if there is even one person interested in pursuing them.  

It would have been an interesting topic to discuss as I have read Webber's  Capitalism and the Protestant Ethics but your attitude has left a bitter and taste.  Have a nice evening everyone.

...

If it effects the GDP it would more than 'my' issue. It's a macro.

You could accuse me of all authoritarian lables you wish, the history of Iranian economy in the past hundred years show we have had a consistent import surplus over exports, a net deficit. This runs from Ghajar through Pahlavis throught 32 years of IR. We've always simply bought stuff rather than producing them, whereas in the past forty years we've been able to actually produce and export, it still remains a small fraction of the overall economy.

In Turkey, in contrast, they've never had the luxury of Oil money, they had to create everythign by hand and coal. We simply lack such work ethics, except in industrial and large urban service sectors, and all of that still remains only a fraction of the economy.

Chicken? Or the Egg?

As G. K. Chesterton said, "You can never have a revolution in order to establish democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution."

Given this astute observation, Iran never had a chance. Which is why you rightly said, "See where it got us."

Simply demanding common basic freedom for Iran, or specifically, freedom from religious rule, I think we can get to the details of ethics and a new national moral code.

So once we have a democracy, we can proceed to have your revolution after that.

According to Chesterton anyway. I am sure there are many Islamic scholars who would rightly object.

How can you say that your issue is more important

than other issues?  How do you determine when it is "timely" or "untimely" for others to discuss certain issues.   Isn't that just your opinion?! Completely formed/inhibited by your life experience and political views which may not be applicable to others at all?!   

Bahmani jan don't mean to be argumentative, but that's exactly

what they used to say about Women's Right and Feminism back in the days: once we're free of Shah we'll discuss all issues. See where it got us.

Liberation is a process, not a one step, two step program: as if  first we do this, then we do everything else. It's a bit closer to: every important issue NOW.

...

The Right to Be Lazy

//www.marxists.org/archive/lafargue/1883/lazy...

I've actually translated some of that text to farsi, so I could take credit for being in favour of being relax and calm at work, and in discussions.

The distinction here is maninly between mal-development and proper development.

All this Oil money through the years, and all those imports in the past century,  have simply corrupted us, we have very little work, productive, and actuall industrial culture. The Oil money has acted as a substitute, that's all, cheers

No ethics, No discussion

Maybe that's why the piece was so short.

Iranians seem to always want to discuss other things, instead of doing the harder work of first securing freedom and establishing a way to change things.

Once we are free, we can debate the debatable.

Anything less, only makes us masterdebaters.

There we go another dictator in the making!

Don't do what you want to do but do what I think is important for "us" to do.  No thanks Mash Ghasem, no dice.  Maybe that is why we are so lazy because from childhood every time we want to do something a know it all comes along and tell us what is more important (of course to his or her liking).  I am surprized out of all people for you to have this attitude.

What did I say about anyone and I mean anyone ...... 

"Pfffff..t" 

...

You might say I had a bit of a challenge translating it to farsi. Could you write it in Persian, if it's not too much, please.

ALL are NOT worth studying and discussion. We have central and timely issues and non-central and non-timely issues. Unless we make a prelimenary distinction, it's all for naught!

MG,

Did you see my comment?  

...

This is a very complex issue.

While overall I'm in general agreement with taking it easy and being laid back, and not killing your self while doing the work, and have translated text to Persian in its favour, the kind of  mal-deveolped, backward , the sort of Lumpen evasive 'anything goes' mentality that's dominating Iran today (some might say best exemplified by Ibrahim Golestan's movie Asrar Ganj Dareh Jeni, does anyone has a copy of that? please) remains an obstacle in itself. Where are all those sociologist on IC when you need them? 

genetics vs. environment

MG,

In the case of Iranians, I think this is very much has to do with the environment.  The same "Iranians" in the US work long hours and are successful at what they do.  However, in Iran, the only way to move the workers (especially in government) is to bribe them.  Then, you will see how fast the work gets done, otherwise, come back tomorrow!

Right now, the bribes are so widespread, no one even tries to hide it and it is part of doing business.  But, this situation hopefully will change when sting operations exposes and jails the offenders in the next democratic secular Iranian government.

Dear MG,

great, we just read about that article earlier today and you already wrote a blog on its implications. There are many Iranians both in Iran and in Diaspora who are not tanbal. Some who may look like they are tanbal might have become demotivated because of the horrible system in Iran and discrimination faced by many in Diaspora.

Why is it that in our (Iranian) minds

It is not good to do one thing but it is better to do another.  Why is it that not all are worth studying and discussing?  I wonder.