Iranian Liberal Democrat

Hear, hear. Nice tribute to

Hear, hear. Nice tribute to a well-deserved man of learning and integrity.

thank you

JJ jaan,

I meant it.

Best,

Masoud

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Dear All-Iranians,

Thanks and we agree on this.

Best,

Masoud

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Dear Afsaneh,

I do not see the relevance of your question on the subject of THIS blog. If I understand your concern, you are asking what should be done to those who support Ahmadinejad and/or Khamenei. Or you want my policy on what should be done with supporters of the terrorist regime. If this is your question, it is an excellent question. You may ask this question in a blog and I will be glad to provide my detailed response. Or just let me know here if this is your concerns and I will write a new blog on it.

It depends on how the regime is gone. It would make a complete difference if there is a gradual step by step transition to democracy or a mass uprising leading to the overthrow of the regime, or major war causing the collapse of the regime.

We could learn from the experience of post-Nazi Germany and what they did to Nazi officials, or in France after liberation from Nazis and what they did to the collaborators, or in post-Apartheid South Africa (Truth and Reconciliation Commission under Desmund Tutu’s leadership), or post-Pinochet Chile, or post-communist systems in Poland, East Germany, etc...

Please let me know if I understand you correctly. If my understanding of your concern is wrong, please correct me, so that I could provide what you are looking for.

Best,

MK

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Roozbeh jaan,

Thank you for all your contributions.

Best,

Masoud

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All others, thank you for your additions.

MK

Nice one Masoud, I agree with you.

I also like to thank JJ and his seven dwarfs for giving the rest of us who happens not to be  members of any "cyber rapid reaction unit", or "cyber army", a voice on his site.

Cheers Mr Javid!

BTW, A lot of us were in Iran during 2009, and did a lot more than just voting or observing people's mood! the ridiculous  claim of "30% to 70% votes" for ahmadinezhad is certainly laughed at by vast majority of people inside Iran. But that sham of a so called "election" is alreaady history. Tell me what made doctor and his hojjatieh cult so unpopular to khamenei and his gang? how many hundreds of billions of  petro dollars are they fighting over? 

"Personal business must yield to collective interest."

Our heart

I agree that "Having a very looooooong history of dictatorship in our land, we lack the political culture conducive for open, serious, and civil debate."  The childhood for most of us was in a dictator country so we obtained many disadvantages, which influenced our thoughts.  Now that we are in relatively more democrat country we tend to critisize every subjects in this country, and only show hatred towards our own country.  We should change this by differening and not comparing ourselves with those people.  We are different from Americans/Canadians and we are also different from Iranians still live in Iran.  We need to understand this and acknowledge.  It makes our view more constructive and our heart more calm and loving.

I bet

there is a very "puritan" dwarf who keeps this place " clean" by deleting some of my edgier stuff. Nonetheless, my thanks and gratitude to all.

How about the "Seven Dwarfs?"

What did they used to say? "Behind every great website, there's a great STAFF!"

At the end of the day, there's a lot more group work and collective effort that ususlly gets mentioned, cheers

It is nice to be able to have a voice

Iranian.com makes it easy to be involved, be it in politics, literature or other areas. For instance for Persian poetry, I don't know any other site that you can input your poems in Farsi and have it online in a short time. In area of politics, it was great that I started writing on the site in 2009. I got to read many interesting blogs and was informed about events in Iran. Thanks Jahanshah for all your work, thanks MK for this blog, and thanks to all the IC contributors.

HFB

I am having a difficult time understanding where you got the impression that what Massoud wrote equals to cherry picking. Would you please elaborate how you came to this conclusion?

It's obvious a democratic system, by definition, allows for pluralism. The 10-20 millions would participate like the rest of people, by organizing and campaigning for their own candidates.

I, too, am gateful that JJ has created this site, I can imagine him sacrificing on all fronts to build and maintain this "Cyber Square."

Cherry Picking "Pluralism"

Sir, I appreciate your sentiment, here.

I was in Iran during the summer 2009 elections - there were hundreds of thousands campaigning on the streets there, for both sides: Young, Old, Men, Women, etc.  The pre-election ambiance was like 3 world cups at the same time. Ask any one who was there. And in the final controversial tally, some say 30% some say 70% - but let's take the lower figure - 30% did vote for the current President.

What sir, do you propose to do with 30% of Iran's 70 million population? (Not to mention the 70% who voted for the other side?)

"Pluaralism" has no ifs, and buts, and maybes.  This is one of the reasons you hear it over and over, that the solutions for Iran lie within its borders. Those outside just miss so much of the realities on the groud - it really doesn't help, at all. I agree with all you say - but can you propose something practical? Can you really accept the realities in that complex place of 70 million? Respect the 10-20 million, in the very least, who voted against your beliefs? Because we all sir, have to be the "change 'we' want to see in the world."- Mahatma Gandhi

Thank you for your post. In theory at least, I agree with it. I personally believe, in practice, we Iranians have a long way to go.

Afsaneh

Well written, MK

On 5 May 2011, All-Iranians also noted that, "1. The Website of iranian.com has a democratic record that you cannot find it in any part of the cyberspace. 2. Many credits go to Jahanshah Javid who has founded this Democratic Institution. 3. We are all practicing democracy." Source: Comment section of this blog //iranian.com/main/blog/afshinazad-8page5

:)

Thanks hamshahri :)