GODS

در ستايش بتکده ها!

زير آسمان ايران يهوديان، عيسويان، بهائيان، مسلمانان و زرتشتيان و... هر يک خدای خويش را دارند

by Esmail Nooriala
06-Sep-2008 (2 comments)
«قائل شدن بوجود خدايان» نوعی روش ابتدائی علمی انسان اوليه برای تبيين جهان و تغييرات آن بوده است و او، با نسبت دادن خصوصيات خويش به عناصر طبيعت، به آنها جان و هويت می بخشيده تا حرکاتشان را درک و هضم کرده آنها را بصورتی معنی دار ببيند. آنگاه، وقتی عناصر طبيعت بصورت خدايان قاهر اما واجد صفاتی انسانی در آمدند آنگاه می توان با آنها به گفتگو، مذاکره و معامله نشست. با قربانی کردن آنچه برای ما عزيز است ـ حتی فرزند و همسر ـ آنها را خشنود ساخت، در نذر و نياز را گشود، دعاهای مختلفی را که دل اين قدرتمندان را نرم کنند آفريد و مشاغلی را بوجود آورد که برای آن تحصيل و تخصص ضرورت می يابد و متخصصان فن دلبری از خدايان در شولای جادوگران قبايل و رمال ها و دعانويسان بکار رفع مشکلات مردم بپردازند. اما چگونه شد که در ميان آن همه خدائی که هر جمعيتی برای خود تصور کرده بود يک باره يک خدا گردنکشی کرده و بقيه را از ميان برداشته و خود بجای همهء آنها نشسته است؟>>>

HERITAGE

فارسینامه

این مجموعه امید دارد، تا راه پیشرفت را بر جوانان توانا و عامه امیدوار روشنتر سازد

by Arash Monzavi-Kia
03-Sep-2008 (4 comments)
ایران هزار سال تمدن و تاریخ پارسی قبل از اسلام را نیز در خاطره اجتماعی خود محفوظ دارد، که حتی به موجودیت کشور بعد از سلطه اعراب هم رنگی جدا و طرحی سوا می بخشد. این گذشته باستانی با حفظ زبان فارسی در برابر عربی و با تثبیت مذهب تشیع در مقابل اسلام سُنی، ایران را پیوسته از جریانات غالب اسلامی و عربی جدا ساخته و حتی به رقابت و دشمنی کشانده است. در ارتباط با تمدن غرب نیز با وجود قرنها سلطه و تأثیر یونانی، نفوذ استعماری روس و انگلیس در قرن نوزدهم و روند غرب گرایی و اصلاح طلبی قرن بیستم، ایران تأثیر بسیار پذیرفته اما هویت رفتاری و فرهنگی خود را حفظ نموده است. سومین عامل تعیین کننده در حیات هزار ساله اخیر ایران، نقش اجتماعی و نظامی اقوام سلحشور و مهاجر ترک تبار است که با وجود تشکیل تنها یک چهارم جمعیت، اکثریت قریب به اتفاق حکومتهای ایرانی تا قرن بیستم را رهبری نموده اند. >>>

PASARGAD

غرور ملی

المپيک پکن و کميتهء نجات پاسارگاد

by Esmail Nooriala
30-Aug-2008 (3 comments)
در چهارمين سالگشت ايجاد «کميتهء بين المللی دشت پاسارگاد (29 اگوست) من، به عنوان يکی از پيوستگان آن، دوست دارم اين مقاله را، همچون هديه ای کوچک، به کميته ای تقديم کنم که شاهد تأثير شگرف آن در نوزائی هويت و غرور ملی مان بوده ام. نيز همين جا بگويم که از من چندان عمر گذشته است که ديگر تهمت ها و برچسب های ظاهراً روشنفکرانه ای همچون «ناسيوناليست» و «شوونيست» بتوانند دلم را خالی کنند و دهانم را ببندند. چرا که من اکنون از واقعيتی عاطفی ـ تجربی سخن می گويم که در جان من وجود دارد و من از آن آهنگ زندگی و سربلندی می شنوم و، در نتيجه، از اينکه ديگران بدان چه نامی دهند باکيم نيست.>>>

COUP D'ETAT

Where were you on Aug 19, 1953?

Recollections of writers, translators, men and women of the pen

by Fariba Amini
19-Aug-2008 (74 comments)
On the occasion of 28 Mordad (Aug 19, 1953), I thought that by translating and summarizing parts of these recollections, some of which are quite fascinating and moving, we might see the past from different perspectives. In many ways, while Iran is being targeted on all fronts, whether right or wrong, the events of Aug 1953 are still with us in the most haunting way. Writers, scholars and people in general, Iranians and Americans alike, continue to be mesmerized with what really took place on those days when a nation’s destiny was changed overnight, trying to analyze these events and to find answers to the many questions they raise. Above all, more than that of any other Iranian political figure of modern times, Mossadegh’s legacy lives on>>>

CYRUS

The good monarch

The truth behind Spiegel’s article on Cyrus the Great

by Cyrus Kar
07-Aug-2008 (37 comments)
In a recent article, titled “UN Treasure Honors Persian Despot,” Spiegel Magazine criticizes the United Nations for recognizing an ancient artifact believed by many to be the world’s first declaration of human rights. The “Persian Despot” of course is Cyrus The Great, the author of the doctrine inscribed on the outer surface of a clay cylinder housed at the British Museum in London where it’s simply known as the Cyrus Cylinder. When this cylinder was discovered in 1879, amid the ruins of Babylon, it made huge headlines in the Christian West. It was the first time a biblical story had been confirmed through archaeology. But the euphoria quickly wore off. The democratic age had no room for a celebrated monarch>>>

THE PAST

نامحرم با تاریخ

به گذشته‌مان علاقمندیم، اما با تاریخمان بیگانه

by Parviz Rajabi
07-Aug-2008 (16 comments)
ما ایرانی‌ها دو خصیصۀ متنافر داریم: یکی اینکه وقتی به ما بگویند که بالای چشممان ابروست بی‌تامل می‌رنجیم و دیگر اینکه همواره این احساس را داریم که خدنگی چشممان را می‌خلد غافل از اینکه این خدنگ از ابروی خودمان است. کم کم دارند این دو خصیصۀ ظاهرا همزاد، در عرصۀ تاریخ (امروز همراه جامعه‌شناسی) به خطری جدی تبدیل می‌شوند: انتقاد تنها از دشمن مجاز است. در نتیجه «عیب‌بینی» بی‌لحظه‌ای درنگ «عیب‌جویی» تلقی می‌شود و بینندۀ عیب در خط مقدم نبرد جای می‌گیرد. پس لازم است که لشکری برای رویارویی با دشمن خط مقدم نبرد انگیخته شود. از سوی دیگر، چون عادت ما بر این است که هر کس در برداشت‌های سیاسی و اجتماعی و تاریخی راه خود را برود و جناحی برای خود راه بیاندازد، تکان بخوری، با دلتای هزارشاخه‌ای رو‌به‌رو می‌شوی، که در مصب هم آرام نمی‌گیرد. از این است که شمشیرهای پنهان و از روبستۀ ما از شدت چکاچک همیشه کند هستند.>>>

ABADAN

Oily Toons

Oily Toons

Cartoons by oil company staff in 1950s

by Jahanshah Javid
07-Aug-2008 (7 comments)

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HERITAGE

Ray of light

Film director Makan Karandish begins a challenge on behalf of all Iranians

by Amir Fetanat
29-Jul-2008 (2 comments)
Iran is suffering one of the darkest cultural periods in its history. The old fruitful tree which once survived the coldest seasons is slowly withering away, her roots invaded by internal and external diseases. Our national identity is invaded by cultural agents of Arabs making us alien to ourselves as a nation. But there are always Iranians who endure the difficulties to remind us of who we are, and connect us to our roots and make us proud of ourselves, as a nation which has influenced world culture throughout history. In my opinion, “Iran the Forgotten Glory” is a very well crafted and innovative documentary film which serves this purpose>>>

SARV

Oldest Living Iranian

The tree that nourishes the spirit and feeds the imagination

by Ryszard Antolak
24-Jul-2008 (9 comments)
On the Silk Road from Yazd to Shiraz, in the desert city of Abarkuh, stands the oldest living being in Iran (perhaps in the whole world) . It is at least five thousand years old, and some say eight thousand. Ancient and mysterious even to botanists (who cannot decide on its true age), the Cypress Tree of Abarkuh is surrounded by legends and revered by countless visitors. To anyone approaching it, the tree appears more mineral than vegetable. You are confronted by a wall of massive trunks - 19 meters thick - packed together tightly like the tentacles of a giant squid, each one vying with others for space and for sky>>>

CONSTITUTIONALISTS

The weak against the strong

Excerpt from Edward Browne's "Letters From Tabriz"

by E. G. Browne / Hasan Javadi
24-Jul-2008 (3 comments)
“My own conviction is that the mere tyranny of an autocrat would hardly have driven the patient and tractable people of Persia into revolt had tyranny at home been combined with any maintenance of prestige abroad or any moderately efficient guardianship of Persian independence. It was the combination of inefficiency, extravagance, and lack of patriotic feeling with tyranny which proved insupportable; and a constitutional form of Government was sought not so much for its own sake as for the urgent necessity of creating a more honest, efficient, and patriotic Government than the existing one.” >>>

CITIZEN

The First Iranian American

Hajj Sayyah become an American citizen on May 26, 1875

by PAAIA
23-Jul-2008 (10 comments)
Mirza Mohammad Ali, better known as Hajj Sayyah (meaning the traveler), was born in 1836 in the town of Mahallat in Iran. His studies exposed him at a young age to modern and democratic ideas that were at the time spreading throughout parts of the world. The stark difference he observed between the treatment suffered by most Iranians under their autocratic rulers and the ideas he studied inspired him to see the rest of the world. At the age of 23, Hajj Sayyah embarked on a remarkable journey around the globe that would last for nearly 18 years. He began his travels by wandering throughout Central Asia and Europe for more than six years. Often he traveled alone and in poverty>>>

IDEAS

Islam, Nationalism and Democracy

V. S. Naipaul's excursion among the non-Arab Moslems

by Majid Naficy
21-Jul-2008 (2 comments)
Islam, like any other religion, has to wear the national dress of the people in order to enter a new land. The strict fundamentalists see only the religious dogmas and try to suppress the expression of any cultural nuances within the religious form. But life gradually removes their illusions and covers the religious dogmas with local colors. It seems that V. S. Naipaul, in his trip, was mostly surrounded by Islamic fundamentalists, especially the Wahhabi type. He takes the Wahhabi's approach toward Islam and extends it to all islamic factions. In Afghanistan, the Taleban destroyed the twin Buddha on Bamian rocks, but the Zoroastrian fire temples in Iran, and the holy Buddhist sites in Indonesia, still stand and resist religious conformity. >>>

CYRUS

Persia is under attack!

Spiegel article claims "first human rights charter" is a hoax!

by Ali Moayedian
19-Jul-2008 (33 comments)
First came the 300 Spartans; and now the Spiegel article! The 300 were bunch of good looking and brave guys who fought this vast army of nasty looking and savage Persians. Ok. I can take that; even though from that savagery not much is left in me. In fact I could've really used a bit of that when confronting my neighbors, kids, manager, lender, ..., and above all my wife! But all that looks a distant dream now :-) But what has kept me going in the last few decades is the fact that the first human rights charter has been attributed to Persians. The Cyrus Cylinder, which is a magnificent ancient piece if nothing else, is supposedly inscribed with the human rights charter as decreed by the king of Persia, Cyrus the Great>>>

EMPIRE

Going down the tube

"I fear we will lose our country” to policies implemented by a group of self-conscious imperialists

by A. H. Ladan
10-Jul-2008 (8 comments)
Chalmers Johnson writes: “Most Americans do not recognize-or do not want to recognize-that the United States dominates the world through its military power. Due to government secrecy, they are often ignorant of the fact that their government garrisons the globe. They do not realize that a vast network of American military bases on every continent constitutes a new form of empire... Our country deploys well over half a million soldiers, spies, technicians, teachers, … in other nations… . Whole sectors of the American economy have come to rely on the military for sales.” >>>

BAHAI

New age martyr

Anniversary of the execution of The Bab

by faryarm
09-Jul-2008 (47 comments)
This day, on 9 July 1850, at noon, the Bab was put to death by firing squad in the public square of Tabriz, Iran. Six years earlier, He had declared that He was a messenger of God whose mission was to prepare the way for the imminent arrival of the Promised One of all religions who would come to establish a new age of peace and prosperity in the world. In 1863, Baha’u’llah announced publicly that He was that Promised One. The Bab attracted tens of thousands of people to His teachings, thousands of whom were killed in persecutions that swept Iran>>>
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