Misc

Thank you!

Thank you all for your kind words and Party Girl, thank you for posting this on Iranian.com. I'm familiar with this website and was so surprized to see my youtube video here.

The US and Iran are at a crossroads and it's important for Americans to reach out. We can do this in small ways through the internet and I hope more Americans will travel to Iran.

We cannot wait for our "official" diplomats to make things better. Frankly, our leaders are doing a horrible job in the international arena. They are unqualified, untrained, unprepared and so "porru" that they are unwilling try to improve or admit there may be a better way. After 30 years of alienation between our two countries, what progress has been made? Would you let someone work for you for 30 years with no improvement whatsoever? You could replace the professional politicians and diplomats with aab-hozi workers with no Harvard diplomas and in 30 years they would make some degree of improvement and out-perform the current leaders. No progress in 30 years is either intentional failure or extreme incompetence. I suspect we are seening a combination of both.

We have to take matters into our own hands. With new technology we can now all assume the responsibility of ambassadorship and I think in the long run, it's inevitable that understanding will replace ignorance.

Many, many Americans have positive feelings toward Iran and want things to be better. It's important to communicate with Iranians in the diaspora but more importantly with those inside Iran who do not generally have contact with Americans.

Americans, on the other hand, need to be educated and understand that the images shown to us by the media are distorted. It is shameful that the only images we see of Iranians in the mainstream press are Friday Prayers with "Marg bar USA" and GWB's "Axis of Evil" rhetoric. These negative images insult the humanity of both countries and reinforce a culture of fear and ignorance. I'm so glad that sites like Iranian.com exist and that they have a significant amount of English-language content!

But she had such a kind face...

Tizbin, I guess if I'm going to post something on youtube I should understand the images I'm posting. Unfortunately I can't read Farsi so I didn't realize the woman in the picture you're referring to was attending a political event. I chose her because of her kind face and truly, to me I saw "mehr" in the expression in her eyes. I intended the video to be non-political and focus on our common humanity and I think my inadvertent use of an image of a political rally distracted from that focus. Thanks for bringing it to my attention! Hallelujah humanity!

Thanks for taking time to comment, Farrad

Just so you know, you're not alone in your opinion. My mother also thought the views shown were unrelated! I could have done a better job of choosing images that more intuitively reflected the feeling I was trying to express and if my Farsi was better I could have explained more clearly. I tried to select images that showed the things we love, whether we're Iranian, American, Iranian-American, etc. We love our children, we love our great cities, our families and we are moved by music, art and beauty, whether it's expressed in architecture (Brooklyn Bridge, or the Azadi Tower), song or photography. This "mehr" flows through us regardless of where we're born. It's a fairly abstract concept and (for me) not easily communicated with any degree of precision!

The video is unrelated and erratic

What is the connection of the views shown?

hallelujah hallelujah hashemi?! hehehe

What kind of message of "mehr" is this? mehr for ellection and voting for Khatami and another 30 years of islamic misery for Iranian people? that's real funny "mehr"!

A timeless Cohen song

"It's, as I say, a desire to affirm my faith in life, not in some formal
religious way but with enthusiasm, with emotion.... It's a rather joyous song."
~ Leonard Cohen, creator of the song, Hallelujah

Here is a performance of this magnificent song by another Canadian artist Allison Crow:

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIMOdVXAPJ0

How Sweet ;0)

VIVE LA PAIX ET LA SOLIDARITE !

Someday we will find a way :

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=h04zLu1WAK0

A Very Nice Clip!

And a beautiful song, too. Rufus Wainwright has done a great job. I liked it almost as much as the original by Leonard Cohen the Canadian singer and songwriter released in 1984.

Thanks!

Nice!

Your message is beautiful, no matter in what language you express it. By the way, your Farsi is sweet too (Farsi shekar ast!)

Thanks!

سوردخت

‫از پست این کلیپ بسیار زیبا متشکرم. عجیبه که با وجود این همه صلح در درون هر کسی اینقدر به قسمت سیاه روحمون متوسلیم.

Beautiful

in the holy name of friendship..=) thank you for this beautiful clip, Party Girl.