Op-Ed

Testing democracy

The Economist has created a very interesting section where, as I understood, subscribers have so far voted for either of the US presidential candidates. In Iran's case it is obvious that native Iranians (as there are very few foreigners in Iran) have largely voted for Obama and this is quite a clear sign that educated and liberal Iranians are Obama supporters, just like the Americans, and they are definitely not concerned about a possible protection of the Iranian population by the Americans, which may be the case for small countries like Georgia. It is also quite interesting that Israelis have largely voted for Obama rather than McCain, though national security is the greatest concern of the Israeli public. This may be a sign that no matter how much the Republicans try to show their tolerant and pluralistic face, they are still viewed as the white Christian party>>>

کورش و عصبانيت کمونيستی

يکی از دوستان جوانم از تهران آدرس مقاله ای را روی اينترنت برايم فرستاد، در يکی از سايت های حزب کمونيست کارگری، با عنوان «گرامیداشت روز کورش، نوستالژی رژیم گذشته! مردم نه ایران اسلامی و نه ایران اهورایی نمی خواهند!» (بگذريم که منفی در منفی مثبت می شود و اين عنوان معنای عکس بخود می گيرد. اما به ما چه، ما که معلم ديکته و انشای کسی نيستيم). باری، و به همراه اين مقاله يادداشتی فرستاده بود مبنی بر اين که مقاله مال هفتم آّبان سال پيش است اما يکی دو نفر را می شناسم که از هواداران حزب کمونيست کارگری هستند و امسال مقاله را تکثير و در هر کجا که توانسته اند پخش کرده اند تا ـ لابد، به خيال خودشان ـ جلوی عشق و علاقه مردم را به کورش بگيرند و آن ها را از «ناسيوناليست» شدن نجات دهند. مقاله را که خواندم قيافۀ دوست گرامی خانم آذر ماجدی را در حين نوشتن آن مجسم کردم و بی اختيار به ياد آقام علی مرحبا افتادم. >>>

Good for America. Good for the World.

Globalization, destructive as it has really been in its universal economic outcomes, has also brought about some significant changes in the national self of many individuals of various nationalities throughout the world. Such indiduals, of whom I find myself to be one, while remaining national or even nationalistic in their selves, have grown, in their national selves, to be, in different degrees, a “citizen of the world” as well. Considering that these days nothing happens in or to any part of the Earth which is not going, sooner or later and directly or indirectly, to affect all the other parts too, these individuals consider it both as a human right and a civic, or at least moral, duty to be concerned with the world affairs as if these were part of the internal affairs of their own respective countries>>>

Sleepless in Tehran

Under Ahmadinejad, Iran's mullahs have gone on a domestic subsidy binge — using oil money to cushion the prices of food, gasoline, mortgages and to create jobs — to buy off the Iranian people. But the one thing Ahmadinejad couldn't buy was real economic growth. Iran today has 30 percent inflation, 11 percent unemployment and huge underemployment with thousands of young college grads, engineers and architects selling pizzas and driving taxis. And now with oil prices falling, Iran — just like the Soviet Union — is going to have to pull back spending across the board. Fasten your seat belts. The U.N. has imposed three rounds of sanctions against Iran since Ahmadinejad took office in 2005 because of Iran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment. But high oil prices minimized those sanctions; collapsing oil prices will now magnify those sanctions>>>

War on Ignorance

America’s founders defeated the biggest colonial power and created the government of the people, now government of a few; invented the best public school system in the world, now one of the worst; created an immigrant nation that is pulled apart the seams by immigrant bashing; made America the hub of science and technology by attracting global talents, now other nations are getting ahead of us; gave new meaning to human rights, rule of law and the use of ballot rather than bullet, now we are reversing it not only on global basis but even in America; kept religion out of government, now we are yielding to war and hate mongering politicians who consider invasion of other countries ‘The Will of God.” This is, but one of millions of comments across America regarding oil-producing countries that no longer do what we say, “Thank God our armed forces are killing them and they are killing each other.”>>>

دیار حبیب، بلاد غریب

فرهنگ دانشگاهی ایران در کف شیر نر خونخواره "عدم امانت علمی" گرفتار است ولی ناامید نشویم که تسلیم و رضا تنها چاره ما نیست. چاره جدی گرفتن بیماری و یافتن مداوای اساسی است نه حمله به علائم مرض. البته نخست باید عمق فاجعه را وجدان کنیم، که با دو رسوائی اخیر دکتری مجعول وزیر مملکت و مقاله علمی "ببر و بچسبان" مدرس دانشگاهی که کارش تربیت مدرس دانشگاه است نباید کار سختی باشد. بدتر از وزیر متقلب مدافعان اویند که بجای سرافکندگی در کنج اعتذار آب را گل آلود و شهر را شلوغ کرده و برای دستمال یک مدرک مجعول میخواهند قیصریه همه مدرک داران را به آتش بکشند. آنان که رایت اخلاق و معنویت را در مجامع بین المللی بلند و جهانی را موعظه میکنند بدانند که توجیه و تبریر این نادرستی ها در بالاترین سطوح مملکت از نظر ها پنهان نیست و دور نیست که از عطار پر گو بپرسند که این مشک چرا خود نمیبوید؟ >>>

Remove sanctions

Please allow me to make a couple of possibly radical points, and then explain myself. First, sanctions help the Iranian government. Second, removing sanctions against Iran will actually be a more powerful tool to creating an internationally-friendly Iran. Essentially the purpose of sanctions is economic isolation. That step seems to work. But proponents of sanctions think that economic isolation leads to governmental weakness. But we don't see this happening in Iran. Why not? Generally speaking in Iran today, we have two very identifiable camps: religious poor and connections-heavy elite. I call the elite "connections-heavy" because Iran lacks a solid rule of law, and therefore, many individuals who reach economic success in Iran do so through their connections>>>

Bipartisan militarism

So here we have, yet again, our glorious Foreign Policy Community threatening another country -- one which hasn't attacked us and can't attack us -- with war, threatening to bomb them with "devastating strikes" that "would probably last up to several weeks and would require vigilance for years to come." And they want the next President, beginning this January, to "build up military assets in the region" in order to threaten and prepare for those attacks. It's just objectively true that there is no country in the world -- anywhere -- that threatens to attack and bomb other countries as routinely and blithely as the U.S. does. What rational leader wouldn't want to obtain nuclear weapons in a world where the "superpower" is run by people like Dan Coates and Chuck Robb who threaten to attack and bomb whatever countries they want?>>>

برابری خواهی

به نظر من، در درون فرهنگ ايرانی ما، بهترين، مهمترين و مؤثرترين نقطه ی شروع استناد کردن به تنها سند رسمی و معتبر ملی ما است که می تواند همچون ميثاقی انسانی ما را به راه مستقيم پيشرفت برساند. و اين همان سندی است که با نام «منشور کورش بزرگ» در جهان شناخته می شود. اين منشور، علاوه بر دارا بودن همه ی مفاهيمی که در ارتباط با مسايل حقوق بشر جهانی قرار دارند (هرچند در اشکال ابتدايي اين حقوق)، واجد اين بالقوگی هم هست که می تواند، در متن فرهنگ ملی ما، کارساز مشکل و مسئله ی زن در جامعه ای سنت زده امروز باشد، و همچون پايه و مايه ای برای بازسازی قوانين آينده ی مربوط به حقوق انسان ها و حقوق زنان ما بکار گرفته شود.>>>

خطرناک برای کی؟

اخيراً، هربار که مطلبی در مورد «نوانديشان دينی» (يا به قول آقای دکتر سروش، «روشنفکران دينی»)، و مخالفت مستمر آنان با «سکولاريسم» می نويسم، با اين پرسش گروهی از خوانندگانم مواجه می شوم که چرا، در عين نشان دادن موارد اين مخالفت، توضيح نمی دهيد که چگونه است که اين آقايان، برای آسان تر شدن کار نوانديشی شان، هيچ کدام کمر همت به بيان دلايل ابطال حکومت اسلامی و ولايت فقيه نمی بندند، و هرگاه که به اين مطلب می رسند بلافاصله رو بر می گردانند و از ورود به دايرهء اينگونه بحث ها خودداری می کنند. چرا اين انديشمندان، مرتباٌ، با سر و هم کردن استدلال هائی سخت ضعيف، سکولاريسم را نفی می کنند؟ مگر سکولاريسم حرفی خلاف عقايد آنان می زند؟ مگر باور مذهبی را نفی می کند؟ مگر کاری به کار اهل مذهب دارد؟>>>

The Grand Bargain

In a recent policy paper by the New American Foundation (among whose board members sits Francis 'End of History' Fukuyama), it is argued that the next U.S. administration must engage Iran with a 'grand bargain', which addresses both Iran and the U.S.'s strategic concerns. The paper argues that the piecemeal approach the U.S. has taken towards Iran has clearly failed to change the behavior of the regime in Iran, and a détente is not a desirable option. The only stable and strategically appropriate path to take is a full rapprochement. The policy paper is very frank in its approach, as imperialists usually are among themselves. It argues that Iran is strategically too important to be alienated, and argues that in the absence of a full rapprochement, Iran's leaders will have no choice but to flea to the Russian and the Chinese spheres of influence>>>

گام بعدی

این مجموعه برای خرد کردن اعصاب خانم ها در قرن بیست و یکم تهیه نشده است بلکه در ابتدا نگاهی داریم به تاریخ حرمسراداری در ایران و سپس با هشیاری کامل از این که قرار نیست نه فیلم هنری ببینیم و نه فیلمی از وضعیت فعلی ایران، به تماشای فیلم مستند "چهار همسر و یک شوهر" که بر اساس زندگی یک روستایی چهار زنه تهیه شده است می نشینیم. فیلم به درد تحقیقات مردم شناسی و انسان شناسی و دیدن در جمع های کوچک تخصصی می خورد و معلوم نیست چرا بانوی فیلمساز متعهدی از سوئد راه افتاده است و در روستایی گمنام یک مرد چهار زنه پیدا کرده است و از زندگی چهارزنه ی او فیلم مستندی تهیه کرده است؟ آیا این فیلم سندی از زندگی زن ایرانی است؟ آیا آن مرد روستایی چهارزنه، نماد همه ی مردان ایرانی است؟ آیا زندگی همه ی ایرانیان به این گونه است؟>>>

Rumi in tears

Under the pretext of celebrating Rumi, the 13th century Persian mystic, poet and philosopher, the Hollywood Bowl presented a showcase of Islamic fundamentalism on Sunday, September 27th. The event attracted a huge crowd (15,644 officially attended) made up mainly of Iranians who have emigrated to Southern California since the Islamic Revolution swept Iran in 1979. Initially, they were proud and excited that the Hollywood Bowl was paying attention to their culture. They thought that perhaps the grandeur of the Bowl, together with a grand budget and grand vision has yielded a grand tribute to the beauties of their culture. But, by the end of the night, many of them, if not most, found themselves disappointed after being trapped for almost four hours, and forced to witness the less grand aspects of that same culture>>>

A New Paradigm

In upcoming US elections, two Iranian-Americans are vying for two San Francisco supervisor seats. And it's not for the same seat! The incumbent from District 5 is Ross Mirkarimi, a Green party progressive who is fast becoming a political force in the city, and the country. Ahsha Safai is the Democratic party newbie, running his first campaign in what appears to be a solid bid for supervisor of the District 11 spot. Ahsha is no newcomer to politics however, I have been keeping tabs on this young turk's (metaphorically speaking) career, when he first burst onto the scene as one of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's key campaign field directors, before that a stint in the 2nd term of the Clinton White House, before that, priceless internships in the government of Massachusetts, all while attending MIT. Those of us who know him, feel that it wasn't a matter of if, for Ahsha, but more a matter of, what's taking him so long?>>>

Silence coming to an end soon

In anticipation of President Ahmadinejad’s annual trip to the UN General Assembly, the Iranian Mission to UN has asked Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) to invite representatives of the peace movement in the US to meet with him in NYC. Fellowship of Reconciliation is a faith based peace and justice organization, which for several years has been active in the movement against a war on Iran. They have organized many citizen delegation tours to Iran in recent years. President Ahmadinejad has traditionally met with interfaith groups every year in NY and it appeared more natural for them to ask FOR to facilitate the meeting with representatives of the peace movement as oppose to more secular groups. Subsequently, FOR prepared an invitation and sent it to all the peace organizations and individuals that they had identified as being interested in such meeting with the Iranian President>>>