Op-Ed

The last straw

One wonders at times what constitutes the wealth of a nation. How can one consider a nation wealthy, or not so? Is gold the yardstick? Precious metals? In truth, the tangible measure of a country’s wealth nowadays is the hard currency reserves of that country, and that information is conveniently published in certain magazines and newspapers, for instance, The Economist. So let’s go over these figures (and mines’ are not the most recent): At the top of the list stands China with more than a trillion dollars worth of hard currencies. Next to china … (yes you guessed correctly) is Japan with more than 800 billion dollars. We see the South East Asian countries dominating the top ten. At about number 11 stands Russia>>>

Crude awakening

During early 1970's, Arab nations among oil producing countries decided to impose an oil embargo against western nations for their support of Israel in the war against Arabs. This decision came a day after OPEC decided to increase the oil price by 17% for partial matching with the high prices of manufactured goods which were imported from those nations and nullify the effect of unjustified inflation rates in those countries on oil producing nations. In those years, I used to work in NIPC (National Iranian Petrochemical Company) which was a young organization created and operated by Iranian government to enter the nation into this amazing industrial field>>>

Potholes

I’m glad I don’t live in the times of the Vandals and the Horde, but at least in those days people called a spade a spade. Though I doubt that the spaded ones—the pillaged and the raped—took much consolation in knowing what to call it. These days, in this democratic system of ours, the bosses have to get the victims to consent to being pillaged. Or at least not object too loudly, though lately they seem to care less who squawks or how much. How do they do it? Well for one thing, they don’t call things by their names. The war for hegemony, for instance, is called The War on Terror. Cutting school funding is called No Child Left Behind. The privatization of the national retirement system is called Social Security reform.>>>

Playing dumb?

What the Iranian president doesn't understand is that the West (those who are indeed ruling this world, and definitely the democratic world) are fearful of his regime, the fundamentalist Islamic regime of Iran. The fear is genuine and it is based on precedence. The Iranian regime has not stopped interfering in other countries' affairs to create instability, whether it is in Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon, or more recently in Iraq. The Iranian regime is one of the world's relatively powerful countries openly challenging the democratic world, and desiring to obtain bomb-making nuclear technology. The West is fearful and it is legitimately so. While the same West is not fearful of a nuclear Israel. This is a fact that Iran must understand. >>>

نه سيخ بسوزد، نه کباب

چگونه می توانيم تلاش نوانديشان مذهبی و اصلاح طلبان سياسی مسلمان را برای طرد و رد فکر سکولاريسم و مبارزه در برابر فکر جدائی مذهب از حکومت توجيه کنيم؟ يعنی، اگر تنها بر منطق صرف تکيه کنيم، بنظر بديهی می آيد که انتظار داشته باشيم مهمترين اصلاح طلبان و نوانديشان را ـ که خواستار آزادی عمل و فکر و تبليغ انديشه های خود هستند ـ در صفوف اول مبارزه برای استقرار سکولاريسم ببينيم. اما چرا چنين نيست؟ چرا آقای عبدالکريم سروش مقاله ها و سخنرانی های متعددش را به ضديت با سکولاريسم اختصاص می دهد؟ چرا وقتی می خواهد سقوط دينداران را به ورطهء دنيا پرستی خاطرنشان کند آنان را دچار سکولاريسم می بيند؟ چرا سکولاريسم را برای جوامع پلوراليستی تجويز می کند اما جامعهء خودمان را جامعه ای ـ در اکثريت عددی اش ـ تک ساحتی می بيند که نيازی به سکولاريسم ندارد؟>>>

Give me Capitalism, or give me Death!

First, it was the foreign policy crash of 2001. Yes, that much-milked by Bush 9/11 which instead of serving as wake up call to review and remedy America’s deplorable policies towards the peoples of the Middle East, only provided the Bush administration with a presumed casus belli as well as a raison-d’ètre for both the neocon empire-building and the economic sacking of the nation by an unscrupulous elite. Now, we all know the cost and results of replacing a “call to reason” with a “call to arms.” And now, as if a foreign policy crash hadn’t been enough seven years ago, and as if trying to mend relations with much of the world weren’t a formidable task, here comes the nuclear detonation that precedes America’s economic crash>>>

تفسیر ملوکانه از "آزادی"

" "ان- در" دیدار سلطان صاحبقران از امپراطوری پروس: آمدیم پایین توی اطاق نشستیم. امپراطور هم بعد آمد پایین می نشستیم، بر می خاستیم، حرف می زدیم، صاحب منصب ها همه راه می رفتند، می نشستند، آزادی بود، یکی ایستاده بود کونش را به امپراطور کرده سیگار می کشید، یکی نشسته بود و کونش به امپراطور سیگار می کشید. یکی کونش را به ما کرده بود. هر کدام یک حالت آزادی داشتند..." (روزنامه ی خاطرات ناصرالدین شاه در سفر سوم فرنگ، ص 220) >>>

America strengthens Ahmadinejad

Western reporting on Iran's nuclear program is based on the underlying assumption that the Iranians are irrational in their policy-making, therefore Iran is a nation with whom diplomacy is a waste of time. A nuclear Iran has been framed by the Israeli hawks as an "existential threat," the framing adopted by the American media as well: Iran is a suicide-bombing nation. If allowed to build a nuclear bomb, they will strap it on and destroy Israel even if it means the destruction of their own country and its 70 million inhabitants. The logical way to deal with such irrational self-destructive characters is to preempt them by destroying them. This logic looms behind Western news about Iran and remains a possible rationale for a military attack on the country. >>>

John McCain? WHY?

Why is McCain a hero? He enlisted to the Navy voluntarily mainly because his father and his grand father were both Navy boys. He knew joining the Navy means possible fighting in a time of war, which America, thank you very much, is almost always involved in some corner of the world. He knew going to Vietnam runs a risk of getting shot down, in fact he got shot down a few times before he got captured. He knew there is a chance to get hurt, captured, or even killed. He went to fly planes and rain bullets and bombs on everything that moved in North Vietnam thousands of miles away from his home, when his country was in no danger and no one had attacked it>>>

Propaganda is a Two-Way Street

In the ceaseless and invariably bellicose calls for war (both open and clandestine) against Iran, perhaps one argument invoked by pro-war pundits and politicians stands out and takes pride of place above all others: Iran, it is claimed, "poses an existential threat to the state of Israel." It's certainly been a favorite of Republican presidential nominee, John McCain. Furthermore, Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, when asked about America's response in the event of a unilateral Israeli military strike against Iran, repeated an astounding three times the AIPAC-by-rote reply: "I don't think that we should second-guess the measures that Israel has to take to defend themselves and for their security.">>>

A better tomorrow

You have become the symbol of “Hope and Change” for most Americans, including the youth, elderly, Black, White, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Immigrants, and others. I think you are going to win this election and that’s why I have some concerns. Although The Reform movement in Iran gave Iranians a “taste of freedom,” but once in power, they failed to deliver the promises that they had made. Hence, they lost people’s trust. I am afraid, this could happen here too! As you know, many analysts in the US and Iran have been saying that George W. Bush and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are very similar, in terms of political policies, worldviews, and religiosity. I agree with them, but the good news is that there are many similarities between you and Mr. Khatami as well.>>>

آیا سارا پیلین یک فمینیست است؟

پس از انتخاب سارا پیلین به عنوان معاون رییس جمهوری از سوی جمهوری خواهان، گفت و گو های زیادی درباره این انتخاب مطرح شد. یکی از این بحث ها مساله ای بود که توسط برخی رسانه ها مطرح شد مبنی بر این که سارا پیلین یک فمینیست است (همان رسانه هایی که در حالت عادی به هیچ عنوان اسمی از فمینیسم نمی آوردند). در زمانی که حتی وجود یک سقف شیشه ای (نامرئی) برای کسب سمت های مهم توسط زنان از طرف محافظه کاران آمریکایی انکار می شد در عرض یک شبانه روز همان افراد به طرفداران سر سخت شکستن این سقف تبدیل شدند و شروع به صحبت از این کردند که خانم پیلین این سقف را خواهد شکست. این بحث باعث شد که فعالان حقوق زنان و فمینیست های معتبر از نسل های مختلف دست به قلم ببرند تا این آب گل آلود را کمی صاف تر کنند و با شفافیت به این سوال بپردازند که آیا سارا پیلین یک فمینیست است؟ >>>

in the event of a war

While the possibility of a war against Iran seems to ebb and flow from day to day, the actual war itself may entail internment of the Iranians in the west, especially in Britain and the US. As painful as the thought may be, let us review the historical perspective on this issue. Ronald Reagan was the first American president who at last acknowledged the injustice and tragedy inflicted upon the Japanese-Americans during WWII. As we know the Japanese, some of whom were second or third generation Americans, were swiftly interned and their possessions confiscated never to be returned to them>>>

ما سکولار هستيم

پذيرش سکولاريسم موجب می شود که ـ چه يک شخص و چه يک گروه يا حزب سياسی ـ بر چهارچوبی تکيه زند که از ايجابات سکولاريسم ساخته شده باشد. مثلاً، چگونه يک انسان سکولار می تواند، در راستای مبارزه با يک حاکميت ضد سکولار، با يک فرد موافق حکومت مذهبی، و نيز يک فرد مخالف سکولاريسم، ائتلاف و همکاری کند؟ عقل عملی به ما می گويد که چنين ائتلافی يا نتيجهء سستی مبانی سکولاريسم در نزد شخص مدعی سکولار بودن است و يا حاصل بی خبری او از تضاد مبارزه با دشمن، در کنار دوستان آن دشمن؛ و يا آن را بايد صرفاً نوعی پيروی بی محتوا از مد روز تلقی کرد.>>>

شارلاتانیزم

بار دیگر خداوند , به عنوان حامی حزب جمهوریخواه امریکا, در انتخابات ریاست جمهوری امریکا ایفای نقش می کند. واین بار در هیبت الهام بخش , راهنما و راه گشای بانوی زیبایی که ادعا می کند با ایشان , یعنی با خدا رابطه دارد , بانویی که جنگ را خواست خدا , و قوانین غیردموکراتیک را رحمت الهی می پندارد. سناتور جان مک کین کاندید ریاست جمهوری حزب جمهوری خواه امریکا - که بطور مستقیم در کشتار غیر نظامیان بی پناه و بی گناه ویتنام شرکت داشت - با انتخاب این بانو نشان داد که برای کسب آرای بیشتر و در راه کسب قدرت سیاسی , به راحتی برای آن تک و توک شعار و ژست دموکراتیک اش فاتحه خواهد خواند . >>>