VIEW

Saving America from itself

The first step in solving our problems is to declare a war on ignorance

by Ali A Parsa
27-Mar-2008 (one comment)
America is at a crossroads; this could be one of the darkest periods in its history both domestically and globally. Denial and sweeping our problems under the rug have run their course. America is past due for a reality check followed by action to save it. There is an Ethiopian saying, “Those who hide their wounds will never find a cure.” All concerned American and global citizens should see in their mind’s eye that the founders of this nation would be turning in their graves if they could watch what has happened to the ‘government of the people, by the people for the people’ that they founded. The undeniable fact is that America is on a downward, self-destructing course that can be explained with simple cause and effect>>>

MONEY

Thinking outside the bubble

How to survive the recession

by bakhtiar
26-Mar-2008 (4 comments)
By now it should be clear to all but the craziest of optimists that we are in a recession, at least in US. What is not clear, however, is the severity of this recession and if this will turn into a depression. A technical recession is defined as the economic decline in two or more consecutive quarters. This means that the real economy instead of growing, contracts. This economic decline may involve a general decline in employment, investment and corporate profits. Recessions can be accompanies by inflation or deflation. Sometimes when people are uncertain about their economic security, they tend to save, or at least moderate their spending.>>>

IRAN-U.S.

Must change course

How to talk to Iran

by Dennis Ross
25-Mar-2008 (53 comments)
When President Bush assumed office, Iran was not a nuclear power. When his successor takes the oath of office next year, however, Iran will have achieved (or be on the verge of achieving) that status. Nothing the Bush Administration or the international community is doing now is likely to alter Iran's behavior over the coming year. Indeed, so long as the sanctions adopted by the UN Security Council don't directly affect the Iranian economy, Iranian leaders won't have to make a choice between their economic well-being and their nuclear development and will thus proceed on the path to completing the nuclear fuel cycle. Senators Clinton, McCain, or Obama all know that the current policy is not going to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons>>>

IDEAS

نوروز به هيچ ايدئولوژی سرسپردگی ندارد

نوروز شادی های بی آداب و ترتيب

by Esmail Nooriala
22-Mar-2008 (5 comments)
تجربهء هفت هزار ساله به ما می گويد که اگر نوروز يک عيد و جشن مذهبی بود در همان نخستين خم کوچهء تاريخ از ميان رفته بود. اما نوروز، تنومند و با شکوه و زيبا ـ تکيه زده بر عصای ستبر جداسری (جدائی از ايدئولوژی و مذهب) ـ از راه بندان همهء مذاهب رد شده است تا امروز نيز در مقابل اين پهلوان پنبهء خرافات زدهء حکومت اسلامی بايستد و بگذارد تا نوکران حکومت شان تملق اش را بگويند، تاريخ و هويتش را معوج بازگويند و در لحظهء تحويل سال بسوی «عرش الهی» شان دست بگشايند و، در عيدی ايرانی، به زبان عربی التماس کنند که: «يا مقلب القلوب و الابصار...» >>>

POINT

Pre-emtive failure

Results of US invasion of Iraq

by Jahanshah Rashidian
21-Mar-2008 (39 comments)
Iraq was occupied by the US-led troops from March 20 to May 1, 2003. Five years have passed since the Bush administration launched the war on terror beginning with the campaign entitled "Operation Iraqi Freedom" to topple the Saddam regime in Iraq. Yet the panoramic picture of Iraq continues to remain in a sombre situation. The US was yet to reach its target to “disarm” Saddam Hussein’s regime of weapons of mass destruction in the fight against “terrorism”, but nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons were never found in Iraq after the military occupation>>>

ECONOMY

No madness worse than greed

U.S. economic crisis and its impact on the world

by bakhtiar
20-Mar-2008 (6 comments)
Every so often people assume that somehow they can make money out of the thin air. The most famous one was the Tulip mania of 1636-1637 in Netherland and the most recent one was the “dotcom” bubble of 1995-2001 (on March 10th, 2000 the NASDAQ peaked at 5132.52). Today we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the real estate bubble. In every case, the madness begins with those who have high tolerance for financial risk. That is to say they are rich and can afford greater financial loss than others. They speculate and make money, lots of money. Soon the less wealthy see this and join the crowd and before you know it the whole country is involved>>>

IRI

Parliamentary elections have proven the Iranian government's popularity

by Ardeshir Ommani
19-Mar-2008 (66 comments)
The latest election for the Eighth Iranian Majlis (Parliament) took place on Friday, March 14, 2008, and according to Iran’s Interior Ministry, 65 percent of the nation’s 43 million eligible voters cast their ballots without the slightest disturbances or mishaps that are so common in many places during elections, not to mention the debacles in Florida’s 2000 and Ohio’s 2004 elections. Iran’s turnout was 14 percent higher than in the 2004 Parliamentary elections when 51 percent of the voters participated, said Hassan Khanlou, the chief of the ministry’s election committee. >>>

OBAMA

He's no better

In reality, Obama is no different from Clinton

by Feshangi
19-Mar-2008 (21 comments)
One can say, we are all prisoners of our own perceptions. Millions of people have voted in this election so far. The Republican nominee has been chosen, but the Democrats have not yet been able to choose their nominee. This has happened not because of the vast differences of policies between the two remaining candidates. Both Clinton and Obama have very similar plans and policies toward most of the big issues. The quagmire the Democrats find themselves in choosing a leader is not, therefore, in the differences in policies offered by the candidates, but the perception the voters have of Clinton and Obama>>>

IRAN

Wake-up call for day-dreamers

Another four painful years against freedom in Iran

by Ben Madadi
18-Mar-2008 (16 comments)
We have just witnessed the passing of yet another defeat for the struggle for freedom in Iran, and yet another victory for a regime that is far too incompetent and far too unrepresentative for a progressive and prosperous Iran. Sixty percent or more of the Iranian electorate went to the polls, therefore tacitly approving the unfair electoral process that was cooked for them. The best way to deal with the elections was to boycott it, as so many, including myself, had suggested, and the vast majority of the Iranian electorate considered (for various reasons that I will try to deal with) otherwise. It is worth noting that 60% is pretty much the figure that most Western democracies are happy to have for their elections>>>

HERITAGE

Committee with a cause

Iranian Cultural and Natural Heritage Year

by Amil Imani
18-Mar-2008 (6 comments)
According to the World Encyclopedia, cultural genocide is a term used to describe the deliberate destruction of the cultural heritage of a people or nation for political or military reasons. Since coming to power twenty-nine years ago, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been in a constant battle with the Iranian people as well as her culture and heritage. Over its life span, the Islamic Republic zealots have tried innumerable times to cleanse the pre-Islamic Persian heritage in the name of Islam. First, they declared war against the Persian New Year or “Nowruz”, and then, they attacked other Persian traditions and customs>>>

MODERATES

No future for nokhodis

The regime in Iran allows the nokhodi moderate to play in an inconsequential role

by Guive Mirfendereski
17-Mar-2008 (18 comments)
The Iranian parliamentary pseudo- quasi-elections are finally over and, surprise, the “moderates” did not do well. The spring is a few days away and Norouz is around the corner. Here are a few sayings that I find very seasonally a propos regarding the recent non-electoral experience in Iran and the moderates' aspirations One saying is bozak namir bahar miyad, konbozeh ba khiyar miyad. It is a promise to a goat that with spring will arrive the watermelon and cucumber that he desires. The poor “moderates” keep hoping that one day their turn will come at the goodies of power, only to be reminded of another saying. This one is a bit more elaborate: shotor dar khab binad panpeh daneh, gahi lolof khorad, gahi daneh daneh >>>

GOODNESS

Man of dialogue

In Memory of Hossein Alikhani

by Kaveh Afrasiabi
17-Mar-2008 (7 comments)
In addition to our shared interest in world peace and global dialogue, Alikhani and I shared something else in common: we had both suffered grievous injustice in America, and we had both brought civil rights law suit against the perpetrators of human rights abuse against us, in his case the US federal agents who abducted him and chained him to a bed for weeks, and in my case the rights abusers at Harvard University who framed me with a fictitious crime story in order to silence me. "We are comrades in suffering," I told Hossein one day and he chuckled, and I always felt he was one of the few people who knew the depth of my emotional pain caused by the blindness of American justice to my cry for justice>>>

AIRPORT

در فرودگاه

کاری که آمریکا و انگلیس و اسراییل و فرانسه دارند با کشور من و شما امروز می‌کنند.

by hoder
15-Mar-2008 (39 comments)
قرار است سوار هواپیما شوید. در نتیجه باید از قسمت بازدید بدنی امنیتی و دستگاه‌های بمب‌یاب و فلزیاب فرودگاه رد شوید. همه‌چیزتان را درمی‌آورید و در دستگاه اشعه ایکس می‌گذارید و از زیر دروازه‌ی آهنی فلزیاب رد می‌شوید. موفقیت آمیز است و چراغ سبز به شما می‌دهد. ولی یک مامور لباس‌شخصی از دور یک دفعه می‌آید و نمی‌گذارد ماموران عادی امنیت فرودگاه به شما اجازه بدهند بروید به طرف گیت‌تان. می‌گوید که این کافی نیست و شما باید ثابت کنید که اسلحه با خودتان ندارید. می‌گویید: بابا، دستگاه خودتان چک کرد و گفت من هیچ فلزی با خودم ندارم. تو دیگر چه می‌گویی؟ او اصرار دارد که شما باید لخت شوید و تنها با شورت دوباره از زیر دروازه‌ی فلزیاب رد شوید.>>>

VIEW

Are you prepared for some truth?

A silent majority exists in Iran and beneath that silence lies a deep hatred for this regime

by Mohammad Alireza
15-Mar-2008 (26 comments)
Voting for the Majlis was a pointless exercise and by participating one has cast a vote for this farce, this hoax, this kolah bardaari. The act of voting means that one's vote could contribute to change. The fact that whichever way Iranians vote will have no effect on the situation in Iran means there is no point in voting. There is no such thing as democracy in Iran as the form of political Islam practiced in Iran is inherently a totalitarian belief structure created to control a society through superstition, violence, and brainwashing>>>

ECONOMY

Can you say stagflation?

What fuels the current inflationary expectations is the increasing commodity prices

by varjavand
14-Mar-2008
If you keep track of economic news these days, you notice that the word stagflation is frequently uttered by newscasters and economic analysts. This term was coined by economists to describe an unconventional phenomenon that took place in late 1970s: the simultaneous occurrence of high unemployment and high inflation. The combined unemployment rate and inflation rate, properly called the misery index, averaged over 17% from 1974 to 1981. It has been nearly 8% since 1993. >>>
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