Long time no see

that is right it is a very long time that I have not written anything. First reason is that I had nothing to talk about ( I guess) and another reason possibly is that I am so badly entangled in everyday life that the blogging is not a concern anymore. I hoped to develop the habit of elogging and finally interhalize that, but too busy I guess.

Shirin Ebadi

I think people expect to much from Ebadi. Everybody is saying that she should do this or that but nobody is considering the actual limitations and obstacles she faces. After all she is going back to Iran and if she wants to do something real instead of complaining and nagging (just like many of us living abroad) she has to be pragmatist. I think the very fact that she has openly participated the ceremonies without Hejab is by itself a big achievement and a huge step forward. Just watch for the price she should pay for her move.

My Son and Mini Me

Last night we were invited to my bosses house for Christmas party. Lots of kids were around and it was the good part for My 4 year old son. The funny thing was that it ended to be a freedom night for kids. My boss who does not really care about the age ratings of the movies just went on by showing samples of available movies and cartoon to kids ( from 2 up to 12 year old) and at the end he had chosen a bunch to show in sequence. The most successful movie was the "Gold Member" and then the second most popular one was "who framed Roger rabbit". Now my son is asking to shave his hair and be the "Mini Me" and asking me to shave my hair as well, to look like Dr. Evil. I don't know if it has been a good idea to let the kids watch rated movies but it looks like that the kids pick up the parts which are interesting to them ( I am not obviously talking about XXX rated!!!), what I mean is that they actually filter out the unpleasant parts to their taste.

Barbari

It is more than one year now that I am baking Barbari. Thanks to fresh bread we are eating some breakfast. Every weekend I prepare enough dough to bake 7 to eight breads or pizzas. I have just started to bake Baguette, it is eatable but not commercial yet.
I have tried to bake Sangak too, no easy task.
I love bread.

Where is Bilakh ( the equivalent of giving somebody the finger in Iran) coming from?

One of my British colleagues sent out this email regarding the origins of giving the middle finger in west, read it.

Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore they would be incapable of fighting in the future. This famous weapon was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as “plucking the yew” (or “pluck yew”).
Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, “See, we can still pluck yew! PLUCK YEW!”
Since ‘pluck yew’ is rather difficult to say, the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodental fricative 'F', and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute!
It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows used with the longbow that the symbolic gesture is known as “giving the bird.

I replied the email and explained how in Iran the thumbs up is conceived the same as middle finger in west but I had no story for it.
Now I am thinking where our Bilakh is coming from, I guess it has something to do with the secound world war and the invasion of Iran by American and British troops. I read something about Bruce Willis travelling to Iraq and his comments about how well he had been welcomed by Iraqi people who had shown him lots of thumbs up. I don't know if in Iraq holding thumbs up is the same as in Iran?

Think twice before giving advice

My older son Danial has started to draw naked people since a couple of months ago. He found out that it was fun and rewarding too. I think I just gave him some hint to a very interesting thing to do when I told him it was not good to draw people naked and specially to draw men's penis or women's breast. He drew his own conclusion out of my comments, If he wants to impress people and get some extra attention he just should draw them nude with their stuff hanging out . Actually it is working for him. A couple of days ago I took him to work with me and he really impressed everyone by drawing a very good looking breast on our big whiteboard. He is going to be 4 years old in February.

How to fight terrorism

In my opinion the most important reason that US government in particular and the western countries in general (in a lower extent of course) have not succeeded to contain terrorism is the kind of approach they traditionally have chosen to deal with the problem and problem makers. What I mean is that they ignore the human nature of these guys and the societies they are coming from and by demonizing these guys they choose the iron feast policy which is not going to work just because we are dealing with people not machines or animals. The fist and the important thing is to put yourself in their place and see what would you do in a similar situation and then deal with it wisely. US officials look at the international terrorism as a runaway process which has to be killed ( as a matter of fact that is the case!!) without doing anything about the operating system. I believe that the long history of unfair and unilateral US policy and mechanical reactions in middle east is the source of all these problems. A sick operating system is the source of the frequent runaway processes and if they do nothing about the system just killing the unwanted process won't resolve andthing in longterm. By acting violently and not wisely, US is encouraging and incubating an upsurge of the next generation of violent actions through an idealogic and consistent type of terrorsism .
US officials have to understand that they should seek an answer to resolve a very important and vital issue which is engraved in the middle eastern's minds and hearts instead of trying to erase and ignore the problem and the human nature of it.

Superficial American fellows

Sometime ago I was looking in goggle for Iran e Ashofteh to see if there is any trace of my new URL at blogspot. I headed to the site called "blogs of war" in which people apparantly talk about the US and war ( I think it was created after the Iraq war). Some friendly, democracy lover american guy had copied and pasted one of my postings and then guess the rest.
These American fellows are badly superficial and aggressive. It is only talk and talk, it is like there is a debate going on instead of a discussion or something. It is like their setup is done to kick somebody's ass and that is the achievement.
They are badly ignorant of their image outside of the US and their crazy inflated patriotism prevents them from seeing the reality. The basic core of the US foreign policy is " the purpose justifies the means" whatever the means are. It is like these friendly human rights lover and democracy exporters have forgotten what they did to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Frankly I don't see why they would not do such a thing again ( Say they have not done it already!).
When I imagine that if it was not because of the CIA sponsored Coup d'etat in Iran which resulted in overthrowing the liberal government of Mossadeq, it was for 60 years now that we have been practicing democracy in Iran. Just imagine that. Is it conspiracy theory if I think US is not looking for democracy rather than their national interests? (don't forget that the purpose badly justifies the means)

I am back again

I try to write again. Things look much better now.

let's go

Not accessible?

My computer is officially dead!!

I think this month I have not been so lucky. A surge from hell just wrecked my computer's mother board, and because it is a discontinued Pentume3 I should replace the memory and processor too. Something that I can't afford now. I had to disconnect my High speed Internet service too. Anyways I am using the blogspot free space and that is it.

I was very sad after hearing Laleh and Ladan's death news. I don't know about you but their birth was a big deal to me. I was six and seeing a twin like that was something extraordinary for me. Imagine yourself at their place, I believe they have accomplished what they wanted. They went into the surgery with a great hope to get separated and for them the time has stopped there. I mean they have not witnessed the failure. They have won their gamble. I am sure they would enjoy their life a lot if they had made it, but as far as the operation and this huge single event is concerned, because they have done that operation by hope and not as an act of desperation they have won.
God bless them.

Forth aniverssary of student unrest

Tommorow is the forth anniversary of the student's appraisal in Iran. I have a very mixed feeling about these violent events. From one hand I remember what kind of nonsense and rude creatures are these Hezbollah conservatives and kicking their ass sounds great and on the other hand I badly believe that violence is going to help them to advance their agenda the most. Violence is their mother tongue. They know nothing else and they want to drag people into this trap. With the momentum that the democratic movement and the need for change is getting I am sure in a couple of years there is no place no where in Iran for any of these guys, Hezbollah or Mojahed or any other kind of violence. Patience and reason is what should reign in our political culture now.
After all, all these problems, in my opinion , have cultural origins and to overcome those deficiencies is a long reform process. Just remember what we did during the revolution. We replaced a Tyranny with something worse. A nation does not change overnight, we need time to practice democracy and rule of law.

Political maturity

I read this from BBC Persian site. Safar Morad Niazev the Turkmenistan’s president (self chosen life time) has announced that in the capital (Eshgh Abad which means city of love) except for cats, dogs and ornamental birds keeping any kind of domestic animal is going to be banned. The reason is that they stink and they don't let the nice smell of a flower which recently has been renamed after the president to be felt. The same president has changed the name of months of the year to something inspired from his mom and I am not kidding.
You want to know how mature are a political system and nation, just look at what the political leaders say and do. By the way I am not excluding Iran.

US and IRAN

I just read a comment from Colin Powel saying that US should not infer in Iranian internal affairs and Americans should not forget that Iranian president has been elected freely. On the other hand Rumsfeld is playing another tune. The same business with reformists and conservatives in Iranian politics?
It is a matter of time. If all foreign powers specially US could stop war mongering and inferring in Iranian affairs ( something that Iranians are culturally very sensitive to) people are going to straight their account with conservative fellows, hopefully in a peaceful way.

Carlos the Jackal has converted to Islam!!

By what we are getting these days, world is getting convinced that Islam and Islamic teachings are violent and violence is intrinsic in that religion. I was stunned when I read this about Carlos the international terrorist and that he has converted to Islam and praised Bin Laden for what he has done.

What I want to say is that as a Moslem and Iranian I don't think that way and I believe the very first victims of such acts and violent actions are Moslems themselves. As a matter of fact we will see how Bin Laden has betrayed Moslem nations by giving such a dark and violent image from Islam and middle eastern cultures. The other dangerous thing is the very violent superficial impressions that superficial people get from what Bin Laden has done. He has not done anything good for his people, he has just collaborated in an act of destruction with other violent guys like George Bush, the same way as Saddam did. It has much more to do with politics than religion, Islam is only a pretext. They would do the same thing if they were born Christian, Jew or anything else.

Human life is chip?

In eastern cultures we have lots of comments and sayings about the human's dignity and rights. But in practice we frequently abuse those rights and don't react promptly to human loss and sufferings.
I read something on BBC that the Chinese police had arrested a lady without letting her to arrange for care of her three year old kid during her absence. After 2 weeks the poor kid dies from starvation.
Iran, China and India are countries with a very old culture. We have a rich cultural heritage and at the same time serious deep problems. Just like an old guy. I think as a result of a long existence of social and collective institutions, the individual rights do not have enough weight in these cultures. The tradition and society and collective rights overshadow the individual human right and life.

Having said that I should say the new cultures mostly in north America have their own good and bad things too. New and strong like a young guy without a mature and deep understanding.

Posting again!
Iranian identity

When my son was born I sent a few Iranian names to my colleagues and asked them for their feedback. I was looking for an Iranian name which had an English equivalent or was easy to pronounce in English. One of the guys who is British ( normally the Europeans are much more politically educated and cultivated than north Americans) got back to me with the name Saddam. Of course he was kidding, he told me as a matter of fact Saddam is now a well known name in west and the guy himself is a hero back there. I asked back where? He said in Iran. I said no way, Saddam was no hero in Iran and he'd better go to hell.
He said he had seen many reports coming from Moslem countries showing demonstrations and interviews in favor of Saddam and he thought Iran should not be an exception.
The most difficult thing to explain here is that Iran has a distinct and different identity from most of the Moslem countries. It is difficult to explain this difference, because it exists and does not exist at the same time. In Middle East the most important thing we have in common is the religion: we are Moslem. At the same time the most different aspect is religion: Iranians are Shia ( other Moslem countries are mostly Sonni) and they have experienced an Islamic revolutionary government for about 25 years now which is almost unique in the region. The Majority of Iranians does not look at Islam the way other Moslem countries do. We have seen how cruel a government can get by applying the absolute religious ethics and values directly to people's everyday life. which is very much relative in nature. We feel it very urgent and strong why a government should be nonreligous why democratic institutions are necessary rather than more Islamic ones.
Besides all these religion based factors, the Iranian culture plays an important role in our overall Identity. The same thing is true for the other side of the line too. Not long time ago the other Moslem countries under the Arab Nationalist and Iraqi flag fought Iran. Being an Arab or an Iranian is not the same thing , we are just coming from two different backgrounds.

Hassani

This is a real discourse from Hassani ( Oroumiyeh Friday preacher).
One day he was talking about the revolution and the moral and positive influence of the Islamic revolution on society and he said:
Revolution has given everything to us, it has change our moral and even our people, for example these dear brothers and sisters who attend the Friday prayers today are the very same prostitutes and guys who picked them up during the Shah regime.

He preaches both in Azari ( Tokish) and Fasri. One they he stopped talking Azari and started to talk Farsi and he said:
I am going to say this part in Farsi so that Clinton ( Clinton was the US president at that time) is going to understand too.

We badly freaked out yesterday!

I was working in the back yard when my wife came out with our baby in her arms and asked me if Danial my other son is with me. He was not with me and I told her that he wasn't. She was badly shocked and very shaky told me that he was not at home either. Danial is 3 years and 5 months old and recently has learned how to unlock the door at the entrance. I just did not know what I was going to do, I was frozen. After some time I started to running around in the neighborhood and searching in the streets and backyards. After 10 minutes I came back and tired and desperate I was going to call the police but I saw my wife who had found him in the garage playing in the dark and very hot. It was one of the worst experiences we have ever had concerning Danial. Specially with these latest news about the kidnapping and murder of a small girl in Toronto we really freaked out.

New Emam Jom e (Friday Prayers preacher) for Tehran

I read this report of Hassani's speach (Hassani is preacher of Oroumiyeh) about the recent violent protests in Tehran and instantly I got an excellent Idea to bring more people to the friday prayers in Tehran. I suggest Hassani to be the preacher of Tehran's friday prayer. This is going to help both people by having more joy and fun in life and the autorities by showing off more people during the prayers.

even more: for phase two they can introduce him as the Replacement Emam e Jome for all cities in Iran so that everybody can share happiness with Oroumiyeh. Just imagine how many people would like to go and attend and listen to these "Khozabalaat" or "friday stand up comedy" live by Hassani.