I read in BBC that the UN secretary general Kofi Annan had said that the situation in Iraq is worse than when Saddam was in power, for Iraqi people of course.
I believe that, beside this fact, Alqaidah was restricted to Afghanistan now they are in Iraq as well.

Some presidential something (advisor or angry guy) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6206480.stm in Iraq did not like that statement and has responded angrily to Annan, not that I like Annan or I believe he has performed as he should in his post, but that the reasoning and the statements of the Iraqi official is baseless and somehow funny.

One of his remarks reminds me of the jokes we had for some of funny Iranian political figures.

The Iraqi official has said that the condition for Iraqi people has improved seven times compared to the Saddam era. God knows where the number seven is coming from.

Is the relationship between Israel and Palestine the same as Iran or Turkey and Kurds? I can not make the one to one correspondence, it looks like the Israelis are under this impression, and they feel like that!

This morning we were watching Sesami Street, before my son went to school, the subject of the show was the family and what families do together. One thing that I like about Sesami Street is the multi racial and multi cultural approach they have got by showing people from different backgrounds involved in American life, not just the blonds. This morning when they were showing kids and families they showed a gay couple with their kid as well. I don’t like that; I don’t know how you could explain it to your kid, what is normal and what is not? It all depends on who you are and how you think about certain things; a gay family is not a fact unlike "brushing your teeth is good for you", which is a fact.

I believe that it is very important to make kids understand that not everything, which is shown on TV or told in school, is right and kids always should be critical and use different resources to deal with different concepts and especially new ideas,

Meanwhile in case my son asks about the kind of reunion we saw on TV this morning, I will tell him that a gay family is fake, is not true.

At the same time we continue to watch Sesami Street that is a great program.

Unlike Canada, here I am not feeling I can write about all my reflections, just like good old times in Iran. I self-censored some part of the last post I did, then I felt bad about it, here you go:

One thing that bothers me is that all the antiwar campaign even from the leftists, is focusing on the American army casualties and the war expenses for the tax payers, to some extent that makes sense, it is the natural way you can connect to American public opinion, at the same time the Iraqi civilians are suffering as well, as a result of a war that is not their choice. I would mention that as well.

Last night I was watching a TV documentary on PBS about the brain injuries that American soldiers sustain as a result of a nearby explosion, and the fact that almost always such conditions are not paid enough attention to. I remember the same phenomena during the Iran/Iraq war and we had lots of these people coming back from the fronts and even though they looked alright they behaved strange and screwed-up, we used to call them Mouji (translates into Wavy, referring to the explosion wave), there was so many jokes and funny stories about them, after lost night I admit I feel very bad and I don’t feel it is funny anymore (a few days ago in Tehran, one of these guys took hostage all the students of a girls' school, including his own daughter! ).

My son Danial is in grade one, there was a great deal of medical and language proficiency tests that he had to pass before he could start school in California. His Iranian background (non english speaker) and the fact that prior to coming to US he was in a French school were the reasons for the language test, fortunately he passed it. One thing that I am seeing here is that the educational system in this specific district is very similar to what we went through in Iran. Very strict and lots of tests and work are administered even for first graders. That was not the case at all in Canada, even though Danial was going to a French school in an English dominated region, and they are known to be stricter than the English schools, the curriculum was relatively relaxed, specifically for the first graders the stress was on the development of social skills and the interest in school and learning.

In contrary, here they are doing serious math stuff and reading, I would categorize the American system (where we are living) more traditional and the Canadian system is more liberal.

I really don’t know which system is better, I did not like too much pressure back in my school years,

Long live MIT!!

I have been looking for an opportunity to study a little bit; taking a course may be or study books…

Yesterday I found out that MIT has an online service called open courseware (http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html) and the course materials of many of the officially offered courses in MIT are available on this website. I picked up a few and am planning to follow through…

That is a good Idea, why the rest of Universities don’t do that?

We had a two-day holiday last week, including the weekend it added up to 4 days which was nice. Thanks giving is much more serious here than Canada, I am not sure why that is so, it might be because of the religious aspects of thanks giving and the fact that the Canadians in general are less religious than Americans.

Another interesting thing to see was that even the Iranians are into it, we were invited to a thanks giving lunch which had turkey on the table and so on and so forth. Not a bad Idea.
One good thing about southern California is that you can feel you are at home because of the all Iranian stuff you have there and the land itself, it looks more like what we had in Shiraz and most parts of Iran.

I was watching a documentary on World War II and of course the role of Americans in all that, especially to bring it to an end. When you look at the events and military operations there, specially the last two atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, you see how in American style the goal justifies the mean, whatever the mean is. I cannot deny the concrete achievements of the US industry and military, I admit that I admire the resilience and hard work of American people and the well designed industrial and social systems in US, but something that bothers me is the pretentious moral appearances and justifications behind the most cruel and inhumane acts of all history of human kind.

Having said that what was the alternative solution in World War II?

I don’t know.

I think Iranian nation should be very cautious dealing with US. Not to give up their rights but to try to think as the Americans, Iranian common sense is quiet different from American’s.
I think the whole issue is to act rational instead of emotional.

I follow the recent discussions between Hoder and Nikan, as far as it concerns me Nikan is really crazy and nonlinear, and frankly I don’t care what he stands for or he is talking about. But Hoder is a guy with lots of positive and negative attributes who in my regard has an overall positive score. The problem with him is that he has put himself in such a weak position that anybody with any kind of background can effectively accuse him of anything the most people hate.

I hope he gets into some serious business, finish school or get some relevant experience, right now he looks more like a canon without of ammunition.

There is something with arid desertic/mountainous areas that makes you wander, something unique is there. In extreme cold, you play mouse and cat with death, in nice weather with lots of green, you just have fun, a bit superficial, that is life, but in huge dry mountains as well as deserts, there is something that makes you think about mystery of life, no wonder almost all prophets as we knew them are from these kind of geographical areas.
I think the mystery of life has been so huge that the human being could not handle it raw and pure, as it was, there was something in the air, he was so confused by the immensity of the Divine secret that he decided to explain it, or even better justify it, in another words he modeled it into a simple, familiar and understandable system.

Belief
One of the most difficult things for me is to discuss my religious beliefs with a guy who is traditionally religious. I have gone through that difficult experience many times with fellow Muslims, you get to the point that you have to deny certain things or say something which is considered blasphemy and at the same time you don't want to offend or upset people as well, since beliefs are the most irrational and personal part of each individual,
A week ago I went to get a Californian driver's license and I was 1 hour early, there was a talkative guy who was early too, and he started to talk to me and asking questions, he turned out to be a traditional christian believer, I would call him and people like him (Bush) christian Hezbollah. We got to the point that I started to talk about my beliefs and his and, guess what? it was as difficult as if I wanted to talk to a traditional Muslim. At some point I just backed off and nodded yeah, yeah ....
He used to be an alcoholic and drug addict and now he was rehabilitating, and religion was a big help.

Finally my wife and my son joined me yesterday. Danial wanted to go to an outside open pool which we have in the complex we live, I originally thought that the whole big outside pool is warm even during the winter time, not true, the real estate agent did not specify which pool is warmed up all year long, it happened to be the small wading pool for kids, worked for Danial, so full of shame and happy about the fact that nobody was there to see a big hairy guy in the kids wading pool I got in and we had some fun. I am happy about the fact that he and Rosie like the place, I really don’t like the concept of the California, specially what it is in LA and nearby, there are lots of snub and wealthy Iranians around in Orange County, you could say there are lots of rich or quasi-rich middle-easterns around from the number of the Mercedes Benz vehicles circulating.

Big city!
There is a big difference between people of smaller low pace places compared to big out of size cities. I realized the same difference when I was in Iran as well. We moved from Shiraz to Tehran. The first thing you find out is that you should be careful or people would rip you up fast and without hesitation. The same thing is visible here in US, as I was driving through the States, I could see that people in smaller cities are more polite and friendly, unbelievably different from California.
My first bad experience was with a bank teller over the phone, a young girl who had a strong accent (sounded like black people in movies!), when I saw I am not getting anything off the phone I politely ask her If she could talk a bit slower and louder, she did not like that and started to talk even faster, since I was not getting what she was telling me, I repeatedly asked her to say stuff again which she did not like at all, at some point she was so annoyed that when she was confirming my long two part, unfamiliar family name, she said "G as in Garbage", I have had similar experiences in Iran, but never in Canada,
Second one, my wife hired 3 movers over the phone to help me move our stuff down the truc into the apartment. Du to my past experiences with the movers I already knew what kind of people these mover companies are but I had no choice. To make the story short: they screw up and dropped one wooden furniture and damaged it, even though I was covered by he insurance he is not paying for the damage, another negative stuff is that when he knew that the move has went wrong and I am really upset with that, he filed a positive feed back giving himself a 5 star rating (that is another story how he got the login information out of me, a simple country man coming to LA).
third one, I went to the LA customs head office which is close to LA international airport, I was doing the paper work for importing my car from Canada to US, the officer told me to go and have a seat waiting for my documents to get ready, while I was sitting two guys where talking Spanish and I realized they are looking at me. One of them asked me if I have forgotten my wallet at the counter where I submitted my documents, first I said no but then I realized my wallet is not on me and he told me some guy took it and quickly walked away, I ran out and luckily spotted the guy who just got in his truck, I ran to him yelling and before he got away I caught his jacket, since there was a lot of cops around he did not risk it and through out wallet out of window and speeded away. I got my wallet, but if I was 5 seconds late, I could not have it back!
the scary thing is that all these happened in a period of about 10 days, am I going to have more surprises?

At last I am back, after driving 4800km which is about 3000miles. it took me 4 days, a bit longer it could be better if I did not have an accident with the auto transporter. Any ways it is over now and I am going to airport to pick up my wife and my son now.

YouTube Rocks!

That You tube thing is great, I was searching for Fereydoon Foroughi's videos, I watched a few of them and then I noticed there are some political stuff there as well, Shah and Nojeh Coup and the interview with General Rahimi with Dr. Ebrahim Yazdi as the spokesman of the revolutionaries,
I remember all these as a kid, but last night was too sad for me. General Rahimi and General Mohagheghi who was leading the Nojeh coup d'etat, even the guys who where interviewing them after their capture where different from now, very polite and with character's and culture, the guy talking to Rahimi was addressing him as Timsar. I was feeling bad for all of them, the only crap was a Akhond which during the talks with Rahimi, He was jumping in and from the way he was talking you could say he was a akhond.

General Ayat Mohagheghi
General Mehdi Rahimi

And this is Neeyaaz from Fereydoun Froughi:
Fereydoun Froughi

Around August, a very sportive colleague of mine, the kind of people who would do better if born gorilla rather than human, told me that he and a few other friends all from Saskatoon, are going for one of their annual wild all male camping. He asked me if me and Daniel (my son 6 years old) would like to join them. The camping site was in a crown park north of Quebec, a lake with many little tiny islands, We had to walk and portage the canoe and our stuff for about 3 hours and then paddle for another 2 hours to get to one of the available islands. Imagine me a guy who might die if too far from home and afraid of all living things, what should I say? I said yes, just because of Danial who believes Travis is either Superman himself or some sort of god, and that was a big dream of his to go on a camping trip with Travis.
Anyways finally we arrived in one of the rocky islands and set up the camp...
The following day we went for exploring the area and other islands. There was a beautiful scene out there, a very big rock about 15 to 20 meters high so vertical and sharp at the edge of a tiny island. I noticed Travis is paddling that way, I asked what he was cooking and he said he wanted to jump off that cliff, I looked at him and asked if he had lost his mind, "Of course not that is fun!". We got the ca to the shore so he got off and started to climb the cliff, meanwhile me and Danial paddled off the shore below the cliff to see the jump as close as possible. He got edge and then with a wild and excited scream he jumped off, I admit that was great, reminded me of when I was the same age (under 30 years old) and the crazy stuff we used to do.
Danial turned to me, I was still clapping and cheering for Travis' bravery, as soon as I looked into Danial's eyes I knew what he was going to say,
Dad now it is your turn,
I just froze and I did not want to tell him that I was a scardy cat, that I was afraid of jumping off, that I am not a good swimmer and I am 40 years old and ...
His look was begging me to go up and jump,
I got to the shore, and started to climb the cliff, Travis and Danial paddled to the middle to see me jump, I got there, Oh my God, I even could not look down!!
I started to shake and to back off, but Danial started to sing: Go Daddy, Go Daddy,
It was easy to back off because he was so tiny from up there that I could not see his eyes and easy to refuse his will.
But I am a man of my words, a crappy one, but still ...
It took me 10 minutes out there before I knew I was jumping, it felt less than a moment before it was over,
My body jumped while my mind was still struggling, I screamed all way down and so scared that I was looking into water when I touched down,
Danial was crazy and excited, he could not believe his eyes, he showed me Bilakh (thumbs up!) and said he was proud of me,
Travis told me that it was a silent jump! I told him I was screaming all way down, but he said he heard nothing!
Since I got into the water with my face down, my gum got injured and my mouth was bleeding, With the slap I got in the face (from water) I got black eyes as well, But all that was worth, If it was not for that jump, how the hell on earth I could possibly have got Danial to tell me that he was proud of me?

Is Uhaul the worst Moving Truck renting company?

I have been reading all kind of crap about the Uhaul trucks and how shitty they are and how bad Uhaul customer service is.
I am going to drive one of these on a 4700km trip pulling my car behind.
For some reason I don't feel too bad about that, when I read the complaints about Uhaul(they are a lot!) many of those comments are made by ladies and some are talking about stuff that does not make too much sense to me. But there are enough genuine negative feedbacks posted on the internet to give you a chill in the back, anyways next week, middle of the week, I will know what is with Uhaul!

Big Move
Next week, I will be back to Ottawa, We have decided to drive with a Uhaul truck pulling my car behind with an auto transporter. It is more than 4000km driving, 4 to 5 days depending on how good the truck is, the altiltude in Ottawa is around 300ft and I have to go up to 7000ft and come down to almost see level. My colleagus say it is a bit crazy doing that, but I am going for it, wish me luck.

This is a story I have recounted to my son when he has been asking for one before going to sleep.
It is the true story of Tarzan, different from the one made up by Hollywood and Disney.
Long time ago when I was a kid, in Khorramshahr, a city in south of Iran, the very first major city that Saddam captured during Iran-Iraq war, in our neighborhood, Posht-e Gomrok, there was a huge gorilla living with his family. He was the only gorilla in our neighborhood. The rest of his clan where either captured and moved to the zoo or deported to parts of Africa. His name was Zaboor (Disney claims that Zaboor is the name of the leopard which killed the human parents of Tarzan, which is obviously a lie). He had a son which was a human, name Tarzan, Unlike the rest of the neighborhood Tarzan and his family lived on a tree, that made perfect sense given the fact that his dad was a gorilla. Tarzan and I were playmates, I was the fastest and strongest kid in Khorramshahr, unlike me Tarzan was the clumsiest. I was like his bodyguard taking care of him. He was myop and his dad used to shave his hair down to scalp. One favorite thing we loved to do was wrestling. One day we were playing with about 20 other kids and trying to kick butts as much as possible. Zaboor was myop as well and because of his huge gorilla head, he could not find a big pair of glasses to wear. To give Tarzan some credit, I pretend that I was really fighting with him and he was pushing me down to ground (which was totally fake). Zaboor who was up on the tree and was not able to see what was going on, thought humans have attacked and they are taking Tarzan away from him (nobody knew why the hell he was thinking like that in first place!), His gorilla blood started to boil, as a result he could neither see or hear anything, next thing he knew was that he had attacked me and other 20 kids to save Tarzan, the result of this stupid and unnecessary intervention was 42 broken hands, 40 broken legs and 21 bruised eyes. My dad who was home and heard me screaming (the first and last time in my life, I swear to God!) knew right away that something was wrong, he came out and stopped Zaboor, he tied him down and called the cops. First he wanted to let Zaboor and his family to stay in Khorramshahr, since all the fuss was a stupid misunderstanding, but then he convinced Zaboor to leave for Africa fear of stupid humans trying to retaliate. Zaboor and his family left for Africa. In the same ship they were on, there was an American reporter (Christian Amanpoor from CNN) who heard their story and promised him to help and let everybody else know the truth about him and his difficult life. Something that never happened.
You know the rest of it.