Iran and Presidential election

I am really excited about this election. I have been following the debates from the day one. I am very surprised and satisfied about the openness of these debates and the fact that the other candidates let Ahmadi Nejad know that they are not stupid and as well as most of Iranians they know he lies and he is not honest when it comes to playing game of politics.

Most of all, I was satisfied about Mohsen Rezaee's debate, he did something to Ahmadi Nejad which non of the reformists could do. By being calm and strategic (you would expect that from an ex- military commander) he scored a very important point against Ahmadi Nejad. I hope Mossavi comes to power and uses both Karoubi and Rezaee in his cabinet, to fight his way out, Moussavi needs strong people,

I am happy today.

Hossein Derakhshan

It has been a while, since he is in jail.

When Saberi was released I felt very sad for him, Saberi was accused of being a spy, she was allegedly  caught with classified documents in her possession and so forth.

Derakhshan had no such thing, nothing to hide, all on the web.

Saberi relied on US and she got released, Derakhshan relied on Iran, and demanded no foreign intervention while in custody and he is still in Jail, in Iran. 

Procrastination and ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder)

Have you ever been suspicious of yourself being affected by ADD? do you have problem to concentrate on tasks and how long is your focus span? What about procrastination, do you have a long list of things to do, which you just ignore and from time to time, remind yourself of consequences if not done?
Well, I do think I have ADD and I do procrastinate a lot, at work or at home.
It is either ADD or I am not tuned into what I am doing to earn my living,

Right of Man

These days, I am trying to follow an audio book produced by the "Teaching Company", titled
'Right of Man". One problem with Teaching Company audio books is that most of the guys reading or teaching the materials are university professors and no offense they sound boring, if you are not devoted to follow, and you don't have a "no matter what" kind of attitude, it is very likely you drop out or engage in involuntary act of daydreaming,
OK, what was I saying? yes, I have been trying to listen to the audio book; Right of Man, to me this is a very important subject, in many instances you don't realize that to what extent the understanding of human rights depend on cultural and religious believes. When the teacher talks about the basic rights and the the interpretation of the basic rights throughout the course of history, you are amazed by how much these rights have been understood differently at different times and different places.

To my amazement it is stated that religious beliefs are one common cause for uniting the understanding and development of human rights concept, from past and to the present then in future. As regional and short sighted are the nationalist human rights mouvements, the philosophically and religiously supported concepts of human rights are global and inclusive. In the course of a nationalist Human rights activity, you observe and respect the rights of the people like you, with the same cultural background, the same mother land and speaking the same language. You might disrespect anybody not like you, be brutal with any other nation and at the same time feel as if you are not committing any crime against humanity, since humanity is you and your compatriots.

To me this phenomenon explains what exactly is happening in Israel right now. They have a nationalist version of human rights that is just applicable to Jews. In spite of the fact that there is a so called Jewish state in charge of the land, the symptoms and behaviors, especially in the way they deal with the Palestinians, is so non religious and brutal, to the point that a extremely nationalist, secular and racist state could do that. (I know the state of Israel is a secular state, what I don't quiet understand is that how come people of Israel considering they are religious, are so overwhelmingly in agreement with the sheer brutality that the state of Israel has demonstrated against Palestinians).

To some extent the same analogy applies to US and the demonstrated double standards regarding the respect for human rights around the world (for example what is happening in Iraq). The definition of Abuse, based on western human right standards, is very local (in practice, in strong contrast with theory and what is usually preached and lectured in schools), in other terms, it is very important who you are, and whom you are abusing, after all it might not be considered any abuse at all, all depends on to what country the abused and abuser belong, in which God you believe in and so on (the list is long). All these determine how much support you are going to receive from US and its Human rights institutions against the human rights abuse.
By the way I am in favour of secular states, who with a global scope, respect human rights, no exception no double standard.

Presidential Election
Iran will hold a presidential election in a few months. In Iran, president is elected based on popular votes and, in a direct competition between different candidates.
Usually the candidates are categorized under Moderate or Conservative banner with a few so called independents running for fun as well.
This time there are two candidates that in some ways could be considered reform minded, against one conservative running president. However, there are two things, that are bothersome to me as somebody looking for some guy with some reformist agenda, who would potentially and hopefully move toward Iranian people rights and well being:
1-These guys, both Mousavi and Karoubi, stand very close to the border line between conservative and moderate camps. At some points during their past and even present they have talked and acted close to conservatives and from a fundamentalist point of view. Some people in favor of reforms might not even vote, feeling neither Mousavi nor Karoubi represent reform movement.
2-They will divide the vote against the reformists in favour of Ahmadi Nejad.
I hoped there would be more than one conservative/fundamentalist candidate as well, splitting Ahmadi Nejad's votes. He has done enough damage to Iran and Iranian people already, it is time for change.

Some Questions
1- Are you aware of any UN resolution draft (vetoed or not), directly in odds with the United states' interests? why not?
2- Do you think it is an act of benevolence or charity that united states is the biggest one single contributor to UN cause? Do you think US believes in what UN is supposed to stand for?
3- If UN is abolished today, who is going to suffer the most?
4- Who has the most benefits out of UN, specially when it comes to international politics.

OK, what is UN doing anyways?
Don't tell me poor countries are the ones benefiting from UN, OK? I won't listen to you.

Obama
When Obama was running his campaign, I was really thinking he was something new, not just his face and color of his skin, but his ideas and the way he was going to handle the presidency. As a matter of fact he was showing signs of change and new ideas and different thinking, however as he got close to the end and started his presidency, specially in foreign policy, on a daily basis he looked like bunch of other politicians who are part of an old political tradition in US.
He still looks and sounds different from other politicians, to me the difference is in form and shape not in content.
This is a huge political system that absorbs and deforms people or pushes them aside, he could not get elected if he was loyal to the ideals of early days of his candidacy.

Greeks and Persians
I am listening to these TTC course about Greek/Persian ancient wars these days,
I have got the impression that the love for engineering (even in politics and during war) and doing impressive endeavors instead of going for the result cost Persia (now Iran) many defeats.
And of course worst of all autocracy, the fact that the king decided on his own for most of the war time strategies adopted (Iran still suffers from this fatal chronic disease) made Persian army prone to many strategic and tactical mistakes.
On the other hand the constant consultations and pragmatism at all levels , on the Greek side made average individuals capable of defeating the sophisticated and great Persian army and kings,

Funny, it is about two years after the last comment I had about Iran and Israel relation, I still believe that Ahmadi Nejad as the president, should not have generated unnecessary tension by talking too much, at the same time it looks like Israel and its powerful lobby, push the American public opinion wherever they want, regardless of who is in power in Iran and what they say, what makes me sad is that Ahmadi Nejad has made their job so easy, piece of cake.

Writing again.
Life goes on. As usual.

There is something I don't like about the way hoder is doing his stuff against the war. Instead of concentrating on the fact that the war is not the solution to anything and that just ads to the problems (whatever they are), He is defending the Iranian government and bashing all kind of dissident activity, I don't think the Iranian government is defendable at all, the same is true for Bush and his international adventurism, both side are doing wrong stuff and unfortunately people will pay for any eventual break out of war.

My impression of the current conflicts over Iran:
The whole fuss over the Iran's nuclear activities and terrorism link allegations are because of:
1-The kind of relationship Iranian government has established with the Israeli government and vice verso.
2-The urgency to find a scape goat for George W. Bush (super strong ass saver!) to alleviate the consequences of the negative reactions to his teribble performance in Iraq.
3-Ahmadi Nejad's irresponsible and irrelevant comments about Israel and Holocaust.

All the rationals and reasoning offered as why Iran should be confronted by internatonal community are justifications to divert and satify the public opinion.

Iran and Iranians could take initiative to reduce the pressure first by getting rid of Ahmadi Nejad (not give up thier rights!) through democratic processes, impeachment? maybe.
Then the government could show a more conciliatory pose tward Israel, possible? why not, I don't see any problem in that,
Iranian government should have understood by now that most arab countries could not be her allies, either because of the religion or strong pan Arab feelings, in case of Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries both reasons are relevant. Open up and bow to people's will, that is the way to go.

What puts my ass on fire (I mean pisses me off!!) is that some people categorize Iran in the same group as Al Qaida, Hey even Saddam; the criminal that we knew, did not belong to that category.
I am not trying to say Iran is the heaven on earth and there are no problems at all, what I am saying is that Iran is not Hell either, somewhere in the middle, maybe worse than many places in west but still better than many places in middle east. Iran is struggling with many internal issues regrding the economy and politics (you can see the reflections at internatonal levels too) that I believe are curable, if Iranian people are left alone to handle it,
Extremism is not an element of Iranian tradition, that is very important to understand, it is a transient movement that might occasionally surface but it eventually fades out.
That is very unlike Saudi Arabia, the spiritual homeland of actual Muslim extremism (Wahhabi sect). It is based on extreme and rigid interpretations of the religion, Wahhabis have a consistent history of thinking that way for a long time.

No War!
Let's not get emotional and think a little bit about the consequences of the war, that is aweul, I try not to think about that and instead think of what I can do as an Iranian living abroad to help prevent the catastrophy.
What ever the problem is, war is not the solution, any war is painful, again both sides with a bit of flexibility and long term vision can prevent that.
It is a big misunderestanding from both sides, both US and Iran government are acting too rigid dealing with this issue,
War is not the solution to anything.

I was reading the posts in response to something Hoder had written in Washington post website (or something like that), many of the posts are irrelevant to what he had written (many have mistaken Iranian nationalism with Islamic abidance), however the good thing is that in those posts you could read the personal opinions of average people (I am not sure if I can say that) regarding Iran and the present crisis.
One thing you conclude right away is that the propaganda has worked out perfectly, now there is no talking of Al Qaida, Ossama Bin Laden is forgotten and Iran is the bad guy.
Unbelievable, if people could think a bit independently!
At the same time I blame people like Ahmadi Nejad with stupid and irresponsible behaviors that make the anti Iranian propaganda easy to absorb. This is the best time for him to be sacked out of government and go study some politics,
Hope no war happens,
I hope American administration remembers and does something about the fact that in september 11th AlQaida surprisingly attacked and killed about 3000 american civilians, they have directly or indirectly killed almost the same number of soldiers in Iraq.
AlQaida is the problem not Iran,
Is anybody somehow related to American administration trying to protect AlQaida and their spritual homeland, Saudi's butt?

My conspiracy theory!
One painful fact which is very difficult for Bush's administration to admit is that AlQaida has got the US army and policy in a deep hole in Iraq, mostly due to the existing ethnic and religious differences and lack of understanding among the US administration on and off the field.
To scape the pain Bush and his guys are exaggerating the role of Iran in the whole region and specially the unrest in Iraq. They (Bush and Neo-Cons) are trying to portray Iran as the main cause of their failure, to make Americans believe that the failure is not (which is!) a result of the terrorist activities of AlQaida and the terrible handling of that matter by American administration.
In all these I blame Iranian president too, for not being smart enough (as a matter of fact for being stupid and selfish) to keep the nation away from all this crap and instead by talking irresponsibly about the most irrelevant subjects to Iranian nation, he has helped a lot to de-humanize this nation in eyes of the world public opinion.
have a look at this:
BBC Documentary: The Iran that we don't know!

The news about Iran is not so good these days, God knows where we are heading to!
One thing that bothers me is how things are exaggerated from both sides, the extremely negative image that American administration and western media in general are successfully projecting of Iran, is really exaggerated, thanks to stupid and childish comments of Ahmadi Nejad, who instead of resolving the issues talks like an hot brain irresponsible teenager, not a president of a country.
What bothers me is that he seems to have forgotten the experience of the war with Iraq, how many people died, and even now how much our people are suffering from the consequences of those years,
If there was only a bit of realism and nationalism involved in Ahmadi Nejad, he would not talk like that,
He is a serious contributor in making a exaggerated negative image of Iran in public opinion of west, so if one day there is an attack, there won't be too much regret or serious protest, as what happened in Iraq, the only positive thing about what happened in Iraq is that Saddam is gone, but the balance is so negative that without any doubt that was not worth at all.

Life is strange, I have had lots of surprises regarding life and death so far,
in high school and university I lost three of my close friends, two to the cancer and one to the war,
When I was in Canada an ex colleague send me a clinical document of his son fighting with cancer asking me if I could go and look for any cure and new medication for his son, his son eventually died, sometime later I lost my son too, and now my mom is in the last stages of cancer. I have no Idea, whatsoever, I don't dare bring it up when I talk to here, she knows something is happening and all the chemotherapy and stuff has been stopped for some reason, after six years of fight her brain is engaged now, and it is a matter of luck as how long would take her to go down (or Up, depends on how you see it).
She is a brave lady the only thing I am praying for is that she pass through it quick, no pain no loss of dignity.
What am I suppose to do? I am not even going to see her for a last visit, I don't dare,
Thank God we have Denise here, a dear one goes, a dear one comes and you have a combination of happiness and sadness with you, weired feeling.

I wish Ahmadi Nejad was a fraction of Mosharaf thinking about the national interest of his country!
Have you noticed how Iran is linked to terrorism lately? Thanks to organized American political machine and the extreme stupidity of Ahmadi Nejad. I don't believe Iran is supporting any terrorist group in an organized way, why? because I am Iranian and I know we are not that organized and serious about anything,
There has always been certain level of animosity between the western media and Iran, even during the period of Shah (of course mush less than what we have now). The Iranian governments have been pictured much worse than what they actually were. It looks like that we are a good subject for scary stories in western papers. I was looking at some of Shah's interviews with ABC ( on youtube) and the f*&%ing reporter was questioning him as if he was talking to Adolf Hitler. At the same time nobody talked (talks) about Saudi Arabia and the real Tyrants just because they were (are) were paying their commissions to the west. Even now Iranian government is not as bad as what is pictured in the media, at least to west and rest of world,

I do agree with Hoder when he says Iran should strategically be on Israel's side,

This is the new member of our Gang, her name is Denise, means "sea" in Azari