Hola Amigos

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Hola Amigos
by Anonymouse
30-Jun-2009
 

It’s been a year since I wrote my Adios Amigos blog.  Exactly one year and so much has changed in this one year. 

Let’s see; I became a Senior Contributor at PersianMirror.com, (over here JJ doesn’t even chop onion leaves for contributors :-) by the way their ‘JJ’ is Shabnam Rezaei and she is pretty cool; watched American economy go down the drain and 401Ks evaporate; voted for Obama; went to Iran; watched all the Iranian debates on TV in Iran, talked to people on newsstands the very next days then talked more to cab drivers and bus passengers; witnessed so much excitement; voted for Mousavi, after election went to bed with (loud) lullabies of Allah-o Akbar and Death to Dictator (coming through our terrace screened doors when our old Arj water-cooled air conditioning is off for peace and ‘quiet’ at night :-), saw the riot police for the first time and now here.

In the interest of full disclosure although I wanted to, I did not walk the streets after the elections in response to my parents’ and family’s pleas.  I can’t explain it but it is like an automatic magnet or homing device when you want to join the crowds after witnessing everything prior and after the Election Day.  We have a lot of young people in our family and they would go but even they would ask me not to go.  I guess they thought I could not run or jump the joubs when needed or could not handle the pain of getting hit by a baton and even though I told them I had been hit by batons during football celebrations before, they would laugh and say this is another kind of baton beating!

Many also stopped going out after things turned much more violent and riot police came out in full force and brutality.  Satellite media and internet is blocked in Iran and now that I watch these young people get bloodied, injured, detained or die on the streets while being photographed I can not help but be reminded of my own family members and how beautiful they are and how personal this feels.  This is what many worried about, that the regime will resort to violence and once again everything turns sour and you’d see the sadness and depression in an otherwise festive mood, rallies and crowds in days and nights prior to Election Day.  Tehran is once again somber and sad.

I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to visit Iran during this time.  Had I been here and watched snippets of the TV debates (a first in Iran and very exciting for people) or watched the events unfold on news; I would not have been able to understand these events properly and have first hand knowledge.  No offense to anyone but there is a world of difference between waving the “Lion and Sun” flag in the streets of America and waving the Green flag in the streets of Tehran.

Every one of us from Reza Pahlavi to Khamenei and everyone in between has a purpose and each word is being used and abused by both the international media and the Iranian state run media.  Those who march the streets do NOT do it “to be on TV”, either TV!  They march because their votes were stolen and their dignity trampled on.  They are smart enough and openly discuss during the day and (tried to) march peacefully and quietly in the afternoons.

I believe we should follow their lead and stay away from “giving advice” or “leading” them.  This is their time, their event, their wise desire to have a peaceful and nonviolent movement for civil rights, their desire to change, reform and finally implement democracy.  While many of us were promoting boycotting the elections, millions were actively involved in getting people to vote and setting up election offices nationwide.  They will find their way and they will find their own methods and strategy.  Mousavi is currently, perhaps reluctantly, the de-facto leader of this movement.  Some of his advisors and other reformists including Govt officials have been arrested and are in jails. Rafsanjani’s own daughter who spoke at a rally was detained and later released.  Arab activists in the Middle East are jealous of Iranians.

2009 is not 1979.  I may write more on this subject but which was the better choice that created this defiance, voting or not voting?

As for iranian.com, while so much has changed in this past one year, not much seem to have changed here.  Well, you can now post a picture in your blogs or chat and event sections and more featured blogs lasting longer, but not much more.  While there is a User Agreement policy which is actually pretty good, apparently it is for decoration only

This is an old issue which has been beaten to death, so I’ll just say it is another Irani bazi which means there are rules but we don’t care about them.  User Agreement policy is for only when Queen of England visits and someone insults her!  It is like Khamenei who says election rules are good but we’ll announce ‘the winner’ regardless of the rules! Or like the Guardian Council that says they’ll recount 10% of the votes (about 4 million) randomly and when they find stuffing of votes in 50 of 150 voting districts, they’ll say it is not enough to show anything so we just don’t care!

Oh well, I am Iranian and very familiar with Irani bazi.  I know JJ is very busy these days with Iranian news and it’s reflection here, so this may not have been the right time or the place for me to mention what I said but we are where we are a year later and I would have made the same brief statements had Mousavi been elected!

Hopefully I can write another season of Hajiagha, while it may not be the best time for it either, but “Everything Is Sacred” and after just coming back from Iran I believe it more and I’m going to make it a trailer for my comments, at least for a while anyway ;-)

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Thank you Monda and

by Anonymouse on

Thank you Monda and Souri. 

Everything is sacred.


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Good to have you back here!

by Monda on

I enjoy reading your observations and ideas. First chance I get I will read your pieces on the other website. 


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by Souri on

I was alaways waiting for you come back one day!! Well,, you are here now! Thank you,

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please stay here now and never leave again

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PW thank you.  You

by Anonymouse on

PW thank you.  You once inspired me to write a poem/something about 'keeping quiet is romantic' ;-)

Mrs Hajiagha is not married yet, he is engaged, sort of! You shall wait and see, but she was in one of the khastegarees.  The chat seems to have been made for middle-aged teenagers but now apparently they are inviting ehemm celebrities, which is good.  If only the celebrity can leave the chatroom without being too insulted!  So it is not ok now?  While is not khooneye khaleh, isn't it khooneye amou?  We are all rafigh nime rah, one way or another.

Golbaang thank you.  I will write another blog next week.  As for people, there was so much excitement before and on the election day you could not believe.  I could not believe it and I loved it.    People were under no illusions that Mousavi would deliver them the all illusive Iranian democracy.  But they knew he was better, much, much better than Ahmadi.  Compare Obama and his intellect to Bush's belt buckle and cowboy boots diplomacy.  Anyway, I see this movement as a peaceful movement that people want, like the ones in India with Gandi or America with MLK.  They don't want clashes and I'll write about this later.  Their movement's slogan is "silent protest" or "silent green".  They were successful in having such a silent protest once or maybe twice in the day(s) after election.  In any event, this will continue, how can it not? There is no shortage of talking in the streets about the anger and the cheating.  Let me put it this way, there is nothing else to talk about!

Everything is sacred.


Golbaang

Welcome Back

by Golbaang on

I always enjoyed reading your blogs, and I am glad to see you  come back. If I may ask, please write about poeple, where do they stand? Have they given up or will this continue?


TheMrs

The only real change here

by TheMrs on

The only real change here is that there’s a chat. It’s wonderful, you go there and no one is every there. I’ve chanted revolutionary slogans all by myself and felt like pesareh shoja when he went in the forest and yelled out “the secret” that he couldn’t keep in him anymore. Once in a while a few people come there at night. Many of us are disappearing from here. But it’s no longer abrupt and with announcements. It’s a slow torture of finding much better places. Hajigha got married, he picked one of the chiks you got for him, don’t know which one. Maybe now you can write about his marital bliss or his divorce chronicle. Even my character got married and is now the mrs. You are such a rafigheh nimeh rah. now you come back and you think it's all ok? bah! mage inja khooneh khaalast?


persian westender

Glad to see you back

by persian westender on

:-)

 


Anonymouse

Thank You

by Anonymouse on

Thank you for your comments.

MPD I wrote 10 espisodes of Hajiagha goes to khastegaree.  You can see them under my profile.  That was season 1 and I hope I can write season 2.

Anahid I like your writings too.  I will try to write another blog about my recent trip to Iran. Perhaps after the holiday weekend.

Niki  prices have been skyrocketing, despite Ahmadi's Perot-like charts showing only 15% inflation, except for one item and that is VCDs which used to be 3000 - 6000 tomans few years ago and are now about 1300 toman, about $1.25.  They sell the same movies in Iranian stores for $13 - $24.  Not sure how much Netflix charges technically but renting a DVD is about $5.

There is also a lot of Farsi dubbing on foreign language movies, only dubbing and no other 'sound effects', vocals only and muted otherwise!  While I was there I saw Flicka (Tim McGraw's dubbing was hilarious, so Naser Malek-Motei ;-), Bone Collector and Are We There Yet? on the state run TV, several times.  Death to America but bring 'em hollywood movies with no copyright or royalty payments!

Fish so have you learned the "rules"?  Rule #1 = there are no rules! Neither in our elections nor in our blogesphere ;-)

Everything is sacred.


anonymous fish

Bienvenido de nuevo

by anonymous fish on

And I might add it's about damn time too!  You were one of the VERY first to welcome me and "explain" the rules of iranian.com to a non-iranian.  I was sorry to see you go but glad to see you back.  Hope to see many more great things from you... this was awesome.  I will read and re-read and each time will make the experience a little more real.  damet garm.


Multiple Personality Disorder

What do you mean!

by Multiple Personality Disorder on

What do you mean by "Hopefully I can write another season of Hajiagha,"?


Niki Tehranchi

Welcome back!

by Niki Tehranchi on

Thank you for sharing with us your first-hand account of what has been happening in Iran. This was a very interesting "comeback" blog.


Anahid Hojjati

To Anonymouse: Good to have you back here

by Anahid Hojjati on

I read your articles in PersianMirror as I am myself a Special Contributor over there.  I always enjoyed your work and I am glad to see you here especially at such critical time.  Please write more about your recent visit to Iran.


Multiple Personality Disorder

Welcome back to Hotel California

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I'll read your blog later, but first, no one has successfully left Hotel California yet, and I was sure you wouldn't be the first one to do so either.  Welcome Anonymous.