MEDIA

Voices that Radio Farda fears

Report the truth from both sides

21-Sep-2007 (11 comments)
To president of Radio Farda, Jeffrey Gedmin: Below please find my response to your opinion piece, Voices That Tehran Fears, in The Washington Post: Oh come on! You make it out to seem as if Radio Farda is this enlightened beacon that will save Iran and bring about freedom, democracy, and peace to Iran if only it could operate freely. The truth is your programming is mostly silly irrelevant pop songs with the occasional filler of watered down news that has little substance and reaches us here with a scratchy signal that makes it hard to listen to. >>>

OBSERVER

Opening the floodgates

Making iranian.com blog Better

21-Sep-2007 (8 comments)
First one was about people. I learned that despite the lightning speeds and freedoms of anonymity in internet communications, people are still the same people. Before that, I had imagined all along that if only the good people of Iran, who obviously all wanted to resurrect their cultural honor and advance the cause of democracy in Iran, could, and were allowed to communicate directly with each other, something would click, leaders would emerge and actions would snowball. Not so. Not so fast, anyway. If there are benefits to communicating freely and spontaneously, it will still take time>>>

WAR

Lost in the garden of deceits

The immorality of attacking Iran

20-Sep-2007 (30 comments)
The call for war against Iran was issued by no other than Mr. Bernard Kouchner the foreign minister of France, a country with the motto of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. France the home of Voltaire and Rousseau is now calling for war against a country that has never threatened France or its neighbours. France a nuclear power with illustrious colonial past is urging others to be aware of the dangers that nuclear weapons pose. From the other side of the Atlantic we hear the same cries for more war, death and destruction.>>>

VIEW

The Iran conundrum

Interestingly enough, the Islamic regime has no fear of foreign invasion

20-Sep-2007 (12 comments)
Underneath all conquests and expansions, underneath all the frivolous wars over religious differences, underneath all the oppression and tyranny, underneath all the motives of greed for wealth, underneath all the wars over injustices, lies one single drive: to dominate. The passion to dominate, control and rule over one's fellow humans is an ancient impulse. It goes back to prehistoric times when certain individuals had the desire to force their will upon those around them. The Islamic Republic of Iran is not an exception to this rule. >>>

CRITICISM

روزگار گندآلوده روشنفکران راست

این جا هدف هندوانه زیر بغل هم گذاشتن و تملق گوئی نیست

19-Sep-2007 (32 comments)
آقای میلانی! زمانی که ناصر زرافشان چهره جسور و مبارز و محبوب مردم ایران شما را بی صلاحیت ، بیسواد ،كسى كه با باد مى چرخد ، عمله فکری نظام مالی و فاقد صلاحیت ادبی می نامد، اینها توهین و پرخاش نیستند. به اینها ترور شخصیت نمی گویند. اینها ارزیابی منتقد از موضوع نقد می باشد. به اینها می گویند نقد سیاسی. پلیمیک و جدل سیاسی و یا اجتماعی مهمانی خانه عمه جان نیست که فقط قربان صدقه هم بروند. رسم و رسومش با مصاحبه های انحصاری که شما اینور و آنور راه می اندازید فرق دارد. این جا هدف هندوانه زیر بغل هم گذاشتن و تملق گوئی نیست . اینجا نقد است و جدل و چالش >>>

VIEW

Foreigners plotting against Iran?!

We have been unable to adopt Western values that have been far more superior

19-Sep-2007 (54 comments)
India was colonised by Britain for a very long time. As a result India is a democracy. I sincerely believe that the reason India is a democracy is because it was colonised by Britain. So, colonisation has not been that bad for India. If you ask me, I wish America comes today and colonise Iran, change it into an American state actually, and deprive me of my desire to have Azerbaijanis and other minority groups given special rights that they are entitled to (as I believe). I would be happiest. God forbid, this doesn't mean anything but a hypothetical fantasy, because in reality nothing but war would come out of it.>>>

WAR

What will you do after America destroys Iran?

Do whatever you can to prevent this from happening

18-Sep-2007 (29 comments)
TEHRAN, Iran -- What’s the connection between; the theft of the 2000 Gore-Bush election, Cheney’s secret meeting with oil executives, September 11th 2001, the invasion of Iraq, and plans for destroying Iran’s military defenses and setting it’s economy back 50 years? The connection is Peak Oil. If you have not figured this out and are still lost in your hatred for the mullahs, or still worshiping the Pahlavi’s, or are part of the Rajavi cult, then you are in for a very rude awakening.>>>

RIGHTS

 توجیه آپارتاید دینی ایران

اظهارات اخیر محمد جواد لاریجانی

18-Sep-2007 (8 comments)
آقای لاریجانی اگر زحمت زیادی نیست محبت بفرمائید و در پیشگاه اهل تحقیق و صاحبنظران و در فضای باز اینترنت نشان بدهید در کدامین برهه و کدام مورد بهائیان با "کسانی که با جان و مال مردم این سرزمین تعرض می کنند" "دوستی و مهربانی و عدم سخت گیری" نشان داده اند؟ در کدام زمان و مکان زنان بهائی در روابط جنسی متعدد "آزادانه" عمل کرده اند. آیا بی بند و باری جنسی و فساد اخلاقی بی سابقه کنونی ایران نتیجه سیاستگذاری و روشهای بهائی است یا آموزه های اسلامی؟ چرا پس از بیش از ربع قرن حکومت اسلامی فحشا و اعتیاد در ایران بی داد می کند>>>

OPIUM

ا ز تهران تا تورنتو

تریاک همچنان قربانی می گیرد

17-Sep-2007 (2 comments)
با دستگیری ( عادل _ الف) 48 ساله ساکن تورنتو در فرودگاه پیرسون (1) به اتهام همراه داشتن و وارد کردن 8/3 کیلو گرم تریاک به کانادا یک پرونده دیگر به لیست قاچاقچیان تریا ک اضافه شد و بار دیگر وسوسه پولدار شدن سریع یک نفر را به زندان انداخت . د رهر حال از انجا که این دستگیری اولین مورد نبوده و آخرین ان هم نخواهد بود بهتر است که کمی به این پدیده خانمانسوز که راه خود را از شرق به غرب همراه عده کمی از مهاجرین ناخلف باز کرده است بپردازیم .
>>>

IDEAS

زشت و زيبای ملی گرائی

تنها راه نجات ناسيوناليسم از خطر فرو افتادن در چاه ايدئولوژی پيوند دادن آن با معنای متوسع سکولاريسم است

16-Sep-2007 (4 comments)
تکيه کردن بر يک مذهب، يک زبان، و يک قوميت، و کوشش برای ملت سازی بر حول اين محورهای منفرد، به لحاظ اينکه اينگونه نهادها بر بنياد همسان پنداری و گريز از تنوع اجتماعی عمل می کنند، خودبخود داری ماهيتی ايدئولوژيک است و، در نتيجه، برای سلامت جهان آدمی خطرناک بشمار می آيد. >>>

HAMJENS

Farsad and Farnam

Couple lashed for being gay

16-Sep-2007 (12 comments)
Generally speaking, the reaction from the Iranian community at large falls into two camps: those who feel that organizational activity and resistance by the Iranian Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community would provoke a strong government reaction, which in turn could lead to an international reaction against Iran as a whole, and those who seek a return of their full civil rights. The difference between the first and second group is that the second is not under pressure from the government due to their sexual orientation. I believe they can be asked to demonstrate for our full civil rights, as well.>>>

VIEW

... and The End of Iraq

14-Sep-2007 (2 comments)
It is now painfully obvious that U.S. administration has given up on any chance of the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds ever burrying the hatchet(s) and settling in peace under the unbrella of one country (Iraq). Sadly, this may be the only viable way forward. Just as it was the case in the Balkans, the roots of hatred and mistrust go too deep to ever be resolved peacefully. This is not, however, a new option for Iraq. Many politicians, generals and pondits, including the Democratic Senator Joseph Biden, have advocated the "partitioning" of Iraq along the secterian and ethnic lines.>>>

BOOK

Common grounds

Israelis and Iranians hold an exaggerated and almost mythical view of each other

14-Sep-2007 (7 comments)
As similar as Israelis and Iranians are, recent Iranian immigrants to Israel experience difficulty in overcoming the cultural shock. The contrast between the traditional values of Iranian society and the liberal currents of Israeli society -- defined by the norms and culture of its European immigrants rather than by its Middle Eastern geography--could not be greater. I once had a conversation with an elderly Iranian Jew whom I sat next to during the bus ride from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. Ehsaq (Isaac), as he was called, spared no love for the clerics in Tehran, but he liked to reminisce about the country in which he had spent most of his life. >>>

POLITICS

Neo-coms

Why former communists are attracted to the IRI

14-Sep-2007 (11 comments)
Of all the alternatives that are out there the one that has a special attraction to some diehard Communists-who by the way mostly like to be called Socialist nowadays- is of all things, militant Islam in general, and its poster boy Islamic Republic of Iran’s (IRI) version of it in particular. Just to give some evidentiary weight to this proposition lets take the old axiom of birds of a feather flock together as a road map and see where it leads to. Students of Communism’s history know well that one of the initially widely appreciated arguments of that nascent ideology was its antagonism towards capitalism and the despicable exploitation of the workers, proletariats in Communist lingo, which in varying degree is part and parcel of it.>>>

QUESTION

آه، کلادیوسِ ایرانی، کجایی؟!

وقتی کالیگولا به قتل رسید، سربازان "کلادیوس" را به عنوان بهترین گزینه برای حکومت در نظر گرفتند

14-Sep-2007 (4 comments)
هنگام خواندن صفحات زرین زندگی کالیگولا، بعضی تشبهاتِ او و دکترِ عزیزمان احمدی نژاد، توجه ام را جلب نمود! هر دو مدت زمانی را در ارتش (سپاه) گذراندند. هر دو در آغاز قدرت، قول رفاه و عدالت دادند. هر دو در آغاز سخاوتمندی بسیاری (به خصوص به نیروهای نظامی) نشان دادند. هر دو بعد از مدت کوتاهی، نشانه هایی از ضعف و عدم تعادل روانی نشان دادند (اعمالی که به سادگی قابلِ توجیهِ منطقی نبود)! و بالاخره، به نظر می رسد که احمدی نژاد جان هم، مثل کالیگولا، فقط چهار سال در قدرت بماند! جالب تر از همه اینکه، احمدی نژاد هم در تلاش دادن درجۀ کنسول به اسبهاست >>>