Friday, February 29, 2008

International Film, Iranian Film Quarterly

Please click on the picture to see inside the journal.

3 comments:

jmsjoin said...

naj
It is really interesting to see that as people we really do live much the same as far as entertainment goes.
It seems to be only our societies Governments that make us be different.

Naj said...

Jim,

I think there is nothing wrong with difference. I personally wouldn't wish all of us to be living alike.
If we all conform, then what happens to the beauty of contrast?

What politicians need to do, in my opinion, is to embrace difference. We have universal, shared manifolds of humanity. We feel pain alike. We feel fear alike. We get hungry alike. We sweat alike. We get tired alike. Our instincts are similar.

But we can be culturally different, diverse, and colorful! That will only enrich our world.

Anonymous said...

Your passion towards Iranian culture, history and literature seems outstanding and is appreciated.

I want to disagree with Jim here to point out that difference has limitations. Former US president, Bill Clinton said in his Harvard's 2007 speech mentioned an interesting point: "I believe the most important problem is the way people think about it (the problem) and each other, and themselves. The world is awash today in political, religious, almost psychological conflicts, which require us to divide up and demonize people who aren't us. And every one of them in one way or the other is premised on a very simple idea. That our differences are more important than our common humanity. I would argue that Mother Teresa was asked here, Bono was asked here, and Martin Luther King was asked here because this class believed that they were people who thought our common humanity was more important than our differences."

I believe mankind can only live in a defined peace zone. Out of that zone we actually start destroying each other.

The delicate point is how and by what conditions can we define our peace zone that also induces human principals.

In regards to Iran, I think Iran is dealing with a sick ideology at this period, which fortunately seems to be loosing strength. I can refer to the communist Soviet Union as an example. It collapsed with all its might and power, due to its sick ideology and now most of the East Block countries are on the rise.

All in all, we shouldn't lose hope. An African proverb says: "However long the night, the dawn will finally break."

Cheers,
Masoud
Vienna, Austria