If I could vote in Iran's election ...

Hold your horses:

Why can I NOT vote? Well because my country has decided to have no diplomatic relations with Iran! So, effectively, the democracy has decided for me to not participate in Iran's so-called non-democratic election!

But if I COULD vote, I would vote conservative! Not for one of those reformer-masked people; but for an old conservative: Like Velayati (or EVEN Mohsen Rezai!)

"Have you gone mad", you think?

No!

My vote will have a very simple and pragmatic reason: these three have been before our eyes for as long as we remember them. Ineffective, and benign. And that is what I like about them. The other two conservatives, the Tehran mayor (Ghalibaf) and the Nuke negotiator (Jalili) who seem to be the hopefuls by design are just too mercurial and mysterious, respectively. The greenish Iranians feel they have to throw their support behind Aaref and Rowhani to fence off the imminent threat from these potential lunatics; and also because of the ideological loyalty they feel to Khatami's 'wave'; or Mousavi/Karoubi's cause. But I think they are wasting an important opportunity.

To vote for the "opposition", which is at the point reduced to Aref and Rohani who will be coalescing sooner or later is to lose a great opportunity to further split the "Right".

Imagine either of these gentlemen get elected (I don't believe they will because the majority of their base is BOYCOTTING). What executive power will they have under the ring of the supreme leader who is adamant to insist on Iran's "entitlement to peaceful nuclear technology"? And would this election not further radicalize, polarize and thus reinforce the conservative camp?

In the past 8 years, we have been observing the major damage these various conservative factions have been doing to their crooked structure. So, why give them a support pole by electing an  opposition against them?!

See, it is simple law of physics.
When your car is sliding in snow, you should never turn the wheel in the opposite direction.
When trying to extract a metallic object from a strong magnet, the dumbest idea is to to move it fast, and in the opposite direction.

I would vote for a conservative because judging from the reformer-Khatami's era, I have little faith that the 5+1 is sincere about the wish to resolve Iran's nuclear issue. They demand total submission and surrended, only to screw Iran after. And Iran under no government will succumb to that. In fact, all candidates, even those disqualified have insisted they will NOT accept the EU/Us bullying attitude. Yes it is a good "explanation" for the facile minds of the population who seeks 'pinky and rosy peaceful solutions' for the complexities of the world. But currently, Iran is providing a perfect boogeyman to advance a lot of militarism and cold war expenditure, so why would the war-based economies of the world lose such perfect justification for their militarist R&D expenditure?

I would vote for a conservative because the previous right-winger has so badly messed up that it is disservice to anyone to be left this elephantine chore of cleaning up.

I would also vote conservative (accepting ahead of time that this election is not to be won by a reformist) in order to eliminate any potential of unrest, protest, and post-election "cheating" discourse.

I think the country's under economically DARK clouds. It is time to vote strategically. And strategy might command to keep a united front, keep calm and vote for a banal, but benign right-winger; like Velayati. This is not a time to play our theater for the world; this is the time to regroup, and reflect. With Hashemi's blow out, the best bet is to choose someone from the Iran-Iraq war-era: Velayati (minister of foreign affairs from 1981-1997) and Rezayee were in the thick of it all. Bloomberg seems to agree with me on Velayati!

P.S. When expressing my reasoning to my husband he said: 'It's good you cannot vote, otherwise you will have been voting for a man from "the first ring of oppression", whose hands are dipped in blood of all those dissidents assassinated abroad, when he was a foreign minister." (In a 2005 interview with the conservative newspaper Baztab, Velayati stated that those assassinations were harmful to Iran's foreign policy--but he has always maintained that Iran had no role in them.)

Iranian Election, Again

Shams al-Emareh; The Qajar King's
tower of power, giving him and his
populous Harem a view over Tehran
شمس العماره
(c)NeoResistance

Simply, I don't give a damn!

Luckily, all the candidates are myred in infamy, and are opposed to each other. So, they can fight amongst themselves, and get their punch gloves bloodied; and annihilate themselves and work towards weakening the position of the supreme leader.

It will be a fun show to watch, but I am not planning to vote.

I voted last time, for the first time because I respected Mir Hossein Mousavi in the previous election (respected him for his performance during the Iran-Iraq was, when he was a prime minister. I respected him also, for having retired from politics into art and architecture).

If votes in Iran were actually counted, I would have considered voting strategically, choosing the thief over the war monger, for example. But votes will not be counted; the election will be rigged through several processes, first of which the guardian council. So, the incentive to get my hands DIRTY is nonexistent. I will not participate in the charade.

While these politicians fight each other, and the enthusiastic anticipating spectators watch them, analyse them, cheer them or boo them--campaigning for the least evil that implicitly promises to tame the supreme leader or the most stubborn one that promises to carry out the supreme leaders wildest dreams, far from the political spotlight, there are ordinary citizens who are working day and night to improve, educate, secure, beautify and build the society, from bottom up, from children. I want to give my attention to them.

Voila! Don't expect me to pontificate on the election. There are more important things to do for Iran.

With doctors like this ...

I came across a facebook horror page "100% fed up"; by a physician republican sharing the following link:
Some Dr Starner Jones, posing smilingly in green scrubs from Emergency Medicine sends a letter to Mr President:

Why Pay for the Care of the Careless?
Dear Mr President
During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive Shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive Brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone.
While glancing over her Patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medic...aid"! During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer.
And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care? I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture", a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance.
It is a culture based on the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me". Once you fix this "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care difficulties will disappear. Respectfully,
STARNER JONES, MD 

I don't know on how many levels this is inappropriate, but are the physicians in this country in the position of judging patients based on their mode of payment, choice of dress, appearance and income?

What should prevents me to think that this doctor (or any practitioner who thinks similarly) may withhold emergency treatment, if a drunk "hobo" is brought to him? What prevents me to speculate that he would say: "oh the pest of the society is better off, dead."

I was happy that I was not the only one appalled by this facebook campaign; when I came across: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janice-taylor/health-care-on-facebook-p_b_719570.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/08/1168277/-A-Crisis-of-Responsibility
http://thirdwavewife.com/tag/dr-starner-jones/
http://brennansview.blogspot.com/2013/03/starner-jones-md-medical-domineering.html
http://itsabeautifulwreck.com/2010/09/why-i-dont-care-recieve-health-care-from-dr-starner-jones/
http://swimmingwithapianoonmyback.blogspot.com/2010/03/open-letter-to-roger-starner-jones-md.html

Which made me realized the letter is an old one, it was published in the Mississippi Clarion Ledger on August 23, 2009; it raised public criticism, and to which the said doctor responded with the following

America is Still the Land of Opportunity - For Everyone
Starner Jones, M.D.
I continue to receive numerous phone calls, letters, emails and face-to-face comments about my letter ("Why Pay For the Care of the Careless") which appeared in your newspaper a few months ago. Most people express highest approval for the opinion set forth. Indeed, the truth has an illuminating quality all its own. However, a few have disagreed and all of them falsely assume that a person who holds the views which I espouse must have been raised in a privileged home. Nothing could be further from the truth. I grew up in a lower middle class, single parent home in the rural hill country of Pontotoc, Mississippi. While attending public schools, I paid attention in class and did my homework. I ran with the right crowd and stayed out of trouble. My dedication in school resulted in a full-paid scholarship to the prestigious University of the South in Sewanee, TN. After college, I left to go to medical school with everything I owned in three bags. The rest is history. Motivation, not entitlement, is the key to personal success and happiness in life. 

The "Starner Jones" has attempted a failed attempt at fame by writing a book!! http://www.amazon.com/Purple-Church-Starner-Jones-M-D/dp/1933896922; rated 2/5!

I think this is where his American dream "no business like show business" was crushed!

Whether this Starner Jones is real person or just a cyborg political "probe" is unclear. Given there is no record of his practice, I suspect the latter. But the > 220,000 individuals who have shared this letter on facebook, and the comments endorsing such views, speak something about a large section of the American middle class.

I have been arguing in my previous two posts that the new-pseudo-rich middle class in America, mostly from an immigrant heritage, is the 'class' that carries the weight of this country, both in terms of running the economy and paying the taxes.

This class is raised on the notion that working hard is all there is to life: working hard and making money and spending it. This class nags about taxes and resents the government for favoring the delinquents. This class, so self absorbed in their American dream, are little but slaves of a system that valorizes having-more for the self, than building a society. Instead of raising issue against the high cost of education, against the high cost of health care, against social/labor policy, they complain about the taxes; and take pride in working all their lives for receiving super expensive education and care! Without stopping to question WHY? To "stop" and reflect is a waste of time and money! Which work horse stops to think?

 And as we are confronted with the environmental crisis, the largest blame for which rests on the consumerist CULTURE of this working/consuming/spending/wasting middle class, I can't help wondering WHEN will America STOP to take a deep look at itself instead of finding foreigners to bully/blame?

When it rains, it pours!

Today, the largest earth quake in Iran's history has hit my birth place, the province of Sistan & Baluchistan.

اگه بالااخره یه روزی جنگ بیاد دم در خونه من، و مجبور شم عکاس جنگی بشم، هیچ وقت در مورد عکسام حرف نخواهم زد، توضیح نخواهم داد، کتاب نخواهم نوشت. عکاسی که عکسش نیاز به توضیح و توجیه مضمونی داشته باشه عکاس نیست، مثلا این بابایی که دیروز از انفجار بوستون عکس گرفته و حالا سی بی سی باهاش گفتگو میکنه که 'احساستو در اون لحظه شرح بده'. خبرنگارهای این دوره چه بی عرضه و بی شعور شدند؛ و این عکاسایی که تن به همچه گفتگوهایی میدن، جز فرصت طلب چی اند؟ دوره دوره کلاش بازی خبریه، روسپی گری خبری، به امید ستاره شدن! همه جا هم هست، تو هنر، تو خبر، تو علم. انگار همه ترمز خبریشون بریده. حالا تو ایران زلزله شده، اون هفته تو بوشهر، این هفته تو سراوان. سراوان سبز، سراوان قشنگ. سال به سال هیچکی یه عکس از سراوان ندیده، از بوشهر ندیده، ولی حالا زرپ و زرپ عکسای بلا دیدگی 'شیر' خواهند شد؛ البته اگر خبرگزاری فارس لطف کنه و اون دوربین به دستای چست و چابکشو به منطقه بفرسته، شاید هم نفرسته. چون بلوچستان خاک 'اشرار'ه، منطقه محرومه. اون هم تو مرز پاکستان، که لابد همشون جدایی طلب هم هستن و تفنگ به دست و غیره. شاید هیچ عکسی نبینیم، جز عکس پیرمرد عرب بوشهری که سر آوار هوار میکشید. سراوان، سراوان، ۳۵ سال پیش، ازش رد شدم، سبز بود، دره داشت، قشنگ بود، موز میکاشتند. یا نمیدونم چی چی. درخت نخل زیاد بود. سبز بود. این سفر رو که یادم میاد، از اون سفرایی که مادر میبردم با خودش ماموریت نبود. سفر سیاحتی بود. مادر بابا ما رو دور ایران گردوندن، جاهای محروم، جاهای محرومی که کار میکردن، آبادی میکردن، بین شیعه و سنی صلح میکردن. زمانی که شاه بود، و من بچه بودم، تو یک جیپ، با یک زن، و یک راننده، وسط کوههای بلوچستان. نه دوربین بود، نه تفنگ، نه موبایل. سراوان، زاهدان، خاک من، روح من، مردم بلوچ زیبای من ... شاه رفت، ما هم رفتیم. به کرمان. زلزله آمد. من ۱۰ ساله بودم. زلزله ۷.۳ ریشتری آمد. هنوز وحشت یادم هست. حالا زلزله به زاهدان هم آمده ... و من فقط از ۳ دوست خبر دارم، و هر ۳ تا سر و مر و گنده در امن ترین مکانهای جهان زندگی میکنیم. آخ، گلوم درد میکنه. کاش پیش بابا بودم و برام از سراوان میگفت. شاید دفترچه های یاد داشتش رو که باید روزی کتاب کنم در آمریکا جا گذاشته 
خاک پر بلای من ...
خاک بر سر بی عرضه من

The heart of dystopia, WASHINGTON DC

(c) Naj Neoresistance
My Persian new year Sun rose in Washington DC

My newyear sun rose on Washington DC; the city where I moved to because of first curiousity and next the promise of "sky is the limit". Those who knew me, warned me that I was not the sort to find happiness in America. they were right. I am leaving, in a hurry, there is too much WAR in this city for me to survive it sane or healthy. I must leave.

This city is depressing me. Not because my "free-speaking" led to my prompt termination based on the "employment-at-will" law of DC; but because in every corner of this capital city I look, I am reminded of  WAR.

Two days ago, I conjured the courage to walk up to the Lincoln Memorial. Hoping to hear a bit of trivia I lined up to listen to the park ranger who started by engaging the audience with: "So, have you guys ever been in a fight?" A few raised their hands. I got stomach-sick over the word "fight" and ran away with my camera to find stones to capture in contrasting lights. My husband explained later that the reason why he started his presentation with the word "fight" was because he wanted to mention that the memorial was to symbolize peace after the civil wars, which ironically was fought over the North/South arguments on "freedom to own slaves". And it was on the stairs of this mausoleum that Martin Luther King delivered his dream for JOB AND EQUALITY of the 'slaves', 100 years after they had been 'freed'. And yet, 60 years later, America is still in war, and jobs are tied to the war economy.

We had parked the car a block away in front of The Institute of Peace, the congress-generated organization for peaceful resolution of the world conflicts--I suppose in oil-free nations!

Perhaps it is this little "peace" hypocrisy that makes Washington DC so intolerable for me, the architecture as grand as it may be, is soulless, and fake. I cannot "photograph" it with the same passion I would in the other genocidal capital of the world, Berlin. Germanic architecture (pre-war) doesn't "fake" peace.

I had read that the most spectacular of the Smithsonian's collection would be the Air and Space one. Soon I learned why. In a space that was much too small for the amount and the diversity of "flying objects" on display, nuclear missiles, Mars rovers, German bombers, spy planes, space shuttles, and passenger carriers, crammed together with the Oliver/Wilbur Wright inventions and drawings--much  like a breakfast dish at iHops or any other American deli, where nutrients of little culinary relevance (e.g. pancakes, and scrambled eggs and beans and fruit salad and fried potatoes and bacon) are piled on top of each other to impress the customer with American "generosity".

Impressed, I was, with the foolishness of my kind to find a MARKET for any great invention of mankind: the best market for air and space pioneering, for electronics and communications has been the war industry. For it to thrive, it has been essential to create an unsafe climate, and a sense of patriotic fear (of Iran, Russia, China, American-enabled-Al-Quaeda, even little-Cuba), that would justify pouring more and more of our human and earthly and heavenly wills into making and buying faster, better, bigger killer machines.

Wars make little jobs for little people, and big profits for the big bosses! I admire all of those 'hobos' who have refused to be part of this machinery. And I resent war profiteering, be it for little or big people.

When we finally left the museum (with me in tears, and shortly after, sick with a fever), we noticed a building that looked like Canada's Museum of Civilization. Except that this one was "The American Indian Museum". "Indian"??, we asked! Is it politically correct to use the word Indian? In Canada, they call the 'indians' "The first nation", or "aboriginals", or call them by the name of the tribe or the territories. But they are never called "Canadian-Indian", this would be an insult. But perhaps it is because the Canadian settlers did not quite massacre the aboriginals as did the American settlers. Perhaps because the winters forced them to work with the first nation. Perhaps the survivors of the massacred people would be pleased to be called "American" and postfixed as "Indian". Certainly, I don't know.

But I do often wonder, whether this fascination and obsession of America with weaponry comes from feeling insecure about being in occupied territory; or from all these different wars that America has fought.

There are mass-graves everywhere around DC: the dead of Vietnam, First world war, Second one, Korean, Iraq, Afghanistan ... ghosts everywhere, sacrificial territories everywhere, particularly in Virginia that engulfs DC and houses its Pentagon and CIA ...

America always fights these "JUSTICE" wars, at least as far as the popular consumption goes or the drafting ads suggest. Along the notion of justice comes the machinery of law and order. I have started to understand why "LAW" enforcement in America is such a big business as well.

I learned, through the ordeal at my job, that what I would take fore granted as a simple labor right elsewhere, is nonexistent here. That a hospital like the one employing me, and boasting about a one-time 150 million dollars given to it by Sheikh of Abu Dhabi (his name and not so flattering portrait hanging everywhere in the Hospital) to set up a research center to "focus on pain elimination for children" is spending 40 million dollars/year on legal fees. From what I am gathering on internet, my ex-employers have quite a reputation for getting in trouble with Unlawful Termination. Through my ordeal, more than once have I heard the American-born human resource department employees "apologize" to me for what I am put through, and express desire to move to Canada! That perhaps explains those big weaponed scary guards in front of the hospital door.

In fact the firm of one of the best labor lawyers of this city suggested that I have a high chance to take legal pursuit seriously. She stated that their firm "was intimately familiar with X hospital's labor practices" and suggested their top-lawyer, who would talk to me for 500$/hour, be consulted. Interestingly, although jobless, I do not qualify for legal aid, nor for free medicine (because of the Salary I was promised). To receive any social service in America I need to be on drugs and abjectly poor. This bizarre mechanism explains why the middle-class in America feels so squeezed, and acts so petty when someone talks of social services. Not only do they carry the highest burden of taxes, they are not entitled to any benefits. I now understand the root of tax-resentment in America. It is used to make America GREAT by funding WARs. The average persons like me are left to fend off for themselves, whether they need social, legal or medical care--and we are discardable if we don't play the game. 

40 million dollars/year in LEGAL fees is a little over 25% of the one-time donation amount solicited from some Arab Sheikh, with recorded SLAVERY in his mini-country. But, if hospitals don't mess up, how are the lawyers to make big money? So why would the lawyers help clarifying/fixing the laws of the nation? And if people don't get sick of chronic stress about jobs and wars and bad eating and living habit, or from post traumatic stresses of wars, then how would the insurance and medical practices make big money? So why fix broken systems that keep feeding the populace and create jobs?

I keep asking: where is the common sense?

To make the matters worse for my own depression, I also watched a season of the netflix hit,  "House of Cards", the American version, after I had watched "Upside Down". In the past, I would not have any tolerance for such political thrillers, or dystopic fantasies. I would find them too dramatized, too cartoonish, with agents and officials speaking a certain tone which I assumed was to theatrical or too robotic to believe.

That changed too, ever since I started my life in DC. Dystopia has now a real tone for me, after spending a lot of time talking to various government offices, with people introducing themselves with their agent-code and speaking to me in a tone that has made me pause in a few occasion to ask: sorry is this a human or a voice-robot. No, I am not kidding.

In Washington DC, the hub of the WAR industry, the heart of the "country of the free", I am learning that those who "would NEVER live under the Iranian dictatorship",  would also not risk losing their livelihood that is tied to DoD, Pentagon, CIA or the Hill. For there is this thing in DC called "employment at will", that enables those in the upper food chain, to just fire those below without really needing to explain much. Association with a "careless" "opinionated" person like me might be too impudent for someone's income. It is an illusion perhaps, but it is a strong illusion, one that makes you pathologically paranoid, and forces me to be in the "offensive" and "defensive" simultaneously--it is making me into a fighter, the wrong kind though.

An Ode to Life in America

This is the picture of my new home that was to be for the next three years; and it won't.

On the eve of Persian New Year, sitting on my bed, looking out at the dark midday skies over Washington DC, from a window with one of the "most patriotic" views in the country: looking down onto the Capitol Hill, and Washington monument and even Pentagon if I stretch myself a bit, with the Marine Corp graves at walking distance, and the war-supplying BAE systems not too far.

I am posting it because this freshly decorated house was just set up two hours after I received the official letter of my termination from a job that I did not even start. Hubby and I decided to have the little furniture pieces I bought two weeks ago shipped, so I can enjoy a normal home for a few months, vacationing in DC as a tourist.

This is why I call this particular act an ode to life.

We all know life doesn't last for good. We just try to make it decent as long as we live it. And why waste a chance to live a new life for a month as the spring arrives?

My 4-week ordeals in America have been educational and to have joined the American health-care workforce was a great experience (although financially costly and hassling):

Lesson 1: There is no freedom of speech in America!
Lesson 2: Corporates in America are criminal!
Lesson 3: The health-care market in America is scammed by insurance industry!
Lesson 4: American workers are prisoners to corporations, self-censoring, ratting on each other, scared and timid to ask, to question, to challenge anything that is ordered to them from above.

No one even takes a CHANCE with dissent, not even in Academia. Not even when the main objective of a job is to do frontier work.

I was terminated after 25 days--and despite the fact (and perhaps because of it) that I showed promise to many principle investigators whom I met and greeted over the first 20 days and who proposed potential collaborations.

Why?

I met an American for the first time. He asked what I was doing in DC?  "I came to do research and was just fired". He chuckled: "why, did you try to change something?"

I did.

For instance, having arrived from a happy North European country, I tried to change the culture of the lab from lack of socialization and collaboration. I tried to get colleagues take their lunch breaks at the Cafeteria instead of at their desks. I tried to joke and say a happy "good morning" every morning I arrived, articulating the "good" part with emphasis!

I told them (and my bosses) how the freedom I enjoyed in Europe made me creative, hardworking and dedicated. (To be "free in research" was the promise that lured me to the American job.)

Or, I tried to get people to work together and talk to each other about how to make their individual projects find a common goal, so working together becomes more efficient, fun and productive.

I checked on students who were assigned datasets that they did not know how to analyse (and I tried to provide them the guidance that no one else was technically apt to do). The graduate students were ecstatic that finally someone was there that they could count on. (I was told that I was too negative, by the boss, who never was there except the one time he came to introduce me at my talk, and the next time she came to terminate me!)

I checked on the data acquisition and alerted the responsible person that they were collecting white noise instead of meaningful signals and started proposing to them how to go about fixing that.

I checked on individuals who were delaying the delivery of quickly-doable projects, and provided them with concrete objectives.

I found the lab that I arrived in, in scientific disarray, and I hoped to fulfill the role I was promised: a grownup research associate to mend the technical and the medical aspect of the research together.

I was happy to take the burden off the shoulders of the supervisor who had just delivered a baby (without having told me that she was pregnant when she recruited me for the job. In fact, she asked me to apply--I didn't beg this job.) And despite several disappointments upon arrival, I shielded her out of concern for her peace with a newborn.

And then there was the old-aunti side of me.

I lovingly protested to the pregnant woman in the lab who drank buckets of coca cola every day and tried to console and encourage her to get a doctors note instead of undergoing a dubious safety practice that involved getting sprayed with strange material in the mouth, to learn what to do in the case of a pandemic. I joked that before the pandemic, the stress and anxiety about the hospital "policies" would kill us. After all, I have done a PhD on the load of Stress: allostatic load!

I harshly protested to a technical guy who was handling a little newborn for an experiment, despite the fact that he was complaining of flu-like symptoms all day. He chuckled: "oh this baby has perhaps worse things". The nurse cried, "this is a healthy control". And then, I cried in my office, wondering to myself: "would I be able to survive this methodological disregard for innocent naive defenseless human life?"

And I was shocked to realize, that in a hospital whose mantra is: "watch each other, and report on each other if you think safety is at risk", technicians and nurses were timid to speak up.

Soon, I learned why!

These are the lessons I learned in America.

The final exam, I passed too.

I challenged the limits of freedom in America and realized that if you are independent, do well, and have an opinion that endangers the status quo, you are plucked. As easy as that! No explanation offered other than: "you don't fit our expectations". No compensation to be offered (irrespective of the fact that the recruitment had taken months and that the hospital has spent on lawyers to get me H1B visa, and that I had uprooted me from home to be an alien-worker in America based on my unique qualifications.

It seems that  the corporates in America have set a standard called employment-at-will. You can quit or get terminated any time for no reason, with no recourse. (There is legal recourse of course, if you have evidence that the employer violated the H1B visa term, or dismissed you for whistle-blowing; but only if you are willing to spend time and energy on lawyers. The corruption is so deep, that you need to find alternative ways of seeking justice. Writing research articles and newspaper columns maybe more effective that settling vendetta.)

The ONLY reason why I could afford to challenge the illusion of freedom, was because I was confident of my skills and values, and I had the financial freedom to not be scared if I got sacked. As an Iranian, I also have grown up with the readiness  to die and go to prison and exile to defend JUSTICE and my rights. I did. Test passed!

Of course, in the letter of termination, my boss did not mention that she had told me: "we are firing you because you are arrogant"! The letter of termination also did not mention that I was resisting to be roped into science fiction, resisting the employer's violation of the terms of my H1B visa. Nor did she mention WHO exactly has been "observing" my "disruptive" attitude. She was on maternity leave the entire time I was there. I was helping and motivating everyone. And our only communications were over emails, in which she promised me glory, grace to my demonstrated qualifications and her hopes for me as a potential independent investigator. Would any supervisor with such objective tell people who call for collaboration that "our objective is to shelter naj from distraction so she focuses 100% on a [fictive] method"?

Her support stopped when I raised issues about being sheltered from other scientists, and "restricted" to an unattainable project--and provided technical and scientific justifications for my objection, while providing a workable solution to what I felt was more urgent and essential to do. The tables turned only when I protested to the scientific cage she painted for me--despite the early promise that sky was the limit.

Lesson 5: mediocrity is an asset. And with all "arrogance", in that currency, I declare myself poor.
Lesson 6: you are absolutely FREE to shop and to drive a car. I shopped freely, sometimes going to stores at 11:00 PM! And I have been bombarded by car-salesman telefone calls, when I visited a Volvo site out of curiosity.

This freedom to shop is the reason why freedom to talk is taken away.

People stick to abusive work relations because they need to afford to drive to work, and save for medical care, or save for potential unemployment when they need maternity or sick leave. This is the case of the reasonable ones. The unreasonable ones have credit card balances, mortgages, and car and student loans. The slavery system is well and alive. (and from what I noticed, it is adhered too and dearly respected by immigrants who have come from lesser fortunes and consider the freedom to vacation and get sick a luxury). So of course, a little northerner who starts telling people "freedom fighters, at least ask to read the label of the chemicals they put in your lungs", becomes a non-fit.

Freedom is also restricted because there is a general "always in a military stance" culture that dominates the nation. I consider it a consequence of having established a country on genocidally occupied territory; and on the history of slavery. Countries with dark ghosts in the closet cannot relax, cannot help being paranoid. This is why this is such a gun touting nation.

Frankly, is THIS the America that is going to liberate Iranians?

Is this female freedom, that if a woman gives birth without having accumulated enough vacation and sick-leave days, she will have to go back to work immediately?

Is this freedom that the hospital workers are forced to take flu vaccine, and have to sign a consent form that states: "we have been fully informed of the risks and benefits of flu vaccine and REQUEST to receive it", but if they refuse, they are fired due to violation of the hospital policy? And I focus on flu vaccine in particular because study after study is showing it is NOT a 100% defensive mechanism, and that its benefits are certain for only one group: the pharmaceutical industry. And I refused (out of principle that it was not on my contract) and finally signed a non-consent form, and got the shot to get health clearance, while the nurses who did my shot told me how unhappy they were, and how they wished they had the freedom to dare to raise their voice like I did. How can nurses who feel oppressed and disrespected truly care for patients?

Is this freedom that people have to own a car and drive to work, for 1.5 hours in the traffic, each way, and be allowed no more than 250$/month for public-transportation tax-exemption?

I am already enjoying the freedom from a workplace that by all accounts fits the definition of an old fascist state. I hope it is a singular case. That UAE king has funded this backward organization is telling.

Spring is around the corner. I have set up a nice vacation home and I am going to be a tourist for a while and live in my self-furnished hotel: 70$/night.

This is perhaps what America can learn from an Iranian: we take FREEDOM far more seriously than you do! FREEDOM is an asset we carry in our heart, in our spirits, and we FIGHT for it with our blood as history has witnessed. In fact, if you would have started to protest like we do/did, your establishments will not have responded to you much kinder than do our draconian ones.

I am wrong? Check the history of police brutality.

My New Year resolution: do something about the academic abuse of power.

Happy 1392!

What happened to those beautiful pictures from my recent trip to Iran?

I was going to order and post them this week, with my notes, my observations.

And then I heard, they have hanged two poor miserable hungry young felons who had robbed someone at knife point, were hanged in public

in THE ARTISTS' HOUSE 

The revenge of a regime (I see them as foreign invaders) who thrives to destroy all that is beautiful

The convict, cries in his last moment, on the shoulder of the executioner, as he walks him to the gallows ...

Photo source: ISNA

"PLEASE" stop the war?!?

Dear "Israel loves Iran",
 I am quite mad at you! I am mad at you because I think you are not doing ENOUGH to stop the war.
"Please" stop the war is not enough!
Why don't you shout "not in my name"?
Why don't you hold Israel accountable to its illegal settlement announcements?
Why don't you hold Israel accountable to assassination campaign, to derailing the peace process? 
Why so TIMID? Why PLEASE? In war, "politeness"?
90 Palestinians are killed in retaliation to 3 Israelis who were killed in response to Israel's assassination of a Hamas leader--who happened to be the negotiator for release of an Israeli hostage. Is this FAIR? Is this something that you like Israel to "please stop"?!
Why begging the murderers to be PLEASED to stop a war that is generated out of their strategic calculations (based on reliability of the desired retaliatory response with toy-weapons from the opposite side)?
Isn't Israel a democracy?
Have you no voice to DEMAND Israel to stop this madness?
Why not declaring solidarity with the innocent victims?
So far they are 300% more on the Gaza side.
Why not sending condolence messages to a family whose three generations were "exterminated" by a bomb IN YOUR NAME?
How about calling for TRUTH and RECONCILIATION?
Have you no voice to speak to the 90% of Israelis who support these atrocities, to make them SEE what is the root cause of this all: "illegal settlements" and refusal to allow a two-state solution go ahead??
What kind of activism is this?
How about calling for anti-war strikes?
How about posting pictures of candle vigils showing you in opposition to war?
And how about reporting on how dissent from this war-line of rhetoric in Israel is tolerated?
How about being genuine?

Thanks Naj

Silence of the lambs: Israel, Gaza and The New World Order

The war raging in Gaza will have direct implications for Iran; but that is not why I care.

The reason why I care is because the war raging in Gaza will have implications for the world.

In 2001, I watched in disbelief on our Hospital's waiting-room TV: a plane smashed into the second of the twin towers. I almost fell: The third world war is to begin.

Ever since, all I have been hearing is the chant of the "new world order", and a clearly failing strategy, a clearly failing global strategy ...

First, Iraq whose oil revenues are not quite as promising any more as is Afganistan's gas fields and virgin mountains, which came next.

Then the eyes glued to Iran. They are still glued to Iran--the 'little' Gaza riffraff may as well be Israel's testing the waters, for uncle sam, for what can be done to Iran, next. (they piloted the bunker-busters in the previous operation, now they are piloting the defense cloud--they cannot test their new technology without Hamas being provoked to shoot at it, can they?)

But that is besides the point. The point that is pricking in my eyes, that is making me cry, is the silence and the complicity of the world.

When 911 happened, a friend asked me "what is wrong with you people"; I had to ruffle her ignorant feathers by explaining to her what is really wrong with people whose lives are undermined by the economic interests of the nations such as hers in which the popular ignorance and political apathy worked in counter-production to democracy!

And now, as the war in Gaza rages, it is the silence of my most progressive friends, the human-right defenders, the activists, the leftist, the religious, the god fearing republicans; it is their indifference to the images of carnage, the photo after photo of dead baby corpses held in the arms of mourning parents; that is the real threat.

Their world goes by; as if nothing is happening, as if the other is none of our business, as if Israel is exercising its god given right to kill indiscriminately to retaliate indiscriminate firing of baby-rockets that have not killed in their entire history more than half as many as Israel has killed in the pas few days.

Eager to support the rights of every student pepper-sprayed on the campus; forefront in sighting for the rights of Iranian women; petition flaunting when the rights of homosexuals are violated; and outraged if someone denies the dangers of the climate change, these active intellectuals are totally mum on the issue of what is raging in Palestine. I wonder WHY? Are they scared? are they uninformed? are they indifferent?

And for others (the not typically involved ones),an illusion governs that the ghosts of injustice will not find political zombies. "The world is too large", they say, "I just mend my own fence and trim my own grass." Wonderful! this is what most of the post-Nazi Germans said to excuse themselves: "we didn't know, we were just simple people." But does being "simple people" exclude us from the world ecology?! Berlin's rubble women will testify differently.

Worse, are the political impostures who wear an air of sophistication and turn their noses up at the "childish stupidity of the middle easterners who are not capable of living in harmony."

I don't know how hard it is for people to see that in a connected world, such as the one we live in, that the political climate will not discriminate when it becomes turbulent. Isn't the Bush-induced economic collapse enough of an evidence? Isn't the rage in Europe awakening anyone? It is even awakening the chinese despite their tightly controlled communist ecology.

And here is the really scary and somewhat prophetic truth: the fights in Israel and Palestine are far from ideological; they are RESOURCE battles in a piece of land with scarce land and water. Their fight is about land and water that is currently exploited by those who have bigger muscles and have first driven away the aboriginals from their ancestral belongings, and are presently pushing to expand further.

There is no denying the fact, even by the Israelis, that what Israel demands is full submission of the palestinians, if they do submit then they will be given bread crumbs! But, do all these bombings and humiliating rhetoric give ANY opportunity for them to surrender in a dignified manner? Would you succumb to whom you consider a thief, to the one who has your grandfather's blood on his hand; and who insists on humiliating you by further pushing you, kicking you and harassing you?

For Europeans, that these "childish" nations cannot get along is a bit of a dilemma. After all, they have survived Nazis, and have managed to make peace with Germany. Hell, Germany who once carpet bombed Rotterdam's harbor is now practically owning all of it--at least in terms of transport loads.

But these wonderfully white gloved members of the universe ignore the fact that Europe has never had to deal with the problem of resources; they solved it by colonizing the land of others, whom they murderously brutalized!

It is just a matter of poor irony and bad planning that the Israelis have ended up colonizing the neighboring cousins. If they were exploiting the land of others in some exotic island, then none of this will have happened, and the arabs and jews will have lived the same kind of superficial 'respect' that the French muster for the English, and the English for the German, and the German for the Dutch, and etc.

But to go back to why would/should we care: because the world is radicalizing, at an incredible speed, towards a new world order far different from that promised by the Bush-co.

This new world order is awakening from a long oppression; the Arab spring which the westerners managed to throw their support behind (out of fear of its ramifications for the sake of the safety of the future's history) are promising a new world order in which the sacrifices and the martyrdom of the "muslims" will pay off.

This radicalization is also happening as the world resources are becoming scares ... you see the cultural trend Israel is setting, and do you feel sympathetic to that, I wish to ask the silent ones!

Since yesterday, since Israel's promise of ground operation, I have been seeing a form of fatalistic cheer leading from the "oppressed" of the world. It is the same sentiment I feel every time the US or Israel 'promise' to annihilate Iran; it's this sense of "you have left me no choice, so bring it on and dig your own grave" ... it is a dangerous cycle; and when this turns into a cyclone, it will blow away all of us who have been taking a pose on the grass ... we are accountable to justice ... and what Israel is doing now is unjust, and so is our silence ...

Kiarostami: Announces next film in Israel

From Kiarostami's Persian facebook, in a conversation with Cafe Cinema کافه سینما (on the occasion of the NYFF screening of his second feature film made in Japan: Like Someone in Love (2012), which premiered at the Cannes film festival)

Kiarostami has spoken about his experience, as a director, operating outside Iran:

"I feel differently, during the screening of my films. When I see them among Iranians I am very stressed. I feel responsible for every detail, every person, every character, the plot, even the street that I show. But when watching my latest films, I feel removed, like a guest artist and director with a temporary responsibility. Characters, have a life and reality that is not part of my responsibility,  I am just a part of them. I even think the audience is closer to the film than I am." [translation by Naj]

He has added that he loves to return to make films in Iran, that he has several ready projects, while working on one that is to be shot in Israel.

At the end, while denouncing and rejecting any kind violence, he also stated that he does not condone and accept cultural disrespect and assault on any people's beliefs. However he expressed content that the reactions in Iran were more civilized than the rest of the Muslim world, that the calm and non violent objection by Iranians offers hope that people can react and protest in calm and peacefully.

Here, you can find a full recent interview by Daniel Kasman.

Another Earthquake

I woke up to this image:

A couple hugging, dead, under the rubbles.

Another earthquake has shook Iran. The beautiful North West, Azerbaijan-e Sharghi. So far, about 250 are dead. I know how fast these numbers grow in Iran.

The first thing that comes to my mind is to send money to an NGO in Iran. But, the sanctions have made that impossible. The sanctions that have blocked the personal hard earned cash of my Iranian friends,  for instance in Azerbaijan, prohibit transferring money to Iran. A friend suggests, give money to someone abroad and have them pay the equal in cash to charities in Iran. Why should I? Like any immigrant, I should have the right to send a small portion of my income "back home". No?

On this thought, I cringe, and remember the last earthquake, where the "humanitarian" offer of Israel included sending their sniffer dogs to Iran. Iran refused help from both Israel and America.

In reality, Iran is NOT a poor country. According to CIA's factsheets, Iran's gold reserves ran 22nd in the world, only three behind the United States, and with a marginal difference. In purchasing power parity it ranks 18th; and in labor force 24th. However it's growth swamps it to 149th position, its inflation tops the chart, and its inductrial production growth rate has turned negative, BECAUSE it is kept in isolation, preventing its wealth to flourish, preventing it from becoming another India or China--something that the collective intellect and ambition of the country is well capable of; a capability that frightens the neighboring sand-despots, the geopolitical rival Israel, and the never fading greed of the anglo-franco-russian colonizers who never had their real chance in Iran. And of course, America being the empire built after occupation of the land and extermination of the aboriginals, and with slave's flesh, can just not survive without being the predator--UNTIL some true civilization, like China kicks its ass and forces some sense and modesty to its political/economic head. From the economic isolation of Iran, only Israel and Saudi Arabia gain. America too loses.


Besides economic "pride", Iran cannot TRUST any Israeli "search and rescue" team. Why should Iran not treat any Israeli as a potential spy? After all, don't Israeli's have the "hand-of-god" helping them assassinate the Iranian scientists on broad daylight and then boast about it on TV?  (Sometimes it seems like one hand of god is helping the Iranian regime, and the other hand the Israeli one! Except that when Iran wants to get rid of the Israeli regime it gets sanctioned, but when Israel uses the exact same words, it gets awarded more military goodies!)

On these thoughts, I "sense' a deep visceral hatred arousing in my gut about these sanctions, and the reason for them: effectively the cacophony of the AIPAC, aided by the particular brand of diplomatic chutzpa in the rhetoric of Ahmadinejad, and the Saudi Arabia's rivalry ... it takes a lot of restraint to not burst my hatred at Israel and America out before my little Jewish boy, who is enrolled in a Sunday Jewish school, who considers himself a Citizen of Israel (at the age of 11 and after only one trip), and who is afraid to step foot in a catholic church because he is afraid that if his Sunday school friends know, they will reject him. I fail; and I scream: I hate Israel, I hate this country where I am living and is sanctioning Iran, and I hate the fact that I am going to spend my money in the USA, vacationing with the rest of my family who is visiting from Iran!!

I am not proud of my visceral hatred; it is a knee jerk reaction in some ways. In bio-principle, I think humans, like animals, are not equipped with hatred; I think hatred is just a reaction to chronic FEAR when fight or flight ability is taken away by the mere fact of civilization. I suspect there are Israelis, Lebanese and Syrians who feel the same kind of chronic fear/hatred about Iranians. For sure, I have seen a lot of hatred against "Persian Arrogance" expressed towards Iranians by other persian speaking nationalities. It is in some ways, an inferiority complex in people who think their right at equality is stripped by unfair politics.
...

Yesterday, I visited the Peace Palace in den Haag: In the introduction to the history of International Court of Justice, it was stated that it was the invention of telegraph and photography that by bringing the reality of war to the people, forced a response, a pacifist response that rejected the previously glorified notions of honor, battle, dying a soldier.

Perhaps now, the introduction of these little diaries, blogs, facebook pages, where we can deconstruct "hatred" as it happens in each of us, we will develop a dialogue about that which separates us, that which frightens us, chronically, and turns us into aggressive nations/individuals ...
...
...
I am not crying any more. I am going to eat breakfast now; finish working; hug my Israeli boy and try to explain to him how unreasonable I behaved, and then pack up and fly to America where strangers hug me when they find me helpless in a medical clinic where my sisters infamous advance cancer verdict is delivered ... and yes, America has saved my sister ... and yes Iran HAS the right to nuclear science/technology and even a weapon ... but if we work together, against CHRONIC THREAT on other nations, none of these toys will be necessary any more ...

Screw Democracy! Iranians want PEACE and PROSPERITY!

That's all I have to say.

Democracy is just an "idea". In implementation, it is mediocre and full of fallacy!

What it produces is numbed and dumbed populace; who shy away from responsibility by casting a "free" ballot ... and then shying away from the havoc the elected politician is wreaking in the history of humanity. Mr Obama and his Drone war, case in point ...

Democracy CANNOT come to be implemented even in its most pathetic form, when a country is under THREAT. So shed the hypocritical lamb skin--it doesn't fool anyone in Iran!

If you hear ANY Iranian condoning the sanctions, if you hear anyone rallying behind a neo-con, make sure you take a mental note of a Neo-Resistance stamp on them:
                                                       

A S S H O L E !

And, to all the Americans (journalists, activists, congressdudes, spouses of some disgruntled Iranian, or career activists) who are so concerned about the violation of HUMAN RIGHTS and FREEDOM in Iran, I suggest you utilize your zeal to prevent massacres at your country, executed in the form of shooting rampage by constitutionally free men who kill in churches, cinemas, schools, and etc. Ok?

We have a persian saying چراغی که به خانه رواست، به مسجد حرام است that translates to:
"The candle that is needed at home, should not burn in the mosque!"

Apple's ability to Think Different has gone South!

"Think Different!", huh?

So Steve Jobs dies and Apple goes on a new media rampage!
How?
By denying, in the (may I say redneck) state of Georgia, the purchasing right of an iPad to a couple of Iranian-American college students.
Why?
Because they spoke "Farsi" (Persian)!

Let's forget about the IRAN/US crap for now. I am going to put my Apple-Analyst hat on and try to comprehend what is it they are after now? The "republican" market? For years, Apple boasted itself as the brand of the "elite left", the artists, the eccentrics, the posh, the cool, those who ran against a "1984" big-brother view of the world. THINK DIFFERENT was their motto.

And now, by this legally unjustified action (because it is not the business of any stupid vendor to APPLY the law) Apple is after a new market segment?

I am a fan of their products; I also have a great appreciation for the cultural revolution that is brought about by many of their innovations (or more accurately, their visionary marketing of stolen innovations). However, as of last week I feel SHAME to be holding my Apple products; and I will certainly put on hold the purchase order of iPads for the upcoming birthdays of my nieces in Iran, and my family in America ... and, I will NOT purchase my new MacBook Pro either unless they come up with a profuse apology.

I think this may be a great opportunity for some competing non-American brands to kick in and convince me to buy their product now, I have a tall gift-order.

Iranian Visual Arts in 1390 (March 2011-March 2012)

I usually prepare a new-year present for Neoresistance friends. I admit that I have been much detatched from Iran and its art in the past couple of years. But this BBC (Persian's) compilation of Iranian Visual artists' galleries, exhibitions, and auctions in the year past caught my attention and I decided to report it in English. Translations of titles are mine, unless I find the official title in English/French. I am not sure how comprehensive this review is; but it contains interesting highlights.


The year started with works of internationally known masters in Gallery 10 «گالری ده».

The filmmaker, Abbas Kiarostami exhibited a photo collection entitled "The Walls" (دیوارها); a collection of pictures of the walls Kiarostami has potographed in his travels around the world.



The Gallery also showcased the world-famous collection by the sculptor Parviz Tanavoli's entitled "Heech" or Nothing (هیچ) (listen to the artists speak in New York)

and the painting collection of Afshin PirHashemi entitled "Delusions" (??) (گمراهی‌ها). (The picture below is from his website and entitled XSeries, but I am not sure if it is this particular exhibition). This painter sells in Christi's auctions frequently, and his work sells as high as half a million dollars.



Of course, this magnificent opening of the year with the works of these world-famous artists did not mean that there was no governmental pressure on the art galleries. Lili Golestan, the owner of one of the most prestigious of Tehran galleries, complained to ILNA about lack of standard in the "censor's" policy (politics?), stressing that the official's taste often interfered with the agenda of the galleries (a complaint reiterated by the publishers as well). She stated that" in the past, the guidelines of the ministry of culture and Islamic guidance were more clear cut, and there was a chance for appealing the decisions, but currently, there is a lack of accountability among the cultural bureaucrats".

Nevertheless, Golestan Gallery succeeded to hold an exhibition entitled "100 works, 100 artists" in July 2011, and the works of masters Iran Darroudi, Hossein ZendeRoudi, Parviz Tanavoli, Sohrab Sepehri, Farideh Lashai were presented next to starting unknown artists. In the opening night, the gallery sold 25 pieces, one of which a work by the contemporary artist Parvaneh Etemadi collecting 6000 dollars. A sample of her work below.



Another highlight for the Iranian visual arts was the opening of NYC's Metropolitan Museum's Islamic Treasures, and exhibit over 50% of its works from Iran. In 2009, Parviz Tanavoli had donated a sculpture from his Poet's collection to the museum to enrich the Islamic Arts section of the museum. Mohammad Ehsai (the 73 years old calligraphist--see his poster below) and Hossein Nasr (American-Iranian Islamic philosopher) were featured in the opening.



Another good news was the opening of a permanent exhibition of the paintings of the "michelangelo of Persia" Kamal-ol-Molk and unveiling his never-seen-before work dating back to the 1900, a portrait of his doorman in Paris (picture below), in Iran's national museum and library.



Iranian artists made strides abroad as well.

The catroonist Kambiz Derambakhsh(کامبیز درم بخش)held an exhibit in Paris and the success of his work published in the French magazine Elle, led to the French publisher Lafon to publish his work (below) in a book. (Like his facebook page) In the coming months, he will be holding an exhibit with the theme of Paris supported by the municipality.



Also, the AB gallery in Switzerland has held exhibits of the works by contemporary artists Samira Hodaei (سمیرا هدایی), Samira Alikhanzadeh (سمیرا علیخانزاده) and a separate exhibit including the works of Farideh Lashai (فریده لاشایی) (see example below) entitled Simply Words? (If you click on this link you can see the Gallery has quite a few Iranian artists in resident).



According to BBC Persian, in September, the Rio de Janeiro's biennial held a tribute in honor of Bahman Jalali, and exhibited 120 of his photographs. I cannot find any reference to this biennial in Rio and BBC has been a bit sloppy lately. But there has been such a tribute in Germany in the Sprengel Museum Hannover.


In London, the exhibition of Parviz Tanavoli's collection Poets in Love on the Austin/Desmond museum was so successful that the exhibition was extended by 10 days.


Here's a list of other events:

Third sculpture symposium in Milad Tower, where 12 Iranian sculptors and 5 artists from Sweden, Japan, Greece, Georgia, and Syria got together to sculpt stone to represent the Isalic/Iranian character of Tehran municipality.


Art galleries seem to have had satisfactory sales, notable is anZarak (زرک) exhibit by Parviz Tanavoli's modern jewelry students sold about 80 pieces by 21 artists for about 17,000 dollars in total.


One of the highest prices in Sothby's auction of Iranian master's work went to a painting by Sohrab Sepehri, valued 325,000$s, and selling in a Sothby's auction in London for 624,000.

Obama's Nowrouz message, another wasted opportunity

I am starting to think MORONS are writing Obama's Iran-related speeches. Listen to this and then read the comment an Iranian wrote in response to this inappropriate RUDE message.



So, Mr Obama is assuming that because Iranians were the first to start a 'twitter' revolution, then giving them internet is the ultimate candy they need to overthrow the regime? IS HE INSANE?

On the NEW YEAR EVE? On the occasion of Norouz, he has the audacity to come before the camera, and address us and say "although we have imposed CRIPPLING sanctions (that are strangling Iran's ECONOMY and THUS ruining the middle classes who are the driving force behind reforms and democracy), but we are giving millions to communication propaganda and internet infrastructure so you can talk to us in our virtual embassy!"

Bloody hell!

Mister Obama, screw the virtual embassy, why don't you instruct those who are running Iranian's counsel affairs in Ankara, Beirut and Abu Dhabi, to facilitate such cultural exchanges by not treating like criminals, our brothers and sisters and old parents who want nothing but to spend a summer, spending their hard earned Dollars on the American economy!! could you be ANY MORE insincere than that? And do you really assume that you can FOOL us with this insincere message, and make us love and trust you? Forgive me, President, every time I listen to one of your little speeches, I am filled with disgust and distrust!

Don't you have proper Iranians who can GUIDE you how to write speeches? And didn't you listen to us when we said, last year, that you flopped?

And I am not alone in hating your speech. Here's what another Iranian says:


I translate and I BEG the White House to read this:

"Your Excellency, Mr president Obama, thank you for greeting us on the occasion of Norouz while you are full force busy with trying to break the economic back of the IRanians people, fully aware that these sanctions will have little impact on the policies of the Iranian government, just as it has been ineffective in the past too!! Thank you for rescuing our hostages while humiliating our nation with threat of war! Thank you for talking about the right of our people to access free internet and satellite without hinting at what is the cause of this problem! Is it not that you have ruthlessly, without attention to the cultural bed of other nations, have besieged them culturally and politically; and with a disproportionate media power are intent on winning the media war whether you are right or wrong? And why don't you mention why China and many other countries are forced to filter you out in order to not have to deal with the cultural and political prematurity of their countries? Why don't you mention why you don't let nations to evolve at their own pace, in a smooth bed and calmly; and why is tension what you seek for other nations most often? And why don't you pack up and leave the Middle East? Mister President, thanks for thinking of us, and from a list of different needs that we have in science, technology, energy, medicine and cancer drugs and many other essential things, whose sanctions is killing hundreds of Iranians, you are most concerned about our people's interactions with the world?!! ... and much more ... Go! God bless your father's spirit! Happy Eid to you too! Have a wonderful year! Say hi to Michelle and kids too!"

Ash Reshteh (Noodle soup) آش رشته

Five years ago, I made a delicious soup, the traditional Aash Reshteh, which is to symbolize holding the "string" (reshteh) of life in the year to come.

I retrieved the recipe from the comments and I think this soup is so good that it deserves a post on its own:

INGREDIENTS

1. Lentils (brown ones) one cup

2. Chic peas (one cup)

3. Red beans (one cup)

4. Spinach (one bag, wash and chop)

5. Herbs: corriander+mint+parsley+leak (0.5 kg; washed and finely chopped)

6. Wheat noodles (250 g)

7. Garlic (2 cloves), finely chopped to small cubes

8. Onion (one large), thinly sliced

9. Turmeric (one table spoon)

10. Dried mint (two table spoons)

11. Vegetable oil, half a cup

12. Optional: one cooked beat, chopped to small cubes

13. Optional: very small meat balls, fried ahead of time.

14. salt to taste

PREPARATION
1. Cook beans (not lentils) ahead of time.
2. Fry onions in oil, such that they caramelize,
3. Add turmeric and let it cook with onions for 2-3 mins.
3. Add lentils to onion and toss for a 2-3 mins

4. Add half of the garlic it to the frying lentils and onions. Cook for 2-3 mins on high heat till slightly browned
5. Add herbs and spinach, stir fry for 2 minute,
6. add 8 cups of water and cook until lentils are half cooked.
7. add cooked peas and beans and let it simmer on medium heat for about an hour so ingredients marry well
8. before adding the noodles, increase the heat and wait till the mix comes to a rapid boil, then break noodles in 3 inch pieces and add to boiling water.
9. Cook noodles for 20 minutes
10. Garnish and season

Choose the TASTE
You can make this soup salty: in this case you will need "kashk". You will not find kashk but in Iranian stores. It's a dairy product made from boiled and then dried yogurt. Don't bothermaking it, just ask for "kashk" and the Iranian grocer will show you.

You can make this soup sweet and sour (that I think a southern tradition, but the one I like most)
mix one cup of sugar with half a cup of white-grape vinigar and add to the soup.

In either case, you can add the meatballs and the beat to the soup, just before serving or as garnish.

GARNISH

To garnish (and also to add more flavor), fry the rest of the garlic "slowly" in oil (make sure it doesn't get brown) and 1/4 tbls turmeric. In the last 20 seconds, also add about a table spoon of dried mint. Drain the mint and garlic from oil and decorate the soup with that. The pictures show how my tasteful sister garnishes and decorates ash reshteh. The colors are: red, beats; white, kashk; green, fried mint; yellow, fried garlic and tumeric; light green, tiny Pistachio wedges; brown, meatballs.

Wishes for a new Persian year, 1391.

In a couple of hours, 1390, the year that I turned 40, will come to end. 1390 was the most enlightening of all my life. I ( and my whole family) were given a hard test, and the stoicism of our culture, the strength of character of my parents, and the many years of defiance in the face of impossibly strong adversaries (like the opportunists who ran our country in the name of fanaticism, the imperialists who supported bombing us and attempted--still attempting--to starve us, the war and the fascism or even our mammoth culture which is often too sluggish to move at the pace demanded by modernity) paid off ... We pulled through, and learned how to fight the ultimate adversary.

I am back in America now; with my sister, in a house full of flowers and laughter, trying to joke and play photos until the equinox.

I am back in America, where I am in a perpetual ambivalence about liking this land of opportunity, land of genuinely hard working people, land of kind, caring and warm people, but one which is built on exploitation and meddling in the affairs of others, others who sit on the black gold of oil ...

I am somewhat happy by the poll Americans generated: they don't want war with Iran.

I am happy about the Israeli "We love Iranian" campaign.

I am somewhat happy by the Iranian leadership tempering its absurdism.

I suspect the Saudi Arabians and the Russians and maybe a few Oil monsters in Texas would be happy if this bickering between Iran and Israel and the US goes on, the war agitation continues and their revenues accumulate. I suspect the Israeli leadership may be happy to keep the bickering and the presumed threat of Iranians alive, if it is going to translate to ensuring that the American aid will continue flowing in the form of military aid to fight the Iranian bogyman! I suspect, if the almost-shattered conservative ranks of the Iranian rulers get into real trouble, then they would be more than happy to heat up the air in the balloon of their Anti-Zionist threats to provoke the west and create a sense of danger that would give them an excuse for cracking down dissenters in the name of national security.

But, I suspect war is not in the horizon.

I suspect the external meddlers have given up on assuming they can mobilize an internal revolt to get rid of the Iranian regime. Truth is, Iranians have no real penchant for revolution; for bickering and waving the tides of a movement maybe, for partying and glorifying and symbolizing and creating songs and poems and banners around notions of heroism and justice, yes. But for amassing courage and cause to build a united front? Naah!

In fact, I think a united front is growing gradually out of common interest, out of a need for all parties to compromise in order to survive and remain relevant. Luckily, the Iranian diaspora is beginning to understand that their radical views are little more than theoretical absurdities to people who have real lives in Iran, in all fairness living in complicity with the corruptions and untidiness of the current system, but also full of real paranoia and distrust of the "political" men and their rainbow promises, in general--and that is a FACT of Persian psych, explaining why democracies in Iran have been so vulnerable since inception.

In any event, as 1391 begins, I am jotting down these notes to tell you (if you are still a reader of my neglected blog) that my new year wish is for

P E A C E

Happy Nowrouz; Happy spring; and thank you for not having given up on NeoResistance.