Peyvast

NIPOC the organization that planned the Mehreagn in orange county clraified that the moving of Mehregan 1.5 mnoths ahead was not because of month of Ramadan nor birtday of 12th shia Imam . They added:  “We need the site for 7 days.  3 days to get it set up, 2 days of event, 2 days for cleanup and tear down. OC Fairgrounds site has been reserved by a Car show company for the next 3 years and will not be avaliable. We are on waiting list in case of a cancellation.  Next year and the year after will also likely be in September. FYI: we made the site reservation on October 21, 2005 (almost a year ago).”

Thank you NIPOC for clarifying and I wish the matter was properly answered to the Iranian TV station by whoever who talked on their behalf instead of telling the TV to go and make their own Mehregan (according to the TV). As I mentioned to them: It is important for a non-profit, non-religious , non-political organization and as a matter of fact all public figures and organizations to be transparent. 

Ability to ask and be answered are important foundations of a democracy.

To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.”

by Inas Younis

part II of II

Sometimes the only thing standing between man and total despair are the symptoms of his modern neurosis. Whether it╝s his morbid obesity or anorexic frame, his depression or his mania, symptoms are the resistance movement of the refined and cultured man. Symptoms are the sanitized reflex of a very unsanitary spiritual existence. As the famous philosopher and psychiatrist Erich Fromm once cautioned us, “beware of defining mental hygiene as the prevention of symptoms. Symptoms are not our enemy, but our friend. Where there are symptoms there is conflict, and conflict indicates that the forces of life which strive for integration and happiness are still fighting.”

In other words, there IS hope in hopelessness. We the sick, depressed, spiritually illiterate, rabid insane types are still gasping for the breath of╜ Meaning╜ being smothered by the puzzling normalcy of our surroundings, where seemingly sane and level headed men stand behind podiums having very proper reactions to the improper world they commissioned and ordained under the authority of a new secular trinity. The new secular trine of — expediency, efficiency, and organization leads to a better, faster and more regulated world, where the crucifixion of life, liberty and justice will evolve the same mythic power that salvation via ingestion of the Eucharist has in the halls of the Vatican. The mythic power of freedom reduced to a ritual sacrament where fast food and coca cola laced with Ritalin and Viagra are ingested in the super duper halls of mega shopping malls.

Sometimes the only thing standing between man and total despair are crazy people who have developed immunity to the anesthesia of amusement. The trifling amusements brought to you by the demagoguery of governments who are convinced that the anesthetic properties of material prosperity will induce a state of amnesia where the bullshit of false rhetoric can finally do for western hedonism, what the colonoscopy of colonialism supposedly did for eastern heathenism.

Sometimes the only thing standing between man and total despair is a woman. Not the westernized eastern woman who is a visual reminder of all that sucks about modernity in the way of god awful highlights, and the bare midriffs which only subtract from the uncommon beauty of a Desi princess. And not the kind of woman who regulates her hormonal surges with academic excellence, but the eastern woman who understands that the seductive power of a few passionate words whispered with confidant feminine breath is more effective at rehabilitating the seemingly spineless potential leader parading around as man, then anything she can purchase at the cosmetic counter.

Sometimes the only things standing between man and total despair is a revolutionary who will not just act as a bulldozer by demolishing the status quo, creating a political vacuum ripe for opportunistic criminals, but the kind that will, when the dust settles, step aside allowing for madness to take its post. Not the madness of a mother who has lost her child in the rubble of Lebanon, but the madness of a man who finally gains his sanity when the world around him finally reflects the chaos within him. The madness of a leader who understands that the only thing standing between man and total despair is the insanity of his counterfeit sanity. The madness of a leader who knows that sanity in the face of an truly insane abnormal world, no longer deserves the sympathy of public defenders, but rather, a diagnosis of evil with exorcism, commissioned by the papal authority of a United Nations tribunal, as the only cure. A leader who knows that the cause towards freedom is not a legitimate plea, when such a defense will not doubt result in the kind of spiritual genocide that will render this the final act in a brave new world.

Sometimes the only thing standing between man and total despair is the lamentations of women who have not yet been silenced by the commercial opiates of our history╝s latest mouthwash, marked with instructions to rinse, gargle, gag then repeat. Or the man without the luxury of words, the bygone underdog who defies the formula imposed upon him by the conservatie who presumes his condition is a product of backwardness or laziness and the liberal who automatically attributes virtue to his poverty, when virtue had nothing to do with it. The man without choice, without reason, the man of instinct who knows by design alone, that oppression has no time for rationalizations only resistance.

Sometimes the only thing standing between man and total despair is a humble prayer for life, liberty and, not the kind of sanity induced through artificial means, but the kind of sanity which comes with the understanding that life and liberty can never last until it commands - Justice For All !

My  dear friend Inas Younis is the author of the words that follow. Lets take our time and without the daily rush that we have been accustomed to, pause on her thoughts for a moment.

I shall break her article in to few posts as each sentence of her, like paintings of Dali, are worthy of special attention to truly grasp their depth. One must give her thoughts the same respect that I know she gives when she creates them:

The pursuit of Sanity (by Inas Younis)

part I of II

Sometimes the only thing standing between man and total despair, when an arthritic premonition of an impeding natural disaster prevents him from making any sudden moves, is a totally unromantic truth. A truth obscured by his new found promiscuity, camouflaged as independence, and disguised by that proverbial brave face. The smug face of the westernized man who, with lofty nonchalance, will tell you that the internal turmoil, the quivering anxiety which mitigates his every movement, is not the product of anything as unexciting as the oppressive loneliness of an amputated spirit. But instead, the brave faced modern person will manufacture a more sexy excuse for being so emotionally underprivileged. Sexy excuses with tag lines like closure and self esteem, administered like gel coated suppositories, compliments of a pop psyche world gone psychotic.

We are the demented progeny of a Novocained culture whose casualty is consciousness. We are the latest and greatest spin -off of an enlightened society where self worth is not determined by who you are, but who you “do”. Because, who you are is as much a function of what you ingest, as it is of what resists digestion, from 

the brand of water you carry around like a security blanket to protect against the improbable contingency of a city wide drought, to the latest psychotropic prescription you had filled, to ward off, either your blue moods, or the blue- blood antibodies of your mother’s milk.

In- vogue resistance movements against the invisible enemy of life, liberty and happiness, especially when the pursuit of the latter one becomes contingent on the abrogation of the former two, have become as effective at silencing the rebel by distraction as they are the flagrant consumer by amusement. Those who rebel in true Pavlonian style, choosing to uphold principles where the only possible action afforded them is a meaningless and fruitless reaction, are no more socially responsible then their Starbucks slurping, Gucci loving, credit card carrying counterparts. Both human compressions are trying to achieve VIP status using material possessions, or the lack thereof, to achieve celebratory status by taking logic out of the equation of consumer choices in the same way that the more visible enemy of religion has taken them out of our spiritual ones.

to be continued…

A secular democratic Iran would have taken the path of being strong economically and technologically with full support of its people and THAT IS WHERE TRUE STRENGTH LIES .

A secular democratic Iran , because of its geographic location would have been the bridge between all nations that surround it from former soviet republics and Turkey to its north to Persian Gulf countries etc

A secular democratic Iran would have been strong enough to help bring peace between Palestinians and Israel (pre 1967 borders) too.

A secular democratic Iran would have had full economic and political support of world powers also in its goal to stabilize the region.

A secular democratic Iran (and Iranians) would have been respected by the world and respected by ALL Iranians.

In a secular Democratic Iran everyone had a voice and the right to be elected to Parliament and other offices: Moslem, Socialist, bahai or whatever …

A secular democratic Iran would have had been trusted by the world with Uranium enrichment also!!

When I read this article in the US armed forces journal  and saw the suggested map, this is what came to my mind:

- The author does not have deep understanding of the people in Middle East.

- This is only one person’s view and not a policy that United States or west follows.

- The Islamic Extremists such as Iranian regime, Al Quada, etc…can alienate some such as Kurds (in Iraq, Iran and as a result Turkey) to separate their ways from others by way of ethnic unity. External forces therefore, could at some point support or promote such ideas to COUNTER the consequences of Islamic extremism.

- The true solution is to oppose extremism, increase political knowledge in middle east and promote and establish democracies in middle east.

Although the borders in Arab countries of middle east were products of west but at this time, the Redrawing of maps in most cases (except Palestine: Israel back to 1967 borders) is not the solution.

Too much has been done in its name,

too much and too long…

keep it to your homes and private

Author resides in Iran

We are proud of being independent.  As far as I remember I have been hearing this funny sentence! In this global village where US needs China, China needs US, Europe needs Asia, Asia needs Europe, etc still we are talking about Independence! But let’s analyze what type of Independence we have in our beloved country!

The most moderate president, Bani Sadr, gets kicked out of the power just because he had started to talk with western powers which damages our INDEPENDENCE!

After two years of war when the enemy was pushed out of the border we did not listen neither to west nor to east because “NO EAST NO WEST only Islamic Republic” which proves our INDEPENDENCE!

So we continued the war to prove to the world that we are independent and no power can tell us what to do. During the war we did use the war situation to prison, torture, and kill those who were talking against the war and had some connection with out of the border. Only in one Summer we killed thousands in order to keep our INDEPENDENCE!

After the war was finally finished, our Vezarate Etelaat started to find journalists and activists who were writing against our foreign policies. Chain Murders (ghatlhaye zanjirei) an example to protect our INDEPENDENCE!

Abbas Abdi and his friends were put into jail because after a research they concluded that more than 75% of Iranians are eager to start having relation with US which would damage our INDEPENDENCE!

Ahmad Batbi was sentenced to death decreasing the punishment to 15 years in prison because his picture while raising a bloody underwear was printed in foreign newspapers which damaged our INDEPENDENCE! Akbar Mohammadi like Ahmad, and you know what happened to him, but who cares, it’s important to keep our INDEPENDENCE!

We would still like to keep our INDEPENDENCE, that’s why we are interested in enriching uranium by ourselves! As our foreign minister says, “Nation is ready to pay the price of possible sanctions” because they know what INDEPENDENCE means! If you take a look at the billboards around the cities you find LG, SAMSUNG, NOKIA, SONY, etc. but don’t even think that it has any connection with dependency, no! only if we import Uranium it means that we are depend ant.

Our export number is not even comparable with import one. In order to have a high class of living here you must only use foreign products otherwise your life would be labeled as a low class one! And that’s exactly what INDEPENDENCE means!

As far as I know, in this world every country is depend ant on other ones, but economically speaking INDEPENDENCE means that you sell as much as or more than you buy! But when it comes to supporters of IR you can find the definition of INDEPENDENCE next to the word STUPIDITY! And then you can also understand how this government has been tricking its people for more than 27 years!