Two English blogs I read..

It is a different point of view, they lived and grew up in a different culture, but at the end you can see how our concerns for the world that surrounds us is pretty close, here are two English Blogs I read, one from a British, another from a Canadian, one is called: "So I got that goin' for me, which is nice" the other is: "Tyger Tyger Burning Bright "

Abtahi

ابطحي: به نظرم نباید صندلی مدیریت را دو دستی چسبید و آنقدر روی آن نشست تا عزراییل آدم رابلند کند

NO TO WAR, NO TO BOMBING,سايه جنگ را دور کنيم

Hamed started an important discussion in his Persian Blog, we should all be ready to mobiles our forces to shape the public opinion before it is too late, obviously neo conservatives and right wing in Israel are planning for an attack on Iran of some sort, we all know we can not afford any more instability, we also know how any military action will rally every one behind the regime and is extremely damaging to democratic movement in Iran. I think blogs as Hamed said, need to start working on this, we have two separate audience, Iranian public and the regime and US public and news media, Persian web logs will be more successful to work on the Iran's side of the equation and English blogs will have to address the North American audience. We must make sure that Bush and his hawks cant mislead the public so easily again.

Sina and Bush

Sina Rahmani is this young, energetic and very active Iranian student which has lived most of his life in Canada. So more of a Canadian guy, I find a lot in common with his free spirit, blunt language and consistency that he shows in his activism, although I don't agree with all the things ha says, since I find him too far to the left, a bit disconnected from Iran's realities(understandably so) and also the way he thinks the world revolves around Palestinian resistance to occupation. Despite all this, he sent this very cool e-mail to our e-mail list which I cant resist posting here:

"I think two of the great ironies of history is there will be a Palestinian state and a democratic Iraq showing the way forward for people who desperately want to be free," the president said. He particularly praised Mahmoud Abbas, the new Palestinian leader, as a man who "has the will of the people with him, and that inspires leaders."

-George W. Bush,New York Times, January 28.


Does he even know what irony is?

-Sina

P.S: Sina responded to my post on his blog:
http://brownlikeme.blogspot.com/

شهردار تهران در حال نظافت شهر.

ّبعضي وقتها اين مقامات گل و بل بل جمهوري اسلامي يک حرفهايي مي زنند آدم مي خواد از خنده روده بر بشه. جاي شوهايي مثل شوهاي آخرشب آمريکايي خالي که حسابي ملت را بخندونند. اين آخري ديگه عاليه. حسن حميدزاده، معاون پارلماني قوه قضاييه، در همايش نهضت پاسخگويي در شاهرود گفته است: من چند بار، شهردار تهران را ساعت يك نيمه‌شب در لباس رفتگران در حال نظافت شهر تهران مشاهده كرده‌ام. در همين راستا من پيشنهاد مي کنم در جهت رشد و توسعه کشور همه مقامات از شهردار آبادگر ياد بگيرند و از فردا رئيس مجلس شيشه هاي مجلس را تميز كند؛ وزير خارجه نگهبان خانه سفير بوركينافاسور باشد؛ وزير نفت كشيك شب پمپ بنزين باشد؛ فرمانده سپاه دژبان ستاد مشترك سپاه و فرمانده ارتش عدس آشپزخونه ارتش را پاك كند؛ و از همه مهمتر رهبر فرزانه سوار بر پاترول در سطح شهر جوانان را امر به معروف و نهي از منکر بکنند. باور کنيد ديگه وقتي پيدا نمي کنند که به اين مملکت بيشتر از اين گند بزنند.................................................................................. و.

آوا

اين بلايي که مرجان ازش حرف مي زنه چند روز پيش سر من هم اومد. من بي خدا را فرض کنيد؛ چند شب پيش رفته بودم خونه آيدا و آرش يک دفعه آرش ضبط را روشن کرد و صداي اذان بود که با ترکيبي از نت هاي حماسي همراه شده بود؛ ناگهان اين آوا احساس نوستالژيک عجيبي را در من ايجاد کرد. تمامي دوران کودکيم و بويژه غروب هاي اصفهان وقتي ؛سر نماز؛ مي رسيديم خونه مادر بزرگم و منتظر مي مونديم تا نمازش تموم بشه جلوي چشمم پديدار شد. خلاصه بخواهيم يا نخواهيم اين آواها توي خونمونه.

Presidential Election(4) خاتمى معاون اول معين

Good news, Reza Khatami, who is the brother of current President is chosen to become Dr. Moein's running mate as Americans put it or Vice president should Dr. Moein win the election. I think this was a bold and encouraging move on part of the reformists. Dr. Reza Khatami is a physician educated in UK, has the advantage of being the more radical brother of Khatami the president and has a very open minded and brave wife, she is ironically the grand daughter of Ayatollah Khomeini , but her comments about freedom and how she thinks the current President, her brother in law, is too weak and slow in moving people's demand for freedom forward, has made her famous. Any how I think this is a very good move.

ملاحظات:
1- I don't think by saying that it is a good news that Reza Khatami is vice president, means he is has the best record of public service. But the question is, who does?

2-We all have to remember that in 21 century, it is the civil society that makes the difference, if the worse person is chosen president or vice president or to any other position, but they face an organized civil society that holds their feet to the fire, they will have to comply, same goes for other way around, if the best ones are elected and there is no civil society to remind them of their promises and their duties, they will give into the pressure of powerful interest groups of all kinds.

Iranian Women..

We all know education is fundamental to any change, violence against women is no exception, Our culture certainly needs real change in this regard and we cant wait for any one, we have to organize through NGOs and educate our men and women on this matter, here is a sad clip.

Presidential Election(3)

حالا يک چند ماه طول مي کشه تا اين بحث ها نتيجه بده ولي در هر حال به عنوان کسي که معتقدم بايد با اين انتخابات فعالانه برخورد کرد؛ پيشنهاد مي کنم اين چند خط را از جلايي پور بخوانيد. از اين استدلال هاي کوتاه که بدون مقدمه سر اصل مطلب مي ره خوشم مياد. در ضمن ديروز ديدم خبر موافقت و بعد هم تکذيب! يعني مخالفت با کانديداتوري زنان در ايران در بيشتر شبکه هاي خبري اينجا و آمريکا بازتاب داشت. کاش شيرين عبادي از اين فرصت استفاده کنه و کانديدا بشه. چون اگه رد صلاحيتش کنند حسابي سر و صدا مي کنه

York University and attack on Students!!!

I still cant believe what happened on Thursday, I came out of my class around 2 PM and I noticed this helicopter flying just above Vari hall which is the main hall of our university, every body was asking why is this helicopter here? then there was so many Police cars around the main square, I went home, but a few hours later I got a phone call from one of my Jewish friends on School- he is a leftist Jewish student- informing me that about 20 students were standing in Vari hall-which is designed for student gatherings- to protest Bush's inauguration, suddenly the paranoid university security calls the city police and here are dozens of police man and even a police helicopter to stop!!!! 30 students who were peacefully protesting!!!!!! They apparently attack the students and arrest five of the students, I was shocked and now we have video clips of what happened, which is more shocking to watch..Here is one. This is a real shame for York's administration, really really shameful, On Friday, around 1000 students gathered in Vari Hall and protested this vicious act, Here are some pics.
By the way , here is the web site that has more clips on it.

Iran is no Iraq,

So Bush started his second term with threatening words which had the cover of "freedom", and of course Hersh's article, Cheney's comments and Rice's answers in confirmation hearing has only made us more confident that the madness is very powerful in top neo-conservatives civilian leadership of Pentagon. This is basically the worse case scenario, this dangerous policy is a great gift for the right wing Mullahs-Clerics- in Tehran, now no one, including people who strongly oppose this regime-a vast majority of Iranians- and those who have directly paid high price for their peaceful opposition and demanded reform in the last 7-8 years, including my self with 63 days of prison in a tiny cell in age of 21, all will forget about the atrocities of this regime and automatically have to focus on our homeland's safety and defend our sovereignty and territorial integrity. Remember that most of us, not only oppose the regime, especially the fundamentalist fraction of it, but we also are against wasting our money on nuclear power plants, let alone Nuclear weapons. SO great Job Bushy, u are pushing all of us in the direction of supporting the Mullahs that we hate so much and we would love to see replaced by a secular, democratic republic. But we like to do it gradually and with our own hands, we don't need your fake freedom, we don't want bombs to deliver democracy! Remember Iran is no Iraq.

Attacking Iran? What are Americans saying?

This New Yorker Magazine's article-by Mr. Hersh- is creating a lot more discussion that many had anticipated.
Dr. Rice's confirmation hearing demonstrates how effective this article has been, Senators Boxer, Joseph Bidan and John Kerry, picked up on it and kept asking her about it, she of course had no straight answer. Add to that Dick Cheney's interview with MSNBC today. Washington Monthly web log also was worried about the transfer of covert operation from CIA to Pentagon and how Pentagon doesn't have to be accountable to the congress the way CIA is, and basically there is a growing trend of more power for Executive branch of government in US and less accountability. I expressed my concern on behalf of many Iranians who are worried about the prospect of "expanding the war on terror" and operations against Iran, in the comment section. And I was rather surprised to see how many Americans left messages on the comment section of Washington Monthly talking about their feelings toward the Bush' hidden agenda- not so hidden any more-.You can read their opinions here and see how many Americans also disagree and worry about the consequences of this new madness promoted by neo-conservatives like Michael Ladean, Paul Wolfowitz ...., so it was a heart warming experience to see that so many Americans are equally worried and aware of the situation. And below you can see John Kerry's exchange with Rice about this article and Iran:

Later in the hearing, Kerry brought up Hersh's article again. Rice,citing the Defense Department's public statement about the piece, said the article was "inaccurate." Kerry asked, "About Iran?" Rice replied,"It is inaccurate." Kerry repeated, "About Iran?" This exchange was repeated a few times. Finally, Rice said that hitting Iran with air strikes was not U.S. policy. Kerry let it go. But it's worth pointing out that Hersh didn't claim it was policy, only that the top civilians in the Pentagon were pushing for it to be policy.

هايده خواننده خوش صدا

هيج وقت فراموش نمي کنم يکي از شبهاي زمستان اصفهان بود و من ده سالم بود؛ از مدرسه که مي آمدم هيچ کاري نمي کردم تا مامانم از مطب بياد. بابام هميشه قبل از اينکه مامان بياد بي بي سي را روشن مي کرد؛ درست لحظه اي که مامانم در را باز کرد راديو همراه با خش خش بسيار گفت که هايده فوت کرد...مامانم زد زير گريه و من بيچاره هاج و واج مونده بودم دلم خيلي سوخت . ۱۵سال از آن روز گذشته و من هميشه صداي هايده را دوست داشتم و براش احترام خاصي قايل بودم.در اينجا به ترانه آزاده که ساخته تجويدی - معيری گوش کنيد. بي بي سي هم گزارش ويژه داره که مي توانيد بخوانيد........................................................ و

Sharia Law...!!!!

تصورش را بکنيد. اين همه راه را آمديد کانادا که هي شعار تنوع فرهنگي مي ده؛ بعد يک عده از اين مسلمانهاي دو آتيشه (بيشتر پاکستاني) از اين وضعيت سو استفاده مي کنند و مي روند پيش دولت استان و استدلال مي کنند که ما ارزشهاي ديني و خانوادگي!!!! متفاوتي داريم که دادگا ههاي اينجا رعايت نمي کنند چون ارزشهاي غربي!!! دارند-بخوانيد ما مي خواهيم ارث ۲به ۱بين خواهر و برادر تقسيم بشه؛ نه بر اساس ارزشهاي فاسد غربي!! مساوي و هزار تا بلاي ديگه که مي خواهيم سر زنها و دختر هامون بياريم و تاره يک دادگاه هم باشه که تاييدش کنه- و بعد هم گير مي دند که مگه شما نگفتيد تنوع فرهنگها پس بايد اجازه بديد. ‌دولت خل ديوانه هم که مي خواهد از هزينه دادگاه ها کم بکنه و ژست دمکراتيک بگيره؛ اول موافقت مي کنه ولي بعد که صدا همه ما-به ويژه ايراني ها- در آمد يک خانم کانادايي را مي فرسته که تحقيق کنه و گزارش بده. اين خانم هم ورداشته گزارش داده که بعله چه اشکالي داره که مسلمانها دادگاه خودشون را داشته باشند و..... خلاصه زود زنگ بزنيد به نماينده منطقه خودتو ن و اعتراض کنيد..

I did send an e-mail to my MPP(member of provincial parliament) and explained briefly and used one of my friend's letter to explain our position on it-her name is Niaz and she has been very active on the issue and has written this extensive e-mail to her fellow NDP members- and then my MPP responded quickly basically repeating whatever was on that bloody report, so I am going to use the same letter to respond to him soon, but it is such a long e-mail that I wont posted it here but I can send it to any one who wants it and leave a comment but here is my e-mail to my MPP and his response:

Dear Mr. David Zimmer,


I am Bahman Ali Kalbasi, a student who lives in your constituency on#28 Stafford Rd. , Toronto, ON, M2R 1T9. And voted for you in the passed election along with my bother, mother and father. As you might be aware Ontario liberal government appointed former Ontario Attorney General Ms. Marion Boyd to investigate and report on the possible difficulties that establishment of parallel court system based on"Muslim Law" or "Shaira" might cause. This was a response to mountain of complaints by so many Muslim Canadians , in particular Iranian-Canadians and other secular groups, who all raised their serious concern on the issue and warned about the consequences of such move.Unfortunately Ms. Boyd came back with a rather disturbing report.Now it is up to the liberal Government of Ontario to decided if they want to go ahead with these courts ro not. I and my family have always voted liberal and would like to continue doing so, but if this happens Liberals will lose our vote along with so many other Iranians. Below I am attaching a letter written by another Iranian-Canadian, who is an NDP member and since Ms. Boyd is a former NDP member, she is asking her fellow party members to ask the leader Mr.Hampton to oppose this move. The reason I am sending this letter to you is that she sums up most of our criticism of these courts with comprehensive reasoning.


And then he reponded in an e-mail thatI think was one of those already written ones:

Dear Mr. Kalbasi:

Thank you very much for your e-mail regarding Sharia and family law in Ontario. I appreciate the time you've taken to share your thoughts with me.
There are just a couple of points I'd like to clarify. Arbitration by religious authorities for divorce and inheritance cases has been legal in Ontario since 1991, and it was practiced on an informal basis long before that. There is, for instance, Masjid El Noor, an Islamic arbitration service that has been around since 1982. Certain Jewish and Christian denominations also have similar institutions. What the Ontario government is considering doing is regulating a practice that already exists.The Attorney General appointed Marion Boyd, who is a former Attorney General herself and a woman with twenty-five years of experience as an activist on issues of domestic abuse, to investigate the issue and make some recommendations. The government released her report on the day she delivered it, and you can find it on the Internet at http://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca/english/about/pubs/boyd/.

Remarkably, after three months of extensive consultation, Ms. Boyd reports that she was unable to uncover a single reliable report of a case where sharia arbitration in Ontario (as opposed to Iran or Afghanistan) turned out to be demonstrably abusive or unjust. In fact, many people who had chosen that route found it vastly more sensitive to their individual needs than the Ontario court system, which can sometimes operate like a revolving door. Ms. Boyd hastens to caution that cases of injustice may nevertheless exist, but she says she hasn't seen a pattern of systemic problems.The Boyd report makes several recommendations that would prevent potential abuses of the system in the future. Right now, officials in the Ministry of the Attorney General are studying her suggestions to determine whether it will be feasible to implement them, and whether we should go further than her report recommends. I find this a fascinating and complex issue, and I'm interested to know what our legal experts will say. No doubt we'll be hearing more about this issue in the future.

Once again, thank you for writing.

David Zimmer,

MPPWillowdale

This is scary

The New Yorker magazine has this very long and revealing piece about Bush's agenda and approach to Iran in second term, it confirms that they have already started operations which is a pre planning phase of an attack on Iran of one sort or another, it also talks about how, despite what many of us might think, Neo Conservatives believe they have a mandate to attack Iran regardless of the situation in Iraq. This piece has quickly made its way into Iran's most prominent news agencies and BBC Persian just posted it as its main news. Read it all..

Love bomb

Yes, I am serious, BBC reports that US military has plans to produce a non lethal chemical bomb called "love bomb" which will provoke sexual behavior among the enemy troops, so basically troops would lose the ability to fight because they are extremely horny and since they are mostly guys, it will be homosexual behavior, imagine in the battle field, all of a sudden soldiers put their weapon down and start..., I am kind of both laughing my head off and at the same time don't know if we should be happy in case these kinds of bombs are really mass produced and used and therefore the death tool of wars decrease..It is one of those things.. as we Persians say : PANAH BAR KHODA,

go to sleep.

I can't believe it is 1:37 AM eastern time and I have to wake up 6:45 AM and I am still up, but a few things came to my mind, I thought I should write about.
First of all Toronto had the mildest day if its recorded history in the month of January today, 15 degrees C on Thursday Jan 13th! it was such a mild day, most people walked around with out a jacket but all this was like a sweet dream that went away so quickly and now it is snowing out there and in the morning we will be -10 C instead, so how fun is that?

Second, let me tell you that my life from when I was 8-9 years old has had so much politics in it and it has gone into my blood, but when I started this web log, I promised my self to be who I am on here and not turn this place to another fraction of my political life, but to let politics represent itself on here as part of my personality as much as other parts of me should get the chance to be talked about. So there are other things I like to write about and it just happens that the last few days, so many political events has preoccupied me. So I hope with this reminder I could write about other stuff too.

Third, One thing I have figured in my intimate interactions with other people, specifically my past and present relationships, is that it helps me find out who I really am through all these relationships, I have come to understand how out of control or obsessed I can be or selfish even at times, how sometimes I turn to this self centered human and how quickly I allow this tendency that I am "always right" grow in me. At the end of all, I do believe that relationships, even if you get hurt, do give you the chance to get to know your self and if we really get to know our own complex self, we have done a lot. Only then we or I could be in the position to listen to Maya Angelou who says: " If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else. You have succeeded"

Last but not least, I had a very good feeling when I first saw readers from Iran coming here, being away from home is always difficult and any connection with those who live in my beautiful country Iran, has a good taste.

Pressure works..

Events in the recent weeks proved one thing to all Iranians in general and activists in particular, if we get together and apply constant pressure in an organized effort, it WILL work. First came the National Geographic case and how we convinced them to use Persian Gulf only, in their on line maps, And the more important achievement-which I kind of predicted from what I had heard in the last post- in the case of Iranian journalists and bloggers and how the head of Judiciary today-after a meeting with 4 of the victims and hearing their horrifying story-ordered their case to be removed from Mortazavi's jurisdiction and also an investigation is lunched to punish those responsible for the tortures. Now we all know that doesn't mean Mortazavi is immediately losing his job or is ever going to face trial, but at least they acknowledged that these methods exist and consequently they might stop these sever violations of huam rights, at least for a while. This also shows that top officials have realized how damaging such behaviors are in 21 century. Abtahi and 8 brave young journalists and blogger who risked their well being and told their story and all of those who did their part in informing the public shall get the credit for this victory.

Guardian newspaper,

The author of a post related to Iranian blogs in Guardian, perhaps has no idea that I am such a big fan of Guardian newspaper when she wrote about my blog at the end of her post. To be honest I was surprised to see people visiting this page from UK early afternoon, and since I read Guardian on daily bases, I went to their page and saw the link to my blog and was kind of shocked, I am wondering how did she find my blog! But I guess one thing leads to another and you end up in places you don't expect to in cyberspace and that is in fact the most interstice aspect of internet. Any how, I shall thank Jane Perrone for her post.( I am pretty sure "Jane" is a female name , at least in Canada, hopefully it is the same in UK).

After the letter to Mortazavi, some of the readers sent e-mails and asked about my imprisonment, I hadn't talked about it here before, but since you asked, Globe and Mail once profiled me and you can see it on Google archive HERE, although there is much more to it, but I guess I'll leave it at that for now, since I am still not ready to write about the details of it.

Oh and there is this news coming from some of the insiders of Iranian Government talking about how embarrassed some top officials even in the right wing camp and judiciary are over what Mortazavi has done and might, I stress, MIGHT finally remove him with his gang. (we have speculated this so many times before, specially over the death of Zahra Kazemi, and it never happened, you will be surprised of how ruthless these powerful right wingers in Iran are)

Letter to Mortazavi

Not exactly the format that I suggested, because I didn't like the idea of addressing Mortazavi directly, but since some people got together and wrote it , we should all respect it, here is their version and here is mine:

Tehran Prosecutor, Said Mortazavi,:

The information leaked out of the meting of the arrested web loggers and president's "committee for protecting the constitution", once more proved that you and your department in judiciary continues to violate the basic human rights of journalists and web loggers on daily bases. It is clear that you use all the inhuman methods of torturing in order to make your innocent detainees confess to crimes they never committed and you prove that you are very successful at it, and in the rare cases that they refuse to obey you, they will become another Zahra Kazemi,.

The only thing you have failed to control is their bravery after being released. They might sit in front of cameras and deny any torture or pressure during the jail time when they are under your control, but as soon as they are free for a few days they will regain their confidence and tell the truth of what really happened to them in your prison cells.

Your latest order to ISPs to block/filter Persianblog, Blogspot and Orkut proves how this small window for young Iranians has frightened you and any method and dirty trick is adopted by you to stop us from talking and scare the brave web loggers. There are credible reports that you are threatening them to death. I as an Iranian web logger and former prisoner of your unjust system warn you that if any harm of any kind is done to either of the 4 web loggers or Mr. Abtahi who wrote about their ordeal in his web log, I will do all I can to inform the international community about your crime against humanity and constant violations of human rights.

Bahman Kalbasi

Iranian of the year and the white vote.

Iranian.com Has started a polling for choosing the Iranian of the year, Hossein Derakhshan is one of them, I voted for him, mostly because I think he has made a lot of difference in the last few years by introducing new ways of embracing individuality which is core issue in our culture.
you can go here and vote for one of the candidates.

As I have mentioned before, in an article in Ghasedak I defended the idea that every election in Iran is an opportunity and even if we are in the side of those who don't believe in this system at all or those who's candidate is disqualified and barred from running, we should still take advantage of an election and vote "white" and in that article I explained that imagine 30 Million voting and 20 million of them(the same vote Khatami got) vote white, wouldn't that be such a victory and a referendum by itself? As some one who supports Dr. Moein and would vote white if he wasn't running, now I hear the same idea of "taking advantage of elections no matter what" from prominent reformists who support Moein, like Mr. Behzad Nabavi, who has the same suggestion with a slightly different format, he says we will ask people to vote for Moein, even if he was barred from running, or basically turn this election to a NO or a referendum against the regime that doesn't like free elections. I totally think this could change a lot if progressive forces and youth in Iran came to consensus over it. So we can start from now and ask people to vote for Moein in the coming election, no matter what, even if he was barred from running, and turn this election to another NO to Khamanei, and don't tell me, what next, we have to go step by step, each NO counts.
نبوی عضو ارشد سازمان مجاهدین انقلاب: ا

باید صریحا معین را معرفی کنیم و در صورتیکه شورای نگهبان وی را رد کرد بطور گسترده اعلام کنیم که ما در انتخابات به کاندیدای پنهان خودمان که اسمش در لیست نامزدهای نهایی غایب است رای خواهیم داد

Prosecute the Prosecutor

I think it might be a good idea to post this sentence on our weblogs all over the blogspot both in Persian and English and create a buzz, what do u think?
ما از نهادهاي جهاني حقوق بشر مي خواهيم حکومت ايران را براي محاکحه مرتضوي به اتهام قتل زهرا کاظمي؛ دستگيري و شکنجه ده ها روزنامه نگار؛ فعال سياسي و آخرين اقدام وي در تهديد به مرگ وبلاگ نويسان و جوانان شکنجه شده؛ تحت فشار بگزارند
We Iranian web loggers demand that the international community and human rights organizations pressure the government of Iran to remove the prosecutor of Tehran district, Said Mortazavi,for his crimes and constant violation of human rights and prosecute him in a court of law for the accusations such as involvement in the murder of, Zahra Kazemi, Canadian-Iranian photo journalist, arresting and torturing journalists and political activists and his recent criminal act of threatening the tortured web loggers for their bravery in disclosing the details of time in prison and the tortures they went through.

Change of Plans, good friends and Hoder is my buddy.

I have always believed that good parents and good friends are the most important assets one can have in life! I sound like grand fathers now! , but really, just yesterday I met one of my best friends in Canada, he is finishing his Ph. D in political Science this year and is a very good writer and has published his articles in Glob and Mail and some other prestigious newspapers in Canada. Every time I see him he has some crucial suggestions for me regarding my career and future studies and helps me out a lot, consequently I always get shocked on what a great impression he leaves on me. Total change in my graduation , post grad and work plans is one direct impact of meeting him yesterday. I might work in one of the media here for one year before I go to Grad school and not rush to graduate this year so I could bring up my average by taking a few easier courses next year. The goal is to get accepted in a more prestigious grad school than those in Toronto and for that goal you always need some work experience in related fields in north America.

Oh and Hossein, I posted some thing about the reply he sent me regarding editing photo. This is a problem with writing, you cant convey the tone, if you heard me saying that, you would see that I was joking and wasn't mad at Hossein at all, and he didn't really say I should go die or any thing, that was kind of my expression, I'll copy paste what he said, but nevertheless, Hossein has been and is a very good friend of mine since we met 4 years ago, I have always found my self in agreement with him in a lot of grounds and always supported him when people were merely jealous of his success. So don't get me wrong, yes he might a bit straightforward, and we Iranians generally don't like that, but after 4 years of friendship I know him enough to like him a lot. And here is what he said:


Hossein Derakhshan
to me

Baba chera BMP ferestadi? 9 MB bood marde hesaabi!Ask B.....[had to hide this name for the sake of national security] about image file formats, for God's sake, boy! :)

-hoderhttp://i.hoder.com/

Persian Gulf

I started this web log with posts about National geographic shameful act in changing the name of Persian Gulf to "Arabian Gulf", after thousands of e-mails and phone calls and pressure by NGOs, National Geographic finally apologized and corrected that mistake on their atlas, but here is an article in Persian explaining how we can secure this victory and not let it happen again in shargh newspaper in Tehran, that latest case that appeals to Iranian-Canadians in particular is the message by Governor General of Canada, Adrienne Clarkson, for new years that called the Persian Gulf, Arabian Gulf again. Here is their contact info. Don't give up, send her e-mails with her full title and respectfully remind her that "Arabian gulf" is a wrong name and that National geographic made the same mistake and corrected it.

Politics of Cyberspace

Believe it or not this is the name of one of the courses I am taking this semester, the lady professor which is a very cool teacher spoke about web blogs and how this course is focusing on the impact of bloging on politics. I was excited because I didn't expect it to be so interesting. Finally I like one of my female professors,( I only like a female TA that I have) I was probably the only person in the class who has a blog so that kind of helps, everybody else were clue less which is kind of surprising. I am in school library right now...Have to run..Later.

Presidential Election (2)

من فکر کنم فقط در يک حالت ممکن دکتر معين تاييد بشه . اون هم اينکه هاشمي بياد و خامنه اي براي اينکه راي هاشمي را بشکنه به معين اجازه شرکت بده و اون وقت است که ملت همه را شوک کنند و به معين راي بدند. سياست در ايران حساب و کتاب نداره.

I like this guy..

Mr. Abtahi, the first cleric to ever have a weblog, as a former member of the reformist cabinet, revealed even more details of what the web loggers had gone through in their time in jail in the last 3-4 month in his weblog. He had already angered the famous murderer Mortazavi, the prosecutor general of Tehran, in the first round of publishing what the victims had told president's inquiry team, now after the first meeting with 4 of the web loggers and its content being published on Abtahi's blog, the prosecutor calls the head of this team and expresses his anger over the first report, he also asked the investigation committee to talk to some other web loggers that previously had denied any bad behavior in jail so the report to president would be balance!!!, but things didn't go the way he expected, the same people when sat in front of that committee decided to tell the committee what had really happened and how they were scared that their families would be in danger if they said any thing. all this was published on Abtahi's blog today and this will upset Mortazavi big time. I remember right after he killed Zahra Kazemi, The Canadian Iranian photo journalist, I a long with a friend published an article about him in Toronto Star, the main newspaper of Toronto, and published his pic for the first time in Canada, back then I thought after all he had done and was made public, the leader would be a bit ashamed and remove him, but shame has no place in dictatorships and he is still on and he still tortures people day after day after day.

Monday..

Back to school today, for the first time in my life I feel my body is taking a turn, I used to eat whatever I want, all kinds of chocolate and fattening food with no limit, and never felt that I am gaining weight, but in the last 2 weeks which I was in holidays, both here in Toronto and California which I ate and ate like usual, suddenly I gained about 10 pounds!! A good sign of getting older I guess. And today back to school, running from on office to another and this professor to another for deferred exam, graduation forms and enrolling in the courses..It is gana be hell of a 4 month ahead of me. But I will try to write at least 4 times a week.

About that..

Ya, so I have decided to write about the presidential election and will number all the posts related to them in front of the title which will simply be "presidential election". The first one is an article from Shargh Newspaper in Persian, unfortunately Shargh's web site doesn't have separate links for each article. So I had to post it here since I think it is a good analysis of different scenarios that might happen and has some early polling in it, Although I find the polls very misleading at this pint, especially that presidential election in Iran is somewhat about personalities of the candidates and less about the platforms. One thing for sure though, it is not clear who is going to win it and that makes it exciting. I wrote about it in Persian in Ghasedak a month ago.

Presidential election(1)

نتايج نظرسنجى از ۱۸۴۵۲ نفر در سراسر كشور نشان مى دهد
اصلاح طلبان جلوتر از اصول گرايان
شرق، محمد قوچانى: اگر يك ماه پيش با اوج گيرى فعاليت هاى انتخاباتى محافظه كاران به نظر مى رسيد انتخاب رئيس جمهور آينده به يك نظرخواهى درون گروهى شوراى هماهنگى نيروهاى انقلاب اسلامى تبديل شده است اكنون در دى ماه ۱۳۸۳ ماجرا كاملاً برعكس شده و موج گزينه هاى اصلاح طلبانه فزونى گرفته است تا بدانجا كه حسن غفورى فرد از اعضاى مركزيت ائتلاف اصولگرايان ديروز گفت رقابت اصلى در انتخابات آينده ميان هاشمى رفسنجانى و مهدى كروبى خواهد بود. آخرين خبرها حاكى است كه مهدى كروبى تا پايان همين هفته در نشستى با روزنامه نگاران رسماً وارد انتخابات خواهد شد و به گمانه زنى ها درباره نامزدى خود پايان خواهد داد. هاشمى رفسنجانى نيز در آخرين اظهارنظر درباره انتخابات گفته است ان شاءالله وارد انتخابات خواهد شد. بدين ترتيب به نظر مى رسد برخلاف برخى تحليل هاى راستگرايانه كه معتقد بودند سال ۱۳۸۴ به نبرد نام هاى تازه راست تبديل خواهد شد ريش سفيدان همچنان جلوتر از جوان ترها هستند. تحليلگران سياسى معتقدند در صورت ورود هاشمى به انتخابات على اكبر ولايتى و على لاريجانى از نامزدى منصرف خواهند شد اما جبهه راست بدون شكل گيرى اجماع، نامزدهاى منفردى مانند احمد توكلى را وارد انتخابات خواهد كرد تا خط مشى دنبال شده در نطق الياس نادران را عليه دولت هاى ۱۵ سال گذشته و حتى عصر ميرحسين موسوى پيگيرى كند. خطى كه به احتمال بسيار زياد مورد تاييد سران راست نخواهد بود. جبهه چپ نيز در مورد دو گزينه مهدى كروبى و مصطفى معين قرار مى گيرد. حزب مشاركت اميدوار است كه به دليل سابقه وزارت معين او از سوى شوراى نگهبان وارد انتخابات شود تا ضلع چهارم رقابت ها شكل گيرد.

در اين صورت بخش معتدل جامعه روحانيت مبارز از هاشمى رفسنجانى، مجمع روحانيون مبارز از مهدى كروبى، جمعيت ايثارگران و ائتلاف آبادگران از احمد توكلى و جبهه مشاركت و مجاهدين انقلاب از مصطفى معين حمايت مى كنند و انتخابات به صورت نسبى واجد هر دو عنصر مشاركت و رقابت خواهد شد. يك نظرسنجى كه در كل استان هاى كشور از ۱۸۴۵۲ نفر راى دهنده فرضى صورت گرفته است نشان مى دهد ۵۲ درصد مردم در انتخابات شركت مى كنند، ۲۸ درصد شركت نخواهند كرد و ۲۵ درصد گفته اند هنوز تصميم نگرفته ايم. همين نظرسنجى مشخص مى كند تركيب اكثريت راى مردم با اختلافى جزيى همچنان به اصلاح طلبان تعلق خواهد گرفت به اين ترتيب كه ۳۸ درصد مردم اصلاح طلبان و ۳۶ درصد محافظه كاران را برمى گزينند، در عين حال ۲۶ درصد به گزينه هاى خارج از اين دو جناح سياسى تعلق خاطر دارند كه طبيعتاً راى آنان در تعيين سرنوشت آتى اصلاحات مهم خواهد بود. مربع انتخاباتى: «هاشمى _ كروبى _ معين - توكلى» ممكن است انتخابات آينده را با اين سطح مشاركت و احتمال پراكندگى هر يك از دو قطب راست و چپ به مرحله دوم هدايت كند كه در اين صورت براى اولين بار در ۲۵ سال گذشته رئيس جمهور ايران در مرحله دوم گزينش خواهد شد. همچنين ممكن است با احتمال رد صلاحيت معين به جاى مربع انتخاباتى مثلثى با سه ضلع «هاشمى _ كروبى - توكلى» شكل گيرد كه به احتمال بسيار زياد مرحله دوم چنين انتخاباتى ميان «هاشمى - كروبى» شكل خواهد گرفت و اين همان دوگانه اصلى رقابت سال ۱۳۸۴ است كه در هر صورت سرنوشت انتخابات را از كنترل اصول گرايان خارج مى كند. طبيعى است كه در اين صورت بخشى از محافظه كاران كه بيشتر به لايه هاى عقلانى و معتدل اين جناح تعلق دارند به هاشمى رفسنجانى راى خواهند داد و بخشى از اصلاح طلبان نيز كه عمدتاً به لايه هاى ميانه رو جناح خود علاقه دارند مهدى كروبى را انتخاب خواهند كرد. رقابت هاشمى- كروبى رقابتى كامل و مهم خواهد بود. رقابتى كه يادآور مناسبات دو جناح كلاسيك ايران است. گرچه برخى اصلاح طلبان (به خصوص حزب كارگزاران سازندگى) نيز در كنار نيروهاى معتدل محافظه كاران به هاشمى راى خواهند داد. از سوى ديگر محافظه كاران هم نسبت به مهدى كروبى موضعى تخريبى نخواهند داشت. ضمن آن به نظر مى رسد آرايش نيرو هاى اجتماعى پيرامون اين دو نامزد شكل جدى ترى به خود خواهد گرفت. در حالى كه به نظر مى رسد برخى تكنوكرات ها به هاشمى رفسنجانى راى دهند گروهى از روشنفكران هم به مهدى كروبى راى خواهند داد.

بهروز افخمى هفته گذشته براى ساختن فيلم انتخاباتى كروبى اعلام آمادگى كرد. اما آنچه در ميان اين دو تعيين كننده خواهد بود بخش خاكسترى مديران و نمايندگانى خواهد بود كه تجربه همكارى با هر دو را دارند. اسحاق جهانگيرى نماد اين گروه از مديران است كه در واقع مى تواند اعتماد هر دو نامزد را جلب كند. در انتخابات آينده همچنين نقش شهرستان ها بسيار سرنوشت ساز خواهد شد. در عين حال انتخاب شخص نامزد هاى اصلى براى انتخاب همكاران رده اول خويش در دولت آينده مى تواند نمادى از آرايش نيرو هاى سياسى در سال ۱۳۸۴ را نشان دهد. از افرادى مانند على اكبر ولايتى، محمد على نجفى و اسحاق جهانگيرى به عنوان نامزد هاى معاون اولى در دولت آينده نام برده مى شود اما مهدى كروبى طبيعتاً از معاون اول خود خواهد خواست رسماً اصلاح طلب باشد. كروبى همچنين با در نظر گرفتن وزراى دولت خاتمى در سمت و سوى دولت تغييراتى متناسب با جبهه اصلاحات به وجود مى آورد اما هاشمى همچنان دولت هاى قبلى سال ۱۳۷۶ افرادى از بخش ميانه رو جبهه راست را نيز وارد كابينه خود خواهد كرد كه على اكبر ولايتى، حسن روحانى و نيز على لاريجانى از جمله اين افراد خواهند بود. هاشمى رفسنجانى اميدوار است كه همچنان در ميانه دو جناح اصلاح طلب و محافظه كار به فعاليت سياسى خود ادامه دهد كارى كه با درنظر گرفتن جهت گيرى هاى مجلس هفتم بسيار سخت خواهد بود و به احتمال بسيار زياد وزراى منسوب به حزب كارگزاران از اين مجلس راى اعتماد نخواهند گرفت. اما كروبى ترديدى نخواهد كرد كه خود را اصلاح طلب بخواند و شعار تداوم اصلاحات را سر دهد. وى نيز با واكنش شديد مجلس هفتم مواجه خواهد شد و مى كوشد با كمك چهره هايى مانند على اكبر محتشمى و مجيد انصارى بتواند جناح راست را به پذيرش يك دولت چپ گراى ديگر فرا بخواند. محتشمى به احتمال بسيار زياد مقام وزارت كشور را در كابينه كروبى برعهده خواهد گرفت همچنان كه ممكن است حسن روحانى به چنين مقامى در دولت هاشمى برسد. در عين حال جهت گيرى كلان هر دو دولت به سوى روايتى ديگر از اصلاحات سيدمحمد خاتمى خواهد بود. هاشمى رفسنجانى مى كوشد بار ديگر اولويت توسعه اقتصادى بر توسعه سياسى را يادآورى كند و مهدى كروبى تلاش مى كند بر تلازم توسعه سياسى با ارزش هاى انقلاب اسلامى تاكيد كند. هاشمى دولت خاتمى را ادامه دولت خود مى داند و كروبى دولت خويش را ادامه دولت خاتمى معرفى خواهد كرد. دو نامزد در عين حال رقابتى شكننده را انجام خواهند داد. رسانه هاى نزديك به هر يك سعى در پيروز شدن نامزد خويش خواهند داشت اما هرگونه برخورد سنگين ميان دو نامزد مى تواند به پيروزى نامزد سوم منتهى شود. نامزدى كه قطعاً اصلاح طلب نخواهد بود.