Braindroppings

New blog

2004-10-05T04:38:00.000Z

Just for anyone who might be checking this weblog out. The new address for this blog is http://www.vishistorica.com/brain/

This weblog will not be updated anymore. Please visit the new site and update your links.

Thanks!

2004-09-30T09:25:00.000Z

test

Here I go again

2004-07-15T22:54:00.000Z

Here I go again

Well, here I am. I am not sure why I have not been writing for all this time, but maybe because I felt there is not much to be said here for my English speaking (or reading!) audience. Much of what is happening needs to be said in persian. I am going to plays, hanging out with friends, travelling, and doing some work related to Iranian Studies.

I went to Khuzestan and visited Ahwaz, Izeh, Shush, and Shushtar. Izeh is the ancient Ayapir, a highland town of the Elamite Kingdom with quite many reliefs from the Neo-Elamite period. If you want to see some pictures of the town and the reliefs, please have a look at my article in Cappuccino. Shush is obviously the ancient Susa, the magnificent capital of the Elamites and the Achaemenids. I am planning to upload these pictures when I get back to the US and have the highspeed internet again!

Since then, I have been going out most of the time and have been busy writing and translating as well. I saw two plays, one entitled "Rabe'e" which is the tale of the first poetess in New Persian (ca. 10th century CE). It was a horrible play and my friends and I could not stomach more than 30 minutes of it, and one of us is a known feminist!!! The other one I saw tonight is called "The Specialist" and is written by Dusan Kovachevich, the same author who wrote the screenplay for Emir Kusturica's fabulous "Underground". It was a magnificent piece of art and was very well acted and directed.

I will try to write more regularly from now on and update the news about my travels. Here are some pictures of my recent travels.

Wow! I am in Tehran!

2004-06-24T20:00:00.000Z

Wow, I am in Tehran!

Well, the title is rather self explaining, innit? I am in Tehran, and I have been quite busy since I arrived here. Met a lot of friends, went to some talks by fellow Iranists, and went to visit Taleghan, a nice area around two hours west of Tehran, in the middle of Alburz mountains. It has a very cool and nice weather.

Tomorrow, I am off to Ahwaz and Shush (ancient Susa) to visit some archaeological sites and historical monuments. I am sure it is going to be quite an experience. I have taken a lot of pictures and I am going to take more, but unfortunately, since the connexions here are quite slow, I am not sure if I can manage to make a proper photoblog before going back to Europe or the US.

Meanwhile, I will try to be more consistent and update this weblog more often. I will write about my experiences in the land of ancient Elamites.

Meanwhile, have a look at my pictures in the Yahoo Photos.

2004-05-14T16:08:00.000Z

It has indeed been a long time since I posted to this weblog, about 20 days actually, but I guess I have a good excuse: I was traveling! In fact, I am still traveling, if travel means being away from home. Another good excuse is that Blogger kept on giving me "Page not Found" errors when I tried to publish the post!

I am now in Villefranche sur Mer, a little town just east of Nice in south of France. I got here after a week of traveling to London, Cambridge (where I saw a good friend of mine and spent the night in Ancient India and Iran Trust, Sir Harold Baily's old residence!), and Orleans, where I saw another friend and a fellow blogger, Amir Hesabdar.

Now, I am here in Villefranche, and I am quite enjoying the place too, thank you very much! It is quite a charming "resort" town, or rather a regular southern France village with typical "savoi" style architecture (the area was part of the duchy of Savoi whose dukes later became kings of Italy!). The influx of tourists, all kinds, but many Americans, had turned it into an "exotic" destination, meaning everything is overpriced! Fortunately, a good deal of the old, original charm still remains.

I will write more later, and follow up on the discussion on history. Till then!

2004-05-13T21:17:00.000Z

This is just a quick note to let everyone know that I am okay and just have had problems accessing the internet and posting to the blogger (which keeps on giving me "Page not Found" errors). I will write more later.

Ancient Neo-Cons?

2004-04-24T02:55:00.000Z

Ancient Neo-Cons?

Well, here is another installment of the Iranology column in Cappuccino and also in my own website.

Meanwhile, I was reading "A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire" by Prof. Dandamaev, the part about the advancements of Philip II of Macedonia and the campaign of his son, Alexander, against the Achaemenids. Despite all the military stuff that has been said about the father and the son, it was interesting to read the diplomatic policies of Philip. He as a Macedonian (this a Hellenised "barbarian"), tried to pass himself as the "saviour" of the Greeks and their defender against the "enemy" (Persians). In fact, Persia, due to its size and its concern with its heartland of Persia/Media, had not been involved in Greek affairs for many years. On the other hand, the chaos of late Achaemenid times also meant that Persian did not eneter internal Greek politics. Despite the many cruelties that Alexander commited during his campaign (including he burning of the Palaces of Persepolis and the documents included in its treasury), what is more important is the way Macedonians ended the "Golden Age of Greece".

Inside Greece, Athens to be exact, two parties, one the "democrats" headed by Demosthenes, and the other "Unionists" headed by Isocrates, were fighting over the diplomacy. Democrats argued that the "Barbarians" in fact never tried to limit the Greek freedoms or change their system of government (indeed, Persians just wanted to keep Greeks from starting havoc on the Persian satrapies of Asia Minor). They also said that Macedonians, the only European Hellenised state with a monarchy, was more dangerous to the freedom of Greece and their democratic system of government.

On the other hand, the Unionists encouraged all Greeks to unite and fight the "enemy" and take revange for the wars waged by "Barbarians" against the Greeks 150 years before. They wanted Macedonia to be the leader of all Greeks and attack Persia with a collective force. They accused Democrats of not being patriotic and having ties to the Persians and taking bribes by them.

I guess we all know the outcome. Macedonians finally conquered all of Greece, concluding a "Treaty of Unision" that on the surface kept the autonomy of the Greek city-states. In fact, Macedonia established garrisons near all Greek cities and directly controlled their politics. This in fact was the end of the "Golden Age" of Greece. Shortly afterwards, Romans managed to occupy Greece and forever end its independence and florishing culture. It is interesting that under 200 years of "Barbarian" threat, Greece had its Golden Age and saw the birth of Anaxagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aritstoteles, Pericles, and other greats of Greek culture. The Greek culture that many, in my opinion wrongly, see as the root of modern "Western Civilisation" actually existed during the Achaemenid era, while under the Macedonians and Romans, the monarchy eliminated the polis system and thus the Greek democracy.

I still wonder if people think that Alexander's dominance over Greece and very destructive conquest of the Achaemenid Empire "saved" the Western Civilisation! The whole thing sounds too much like a certain modern government that sees itself as the defender of "civilisation" against "barbarism"!!!

Cappuccino: Empire in Chaos

2004-04-18T01:40:00.000Z

Read my latest column on Achaemenid History in Cappuccino Magazine's Iranology Page. It is about the reign of Darius II and Artaxerxes II and it is called: Empire in Chaos

Fallujah

2004-04-11T09:27:00.000Z

Anyone insterested to see what the "enemies" look like? Pictures from Fallujah.

(thanks to Dave)

An update on this: I am glad they finally are reporting the casualty from the other side. Maybe the days of "5 Americans were killed.. [but we have no idea how many of the 'enemy']" are over?

The Course of History

2004-04-08T08:37:00.000Z

The Course of History

I promised that I would continue this whole discussion on history and how historiography has affected our understanding of the world around us. I wrote about divisions of history before and commented on how I believe dividing history into ancient-middle-modern times is superficial and largely based in European historical experience. This is a very complicated subject, and there have been many books written about it, so many that I cannot possibly mention them all. There is no way for me to provide a complete and academically sound explanation of all the details of the subject here. All I can hope to do is to give a very brief summary of what I understand and accept from the points made by almost all of the scholars involved in the subject. This bears a great amount of ideas from me, among them what I call the "grand transition of knowledge". For deeper look into these subjects, I suggest the following books: "Europe and the People Without History" by Eric Wolf; "The Colonizers' Model of the World" by James Blaut; "The Black Athena" by Martin Bernall; "ReOrient" by Andre Gunder Frank; "Before the European Hegemony" by Janet Abu-Lughod; "Almuqadimmah" by Ibn Khaldun; and "The Venture of Islam" By Marshal G.S. Hudgson.

Here, I want to touch on the subject of the course of history and the development of civilisation. Before I attempt to talk about so grand a subject, let me provide my own definition of "civilisation". This is one of those tricky concepts and it is also very sensitive, and there are many definitions of it. I tend to define civilisation simply as the development of human societies into more complex settings. I do not put "savagery" in opposition to civilisation, since then we would wonder if many civilisations were really "civilised". I think all human beings who have been in reasonable contact with each other belong to the same civilisation, and all of them contribute to the development of this single civilisation.

One of the major problems with our understanding of the world is the association of civilisation with culture, and even worse, with religion. It is common to mention "Western Civilisation" or "Islamic Civilisation" or "Chinese Civilisation" and look at each case individually and sometimes in opposition to each other (as Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington tend to do). The point is that the fabric of these "sub-civilisations" is so interwoven that we cannot really tell them apart safely, and furthermore, their roots in other "sub-civilisation" (or cultures, as I prefer to call it) makes their division quite confusing. They all have different cultures and ways of conducting themselves, but they are all based on the same basic principles and beliefs.

If instead of separating our view into categories and looking at these cultures from the eyes of Anthropology, Sociology, Political Science, and Economy, we step back and look with a united social science eye at these cultures, we will easily see a common civilisation. This civilisation consists of societies based on sedentary agriculture, controlled by a central government with taxation power, possessed of a universal and all inclusive religion, and strongly bound to the idea of individual ownership, and very keen on trade and exploration.

I will follow-up on this subject in the future.

What If History was Written Fairly?

2004-03-30T06:30:00.000Z

What If History was Written Fairly?

I was browsing in a bookstore when I saw this book called "What If?", subtitled "The World's Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been". I had seen the volume two of it before, and found at least one of the what ifs (What if Pontus Pilate Spared Jesus?) rather fascinating!

One of the articles, written by this sole named Victor Hanson who is a professor of Classics in California State University, Fresno (which would not make him one of "the World's Foremost MILITARY historians"). His article was named "No Glory that Was Greece: The Persians Win at Salamis; 480 BC". In it, he proceeds to guess what if that had happened, which is a legitimate and very interesting question too. This is not the place to point out again that the Greco-Persian wars were naturally much more important for Greeks than for Persians, who probably considered it a local conflict in one corner of their empire. The problem is, our dear professor takes a good three pages to thoroughly insult and degrade 4000 years of Near Eastern history in the process of his prediction. I should add here that if I was Greek, I would have been furious about the fact that a professor in California thinks my whole civilisation depended on one single battle!

There are interesting passages when he expresses his horror and says that if Persians had won, there would not have been anything such as "freedom" or "citizen" in the vocabulary of the world (certainly! Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians and Elamites had NO idea about city-states). Instead of free thinking and real science, we would have only had "subsidized sciences" such as astronomy (take that Khayyam and Copernicus). That women would have been under a vail all around the world (I just heard Azermeydokht having a heart attack).

He also completes his guess by getting excited about the Athenians sending Themistocles (the victor of Salamis) to exile and predicting that if that ever happened in Iran to a ruler, they would have just disembowel the rebels who dared do such things to the king (apparently our esteemed author could not be bothered to read the history of Khosrow II Aparviz). Other than the fact that Themistocles' unabashed betrayal of his own people is rather a cause of grief than jubilation, the amazing thing is that the author seems to be living in a bubble world where the Greeks are perfect angels, apparently never engaged in anything remotely like the Peloponesian Wars or massacre of their own Ionian kin. In the process of claiming all analytical and logical sciences for the "exceptional civilisation" of Europe and its saviour, the Greeks, he also manages to dismiss people like Farabi, Avicenna, and Averroes who were the inspiration for St. Thomas of Aquinas or Espinoza (funny enough, Aquinas and Espinoza and Erasmus and such never had any problems admitting this! It is their "modern" offspring who finds it hard to look beyond Europe!).

In short, his article reads like a piece of 19th century self-serving and highly prejudiced colonialist historiography, the kind that called Islam "Mohammedanism", such as the ones written by Sir John Malcolm or Rawlinson, and it is amazing that it gets to be published in a book that hits the bookstores in the 21st century. Apparently publishers have a hard time cutting through the status quo of social sciences and provide some real information to the people.

Anyway, I wrote the following email to our foremost military historians and am waiting for some kind of reply. Let's see if any would be coming!

Dear Prof. Hanson:

My name is Khodadad Rezakhani, and I read your article in the "What If?" book about the Battle of Salamis with interest. I enjoyed the article immensely, and I wonder if it is complete.

I am sorry that the Greeks did not invade Persia and rid us of the shame of having to deal with the legacy of people like Zarathushtra, Artabazan, Adharburzinmehr, Borzoi, Azarfaranbay, Surena, Mehran, Avicenna, Farabi, Biruni,Khayyam, Ibn Athir, Jaber, Razi, Ibn Khaldun, Averroes and such!

I guess you never thought that the children of those "zealots" with their "subsidized sciences" would be able to read English and wonder about modern open-mindedness and cultural prejudice! I wonder if you considered St. Thomas of Aquinas and Erasmus and Espinoza when writing that article and noticed the numerous references they make to Averroes and Avicenna and other unreasonable pseudo-scientists with no ability to analyze philosophy who had no originality and for a thousand years just translated the masterpieces of Greek philosophers for no reason apparently (they had no ability to analyze and understand them themselves anyway).

The originality of Greek mind is unprecedented and Greeks of ancient times managed to come up with their wonderful ideas entirely on their own and without a consideration of their Indo-European background and their contacts with the savage zealots of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Everyone in the ancient world just made pseudo-science and all waited for Athenians to take a break from conspiring against the Spartans and Corinthians and find enough time to create civilisation and then go back into killing each other!

May I suggest you have a look at Eric Wolf's "Europe and the People Without History" and James Blaut's "The Colonizers' Model of the World"?

Thanks again.

Khodadad Rezakhani

Told You So!

2004-03-26T03:36:00.000Z

Told You So!

I am just writing this to be able to say "I told you so" later!

Remember the story of that Chinese-American Muslim captain in Guantanamo Bay that was all the rage and news in the CNN and other mainstream media sources in the US a few months back? (Newsweek and Time even (dis)honoured him with leading stories; another from Time. !). Well, this is an interesting update from the Time magazine, not on the cover though, not even in the main story section, but in the "NOTEBOOK: Milestones" section (where they usually mention the news of the death of old, forgotten actors and actresses!).

From Time, March 29, 2004:"Released, Captain James Yee, 35, Chinese-American Muslim chaplain accused of mishandeling classfied documents at Guanatanamo Bay. Citing national security concerns that would arise from the disclosure of evidence if the case proceeded, the Army dropped all charges against him, and will allow him to return to his previous duty at Fort Lewis near Tacoma, Wash.". (stresses are from original)

The middle part, obviously there for saving face (should have considered "national security" before publically trashing the guy), is in contrast with the last part about the return to duty. Funny that CNN did not bother reporting his release and dropping the charges.

P.S: An article from January 2004, about Army's "mishandeling of the evidence" and one about his supporters.

P.S.2: Another website that is following the case. Also, it is good to read The New Stateman's article about Islamophobia)

Travel

2004-03-16T07:32:00.000Z

Travel

Just a quick note to tell everyone that I am off to a short trip to Texas and will be back after the Iranian New Year (this year it falls on early morning of March 20th, 2004 GST). I will probably not be able to update until this coming Saturday, but will tell you all about the land of Dubbya and John Wayne!

Also sorry for not writing and continuing the discussion. I will follow-up seriously in the new year. Meanwhile, have a look at Cappuccino Magazine's Norooz Issue (to be published March 18, 2004).

Happy New Year and Norooz Pirooz.

Divisions of History

2004-03-07T09:55:00.000Z

Divisions of History

I guess a positive side-product of studying history, or rather a fascinating sort of history, is finding out about the history of ideas. Many of our everyday norms are actually quite amusing and are based on ideas of very ancient people. Indeed it is a great question to as why there are 12 months in a year? Why 24 hours in a day? Who created the seven day week? Who came up with the idea of chronology?

Obviously, "History" and "Time" are very much dependent on each other. History is the story of the passage of time and how that time was spent. However, dividing that history into time periods is not as natural. We are quite used to dividing everything in history into three periods: "ancient/old", "middle", and "modern/new". We have ancient history, medieval history, modern history, as we have Old English, Middle English, and Modern English. These divisions are quite convenient, and at the same time can be misleading. By nature, they dictate a breaking point. People expect to find a point when the world stopped being "ancient" and became "middle", or when "old english" became "middle english". The problem is, it really never happened like that. What is known as the ancient world did not all of a sudden stop and change directions! Old English gradualy developed into the Middle and the "modern" English of Shakespear; no one stopped one day and said:"Alright, I think I am going to stop speaking this language of Beowulf and start speaking like Chaucer!"

However, this very convenient division of time has been prominent in most Western historiography and has been used to denote different periods of European history. It has been partly successful, since the division was originally based on reality of European history with sometimes quite visible fault-lines like the Fall of Rome or the Reformation. By extension, the same division has been applied to non-Western histories. Iranian history, for example, is divided to ancient or pre-Islamic, Middle or post-Islamic, and Modern History from the late 18th century, the Qajars and beyond. The division does not stick by any means though! Iran has a history of at least 2000 years before Islam. The breaks did not happen as divided by these time periods; the big break was not the Islamic invasion, but the rise of the Sasanian military machine 300 years before. The alien nature of this historical division is evident when one looks at the histories written by historians of the old times like Bal'ami or Ibn Khaldun. They did not think of history in these divisions, and I think they would have found the idea quite amusing and probably useless.

I think our first attempt to untangle the web of misunderstanding between "The West" and "The Middle East" (Us and Them), should be an attempt to break free of this superficial historical division.

2004-03-03T19:35:00.000Z

Iranian

My friend, Pinkfloydish, started a discussion in her English weblog which caught my attention. The subject -knowledge of Iran among Westerners, particularly Americans- is what I have been involved with for a long time, both personally or professionally.

I have lived among Amricans on-and-off for the past 9 years, and due to spending parts of my childhood and adulthood in Europe (Germany, Switzerland, England, the Netherlands), I can say I have a pretty good idea of both the American and European attitudes and their knowledge.

Professionally, I have been studying historiography, economic history, and ancient languages. Again, I can see the level of knowledge and also bias in the academia. But more importantly, I encounter ideas and theories that try to explain and analyse what shocks many Iranians, and that is the lack of interest in anything beyond everyday life in many people.

For us, it is natural to learn about other countries, know the name of their capitals, and have some general knowledge about them. Unlike what one of the commentators in Pinkfloydish's weblog said, I find the Iranian knowledge of America much more accurate than the American information about Iran. For example, how many Americans on average can name the capital of Iran and two more cities, identify the Iranian flag, name the language we speak, and can add anything more about Iran? On contrast, your average high school educated Iranian can easily answer these questions about the US, and not only because of the Holywood! They can also do this for most European countries. I have never seen an Iranian who didn't know that Paris is the capital of France (believe me, I have met more than a few college educated Americans who told me they are going to Paris, and when I said they should also try to see other parts of France, they said they are not going to France, they are going to Paris!!!!).

Still, I am not suggesting that Americans are somehow stupid or have a hard time learning, what I think is the cause of this lack of knowledge is the general attitude of the American society. This attitude is the the absence of interest and a general mistrust in anything foreign, maybe going back to the famous Isolationist policies. Also, despite the theoretical possibility of writing and saying anything in the Media, American television and newspapers are largly uninterested in foreign affairs as well. Television, the most influential media source in the US, seldom mentions other countries. For an Iranian, or a European, it is usual to hear about different news from Zimbabwe, Australia, Argentina, or Mongolia. In contrast, CNN would only mention Columbia or Italy if a large coup takes place or if a lot of people die!

So, I have decided to tackle this issue from a fair point of view. I am tired of explaining different points of culture to people and sometimes I sound to myself as if I am justifying things. So, let's see if we can come up with a good way to reason and to describe, without being either offensive or defensive. Please let me know of your opinions.

2004-03-01T04:49:00.000Z

This is AMAZING!

The denial of information, at least easily accessible information, to the public is not new in certain "democratic" nations, but this particular article: "Treasury Department is Warning Publishers of the Perils of the Criminal Editing of the Enemy" is amazing! This is a clear attempt to deny first hand account of the lives of ordinary people in other countries to reach the eyes and ears of the ordinary people in another. Please if anyone can suggest a solution or some kind of action, leave a message here.

2004-02-24T20:25:00.000Z

Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?

What do you mean I don't believe in God?
I talk to him everyday
What do you mean I don't support your system?
I go to court when I have to!
What do you mean I can't get to work on time?
Got nothing better to do
What do you mean I don't pay my bills?
What do you think, I'm broke, huh?

If there's a new way, I'll be the first in line
but it better work this time!

What do you mean I hurt your feelings
I didn't know you had any feelings
what do you mean I ain't kind?
Just not your kind!
What do you mean I couldn't be the president of the United States of America?
Tell me something, it's still "we, the people", right?

If ther's a new way, I'll be the first in line
but it better work this time!

Peace sells, but who's buying?

(by Megadeth/Dave Mustaine)

(I don't like many lyrics, but this one sometimes really speaks to me!)

2004-01-26T22:53:00.000Z

Destructive Minds?

It seems to be an integral, never changing part of Iranian subconscious to destroy and invalidate. All good things, all positive things, that happen in the life of Iranians are destroyed by themselves. Social reformers, scientific innovators, progressive thinkers, all are ridiculed, thrashed, pummeled into the turf, regardless of the fact that they might later be celebrated (does anyone remember Amir Kabeer?).

As a historian, I tend to see this as an epitome of the life of an average Iranian throughout history: it has always been unstable. Foreign invasions, barbarian attacks, oppressive rulers, and a very confusing system of ownership and division of labour have all contributed to a socio-psychological instability. There seems to be a subconscious call to destroy things before they are destroyed and spoiled by others. Something in the back of an Iranian’s mind tells him/her that the good things never last, that life is cruel, that someone somehow will rub you off what you have and you are going to mourn over it for the rest of your life. So, you better destroy the good thing yourself, to at least save yourself from the despair!

Constant criticism of political reforms, pessimistic look at progress, and even the condemnation of the advent of Internet and blogging itself, seems to be a result of this mentality. “This internet freedom of speech is too good! There should be something wrong, something will go wrong! So, to save ourselves from future mud holes and spoilage, how about just destroying it now?”

2003-12-22T07:20:00.000Z

Extra-chronological Parallel History!

Caution: the following is rather boring, I suggest you don't read!

Does history repeat itself? We hear this phrase so often that it has become a cliche of all cliches. Can we in fact say that historical events tend to be repetition of some previous events. A strong argument against this very common belief is that "no two events are exactly alike", and how alike they are depends on how much of their details we are willing to overlook.

I am not sure what side to take in this argument, but I do have an idea myself, and that is that historical "environments" indeed seem to repeat themselves! If we accept that events are born of their environments, we should expect that similar events are born of similar environments as well.

When you read the history of Ancient and Antique times of the non-Western world, you see that many staple events and situations of Medieval and Pre-Modern Europe have parallels in those times. My example comes naturally from my own background in Iranian history, but they can certainly be better and more accurate examples found about this. In Iranian history, it is fascinating to see that the Parthian times (around 2nd century BC to 221 AD) remind us of the Medieval history of Western Europe: same patterns of land-holding, feudalism, soldier recruitment, loyalty to local lords, and lack of a strong and credible central authority. The era after that, the Sasanian times from 221 to around 700 AD, is very closely reminiscent of Late Medieval and Renaissance Europe. The formation of a strong central government, economic concentration, division of labour, economic growth, rise of knowledge and learning, and eventual fruition of new social ideas, and many other examples, are all points of similarities between these eras.

I call these similarities "Extra-chronological Parallel History". They are very similar in their formation, but their outcome is not at all similar. There is no way to say that if the Sasanian Iran was allowed to continue, it would have produced the same results as Renaissance Europe, but it certainly is true that in many points, they exactly match. I am sure these similarities exist in other places as well, maybe in Chinese industrialisation of 10th century and that of early industrial Europe. I also wonder that whehter if instead of studying isolated historical events, we start studying similar environments, we can have a better idea of both history and our future. Does anyone have further ideas about this?

2003-12-17T21:22:00.000Z

A letter to Micheal Moore

Dear Mr. Moore:

I am a fan of yours. Who is not, honestly? How can I not be in this country were truth can only be expressed tongue-in-cheek, or in the form of comedy? As Arundhati Roy says, we have been reduced to people with no opinions. No one bothers to take a side anymore, and to defend it not zealously, but passionately.

So, I read your writing about Saddam Hossein's arrest in your website. Thanks for mentioning people of my country. Thanks for being the one American who remembers that my brothers, cousins, schoolmates, friends, mates in the neighborhood, and even the son of that farmer in the village 1000 km from where I lived, all died because Saddam Hussein attacked Iran with the assurance and good will of the "compassionate" politicians such as Mr. Rumsfeld, the prime advocate of "democracy" in this very cynical world of ours.

Thanks for remembering that the very same weapons that gave the pretext for the attack on Iraqi men and women and children, were provided to Saddam by the American government. Thanks for mentioning that an American congressional report even released a list of these weapons. We, the lay people, can recognize the extreme irony in attacking someone for possessing what you gave him yourself, but do the politicians think we are born idiots?

I also ask you to consider the irony of US propaganda against Iran today based on speculations of planning to develop nuclear weapons. Isn't it absurd that the only country who has USED nuclear weapons since their creation, not once, but twice, and is even now publicly admits to planning for the development of "smart" nuclear bombs, wants other countries to stop even making nuclear power plants? What makes the US the safe country in the world, given its record of involvement in wars during the past 227 years of its existence, but makes Iran, who has not ATTACKED any other country since 1811 (and even then to take part of its territory, conquered by the British, back), an unsafe country? This is like having a gun slinger telling others that guns are dangerous and they should not touch them, instead using swords for defense!

Thanks for being so understanding. Please keep on talking!

2003-12-08T23:02:00.000Z

The Resurgence of an Old Friend

I have been a fan of Tintin, a Belgian comic character, for ages; precisely since I was 5 years old and couldn't still read. I had some Tintin albums in Persian, published by the authorised publisher of the books in Iran, Universal Publishing, and some of them I got from my sister and my cousin. I used to look at the pictures and guess the stories every night. When I learnt to read at the age of six, Tintin in Congo was the very first book I read, continued by the reset of the series. Love of Tintin drove me to other comics, including Asterix and Lucky Luke, and now I am a complete fan of all kinds of comics, other than the American style "action" comics (Marvel and such). Mostly those done by famous European artists like Herge, Uderzo, Franquin, Morris, and such. I also like American daily funnies.

When I first came to the US, it was amazing for me that in the US people seldom know Tintin. Tintin books are among cult items here, and worst is the case for Asterix and Lucky Luke. Less famous ones like Iznogoud are absolutely impossible to find!

So, naturally, since my efforts in finding like minded Tintin fans in the US were met with laughs and disbelief for those who thought "O my gossssssssssh! A grown man who reads comics!", I looked into the internet. There are a lot of resources in the internet, and the best one of them was a webpage called "Cult of Tintin". Sadly, the smell of money has driven Moulinsart, the foundation that controls all of Herge's creations after his death, to shut down all Tintin fan pages, including Cult of Tintin, accusing them of plagiarism. Nonetheless, fans still can find many sources for information on Tintin and places to discuss this wonderful comic character.

Now, I see many Iranians in the US are talking about their love of Tintin, including Pedram Moallemian. It is also interesting to see that after 25 years of banning Tintin as an agent of "Western" decadence, now Iranian government is letting publishers (and unauthorized ones for that) to publish the Tintin adventures, albeit with ridiculous changes such as changing Captain Haddock's Whiskey to juice and putting stockings on Bianka Castafiore (as if anyone could be seduced by that woman with a monstrous voice!!!:)).

2003-12-04T01:53:00.000Z

US fires Guantanamo defence team. Can anyone suggest a way to oppose this kind of "justice"?

2003-11-25T04:56:00.000Z

Journalism!

A man is walking in the Central Park in New York when he sees a mad dog attacking a little boy. He immediately jumps on the dog, squeezing his throat to death, and saving the child.

A New York Times reporter who is watching the scene comes up to him and says:"Sir, I want to make a report of this for tomorrow's issue with the title 'Brave New Yorker Saves the Life of the Child'"!!!

The man says:"But I am not from New York!" The reporter answers:"No problem, we will write 'Courageous American Rescues Innocent Child'".

The man says again: "But I am not American either, I am from Pakistan." The reporter answers:"Well, in that case, the headline will read: 'Fundamentalist Muslim Man Massacres Dog. FBI Suspects Al Qaeda Involvement!!!!'"

2003-11-21T08:43:00.000Z

Cappuccino New "Iranology" article in the Cappuccino Magazine: Iran Before Iranians

2003-11-17T09:32:00.000Z

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

This is a great documentry film. It is a documentry about the 2002 Coup d'Etat in Venezuela, and it provides some excellent, first hand narration of the events.

Post scriptum: The second installation of my Iranology column in Cappuccino is now out.

2003-11-14T08:37:00.000Z

-- Fascinating article, certainly worth a read for cartographers of the Roadmap to Peace.

-- Oh! Don't miss this one.

-- This one is a gem! Did anyone ever think he is going to keep it?

2003-11-07T20:53:00.000Z

I am not sure if you know Cappuccino on-line magazine? It is a magazine of social issues concerning people in Iran today, anything from Art to Sports and even satire. It is written by a group of webloggers, and it has been running for two years strong.

In any case, I was recently given a column there to write about Iranology, or study of Iran, and this is my first article. Let me know what you think.

2003-10-29T08:34:00.000Z

Ignoramus!

I sent this email tonight to the US Department of State, following the television presentation of Richard Armitage's report to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Dear Mr. Armitage:

I am an academic concerned with the study of Iranian history and philology, mostly about the pre-Islamic times. I am also an Iranian, and I followed your very interesting report to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on October 28, 2003.

I am not a politician, so I am not going to make any political statements. I am however a historian, and I believe that many political problems initiate from the misunderstanding of history.

In your report today, you said "Iran used to be called Persia; however, today Persians are becoming a minority in their own country". Sir! This statement is fundamentally wrong! This is not the place to explain to you why the idea of a nation-state is specifically European, you can read for yourself about that matter.

I can however tell you that Iran never used to "be" Persia! Iran was always Iran (even in documents from 500 BC) and Persia was always Persia as well, and it did not all of a sudden cease to exist! For this, if you ever find time and really decid to learn, read Prof. Gherardo Gnoli's "Idea of Iran".

The second point is that "Persians" are not becoming a minority in Iran, since there is no identifiable "Persian" ethnicity in Iran. Persian is the name of our language, and although it was the language of a tribe called "Parsai" about 2500 years ago, today it is the language of people who live far from Persia, all around Iran, and even in Tajikestan and Afghanistan. Minorities such as Azeris, Baluchs, Arabs, and Kurds have never been "minorities" against a "persian" majority: since they never lived in a nation-state, they never needed to be a minority. Persian as a language was never forced by any government (for that matter, most kings of Iran during the last 1000 years were Turkish speakers!), but it was adopted as a lingua franca by the merchants and was promoted through a rich literature. if there are such feelings today, it is due to our misunderstanding of Iranian history and the application of the European idea of a "nation based on ethnicity" to non-European countries. For this, if you want, I can send you my own article that can provide some background and also bibliography.

I hope this email can help you see Iran and its culture and history even better and avoid making subjectively wrong and objectively absurd statements as such again.

Yours

2003-10-19T07:30:00.000Z

A Little Bit of Iranian Studies

I guess I have been neglecting this weblog for awhile, at least since I had to go for the Iranian Studies conference in Ravenna. But not that I am back, maybe I should write some.

The Fifth European Conference of Iran Studies was organised by the Societas Iranologica Europea, which is an academic groups trying to bring people involved in Iranian Studies together. I came to know about it through Prof. Martin Schwartz with whom I study in an informal manner. I submitted a paper to the conference, and since it was accepted, I decided to make the trip.

Ravenna itself is a nice city, full of mosaics on the walls of the churches and medieval buildings (hence the name "city of mosaics"!!). It is also the death and burial place of Dante Alighieri, the author of "The Devine Comedy". Additionally, it was a capital of Theodoric the Ostrogoth, and an early medieval trading centre. All in all, it was a good place for an Iranian Studies conference.

The organisation of the conference was rather bizarre, might I say "Italian"??! The lectures were scheduled haphazardly, but all in all, it was a nice place to be; it was like being among the people who spoke the same language as I (Iranian Studies can get very lonely when you are studying a language that has been dead for 3000 years or resrearch the history of kingdoms long gone!). I got to know some excellent people. I heard some fascinating presentations (and some dreadfully under-researched or pointless ones), and I was delighted to see some of the professors from whose books I have been studying for ages!

All in all, it was a positive and nice and fun trip. I travelled the last three days to Germany to see my girlfriend, and then went to Amsterdam to fly to the US. Unfortunately, my flight was cancelled and we were forced to stay in Amsterdam for one night, courtsey of KLM (not bad at all!). Now, I am back in the USA, and am wondering why? I really should find a way and move back to Europe! A Ph.D. place in a European University! My Kingdom for a place?

Click here for some photos of the conference.

2003-10-16T09:07:00.000Z

It is really quite encouraging to see than apparently nobody reads these stuff that I write. I feel very refreshed when I see no one cares! What? Sarcastic? Me? Surely you jest!

Well, I admit, there is not much to read; yes, I realise; no, I am not appologetic. Why? Because I am cheeky?! Not good enough for you? Well, because I am too busy to bother with writing in this weblog? Snobbish? Maybe, but watcha gonna do about it, eh?

No, really, seriouly, I have not been writing since I have been damn busy! Ravenna was quite a trip, and the conference was crazy, and I went to presentations and met people and socialised and stuff. It was a great trip, I really enjoyed it, and I wish I could be in conferences everyday.

I went to Germany for the last three days and visited my girlfriend, which was both great and sad, since I had to leave. Then I went to Amsterdam to take a flight back to the US, but our plane was faulty and the flight was cancelled and we stayed in Amsterdam for one night, and I took a flight today, and I got to Berkeley just a few hours ago and I am tired as hell, and I write all these stuff that you don't care about anyway, and I am going crazy, and goodnight!

2003-10-05T04:46:00.000Z

Dispatch from the Amsterdam Front!

I am writing these from my own beloved laptop in the Amsterdam Schiphol airport. This is so cool, high speed and everything! I like it!

The travel has been rather tiring so far: San Francisco-Minneapolis, Minneapolis-Amsterdam, and then I have a three hour wait here, before taking a city hopper to Bologna, and then train to Ravenna, and to top it all up, I have to look for a place to stay for the night! It is going to be fun!

Till later, go read a better weblog!

2003-10-03T00:56:00.000Z

Just a quick note to aplogise for not writing lately. There is a conference for Iranian Studies in Ravenna, Italy. I am supposed to present a paper there next week, so I am very busy working on that. I will go back to my regular schedule soon, and meanwhile, I will write a few lines about Ravenna and the conference.

2003-09-27T08:01:00.000Z

I have reference, therefore I am right!

Some features of out modern world are at the same time both useful and problematic. There are a lot of things we are used to in our everyday lives, and we take them for granted, or assume they are the correct way to do things, and we never think about them twice. We seldom expect them to be abused, and most of the time we don't even recognise their misuse. We assume having a witness to a crime means you can clarify the details of the crime; we don't expect the witness to be false. Our mind is set to certain things, and we hold them to measure and make sense of our life.

One of these set principles is the matter of having academic references or citations. When someone writes an article, everyone asks about his or her references: what books, what articles? Have you read the latest book/article? Despite the fact that in many cases, this might limit the imagination, having citations is a standard in the academic world.

Today, on the other hand, pseudo-academia, or those who find the "mainstream academia" a group of inflexible scholars with fossilized ideas, have taken this standard feature. Now, when you argue a point with someone about, say, about history, and you bring references from some academic figure, your opponent is very inclined to call your point of reference (for example, Fernand Braudel) a loony who was wrong all throughout his life and was particularly mistaken and misguided, and for these claims, they might bring evidence from someone who is known as Prof. "I Disagree".

This is what happened to me when I got into a conversation with someone about Edward Said. He called Said a misguided, crazy, and biased person (because he dared writing "Orientalism" and suggested that the mindset of a lot of scholars is still in the colonial times) , and his point of reference was Bernard Lewis. I thought for a second, decided to describe why I think his reference is one of the best examples of what Said meant (just read his "Muslim Discovery of Europe"), but then I realised: this guy just proved my point. This is the world in which having a reference from someone, anyone, is good enough to buy you a place among the "you are entitled to your opinion" crowd. So, I rest my case!

2003-09-25T16:40:00.000Z

No Subject

Today, I wish this weblog was black. I don't know how to say it. This is sad for me, very sad. Edward Said died this morning. Nothing else to say. All who care about humanity and those who talk about it without fear of political correctness, please just think about him for a moment.

2003-09-23T23:35:00.000Z

Word! What Is It Good For?

Word, the basic building block of language, is also the most easily manipulated part of it. Why do we have words: to name things, to reflect and communicate ideas. Thus, words must have clear meanings.

Alas, we see that this very elementary definition of word is seldom taken into account. Arundhati Roy once said: "Language is the skin of my mind." It means, it is a the vehicle to deliver the utterings of one's mind. Words, simple or elaborate, native or foreign, are made for acheiving this goal. But they have always been, and still are, used for covering what one really means, and no one is better in conceiving this task than the politicians, the grandmasters of doublespeak.

These days, certain politicians in the world have realised that their comments, made in regards to the rest of the world and their representative body, were wrong. They realise that they went to far in discounting anyone but themselves from possessing any sense. Now, in the right world, they should go and apologise to those they offended, and try to undue the process that led the other to be so alienated. IN light of these expectations, it is amazing to read that they are "challenging" other nations to help them clean up the mess: I say the word is "asking" or "requesting". They are also "rejecting" some proposals, again, I say it should be "disagree" or "differ".

I think learning how to speak is essential for everyone, and learning to use right words at the right time is even more important. Using 'superior' words might make you feel like you are superior, but it only convinces your audience that you are inexperienced and childish.

2003-09-16T19:41:00.000Z

Pictures from Europe

If you are curious about my most recent (111000th) trip to Europe, you can view the photos here.

2003-09-12T21:45:00.000Z

Breaking News

We stop this pleasant programme, reading about my travels in god forsaken places, to bring you this special announcement about the author of these writings to be very pissed off about the state of history teaching in the USA!

I have a younger brother, high school age, and he showed me his History class lecture. If you don't know by now, I am very much interedted in Global History and the idea of the interconnection of civilisations. It is a proven fact that the course of the development of "Western" civilisation, as we were taught, was rather one sided and certainly very "Eurocentric". The 19th and 20th centuries patterns that the "civilisation" was nurtured in Greece, then went to Rome, and from there to Western Europe and the "Modern" world is obviously very short sighted. We now read the books that people like St. Thomas of Aquinas, Diederius Erasmus, and Baroch Espinoza wrote, and we know that they mentioned Averroes, Avicenna, and Farabi even more often that they mentioned Aristotle and Plato. We know that early publishing houses of Genoa and Venice published several editions of the books by the above mentioned philosophers, as well as scientists and mechanics such as Biruni, Ibn Haytham, Al Rhazes, and so many more. We know that the sum of the knowledge of Greece, Iran, Egypt, and India was absorbed by many scholars in West Asia, North Africa, and Spain, and it was transmitted to Renaissance European scholars.

Then, when I see that in a high school history book, the basis of a child's knowledge of history, the author expresses, and the teacher repeats, that Renaissance Italians learnt about the wisdom of Ancient Greeks from the Byzantines and that knowledge made the basis for the Enlightenment, without any mention of those I counted above and many like them, I get pissed. Not because I am a narrow minded regionalist, not becuase I want "glory" for my "culuture" (which one?), not because I am a hard-core Muslim (!!!), not because I think everything came from Iran, not because I am revisionist (what revision, read Erasmus yourselves!), but seriously because that is how it happened, and I am afraid that my brother is going to learn a one-sided, limited version of history, and he is going to have to repeat it in college, and he is going to not like it (history is boring!), because I don't like clash of civilisations (only one civilisation, and no clash!). We update our knowledge of electronics, computer science, biology, medicine, and almost everything else, why do we insist on reading a version of history that is itself history?

2003-09-10T14:45:00.000Z

Back in the USA

No, not Paul McCartney style, just like myself. I got back to the US last night and I was glad to be able to sleep in my own bed again, although I miss my girlfriend, Europe, and everything else. I really hope I can find a job there and go back. We shall see!

I am sorry to have delayed the travel diary, but here we go again, Finnland this time. But first the ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki. By the way, you need to change the encoding of your browser to "Western European" to be able to read all the extra letters I am using for Swedish and Finnish.

Well, the ferry was great. In my opinion, it was one of the best parts of the journey. We started about 4 o'clock in the afternoon with a Viking Line ferry (a Finnish company, smaller than Silja Line, but cheaper). Finding the room was very easy: a small room with two beds, a bathroom, and a radio, but no windows (we were in the lower deck). It was great though, very comfortable and enjoyable. I don't suggest spending much time on more expensive cabins, since you are going to end up outside in the common areas most of the time anyway, so there is no need for a sea side cabin really.

We spent a good deal of afternoon on the upper deck, watching the Stockholm Archipelago as we sailed by. I would say if you want to see one thing in your life, it should be this Archipelago. I am not sure how to describe it, since it is impossible. I took some pictures, but it is simply stunning, that's all! Palaces, little houses, people enjoying their afternoon, and the beautiful sight of the iselands certainly made the whole trip worthwhile.

After dark, we went to our cabin, changed, and went up to eat something. Usually the ferry restaurants are rather expensive, but since we were not planning to spend much time or money in what others did (tax free shopping, drinking in the bars and clubs, etc.) we thought we ough it to ourselves to have a good dinner. There were several restaurants with mainly fish menues, and a barbecue place, as well as a buffet. We chose the barbecue and I think it was a nice choice! The rest of the night was spent walking around, looking at some of the performences, and then in the cabin. In the morning, we went to the buffet and had a grand breakfast, before heading down to the cabin to collect our bags and get ready for Helsinki.

Helsinki is a nice city, obviously on a fast pace to become modern, but still showing signs of old and antiquated things such as some street cars, untouristic neighbourhoods, and other things. The central area and the shopping streets are great and full. It is much smaller than Stockholm, but has a certain charm of its own. The Lutheran Church and the Senate Square are a great scene, as well as the Swedish Theater and the Orthodox Church. We spent the first day seeing things in the centre of the city, and then went off to see a friend of my girlfriend in the evening. It was a nice meeting during which we had some real Finnish dishes. But the most interesting part of the night was our efforts to find another old friend, and when we found her, we decided to see the famnous fortress of Helsinki (Suomenllinna or Sveaborg) with them in the following day. That place deserves another seperate entry!

2003-08-31T19:17:00.000Z

Travel, Part I: Sweden

Well, I think I am going to write a little review of my travel. Sorry for not having pics, I forgot my Digital Cam, and had to take pics with a regular camera, so they will be coming up, promise to me 'eart!

We arrived in Nyköping (Swedish pronunciation is bizarre! This one is pronounced Noo-sho-pping) airport from Lübeck, Germany, with a Ryan Air flight. This is the best way to get to Stockholm now, since the other way, with ferry via Trolleborg and then by train, is more expensive and time consuming. The European cheap airlines like Ryan Air are great, especially if you buy tickets in advance like I did ($15 one way, tax included!!!!). The only problem is getting from the airport to Stockholm which takes an hour with the airport bus and costs as much as the flight! (I later found out that if we took a normal bus to Nykopoing and took a bus from there to Stockholm, it would have been cheaper, but less convenient, alas!).

Anyway, we arrived in Stockholm and went to the tourist office to get a room. Apparently, the city was booked out and even all of the Hostels were full (I called a few to verify, call me a pesimist!). We ended up getting a double room in a four star hotel for $100 a night, not bad at all, considering the comfort and the huge breakfast buffet! We went out to walk a little, saw a few places, had dinner, and got ready for the "city watching" day that was to come up! Good night in the four star hotel:))

I had seen Stockholm before, so I was acting as a guide to my girlfriend. Obviously, the starting point is the Drottingsgatan (Queen's Street), which is the main shopping distirct. It ends up in Gamla Stan (Old Stockholm) which is the island over which the original stockholm was built. The royal palace (the official one, not the residence of the king) is in Gamla Stan, as well as the Parliament, most old churches, best places to eat, and a collection of streets that are full of gift shops and creperies! Tourist trap par excellence, but hey, why not!

I liked the changing of the guards in front of the palace, and the palace itself is great (I am in love with Swedish royalty, especially the current dynasty of Bernadottes who are actually French!!!). The gift shops are rather boring and repetetive, but there is one that has Viking stuff (even Viking scissors!) which is good. Funny enough, we ate in an immitation English pub (Fish and Chips, better than the original! No one can make fish as bad as the English!). We did not go to see the Historical Museum (which has a great collection of the Viking Age exhibits): I had seen it (in details!), and she had no desire to see it.

The day after, we went to see my friend who lives in a small city two hours from Stockholm called Köping (shö-pping). The city was interesting, and near it there are some old pre-Viking rock carvings which suited my history buff taste very well! I also enjoyed my friend's company who like me is a great Tintin fan (yes, the Belgian comic character that is!). Indeed, he is the biggest collector of Tintin in Scandinavia. We also went to see a little town nearby which was the place were the Swedish parliament first held its meetings (In opposition to Erik of Pomerania who was trying to force himself as the king of Sweden).

The next day, we returned to Stockholm, and got ready to take our great ferry ride to Helsinki, Finnland. It was a little quick, I agree, a little too American "city-hopping", but I had seen Sweden in detail before, and we were more interested in taking the ferry and go to Finnland. That is a story by itself!

2003-08-26T19:43:00.000Z

I just got back from a travel to Scandinavian/Baltic countries. We visited Stockholm and some other small towns in Sweden, then took a ferry to Helsinki, Finnland, and from there, another ferry to Tallinn, Estonia. All were very interesting. I will write more later and will add pictures as soon as I develop them.

2003-08-16T20:11:00.000Z

So What do We do now that the superman cannot fly?

It is funny about the views of the world each one of us has. For us, the "third worlders" if you wish, Europe is advanced, and America is the penacle of advancement. Everything in the US goes right, Americans are superhumans, capable of doing anything and everything. Whatever goes wrong in our countries, we blame the government, and say that America would never let that to happen to its people! All that America does is correct, and what we do has something missing, we have to learn. Whatever the socio-psychological consequences of these assumptions are, one can only guess.

When I was a kid, we lived under the constant threat of war, against that Saddam Hossein, the US favourite to police our part of the world back then. We were under economic embargo too, and unlike the one imposed on Iraq, no grassroots US student group took up our case and argued against the embargoes. China was our only supplier of goods we could not make ourselves. It seemed we were against the whole world, and the whole world was against us (funny business, both US and the Soviets supported Iraq!). We were short of many things, including energy. We had daily scheduled power outages, and we got used to it. When 10 years after the end of the war, we finally got over those outtages, thanks to a few years of proper rain, we were very happy. I used to read the Daneshmand (Scientist) magazine, and I read about Nuclear energy plants. I thought it is a great idea, I wished someone would adopt it for Iran. I thought, if it was America, the government would have thought of it, and would have rescued us from the trouble.

Flash forward: Iran has decided to adopt the nuclear energy system, but it is being accused of producting nuclear bombs (yes, those Middle Easterns know nothing about human life, they just want war). Iran is being told that they need no nuclear power when they have so much oil (talk about enviromental imperialism: US has a lot of oil too, plus nuclear energy plants, plus nuclear bombs, plus it has used the latter!).

Flash forward to present black-outs: apparently we Third Worlders were wrong AGAIN: Americans don't do everything right, privatisation of vital services like running water and electricity does not work! Should we look somewhere else to find perfect people? Should we look at ourselves to find the perfect models for our own way of life?

P.S.: Ignore all of these, it was written in an explosion of thought and ideas.

2003-08-15T21:28:00.000Z

Czeched it Out!

I am just back from a little trip to Dresden and Prague. It was fun. Dresden is beautiful, and seeing that it has been rebuilt after the unmerciful bombing by the allies in the WWII is refreshing. Stunning architecture and very glamorous: Florence of Elbe is an understatement, Florence is Dresden of Tuscany! August the Strong has been the king of a happy place.

Prague was fun too, the Castle is amazing, with its total domination of the city and varied architectural styles. The Golden Lane, where originally the soldiers lived, and later Bohemian "Bohemian" artists found a refuge. Franz Kafka lived there too, and it was him that was the most important attraction for me. We went to a restaurant in his birth house (I know, total tourist trap!), and a stupid exhibit. But it was great to be in his city, although it is much brighter than his Prague, expecially the one described in the Trial.

All in all, it was fun. I don't mind going there again!:)

2003-08-03T03:43:00.000Z

I am off to Europe this week, and I am going to take a cruise around Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea. I will try to write regulary (although I am not sure how regular), and take pictures and upload them too.

Meanwhile, can someone tell me if a vegetraeian eats vegtables, what would be the proper food for a humanitarian?

2003-07-29T20:14:00.000Z

Somebody asked me to suggest a bookm about "Current History". I thought for a few minutes, and then came up with answer that was not quite to the his taste: Current History is an oxymoron, so, there is no book about Current History!

Isn't that interesting that we keep on using that word?

2003-07-25T17:53:00.000Z

This really is my kind of site! I spent a total of one and a half hour there, listening to people from different backgrounds reading three sentences in English. The project directors have drawn conclusions from the samples, figuring out how people pronounce English by altering its laws to agree with the prnunciation guidlines of their native tongues.

I have some criticism for the project though. It really makes a great difference where you have learnt your English. A Persian speaker who has learned to speak English in England, pronounces words quite differently than the one who has learnt English in the US (pronouncing aspirated initial "wh" as opposed to flat, nonaspirate American "w"). Also, speakers of languages such as Tatari tend to prnounce English with a Russian accent, since vast majority of them speak Russian as well as their native tongues (even Tajik's have a Russian accent when speaking English).

Despite all these, the whole study is fascinating, and a worth an applause! Further thanks to technology and the internet as well!:)

2003-07-20T09:05:00.000Z

Somebody asked me about my friend tonight and wanted to know what he does. I told her that my friend is a "software engineer". She then asked me about what I do. I said I have not titles, none other than a "Historian" (grossly inaccurate, I don't write history, I study it and try to find answers to its unknown questions, a history researcher/inspector might be a more accurate, although misleading, title). She said, "So, why did you study this much to become a nobody with no title? An educated bum!".

Despite the fact that this might be true, this comment made me think about one feature of our "modern" society: education for the sake of education is a forgotten value. Today, we live in a truly realistic society, universally expecting us to become somebody and do something. Our education is not there to teach us about what we like to know, but to prepare us for our roles as pieces of a huge machine, collectively titled "the economy".

I seem to have missed this feature of modernity; my education scarcely has an economic "function" and certainly is not economical. I did not study to become a piece, but to be able to stay myself, regardless of my role (or lack thereof) in the economy. So, yes, educated bum seems to fit!

2003-07-15T19:07:00.000Z

Remember the time in the middle of the US attack in Iraq, when the Iraqi minister of information (misinformation?!), would come to the television and say that Americans are defeated and they are nowhere in sight, while all the time US soldiers were ca. 100 meters behind him in the Baghdad Airport?

Well, apparently history repeats itself, and it does not take much time either: a certain leader of the free world is apparently as oblivious to the truth as that minister of information.

2003-07-14T02:14:00.000Z

Isn't life full of ironies? Laleh and Ladan wanted to live seperately all their lives. They finally got to die and be buried seperately.

2003-07-10T08:02:00.000Z

Hoder has an interesting link to Pedram's Eyeranian weblog. Apparently one of Pedram's previous posts about Micheal Ledeen, was located by Mr. Ledeen himself, and he was concerned enought to write some comments about what Pedram had written.

It is very fascinating to read Ledeen's reply. Talk about missing the point, and talk about Trotskyist turned Neo-Con. Even further than that, talk about the lingering colonialist/world power mentality. Ledeen said it himself that he thinks he is not wrong, and who am I to say he is. Still, I am sure he is right because he is seeing the world through his own glasses, and as we say in Persian (yes, it is Persian, not Farsi), Whoever goes to the court alone, will come back fully satisfied!

Mr. Ledeen and his similar minded bodies should change their glasses and see the world in a COMPLETELY different light. What they should notice the most is that they are the people who have been educated in a very black and white system, one that assumes its formation is the standard, and judges all others by this standard. The foundation of your social science study needs an overhawl, and until then, you are just going to miss the point, and we will always have this argument. For now, what we want is for you to stop sticking your nose in our business, as we have done about your country, and I am sorry if you are one of those people who thinks US has the right, or the absurd "duty", to stick its nose in other people's business. However well wishing you might be, you are hurting us much more than you are helping us, so as they say in chatrooms: "thanks, but no thanks!"

2003-07-03T08:37:00.000Z

Julius Caesar was a Christian?!!

US TV channel, TNT (has nothing to do with the explosive) has produced a film called "Caesar" that chronicles the life of GAIVSIVLIVSCAESAR or as we know him, Julius Caesar. The history buff that I am, I was watching it, and yes, I was grinding my teeth because of the historical inaccuracies (Sula arguing with Pompey over a thief?!!!).

There were some funny bloopers in the film, but the most hilarious one was when Caesar's first wife, Cornelia (granddaughter of Scipio??), had just died. Caesar came to her bed, picked her up, and said:"Cornelia, wake up! Wake up! This cannot happen, oh JESUS, this cannot happen!"!!!!!!!!!! I had no idea Caesar was a christian and cursed liked one way before Jesus was even born! I wonder if the director of this piece even bothered consulting a highschool history teacher, let alone a historian!

On another note, I am going to be away for three days, sorry for slow updates then. Cheers!

2003-07-01T04:47:00.000Z

Interesting news for the Bloggers in the US. Fortunately, I am not sure where I am! (thanks to Netlex, merci!)

2003-06-27T05:58:00.000Z

Star Wars, Darth Vader, and Global Politics

In many Holywood films, there is a strange relationship between the negative and positive characters. The "badman" is an absolute evil with all the possible negative points, while the good hero is as impeccable as he or she can be. Their values are quite black and white, as black as Darth Vader's armour and as white as Luke Skywalker's cotton clothes. However, by the time we learn to hate the badman with a passion, they turn out to be the father of the good guy. Who can forget James Earl Jonse's voice: "Luke, I am your father!". It seems to be universal, and doesn't just end with the freudian father-son relationship; Dr. Evil is Austin Powers' brother!

These strange, over the top, and unbelievable relationships can be expanded to the real world of global politics. We live in the age of absolute evil villains like Usama and Saddam, laughable and grotesque dictators like Kim Jung Il, and charismatic, charming and rich good guys: George Bush, Tony Blair, and almost made for TV Silvio Berlusconi. One wonders, are we going to find out that the villains and the good guys are related?

2003-06-22T01:29:00.000Z

I am completely stunned by how many conservative weblogs we have in English. It is in a sense quite overwhelming, since the TV news is basically all conservative (although some are attempting to create the buzzword: "Liberal Media"! Nice story, tell it to Fox News!). I am not sure why so many conservatives feel obliged to make weblogs that say the same thing that Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, American Enterprise Institute, Project for New American Century, and Donald Romsfeld say! Apparently some have the idea that repetition would make people believe that what they say is the truth!

Anyway, what is even more interesting is that some Iranians, especially those inside Iran with a good knowledge of English, write things in their weblogs that fuel the propaganda of these English conservative blogs even further. I know many of these Iranian bloggers, and believe you me, they are not conservatives, and they certainly don't want US forces to liberate them. They want freedom, they want to live without being told that such and such actions endanger the national security, they want to live in a fair and just society, they call themselves secular liberals. So, isn't it ironic that the Conservative US sources, backed by conservative evangelical institutions, are now supporting these liberal Iranians? The people who created the concepts of National Security, unpatriotic conduct, Patriot Act, Department of Homeland Securoty, etc., now want to support the people who are trying to escape the National Secutiry, un-Islamic conduct, revoluvtionary acts, Department of Information?!!!!

2003-06-20T23:31:00.000Z

I guess Hoder's list of Iranian Weblogs in English has attracted the attention of all of those right-wing blogs who are waiting for another fireworks in the Middle East so they can have fun and brace themselves for the "freedoms" they have (meanwhile, their freedoms are being taken away smoothly!). I really hope we Iranians prove them wrong.

2003-06-19T18:15:00.000Z

I am learning Scottish! Fascinating language, sounds like Dutch spoken with an Arabic accent by someone from Russia! 60,000 speakers left in the world. If it falls down to less than 50,000, it is considered a dead language. Just adding to the statistics!

2003-06-19T03:32:00.000Z

Wow! I just discovered that a very interesting site called Blogs of War has included this weblog in its Iran Special section. I quite agree that "when hell breaks loose", Iranian Blogs in English are going to be of much importance, though I am not sure how important my Braindroppings are going to be! As a historian, I doubt that all hell is going to break loose if the current protests do not get fueled from outside the country, and may I suggest that those who hope for the hell to break loose are in for a great disappointment? If you are really interested in promoting change in Iran and really wish the country to be free and prosperous, not prosperous a la Americain, then just stay quiet!

Iran has had two revolutions in a period of less than a century. Both revolutions have been bloody, and some might suggest that it was a single revolution that lasted for one hundred years. In any case, I think people of Iran are not ready for another serious uprising. The general consensus suggests that the majority of the people prefer a peaceful transfer of power, although it is not going to be easy with the current power holders.

In any case, I will continue to write my random thoughts here, and if by any chance I was wrong and all hell DID break loose, well, I just will admit it! But if I turn out to be right, I am going to dance on all of your heads!!! (I am an over the top competitor, if you were wondering!)

2003-06-17T23:00:00.000Z

Well, governments always want to control everything, that is just their characteristic. However "democratic" they might be (and defining that democracy by itself is quite a job), they still need to manipulate the population they govern and rally as much support as they can in order to guarantee their own survival.

Instances of controling history and how things have happened or are happening are very common. In its most oppresive version, government control of history becomes as grotesque as the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell's 1984.

However, this particular attempt ought to be the first in government manipulation of history: trying to change how the history is going to be written! A new achievement from the people who brought you the New World Order (or lack thereof!).

2003-06-17T22:41:00.000Z

Why is abbreviation such a long word?
Why can't girls put on mascara without opening their mouth?

2003-06-11T09:05:00.000Z

Some things are odd, and among them, are what religions dictate to their followers. Have you noticed that the sins against which a religion advises its followers, usually are the biggest problems in that society? Zoroastrianism is the biggest enemy of Lies, yet one of its greatest adherents, Darius the Great, based his whole rule on a big lie! Islam advises against excess in societies that are most wasteful. Christians keep on mentioning "turn the other cheek" metaphore, and they suffer from the worst acts of retaliation and revenge, and "Thou Shalt not Kill" was sent by the god of the Jews.

I wonder, is this the characteristic of these monotheistic (or almost monotheistic) religions or is it universal? Does Buddhism advise against a habit that the Chinese or Thais really suffer from?

2003-06-09T18:52:00.000Z

My Persian blog is acting unusually. It has been transfered to the new blogger system, but it does not ublish anything, or even show unicode. So, if anyone here reads that, please be aware.

2003-05-27T20:41:00.000Z

I bought a book from Phoenix publications.

It was good book, I read it many times, so much that it was all torn.

I burnt it so a new book can come out of its ashes. But I guess I was mistaken!

2003-05-11T09:20:00.000Z

English is a remarkable language when it comes to transformating and updating itself. Many other languages, French comes to mind and Persian I can testify, have a serious problem called "Historical Spelling". It means that since written language evolves much slower than the spoken one, the spoken language seems to distance itself from the written, and over a period of time, words start to sound much differently than their written versions ("subpoena", which is in fact pronounced "sapeenaa" is an example, as is "knife" and its spoke verion, nyf).

But English is amazing in the way it avoids falling too deeply into this trap. I am not sure when they started uniforming the English spelling system (as you know, it was rather chaotic in the times of Shakespear, or was it Shakesper, or Shakespeare, or Shakespere?). But it seems that reinventing the spellings for words is a built-in characteristic of this language. Some, admitedly me included, don't like "Americanisations" such as Nite, Center, Thru, and so on, but in fact, this is going to be how these words will be spelled in a generation or two. Although this makes the access to older literature limited (Chaucer "looks" so different, when it in fact does not "sound" much different), it is probably the appropriate thing for this modern, fast paced world of ours.

2003-05-09T09:08:00.000Z

Evidently my habit of not writing in this blog very often (average of once every two weeks!), has prompted some of the soles who had been nice enough to link to me to change their links to inactive! Well folks, I am active!

Something quick. I have been reading some famous English blogs lately, and I obviously read many Persian ones. Among the Iranian crowd, Liberalism seems to be the prevailing political idea, while conservatism is rare. Interestingly enough, among the famous English blogs, I see much more conservatism than liberalism! One imagines that with American media being so completely in the grips of conservatives, people would look to the 'net for expression of their liberal ideals. Apparently not!

2003-04-21T05:51:00.000Z

This is an article I wrote for Perspective, journal of Iranian Student Cultural Organization of UC Berkeley. It is trying to introduce the Iranian blogging community to the English speaking world.

2003-04-16T08:42:00.000Z

I am writing a short article about the "Clash of Civilisations". It is naturally going to look at the historical validity of the whole theory and whether Mr. Huntington had access to good sources (assuming if he did, he also bothered to read them!)

Does anyone here believe in this theory? I would love to know. (no dog opinions!)

2003-03-28T08:39:00.000Z

I am in Germany now, so sorry since I cannot write more often. I don't suppose anyone missed me really, but if you did, I will be back in 10 days or so. Meanwhile, there are many things happening in this world that should be more curious to you than reading my nonesense!

2003-03-21T02:49:00.000Z

Norouz Pirouz! Happy New Iranian Year. Have a wonderful 1382 and enjoy the Spring!

2003-03-20T03:34:00.000Z

"The Early Stages for the Disarmament of Iraqi Regime Have Begun."

Some people go through such pains not to say "war" ! It is a war, an aggressive, unjust, unilateral, murderful WAR! At least be honest and accept the fact.

P.S.: Have you noticed how American journalists (and even politicians) pronounce Qatar (the country that is hosting the headquarters of US army in Persian Gulf) like "Gutter"?!!! What is so hard about saying q-a--t-a-r?!

2003-03-12T06:51:00.000Z

Iranians ought to be among the least sensitive people on earth when it comes to the issue of languages. I guess it is an unconscious response to being acquinted with a very rich and old literature from an early age. Whatever it is, it comes up most obviously when Iranians learn foreign languages, or try to do so. I know of many who cannot still speak the language of the countries they live in properly. They speak the language well enough to get by, but not to actually be able to carry out a discussion on any serious subject. It gets even worse in a society that itself is notorious for not caring about language, namely that of the USA.

Among the worst outcomes of this, is the virtual replacement of the term "Persian" (when refering to language of Iran) by the term Farsi. They both come from the same source, Pars/Fars, the name of the tribe that spoke an ancient form of the language. However, each language has its own rules and regulations. In English for example, the name of the official language of Iran has always been Persian (in French that would be Persan, Persisch in German, and etc.). So, using the term "Farsi" when speaking English, is like saying "I speak Eliniki" instead of saying "I speak Greek"! The term Farsi has now become common in English (and even in some other European languages) and in the minds of many, has disassociated itself from the term "Persian". People tend to think that Persian was the language of the Persian Empire, while Farsi is the language of "modern" Iran, when in fact, both refer to the one and the same language, the same one that Rumi, Hafez, and Hedayat used to communicate their ideas. Let's respect the host languages, be more language conscious and care about this basic means of human communication.

2003-03-03T07:21:00.000Z

I have never changed my name. You know, one of my favourite bumper-sticker's is the one that says:"Born Right the First Time!". It is against those ultra born-again Chrisitians! I guess it is the same with my name. I am called Khodadad by my parents. They are not religious, they are not nationlists either. They wanted to name me something that was both a little, let's call it religious in meaning, and also not Arabic, as almost all of religious names in Iran are Arabic. They belonged to a generation who was reviving the pre-Islamic Iranian identity, but were still fund of the way they grew up. So, I got to be called Khodadad: Khoda (god)+dad (given)=God Given!

It has a harsh KH sound at the beginning (J in Spanish or CH in German or Dutch). Many who speak English have problems with it. Still, I am still called by my full name. I never changed my name because I wanted to be accepted in an English speaking society. There are a lot of Shahins who call themselves Shawn, Mortezas who answer to Mo, Salimes who go with Saly, and so on and so forth. I like my name, it is unusual, even in Iran. It even has international recognizability, thanks to the Footballer, Khodadad Azizi!

It also has close equivilants in many languages: Theodosius in Greek, Dieudone in French, Bagdan in Russian. So, I like my name, since it is my name, it shows my background, it doesn't try to hide the fact that I am Iranian, and it certainly makes me stand out of the crowd, and god knows I love that last part!!!!

2003-02-28T06:33:00.000Z

This weblog was suppose to be a little personal as well. I guess I have been taking the "Brain" part of the braindroppings a little too seriously!!!

I think I should tell you that I now work in the office of an immigration lawyer in Berkeley, California. It is an interesting job, and I in a way have a hands-on experience on how the "land of immigrants" treats the new immigrants. By the way, don't you think it would be both a nice pun and a rather awful fantasy if the land of immigrants becomes the land of emigrants?

I am also going to go to Germany pretty soon to see my girlfriend. That is certainly something to get excited about, no pun intended!!!!

By the way, have you heard that one particular leader in this world has been calling himself the protector of civilisation and thinks he has a mission to protect the "civilisation" against those who hate it? Ironic, isn't it? Seems like some people don't know the meaning of civilisation.

Enough nonsense today, I should get to updating this page more often (everybody say yeah!)

2003-02-19T03:10:00.000Z

I went to the anti-war demonstrations in San Francisco this Sunday. It was not as exciting as the one last year in London, but it was still good. People showed that they care. The slogans and the pictures people carried were an indication that they don't believe the media propaganda, and they have questions. Asking questions is always a positive sign, it shows that people are still alive!

A lot of people were either questioning the real motivations for a proposed war on Iraq or the true identity of those who promote it. Some were supporting the Palestinian struggle. It was interesting to see many Christian groups, usually associated with conservatism, to be present. All in all, it was a positive and encouraging atmosphere.

Update: here is a news item talking about President Bush's reaction (or lack thereof) to this worldwide demonstration.

2003-02-14T03:17:00.000Z

I don't like extremists. I don't take the people who want to find a quick solution to everything very seriously. It takes a long time to build, and it is a pitty that destruction goes a lot faster. So, maybe we should re-learn all that we have learnt. Maybe we should think many times before we think of destroying.

2003-02-10T00:04:00.000Z

They tell me you are hardworking. You are curious, and you try hard to learn about everything.

I say, no, I am not the hardworking one. With so much to learn around us, the real hardworking ones are the ones who manage not to be curious and to learn nothing and to lead their lives knowing just what is essential. I admire those people, really!

2003-02-02T06:31:00.000Z

Opinion: I hate Sushi!

Fact 1: Sushi was originally created as a mean of preserving fish

Fact 2: Fish are best preserved in water

Conclusion: Don't eat Sushi, it's Yuck!

2003-01-30T05:26:00.000Z

This really is how I always feel. I missed it when I coulod see the dream.

When I was a child, I caught a flickering glimps
out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look, but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
the child is grown, the dream is gone
and I have become comfortably numb.

(with the exception that the child HAS NOT grown!:))

2003-01-16T17:22:00.000Z

I wonder if anyone out there is familiar with a concept I have dubbed "intellectualication?!!" I know, your answer is probably no. Donâ€™t try the word in your spell checker; it is in none of the standard word processor spelling dictionaries. I suppose it is a rather exclusive, very Iranian concept, although most Iranians are not even aware of it themselves!

No other nationality I have ever had the pleasure of talking to, and believe me, there has been quite a lot of them, had displayed such tendency; oh, maybe the Greeks, but that is a separate story.

Iranians are capable of sitting down with a total stranger and start to talk about quite complicated stuff, and debate it using their own exclusive sources (I will "find" it and show it to you sort). The scene gets quite funny, without the Iranian party noticing, when the aforementioned total stranger happens to be non-Iranian, and thus inexperienced (i.e. clueless) as of the circumstances.

Philosophy, logic, social psychology, politics, law, and commerce are all common subjects. More out-of-this-world and politically incorrect subjects such as the existence of aliens and homosexual marriages are not barred. Generally, political correctness is not a concern in these settings.

What is amazing in my opinion is the sources that people use. Known wise men and pundits, especially old school poets and philosophers, preferably the 400-years-or-more-old kind, are everyoneâ€™s reference, their words spiced up with some well known piece of poetry. The 40â€™s and 50â€™s activists prefer to use Marx or similar hairy wise men to back up their points. The revolutionaries of the 70â€™s go for more home made ones like Al Ahmad or Dr. Shariati. The younger generation uses a mixture of Rumi, Marx, Al Ahmad, spiced up with Metallica lyrics.

All in all, your average Iranian is easily capable of intellectualication for you about anything, and all of them manage to solve the problem in hand before dinner. Yes, we are special indeed!

2003-01-08T19:29:00.000Z

My English blog has had a lot of problems, mainly due to its template settings. I am trying to revive and restart this. Please be patient!

2002-09-16T14:49:00.000Z

Ù�I guess the Persian blog has been taking so much of my time that I don't find any time to update this English page. I was in Iran all summer long, and was doing my dissertation too. I am done now, and am in Germany looking for a job. Does anyone have any offers?:)

This is a story which I have written recently. I finished putting the Persian version in my other blog. It took four installments there, I will see how long it takes here. Tell me what you think.

Bahram was the god of war!

For thousands of years he had ruled over the Aryan armies that crossed the desserts and fields. He had helped them in their conquests, lead their attacks, and had talked with Yim (that lord of the dead), to bring some of their commanders back to life.

He was a good god: not bloodthirsty like his Greek colleague Ares, not a â€œwimpâ€� like the Scandinavian Tyr. He knew war is necessary for his peopleâ€™s quest to find a homeland, and he helped them wholeheartedly.

Then, after Aryans had settled down, there came this guy called Zoroaster who deposed all gods from their positions and said that Hormozd was the only god!

Hmmmphd, laughed Bahram with himself! Hormozd as the â€œonlyâ€� god, what joke! He was the weakest kid in school, never did sports, always read his books, and everyone always picked on him; now he as the only god!!!

But there was not much Bahram could do. When the king of the Aryans, Darius himself, instead of asking for Bahramâ€™s support, called on Hormozd for his next campaign, Bahram realised that his time was up.

He held on for a few more centuries, hoping someone might come up and rescue things. When the same thing happened to his Roman friend, Mars, Bahram became worried. Then came Julian, a Roman emperor, who brought Mars back to power, and Bahram became hopeful again. Unfortunately, that was only a temporary fling, and then Mars was sent into retirement as well.

At last, there came a man from Arabia called Mohammad, and he not only confirmed the deposition of gods, but also deposed Hormozd himself! Bahram was happy in a sense and was giggling by himself behind Hormozdâ€™s back. But he then realised that all hope is gone, and he better do something with himself, since as everyone knows, gods are immortal, and they get bored too, and when their people donâ€™t give them alms, they also get hungry, and so they need money! ...

2002-06-17T22:30:00.000Z

Not much to enter for today. Just going around and buying the stuff my mom needs and saying goodbye to Nice for now. I have been here for a months, and I kinda am sad about leaving, especially this town I am in which is cool and cute.

I am also reading this book that I found here, should be my uncle or aunt's. Regardless, I just started reading it outta sheer boredom and not having a book, but it is actually good, it is called "Life is Not All Ha Ha, Hee Hee" and it is about the life of three British Indians from the East End (Layton in fact, where I was going to live first, but decided against it).

And, Brasil won over Belgium 2-0, and I am sad, since I like Belgium! US won over Mexico which was a wonder. Since the Amricans don'w have a proper league, there is no way you can safely estimate their abilities! They sucked in the last World Cup, and doing very good this time. I am still hoping Germany or Brasil win the cup!

2002-06-16T22:35:00.000Z

This doesn't let me edit a lot of specifications, does it? How do I change the main text font, and I want to centre the title, can anyone help?

2002-06-16T22:09:00.000Z

I don't really know why I am doing this, but well, since I did it, I better continue! I already have a Persian weblog, khodadad.blogspot.com as well as a webpage: www.iranologie.com. I was just only looking for a good way to put it on my own server, when all of a sudden decided to write something in English. Persian is my mother tongue you know, have been writing in it for, well, a good 19 years, which brings us to the fact that I am 25!

So, let's see, that was the first fact, not counting the Iranian nationality that should have been transparant through the Persian language remark thing, although true, it could have also suggested an Afghani or Tajik nationality! What else, yeah, I have been living outside Iran since 1995, when I moved to the US, and now I live in London, doing a masters in Economic History at the LSE (London School of Economics of course, duh!). I have also done a degree in philology and ancient Iranian languages, and these stuff, history, economic history, languages, and literature are my most passionate interests.

At this moment, I am writing these stuff from Cote d'Azure, in a little city called Villefranche Sur Mer. it is really cool (hot actually, but you know what I mean!). I am going back to London soon. So, I hope I can update these regularly. I am not sure of that, since I spend more time on the Persian one, but since sometimes I tend to think in English, then I will try to write my thinkings in English too, how about that? So, come back and read, and maybe you would be less bored!

Me