Sunday, May 30, 2004

6 VI Questions

Two days ago I clicked on a link which Hoder had mentioned it in his
weblog. It was a report for NewYork Times newspaper by their reporter Nicholas Kristof.
It was about six important questions regarding Iran in today's world and
many different people from all over Iran had answered to these questions and
Mr. Kristof himself had added some comments to it. The truth is although I
found it rather interesting in many parts it didn't have anything new for me
(which is normal) and it was somehow unprofessional in some parts. First of
all I must mention the subtitles for persian dialogues. They weren't very exact
specially in the first two questions which were the most important ones from the
political point of view. Some of the translations weren't even close to being
correct and the things the person speaking told differed completely with the
translated sentence. And secondly the comments which Mr. Krostof had added were
unreasonably against the government and the islamic clerics of Iran. It's true
that nobody likes them and they aren't so popular among Iranians but this kind
of judgment in a report like this undermines its neutrality. Also in
some parts he sounded like this is a report for government of US and President
Bush. I know this may not be true but its effect on Iranians, at least on me,
is somehow like this.

Saturday, May 29, 2004

Palme D'Or

The hottest news, these days, is perhaps about Michael Moore's film
and winning Palme D'Or in the Cannes film festival. I don't know if
you have seen his last film, Bowling for Colombine which got very famous.
Its fame grew even bigger winnning the Oscar and him giving speech in that
ceremony. That film was amazing. I saw it in cinema twice, I watched it in TV and
still have it in my computer. It totally changed my view on documentary features.
It was completely incomparable with documentary films I had seen before.
But my opinion about the prize he won. This is the second movie in the last one
year which I loved but didn't want them to win these prizes and gain this much
appreciation. The first one was the third part of Lord of The Rings trilogy
and winning eleven oscars seemed sort of extravagance(if this is the correct
word to describe it). I mean I realy like these movies but I can't place them
among the historical masterpieces of cinema.

Saturday, May 15, 2004

Book Fair, Fair Book

This is the sixth day of my visit to Tehran. This is a whole new experience. Being born in Urmia, a somewhat little city, and growing there, then studying in Tehran as a university student for five years and seeing the big potential lying here, I have a new problem to face with. The problem is when I am in Urmia (which is most of the time) I miss Tehran so badly that every day I look for a chance to come to Tehran. Then when I reach here, after just a few days some new problems come to show themselves!
The week which just passed by and went out of our lives for good, had something good in it. Tehran international book fair by itself was a good reason to remember this week. I had the chance to visit the fair for two times. Although I think it doesn’t give a pleasure even close to the one it used to give few years a go in my first years of study in university, it still is a perfect place to satisfy my desire to see as many books as I can. Also it is a perfect place to see other things too!!