Taboo

Today in the class, instead of listening to the boring lecture of my professor which by the way is a really good man, I was thinking about what to write here. Because I had one week of vacation and by surprise almost didn't do anything useful. Suddenly I realized that I have done plenty of things, I just don't know what to write about them. Well! I went to Paris for two days and had a really good time. And then right after arriving at Toulouse from the train station went to see an Iranian film with my Iranian friends. It was called "Taboo", made by a girl who interestingly was an old classmate and friend of one of my Iranian friends in here. The film was a documentary on prostitution in Iran which is in fact a real "Taboo"! There are so many things to say about the film. About the structure which is weak and the story too! But the subject is so new and powerful that it can keep you thirsty even after the film finishes. But I think the interesting thing is the huge gap and distance between two major and important groups in Iran. First group is the ones who have participated in 8 years of Iran-Iraq war. Although this group is not very big in number but it sure is powerful.

In the war it was necessary to make the soldiers believe in the cause of the war. It is necessary for every country to have brave soldiers to defend the country. So they were somehow "institutionalized". Their minds were made ready for the war. They had believed that it was a war for "holly defense"- the official name for 8-year war!-but when it finished and they came back they saw a completely different society which was rushing through modernization with the huge tall buildings in Tehran as a sign of it. Some of them were able to accept the changes. Some preferred to isolate themselves from the society around them. But there was this third group who decided to fight against the changes which they believed were against the "Goals of the Revolution".

The second group which I am talking about, on the other hand was the huge number of young people which were searching new ways to overcome the limitations and wanted the opportunity to go their own way. Their parents made a revolution against the Shah and they were able to choose, although many of these parents might feel sorry for what they did. But now their children see themselves doomed to accept whatever is offered to them. They are nearly half of the population but without any power to change anything. So they live in a society which they can't participate in any part of it. 25 years ago when people established the new regime, all the members of the government were under 40 and the prime minister was only 27 years old. But now we are witnessing the very same people ruling still!

Enough for now! This was just an excuse to write these lines and these were only my thoughts when watching the movie. But I will write about the other side of this movie soon.

Contact

Everywhere must be like this. Meeting new people from far away countries brings people closer and brings more understanding among them. Last night we sat down and spoke about the world, history and everything which is happening around us in our countries. And we were Iranian, Pakistani, Indian and a friendly boy from Mauritius Islands.

Knock Down

Safin knocked down Federer at last!

I wrote the above line the day Safin won over Federer in Australian Open tennis games. I was unable to continue it since then. Now the news itself is not of any value but the story behind it and how dramatically in a 5 set game Safin finished it is his favor is incredible. I like Federer and I wanted him to win this game as the ones before, but after this game I just admired the will of a man to overcome an impossible.

Evolution

Can you believe it? My prediction –unfortunately- is becoming true. United States are becoming more and more like Iran. Religious beliefs are driving the country away from the real foundations of America. Look at this article in New York Times.

Space, the final frontier

Last week I received a mail regarding an internship opportunity to do a project about image processing in Mars explorations. Unfortunately in the bottom of the letter it said only for French students. I talked with my professor about it and explained to him how much I want to have this internship. Just a day after, I received a mail saying that the position is full. I guess they just couldn't say it is because I am non-French. But anyway, I just had a 5% hope so I am not very disappointed. I will try to find something else in a similar area because I'm sure that in a city with everything related to aerospace and space it is not a hard thing to do. I just have to do something with my nationality!!!
To be honest, in the last few days there were times which I hopefully believed I could get it. It was so good I couldn't believe it, so it was easy to dream, at least for a short period. Before this, I thought there is a difference between Europe and US about it, that US would allow foreigners more easily in these kinds of projects but now I think even US would not do that unless it is completely sure about that person. Somehow maybe it is not very illogical after all. It is their right to be careful about their high tech knowledge and not giving it away so easily. However, at the same time it is our right to not give up so easily too!

Nonsense Politics

I might reduce the amount of political articles in my weblog because it is making me tired. I think it is a useless thing but for now I want to add some things about my recent posts, especially two of them, one about the Indian and Pakistanis and second, about the article in NewYorker.
This is an explanation I made for my Indian friend who reads this weblog:

There may be a misunderstanding about my post about Iranians' opinion about Indian and Pakistani people. I didn't mean that Iranians don't like Indians or even anything close to that. Majority of the Iranians -if not all- have very close feelings toward India. Your leaders of the independence of India especially Gandhi have a special place in Iranians' hearts. But when it comes to a western country Iranians lose their self confidence and they think they are dealing with a superior force. Well, they might be right, but not totally. And the thing I had written about my friends may relate to that. Few of my friends in here told me my friendship with Indians and Pakistanis may cause the French people to make a distance with me. It may be true, it may have other meanings, for example it might mean that some of the French people may have racist thoughts but I felt this is not right. Even if French and any other western people feel like this we should not give up making relations among ourselves.

But about the view which western media have made of Iran. I don't say it is not true, but it is as if you show only a small portion of truth and claim that is the whole truth. This is not the way it is going to work. The difference about this issue between US and Europe is that I think European people have much more political information than US, so when their politicians and press want to say something they are very careful but in United States as you know this is not the case. US tends to exaggerate about just a small part of truth more than Europe. I am not a very patriot Iranian. I maybe one of the critics which criticize every thing in my country specially because I am from north western part of Iran and we are originally Azeri but when I see a false statement or impression about Iran I feel responsible to correct it. I like to clear up some ideas about my country now but I am not sure whether this is the right place or not. Anyway I will write it here. My next post will be my ideas about Persian weblogs and after that other topics which I think others might have some misunderstandings about them.

Pakistan, Land of Paks

My relations with Pakistani and Indian friends is very special. When I came here after a while some of my Iranian friends in here and even in Iran warned me about this relation. Their reasons were very different and vast but I had a feeling that they all had some forms of racism. Unfortunately this is a very delicate matter which a person might not feel it but may fall into it. And about this specific matter I felt that it is more important and logical to have good relations with the people of neighbor countries than with the people living in western countries. I say this because although relating yourself to the powerful and dominant side seems reasonable, at the end when it comes to reality we can witness that the very same countries try to rob you and always look at you from the above. But we always neglect the countries we have beside us, the very same countries that have the most things in common with us, mostly a common and very close history and the ones who could be our best friends. That is a thing we can easily learn from Europe. The EU does a miracle in here bringing everyone from European countries very up close together, because it is simply so natural to do so. Probably all the world should step in the same path, first bringing the people in the same regions together and maybe hopefully at the end bring everyone in our planet together.

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

"Imagine", John Lennon

Courageous Rabbit

Yesterday I saw a brown rabbit beside the sidewalk eating something in the ground and not paying attention to anything near it. I passed from just half a meter away and it didn't even care to take a look at me. Unfortunately we humans are so used to seeing animals run away from us that such an incident and such an event completely remains in the memory, at least for a few days or maybe even more.

Disappear

Someone tell me why is it that whenever somebody sits behind his or her computer to type the things that had in mind all the things mysteriously disappear!

Mediateque

Yesterday I found one of the most mind-blowing places in my life. Probably there are thousands of these kinds of places around the world. But considering my case that I come from a third world country and originally from a rather small city in that country I may be excused for my unexplainable feeling of discovering a holy place. The place I am talking about is "Mediatheque", the main library of Toulouse, with a completely modern building and everything I would ever want inside! How easily satisfied I would be to feel like this?

Professor ...? are you serious?!!!

While nobody has done anything about this issue in other Middle Eastern countries, they are putting everything under close watch for Iran! A few months ago a physics professor in Urmia, my home town was introduced by Israeli radio as the architect and designer of Iranian nuclear program. I happen to know him very closely as he is one of my father's colleagues in university of Urmia, and when one of my high school friends told me about this we had a long laugh over this. The whole idea of this news was so pathetic that it made no sense. This friend of mine is now working at Bonab's institutional nuclear facility and before that he studied physics in Urmia. He is a very trusted source for me regarding some of the actions which Nuclear Agency does in Iran. For example, he was telling me recently that because of the lack of space they had to divide an office into two in their work place by making a wall in the room which is a very common thing o do in Iran or any other place around the world I guess! And the agency had not approved it.

I also read this somewhere but I don't remember the source:
Bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity!
Apparently it has nothing to do with the things I wrote above but it was a nice sentence and I like these kinds of short sentences.

High Fidelity

Her smell, …and taste
I don't know! it's mystery of human chemistry and I don't understand it. But some people as far as your senses are concerned just feel like home!

A380

Today was a very important day for aerospace and aviation industry. Airbus finally unveiled its A380. Leaders of the four major European countries gathered in Blagnac airport of Toulouse to celebrate this event. I was lucky to witness a test flight of this huge thing two months ago and I must say it is very strange to see such a big thing flowing in the sky. It is as if you see a giant duck passing by! This is a new feeling and experience for me to be in a city where all of this is happening!

Everyone says I love you!

Today there was an amazing article about Iran in Newyorker . It is very strange when an Iranian reads this. This feeling which no American can understand! It was discussing the different ways which US can invade Iran bring down the regime. What might an Iranian who lives in Iran or has a family in Iran think about this? Iranian are very patriotic nation which can not withstand an invasion similar to Iraq or any other invasion for this matter. For example, sending commandos into Iran to attack nuclear facilities, what the f*** are they thinking? After my previous post in here, only one logical conclusion can be made: Everybody in the world is getting mad! I seriously hope that all of this is a stupid joke. For the last two or three years US has really disappointed everyone! Being the most powerful country in the world and mishandling this power in such a terrible way is an art which not everyone can do.

What the hell are they thinking?

Well, my expectations from the readers of my weblog -if there is any - is not much because I update very randomly but when after a long time I see a comment in my blog I really enjoy. Then it gets totally disappointing to see a comment which has nothing to do with the things I write here.
This time it was the referendum which made me write this. Someone has written a comment and has suggested an anti-filtering technique to enter this website. Then I thought what the hell are they thinking? Have all the intellectuals of my country gone mad? Do they really think this is going to change anything?
I don't mean to be pessimistic but the truth is this time if anything is supposed to happen it won't be anything which has been seen before. This time no one will be able to predict it. There will be a completely young generation with ideas to blow minds and without a leader in an old fashion way. This is what I think and might happen just when nobody is expecting it.