Politics in Iran vs politics in Canada!

Today, I read that Mr. Hassan Habibi a prominent leading politician has died in Iran due to heart and diabetic complications.
There is nothing striking about this fact except what I read in Persian and worth writing about.
The short column about his past summarizes that  he was the first Justice minster in Mr. Mehdi Bazargan government, later he became, vice president in Mr. Rafsanjani and Khatami givernment.
The part seemed interesting was this:

حبیبی، در برابر خواسته های مکرر برای گفت و گو و تاریخ نویسی درباره انقلاب که بارها توسط خواهر زاده اش «پروانه وحیدمنش» صورت گرفت، در نهایت گفته بود:‌« یا باید مثل هاشمی رفسنجانی خاطره نویسی کنم و جاهایی را یا حذف کنم یا غیر واقع جلوه دهم یا باید به طور رسمی بیایم و بگویم که ما اشتباه کردیم و به بیراهه رفتیم. من آدم هیچ کدامش نیستم دختر. نه این روزها می توانم بگویم اشتباه کردیم نه می توانم دروغ بنویسم. شاید روزی تاریخ ما را قضاوت کند.»

Mr. Habibi, in the face of repeated calls for expressing his historical views about the revolution by his nephew "Parvaneh vahidmanesh", he replied, "I should like Rafsanjani Memoir censor on many occasions what I have to say or write or just say things there were untruthful. Or I formally or actually come to state that we were wrong and we stepped on the wrong path. I'm not any of these type of people. I can say we did wrong and can't write lies. Maybe one day history will judge us. "

My own comment:
Interesting enough, that no politician in Iran can simply say, I made mistakes. I always wonder where did we learn this, in our family! Iranians learn to be stubborn. As expression goes, chicken has only one leg!  
We should never reveal anything that is internal (in our family circle). Everything on the surface should look perfect. We should never criticize our past, because they were great people and decision makers!
and try to show everything is fine in our inner circle!

compare that to the transparency that I see in Canada. 
Mr. Bob Rae, a liberal member of federal parliament in Canada, who has simply admitted he has smoked pot in the past.
Many come and allowed to criticize the past and learn from it.

I always wonder until we act like this in Iran (refraining from any criticism), can we become democratic in real sense?

maybe? may be not!

  

Why are Swedish women healthier than the British?

Lovely report, why women in Sweden are healthier compare to other counties across Europe. My own 2-cent: This time around that being active is important and necessary for everyone including women and translated as being healthy and may reduce health costs; in Iran government suppresses young women to wear hejab, not leave home and not being active! That is why, if I am not mistaken, the rate of osteoporosis among the Iranian women has increased from 30 years ago! I read that somewhere while ago. Lack of exposure to the sun (cheap vitamin D)
read the rest here

Why many of us don't want to leave their comfort zones?

I just arrived home tonight and saw my housemate who recently got dumped by her boyfriend!

me: Hi F.
F: hi, with a frown face!
me: you seems not too happy!?
F.: no, I hate my work.
me: Would you like to talk about it?
F.: No!
This was the conversation we had. What always makes me wonder, this is the 4 times I hear this statement from her that she doesn't like her job at the university.
I begin to think:
Why she doesn't try something different?
She does go to painting and performing classes, but she complains the classes are too hard! She has to memorize tons of scripts for the theater class! The teacher takes it too serious!

Why people in general hate to leave their comfort zones?

She is not married, doesn't have a child, what is she afraid of? what are we afraid of?

She needs a boyfriend, a partner? I understand...
She is a women, all she need to do have to meet people, talk to them and be truthful
to herself and them! why she doesn't do it?!

I told her a few days ago when she felt down and talked about the last boyfriend; why don't change the way you meet people, perhaps internet!

" I hate that way, to meet people", she said.

I wonder if someone is so stiff, it makes it even more difficult to find someone. From a mathematical point of view, a stiff differential equation may create lots of high frequency noise!!:-)

All and all, she may be just having a PMS! who knows!

Ehsān Narāghi has paased away.

Ehsān Narāghi, an Iranian sociologist and writer passed away on Dec 6, 2012.

A few years ago that I was always wonder why Iranian revolution had taken place in 1979 and what mobilized Iranians to protest against the Shah, I came across Dr. Naraghi's book from Place to Prison. This book was a great eye-opener in which he describes well the mood of those days from Shah to people on the street and later in prison and the ideological people he spend time with.
I enjoyed reading the book. The book initiated me to start and learn about his character and knowing his love for Iran.
According to many sources he established a research center at the University of Tehran for studies on Iranian society. 
He seemed to try hard to understand Iranian society, but I hope that in future people try to study his thoughts without any prejudice.

Dave Brubeck: Take Five jazz pianist dies

My understanding of his work goes back in several years ago when I heard take five first after several years in a commercial of Infinity car during Wimbledon Tennis championship.
since then, I have been fascinated with his music work and wished I knew him earlier and had an opportunity to attend his concerts live. This is to his memory.
You can read more about him in here. Apparently, he died one day before his 92 birthday!

Definition of idiot!

I came across the following definition of stupidity! and I think I have been in many occasions idoit!:)

The term IDIOT was used based on the definition of stupidity derived from a book called “Story of Stupidity: A History of Western Idiocy from the Days of Greece to the Present”. According to James F. Welles, the author and researcher, stupidity is the act of repeating an action while expecting a certain result and obtaining the opposite.

Pushing your boundaries!

In my younger and more, I was a quiet child who tried not to disturbed anyone, I think this was a result of my parents specifically my dad and school system in Iran.
Later I tried to be more pro-active but then I had this habit of filtering many things and try to avoid many issues.
Being selective in reading and studying stayed with me until almost in my late PhD work. I always thought what is point of taking an extra course of elective about philosophy, sociology or physiology! Writing essays about those topics is waste time, big time! or studying all the point they teach us in the undergraduate degree.
Until recently I had this idea, then I have learned something, what you try to avoid will return and hunt you!
Also, the best way is to learn and be open-minded since learning anything new will add to your skills and information and in today's world those who learn and process fast are the winners.

Hold on to your guns!

1. Apparently, Ms Clinton ( the state secretery of USA) has said if Iran cooperates for transparency of the nuclear program, the sanctions can be eased.
Here we go, it is all about national interest of every country, not surprising Ms. Clinton does not press for human rights issues rather cooperation in regards to nuclear program.
So, in the end Iranian people should look after themselves rather than looking for any extra help from out side world!   

2. I watched briefly the debate between Ramney and President Obama. According to BBC polls, Rmney has won with almost 20% margin.
I think I have one word of advice for President Obama, be authoritative in your speech and when you talk, look at the camera, like you are looking at eyes of all people who listen.
A brief observation showed that he seemed that he was not so certain about what he was saying. By looking away from the camera, it seemed that he was trying to avoid something.
Interesting that eye contact make a big difference.

Why Iranian will not protest agaist increase food prices!

I just read on the online news that athlete, actors and actresses have made a charity for people in North west of Iran who have lost their home due to the recent earth quake.

According to Mr. Parviz Parastouii one of the three leading people in this charatable work, about 161,000,500 Toman has been gathered. Considering one dollar is 2000 Toman that makes it US$ 80,750 in one day of charatable work.
So far so good!
This money has been gathered in a country that an average engineer let's say makes about 1,200,000 (It might be even less) Toman per month that roughly makes about US$ 600. Considering this is fairly more than average income for many in Tehran, then you wonder who has donated so much money, or perhaps people have money for a day that they really need money! (As in Iran we say that)
Considering the price of goods and foods are comparable to Europe, then I wonder how people can donate such a fairly huge amount of money with an income below average and the prices somewhat equal or higher than some developed countries!
So, I came to this conclusion that people in Iran and particularly in Tehran are still rich and increase of prices will not lead to any unrest across the country. It might affect in some remote areas the quality of life but definitely not significantly as many may anticipate.

Let's seriously talk Persian!

1. This is for those who say we speak Farsi.
Let's seriously stop this word.
Arab could not say Parsi or Persian since they have no 'p' in their alphabets, the said Farsi. And we simply have replaced it.
So, the language is Persian! nothing more or less, Old Pahlavi, middle Pahlavi, and modern Pahlavi (Persian)
2. another word: Ghaza which in Arabic is feces of Camel and we refer to that as food!!

غذا. [ غ َ ] (ع اِ) بول شتر. (اقرب الموارد). رجوع به غذی شود

غذااین واژه عربی است و پارسی آن اینهاست: واسان (پهلوی)، پیهان (پهلوی: پیهَن)، پیتو (اوستایی
let's use Persian equivalent: Vasaan, Bihaan, Pito.

2. Isfahan is Sepahan
and there are tons more. Let's remove some non-sense Arabic words from out language.

Interesting documentary aboout Qu'ran

Quite interesting documentary, worth seeing.


excerpts: contrary to belief of Muslims the Qu'ran may have been changed and its script today are not exactly what originally anticipated. German scientists have done detailed study on the origin of Qu'ran.

and if you get a chance take a look at this clip taken from Iran. It has nothing to do with the above documentary. It is about what police are doing to young women in Iran!

A key fact: Present yourself well!

This past weekend, I was in Vancouver attended the Canadian Society of Biomechanics 2012 conference. It was quite interesting to see that Canada is a leading power in biomechanics. With so many research going on in biomechanics, motor control, muscle-motor, injury biomechanics and many more areas. However, one thing many admitted was despite such celebrity and leading roles in the world, there is lack of industry or if there is any they are in dieing condition. To summarize that the research being done at the University does not translate to industrial product in many occasion, unless it is bought by American or Europeans.
I don't want to talk about that particular problem of what should be done to get Canadian industries going or even how to increase federal and provincial funding that are already flattening in biomedical engineering since 2009 and the trend seems to be staying with us.
I would like to dedicate this write up to popular culture and the use of those notions in a presentation and specifically in biomechanics presentations. There were 6 keynote speakers for four days conference and two of them were intended for the public forum. The speakers were from broad spectrum, but one of which I thought might be the least important was Professor E. Paul Zehr , the Director of Centre for Biomedical Research at the University of Victoria, BC, Canada.
He gave a talk that was quite impressive in my opinion. I quite enjoyed the fact that how you could relate many aspects of what you may have enjoyed in your childhood to do and relate those to the science that we study.
He stated that he always wondered if there was possibility to become one of the superheros comics that he has been reading. His love for marshal arts and as he joked to be at the level of his older brother made him to learn marshal arts and then he started to wonder how can someone be as fast as those marshal arts performers and apply the fastest and strongest punch,h for example.
He well described his intention from early research work. Thus, further his love of the comic books and marshal arts combined to ask "is it possible to be someone similar to Batman or Iron-man" using today's technology or even what we know using many hints that he found in the comic books. He related his love for comic strips of batman and beautifully and how he simply encouraged him to shape his work.
What was amazing that he is full professor and seems to be quite young.
I think his study was quite sample but then he put them in great context which made you to follow his work.
So, I think in comparison to other presenters I came to a conclusion, the key is how to say things and how to your present them. That has a huge influence.

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I have received the following response from Radius to my short essay above. As any newspaper does the response to an article must be put up to the same place, I have added that here. I may later answer to it, if I get time:) . Before anything, many can disagree with my posts:) that is where you discuss things!

Dear Alireza, Today I have to tell you that I disagree with your post about the importance of self-presentation. I have certain objections that in the long term a poor publicity is a major factor if real values will be recognised. I know we are living in a world where publicity, advertisement, media-coverage are all big factors in the economy. But come on, lets take cars as an example: Fiat or General Motors dont do worse TV spots than BMW or Audi. In fact FIAT or Renault/Peugot are sometimes much more creative in their advertisment campaigns than Mercedes Benz or BMW. Anyhow, FIAT and the Renault are considered less reliable cars. In fact the most presticious cars (Porsche, Mazzarati, Aston Martin) dont do TV ads at all. And still everybody knows that they are the top of engineering. You can take computers or mobile devises the same: Blackberry had adverts in all the business journals and newspapers (FT, NYT, Wallstreet Journal, Harold Tribune etc.), when Samsung was still a no-name, cheap korean cell-phone maker. But within 2 years, their high quality and innovation standard set the benchmark of mobile communication, whereas the former leaders Blackberry or Nokia are struggeling to survive. What I want to say, that on the long run it is quality that matters, not presentation. And in science, i.e. the field where you and me are working, it is the same. The real big names, the real ground-breaking discoveries all came from places and from people which were not heavily promoted or in the news-papers head-lines. In genetics, it was Greg Ventor (from Celera Genomics Inc.) and Francis Collins (from the US Human Genome Project) who made it couple of years ago to the cover pages of Times Magazin and Newsweek. But not because they did a great discovery, but merely because they were able to organize this hugh effort of sequencing the human genome in a multi-national approach and spending several 100 millions of public spending for this. Of course it hit the major news, it made them famous, but both of them agree that it was not a big intellectual achievement, rather an organisational and political challenge.
Having the choice, I much more appreciate people for what they have done (technical inventions, arts, music or scientific achievements), than what they did to become famous. I recently (while helping the kids of a colleague of mine with some maths) found that one of my most favorite ancient Iranian poets/philosophers (Omar Al-Khayyam) was in fact also one of the most gifted mathematicians at the turn of the millenium. He invented what in the west is called "Pascal's triangle". Obviously, he did not made a lot of publicity around it, he did not even thought about calling it Al-Khayyoums triangle. But it was him, whom we have to thank for this, and for some of the most enchanting and brilliant poetic miniatures. Here again you clearly see that on the long term, mankind will always remember peoples real achivements, not neccesarrily they self-promotion.

An example that is more relevant to our times (in particular now that we have to commemorate the 3rd anniversary of the Teheran's student liberation movement) is the case of the assasinated Neda Agha-Soltan. Her picture went around the world, and she will always remain the symbol of the braveness of the young Iranians in their battle for freedom and civil rights. But another girl, who shared with Neda not more than a very similar name ("Neda Soltani") now jumped on the band-waggon and exploited a confusion about her Facebook name and the name of the 2009 political victim Neda Agha-Soltan. The second (false) Neda now wrote a book about the confusion of the two names, how she was later mis-identified, how her photos were shown even in some news-papers (claiming that this is Neda, the murdered young girl from Tehrans Karekar-Boulevard. Finally, the wrong Neda Soltani exploits this wrong identity. She is travelling around Germany at the moment and promotes her book and fills the lecture halls. And she even dares to give the impression that the 2009 students movement were only a misled minority and that the current government is liberal and tolerant and democratic.
(read more about this at the website http://iranbato.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/ein-bild-und-seine-verlogene-geschichte/)

I mean here again you can see how someone tries to overcome the reality by strong publicity and self-advertisement. It might work for a while, before people realize that there is very little real value behind this.

Dear Radius, 

Thank you for your long essay. I agree with some points and of course I disagree with some other points.

Let me clarify this, The GM Mazda or Kia cars have advertisements have poorly been done when you compare them to BMW, Mercedes, AUDI, Infinity or even VW. So, I have been always more impressed by advertisements done by better car companies. 
I never intended to underestimate creative works. I personally didn't know Prof. Zehr  and his work. What I meant to say was if you present well no matter what you will be regarded well. 
Let's take a look at what you write, two guys went on the Times magazine cover because they were able to mobilize and organize some work that people previously had done. 
That was exactly my point. No matter what you have done, if you fail to present well, it may be not highly regarded work by many (of course experts will understand). My point was as much as we spend time doing novel research, it may be necessary to organize and re-organize those findings to get something even better in comparison to the past findings.
Therefore, the political context is also another aspect. I think Ms. Soltani has mentioned that her name/photo were taken wrongly by some people and she was afraid of the things may happen to her due to the fact that regime of Iran may think she is the same person or etc. However, I can see how with this fact in mind and she has decided to leave Iran for the same reason described can start to promote the Iran regime is liberal or tolerant. I wonder how come she has left Iran, though. 
So, all and all, I did not mean you should advertise yourself, however, I think you can publicize your work and present it in a manner that is highly regarded. :) Thanks for reading.   

Mano Gonjishkaye khaoneh!

I went towards the window in Jam hospital in my room, the lights went off! The red alarm could be heard from the nursing station. Bombardment had just started. I had recently an eye surgery on my right eye and could not see well on that eye. However, the other eye was fine. I saw series of anti-aircraft missiles lit the sky. The nurse stop by my door instructing me to return to bed or get a way from the window. As any 6 years of age may do, ignoring the command of an adult, I ignore it. I heard a few explosion in the far distances and the whole thing was finished in less than 3 to 5 min. I went to bed, didn't feel sleeping. Now I heard another song from the nursing station: The house birds and I are used to seeing you (Mano gonjishkeye khoneh didanet baramon adatemoneh)... It has always been your name the onset and the end of all of sentences ( hamisheh Esme to Bodeh avalo akhare harfa)... and again The house birds and I are used to seeing you (Mano gonjishkeye khoneh didanet baramon adatemoneh), for the sake of seeing you, we shall fly out from the nest ( be havaye didane to par migirim az to loneh).... My sister used to love him, and since I wished to be different I tried to say I didn't like Googoosh. Now, I am a big fan, though. The last part of song, flying out from the nest kept repeating in my ear, I should fly away. Yesterday, I came across a new version of Man o gojishkaye khoneh of Ms. Googoosh with flamenco guitar of Babak Amini and Googoosh mesmerizing voice. Now, rather than the last part, the part of "your name..." keeps playing in my ears! Enjoy!

The lasting effects on us!

Who does not know this! The effect of a music, a traumatic event or a happy moment due to a celebration. No matter what happens throughout our life, we tend to remember those days and events along with whatever has happened along side of those occasions. When I first arrived in Canada, as a individual who was fascinated with radio programs back in Iran, I used to listen to different radio stations for receiving my share of music or news. I started to search for a radio station that will satisfy my anxious spirit! I was hoping to find something similar to the "night road" program in Iran which had a narrative program along with music and latest news. I was looking for a radio that could provide me with programs that feeds me with information of the current events as well as songs that affect my ears in a positive context! After a few changes in frequencies of the radio I owned, I came across CBC radio station on FM 99.1. People who know me are aware of the fact that I am a morning person. Therefore, I get up early. After finding CBC radio 1, I ended up listening to the Metro Morning program with the voice of Matt Galloway. For the past 19 years, I admit that I have been listening to the Matt's voice regardless of location and time. That is including when I first had moved to London, ON, for my Masters, then later when I was working in Kitchener, ON, and later when I had moved to Vancouver, B.C. or Now even in Europe! Everywhere across the globe, whenever I get a chance I ended up listening to the program of Metro Morning. I think Matt Galloway warmth and unbiased voice has left a lasting effect on my soul which no other radio commentator has ever had. Having said that, I always wonder how many parents underestimate the effect of their actions and the words on their children. The children need a nurturing and loving family with freedom that flourish their development. I have come across many parents (including mine) who always complain they have been such a great parents why children are still acting selfishly! It makes me wonder how short of memory they have. They usually forget the tension they had created in front of the child. Once such a environment is maintained, they (children) tend to choose their own way become aggressive and abusive. Parents who don't realize this is their own product of lackluster when the child was young. Parents tend to blame the child and create larger conflict which in turn will have a lasting psychological effect on child's spirit and his/her behavior in the society and towards others. Not to mention psychological aspects of the child is effected and disturbed in such a way that s/he may not be as successful as one may have imagined. In closing, I wish to remind that if we state any sentence any statement, we should be cautious of its lasting effect. Our voices reverberate everywhere in the world that internet has become a tool to transfer information and the voice that it caries with it. *I just thought of this essay last night before going to bed! I spent about 5 min. to write it! Today, I saw so many mistakes in it that I got disappointed with myself:-). I have revised it, now I spent about 10 min on it, though:)

Why BBC is the British Bull Shit Broadcast company!

I don't understand that with so much knowledge the British government claims to have why they still call Persian Gulf, the Gulf!! Take a look at this page of BBC. I would like to call UK from now on USA the second! what is wrong with that? As long as as they call Persian Gulf, the Gulf to my eyes UK is USA the second! So, that is for now! If I were the BBC Persian, I would have also protest to this historical fact and perhaps made some statement that the USA the second learns some lessons. but then their income is from BBC, they will never do that!