In the US, people remember the victims of September 11 like some people remember the victims of the Holocaust. They have stickers saying things like "We will not forget". But what if a similar event happened in another country, to a people that the world doesn't care about, which isn't at the centre of world commerce, government, and media? On March 16, 1988, more than 5000 Kurds were killed by Saddam Hussein. There are no bumper stickers for those who died, and it was not brought to you live on television.

"We hear these anti-war arguments (in the West), but if people in other countries do not know whether Saddam has non-conventional weapons, we do," says Star Hussein Allahkerem, 46, [a] survivor of the attack.

However, I'm rather uncomfortable with the US considering attacking without UN approval. I think this is probably a Very Bad Idea, and the consequences are impossible to predict. On the other hand, France rejected the latest plan before Iraq did! I'd love to know the story behind it, but I can't think of any place objective enough to tell me what the truth is.

OK, anything else? In Miami, it's Spring Break, MTV was filming a blind date contest today. If you happened to see this on TV, it is very very fake compared to what actually happens. There are a few hundred young people standing around looking bored, and then the camera pans over them as someone says through a megaphone "more applause guys, more applause" ... "5,4,3,applause!!"... "ok, I need you looking more excited when they ask the questions and respond"... I became disillusioned and left. Miami Beach and MTV are all about image!!

Iranians arrested for net dating. Apathy has taken over this blog too, otherwise I'd be saying, Iran has left the surreal world as well, and turned into a parallel universe where what is normal is forbidden, and vice versa. I'm in the US now. But when I go back, why should I stay in Iran? What can change? Who can do anything? Why, as Solzhenitsyn asks in "The Gulag Archipelago", didn't anyone DO ANYTHING???????

As I left Iran I sat next to a very famous professor from America, Larry Shepp, on the plane. And it was most instructive. He's Jewish, very pro-Israel, and VERY outspoken and provocative. He's put a report up about Iran on his webpage. He spent his time trying to provoke people by telling them that the US was going to go to war with various countries because they had a problem with Islam!! Incredible (because he is apparently confirming their worst fears). But he knows what he's doing, no doubt about that. Often people say that Iranian people are very hospitable blah blah blah (Iranians and outsiders). But I see that even he had problems concerning his passport at airport, despite the arrangements that should have been made; so you see, Iran is a mixture of good and bad for all people. My conclusions and his are the same - why is there so much apathy in Iran? Why is there NO protest against ayatollahs who want to portray Islam as an intolerant religion of death, violence, and blaming-everyone-but-themselves? (As Mr Rushdie says, "if you're yelling, we [people in the West] can't hear you.")

If you know the answer, you should definitely get in touch with me by email. Or write it in your English blog and tell me about it!

Yesterday I had not much to do, so I got up early and went to Darakeh. I went with my friend Ali from Shahid Beheshti University via Tajrish, when I got there I realized my boots were going to be too slippery on the ice. Fortunately lots of entrepeneurs were selling metal grips for shoes, so I bought some of those (800 tomans). At first Ali and I were just walking, listening to people set off firecrackers now and again. But then nihilism took over (must have the movies I've been watching) and we just started throwing snowballs at anybody and everybody. In real life I am always lauging at everything but I have also perfected the art of looking nonchalant. It was a good day to revel in my immaturity!

We also pushed snowballs down the mountainside. They should really be called snow wheels, as they don't often form balls. Some went a few hundred feet. Anyway, at one place Ali and I threw snowballs to try to knock down some stalagmites. I gave a free shot at myself at 30 feet to a guy wearing a keffiyeh, and he hit me! Maybe he really WAS from Palestine!!

The best times though, were the two "snow wars" we started. Basically we just start by throwing snowballs at people doing nothing in particular, then they throw some back and hit someone else, and in no time IT'S WAR!! It happened a few times, a couple of times Ali and I were so heavily outnumbered that we had to run for it. At one stall some other guys were throwing snowballs and a stallkeeper started to get angry that customers weren't stopping because it was dangerous for them. One of them threw a snowball at me about 20 feet away and it hit this old guy in the head and he got really cut! He was looking around for about a minute to see who it was. So, wars at Darakeh can quickly involve innocent bystanders. One time I threw snow at people maybe 100 feet down, 100 feet across but I missed and hit a puddle, spraying dirty water on some poor woman's trousers. Sorry if you're reading this. But I also learnt perhaps why everyone has to have a gun in America - poor innocent girls (PIGs) were forced to carry snowballs for self-defence, just because everybody else had one or two!!

debka (via iranvajahan) reports a key aide to Uday Hussein has defected. Still, it's debka, take it with a large chunk of salt.
Reported also in Lebanon Daily Star.

Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reports bin Laden's son is in Iran. What the world needs is a list of newspapers and their credibility factor.

Have you noticed that this blog is becoming less political? That's because everything the mullahs say these days is just a sick self-parody, just like the North Korean News Agency. Dear Wise Revered Leader Kim Jong Il, all the nations worship your quasi-divine leadership abilities and they are following the path of juche, and you will be the most respected leader of the next millennium. Supreme Leader, you confront the global arrogance and America trembles before you... etc. Can't tell the difference, can you? But the similarity is that both are complete rubbish.

Leadership advisor and ex-Speaker of the Majlis Hojatoleslam
Ali-Akbar Nateq-Nouri said in Qom on Tuesday that the strong presence
of the public in the demonstrations showed their all-out support for
the Islamic establishment and Revolution.
Nateq-Nouri said people showed they would resist the hegemony of
the global arrogance.
Substitute Friday prayer leader of Tehran Ayatollah Mohammad
Emami Kashani in the southern island of Qeshm (Hormuzgan province)
praised the mass participation in the ceremony, saying that the huge
rallies of Iranian people is hoped to dishearten the enemy and make it
know that it cannot do a damn thing against the Iranian nation.

They are unable to say anything except the same old slogans, over and over and over and over and over and the same themes, just like My Dear Uncle Napoleon...

The best film I saw at the festival was "Farsh-e-Bard" (Wind Carpet), I thought it had a great soundtrack and an original theme, and there was so much attention to detail too.

Today I learned that godhatesamerica.com isn't a parody!! I always thought it was too far over the top. Then I listened to Mr Phelps' sermon raving about how God caused the Columbia to crash and sent the astronauts to hell, about how America is a "fag nation", etc. Talk about a fixation. An interesting theology anyway.

Breaking News! Today, a mullah said something sensible!!!!

"Chanting death to this and that is not the way to run a country. We have lost our prestige in the world. We are constantly falling behind." said Grand Ayatollah Montazeri.

Anyway, I want to go to the Fajr Film Festival but there's no information in Farsi or English on program times on the website... guess I'll have to pick up a catalogue from Farhang Cinema. A week ago I saw "A Winter's Tale". I enjoyed it greatly but I think I was the only one in the theatre (Talah Vahdat) laughing... which meant no-one understood the jokes... for example

(from The Tech Paulina to Leontes:)
So like to him that got it, if thou hast
The ordering of the mind too, 'mongst all colours
No yellow in't, lest she suspect, as he does,
Her children not her husband's!

It went completely over everyone's heads, because the subtitles weren't working. But people were happy that a foreign theatre group had finally come.

What to see? I want to see "The Fifth Reaction" by Tahmineh Milani, I suppose. Can't get enough of those feminist films. Milani claims she is an atheist. This is shocking to the vast majority of Iranians of course, but one has to admire such independence of spirit in a theocracy. There should be A LOT more of it!

Finished watching Blix and el-Baradei courtesy of Washington Post. Blix was critical, el-Baradei was largely happy with the Iraqi co-operation. Perhaps the most critical issue is that it does seem the Iraqis have contravened Resolution 1441 by not allowing "...immediate, unimpeded, unrestricted, and private access to all officials and other persons...".

(I took a few days to edit this one. Khatami's speech ties in well with what I wrote before.)

What's Khatami been saying in India?

"NEW DELHI JAN. 26. After the collapse of Marxism, the West had to create a "new enemy'' in the form of an extremist vision of Islam, the visiting Iranian President, Mohammad Khatami, said tonight.

Admitting "mistakes'' by some Muslims, he said that the Western world was using "psychological operations'' to make Islam the source of violence. This image would allow the West to unleash more horrible violence in the world."

This is both hypocritical and hilarious. He is constantly playing the "blame game" - he doesn't have the answers for Iran, only a contradictory vision of "religious democracy", and wishes to distract attention away from the failures of the government. He is the representative of a regime whose leaders talk about "enemy plots" like no other. The problem, more than he would like to admit, is that some Muslims DO have an "extremist vision"; this hasn't been "created" by the West; and where, after all, is the Muslim outrage?. Let's look at some articles from the last few days.


FBI report pointed to Bali bombing

Jabarah told the FBI that al Qaeda used specific code words in Asia, including the phrase, "white meat" to describe American interests.

Sharia in Lagos At Last: (from LGF)

To liberate the Muslim world from alleged Western domination and oppression, Professor AbdulKareem suggested that Muslim countries must strive hard to possess international might through:

· the acquisition of chemical and nuclear weapons to check the incessant threat from the West;

Nuclear Warfare is the Solution for Destroying America
(from LGF)

"This is the only way to kill the greatest possible number of Americans."

Imam 'instructed British Muslims to kill infidels'

“This is how wonderful it is to kill a kuffar (an unbeliever). You crawl on his back and while you are pushing him down into the hellfire, you are going into paradise.” ...the defendant had stated that “assassination was lawful” and that a Muslim’s primary task was “to lessen the population of the unbelievers”...The cleric claimed that his talks came “either directly or indirectly” from the Koran, and that if he was on trial, then so was the holy text.

Now, this "imam" has a degree in Islamic studies from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. How could he get Islam so "wrong"? There is certainly a wide range of opinions about what "Islam" is and what "jihad" means. Unfortunately, to a large extent, it is the violent, intolerant Muslims, though a minority, who define what these terms mean to people in the West - they get a greater "mindshare". If you are a Muslim and you think these people (mostly Wahhabis) are wrong, you should speak up! Otherwise, people in the West may consider the silence to be "deafening".

You see the news below (I said it was coming), but Hoder beat me to it, Le Monde Diplomatique in Persian.

"The Economist" survey was wonderful - main theme, "religious democracy" is an oxymoron, which everyone knew anyway (except maybe Khatami).

"The Bills" can't pass for at least 2 months so don't expect any "news" from Iran for a while. If I see something stupid I'll put it here, otherwise if you have any questions just mail me. (Whatever you do, don't believe uncorroborated Ledeen or SMCCDI reports!) Radio Farda is a great source.

"Iran tries to kick its oil habit" another great article from Asia Times. Can't believe I can read it for free...

"Another prominent conservative leader, Mr Habibollah Asgaroladi, charged that the CIA 'published the cartoon on the Internet just two days before its publication in Hayat-e-No daily' and instructed 'its mercenaries inside Iran to use it'." (Straits Times)

Archive.org demonstrates the picture has been there since at least October 1997. These conservative leaders aren't very competent when it comes to the Net, or disguising their lies.

The other interesting news was Radio Farda again...

Italy Warns Tourists against Visiting Iran

* Italy listed Iran among the more than 30 Asian, African, South American and European countries its deems potentially dangerous for tourists. (Ahmad Ra'fat, Rome)

I couldn't find such a list on the Italian advice site, maybe I'm looking in the wrong place.

Le Monde Diplomatique is to start publishing a Persian edition soon.

As for news, you know the rest, Hayat-e-no closed for no particular reason, Radio Farda reports music banned in Fars province, and a 19 year old was sentenced to death for drinking (third time, you're out!)

No news on the bill vote date... January 16, the date the Shah left Iran, is coming up, and on that day the Economist Iran Survey also appears. I need to make my own predictions to see if they are in line with theirs.

Back to Tehran. There's a debate on Hoder's weblog about whether women really have been burning their headscarves by the thousands... no-one saw it, and no-one writing about it seems to have realized that Ledeen is just quoting SMCCDI... perhaps the LA stations have been talking about it too.

About three months ago Mr. Alavitabar predicted a "turning point" in Iran within three months. But as we saw, nothing happened. As Elton Daniel commented in A History of Iran, "Scholars, analysts, and journalists in and outside of Iran largely failed to comprehend either the nature or the direction of the Islamic Revolution when it occurred. Since then, many of them have confidently and repeatedly predicted the imminent demise of the Islamic regime whenever it faces a crisis, or its transformation into a "moderate" or "pragmatic" government with every reshuffling of its personnel. This has been due to their determination to make the facts of the Iranian case fit into preconceived models of revolutions and revolutionary behaviour, and they have invariably been proven wrong." So I agree with Mr. Shariatmadari... "It's been almost four years now that they've been saying we are reaching a deadlock. But we don't see any."

Happy New Year 2003.

US officials have a big problem! "FBI Suspect is me, says Pakistani jeweller." So apparently someone is running around with a fake passport in the US and the FBI want to talk to them? I guess the US can thank the Canadians!

An Iranian musician's homecoming. Shahin visits Iran for the first time since 1979 and marvels at the traffic and the openness to Western culture.

A Toronto professor writing for "The Globe and Mail", Ron Deibert, claims that the Internet is censored in Iran! "On another front, authoritarian governments ranging from Syria and Iran to China are busy attempting to block their citizens from accessing what their elites believe is dangerous information by using sophisticated firewalls at router points." What a load of rubbish!! He must be basing this on outdated information. A friend of mine studying political science can't look at porn from his dorm... but for public computers, that's not strange. You can go to net cafes and look at Mr Pahlavi's site any time you like. I did some searches to try to find out what Prof. Deibert's source was... perhaps an August 1999 RSF report The 20 Enemies of the Internet which seems to be inaccurate... or the May 2001 cybercafe closures... or RSF's 2002 annual report... "in November the High Council of the Cultural Revolution, a body headed by President Mohammad Khatami but dominated by the conservatives, decreed that all private companies providing access to the Internet had to dismantle their equipment or transfer it to the public sector." (If you come to Tehran you see endless ads everywhere for net companies... "No Proxy! No Filtering!" I suppose RSF must focus on anything which looks like doom and gloom.)

But then what's this about Iran's banned press turns to the net (BBC August 2002) if there's censorship? What's this about Web gives a voice to Iranian women (BBC June 2002) saying "Contrary to expectation, the internet in Iran is not censored"? Even RSF's September 2002 report The Internet On Probation doesn't mention Iran. I guess that negative myths about Iran just perpetuate themselves somehow. (I feel good for writing something positive about Iran for a change!!) If you want to know what Iran is REALLY like you have to visit yourself; or perhaps chat to people on boards like the Thorn Tree.

I switch back to conspiracy theories. Forbidden opinion polls: confusion and realities by Mr Al-Rashid. "According to the poll results, 70 percent of the people thought that United States and England helped in bringing about the Iranian revolution, Not only is this strange; but it is also wrong." There was an article in the last "Economist" about conspiracy theories:

"As a tool for explaining how the world works, conspiracism has certain drawbacks. It inhibits trust: if everyone else is out to get you, better
have nothing to do with them. It dampens optimism: if ``they'' are sure to frustrate your plans, why bother doing anything? And, of course, it
leads to harmful errors, such as the belief, once popular among Africans, that condoms were yet another ploy to reduce their population."

In the book Religious Minorities In Iran the writer, Professor Sanasarian, explains Khomeini's worldview (which Khamenei has inherited): that enemies were in every corner of the world plotting against him and against Islam. So these beliefs help explain Iranians' apathy: "why bother doing anything?" and also help explain Iran's international isolation and closed society. I see no way out; any change would have to involve Iranians becoming more familiar with what open societies are like, which given the poverty and the difficulties of travel for the average person in Iran is not going to happen. Perhaps the Internet can help?

Ex-President Aboard Iran-140

HAMBASTEGI*

The reformist daily has quoted former president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani as saying he would fly on the home-made Iran-140 plane to dispel security concerns with the plane. "I will fly on Iran-140 in one of my domestic visits to prove the safety of this Iranian-made plane," he was quoted as saying. A joint venture of Iran and Ukraine, Iran-140 was launched last February during the festivities marking the triumph anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

I can't remember the date, but it was earlier this year. I wonder if he'll remember his promise? "Ukrainian air companies have so far purchased just three An-140s in as many years; Russian carriers haven't purchased any. No nation other than Iran had voiced interest in buying now."

Lastly, "Iran News" is rather scathing...

Kashani says something positive (sort of). Christmas miracles?

Conversation on the beach from Herzliya, Israel (or "Occupied Palestine" if I'm writing for an Iranian government newspaper). Really scary, I hope the Palestinian (or "Arab" if I'm writing for a right-wing Israeli newspaper) is not representative of his people. If there are any Palestinians out there who are against suicide bombing I can't h-e-a-r them. Have you heard of any Palestinians like Jeff Halper who I saw on BBC World once? (OK, Elias Chacour is the best example I can think of. Perhaps Iranian and Western media is biased somehow, so that I don't hear peaceful Palestinian voices.)