This has probably been the longest while I’ve gone without posting here on my blog and there’s good reason for the inactivity. I’ve been busy preparing for the next chapter. On Tuesday, Sept. 1st, I move to Ann Arbor, Michigan to begin PhD work at the University of Michigan’s history program. I also turned 28 a couple days ago so I’ve been a little consumed with birthday festivities. I have mixed feelings about the move. For one, I love California and I love being near my family, friends, cousins, my dog, and the glorious Orange County sun and I’ve grown particularly enthralled with all these past 3 months. I spent the summer in Orange County because last summer I was in Lebanon studying Arabic for 3 months and traveling the region. And when I wasn’t in the Middle East, I was in Boston for 2 years pursing my MA. Thus, I wanted to be home this summer to rest between academic programs while spending time with friends and family. It wasn’t just fun and leisure as I was also busy with independent language study. But come Tuesday, I fly out to a place entirely new to me. I did just this all two years ago when I started the masters program at Harvard so I think I should be fine with the transition, but I will definitely miss this place and will be homesick for a while. I will miss playing rummy with my parents at night, playing basketball with my brother, having my dog Momo come into my bed as I wake up in the mornings, watching fantastic movies like District 9 with my cousins, playing the most insane backgammon matches, sharing some of the wildest stories, and making timeless moments with my friends.
At the same time, I am excited about moving to Ann Arbor because it’s an entirely new place with new people. I’m excited to have my own place (I was in the graduate dorms these past two years at Harvard), get familiar with what seems like an awesome city, and be a part of a wonderful academic program. The winter season will be very onerous but it can’t be much worse than what I got accustomed to in Boston.
So enjoy these mouthwatering blueberry muffins electronically and here’s to new beginnings! 🙂
iPouya
Happy Birthday, wish you the best. My gift to you is this http://www.goftamgoft.com/note.php?item_id=632 . I hope you read it and be able to read it because of Farsi
Will you continue to post? After all, even during your time off, while your posts were relatively informative they were still sparse.
Must Read http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8195581.stm
Is Iran evicting peoples from lands they have lived in for centuries and herding them into ghettoes? No, that’s what Israel has been doing to the Palestinians for 60 years.
In Israel, a country stolen from the Palestinians, fanatics control the government. One of the fanatics is the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Last week Netanyahu called for “crippling sanctions†against Iran.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/articles/39/Why_not_sanctions_for_Israel_.html
Um, hey sanction boy, last time i checked, millions of dollars, and incredible amount of land was stolen from Jews after the revolution in Iran, so plez keep your facts straight before you say stupid stuff like that.
He is quoting the article, Arash u retard. I would actually like to know how much land “incredible” is. See, when you say things like that, you are talking out of your ass, which in your case Arash is your mouth. So, go do some research, look up the actual numerical amounts from reputable sources, and come back and quote it.
Ugh its like lecturing a 2 year old on the physics of gravity. There is no hope.
hey :), please keep your respect. I don’t know who you are or how you are raised, but I did not insult you, therefore refrain from insulting me. Just because I don’t agree with your opinion or school of thought or I don’t support the causes you hold very dear to your heart doesn’t mean you have the right to insult me. I am not Arash, and I am glad to see how people treat other people’s opinion in this site.
Ok you arent Arash. Now are you going to provide serious evidence or just ignore the entire gist of what I was saying?
Norway Divests!
By Fayyad
From Reuters
OSLO, Sept 3 (Reuters) – Norway’s $400 billion-plus wealth fund has excluded Israeli company Elbit Systems (ESLT.TA) for supplying surveillance equipment for the separation barrier in the West Bank, the government said on Thursday.
“We do not wish to fund companies that so directly contribute to violations of international humanitarian law,†Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen said in a statement.
“The freedom of movement of the people living in the occupied territory has been unacceptably restricted,†she said.
Halvorsen said the International Court of Justice has said the barrier construction breaches the Fourth Geneva Convention and that “Norwegian authorities act in accordance with this.â€
Norway says that the surveillance system supplied by Elbit to the Israeli authorities “is one of the main components in the separation barrier and its associated control regime.â€
“The surveillance system has been specially designed in close collaboration with the buyer and has no other applications. Furthermore Elbit is clearly aware of exactly where and how the system is intended to be used,†she said.
The central bank-managed fund follows ethical guidelines issued by the finance ministry, and in the past it has excluded companies that produce nuclear arms or cluster munitions, damage the environment or abuse human rights or worker rights.
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Tags: activism, apartheid, BDS, divestment, Fayyad, human rights, israel, norway, palestine
This entry was posted on Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 at 3:24 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
http://www.kabobfest.com/2009/09/norway-divests.html
I don’t need to provide you with sources, the simple case could be my father and my uncles. Iranian government took their lands away after the revolution after the revolutionary guards condemned it.
A lot of these takings have not been documented by any groups. Many Jewish families simply decided to relocated within the U.S, Israel, and Britain. I don’t remember the last time anybody came to my father or his brothers and asked for details. I still did not recieve any apology for your insults.
“I don’t need to provide you with sources”…ok person who is not Arash.
SO you dont know how much land was taken. Only an “incredible amount”, but you have no idea how much.
Hey low class Jerk, you still have not apologized.
There is no data at hand, but I am sure it’s in hundreds of millions of dollars. Plus look at all the land, money, and possessions that were taken away by Arab countries from the Jews. Please spare us the lecture and crocodile tears for Palestinian.
People love to cry the Palestinians and their land, but no body gave a shit when the lands were taken away from Jews in Muslim countries such as Syria, Iraq, and Morocco.
So, you have absolutely no proof or documentation, but now you have expanded your argument to Syria, Morocco, and Iraq. Can you go over the scholarly record on the Jews of Iraq, Syria, and Morocco for us so that we an actually have something serious to discuss? Or are you just talking out of your mouth again? (Get it? I doubt it.)
Its truly wonderful to watch Zionism keep digging itw own grave. The Zionist cabinet just approved Netanyahu’s proposal to build more housing units in the West Bank. Ive said it once and ill say it again, all supporters of the Palestinians should support the settlements. They further embed the entire Zionist state in the occupation, further expose the colonial/apartheid nature of Zionism, and cause serious ideological rifts within ZIonist society. I can almost smell the states destruction. Bravo Benyamin!
The investigative report written by Swedish journalist Donald Boström and published in Sweden’s largest newspaper Aftonbladet about Israeli occupation forces killing Palestinians with the objective of stealing their organs has raised a political and media storm in Israel, disclosing up a horrible crime perpetrated for years under the full gaze of the ‘free’ world. These criminal acts began in 1992 when Palestinians started to witness a sharp rise in the number of young Palestinians disappearing and of bodies of Palestinians killed by occupation forces being returned with organs such as hearts, kidneys, livers and eyes missing.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/articles/39/Israeli-bodysnatchers.html
Congratulations! Good luck in your new program.
hi sanction/arash. you are bringing up this land issue again, I see. look man, your family was not the only victim of a land grab, nor did land theft only occur after the revolution, fool! the shah redistributed the hell out of lands that he deemed to be in the hands of provincial tyrants. this was part of his stupid white revolution. why do you make everything about land and jews, land and jews, land and jews! dude, land is stolen from many groups regardless of the political landscape in a nation. stop using this tactic to defend israel’s disgusting policies. get smart! sheesh.