So much for Chipotle.
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“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge.”
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“Persepolis” Trailer (English Version)
I’m really excited about this film. See the trailer to see why. I’m also really excited about the fact that I get to see it 2 weeks before it comes out in theatres as I’m organizing a sneak preview at Harvard.
Posted in Iran, Trailers
19 Comments
Rape in Saudi Arabia, Selective Justice by the US
So get this, a 19-year-old young woman was in a car with a young man, which is illegal in Saudi Arabia because the two were not married, and were both attacked and raped by 7 men. 4 of the 7 were convicted of kidnapping and the victims were each sentenced to 90 lashes each. The young woman’s sentence was lengthened to 200 lashes and 6 months in prison. Disgusting.
To top it off, the Bush Administration, a staunch supporter of the Saudi tyranny, has refused to comment on what it calls, “an internal Saudi affair.” This, by the way, is the same administration that championed the cause of the Iranian hunger striker Akbar Ganji and called on Iran to release him. Now don’t get me wrong, I agree that Akbar Ganji should have been released but I disagree with the selective justice the US espouses; it is willing to interfere in the politics of its enemy, but is quiet when it comes to the injustice of its ally.
Posted in Human Rights, Iran, Middle East, US Foreign Policy
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Trailer: “Empire of the Sun”
Who said only new movies are good? Christian Bale played in this Spielberg classic in 1987 when he was 13. I recently saw it and can’t stop thinking about it. Here’s the trailer.
Posted in Trailers
18 Comments
Where is Iran?
This video by no means represents all Iranians in the Diaspora, but it is, nevertheless, telling of some.
Posted in Iran, Iranian Diaspora
25 Comments
Cluster Bombs in Lebanon
[The 2006 Israel-Lebanon war ended more than a year ago but I want to bring your attention to the ongoing and disturbing issue of Israel’s absurd and appalling use of cluster bombs.]
Israel dropped over 1 million cluster bombs in Lebanon in the 2006 war. 90% of those bombs were dropped in the last 72 hours of the war when both sides knew that a ceasefire was imminent. Many remain unexploded. UN Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said, “Every day, people are maimed, wounded and are killed by these ordnances.”
Cluster Bomb’s Overall Track Record: “98% of 13,306 recorded cluster munitions casualties that are registered with Handicap International are civilians. Cluster munitions are opposed by many individuals and hundreds of groups, such as the Red Cross, the Cluster Munition Coalition and the United Nations, because of the high proportion of civilians that have fallen victim to the weapon. Since February 2005, Handicap International called for cluster munitions to be prohibited and collected hundreds of thousands of signatures to support its call.”
Israeli Admission: Ha’aretz: “What we did was insane and monstrous, we covered entire towns in cluster bombs,” the head of an IDF rocket unit in Lebanon said regarding the use of cluster bombs and phosphorous shells during the war. Quoting his battalion commander, the rocket unit head stated that the IDF fired around 1,800 cluster bombs, containing over 1.2 million cluster bomblets. [Unfortunately, Israel still refuses to give details about the precise locations of the cluster bomb delivery targets.]
Posted in Hezbollah, Islamism, Lebanon, The Conflict
14 Comments
“Piano Man”
This song really spoke to me while I was in law school. It’s a beautiful song with outstanding lyrics but the video is weak sauce.
Posted in Music
2 Comments
www.SeeTheCook.com
… is the site I’m most excited about nowadays. My friends put it together and I’ve been addicted to it ever since I learned about its existence, learning to cook a wide range of foods. Here’s an article I recently wrote about it for OCPC Magazine. Go to www.seethecook.com here.
Posted in Health
15 Comments
1 in 10 schools are ‘dropout factories’
WASHINGTON – It’s a nickname no principal could be proud of: “Dropout Factory,” a high school where no more than 60 percent of the students who start as freshmen make it to their senior year. That description fits more than one in 10 high schools across America. “If you’re born in a neighborhood or town where the only high school is one where graduation is not the norm, how is this living in the land of equal opportunity?” asks Bob Balfanz, the Johns Hopkins researcher who coined the term “dropout factory.” Read here. [By the way, this is even more painful considering the fact that this is the richest country in the world but has squandered over $400 billion in an unjust and illegal war. Yikes.]
Posted in Uncategorized
1 Comment
PBS Frontline’s New Iran Documentary
looks very intriguing and comprehensive and can be seen here. I haven’t seen the whole thing yet but I will as soon as I have a chance.
Posted in Documentary, Iran, Iraq, The Conflict, US Foreign Policy
19 Comments
Excerpt
A personal account from Sara Roy’s Failing Peace: Gaza and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict:
“One story that my aunt Frania has always insisted on telling me took place when she and my mother were in the Auschowitz concentration camp: ‘Where I was the stronger in the ghetto and took care of Tobka [my aunt’s name for my mother], your mother helped me survive in Auschowtiz. Without her I would have died. She saved me because she hoarded and rationed our food, our few pieces of bread, spreading it out over time so that I had something to eat each day. Had it been up to me, I would have eaten it all at once and starved. Your mother also gave me her bread, sometimes part of it, sometimes all of it, which I ate as I cried. Do you know what this meant, to give up your bread to another under such horrible circumstances? Bread was life. People beat each other for it and some were killed for it. Mothers would steal from children and children from mothers, sisters from sisters and so on. In the midst of all this horror and shame your mother gave me her bread, an act of selflessness that I shall never forget. Of course I love her deeply but there is no person in my life for whom I have more respect and admiration.” (Roy, xxii)
By her own account, these Holocaust stories her parents shared with her is why the author is able to sympathize with the plight of the Palestinian people.
Posted in Books, Palestine
11 Comments
Recent Read…
I’ve been reading relevant chapters of Sara Roy’s Failing Peace: Gaza and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict and I’m convinced it’s one of the best books out there on the conflict. Dr. Roy is a Jew herself whose parents are Holocaust survivors and she supports the existence of the Israeli state, while offering burning criticism of its illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip (and now imprisonment of the Gaza Strip). I have many good excerpts to share with you, but I’m starting w this one:
“Children are increasingly incapable of conceptualizing authority in traditional terms, since their parents and teachers, unable to protect them from constant mistreatment and danger, have ceased to exist as authority figures.†(Roy, 59) “One question asked of ten 9-year-old boys and girls was, ‘Do you know what a cinema is?’ Only one child, a boy, knew the answer, and described a cinema as ‘a big room with a big television in it.’ Thirty 15-year-old boys were asked, ‘What does authority mean?’ All answered that ‘authority means the enemy.’ When told, ‘But authority can mean your teacher as well,’ several of them replied, ‘You mean our teacher is a collaborator?’ ‘Do you have authority at home?’ was another question. ‘Yes,’ they replied, ‘the authorities have entered our home many times.’ (Roy, 71)
Posted in Books, Palestine, The Conflict
4 Comments
Video on the Iran-Iraq War
It’s one of the best (and saddest) videos I’ve seen on the war. Here it is in Persian.
The New Honda!!!
I got my first job when I was 14 with the sole purpose of buying a car when I turned 16. With the help of my parents in 1997, I bought a brand new 1998 silver Honda Civic couple. Ever since then, I’ve had an undying love for anything Honda. Here is the new Honda that got me very very excited: The Honda CR-Z (a remake of the CR-X, which I loved as a child). Enjoy but don’t drool.
Posted in Technology
51 Comments