Humanity above religion

Pope Francis has taken 12 Syrian refugees who are all muslims back with him to the Vatican after visiting a camp on the Greek island of Lesbos.

"And He shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

- The book of revelation 21:4

Uncanny resemblance 10

Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri and Walter White.

Smile, O brother!

"Bring the boys back home

Bring the boys back home

Don't leave the children on their own, No... No!

Bring the boys back home"

Lesson never learnd

What recently unfolded in Norway reminds us, yet again, that any kind fundamentalism or extremism is doomed to result in catasrophe in which the lives of innocent people is most often lost. And it really doesn't matter what ideology, culture, up-bringing, geographical location or religion you have, the outcome is pure disaster. Unfortunately, this was not the first of its kind and I amvery much afraid that it won't be the last.

On España: Part II

Yo soy Español, Español, Español!" As a whistle in Johannesburg ended the final match of the 2010 World Cup, 5,000 miles away, an entire country burst into song. From the shirtless kids taking a celebratory jump into Madrid's Cibeles fountain to the couples draped in Spanish flags dancing their way down Barcelona's famous Ramblas, all of Spain, it seemed, was chanting the same joyful lyrics. But perhaps no one sang with more fervor than Mahbubul Alam. Watching the game through the window of a café in Madrid's Lavapiés neighborhood, his entire body shook as he belted out the words everyone was singing: "I am Spanish, Spanish, Spanish!" The fact that Alam is Bangladeshi hardly seemed to matter.

Every World Cup has its stories, but this year's competition was especially ripe with overarching narratives. From the romantic (in a live, postgame interview, ecstatic goalie Iker Casillas planted a kiss on the shocked reporter who — sigh! — just happened to be his girlfriend) to the financial (the win, promised several newspapers, would bring a boost to the foundering economy), Spain's 2010 World Cup was about so much more than goals and penalties. It was about identity — what it means to belong to the new Spain.

Take, for example, the spectacular rise of Spanish athletes. When Andrés Iniesta took the shot, deep in overtime, that would be the final's only goal, he brought to an end an 80-year drought that had left Spain, despite its undeniable talent, without even a World Cup semifinal to its name. Throw in Formula One star Fernando Alonso, a handful of basketball players who, when they're not tearing up the court individually for the Memphis Grizzlies or the L.A. Lakers, are together winning the European championship, and a tennis player you may have heard of named Rafael Nadal, and suddenly the country is an athletic powerhouse. "Thirty years ago our footballers would play in alpargatas [flat-soled espadrilles] on dirt fields," says Roberto Palomar, editor of the sports daily Marca. But when dictator Francisco Franco died in 1975, the democracy that followed brought in a Socialist-led government that created state subsidies and built the infrastructure necessary to raise a generation of serious athletes. "Today, there's a multimillion-euro athletic center in every town, and they all have AstroTurf," says Palomar.

Spain's World Cup win also tells a compelling tale about nationalism. In a country where the provinces of Catalonia and the Basque country, each with its own language and heritage, strive for ever greater autonomy from the central government in Madrid, soccer has long been an arena for symbolic politics. The vicious rivalry between Barça and Real Madrid derives in large part from the fact that support for the Barcelona team was one of the few means that Catalans had during the 40 years of Franco's dictatorship to express their regional identity (Franco was a big Madrid fan). Many Catalans, who dream of one day fielding their own team at the World Cup, have been loath to support any team bearing the name of Spain.

But this year was different. The national team included seven Barça members and, by promoting itself as La Furia Roja (the Red Fury), garnered a broader embrace than it normally might have. "If you feel your nation isn't Spain ... calling them La [Furia] Roja lets you still feel passion for the team," says Barcelona-based communications consultant Antoni Gutiérrez-Rubí. "Their uniform was a single color, but it held a variety of shades."

That doesn't mean football eradicated the country's regional tensions. The day before the final, Barcelona held a massive demonstration to protest the Spanish constitutional court's decision that the Catalonia region, although entitled to an extensive degree of autonomy, did not have the legal right to call itself a nation. But the following night some 75,000 Catalans turned up to watch the game on a giant screen that the municipal government, for the first time in its history, had erected outdoors. "I marched at the head of the procession on Saturday and then went home on Sunday to watch the game with my family," says Barcelona mayor Jordi Hereu. "You can do both."

The soccer-driven sense of togetherness didn't stop with the Catalans. In Lavapiés, one of Madrid's most ethnically diverse neighborhoods, Chinese wholesale shops press up against Moroccan butchers, and Peruvian women in long black skirts buy fruit from Senegalese grocers — all the result of a massive wave of immigration that has, in recent years, raised the percentage of Spain's foreign-born residents to 11% of the total population. On the night of July 11, however, the neighborhood was a sea of homogeneity — one red shirt after another. José Romero, an immigrant from Ecuador, had even painted his black-and-white dog Spot with the Spanish colors for the occasion.

Seated outside with friends, Azhar Abbas, from Pakistan, was ecstatic before the game even began. With a red-and-yellow scarf tied around his neck and a Spanish flag emerging from his collar, he was sure Spain would win because it was such a good country. "It's not like Germany or Italy, where there's discrimination," he said. "Here there's no difference between Spaniards and foreigners." And just in case ethnic tolerance wasn't enough to guarantee victory, he added, "I went to the mosque today and prayed for Fernando Torres."

They were praying, too, at the Baobab, an African restaurant up the street, when Casillas blocked Arjen Robben's shot. Glued to the restaurant's television set, a group of Bangladeshis, one Chinese woman, a couple of native Spaniards and a half-dozen red-shirted Senegalese screamed in outrage when Nigel de Jong's foot connected with Xabi Alonso's chest. In unison, albeit in several different accents, they shouted obscenities at the referee.

The scene was much the same at Hasan Keyf's doner kebab restaurant around the corner. At one point during the evening, the 20 young Moroccan men sipping Fantas at tables draped in Spanish flags broke spontaneously into a chorus of "Viva España." "They're gods of the game," said Mohammed Dauud, referring to the Spanish team. The 22-year-old immigrated by himself to Spain from Morocco when he was just 12, and the intervening years, he said, explain his loyalty to the Spanish team: "This is where I live, who I am now. Of course, Spain is going to be my team." Asked if, by that logic, he supported Real Madrid, Dauud shook his head. "Are you crazy?" he asked. "I'm a Barça fan."

The original article from Time.com can be found here.

On Barcelona: Part I

Preface: I had the intention of writing a piece based on my visit in Barcelona a couple of month ago when I ran into the following article on Time.com and I found it very much coherent with my own findings. It's a bit overdue since it should have been read just before the WC (and its sequel just after the WC) but since both parts are interesting reads anyhow, I put them here nevertheless.

Forty-five million Spaniards drew a collective breath at the news on May 2 that Xavi, the playmaking genius of FC Barcelona, was carrying an injury that might prevent him from playing in South Africa this summer for Spain's national team. His club coach said Xavi, 30, had a 3-cm rip just above his left calf muscle; if aggravated, the tear would require surgery, ruling him out of the World Cup. But with the Spanish league in its final stretch and Barça needing victories to stay ahead of archrival Real Madrid, Xavi opted to keep playing. "He is committed to this club," coach Pep Guardiola said at a press conference. "He is an example for everyone."

Not everyone was pleased by Xavi's devotion to his club. "I thought to myself, We don't need him to be an example. We just need him to be fit for South Africa," says Sergio Soto, a pharmacist's assistant in Madrid. "Because without Xavi, our World Cup dream is finished."

Spain had to wait a nerve-racking week before it could breathe easy. Xavi (few fans know his full name: Xavier Hernández i Creus) played his last game of the season for his club on May 8 and emerged without further injury. Speaking to TIME shortly afterward at Barça's training complex outside the city, Xavi says his countrymen needn't have been on tenterhooks. "I know my own body," he says. "People all over Spain were worried, but I'm all right."

It's not unusual for soccer-crazed nations to get exercised over the well-being of their star players — all of England winced at Wayne Rooney's groin strain, and Germany felt the pain of the egregious tackle that ended Michael Ballack's Cup hopes. But Spain's agonizing over Xavi tells a deeper story, one of soccer rising above politics and bridging ancient divides.

Xavi is from Catalonia, the northeastern province washed by the Mediterranean that historically has had an uneasy relationship with the rest of Spain. Many Catalans see themselves as a separate nation and dream of independence. They speak their own language, Catalan, which sounds to the untrained ear like an admixture of Spanish, French and Portuguese. And like their Basque neighbors, they have a culture and history that have been often at odds with those of other regions of Spain. During the Franco dictatorship, authorities in Madrid sought to stamp out the Catalan identity, often by bloody force. The dictator favored Real Madrid, sowing the seeds for one of soccer's most bitter rivalries.

In turn, many Spaniards have long regarded Catalans with distrust. In soccer, that translates into a frostiness toward Catalan players, a suspicion that they don't play for the national colors with the same enthusiasm as they do for FC Barcelona, a club so closely linked to the Catalan identity that its crest includes the Catalan flag. Barça's slogan, "Més que un club" (More than a club), hints at its political role. Some Spaniards blame generations of Catalan players for the fact that the national team has never won the World Cup despite fielding world-beating talent every four years. During the 2006 Cup, Spain flamed out to France even before the quarterfinals.

And yet in South Africa this year, the hopes of the Spanish national team — known as La Furia Roja, or the Red Fury — rest on a group of Catalan players: Xavi, Cesc Fabregas and Sergio Busquets in midfield and Carles Puyol and Gerard Piqué in defense. (Goaltender Victor Valdés is also on the squad bound for South Africa, along with three non-Catalan players from Barça: Andrés Iniesta, Pedro Rodríguez and the club's latest signing, David Villa.) The Catalan contingent, products of Barça's vaunted youth system, has helped the national team sweep all before it in the past four years, becoming European champions and flying up the FIFA national rankings from 12th to first, before being overtaken by Brazil. Now, thanks to the Catalan stars, La Furia Roja will travel to South Africa as favorites to win the tournament. "Catalan players do their best in the national team, and we are proving that," says Piqué, 23.

In that time span, Barça has won three Spanish league titles and two European championships. "This is Catalonia's golden generation of players," says Marc Ingla, a former marketing chief at Barça and a candidate for the club's presidency in elections this month. "Both the club and the country have benefited from these riches."

For the players, the distinction is unimportant. "A footballer doesn't understand politics. What he wants to do is win," says Xavi. Says Piqué: "As a player, your dream is to play in the national shirt and defend it against the world."

But Xavi and company can't expect all their fellow Catalans to see it that way. For some Barça fans, the only "national" team is a collection of Catalan all-stars that plays occasional exhibition games in the region's colors. "One day we will send a Catalan team to the World Cup," says Xavier, a university student who refused to give his last name. "Until that day, that tournament means nothing to me."

That sentiment is shared by the club's top official. Joan Laporta's highly successful seven-year presidency at Barça ends this month. He and Ingla have done more to turn the club into an international soccer powerhouse, with an annual budget in excess of $500 million and hundreds of millions of fans around the globe. "Barça belongs to the world," says Laporta. "Barça is Japanese, it's African, it's American." But is it Spanish? Laporta pauses for thought, then shrugs. "I have no emotion for the [Spanish] national team," he says. "It doesn't matter if six of my players are in it." Some divides not even soccer can bridge.

The original article can be read here.

A dear friend wrote to me

اردشیر عزیزم

به شدت و خیلی به طرز خفنی از شنیدن خبر و دیدن عکس این موجود کوچک و نارنین خوشحال شدم. ان شاء الله که چشم بنده کف پای بانو کلاریس! حتما کار خوبی کرده اید که چنین گنجشک لطیفی نصیبتان شده چون شاعر می فرماید تو نیکی می کن و در دجله انداز، که ایزد در بیابانت دهد باز. این همان است که ایزد باز داده. می دانم که شما و خانواده به واسطه خبط سهم داشتن در تالیف قانون اساسی جمهوری اسلامی هر روز بر پشت دست می زنید و افسوس می خورید و آه می کشید، اما به دنیا آمدن همین طفل زیبا نشان از آن دارد که ظاهرا نیت همان کار هم خیر بوده و البته که نیت بر هر چیزی مقدم است. امیدوارم که طبق سنت ذکری چیزی در گوش بچه نگفته باشید؛ اگر خواستید بگویید به نیابت از بنده دو سه خطی ژیژک (همان Zizek خودمان) برایش بخوانید برای آتیه اش خوب است. فقط زنهار می دهم که مبادا چامسکی بخوانید ها! بچه چپی می شود، از فردا راه می افتد در کوچه و خیابان می خواهد در هر اعتصاب و راهپیمایی کارگری شرکت کند یا اینکه برود سوار کشتی های کمک رسانی به غزه بشود، حالا بیا و درستش کن. کشتی هم که هزار ماشاء الله کم نیست در این دوره و زمانه، سوار کدام کشتی بشود فقط خدا می داند. بدینوسیله به شما و بانو (که وجودشان تا پیش از این کاغذی که مرقوم فرموده بودید بر ما پوشیده مانده بود) تبریک می گوییم (خودمان یک نفری) و آرزوی صحت و عافیت برای هر سه شما، نوگلان باغ نبوت. باشد که این دختر ژان دارکی چیزی بشود و قومی را از عذاب نجات دهد. نگران این که "کدام قوم؟" هم نباشید؛ الحمدلله چیزی که در این دنیا زیاد است، قوم در عذاب. من باب تاکید و محض اطمینان عرض می کنم که اصلا این کتب ضاله چامسکی و امثالهم را اصلا منتقل کنید به پستو. دم دست بچه هم نباشند بهتر است؛ باعث فساد می شوند. اصلا چرا برویم سراغ فرنگی؟ یک جلد دایی جان ناپلئون و یک جلد هم "چنین کنند بزرگان" نجف خان دریابندری بالای سر بچه باشد، ان شاء الله که آسیبی به ذهنیاتش وارد نمی شود. زیاده گویی کردم، ببخشید. روی ماهت را می بوسم از دور، کلاریس و بانو را سلام برسان. به امید دیدار محمد تقی خان پسیان سوم حوت سنه 1289 شمسی

Violet* syndrome

Definition

Violet syndrome is a syndrome that almost all of us are suffering from. By us, I mean everyone who is born in the country (boundary) with 'abundance of jewels' aka "marz-e por gohar". The severity of this syndrome varies for different individuals but if you, for some reason, decide or even are forced to reside outside that 'boundary', you are having, beyond reasonable doubt, a moderate to very tense case of this syndrome as this syndrome is activated as soon as one leaves or is about to leave the boundary. This syndrome, however not life threatening in most cases, may not bother you on daily basis, but it does come to surface every now and then and does its subsequent damage to your mental health to say the least.

Diagnosis and symptoms

The most significant symptom of this syndrome is the limitation and the restraints that it applies to your traveling freedom. This means that every time you want to travel outside that 'boundary' or to any given country - and this covers almost every destination on this planet with one or two exceptions - you are forced to go through a certain process called visa application process. There are many confirmed cases of people with this syndrome who have expressed pain and anguish (to different degrees), physical and mental distress, unnecessary loss of time and money, humiliation, discrimination and etc. while going through the latter process solely due to this syndrome. In some severe cases, the effect of this syndrome extends beyond traveling matters as it may reduce your employment or study opportunities and subject your future plans and progress to unpleasant halts. In diagnostics of this syndrome, I must add that the severity of it depends on the fact that how much one is bothered by these limitations or how many times one faces situations where such syndrome is the cause of major obstacles.

Causes

As mentioned before, this syndrome is caused by the fact that you are born within that boundary and therefore, are entitled to own a beautifully brown colored passport - i.e. the distinct sign of the syndrome - with the seal of 'that government'. The uncanny intelligence that the leaders of that government have used consistently throughout the years has caused the country to grow an amicable and mutually respected political relationship with most of the countries in the world and this has led to irrational and unnecessary suffering of many of our fellow citizens.

Prognosis

Unfortunately, there is not much that you can do to avoid or prevent getting this syndrome. Your parents, if they plan in advance and foresee such thing, most probably due the fact that they had to experience it, can prevent it for their future child. However, depending on your country of residence, after many efforts and going through many bureaucratic operations, you may be able to find a cure for this and remove the harmful effects of this syndrome to a great extent.


* I chose the name 'Violet' for this syndrome since a good friend of ours - with the same name - had a severe case of it.

To the tools in the hands of oppressors

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"

-Voltaire

Year's recap

It has been an end-of-the-year tradition (particularly in the media) that a recap of the year that has passed is done as the year comes to an end. While I believe that it is a good idea to review the year's event (for sole purpose of learning something), I feel sort of apathetic about it, at least for the state of mind of that I find myself in while putting down these words. I think the origin comes from the fact that one is living in the 'now' moment and this damn thing which we call time cannot-unfortunately!- be turned back to change its course and it is even more unfortunate that we cannot predict what is coming toward us neither, so it is a quite peculiar situation to say the least.

Having said this and in line with self-contradiction, I would say:

On a global perspective, I think the most important and distinct event of the year was what happened a few weeks prior and mostly after this year's presidential election in our country which sparked a massive unprecedented unrest afterwards, some of which are still ongoing as of now. I think many would agree that this single event can be regarded as the turning point in the contemporary history of the country, some radical would argue that it was a an embryo of a revolution. Well, I am not sure about that and more importantly, that's not up for contest now either. It nevertheless consumed, to say the least, hours and hours of our energy and mental capabilities...generously spent on discussing the every possible angle of it from many different perspectives followed by a full, in-depth analysis. If I were smart enough and recorded all those long, and often inconclusive talks, I would have had rich material to fill a whole book or something. The rest of events that happened in 09 are not equally significant as they do not have of much of impact on MY universe, and therefore I decline to bring them up now, they can be easily found in everywhere now.

On a personal level, I would say that the global credit crunch did have an impact on my economy, not that much of a hard blow though despite facing some remaining deficits from last year. After surviving a wave of layoffs at work, we were forced to work less and take a pay-cut which gave me extra time to spend with a few guests that we had over during summer, my brother among them who was having his first visit after 9 years. The year contained a fair amount of traveling into new places and visiting some old friends too...always more than pleasant. In this year, I also reconciled with our elegant and beautifully rich poetry and modestly, started to set foot in the marvelous ocean of Persian mysticism thanks to poems of His Highness Mawlana. I should mention that the massive help that I received from friends and family in providing me with the resources of thought nutrition has been invaluable in his aspect. The ending months was also marked by something that can be defined as changing point in my life and I will talk about this, inevitably and gladly, more in the future :-)

To wrap thing up, here are my bests of the last year:

1. Best movie seen: Into The Wild
2. Best book read: Into Thin Air (maybe because I haven't read 'the other' book yet!)
3. Best album listened to: Passion of Rumi by Shahram and Hafez Nazeri

Well said

O.

1.

He is here!

Yes, he finally came atop his hard-fought battle and broke all those barriers.

Oh, yes sir!

No one believed that he would do that. The man entered a new chapter of history, the man referred to "The One" by some and "That One" by others!

Before his winning night, he was waiving the giant flag of change spreading hope around by repeating his trademark of "Yes we can" and on that night, he touched many people's hearts by accomplishing what was unprecedented.

Now that the climax is over after a couple of days, although many still want to stay in that sweet state of victory, we all stand and wait, asking: "Now what?"

2.

Four years ago, I was lucky enough to meet a great man who was the guru on that scientific field that I was working. We chatted mostly on politics and I will never forget how he looked like the night before the election. My weak words trying to assure him that if he believes his side is right so he should be certain of victory did not help much in enhancing his state. The day after, while trying to get over the harsh defeat he said to me: "We shall win one day...we shall take over" and I was dead angry due to loss so his stark words did not improved my state neither (so much of mutual influence!). Little did I knew that he was actually spreading "hope for a change" back then and I was too blinded by the loss. Indeed a wise man he was!

Well, these days are your days my friend, enjoy your victory to the full. Although I know you can never sit back or settle down for a while. I am sure that you are already anxious about future.

"We are alive as we never settle down (calm down)
We are like waves of the sea, we will vanish from life should we rest for a while..."

3.

For us outsiders, it may not mean that much. However, it is surely good to see someone sympa, young, good looking, basketball player (not to mention "sun tanned" as someone has recently suggested!) take the charge for a while.

At least his name sounds very comforting for us as it means "He is with us = O ba ma (ast)" in Persian!

Angry me behind loudspeaker

"You can't fight city hall, death and taxes. Don't talk about politics or religion. This is all the equivalent of enemy propaganda rolling across the picket line. "Lay down, G.I. Lay down, G.I." We saw it all through the 20th Century. And now in the 21st Century, it's time to stand up and realize that we should not allow ourselves to be crammed into this rat maze. We should not submit to dehumanization.

I don't know about you, but I'm concerned with what's happening in this world. I'm concerned with the structure. I'm concerned with the systems of control, those that control my life and those that seek to control it even more! I want freedom! That's what I want! And that's what you should want!

It's up to each and every one of us to turn loose and show them the greed, the hatred, the envy, and yes, the insecurities because that is the central mode of control - make us feel pathetic, small so we'll willingly give up our sovereignty, our liberty, our destiny. We have got to realize that we're being conditioned on a mass scale. Start challenging this corporate slave state! The 21st Century is going to be a new century, not the century of slavery, not the century of lies and issues of no significance and classism and statism and all the rest of the modes of control! It's going to be the age of humankind standing up for something pure and something right!

What a bunch of garbage - liberal Democrat, conservative Republican. It's all there to control you. Two sides of the same coin. Two management teams bidding for control! The C.E.O. job of Slavery, Incorporated! The truth is out there in front of you, but they lay out this buffet of lies. I'm sick of it, and I'm not going to take a bite out of it! Do you got me?

Resistance is not futile. We're gonna win this thing. Humankind is too good! We're not a bunch of underachievers! We're gonna stand up and we're gonna be human beings! We're gonna get fired up about the real things, the things that matter: creativity and dynamic human spirit that refuses to submit! Well that's it! That's all I got to say!

It's your court."


Many thanks to Alex Jones for words and the performance

Dick Cheney

I just listened to one of my favorite flamboyant political characters Michael Moore commenting on the Republicans' convention which took place a while ago, he was asked how come his name was mentioned during the convention and not Dick Cheney's...he said that he seems to be that "crazy old uncle that they have hidden in the closet in the basement" and they don't want to talk about him anymore and etc.

Just imagining that....that there's this house that all Republicans live in and they've got an uncle who is old and crazy (probably with long white hair) and is kept in the basement, in the closet and they don't show him to neighbors or guest cuz he might scare them off and so on....that thought made me laugh pretty good!