Iranian Teacher XP: March 2006

Friday, March 31, 2006

Is Access Denied?

What bugs me the most while surfing the net is the blue screen message which goes like this:” Dear surfer, access is denied to the site you are looking for.” The word Dear puts a pain in my ass! You try bypassing the filter by anti_filter sites but damn! Those“anti”filter sites are filtered too! Hey, they are putting more fences on, they are getting way stronger.
Halleluiah, Halleluiah, Halleluiah…

Something inside you is cracking up; the swear button is on and there you go: fuck, shit, etc…Thanks to my “privacy” I am not filtered myself or I wouldn’t have uttered the above mentioned words.

Come to think of it, I can’t help but think that God has stopped talking to us Iranians just because some one up there is monitoring God’s activities and who knows, maybe God is filtered himself/herself otherwise we could hear him/her talk.

You turn on the TV… one word…Crap? Almost.
Hey,never fear:Mrs. Satellite is here:
Shows, ads in a raw, more shows, Gay TV, Sexy video channels, you name it…
Why the hell the internet is almost filtered but you can get a receiver with less than 200$ and WATCH everything? Is this a deal between our government and the people? An unwritten rule that says:” WATCH the gorgeous babes, WATCH the nature, WATCH those so called opposition groups but never use your brain box to see what’s going O.K.? That’s my boy!

Friday, March 17, 2006

Life,Iranian Style,(2)

For first part, I can say that after revolution in IRAN, of course we have some new rules that politician take them from KHORAN. But I think these rules have been combining with personal ambitions. Sometimes government in the name of Islam prevents from ordinary freedom. I think in this article writer try to show that atmosphere in Iran is too dark (by saying some expression from people that they afraid of saying their names.). But I don't think so.
Whatever people don't have freedom for middle in politic, they have freedom in other things that maybe you think it's against Islam's rules!( Dressing, lyrics, stories).for example 'offside' is the name of new film in Iran about some NONWRITTEN rules that prevent women from going to stadium for watching football match. It's an ordinary subject but government doesn't allow showing this movie in the cinemas. Because this film shows one of the mistakes of government this mistake related with its politics. Not Because of some sense in this film, in this movie we have some women; they don't keep appearance of Islam completely like HEJAB and so on. But we have some movies that they sometimes don't respect some rules of Islam such as forbidden in drink alcohol and so on. Also their subjects are without value for showing (such as SHARLATAN) but they have allowed for showing.
Something in this article is true. Yes, condition after president in international sense got risky. But I believe that government in Iran isn't very important department. Orders come from high level!

Nahid(Female)

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Get drunk

[Video Room]

In one scene there was a guy pouring some beer into a glass with lots of foam on the top.

“How foamy! It must be an original beer.” the kid exclaimed!

“Beer? It’s lemonade! By the way, you don’t need to drink beer to get drunk; a glass of water would does exactly the same job.” ” I said jokingly.

Friday, March 10, 2006

An Iranian Lifestyle

After reading an article on NY Times Click here to read(by MICHAEL SLACKMAN Published: February 15, 2006) I asked my students to send me their comments on it. Here you can find an email from one of my students. (An engineer) I was in doubt as to whether publish this or not because, I really don’t want to belittle my fellow countrymen but I thought for seconds “In order to move ahead, one HAS To look at himself critically, so let it be.”
I would publish more comments if you would like to know more about Iran and Iranians:

Disclaimer: Publishing this doesn’t necessarily mean that the blogger agrees with all the content; it also doesn’t give the readers an overall view on how all Iranians live; It just shows how an average Iranian lives and thinks:

First of all, the aim of the present version is to clarify some points in New York Times' reportage of an awards ceremony in Tehran.
As far as I got, for the reporter, Lynsey Addario, it has been the first fortune to be in here in Iran. And likely she has been so surprised with the art events in Iran, where she never thought they may have any kind of culture. So, she has got some wrong ideas of the phenomena, qua she has mixed Taqiyah with the facts of Iranians' life.
To abstract the version, I prefer to analyze an Iranian in Iran. Perhaps as I am an Iranian, I can just see the defaults and not any extraordinary characteristic at them. But I try to issue some evidences to make it arguable.
Iranians like a lot to show off and exaggerate whatever they have or fake that they have. "Whatever" could cover a wide range of the things: religion, honors, history, bad situation, good positions, knowledge, villainy, humanity and…
In the roads they have always problems with the traffic codes, they see the other cars as constant obstacles which would be disappeared with blowing in their cars' unusual horns or even worse, for a while they think of being a kind of F1 drivers and then run their un-standard cars so fast and break all the rules while they never used to respect to. In the banks they are always in hurry and challenging with the others to let them be an exception and receive the services out of the queue sooner than the others. In the taxis, during the first 5 minutes, they complain f the mal-culture now a day we are having which expunge humanity from our society, after 5 minutes, they discuss how they have paid the bribes to escape from the impedimenta against their wills, as enrolling in the public universities without passing the exams, to rebuild their houses in the cheapest way how it didn't meet the standards, finding a job while they were not qualified to have it or escaping of any kind of the punishments one can think of; from canceling the disqualification in the university or at work till cutting the taxes or the reducing the amount of the police penalty. There is a lot which could be mentioned, I short it.
The best sentence for them is:
They are so often too excited and acting emotionally or they are trying to shortcut any kinds of the rules.
Encountering the technology could be said that they are the third hand customers of the technology. We buy a lot of things and we don't know why we should buy it. Microwaves oven, strange mobile sets, terrible car audio appliances and so many other things that we don't know why we should buy them are bought in our society.
Sometimes they try to cheat each other to gain more money by taking part in pyramidal marketing.
All above mentioned could be found everywhere in the world, but, as statistics, in here it is catastrophe. Nobody thinks of national heritage in Iran, nobody cares about nature, nobody think of the general situation of the society.
Iran is somewhere that one can become rich easily, without passing the necessary standard processes of enrichment like as working, educating or innovating. It is just enough to find the clue and pay the bribe, after that you will meet the success. In the other hand there are people who work for an age and never find whatever they had planed for their life.
In such a society, we have also a religious government who need to address people to something metaphysic and abstract to scatter their attention to a real life. During the past years we have paid a lot because of the conservative mindset in the top layer of our governments. But, why they persist in their ideas while we are just 60 millions people in the world who think like that? Is it to do something for the country? Is it to do something against the other countries? West charges us government of the terrorist actions, but no evidence has been handed to any international union to prove it. Why? Because there has been really nothing to be handed! They never fight with the others because of believes. They know that if they want to be rested on top they should be clever and more careful in international union.

It is to say that our problem is not this fact that we have not any kinds of individual freedoms in our country; our problem is not lack of the rock bands. These are the effects of something else.
The main subject is that people in Iran like to gain money easily and if sometime the conditions go to be like as a real society, there are many of them who oppose this idea.
During the years government and people have compromised on something; government make them free to do everything that they want; as drugs, black marketing, bribing, blackmailing, tax free commerce or whatever which is normally forbidden in the other society. Instead people should pay attention to the Islamic rules and just mind the appearance.
Sometimes young people oppose the conditions. The reason is that their wills and desires is not the same as what the last generation has accepted. They need just a fresh air. They want to be connected to the other cultures. They don't like religious subjects. It is true. But more than this, they don't know how they should balance everything. It is not a fundamental need. It is a result of the other things. The base is the other thing. Us youth just see that they have not so many beautiful aspects of art, we can't say whatever we want or experience anything. Even a miracle is useless here. We should be grown up in such a way who we can tolerate freedom. The capacitance of freedom is created by exercise and education and our generation is not present.
After all, I agree that there are red lines in the government. I agree that the red line is sharing the new ideas which oppose and challenge the system. But I don't agree that the main worry of the government is the Rock Bands or whatever. System doesn't properly pay attention to life style of people, it is true, but it seems that they let people do whatever they want privately, and, people have accepted it!
The other issue has been nuclear plants in Iran. I didn't get why the reporter has said such an issue besides the Rock music!!!
I think she has been somehow concluding that as Iranian government doesn't agree with rock music or as the life is not as desirable as the west, then they should not have authority to use nuclear energy peacefully.  As an Iranian, I think the west is forcing us to ignore our rights. Nuclear bomb is terrible, but, if they had any evidence of it in here, it had been better to show it to all. It is sure that nobody agrees with nuclear bomb and everybody likes to have more advanced society. I think because of the increasing rate of the oil consumption in our country, we need to have nuclear plant.
Finally, I think more than 60% of the people like the present situation and have based their life in according to it. Somebody makes money easily here and never likes to mess this situation. Somebody because of the situation has enough reason to immigrate abroad and never comes back and such a situation gives them enough reasons not to be regretted of immigration. Somebody likes the religious face of the country and say "even if there are a lots of crimes, we prefer to live somewhere under the name of Islam". Then, it is better to find a solution which merges all the though together and average all the groups. I think individually that it can not be obtained so soon. We need to learn how to have civilization from the schools and be prepared to tolerate freedom.

Hamid

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Experience

Have you ever wondered as why a long bearded guy_ if you get what I mean_ employs a gorgeous lady with her heavy makeup as his salesclerk? There are a number of possibilities:

As a business rule, that kind of “salesclerk” attracts more customers.

The employer wants to employ a “jack of all trades” who does not only business but also …

Have you ever noticed the ads in the shops which read:

“An experienced lady wanted”

I have always wondered as what “experience” connotes?

How about you?

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Superstitions

I got(read confiscated) a bottle of firecrackers (not the one which makes one happy but the one which makes you nuts in its real term) from one of my students by chance. The kid was asking me to give him back the firecrackers when I started the “morality” lesson:

“I know you won’t listen to my request not to use these firecrackers in the street but, PLEASE don’t use any of them when some lady, man, young or old is around. Go a head and use the “Bomb” (read firecracker) in the street but don’t do any harm to anyone.”

“I was told that if you cry for Imam Hussein all your sins will be forgiven. Won’t they?” Hamed asked.

“Imam Hussein didn’t do any harm to any one, did he?”

“You go disturb people by these firecrackers and think by crying over the Imam’s soul things will be forgiven? Wake up and smell the coffee boy.”

That was the first time ever that the lesson turned into the theology one and I didn’t mean to be a clergy in my class. I felt the need though as these days you can see the kids welcoming Charshanbe Souri by making firecrackers (The slang term is called Bomb)

I am sure if we commemorated this nice and beautiful occasion nationally by the government,we wouldn’t witness so much noise pollution and kids burning caused by making the boms by the kids.

PS:I reurned the bottle to the kid as in order for an old habit to die,one has to go deep into the culture to reconstruct the destroyed building once again.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Request Google To Dispaly Norooz Logo

A great idea I suppose. Click here to request Google to display a Norooz logo.

Iranian Teacher XP