Stop the execution of Zeynab Jalalian!

Zeynab Jalalian faces the threat of imminent execution in Iran.
NIAC Urges Obama to publicly press Iran to halt the execution of Zeynab Jalalian!
1- The Death Sentence of Zeynab Jalalian should be immediately canceled.
2- Her family and lawyer should get access to her.
3- An independent medical committee from international Human Rights organizations to examine physical and mental conditions of our sister, and to apply treatments.

Stop Stoning!

Sakineh is going to be stoned to death in two weeks!
Stop stoning!

A Transcendental moment of Beauty

Yesterday as I was returning from my son's book signing event at Anderson's bookstore, I listened to Swan by Camille Saint-Saens, Cellist Vladimir Orloff on the radio. It was sunset and my friend was driving, passing tall trees in Evanston as we were breathing the astonishing scent of linden flowers. I said to him: Let's freeze this transcendental moment of beauty forever in our memory!
We listened in silence. I, was in cloud nine, he, in a complicated feeling of sadness!

A Military Strike on Iran?

Another war? A military strike on Iran?
AAyyy Adamhaa ke dar sahel neshasteh shad o khandanid.......
Heyyyyy People
By Nima Yushij
(I do not know who the translator is, but the poem at least gives you an idea what the poem is about!)

Hey, you over there
who are sitting on the shore, happy and laughing,
someone is dying in the water,
someone is constantly struggling
on this angry, heavy, dark, familiar sea.
When you are drunk
with the thought of getting your hands on your enemy,
when you think in vain
that you've given a hand to a weak person
to produce a better weak person,
when you tighten your belts, when,
when shall I tell you
that someone in the water
is sacrificing in vain?

Hey, you over there
who are sitting pleasantly on the shore,
bread on your tablecloths, clothes on your bodies,
someone is calling you from the water.
He beats the heavy wave with his tired hand,
his mouth agape, eyes torn wide with terror,
Read more...

Love Song

Listen to Soheil Nafisi's beautiful "Love Song" based on a poem by Ahmad Shamlu
Listen also to "Oh, People/Ay Adamhaa" poem by Nima Yushij

Gasland

Gasland A film by Josh Fox
Watch Josh Fox on Daily Show.
"The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of "fracking" or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a "Saudia Arabia of natural gas" just beneath us. But is fracking safe? When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND. Part verite travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown."

Kaveh Adel's Book

The Boy and the Red Balloon by Kaveh Adel (my exceptional son) at Anderson's Bookshop Home Grown Authors Events in 2010.
Read more...and watch this...

Here are the details:
Anderson’s Bookshop Home Grown Authors Event 2010
Sunday June 27 from 2-4 PM
123 W. Jefferson Avenue
Naperville IL 60540

Triq Ali and the crisis in the Middle East

Watch this video. Tariq Ali spoke on imperialism, and crisis in the Middle East on July 2009.

Ali with Vanessa Redgrave in a demonstration.

Stephen Kinzer on the History of BP/British Petroleum

Stephen Kinzer on the History of BP/ British Petroleum and Its Role in the 1953 Iran Coup.

Another war?

Another war?
I have lived through a painful war for almost eight years. Aren't all wars Fatuous? I wrote this poem as part of a play related to war in 1989.

WAR
By: I
Translated by Mansour Bonakdarian


These are not drops of rain falling from the sky,
This is fire, scraps of metal raining down
These are not dandelions, or butterflies circling in the air
These are children’s torn clothes
Strands of hair floating in the air

There are tall palm trees in the Middle East
The trees have now been decapitated
The men in the south are strong
Now their skulls rest on broken telegraph polls
Like scarecrows in a barren field

The women of the south are brave
Now you must look for their torn limbs
On the mounds of the scorched bricks of dilapidated homes

What is this on the earth, in the air and water?
Raw, bloody scraps of meat?

June 12!

The Green Movement at One year.

Knowledge, Empathy, Love

I just listened to an outstanding interview with a Palestinian man Bassam Aramin whose daughter was shot dead by an Israeli soldier, and a former pilot Israeli Yonatan Shapira in The story. This is an eye-opening story of knowledge, understanding, love, empathy and peace.

"The debate continues over the Israeli attack on the flotilla of ships headed to Gaza. The two sides are accusing one another and the diplomatic fallout for Israel is mounting.

Bassam Aramin and Yonatan Shapira have lived with that tension their whole lives. Bassan is a Palestinian from the West Bank who was jailed for planning an attack on Israelis. Yonatan Shapira was a pilot in the Israeli Air Force. Both experienced a change of heart and realized violence was not the answer."
Listen to this lullaby sung by Yonatan Shapira: "Lullaby for Pilots"
And the story of Abir, Bassam Aramin's daughter: "What Happened to Abir"
Here is the website for "Combatants for Peace"

My Simple Secret

"And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye."
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Where is This Place?

Where is This Place?

Strange Times!

Israeli forces have attacked a flotilla of aid-carrying ships aiming to break the country's siege on Gaza.
Here are some Reactions.