Isn't it just amazing?

What more do you know or have heard about it?

(posted by Farid)


Posted:Sunday, December 28, 2003 | 

It is sad


It is sad. Yes it is really sad. I cannot say anything. Families who are mourning for their beloved. I do not forget; 21 June 1990, around 40,000 people died in an earthquake in the northern Iranian province of Gilan. Now it happened again! Houses in these cities are good for 2000 years ago! If earthquake only kills few people in California or in Japan, the reason is that human beings have value over there but not in Iran. The dictator government does not care about citizens’ lives. No education, no construction law, no……. still they are in medieval ages oh so frustrating !
I wish I was there to help people!

(posted by Iman)



Posted:Saturday, December 27, 2003 | 

This is the last song of the album "Radio Kaos " by Roger Waters. Unlike most of his works, this is an optimistic one and the music is wonderful. Interesting is the morse code at the end of the song trascribed at the end of the lyric.

The Tide is Turning

I used to think the world was flat
Rarely threw my hat into the crowd
I felt I had used up my quota of yearning
Used to look in on the children at night
In the glow of their Donald Duck light
And frighten myself with the thought of my little ones burning
But oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning
The tide is turning

Satellite buzzing through the endless night
Exclusive to moonshots and world title fights
Jesus Christ imagine what it must be earning
Who is the strongest, who is the best
Who holds the aces, the East or the West
This is the crap our children are learning
But oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning
The tide is turning
Oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning

Now the satellite's confused
'Cos on Saturday night
The airwaves were full of compassion and light
And his silicon heart warmed
To the sight of a billion candles burning
Oo, oo, oo, the tide is turning
Oo, oo, oo, the tide is turning
The tide is turning Billy

I'm not saying that the battle is won
But on Saturday night all those kids in the sun
Wrested technology's sword from the hand of the
War Lords
Oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning
The tide is turning Sylvester

The tide is turning.

"That's it!"

[Transcription of morse code:]

"Now the past is over but you are not alone
Together we'll fight Sylvester Stallone
We will not be dragged down in his South China Sea
of macho bullshit and mediocrity"

(posted by Farid)

Posted:Tuesday, December 23, 2003 | 

The Visible Human Project

Joseph Paul Jernigan was executed in Texas in 1993 for a brutal murder he had committed. Before his execution, he donated his body to the State Anatomical Board of Texas. His body was selected for the Visible Human Project, designed to create accurate computerized versions of the human body. After being frozen, his body was sectioned at 1-mmm intervals.
For a graphic story of the murder go here.
To read about the whole project go here and each time click on the arrow sign at the bottom for the next page.
For Visible Human Viewer go here.
and lots more here.
and my favorite is here
by the way you can find "those that the state of Texas has killed " with a page for each here.

(posted by Farid)



Posted:Sunday, December 14, 2003 | 

Peter White

He is one of my favorite guitar players and musicians of all time . Read about this brilliant man here.

(posted by Farid)
Posted:Monday, December 08, 2003 | 

Alexander the Great Died from West Nile Virus

By the way, he had the same age as me when he died .

Read the whole thing here
(Posted by Farid)
Posted:Wednesday, December 03, 2003 | 

Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens , performs at the Nelson Mandela AIDS benefit concert in Cape Town

I had a post about him a while ago. I like his eyes and his smiling face. He also talks very sweetly.
Check it here
(posted by Farid)
Posted:Wednesday, December 03, 2003 | 

"There are known knowns;..."

"...there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns"

check it here
(posted by Farid)
Posted:Monday, December 01, 2003 | 

Did Nostradamus Predict Osama Bin Laden?

Take a look at this site.
(posted by Farid)
Posted:Sunday, November 30, 2003 | 

Never have I beheld a lamp
Brighter than serenity
Or heard a speech
Better than speechlessness.

I meditated in the house of silence
And put on the robe of patience.

I became a bird
His eye of “unity”
His feather of “eternity”
I flew in the air of formlessness
I drank of a bowl
Whose water
Will never quench my thirst…



Bayazeed Bastami (Eleventh century mystic)

translated by Leila Farjami
(posted by Iman)
Posted:Thursday, November 13, 2003 | 

I was dead, became alive

I was dead, became alive
Was tearful, laughingly thrive
With love survive, my only drive
I have become eternal.

My eyes no longer seek
Am courageous, no more meek
Daring lion, far from weak
Shine like Venus celestial.

Said, "madness is not thy code
You don’t deserve this abode."
With madness my life explode
Chains before me break and fall.

"Intoxicated, thou art not
Art not from this divine cut."
I drank my senses out
Joyously roamed in life’s hall.

"Thou art not yet slain
Joy runs not in thy vein."
Before life now I remain
Slain, sacrificed and small.

"Thou art sly and cunning
Thy thoughts are wildly running."
My deception was stunning
Then rejected the external.

Said, "Thou have been a candle light
Crowds focus upon thy sight."
Sight I am not, light without might
Scattered smoke, wide and tall.

"Thou art guru and teacher
Thou art leader, head, preacher."
I am a mere creature
Thy will is my only call.

"Thou have feathers, have taken wing
Feather and wing I did not bring."
In pursuit of flight of King
Lost my feathers, now I crawl.

My beloved, old and fair
Said, "this story, me spare."
I agreed to not share
Peaceful and eternal.

Thou art the sun’s source and spring
While to shade my body cling
Upon my head, hot rays sting
I feel the heart infernal.

With light of my soul aglow
My heart opened with loving flow
Weaving a new cloth to show
Against the tattered rags and all.

That divine face, at time of dawn
Many deceptions would spawn
Enslaved with a thorny crown
Beloved upon throne install.

I, thy instrument, Thee praise
Thy infinite sweet phase
In my bosom came to raze
And brought down my ignorant wall.

Praises Thee this drunken dust
Praise the stars and earth I must
Receive thy light with full trust
From luminous orbiting ball.

The firmaments are in praise
Of lords, lands, angelic gaze
Gracefully love and amaze
Compassionately, wisely, enthrall.

The wise praise the Lord well
Thus surpass all and excel
Upon the seven skies swell
Give birth to light, maternal.

I am of Thee O famed moon,
Gazing at me do not swoon
Contagious joy in me bloom
Laughs my every petal.

I was Venus, now am moon
Wallowing like a gloomy lune
Became Joseph very soon
Pregnant with hope of renewal.

As if playing a game of chess
Make your call while speechless
King of the World my life will bless
With a glance, existential.

From slavery to kingly might
From Venus to satellite
Was distant unknown point of light
Am luminous orb of love, eternal!

Rumi


Translated by Shahriar Shahriari

(posted by Iman)

Posted:Tuesday, November 11, 2003 | 

Up to 85% of Americans have Candida overgrowth (Candidiasis) DO YOU?

About two weeks ago my cousin found out that he had some kind of fungus infection in his blood by doing blood test . He had been having greasy skin , especially forehead and fatigue and lack of concentration. Later he found the following self-test. I don't know how reliable this is and I haven't done it myself yet , but I am suffering from all those symptoms too and seems very likely that I have the same thing. He is taking antibiotics and another medicine now.

"Try this easy home test
You can try this simple test to see if you have candida: First thing in the morning, before you put ANYTHING in your mouth, get a clear glass. Fill with water and work up a bit of saliva, then spit it into the glass of water. Check the water every 15 minutes or so for up to one hour. If you have a problem you will see strings (like legs) traveling down into the water from the saliva floating on the top, or “cloudy” saliva will sink to the bottom of the glass, or cloudy specks will seem to be suspended in the water. See diagram. If there are no strings and the saliva is still floating after at least one hour, you probably have candida under control."
see the whole thing here.
(posted by Farid)


Posted:Saturday, November 08, 2003 | 

First snow in Montreal




First snow always is beautiful and exciting. I don’t know why I felt that I should read Hafiz. Read this wonderful ghazal and listen to it. I could not find its English translation. No doubt that Hafiz was genius.

(Links via Hafiz by Ustad Amir Khani in IRIB)

(posted by Iman)


Posted:Tuesday, November 04, 2003 | 

My mother, my dear thing !

"I've been doing some thinking, here on my own
it's been on my mind
this debt I owe to you
I have to repay in kind

But I can't find my way

Tired and weary, I follow the path
that leads to your door
but it occurred to me, all that I have
is already yours

But I can't find my way

Oh, just to sit a while
Oh, just to sit and watch you smile

But I can't find my way

Keep the faith you say
to keep the faith I pray
be strong you say
just follow the light

Wheels keep turning but the closer I get
the farther I seem
peace will only come
finding the peace within

But I can't find my way"

(by Phil Collins)
(posted by Farid)

Posted:Sunday, October 12, 2003 | 

For Farid's mother

I never forget her smile. She was the kindest mother I have seen. Peace be upon her in Paradise

When you leave me in the grave
Don't say goodbye,
Remember a grave is only a curtain
For the paradise behind
Rumi

(posted by Iman)

Posted:Saturday, October 11, 2003 | 

With my shaky hands I am typing the news of my mother's passing away that I got hours ago, asking all my kind friends for their prayers.

(posted by Farid)
Posted:Friday, October 10, 2003 | 

Iranian activist wins the Nobel Peace Prize



Ebadi, 56, is one of Iran's most prominent human rights defenders, whose campaigning on behalf of women, children and outspoken dissidents has earned her the wrath of the Islamic republic's religious hardliners.

"As a lawyer, judge, lecturer, writer and activist, she has spoken out clearly and strongly in her country, Iran, and far beyond its borders," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in a statement announcing the decision. Ms Ebadi is the 11th woman to win the prize and the third Muslim.


Congratualtions to all Iranian women!

Read more about her
(posted by Iman)
Posted:Friday, October 10, 2003 | 

Seven questions
Sometimes questions are more interesting than answers. Sometimes we just want to pinpoint the importance of an issue. Look at Michel Moor’s questions for G.W. Bush!!

(posted by Iman)

Posted:Monday, October 06, 2003 | 

Long Live Freedom!

The Green/EFA Group in the European Parliament has nominated the Iranian journalist and writer Akbar Ganji as its candidate for this year's Sakharov Prize for Human Rights and Freedoms. Akbar means “greater” Yes, He is great!

(posted by Iman)
Posted:Friday, October 03, 2003 | 

Breast Cancer Awareness Month - October 2003



Breast cancer is a major public health problem in many countries, with incidence and mortality high in Western industrialized nations, although relatively low in developing ones. Unfortunately, it seems that the Iranian breast cancer patients are relatively younger than their western counterparts and mostly have locally advanced disease though I do not know if there is any study has been done to investigate the probable reasons. The sad point iis that the health policy makers in Iran still believe that they should not talk about Breast in public media.


Here is some statistics about breast cancer
In the United States of America (USA) breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed nondermatologic cancer and the second most frequent cause of cancer-related deaths among women. It accounts for 32% of all newly diagnosed cancers. US data indicate that the incidence of breast cancer increases directly with age until 75-80 years. In 1996, a woman in the USA had a 1-in-8 chance of developing breast cancer and a 1-in-28 chance of succumbing to the disease over her lifetime.
Being born in North America or northern Europe increases the risk of developing breast cancer, while Hispanic-American women develop the disease at a younger age than white women. Other demographic characteristics associated with increased risk of developing breast cancer include increasing age, high socioeconomic status, never having been married, and for breast cancer diagnosed after 45 years of age, Caucasian origin. Early menarche, late menopause, late-age first full-term pregnancy and low parity all increase risk. Removal of the ovaries at an early age is protective. (Reference IARC).
(posted by Iman)


Posted:Wednesday, October 01, 2003 | 

Fall in Canada


People outside of Canada mostly hear about freezing winter in this country. But fall is so beautiful. This is the first fall that I am in Canada. Hope it is not the last one!
(posted by Iman)

Posted:Wednesday, October 01, 2003 | 

You lied, they died

Mr. Suarez, from Escondido, California, the father of a soldier killed in Iraq, speaking at a press conference to publicise tomorrow's anti-war demonstrations in eight US cities, said that about 1,300 parents of troops stationed in Iraq were involved in a movement against the occupation. "It is time for these troops to come home," said Mr. Suarez. "Neither my wife nor my family want more children to die in this illegal war. We are no less patriotic for wanting peace. Bush wants $87bn for this war, but what does he give us for our schools?" Read more
(posted by Iman)
Posted:Saturday, September 27, 2003 | 

Your Cancer Risk

Your Cancer Risk estimates your risk of cancer and provides personalized tips for prevention. I am sure you will find it interesting

(posted by Iman)

Posted:Friday, September 26, 2003 | 

Pluralism(26)

A:Thanks for more clarification
There are two side issues that have an effect on the central issue ,but if I want to deal with those and the main issue, it will be a very big email. so I break it to several emails, which I can write in my breaks.
First issue is infallibility of prophets.
Second is if this hypothetical situation is a rare case or on the contrary what is happening all the time.
I start with the first one in this email.

I differentiate between infallibility of a prophet and his invincibility.
By invincibility I mean that the prophet delivers his message to us in a way acceptable to God. Like you I don’t believe that prophets are infallible, but in fact seems obvious to me that they are not. They are troubled by all the limitations of this material world the way we are. As you put it very good, they are not robots, or computers that we can get another copy of their message each time we want by pressing a button or treat it the way we please, nor can they deliver that message like a speaker constantly and tirelessly, and they cannot deliver that message to all the people on the whole wide world too . They get tired and sick. They may also do mistakes in their everyday life decisions. None of these in my view affect their invincibility.
I always use an example for myself so I can understand it better: if a wise man, say a philosopher or scientist wants to deliver his theory or a message to us and help us understand it, he will choose a person that would understand that message and has the necessary means to deliver it to us. Now that messenger is errorless for us as his message in concerned. He doesn’t have to be a scientist or philosopher in order for us to accept what he says. Or in fact we may see that in his own everyday life, he makes wrong scientific decisions. What we accept from him, as far as we know him the messenger of that message, is only the message. This the meaning of invincibility.
In a divine scale, it’s not hard for me to believe that God chooses someone who can deliver his message in an acceptable manner in His eyes to us. I even can agree that a particular prophet may not deliver this message in its absolute correct way. But as in calculus, to me the limit is close enough for our goal.
Usually mistakes occur in complicated matters, like sophisticated language, advanced sciences, abstract philosophies, complicated machineries and …, prophets’ messages on the other hand are at the same time the simplest and the most important. For a mistake to happen in such a message is not very likely in my view. Prophets are not chosen from scientists or linguists to be able to deliver their message correctly, since they don’t have to have those tools to do that. Their message is much simpler. Everybody can understand it, but not everybody has the talent to understand hard literature jargon or scientific theories.
Prophets don’t bring too many difficult-to-memorize rules. So they repeat those laws over and over. If they have been troubled by a worldly difficulty or limitation to make a mistake in the first place, they can express it better or make up for that mistake later.
But even if I assume that they may do mistake(s) in delivering one or more of the laws they are chosen by God to deliver , I think since the God’s purpose hasn’t been fulfilled, and He is not satisfied, and this wrong message can cause problems for humans, God is able to send another prophet. We cannot say that God’s hands are tied since two prophets cannot come at one time, or very close to each other, God can do what he wants. So even if I agree with that, I again conclude that we have to be on the watch for the next prophet.
But if that particular mistake doesn’t effect the God’s purpose, the there is no need for correction, so we haven’t been wronged in following the prophet again.

I will write about the second issue soon.

(posted by Farid)



Posted:Monday, September 22, 2003 | 

The Evil Problem

"Any God who could permit the Holocaust, who could remain silent during it, who could "hide his face", while it dragged on, was not worth believing in."
(Eugene Borowitz)

I am interested to know how everybody deals with this problem in his head.

(posted by Farid)
Posted:Friday, September 19, 2003 | 

English Accent

I don’t believe English men really have accents, they just all got together and agreed to talk that way to make the rest of us feel bad.
Carl Riener (not exact words)

I had learned English with British accent when I came to America, but knowing that it would change sooner or later, I didn’t try to keep it, instead I helped to do the change quicker, so its interesting to me that after about four years I am still more inclined and comfortable with my British accent. When I was in Iran, I was fascinated with British accent and couldn’t even be forced to change it to American. It looked to me like a very sophisticated way of talking, very artistic, delicate and refined.
More than anything else, it’s the difference in pronouncing the sound “r” that matters to me, since I don’t have any problem with American intonation. It seemed ironic to me that we have this sound in Farsi, but I am easier not to pronounce it. The reason of course is that Americans pronounce it quite differently which I have trouble doing it when I am speaking fast. I have to put extra effort to do it, so when I speak fast, I automatically turn back to not saying r’s at all, while when speaking slowly, I can do it with some effort.
Listening to English accent always gives me the feeling that they are putting lots of effort and energy to say the words the way they do, but again its ironic that I feel more comfortable to do it this way. Still another thing I don’t quite understand is that why many British singers who have 100% British accent when they talk, try to change lots of words to American accent when they sing.(as jus one case, Phil Collins , pronounces “ask” with American accent in “in too deep”).As the quote by Carl Riener conveys, British accent sounds as a very unusual way of pronouncing to Americans, but now the question is that do English people also feel that at least for songs, many sounds are nicer to be pronounced in American? If not, why they change their accent in songs? And I also like to know if American accent seems as an unusual or strong accent to English people. I think I have to ask Jazz .By the way, if this change has been done deliberately , it’s been Americans who have done it, not English men

(posted by Farid)

Posted:Tuesday, September 16, 2003 | 

Pluralism(25)

A- In my hypothetical story, that person still accepts Moses and his laws divine, but just doesn't like them or he prefers the old laws more.
B-It's not a matter of liking. It's a matter of what God would have me do. Again, prophets are not infallible. There is no cloud over their heads saying that all of their pronouncements are directly from God.
A-in case you even know the second choice (not following them despite of knowing them divine) logical and acceptable , you have to help me understand it, since the meaning I get from "divine" , is "the best", "the most correct","the most advised" because of being Godsent
B-Yes, I more or less agree with you that Prophets are messengers from
God and that their words, therefore, have incredible weight. However, prophets are NOT infallible as I have argued above. And if in prayer I am guided to NOT follow the prophet, an unlikely occurrence, then that is what I think I should do. Paul was an apostle. He was a messenger of God and he made mistakes. Lets say for the sake of an analogy that prophets are 98% God inspired and 2%human motivated. So if my conscience tells me not to do something and the prophet says to do something, I need to follow my conscience. I'll end with the quote that started this particular letter. "THIS IS WHERE HE HAS TO DECIDE IF HE WILL GO ON HIS OWN INNER GUIDANCE OR HE WILL FOLLOW THE GUIDANCE OF SOMEONE EXTERNAL TO HIM." Again, it is an unlikely situation but it could happen.

(posted by Farid)
Posted:Tuesday, September 16, 2003 | 

Johnny Cash

Its so sad to lose such a big man. I wasn't a big fan of him, but there is one song that he also has done with Willie Neslon and some other guys named "Highwayman" that I like so much.


I was a highwayman. Along the coach roads I did ride
With sword and pistol by my side
Many a young maid lost her baubles to my trade
Many a soldier shed his lifeblood on my blade
The bastards hung me in the spring of twenty-five
But I am still alive.

I was a sailor. I was born upon the tide
And with the sea I did abide.
I sailed a schooner round the Horn to Mexico
I went aloft and furled the mainsail in a blow
And when the yards broke off they said that I got killed
But I am living still.

I was a dam builder across the river deep and wide
Where steel and water did collide
A place called Boulder on the wild Colorado
I slipped and fell into the wet concrete below
They buried me in that great tomb that knows no sound
But I am still around..I'll always be around..and around and around and
around and around

I fly a starship across the Universe divide
And when I reach the other side
I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can
Perhaps I may become a highwayman again
Or I may simply be a single drop of rain
But I will remain
And I'll be back again, and again and again and again and again..

(Posted by Farid)
Posted:Friday, September 12, 2003 | 

Pluralism(24)

A-…you said "this is where he has to decide if he will go on his own inner guidance or he will follow the guidance of someone external to him." you are saying that he must decide between two things. What is hard for me to understand is what these two things you are refering to:
1- to follow his own heart and stop considering Moses's guidances as divine.
2- to follow his own heart while he still considers Moses's laws divine,(ie despite the fact that he still knows them divine)
B-No, he is not to judge Moses. That's not his business. Who makes Moses divine? Is there a sign over his head? In the Bible, Moses' face GLOWED because he was spending time with God. But even Moses made mistakes. Soloman was said to be the wisest MAN who ever lived and who EVER will live, yet Soloman made mistakes. If God granted Soloman such wisdom,then how did he make a mistake. If Moses was so clearly the prophet of God, how did he make a mistake? Because they were HUMAN. They are not God's robots. They are God's servants but still capable of making mistakes. The prophets are NOT God. They are human being and capable of making mistakes. And do. Ultimately we have to face God alone. We have to answer to God regarding following our conscience. So if my conscience tells me that I should go left and the prophet tells me I should go right, I have a problem. After prayer and meditation for guidance, I need to do what I think is the right thing for ME to do even if the Prophet says otherwise. The chances of this happening are really remote but it could happen. Generally, Prophets are reliable sources and my conscience won't disagree with their pronouncements but you gave me this hypothetical and I am answering that question as best I can.

(posted by Farid)

Posted:Friday, September 05, 2003 | 

A Secular System

What are the most important characteristics of such a system?
How should this separation between state and religion be achieved for those who believe in it at all?
What are the rules to achieve this separation between religion and governmet?
This is the focal point of these questions: what are the areas that the state should be wary of as possible causes for infringement from secular conditons? Or in a simpler way, what are characteristics of laws passed in such a state in order for it to retain its secular goal.

(posted by Farid)
Posted:Thursday, September 04, 2003 | 

Islam vs. West !!!

You may find this as a website to learn more about what Muslim scholars and Muslims think though I think it mostly shows the Sunni kind of Islam. Indeed, I think that putting these two words together is vague. West as a culture? Islam as a religion? What about Muslim nations? What about different sects in Islam? Does it include western Muslims? …

(posted by Iman)




Posted:Thursday, September 04, 2003 | 

Necessary? Possible?

If you have listened to Mr Kadivar's talk in 30/5/82 (second from top), what is your answer to these:
Is this refinement of Islamic laws necessary as he says?
Is it possible?
what are the problems?
Are these problems removable?

( Posted by Farid)
Posted:Wednesday, September 03, 2003 | 

I am back!!

I am back. I found Toronto a huge city. I met with my friends and talked to my relatives who I have never seen them!!. Pedram’s lecture was intersting though I missed most of it. I am going to write about my observations in Toronto. Also Hooman and Farid have raised challenging questions and I have to answer them in separate posts.


(posted by Iman)

Posted:Tuesday, September 02, 2003 | 

Factual Knowledge and Conceptual Clarity

Iman, you said that in this case we have enough factual knowledge and conceptually it is clarified. I think that it’s far from it. Here I mention some of them.

Factual knowledge:

Do we have one person among others that is (terminally) sick and is going to die no matter if we feed him or not?
Do we have someone among us that is a criminal and is a menace for society?
Do we have someone who is a volunteer to stop eating?
Is there one person among us who doesn’t have a spouse or children or father and mother waiting for him/her, so his death will have the least effect on others?
Is there someone who is viscously hurting others or plans to kill them?
What is the relation of the environment with this system (=these 5 people)?
How much other people need them? E.g. Suppose that these people are doctors on a mission to help lots of sick people who desperately need them, so in fact what we have here is not the life of one person against lives of 4 others, but life of one person against lives of thousands of people and many and many other factors.

Conceptual clarity:

Is it life in all forms of it that is important or a happy healthy life?
E.g. Socrates before drinking the hemlock that ended his days said “... not life, but a good life is to be chiefly valued…”
Can life be treated as an additive quantity? E.g. by adding the hours of it, or adding the lives of different persons, to make us able to compare two situations from this view.
Is an act moral when the initial purpose has been a moral one or that morality of the act depends on the consequences of that act?
Does numbers matter in a moral decision(the way Bentham believed it does) , or that numbers don’t matter ( as Kant believed)?
And most importantly:
Is morality adherence to a particular code, whatever that may be, or it’s the code that matters?
And if it’s the code that matters, what is that that code or base?
Is it a religion? If yes which one?
If no, is it reason? if yes, which one of the following are reasonable:
Self-interest? If yes, is it the self-interest of one person( as Hobbes believed) or all people( as Smith believed in )?
I also mentioned some other conceptual problems in my comments, which I don’t repeat here.

And these are only a handful of many more that should be decided on before reaching to a conclusion.

(posted by Farid)

Posted:Sunday, August 31, 2003 | 

A Science Question

I think all of you have read about how refrigerators work. So maybe this is a very simple question that I am going to ask. We know that there are two halves in the system. In the compressor the gas is compressed and it releases heat. Now this is my question: why compressing the gas makes it release heat? The gas had an initial temperature , but after getting compressed , it gets much hotter;why?

(Posted by Farid)

Posted:Sunday, August 31, 2003 | 

Pluralism(23)

A-I was trying to read between the lines of your email to get a coherent understanding of your point, but I think I need your help to avoid confusing myself. you said "this is where he has to decide if he will go on his own inner guidance or he will follow the guidance of someone external to him." you are saying that he must decide between two things. What is hard for me to understand is what these two things you are refering to:
1- to follow his own heart and stop considering Moses's guidances as divine.
2- to follow his own heart while he still considers Moses's laws divine,(ie despite the fact that he still knows them divine)
In my hypothetical story, that person still accepts Moses and his laws divine, but just doesn't like them or he prefers the old laws more.
In case you even agree with the second choice(not following them despite of knowing them divine)as logical and acceptable , you have to help me understand it, since the meaning I get from "divine" , is "the best", "the most correct", "the most advised" because of being Godsent. If you agree with the meaning I have given from "divine", then how can he know those laws divine and be correct and logical in deciding not to follow them? Of course he can choose to do whatever he wants to do, and obviously whatever he does at last, will be what he has decided on, this is obvious, the question is if this decision is logical and correct or not. I'll wait for your help before going further.

(posted by Farid)
Posted:Friday, August 29, 2003 | 

Weekend in Toronto

I am going to be in Toronto this weekend. I am happy that I can meet with my friend Hadi. We have not seen each other since April!! i am sure that we will talk hours :)
Also I hope that I can attend Perdeam’s lecture about Iranians and political life of Canada also to see what Iranians do in Toronto.

(posted by Iman)

Posted:Friday, August 29, 2003 | 

Morality and daily life


Hooman has raised a moral question in his weblog. He gives us two extreme cases
He says

1- Imagine your are castaway and on a food ration with 4 other people. You know there is enough food for only 4 people to survive. Would you and your group draw straws to exclude one person from the food to save the rest of the group? The morality's answer is a resounding no.
and then ask
Would you approve of killing a tiny percentage of people with the aim of bringing about prosperity for the overwhelming majority? Would you say Yes with the same stress if you knew your families were among the little minority?

Challenging questions. Do we have to deal with such a problem in our daily life? You know life it is not always as straightforward as this. We usually talk about benefits and hazards. We only can estimate the risk for the population and still in most of cases we have no estimation for each person. Let me give you a medical example: every medication has some benefits and also side effects. Even this drug maybe kills patients. But what we should do in this case?

For every operation there is a risk. So what should a surgeon do in this case? She/ he thinks that is going to operate one of her/ his family? So how surgeons can operate high-risk patients?

Imagine a policymaker wants to establish a health system somewhere. Let’s suppose he will suggest women to do routine mammography in a certain age and tells them that based on the epidemiologic studies breast self-exam is not recommended. (It means that based on a national or international study it has been shown that breast self-exam does not change the survival of breast cancer). Based on this population-study, the policymaker concludes that breast self-exam is not necessary. For sure some cancers will be missed. It is said that its benefits outweigh its disadvantages for general population.
I think such a problem have been solved already otherwise we would have to sit and think what will happen if a member of my family had such a problem.

Let me ask you another question: what was better? if Saddam still was in Iraq and oppressed people or now American conquered Iraq? You know there was no chance for any changes for a long time in Iraq at least 2 decades!!

(posted by Iman)

Posted:Monday, August 25, 2003 | 

Meditation

I am not familiar with a scientific definition of meditation. My own definition is “the power to stop consciousness, both directed and flowing ones”. I also don’t know if anything done to achieve this goal by ones mental attempt is called meditation or there may be other approaches too. There are lots of times that we are haunted by a thought or feeling that we would be much better off without them. Having the ability to meditate seems to be a priceless power to stop some pernicious thoughts or feelings. I want to ask anybody reading these lines to share with us any hands-on experience with meditation and your particular approach or your special problems you have encountered in doing it. Thank you.

(Posted by Farid)
Posted:Saturday, August 23, 2003 | 

Sperm Donors

Children conceived by the sperms of sperm donors often are not aware of the truth. The truth cannot be anything less than a shock for them , but its not the worst possible case . What if a half-brother and half-sister get married before finding out the truth? Its quite possible that a donor has many biological children which because of similiarities of character would like each other or even fall in love with each other soon after some intimacy. What will be there life after such a discovery? Has any measure been taken to prevent such an accident?

(Posted by Farid)
Posted:Wednesday, August 20, 2003 | 

Medical systems: debates!

I think medical system is a real debate in Canada. It is more than an academic debate based on scientific documents or statistics. I have realized that many Canadians believe that socialized medicine is part of their constitution. They mostly talk from the emotional point of view. They say that your position in this regard shows your respect to Justice, ethics and …. . My dear friend tells me that it is not as easy as I think and people have been discussing for a long time. He says one of the reasons caused this current breakdown in Canadian Medicare is that politicians decided to decrease the budget; after 10 years we see the result of this mismanagement. He believes that if this system is supported like what it was in the past, many problems will be solved. He reminded me that I have been here only four months and it is to soon to judge about it!
When I was in Iran, I thought that Canadian medical system is one of the best, but after four months, I have not seen anybody to say a good thing about this system, though it cannot be good reason for saying that a this doctrine is completely wrong. Another reason is that Iranian medical education is based on the American books and probably it has had invisible effect on my mind. Another reason that Hooman emphasizes is that I look at this issue as a health professional and I only consider doctors’ rights.
But what I know is: neither patients nor doctors are happy with this system; many patients go to states for better care. Many Canadian doctors immigrate to states for better job. Canadian researchers do not have money for their researches. If you are rich, you cannot buy health services. You live in a free country but you cannot choose how you pay your money….

Probably I have to wait and follow this old medical rule: watchful waiting

I add David’s comment on my last post about medical system to see what an American thinks about this issue

Why should health care be unlike other services? Take food, there are programs to feed the hungry, but the middle class and wealthy eat better. No one is going to want to pay taxes so that the disadvantaged can have steaks and lobster for their dinner. Taxes to provide a minimal safety net of health care is one thing, the Mayo clinic is another.

(posted by Iman)

Posted:Wednesday, August 20, 2003 | 

pluralism(22)

A-as you see, I am so confused with pluralism. and since you look to this issue with your heart and not by mere reason, it makes me more confused, since I believe that reasons can easily go wrong, but our heart is a much better measure. I cannot understand, how it is possible to believe in prophethood of a person, and still do without it.

B-yes, i am capable of convincing myself of anything that I want to convince myself of. Is that a reason then to abdicate responsibility and assume that whatever Moses tells me is god's will? for some the answer is yes. for me the answer is not so certain. I will seriously and prayerfully consider what the prophet has to say and give him the benefit of the doubt in 99/100 situations, but I also need to follow my own inner guidance. God also speaks to me. While these intellectual debates may serve a purpose, in the end they are simply intellectual debates or discussions. They are not actions that directly help others; they are not feeding the poor, comforting the afflicted etc. a concern of mine, since i am drawn to such discussions, is that i will forget that real religion is serving others. Jesus was scathing in his attacks on the 'religious leaders' because they were so interested in the letter of the law. He had no trouble bending the laws when he saw a greater need. I believe Mohamed did also I have to be more careful because I would tend to bend the law to benefit myself. So that is my issue. I like things to be black and white but most of them are gray. I do not know what to do with this homosexual bishop. I think it is wrong to say that it is the same as being married. Could I be wrong? Yes. But I like things black and white and Paul was pretty straight on the issue of homosexuality. But I know that most homosexuals do not want to be that way but they were born that way. So what should they do? Should they be celibate as I am because I am unmarried? I think so. What’s wrong with two people who are interested in having a sexual relationship having it if no one is harmed by it? I think that is why we have the scriptures. We are so prone to find 'reasons' to justify our desires that we need something we trust to tell us what god would have us do even though it does not always tell us why god
Wants us to do it. And that is frustrating. I come back to my basic premise: god looks on the heart. If you intent is to do good, to serve god, then that is what matters. If this homosexual bishop's heart is determined to serve god, even though I think it is wrong for him to have that position, then I think god will look favorably on him if not on his actions.

(posted by Farid)
Posted:Tuesday, August 19, 2003 | 

Coup de tat 1953

1953, 19 July. A day that Iranians cannot forget. The story of their most popular politician Dr Mohammad Mossadegh, one of the cheapest Iranian kings and Dr Hussein Fatemi, the foreign minister of Mossadegh’s cabinet who was executed after coup de tat.
(posted by Iman)
Posted:Tuesday, August 19, 2003 | 

pluralism(21)

lets continue this story(read from number 16 of such posts) ... closer to God.

B-again, this is tough. Do we go by feelings or do we go by actions, by fruit, or do we go by blind faith? I think that is up to each to decide. Feelings are fickle so I do not trust them. However, if I can see that following the old teachings has blessed others and that following the new teachings does not and I have a knot in my stomach, then I would go back to the old teaching which bore fruit.
A-what do you think now? so what about all the new possible experiences he can have?
is it wise for him to think that there is nothing new that the prophet of god can show me?

B-no, serving god is like peeling an onion. there is always more to learn.

(posted by Farid)
Posted:Monday, August 18, 2003 | 

Socialized Medicine

This is interesting article by Pierre Lemieux about Canadian medical system. Though it was written in 1989(and probably percentages and statistics are old), you can find good points regarding Canadian socialized medical system. I quote some challenging paragraphs.

The first thing to realize is that free public medicine isn't really free. What the consumer doesn't pay, the taxpayer does, and with a vengeance. Public health expenditures in Quebec amount to 29 per cent of the provincial government budget. One-fifth of the revenues come from a wage tax of 3.22 per cent charged to employers and the rest comes from general taxes at the provincial and federal levels. It costs $1,200 per year in taxes for each Quebec citizen to have access to the public health system. This means that the average two-child family pays close to $5,000 per year in public health insurance. This is much more expensive than the most comprehensive private health insurance plan.

Aside from the problems inherent in all monopolies, the fact that health services are free leads to familiar economic consequences. Basic economics tells us that if a commodity is offered at zero price, demand will increase, supply will drop, and a shortage will develop.When prices are zero, demand exceeds supply, and queues form. For many Canadians, hospital emergency rooms have become their primary doctor -- as is the case with Medicaid patients in the United States. Patients lie in temporary beds in emergency rooms, sometimes for days. At Sainte-Justine Hospital, a major Montreal pediatric hospital, children often wait many hours before they can see a doctor. Surgery candidates face long waiting lists -- it can take six months to have a cataract removed. Heart surgeons report patients dying on their waiting lists. But then, it's free!

Or is it? The busy executive, housewife, or laborer has more productive things to do besides waiting in a hospital queue. For these people, waiting time carries a much higher cost than it does to the unemployed single person. So, if public health insurance reduces the costs of health services for some of the poor, it increases the costs for many other people. It discriminates against the productive.

The most visible consequence of socialized medicine in Canada is in the poor quality of services. Health care has become more and more impersonal. Patients often feel they are on an assembly line. Doctors and hospitals already have more patients than they can handle and no financial incentive to provide good service. Their customers are not the ones who write the checks anyway.

.

Their conception of justice is based on the idea that certain goods like health (and education? and food? where do you stop?) should be made available to all through coercive redistribution by the state. If, on the contrary, we define justice in terms of liberty, then justice forbids coercing some (taxpayers, doctors, and nurses) into providing health services to others. Providing voluntarily for your neighbor in need may be morally good. Forcing your neighbor to help you is morally wrong

In Quebec, you can be relatively sure not to wait six hours with your sick child in an emergency room if you know how to talk to the hospital director, or if one of your old classmates is a doctor, or if your children attend the same exclusive private school as your pediatrician's children. You may get good services if you deal with a medical clinic in the business district. And, of course, you will get excellent services if you fly to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota or to some private hospital in Europe. The point is that these ways to jump the queue are pretty expensive for the typical lower middle class housewife, not to talk of the poor.

(posted by Iman)





Posted:Monday, August 18, 2003 | 

pluralism(20)

A--shouldn’t we conform to godly standards, whatever they are, having faith that they are the right rules, instead of choosing what we think is good for us?

B-again, it is difficult to answer. yes, we need to follow godly standards but we also need to follow our inner guidance. When they conflict we need to go to god as ask for his guidance. I refuse to give absolute power over my life to anyone but god. I will listen to the teachings of great prophets, masters, gurus, but, ultimately, I have to make a decision. Will I blindly follow the prophet or will I go within and follow my inner guidance. I suspect the times that they will conflict will be pretty rare. Paul was told not to go to Rome but felt that he had to go to Rome. So he followed his inner guidance. Was that the best thing to do? i don't know. As long as his motive was to follow god as best he could, it doesn't matter to me which choice he made.

(posted by Farid)
Posted:Thursday, August 14, 2003 | 

Of Death…

by Ahmad Shamlou


Never have I feared death,
Although its hands were more devastating
Than banality.

My fear, however, is of dying in a land
Where the reward of gravediggers
Is greater
Than the freedom of humankind.

To seek
To discover
Then,
To choose with free will
And
To fashion a fortress
Of oneself…

Worthier than this
If death could be
Indeed ever, never in fear
Have I been of death.



(posted by Iman)
Posted:Thursday, August 14, 2003 | 

Pluralism(19)

A-1-do you think he is right to do that? if yes:
-shouldn’t he have faith in that whatever ordained by the prophet of God is the best for him? so where is the role of faith here?

B-to me you are saying that faith in the prophet is faith in god. I do not think that is necessarily the same. The prophet is a human instrument and subject to human error. I do not equate prophets with god but see them as messengers of god. But sometimes their own stuff gets in the way. when elisha slew the prophets of bael I do not think that that was god inspired. It seems to me, and I could be wrong, that it was ego inspired.

A--how can he be sure that what his heart wants, no matter how pure he think it is, is calling him to the best?

B-I don't think it really makes a difference here. god looks on the heart'and if his heart is to serve god to the best of his ability than either choice would do that.

(posted by Farid)
Posted:Wednesday, August 13, 2003 | 

Idealism and reality in medial systems

Hooman and me have been discussing about socialized medical system and private medicine. He says that he prefer the Canadian Medicare system. But I think the private based medicine is more effective. He has some reasons. He says many Americans do not have health insurance (more than 40 millions or 17 % of society). Private insurances are expensive and only rich people can afford it. He says that this is injustice. He prefers to live in a country like Canada even it does not have an excellent health care.

I also believe in justice. But sometimes we mix between reality and our ideals. I think this kind of approach is more emotional than rational. The most important point, which is ignored, is the quality of services. Proponents of social systems say that all Canadians enjoy Medicare. But they do not talk about its quality and efficacy.
In my belief, medical system is kind of business. I think that socialized systems are managed by beaurocrats but private systems are run by business people. The first one is wasting time and money and the second one is effective and productive (of course we can discuss the roles of insurance and pharmaceutical companies; But can we find a perfect system?). Private system can adjust to new situations, but social system has an extremely complicated structure to change itself. The last but not least is this very fact that all medical systems in the world have a parasitic relationship with US medical system (in terms of research and science) and they will die without US help!

So I think “ Good services for Some people is better than Poor services for Many people. “People who catch common cold may not understand what I am say, but you have to ask people who have serious disease like cancer and they have to wait for couple of months. This is the reason that many Canadian patients go to US for better care!

(posted by Iman)

Posted:Wednesday, August 13, 2003 | 

Pluralism(18)
A : me

A-supposing a fervent follower of a prophet, say Moses, leaves him for a trip. at that point he’s got used to all the rules brought by Moses and likes them all.

B-rather than 'likes' I would say 'accepts'

A-so although he believes in divinity of the new rules, he just tells Moses that I prefer to obey your previous orders, because in my heart I feel that they would bring me closer to god.

B-this is where he has to decide if he will go on his own inner guidance or he will follow the guidance of someone external to him. that is always the battle. It is in some ways easier to rely on an external because one does not have to think for himself. And it is also easier to fool oneself into thinking that you have the truth. so it is a two-edged sword.

A-in some of the new rules, Moses has forbidden people of committing some certain acts and in others he has ordered them to do some certain acts, but he says to Moses that I feel by doing your new laws, I would lose my relationship with God. What I like to emphasize here is that he believes that Moses is the prophet of God, and as a result he knows his laws are divine laws.

B-this is a big dilemna. The question is who shall the disciple trust? i would suggest that the disciple go on a retreat and ask god to lead him.

(posted by Farid)
Posted:Tuesday, August 12, 2003 | 

Pluralism(17)

B-As I recall I said something to the effect that I did not think everything a prophet said or was reported to have said had to be 100% true. And, even if it were 100% true, people are interpreting it differently. For example, there is the Torah and then there are the commentaries that go on and and and on and are still going on today. The Rabbis differ in their interpretations. I see where the Episcopal church is making an openly gay priest into a bishop. That astounds me. It might be OK. I don't know how God views it but when I read the scriptures that's not what I see. I see homosexuality condemned. Yet 2% of the population are born that way. True, it may be a choice for some, but for others it is not. They do not want to be different. They do not want to be in that 2% for many different reasons, but they are. So if God made them this way, is it wrong for them to practice? This becomes a big debate among theologians. Likewise, the Prophet Mohammed said . . . and now Mullah A says that means .. . and Mullah B says that means . . . and Mullah C says that means . . . So who really knows what the Prophet meant by it? Which Mullah would I follow? The one who seemed to have the most God-centered life. Or, I would go into prayer and meditation and ask God to lead me to the correct understanding of what the prophet said .Of course, one of the reasons that people want to 'interpret' scripture is that if you take it literally you will have to turn your life upside down. And that's too difficult. So we look for other means. It is complex. Is it OK to kill another human being who is attacking you? Suppose he is attacking you because he feels you are stealing HIS water and you feel that it is YOUR water that he is stealing. Is this what God wants? I think not. I take the definition that 'God is love'. If that is true, then God wants us to be loving. YOu and everyone else in this world are my brothers and sisters. If that is so, if we are all children of God, then how does God want us to treat each other? Suppose your idea on that is in contradiction to something a prophet said. Could it be that your interpretation is in error?When Jesus said to hate your parents, it is clear to me that he did not mean that in the literal sense of the word hate. But that is what he said and I could use that as a justification for hating them. That is why I don't bother much with religion but focus my efforts on spirituality, on relationship with God. When Jesus came he fought and condemned the religious leaders, the priests and Mullahs of his day. I think He would do the same today.

(posted by Farid)
Posted:Tuesday, August 12, 2003 | 

Hashim Aghajari: Nobel Peace Prize Nominee

Hashem Aghajari was history professor at Tarbiat Modarres University.He is one of the possible nominee for Peace prize.PRIO Director, Stein T?nnesson said

Aghajari is one of the bravest people in Iran. Iranians should be proud of him not only because he is Iranian but also he is a real freedom fighter. I hope he wins this honorable prize.

(posted by Iman)
Posted:Monday, August 11, 2003 | 

We usually do not write about politicians. Farid and I believe that writing about them are wasting time. But I could not ignore this topic. Let me know what you think.

Hussein Khomeini and Reza Pahlavi


Recently Hussein Khomeini has moved to Iraq and started to criticize Iranian Islamic regime and suggested military intervention by the United States as a possible path to liberation. I see a similarity between him and Reza Pahlavi.
Let’s see Reza Pahlavi profile:
He is a son of Iranian shah (king of kings!) who is looking for power in Tehran. It is not important for him how since he believes that he must do this mission and liberate his people though I have not seen any invitation letter for Iranian people!

Seven years ago, in one of his interview with BBC, he said that military intervention is the only way and he had reached to the point that there is no peaceful way. After presidential election in Iran and Mohammad Khatami election, he realized that other ways exist and he published his doctrine regarding the democratic state. After changes in geopolitical situation in Iran’s neighbors, he realized that it is the best time to start his mission to take power in Iran. Still I do not know this mission is from God or Iranian people.

Hussein Khomeini
I have never heard any thing about his political activities in Iran. After the US attacked on Iraq, he found the best time to join the race to take power. Nobody knows where he has been in these years. When Ayatolah Montazeri, Mohsen Kadivar, Hasan Yusefi Eshkevari were placed under house arrest or jail, I do not know why he did not express his liberal idea!.

Similarities
I think there are many similarities between them.
Both of them are seeking a future political role.
Nobody knows about their popularity in Iranians
None of them criticize the political systems that Shah and Ayatollah Khomeini established in Iran.
Both of them have liberal idea about the political systems but they have not shown that they believe it or are ready to pay its price. Of course it is understandable since Iranians are going to liberate themselves sunder their leadership!
Both of them agree with the US military intervention to liberate Iranians

The interesting point is that both of them say that they believe a secular state is the best system for Iran. This point is interesting issue for western media. I think western media try to show westerners that western politician support secular movement in Iran.

But we should not forget that Iran is not like Afghanistan or Iraq and nobody says that they support Islamic regime, neither opposition groups inside Iran nor Iranians.

Anyway, I do not know what I have to call these people. They are in the safe place and encourage military interventions. What do you call politicians who merely think about their benefits? Maybe it is too soon to call them Opportunist. Let’s keep an eye on them.

(posted by Iman)
Posted:Monday, August 11, 2003 | 

Immanuel Kant's notion of "True Liberty" in a Secular State (7,last)

This new institution educates and trains people from early childhood to internalize the requirements of this structure. In this system, the habitús of the people is defined and shaped, and in due course the outer becomes the inner and the citizens internalize the state authority. The promise of "true liberty" becomes lost within the new structure in which individual has a constant encounter with the police state. In this system, therefore, the possibility of self-renovation as the consummation of Bourdieu's "practical conversion" through altering that "structured set of structuring dispositions" becomes limited and almost impossible.
Habermass argues that during the Enlightenment, "private individuals assembled into a public body began…to discuss openly and critically the exercise of political power by the state." These citizens, as he argues, had free access to information and expressed their opinion in a rational and domination-free manner. Therefore, they were provided with a freedom, which would eventually lead them towards transformation and salvation. This pervasive belief about public sphere is rooted in the Kantian notions of essentiality of "reason" as an independent faculty functioning in a pure realm of originality. However, as I discussed, this becomes only a ground for a shift in the way that power has been exercised, from a direct involvement of church to a structure in which people are trained to internalize the power.
Bourdieu argues that, "system of preferences" which underlies our decision making depends on not only all the previous choices of the decider but also on the conditions in which his "choices" have been made." Along these same lines, in this paper I demonstrated that religious values of those who historically constructed the public sphere and the Foucauldian notion of "structural effect," in which "the modern state works internally through disciplinary power," are true obstacles blocking secularism's promise of "true liberty." Anthropologists for a long time have taken the secular, as a realm devoid of religious values, for granted. It is necessary also to examine the oppressive bodily habitús needed to become secular.

(written by Navid)
(posted by Farid)

Posted:Sunday, August 10, 2003 | 

Day of journalists!!



by Nikahang Kowsar

(posted by Iman)

Posted:Friday, August 08, 2003 | 

Pluralism(16)

A:Here I use an imaginary situation to help me get closer to the main point. In the next email, and after seeing your way of looking to the issue, I will continue this talk.

Supposing a fervent follower of a prophet, say Moses, leaves him for a trip. At that point he’s got used to all the rules brought by Moses and likes them all. Then after passing of a period of twenty years he comes back to Moses, not having heard of him at all during this time. He has been following these rules during this period of absence, getting used to them more and more. When he comes back, he finds out that there are some new rules added to previous ones, and some of those previous rules are changed or modified. So although he believes in divinity of the new rules, he just tells Moses that I prefer to obey your previous orders, because in my heart I feel that they would bring me closer to God. In some of the new rules, Moses has forbidden people of committing some certain acts and in others he has ordered them to do some certain acts, but he says to Moses that I feel by doing your new laws, I would lose my relationship with God. What I like to emphasize here is that he believes that Moses is the prophet of God, and as a result he knows his laws are divine laws.
1-Do you think he is right to do that?
If yes:
-Shouldn’t he have faith in that whatever ordained by the prophet of God is the best for him? So where is the role of faith here?
-How can he be sure that what his heart wants, no matter how pure he think it is, is calling him to the best?
-Shouldn’t we conform to Godly standards, whatever they are, having faith that they are the right rules, instead of choosing what we think is good for us?

If no, why?

Lets continue this story. This man has lots of memories from the time he has spent with Moses; he has been following him everywhere trying to find more and more answers to his questions, seeing how Moses deals with different issues of life, filling his mind with all the sweet memories of being with him . Coming back from that trip, having lived with the memory of Moses of twenty years ago, he has a hard time to enjoy the new physics of the prophet with his approaches seeming also different to him. So he tells Moses, that I prefer to stop being with you and want to enjoy the memories I have from you before my trip. Since by those memories, my heart feels much warmer and I feel closer to God.

2-What do you think now?
-So what about all the new possible experiences he can have?
- Is it wise for him to think that there is nothing new that the prophet of God can show him?

As you see, I am so confused with pluralism. And since you look to this issue with your heart and not by mere reason, it makes me more confused, since I believe that reasons can easily go wrong, but our heart is a much better measure. I cannot understand, how it is possible to believe in prophethood of a person, and still do without it.

(Posted by Farid)

Posted:Friday, August 08, 2003 | 

Providing some services for more people vs. providing more services for some people

This is a fundamental question regarding the social or private health care. We can look at this issue from to angels: individual feeling that usually is mixed with our personal experiences and holistic vision, which is based on more scientific evidences. Living in an idealistic world is interesting fantasy, but it is not necessarily true. We may be against Capitalism, but in reality we enjoy its results. We may hate the pharmaceutical companies, but we use their products, when we are seeking for better treatment. We may be against the private medical system, but medicine cannot survive without money. I am not saying that I agree or disagree with those doctrines. What I am trying to say is that we have to solve this paradox: how can we use America products and in the same time criticize what they do. Mind you I do not mean Mc Donald or Barbie!. I mean scientific and industrial matters. If you are against the US, you should not fly by plane, you should not drive a car with American engine, you should not take any American pills, you should not read any American journal. You should not…

Anyway, when I was in Iran I thought that a socialized medical system is the best option though I was familiar with Norwegian medical system which is almost socialized. It is extremely bureaucratic and ineffective. Here in Canada, say Quebec, I have been involved in the medical system and I am close enough to see what is going on. Recently I have read an American articleabout their medical system and I found it very interesting. Here I quote some parts of it and in the next post I will try to write about what I think about this issue.

It is unavoidable that there will be tough policy choices between providing some services for more people and providing more services for some people. In either case, policy makers will seek better quality for the money being spent. This question of where to invest in quality raises fundamental philosophical (and political) questions about whether to seek allocative efficiency (spreading the available money around to cover a larger number of people to achieve fairness) or technical efficiency (spending money so that the greatest amount of positive health outcomes are achieved regardless of who receives them). Will policy makers seek distributive justice or utilitarian cost-effectiveness?

Experts estimate that more than 42 million Americans—roughly 1 in 6—are without health insurance.6 From Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s through the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the State Children's Health Insurance Program of the 1990s, the United States has attacked the problem of insurance access. Yet during the past 2 decades, the problem of uninsurance has actually grown. Between 1977 and 1998, the proportion of nonelderly Americans without health insurance increased from 12.3% to 15.8%. The Medical Expenditures Panel Survey shows that more than 20% of African Americans and nearly 32% of Hispanics lack health insurance, compared with 12% of whites.6 Of all uninsured, 23% are Hispanic and 16% are African American, while only 10% of the total population is Hispanic and 11% is African American.8 Men are less likely to be insured than women, and young adults are at a higher risk of lacking insurance than other age groups. Nearly 32% of adults aged 19 to 24 years are uninsured, compared with 12.9% aged 55 to 64 years.

(posted by Iman)

Posted:Thursday, August 07, 2003 | 

Modernity, Globalization and Iran

Iran has one of the youngest societies in the world. Even though modernity, globalization are western concept, it is necessary that people in the east especially in the middle east know more about them. I think that modern life comes after modern thought. Unfortunately, this important issue still is not a common topic and it is mostly discussed in the academic level. It seems there is not any public awareness in Iran. For me as an Iranian who has recently come to the west, it is quite interesting and I have realized that I know almost nothing about Globalization. Last week, I met with Dr Ata Hoodashtian in Nikahang Kowsar exhibition. He graduated from Sorbonne in Philosophy and has PhD in political science. I believe it is a great opportunity for Iranian community in Montreal to learn more about political philosophy. He kindly gave me permission to put one of his speeches in the weblog. This speech is about Modernity, Globalization and Iran. Please click here. It is in Persian!
(posted by Iman)

Posted:Monday, August 04, 2003 | 

Immanuel Kant's notion of "True Liberty" in a Secular State (6)


This secularization thesis, the ideological foundation of secular government, as Talal Asad also argues, empowers the contemporary rulers of England to ignore the fact that Christianity "is a crucial element in the history that shaped Britain." This ideology does not solely remain in the realm of scholastic or philosophical debates, but rather establishes a very consequential foundation upon which the contemporary political discourse is formulated. In this discourse, the so-called "public" and "private" spheres are defined and distinguished and accordingly the very rights of citizens of the modern states are shaped and practiced.
The failure of the British government to extend the blasphemy law, which prohibits insults to Christianity, to the British Muslims in the case of Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses is probably the most conspicuous example of such a consequence. The home minister for race relations, John Patten, in his document in this regard talks about "a common national culture." He claims that this commonality is to be found in "our democracy and our laws, the English language, and the history that has shaped modern Britain." Apparently, his concept of history differs from what I have mentioned here.
Due to the new reorganization of power, therefore, the traditional top-down or vertical hierarchical image of the power structure is inadequate to discuss the power of the state in its modern sense. Kant's internalization of the power of the invisible state, then, is the key to understanding these transformations.
In my opinion, the Enlightenment can be viewed in terms of a liminal stage of a process in which the boundaries of the previous order were broken down and the new one not yet established. In this process a very peculiar solution, in the discourse of true liberty, is being put forward, which introduces a shift in the structure of government. In the Weberian terminology, this movement and its doctrines, however, become routinized and institutionalized.

(posted by Farid)
Posted:Saturday, August 02, 2003 | 

The World Tomorrow

I saw “The Mission” yesterday by Robert De Niro and Jeremy irons. Apart for the always saddening story of horrible things done to Indians, it includes another important theme. Rodrigo , a hunter of Indians , becomes a priest after a long and hard period of suffering from his guilty conscience.Later he decides to fight the invaders and so renounces his priesthood, while Father strongly believes that this is not the way a priest should help others. He says to Rodrigo: if might is right , then love has no place in the world ; it may be so, it may be so, but I don’t have the strength to live in a world like that.

Learning to love others like many other things is an educational process that should be taken very seriously as a necessity for the world we like to be in.


Hole in the World

There’s a hole in the world tonight.
There’s a cloud of fear and sorrow.
There’s a hole in the world tonight.
Don’t let there be a hole in the world tomorrow.

They say that anger is just love disappointed.
They say that love is just a state of mind.
But all this fighting over who is anointed,
Oh, how can people be so blind?

There’s a hole in the world tonight.
There’s a cloud of fear and sorrow.
There’s a hole in the world tonight.
Don’t let there be a hole in the world tomorrow.

Oh, they tell me there’s a place over yonder
Cool water running through the burning sand.
Until we learn to love one another,
We will never reach the Promised Land.

There’s a hole in the world tonight.
There’s a cloud of fear and sorrow.
There’s a hole in the world tonight.
Don’t let there be a hole in the world tomorrow.

(by The Eagles)
(posted by Farid)

Posted:Saturday, August 02, 2003 | 

Shadow

Between the idea
And the reality,
Between the motion
And the act,
Falls the Shadow.

__ T.S . Eliot


(posted by Iman)
Posted:Thursday, July 31, 2003 | 

Killing You is a Very Easy Thing For Us!!

For people who think the US brought security and freedom to Afghanis. Human Rights Watch reported

Afghan warlords and political strongmen supported by the United States and other nations are engendering a climate of fear in Afghanistan that is threatening efforts to adopt a new constitution and could derail national elections scheduled for mid-2004. The report warns that violence, political intimidation, and attacks on women and girls are discouraging political participation and endangering gains made on women's rights in Afghanistan over the last year.The 101-page report documents army and police troops kidnapping Afghans and holding them for ransom in unofficial prisons; breaking into households and robbing families; raping women, girls and boys; and extorting shopkeepers and bus, truck and taxi drivers. The report also describes political organizers, journalists and media editors being threatened
with death, arrested and harassed by army, police and intelligence agents.

(posted by Iman)

Posted:Thursday, July 31, 2003 | 

Something is going so wrong with my windows xp, its giving me error messages all the time and when I report it, it gives me windows explorer 6 to download, which I couldn’t download for a certain reason. Anyhow, now even I cannot see comments. Can anybody help?
Posted:Tuesday, July 29, 2003 | 

Immanuel Kant's notion of "True Liberty" in a Secular State (5)

Thus, the responsibility for acting morally becomes internalized. This transformation eliminates the need for a direct regulation, rather an insignificant but a constant indirect control of the state is sufficient to internalize the power. The liberal state allows the individual a degree of freedom; however, the individual would be trained and taught to internalize some of the basic necessities that would enable him to function within the defined boundaries of the public sphere.
The crucial point in this transformation, to reiterate, is that power does not disappear rather becomes internalized; and consequently the state seems less important. Foucault refers to this as "structural effect." He states that, "the modern state works internally through disciplinary power not by constraining individuals and their action but by producing them."
Peter van der Veer, therefore, puts forward a perspective within which religion is perceived central in forming and establishing the modern notion of secular government. He, by challenging the essential features of the secularization thesis, is able to criticize previous theories of Marxism, neo-Marxism and world system historians. In all these theories, capitalism and the evolution of labor and value remain central in the development of the modern nation. Van der Veer, however, argues that centrality of the economic history in the process of nation building in these approaches ignores the essential role that religion has historically played in the contemporary structure of modern state.
By using the example of India and the historical role played both by the Hindu revivalist movements in India and the Evangelical missionaries shaping the very identity of the new emerging governments he demonstrates the significance of religion played in the formation of both modern India and England. He, therefore, challenges the very assumptions of secularization theories including separation of religion from politics, economy and science, and the declining social significance of religious belief.

(written by Navid)
(posted by Farid)
Posted:Monday, July 28, 2003 | 

Me and Hooman: WHO is hoMAN




I have never thought weblog might have substantial effect on my life. At first look, it may seem as same as other entertainments in the internet like chartrooms, online games or gambling. But I think it has more effect on our life. In our real life, you see and listen to other thoughts but in cyberspace you face with intellectual part of people since we can only read their thoughts. We have time to think and discuss and this is a higher level of communication. It is easy to understand what a blogger believes, thinks.
Blogging, however, may addict you. I have seen the signs of addiction or withdrawal in bloggers. Their mind is occupied by blogging. Fortunately, it does not have physical addiction like opium or alcohol but like smoking it is difficult to quit!!
The most interesting part of this new fashion is seeing bloggers in the real life. I think it is a unique experience. I think our thought is the most important part of our personality because our relationship is based on this intellectual part.
Anyway, I went to Ottawa for some paperworks in Iranian embassy. I have to say that I was pleased with them. Maybe it is far from the standards, in compare to Canadian embassy in Tehran, they we were polite and helpful people though bureaucracy is the same in part of the world. I think that Canadian embassy should have at least the same facilities. When I was in Iran last year, a Canadian citizen came to Iran and for a particular reason he needed a letter confirming that his Canadian passport is original!. He could not believe that he was charged 50 dollars for a simple letter! I think the problem is that many people who face with such issues prefer to ignore it since they may think that their complaint has some consequences for the process of immigration and visa. So Canadian government does not receive any feedback and they continue …

Anyway, I can not remember when I started reading Hoomans’ weblog but it has been a daily stop in my blog surfing!! It is more that fun for me since I am too busy to have fun! It is some kind of refreshing. He points out some challenging points. He is one of those people who try to put forward some questions. I think that giving solutions is kind of brainwashing. If you read his posts, you will find moderation, rational and logic. The most important point is that he is an independent blogger in political thought and this gives him this chance to criticize ignorance, exclusivism, Extremism, …
We talked about different things; Weblogs, bloggers!, politics in Iran, Uncle Sam!, Medicine, Psychology, Canadian Medicare, Canadian people, universities in the North America, alcohol and many other things! Imagine how many subjects we can talk about! :)
An interesting subject we had disagreement was quality and quantity of life. I found him one of those people who like to use all parts of their body before dying, kidney, heart and also brain. This is different point view. I had a heavy smoker client (in the West patients are called clients! ) in Iran. When I asked him why he smoked, he answered “since I do not like that ants eat my lung after death”. so I usually do not try to recommend anything to people. I think the more you think, the less quality of life you have! Thinking is a personal trait in some people and they cannot stop thinking!


PS: Alcohol, smoking and many other risk factors may have hazardous effect even if you are not heavy smoker, alcoholic ,...

(posted by Iman)

Posted:Sunday, July 27, 2003 | 

Pluralism(15)

I have sent my next question to B, but he is very busy these days, so I will try to talk about pluralism every on and off to keep the continuity of my posts till I receive his new emails. I will start to talk about different attitudes existing on this issue from the next post, but now I want to write about an issue that I think is important to take care of and should be made clear in the start, since I feel that there are some mix-ups in this issue and especially I felt it in the first comment I got from Jazz when I asked B what was the immediate result of this-his pluralism- way of looking ? Jazz commented:

The immediate result is that we can respect all religions for trying to attain the goal of being 'good' person. For adhering to morality.

What has been taken for granted here is that not acknowledging other religions or ways or claims or laws as equally worthy of following, necessarily brings with it a certain type of undesirable behavior towards the adherent of them. This notion being taken as granted, is not only wrong, but also in my view dangerous. It is dangerous because of two direct outcomes. First, it reduces us to a passive position of relativistic claim; accepting everything without trying to analyze its importance, value, practicality, usefulness and possible flaws as true for its adherents. In this way it deprives us from the power of criticizing and reasoning. Second, very insidiously it justifies in our mind those who disagree with others, to engage in every kind of unhealthy way of confronting them. Moral issue of treating others shoudn’t be mixed up with the scientific work of evaluating different religious ways. The question of diversity of religions is not how an advocate of one religion should approach an advocate of another religion, but rather how that advocate should approach to what the other person advocates. The first one is merely a matter of morality, but the second one requires that we consider the claims and laws of different religions and try to understand their significance for the people of our time and other things about them. This passive position, renounces any possibility that there may be some religious truths that may be true for everybody, or can be evaluated by everybody for some unanimous results. If people hold wrong beliefs in our view, it doesn’t let us to mistreat them, in the same way that agreeing with other’s beliefs doesn’t justify any favoritism.

(posted by Farid)
Posted:Sunday, July 27, 2003 | 

Immanuel Kant's notion of "True Liberty" in a Secular State (4)

The second problematic issue with the Kantian notion of "true liberty" is the function of the state in this newly created power vacuum. In the secularism discourse, as mentioned before, the state is vested with an invisible power in order to bind all together. The mechanism through which the state accomplishes such a task is a subtle process through which the individual gradually and unconsciously internalizes the invisible power of the state. This, however, is contradictory to the original secularism promise of true freedom.
In this system, the state provides the necessary regulation for all the primary institutions in the society; therefore, the essential but secondary entity of the state emerges as a regulatory instrument to guarantee the smooth functioning of the society. The state is responsible to do so within the realm of law, which is supposedly detached from peculiarities of any groups and is rooted in the concept of universal moral law. As I discussed earlier, assuming such a role for the state was made and legitimized upon Kantian assumption of "pure law," which he introduces "as the supreme ground of all our maxims."
Kant argues that in order to recover and restore its purity "the law itself is to be incorporated into the power of choice, not merely bound to other incentives, nor indeed subordinated to them as conditions, but rather in its full purity, as the self-sufficient incentive of that power." He refers to the concept of habituation as a strategy to accomplish this task and states that virtue is "acquired little by little." Thus, power relation between the individual and the state becomes internalized. This transformation of the direct involvement of the state, as the sole instrument of practicing authority and power, to a system within which authority becomes internalized by way of institutions, including the educational system and factories, coincides with the transformation of religion from a prevalent power to an internalized spirituality.

(written by Navid)
(posted by farid)
Posted:Sunday, July 27, 2003 | 

Immanuel Kant's notion of "True Liberty" in a Secular State (3)


The public sphere, probably the most important product of the Enlightenment, was supposed to be separated from religion and religious values. It is essential, however, to discern the origin of, and the historical events leading to, creation of this central concept of secular discourse. In the eighteenth century England, as Peter van der Veer shows, creation of the public sphere galvanized voluntary groups of Evangelical Christians, who believed deeply in the concept of Natural Religion, which as Talal Asad argues, is rooted in the Christian values.
Asad’s analysis shows that in the seventeenth century a systematic attempt was made to produce a universal definition of religion. He states that, "the fragmentation of the unity and authority of the Roman church and the consequent wars of religion, which tore European principalities apart" constituted the social context within which such an attempt was made possible. This attempt resulted in creation of Natural Religion. This response which was particularly developed to address problems of Christian theology resulted in emergence of the universal phenomenon called Natural Religion. Asad emphasizes that this, "was a crucial step in formation of the modern concept of religious belief, experience, and practice."
In this process, Christianity becomes redefined in terms of Natural Religion and its values in terms of universal values. Therefore, although in a different framework, religion becomes a central part of the public sphere. Thus, as van der Veer states, " Enlightenment did not do away with religion in Europe…there continued to be a direct connection between natural science and natural religion, as well as between political debate and religion." This so-called liberal public sphere, therefore, not only did not provide a value free sphere encompassing all the citizens, but also historically excluded certain groups of people.

(posted by Farid)
Posted:Friday, July 25, 2003 | 

Nikahang Kowsar in Montreal



Nikahang Kowsar, an Iranian cartoonist, will have an exhibition of his works on Sunday July 27 at Concordia University. He is in Canada by invitation of the Association of Canadian Editorial Cartoonists (ACEC) for their annual meeting. His speech is about "Iranian Editorial Cartoonists vs. Political Power; In Iran and Abroad" I do not know why the majoirty of his works are about George W Bush.

( posted by Iman)

Posted:Friday, July 25, 2003 | 

Immanuel Kant's notion of "True Liberty" in a Secular State (2)

A gradual transformation, Kant argues, would be achieved through "the will of the world ruler." He states that, "this ruler invisibly binds all together, under a common government, in a state inadequately represented and prepared for in the past through the visible church." Under this condition of "true freedom," he believes that, equality springs up and the degrading distinction between laity and clergy ceases.
To recapitulate, Kant believes that the embedded power of "reason" in individuals within a condition of "true freedom" would make salvation accessible to all. Also, that there should not be any visible church vested with the power over individuals since it violates the requirement of salvation as an inner journey. Accordingly, the state must become merely that invisible power which binds all together to provide the necessary sphere within which individuals would have a chance to flourish: the condition of true freedom.
Kant's assumptions, concerning the existence of a "pure religion" and "moral law," also the ability of individuals to access and discover them through the power of "reason," qualifies him to define an abstract sphere detached from the society within an imaginary vacuum and utopian condition of "true liberty." It is not my goal, however, to challenge these assumptions, but rather to engage the concept of "true liberty" and demonstrate the merits of this secularism's promise.
This condition of true liberty, that is to be established through an invisible force of government, accordingly has to have two main characteristics. First, it needs to be devoid of any predetermined values, including religious ones. Second, no external forces within this sphere should interfere with the inner journey of individuals. Here, I will challenge these two promises of secularism. First, I will historicize the processes through which the concept of public sphere, a sphere in which individual has to be able to experience the condition of "true liberty," has been produced. Second, I will demonstrate the mechanism with which the external power of the secular state interferes with the inner journey of individuals.

(written by Navid)
(posted by Farid)
Posted:Thursday, July 24, 2003 | 

Iranian students in McGill


Last week I came across McGill Iranian students’ website. They had an outdoor picnic. I thought it might be a good opportunity to know more people in Montreal. The location was Parc Jean Drapeau formerly known as the Parc-des-Iles, a beautiful park in an island in the south shore of Montreal. The most wonderful part of park is Biosphere .

Anyway, I took metro to get there. I found them easily; by Iranian pop music! I thought many people would come. Though the meeting was scheduled at 11, most of them (about 15) showed up in the afternoon! I found them nice and friendly people. We talked about different issues like the Iranian community in Montreal, their interest, political affiliation and also McGill Iranian students and their activities. They said that there are about 100 Iranian students in McGill. Most of them study in undergraduate faculties. It seems that this association is not active. As far as I know McGill is a conservative university and people usually enjoy their life!! (I do not know why universities that I have studied till now, all have been conservative. I think I am not a conservative person!). We talked about medical education since some of them want to enter to medical school in future. Apart from this fact that Medicine in Canada is competitive, they believed that after September 11 the situation has become worse!. They thought it is easier for a Jewish applicant to get position in medical school.
The organizers provided a nice fast food and we played a friendly football game ( I was goalkeeper!)
I hope that I have time to participate in their activities. I suggested them to develop their website. In compare to other Iranians student association in Canada like Concordia University , University of Alberta, University of Toronto it is very simple without any update information. Of course, you can find some links to Iranian/Persian delicious recipes!!

(posted by Iman)
Posted:Wednesday, July 23, 2003 |