Omid Memarian

Friday, December 30, 2005

Wrap In Iran. Thats a funny link on Haditoons website...The Evolution of Hejab inside Iran

Munich and moving one side!

Last night I watched Munich at the Movie. It was about the kidnapping at Munich Olympic by some Palestinians. I liked this movie very much. “The movie opens with the now famous kidnapping of the 11 Israeli Athletes at the Munich Olympic Games in Germany….In this attack; all the 11 athletes and their abductors are killed. The movie then moves to Israel, which responds by creating an unofficial assassin band of five men who are given the task of killing the 11 Palestinians who were the masterminds behind the attack. This gang traces the corners of Europe to find them and kill them with much show and fanfare grabbing headlines everywhere.”

Munich tries to describe and show the Israeli vengeance against Palestinians involved in the 1972 and a circle of violations which doesn’t let any peaceful mechanism works and how people hurt in between. However Spielberg tries to remain objective; he sometimes goes towards the Israelis. He has said somewhere his movie is “prayer for piece”. But I think “If he really wanted to make it a prayer for peace he should have listened to both sides of the story and reflected reality, rather than serving the Zionist side alone.”

That’s a story of a young man who is recruited by Mossad to kill the Arab guys who were involved in this operation, and he kills some Arabs one by one. In between, We, as the audiences observe that how hate create hate and how the Palestinians feel discriminated and for them there is no way except fighting. That’s why makes for them Entefaze a way to take the Israelis behind the negotiation desks. That’s what is not understandable for the people in the west who are under the western media propaganda. There are some short dialogue about the roots and cores. But very little and that’s the point makes the movie something just to justify some crazy policies. In my opinions, that’s the rights of two nations to live peacefully and no one can ignore one side. However normally Western World sympathizes with Israel over the Palestinians, But there are some points to think how both sides are affected by the violence. We can ignore none of them. I suggest you to watch this movie.


Links:
BBC: Spielberg film gets Munich title
The battle of 'Munich'-CNN
Mixed reaction to Spielberg's Munich: Terrorists outraged, Mossad ... What is the Word
Spielberg defends Munich ... but is the "controversy" for real? Cinematical
Arab Will Hate Munich, opinion.
Letter: Spielberg, 'Munich' undermines IsraelDover-Sherborn Press, MA

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

New Phase for Nuclear Crises

Here is a part of my report about the last Iran nuclear situation at Roozonline Daily:
  • In the past, there were those who had warned that Russia is not a reliable partner for Iran’s nuclear aspirations because it has larger strategic interests with Europe and the US which it would not jeopardize. They feared that by relying on Russia, Iran would lose its control over the talks.
    Since Russia has been trying to remain a neutral player on the issue and in all the phases of the talks, even when there was talk of refereeing Iran to the UN Security Council, has refrained from expressly taking sides on the issue, it is expected that Iranian officials will have a hard time in responding to the Russian proposal in the coming days. Should Iran reject the proposal of Russian which is internationally viewed as a supporter of Iran, and insist on enriching uranium in Iran, Russia may move even closer to the US and Europe in their drive to refer the case to the UN Security Council. Even a Russian abstention at the Council would provide the West what it has been after. In view of India’s dual and unreliable role, the only country that Iran currently relies on if the nuclear dossier is referred to the Security Council is China. China has been growingly tying its economy to its foreign policy and has been offered ever larger contracts.

This is my story about the Iranian perspective of US for Limes magazine in Italy. That’s available in Farsi at Roozonline daily. I wish I could write it in English for you here, perhaps in the coming future I do. That’s an exclusive issue about the Iranian society and ongoing changes. Some of the Iranian writers and journalists have contributed to this issue. Recently, I have got three copies of this magazine. I wish I could read all of the articles and stories. Elena and Francesca, the first my classmate and the second my friend at the campus, are going to bring Limes for me after the holiday. Now they are spending their vacation in Italy.

Saturday, December 10, 2005

Internet yearns to be free in Iran

Here is my Op-ED in the
San Francisco Chronicle yesterday. This is my first piece in american papers. I hope to have more chance to make more stories and comments.
here is the first paragraph of this Op-Ed:

"The Bush administration claims it is promoting democracy and human rights across the Middle East. But for those of us in Iran who are fighting for these basic freedoms, the White House's policy is doing more harm than good.
When President Bush labeled Iran as part of "the axis of evil" in his 2002 State of the Union Address, his comment caused shock as well as outrage in Iran. Understandably, we found it insulting for our country of nearly 70 million people to be considered evil en masse..."

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Sanctions and Plane Crash: who is responsible?

Is sanction against Iran one of the causes of the last plan crash in Tehran Tuesday? Some of the Iranians bloggers have mentioned that US is responsible for the plane crash in Tehran and some of the others believe that’s the Tehran officials who don’t care about the health of the people in different ways. Like always
BBC tries to have a mediator role, but to say, that’s the Americans are at fault, softly.

I think both are true. There is no doubt about that Iranian government does not care about the health of the citizen. Tehran has been for two days off because of the air pollution. Is it the American sanction effects? Many people die during the year time because of the air pollution. Iran has the most died number of the road accidents in the world as the statistics indicate. Are Americans involved in that?
So, mismanagement and bad governance which is all over the country affected the people widely.

At the same time, we can consider the role of the sanctions in our country. The Americans have established the sanctions to limit the Islamic government political and economical maneuver. But what is the result? They have just caused decreasing the safety of the aviator systems and ultimately affect the ordinary people. Recently the Islamic regime has bought a luxury plane for the officials. So they will never hurt by useless sanctions since they have billions of dollars oil money

My friends, we can blame the Americans because of the stupid kind of sanctions, but don’t forget to blame the government who don’t care about the health of the people. Just don’t forget that the number pf people who died at the Bam earthquake in 2003, more than 26000, were more than all the killings between Israel and Palestinians since 1967. What does it mean?


Plane Crash in Tehran; 116 Died!

Many of journalists, reporters, photojournalists, TV journalists died in a plane crash today. I am sad, so sad. The most unbelievable day since I remember. I knew some of them. Mohammad sadegh Nili was one of them. I just talked with him at the end of March at a press conference in Tehran. For more than two hours. I am so sad, he will not come back home tonight. He was just 26 years old. The C-130 was under the American sanction. It was old and worn out. One of my friends called me from Tehran. “How politics is dirty sometimes”, he said. I am so sad, while my friends are sorrow-stricken, i can not share my condolence with them..., with Nili's family and the others. Ah......

Iran plane crash kills 115 Washington Times
All 94 people on crashed Iran plane feared deadReuters
Plane hits tower block and leaves 116 dead, Telegraph, UK

Thursday, December 01, 2005

A Chaotic Conference
look at this comment by Golbarg Bashi, a PHD Student at Bristol University in UK. It deals with
the latest IWSF conference in Vienna which Golbarg believes was more chaotic and verbally abusive than ever.