Wednesday, January 24, 2007

And God May Survive


Iranians and most Middle Easterners spent hopeful days in late 1990s and early 2000s when new political atmosphere gave their individual and national demands a time to breathe over imposed scared and divine regulations with rigid unbreakable borders.
They got a chance to live their lives based on individual preferences not some black & white definitions derived out of old or new inspirations. The people of Middle East, historically known for their religious and philosophical inclinations, were experiencing something that most westerners never did.
Middle East was going through a religious reform mostly unlike western Renaissance in the way it did not counter religion but tried to formulate a peaceful co-existence, to catalyze the Dialogue among Civilizations by Mohammad Khatami and prevent the Clash of Civilizations anticipated by Samuel Huntington.
But Armageddon did not end the promised way and the evil forces rubbed the victory once more.
Again the extremists got the lead "to save the world from the evil it has been trapped in" and to defeat "wrong doers who are to deceive people and guide them toward hell".
Once more fundamentalists are leading and we are living our doomed life just waiting to see if the forerunners of democracy would fight them and if The Day would come.
The ships are coming, the fighters took off, and tanks departed on their way. Two sides are drawing lines, armoring more and more forces, sending more troops with bombs…but some thing is missing. No one has time to think about us? Will we remain? And how?
They don’t have the time so forget and just pray after this Armageddon, "God May Survive".

posted by Ali J Monfared @ 1:05 PM 1 comments

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

You Saw the Rain


Walking through dirty streets he just witnessed the road lines being washed by falling rain drops. Couples under one umbrella embrace each other as close as they can to fit under the round roof which is supposed to save them from rain. This closeness surely invites a real French kiss but that’s not what he thinks of.
Pigeons rush to the nearest hole to rest or to wait for the rain to stop falling. They prefer not to fly and also not to find the food before others grasp it. They know one thing is common among them; no pigeon looks for food under rain. This rain surely invites a peaceful sleep but that’s not what he thinks of.
Even those who only came to have a look at the luxury shops now find their reason to go in. now many inside the shops have forgot the luxuries and watch the drops coming down the door glass which breaks the light and gives an altered view of dirty streets; maybe to help them to be more beautiful. But this is not what he thinks of.
…
He opens his hands just before his face, gives them a fine slope, pushes them against each other to close the holes and this is what he thinks of:
"When the rain falls, as many as drops you catch, you will love me and as many drops you miss, I will love you." Laura said.

posted by Ali J Monfared @ 4:08 PM 2 comments

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

You! Who Shape


I just re-read "Time's Person of the Year: You" and got a feeling of being more important and effective in the way my world goes on. Beside I couldn’t help feeling a change. Something has changed! And that is the way we come together.
I remember days in 1990s when I had just started learning English in a private institution in Qom. My great interest in learning a foreign language fueled me to spend up to 9 hours a day trying to speak it with myself! We studied Oxford's "American Streamline" which focused on speaking and that was the problem. I personally dreamed of being able to speak any other language than Farsi. It felt like doubling my friend-making powers (the vital part of my life).
But the problem rose just when I got that power. Again I had no one to speak with, but myself, or in a silly way selecting the hard approach of using the newly acquired language with my fellow classmates.
I can not forget the day when we met the wife of one of our friend – an American nurse. Like hungry vultures seizing the corpse, six of us surrounded her just to talk English. Either I can not forget her face after 3 hours of whirlwind chat with six determined beginners in English field!
But today that has changed. Internet has allowed us to forget the miles-long distance and reach out for new friends. The magic of a PC connected to a phone line has changed even the way we relate with next door friends. Sometimes we meet more On-line than in the park.
On-line communities like Orkut created virtual societies which have the most culturally variant space and no one is un-welcomed. Where people just invite friends before knowing where they live or what religion or ethnic they come from.
And above all that, there are these Blogs. The empty space where we put what otherwise preoccupied our minds or blackened the white papers we now use to have more mathematics practice. These provide us with an unprecedented opportunity to express ourselves to those who may have never heard us if it were not for this Blogs.
So surely something has changed. Something important has changed.
It is for all these that now I and YOU are selected by Time to be the person of the year.
More important: it is for this internet that I found one of my best friends to whom I am so attached that many times I miss her though being miles and miles away.

posted by Ali J Monfared @ 1:44 PM 0 comments