Mehran Barati, exiled Iranian opposition leader made this very personal comment about the 1986 Tschernobyl accident, and how it was anticipated in Tehran. Mr. Barati, a political analyst who lives and works in Germany, left Iran in 1960 after getting into conflict with the Shah regime which took over power after the coup d’etat against the Mossadegh gouvernment. The statement… (more…)
Hello Michael, My mom always told me that because me and my brother were raised simultaneously in three languages (that is Persian, Swedish and French), both of us had to split our vocal energy in three channels, whereas my Swedish pre-school mates where always slightly advanced in their single Swedish mother tongue. When we grew older, we simply considered our… (more…)
Hello Michael, didn’t you always tried to convince me that alcoholic drinks (at least in small quantities) are an integral part of civilisation and culture, and that I should not be so reluctant in sipping at least on your glas, when you ordered one of these various types of drinks and cocktails ? I think I was not ready then,… (more…)
Dear Ghazal, Yesterday night the french-german TV channel Arte broadcasted this amazing two-series documentary about the magnificance of Irans Nature. And by chance (or perhaps not really by chance but due to a telepathic link of two like-minded souls), both Omid and myself were watching it. When we met in the morning at coffee break, we were both still out-of-breeze… (more…)
Dear Ghazal, I always knew that Persian people can be pretty cool. But who could ever think they are that cool. Watching this news from Sweden I even got the impression that the Swedish spectators dressed in their fur coats and heavy snow-boots are more freezing than the Iranian lady jumping into the ice-whole. All I can say about her… (more…)
Ivo, when we rescued you in the 2006 hot summer from a waste bin in the Bulgarian mountains, who could ever think that you will once appear in a music video for Jefferson Airplanes “White Rabbit”. (The music might sound a bit weird, I tried to slightly raise the key and increased the pace, hoping that this way it might… (more…)
No, the headline of this post does not mis-calculate the days of the year 1979. In my eyes, the hostage crisis in Tehran started on March 31st 1979, and not in November of the same year. Sure, Wikipedia and history textbooks will consider the occupation of the US embassy as THE Tehran hostage crisis, and this event indeed took place… (more…)
Ghazal, my Dear, do you remember the chapter 28 of Jane Eyre, where she runs away from the wedding and has to sleep outside in the forest in absolute loneliness and despair? A really horrible situation, right ? I red recently that one of the great pop singers of the 80s/90s, Kate Bush, was very much influenced by this scene,… (more…)
While Israel prime minister Netanjahu warns the Iranian regime of a military strike against their nuclear facilities, Trita Parsi, head of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) explains the background motivation of the mullahs attitude to gain full access to nuclear technology. But his interview with the US late night comedy “Daily Show” appears more as a promotional event for… (more…)
Dearest Ghazal, Before the 2012 Oscar will be awarded on February 26th to the different categories of cinematography, I would like to say something about the state of the Iranian Cinema. This year, the highly acclaimed masterpiece “Nader and Simin – A separation” by the prominent Iranian film-maker Asghar Farhadi is nominated as the best non-english movie and for the… (more…)