Remedy for my Persimania

Dear Ghazal,

Perhaps not completely unjustified, people suspect that I might suffer since 3 years from a sort of Persimania. Colleagues at work noticed this, and if they are Iranians they take it with some curiousity, whereas other foreigners and Germans find it highly suspicious.

Not to mention my family, Russian-Jewish and always convince that they should satisfy all my desire for exotic and multi-cultural contacts. But so it is, and I know my weak parts best, and have to admit that there is indeed a particular interest in everything that’s going on in Iran, its culture, social changes, politics, history.

No need to say that on my regular excursions through the literature novelties I instinctively grab everything written by Iranian authors or about the country. And thus, by chance I found this amazing novel that soon after the first pages showed its extreme potential to cure me from my Persimania. The book “Behind the Moon” by Wäis Kiani is the coming-of-age story of Layli, who was born and raised for the first six years in a northern-Germany small town. How her Iranian parents ended in this little glamorous environment, where Layli is the only kid from a non-German family, remains unclear. But she has no issue with this, and if the other kids call her Negro she immediately starts a fight with them.Behind-the-Moon

Suddenly, in the 70s her parents decide to go back to Tehran, what she heavily objects. Only when they promise her a pet baby tiger in Iran, she declines.  The adventureous journey in their family Volvo from Germany to Iran turns out to be a stepwise transition from the post-Hippie, Western European, Love-and-Rebellion society back through wild and uncivilized Anatolian landscapes and finally to a pre-modern, traditional, static environment with hundreds of family rules and old-fashioned way-of-life.  But you already see, that in Tehran before the ’79 islamic revolution, there was also a liberal youth subculture, that tried to be recognized.

But Laily compares everything with Germany, and she makes hateful remarks about her conservative relatives, the smelly food, the old fashioned dresses which she refused to wear. She soon becomes member of a school kids gang, mainly of boys from German contract workers, bi-national families but also of some upper-class Iranians. They have fun driving pimped-up motorbikes, listening to western Rock-Music, reading underground books and driving the teachers and their own families nut.

When the 79 “Islamic Revolution” becomes high-jacked by the Mullahs and shows it real face, they simply call them “Aliens” or “Penguins”.

The book in no instance shows an arrogant view, because this is the typical attitute of coming-of-age teenagers. Laily would develop for sure the same conflicts and sloppy confrontation in any other country, being it Germany or France or the US. The book therefore simply shows that Iran is not a fairy-tale, and it can have the same degree of stupidity, absurdity as other societies.  The book is really entertaining, it is witty, and written in a very fresh but at the same time nice enjoyable style.  When it will be translated into Persian, I could imagine it becomes a best seller there, like “Tschick” by the Wolfgang Herrndorf.

And thanks to the book, I was able to learn some new phrases in Persian: Apart from “Marg bar Shah” and “Marg bar Amrika” (which already new), I know now that “Schejtoun” means “Devil”, “Lasch” means “Slut” and the most useful one (Fasten Sear-belts, dear reader) :

“Ma mirim be madresseh, ba Elefantenschuheh“ what obviously means “We go to school wearing Elefantenschuhe”   (“Elephant boots”, a German quality brand)

Take Care, Badde

Michael

No mercy,

Dear Michael,

Three weeks ago you asked what are the chances of a democratic and civil progress in Iran, with a new president Rouhani and an old regime. For a young men who faces death penalty for a crime he committed at the age of eight, I’m afraid, any such changes will come too late. As Hrana News Agency reported today, the  juvenile offender who has spent 10 years in prison for a crime committed at the age of eight will be hanged next week in Tehran.

Iranian criminal law allows death penalty for children.

According to a report by Shargh Newspaper, the plaintiff has demanded approximately $500,000 in reparation before giving the required consent for the sentence to be commuted.  Iranian criminal law allows death penalty for children, but the sentence can be carried out only after the child reaches 18 .

On Friday, July 5, 2013, a play will be held at Arasbaran Cultural Center in Tehran to collect donations for the defendant.  The show, titled the Blue Sensation of Death, is about imprisoned juvenile offenders.

Take Care, Dear  /Ghazal

 

نــامه جدید رخشان بنی اعتماد چندروز پیش در باره تئاتر “احساس آبی مرگ” و اهمیت دیدن آن و کمک به فرهنگ سازی ضد خشونت که ضرورت جامعه مان است  .

دوستان سلام این روزها در فرهنگسرای ارسباران تئاتر مستند “احساس آبی مرگ” به کارگردانی امین میری و نویسندگی سجاد افشاریان بر صحنه است.

این نمایش بسیار تاثیرگذار است و بر اساس موارد واقعی نوجوانان مجرم محکوم به مرگ نوشته و اجرا می شود.

در کشوری که مردم را دعوت به تماشای اعدام می کنند این جوانان هنرمند ما را دعوت به تماشای این نمایش می کنند که بر هر کس که خود را ضد اعدام می داند دیدن آن واجب است.   اما حرف مهم در مورد نمایش جمعه شب است .

نمایش احساسِ آبی مرگ هر شب ساعت 21 توی سالن اصلی فرهنگسرای ارسباران اجرا می شه .. این نمایش در مورد بچه هایی ِ که هیچ فرقی با ما ندارن و بر حسبِ اتفاق اونا تویِ کانون زندگی می کنن و ما بیرون .. حکم یکی از بچه ها به اسم صابر اومده … هفته یِ دیگه میره بالای ِ دار وُ با اطلاعاتی ک ما داریم بی گناه جــون میده …

شاکیش پونصد ملیون خواسته که با کمک کانون وکلا و خیرین سیصد وُ سی وُ پنج ملیون جمع شده . صد وُ شصت وُ پنج ملیون کم داریم که امیدواریم تو اجرای ِ خیریه ای که جمعه گذاشتیم با کمک شما ها حتی یِ دونه هزاری که روی هم بزاریم جمع شه ..

صابر هشت ، نه سالِ که توی ِ کانون و زندانِ از بچه گیش هیچی نفهمیده … با اطمینانِ به این که بی گناهِ همه یِ ما می تونیم کمک کنیم تا سر بی گناه بالایِ دار نره .. مثلِ ِ هر کارِ خیرِ دیگه ای هیچ اصراری در میون نیست ولی حضورتون در روز جمعه باعثِ حالِ خوبِ هممون می شه … ممکنه بعد از اجرا چشمامون خیس اشک شه ولی باز هم می گم حالِ جمعی ِ همه مون بهتر می شه …   حال من از شما می خواهم که جمعه ساعت 9 شب ارسباران باشید و همت عالی بلیت نمایش را بخرید .

ارسباران 200 صندلی جا دارد اگر به طور متوسط هر بلیط 50 هزار تومان فروخته شود و اگر همه همت کنیم و برویم دیدن نمایش دیه صابر جمع می شود وگرنه صابر هفته دیگر اعدام خواهد شد. بیایید همه بیایید همه جمعه شب ارسباران باشیم.

کمپین درخواست از هنرمندان برای شکستن سکوت پنجشنبه, ۱۳ تیر, ۱۳۹۲

Is Rouhani the new Khatami

Dear Ghazal,

If there is really change to come in Iran, only time will tell. At the moment only names have been replaced by other names. But what is very important (I think Naj already mentioend this some days ago) that the people have expressed their desire for a change in policies. They gave their votes to the candidate who – in contrast to the other five candidates – based his campaign on change, freedom, less restrictive domestic politics and international relations based on partnership with its neighbors, with Israel, the US and the West.

But my concern is how free is the new president Hassan Rouhani to implement these difficult goals ? Will the corrupt regime, the basidj thugs and the mullahs stay quiet, when their privileges are threatened ?  What can Rouhani do in a society with hundreds of thousands of subordinates of the established security forces, folks who have not learned much more in life than beating and harassing the people ?
Rouhani has a difficult job to do. I hope he has more fortune than Khatami in standing strong against the surpreme leader and against the Guardian Council. If the word democracy has any meaning, than to respect the peoples decision for Rouhani in these elections, and not allow the ayatollahs or self declared faith guards or a senile deputy of the 13th imam to overrule this vote.

Take Care, Michael

 

Elections in Iran – Facts, Faces, Folks

Yet the official results are not announced, but this time the Iranian officials have a valid explanation for this: against all forcasts, the 2013 ballots were frequented by more than 70% of all eligible voters and thus had to be kept open for an additional 5 hours.
It seems that when the counting started at 9 pm CET or midnight in Tehran, the volunteers had a long and sleepless night to spent. Now, with the first pre-result estimates (after counting 90% of all votes) there seems to be a likely winner: Hassan Rouhani, who recently gave an enthusistic speech and demands more freedom, less dogmatism: a agenda, that was greeted with passion by his young and active supporters. If the estimates are right, than 51% of all Iranians trust Rouhani to lead their country into a better future. But it would be to simple to judge the election simply by numbers and percentages, as done in Western countries with their standard and almost boring regular democratic selection process. In Iran, the election day is also colourful and vivid, and looking into the faces of the voters makes us understand a little better what a nation of 80 millions dream of.

Bill posts showing the presidential candidates on Tehran streets. This particular candidate, Mr. Saeed  Jalili seems to attract much less attention from his own people than he got 4 month ago at the Munich Conference for International Security affairs. He is counted as a hard-liner and not much loved by the Iranian people who are desperatly hoping for change.

Long queues mark the polling stations and voters are waiting patiently to exploit their right to select the new president.  Due to the unexpected high voter turnout, the polling offices had to stay open till midnight.


Will this man, Hassan Rouhani end the 12 years of dim and rediculous Ahmadenijad leadership of the country ? Currently, at 11 am local Tehran time the estimates give Rouhani more than 51 %, almost 3 times more than the 2nd next.  In case that the remaining ~ 10% of yet uncounted ballots can not support Rouhanis winning position, there will be a run-off between him and the second best, Tehrans current mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.


As always in public activities, Iranian laws require a separation between men and women. At this well lid, fabric covered polling bay woman stay among their likes and might not only debate about the president to come, but also about where to buy cheap food and how to raise the children. In any case, both issues will also be strongly depend on the new president whom they give their votes here.

Men, in contrast, like to pose for the camera.

 

… And if one dares to wear blue glasses, he leaves no doubt whom he will support. The young, educated and modern Iranians hope that Rouhani will be the next president. Mr. Blue-Eyes and Blue Finger on this photography, however, is an Iranian expat in Washington D.C. So for him showing up a liberal and secular life style is easy.

 Electionx-RealBeauty

For this Iranian young beauty, however, going to the polls with some inches of hair leaking under her chador is a demonstration of pride and courage.

Thanks BBC for the nice photographs. I hope you don’t mind me putting some intelligent captitions on them. In terms of copyright issues, I guess that you have neither asked the Iranian people whom you photographed for permission of publishing them at the BBC website.  So f…k up, old aunty BBC and let me give the people at least a more righteous voice.

MEDITATION OF FREEDOM

The Berlin Academy of Fine Arts helds an exhibition of drawings on paper by Meir Hussein Mussavi. The exhibition opened with a vernisage on Friday, June 7th and welcomes visitors till Sunday, June 23rd 2013.  The Academy is located at Paris Square next to the Brandenburg gate. The exhibition flyer describes Mousavis abstract drawings as visual poetry.

Mousavi

Mir Hussein Mousavi: No Title

His oevre shows papers filled with grafic elements, resembling ancient writings, abstract coloured signs, and symbols inspired by geometric and organic forms. Abstract symbols, related to memories and philosophical metaphors merge to complex structures. Fractures, torns through the paper and burned marks reminds the observer of the frictions and conflicts of an individual person in a society full of political and social constrains.
Mousavi, who counts the Persian mythology as his main influence, was not able to come to Berlin to open his exhibition himself. The artist and former presidential candidate is banned from all political activities and kept under house arrest in Tehran.

Not surprisingly, no official delegate from the Iranian embassy in Berlin was seen at the exhibitions vernissage. Maybe IRI officials have to change their mind after Fridays presidential election and at least will join the finissage.

Further information only in German is here

New Hope for a better Leadership in Iran

Yesterday, June 1st during a pre-election campaign of Hassan Rouhani, his mainly young supporters shouted “Honour to Mousavi, Wellcome to Rouhani”. The meeting took place in Tehran’s Jamaran district. Rouhani urged all his supporters to attend the presidental elections. He demands the release of all political prisoners and the end of the securitized atmosphere. He called for a free, prosperous and peaceful Iran. The Rouhani campaign’s head of youth affairs was detained at this event.

It is good to see that the Bavarian Television placed its microphone right in front of Mr. Rouhani. So we will hopefully get all information first hand.

What is heated up, must cool down

 

Michael, you recently expressed some reluctance when I asked you if you will come to Stockholm for a conference.  In your reply to my letter you mentioned 2 possible occasions that would prompt you to visit Sweden. Apart from a ABBA reunion concert and you being nominated the Nobel prize, you left the 3rd option empty. I know your obsession with countries in political turmoil, and exactly this had happened during the last three weeks here around Stockholm. Some of the riots of youngsters, smashing cars on the streets, rampaging against the police and setting fire to schools and other public buildings started here in the suburbs, also in the district of Kista, were some friends and relatives are living. We were really scared, and now we are also concerned that the pictures of the burning cars and the broken shop windows might damage the reputation of Sweden abroad.

Take Care,

/ghazal

———————————————————————————————-

Dear Ghazal, I don’t think that these riots have any political base.  I think that the young folks that rampaged the streets were just set up by the cold and dim climate in Sweden. So they thought to set fire to cars and shops, only to warm up a bit and celebrate the start of summer.

Michael

Tomatoes – from all around the world

Dear Ghazal, I think one of the best souvenirs one can bring home from a journey are plants. Knowing how easy it is to grow tomatoes from seeds, I am constantly on the hunt for some variants from other countries. In particular I like to collect the seeds from the ripe fruits themself, be it from a salat dish in a mediterranean restaurant, be it from an oriental vegetable market or from a small garden in a suburb village. 
After stripping the seeds from its viscous cover using a piece of tissue paper and drying them quickly between some sheets of a newspaper, they can be stored till next spring. Ideally, I remember the stored seeds in February or March, rehydrate them over night in some ml of water and put them about 5mm deep into a shallow box with garden soil. The box can be left under a plastic foil to keep it moist on a warm and sunny place behind the window (I prefer to place them on my office window). After a few days, one should see the first sprouts and than they grow quite fast, which requires the plastic foil to be removed. Since they start to consume water now from the soil and without the plastic foil there is also more evaporation, the box should be checked daily and if necessary, watered. 
Below shows the box after 3 weeks. I had seeded 6 variants of tomatoes, which are (from top left in clockwise order: 
1:  Oxheart-tomatoes (Bulgarian farmers market)
2:  Cocktail-tomatoes (from vegetable salat, Tratoria, Vietri-sul-Mare)
3:  Egg-tomatoes (Penny supermarket, Munich)
4:  Austrian Monster-tomatoes (stolen from my neighbours garden, Munich)
5:  Cherry-tomatoes (Carmel Market, Tel Aviv, Israel)
6:  Vine-tomatoes (Made in Hungary, Aldi supermarket, Munich)
6 tomato variants, 3 weeks after planting seeds.
At this stage one could already see that they grow so dense, that one has to single them out and give each plant some more space. It is crucial at this stage of plant development that each sprout gets sufficient space underground to develop strong and dense roots. This gives them the best condition to withstand drought and resist parasites when they are later transfered out into the garden.
But at this stage it became also obvious that the 6 tomato variants which were collected from locations in different countries had considerably different growth rate. No.6 (Hungarian Vine-Tomatoes) were not growing at all, No. 2 (picked from an salat bowl at an Italian Tratoria) was growing weak.
After pricking them and transfer a single plant from each variant into one large pot, they look as shown below (note that the plants below and above are the same age. Below after 5 days growing separatly, above those which grew the entire 3 weeks together).
Tomatoes from above box, pricked and grown separately for last 5 days. (red cross: tiny plant, variant 5, from Tel-Aviv Carmel market.
Although the tomato is a typical new world plant, meaning it found its way to the European and Asian continent only after Columbus “discovered” America, they became so widespread here that people gave them quite different names. By the way, the offical latin term for tomatoes, Solanum lycopersicum has some indirect relations to Persia. The scientific species epithet lycopersicum means “wolf peach”, and comes from German werewolf myths. These said that deadly nightshade (Solanum) was used by witches and sorcerers in potions to transform themselves into werewolves, so the tomato’s similar, but much larger, fruit was called the “wolf peach (in German: Pfirsich aka Persian)” when it arrived in Europe. The Aztecs called the fruit xitomatl (pronounced [ʃiːˈtomatɬ]), meaning plump thing with a navel. Most western European languages derived their names for “tomato” from the native-americans Tomatl. The Italians introduced their own term: pomodoro (from pomo d’oro “apple of gold”), and this was also borrowed into Polish and into several other slavic languages. A funny and sometimes confusing convention is found in Russian language, where the plants and the fruits are called “Pomidore”, but the juice squeezed from them is called “Tomatnij sok”. Also, the Germans had a historical unique name for them: Paradeisapfel (for “apple of paradise”, which by the way is another cultural link to Persia, since Paradise originates from the Avestian terms “pairi.daêza“, meaning a piece of land surrounded by a wall). Not very common in Germany any more (except in historical cooking- and gardening books), a derivative of it, Paradeiser is still used in the Bavarian and Austrian dialects, and was borrowed from there into modern Hungarian, Slovenian and Serbian.

10 days later, all plants grown very well. I have to transfer them quickly to the garden, before they start blossoming.

Shopping and Raving in Munich – Burkas wellcome

Ghazal Dear, I still regret that you have been so much occupied with shopping here in Munich, but we never used any of the fine occasions to go out to one of the music clubs in town (except for the Bayerischer Hof Nightclub).  This year many of the Munich clubs announced their parties, and I think they might attract at least some of the tourists that come here every summer from Arab countries and – very much like you – usually associate Munich only with shopping.

Shopping and Raving in Munich – Burkas wellcome

Take Care, my Dear

Michael

The Dark Side of Humor: Seizure induced by Laughing

Dear Ghazal, well, didn’t we finally agreed at least on this very subject:  that however difficult life might be and how long it can take before our efforts in research pay out, threre is always one measure to keep us from giving up. I am talking about human laughter. And it was not only Aristoteles who described human laughter as devine, but it was also identified in several medical studies as promoting health, protecting from various diseases and extending longevity.  I remember when we drove on the bike in Munich, and I pushed you forward, you initially tried to protest against this but at the end you broke out in laughter. And you mentioned that “12 laughters a day keeps the doctor away” ?  And I thought that at least for short term you were right, and it made me feel happy.

But now I red this article in the peer-reviewed Journal of Medical Case Reports (Impact factor 0.4), entitled “Laugh-induced seizure: a case report“ by MR Mainali et al from the Health System Department of Medicine in Reading, Pennsylvania. The patient, a 43 caucasian men suffered from “…multiple episodes of seizures, all induced by laughter while watching comedy shows…” (hic!) The patient described the conditions himself as following: “… I started laughing, then my arms started shaking and I felt like my consciousness was being vacuumed away… “. Now I became suspicious, whether you were suffering from the same symptoms. I don’t mean that your laughter made your “…consciousness being vacuumed away…” those days on the bike in Munich, but didn’t you indeed started to shake a bit when I pushed you forward, and didn’t you lost control over the bikes handlebar for a few seconds ? So it might have ended dangerous indeed, at least at this moment on the bike.

The authors of the study tested several treatments to help the poor man. The anti-convulosant drug Carbamazepine appeared to prevent the seizures for several month, but according to the FDA this drug has several potential side effects, in particular onto the unborn child of pregnant mothers. The authors concluded in their study that the safest measure against the seizures is by preventing all laugh-inducing situations.  I have to admit, since you left for Stockholm to do your PhD, the frequency of laugh-inducing moments here went down a bit. I think to benefit from the healthy effects of laughter, I should instead expose myself intentionally to some extra laugh-inducing situations. As the authors very firmly state at the end of their paper, “… Smiles and laughter are universal human social gestures that involve a complex sequence of facial, pharyngeal and diaphragmatic muscle contractions and help to establish a friendly interaction with other people.”  Unfortunatly, they don’t make any suggestion about the Comedy that was so efficient in their patient to make him Rolling-on-the-Floor-Laughing.

Take Care, and keep smiling

Michael

1 2 … 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 … 37 38