Letters to a Persian Cat

This country deserves more than material wealth —— A debate

Abgelegt unter: General — Tags:Future, Iran, Politics, Utopia — admin @ 15:54

Amir Parviz (for a secular Monarchy in Iran)

I find too many Iranians living in the west are solely influenced by western propaganda, which I define as media being produced by the UK/Israel/France/Germany/USA and their junior affiliates, Poland, Italy, Spain etc.
Look at the information we know for sure…
Iran used to give loans in the Billions to Germany, USA, UK, France during Shahs time. Iran could not spend the wealth it was creating quickly enough, it was cash rich.
Those same countries, western democracies, portrayed the shah a despot, crook, tyrant, megalomaNIAC, corrupt etc, etc, etc.
So the same Iran and Shah they could not hold back economically or rob, by using manipulation, deceit and coercion they destroyed. The style of effective Propaganda was specifically designed for Iranians and their village gossip way of dealing with life.
What is clear is the Shah would not sign off on corruption and never accepted a No as far as technology or development for Iranians by any nation.
Today these same countries USA/Germany/France/UK with the IMF give loans/debt to democratic goverments they have can have a big influence on, and their leaders are not called corrupt megalomaniacs, but great countries… what a joke.. Look at the level of debt their democratic governments have incurred.
Greece “$485 Billion Dollars”
Ireland “$1,045 Billion Dollars”
Spain “$1,100 Billion Dollars”
Italy “$1,100 Billion Dollars”
And Iranians want to pursue a DEMOCRATIC future…. what a dirty , even perverse joke in comparison to what Ira was honestly during the time of the late shah, today we see arguments are won with out right lies. So you don”t have the ability to choose based on the truth. You can only choose based on deceit and manipulation. Is that what you think will serve Iranians?
It is no wonder these countries and their leaders are not called despotic tyranies, even when we know they participated in secret torture chambers by of the CIA. Is this the type of free worlds mass media we want for Iran? These periferal countries do not serve their own people but serve the USA/Germany/France/UK, all nuclear super powers. During the Shahs time Iran was poised to overtake all of these countries except for the USA economically speaking.
No wonder the USA and it”s partners wanted the IRI for Iran and now lead Iranians to seeking more democracy for IRAN. Democracy is code for control and foreign domination. As Russia discovered under Yeltsin, which is why the russian secret service brought Putin and now yet again the so called free world media is used to attack putin “saying he is corrupt” but the truth is the exact opposite as we can see from russia”s success.
Iranians used to chant Freedom, Independence, Islamic Republic, clearly we were independent and free, it was those things that the west stole from us by removing the Shah at our own deceived hands. It was exactly because we had a king that was involved in politics upto the neck that Iran did not suffer the same fate as all these countries and Iran under the shah served Iranians and was independent. It was progressing because he served honestly and without corruption, unfortunately the Iranian people due to disingenuous reporting on issues of human rights stopped trusting the Shah.
My view based on what information I have is Iran needs a Shah that should have his hands in politics and that we leave Irans politics to polticians seeking power at our own peril. That is assuming we are serious on how to make Iran a Champion leading country, like it was under the Shah.
Those that want a multi-party system without an arbitror like the Shah are talking based on what information. Shouldn”t responsible people look at both sides of the equation, not just what it is that Iranians say they want, but also looking at what that desire will create in reality. Isn”t it dangerous to ignore key information, regarding what a democracy will really give birth to in Iran.
I strongly doubt a parliamentary democracy like the UK will create a leading country, a winning country, a country rich in splendour like Iran was in the late 60″s and early 70″s, especially because that is the easiest way to be dominated, when strong democratic institutions do not exist. I feel people don”t have information and are influenced by propaganda make stupid decisions. Sadly they put their lives behind those decisions. But I”d like other knowledge and expertise on this subject of restoring freedom and justice for Iranians.

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Reply by Radius

Amir, I dont care about the impressiv economical figures that you present here. Whatever you wrote about national income and debts and loans, thats not the problem of the people of Iran. I guess in this matter, they are doing much better than a lot of other countries in the middle east.
What the people of Iran deserve, and what is all the political unrest about at the moment is freedom in the first instance. The green movement is mainly based on the young generation, and their concern is not material wellfare. If this would be the main issue, You would rather see the older generation on the streets.
What frustrates the young and innovative generation in Iran is the political and ideological oppression, that is absolutely toxic to creativity. It destroys their dreams. Don”t compare Iran (under Shah or under the ajatollahs) with debt-loaden european countries. Compare it with Israel, for instance. Israel is not really rich, and the material living standard might be much lower than for instance in Saudi Arabia or some european countries. But the gouvernment in Israel knows exactly that the best thing you can give to your people and to make them loyal is freedom of thoughts and ideas. People in Israel dont think their country is heaven on earth, but it allows them to work on their dreams, some of them are gorgious, other might be funny, others might be silly. But Israel can beat every other nation in the world by its creativity output (scientific, technological, cultural). But you can get this only if you give freedom to the people. This is why totalitarian regimes fall behind sooner or later in science and technology. Ask why all our new technologies, GSM, GPS, internet, satellites, biotech, modern transportation, chemistry, pharmceuticals were invited in “free countries” like the europeans, US, Japan ? I tell you there is nothing genetically, the people from arab countries or china or russia are not less intelligent or innovative. But to rise this creative potential, they had to leave their country and try it in US or europe. There is also no link between a high living standard and creativity, otherwise we would see most of high tech coming from countries like SA, Emirates, Singapoor, Lichtenstein or Monacco.
Creativity, which on the long term is the only thing bringing happiness and satisfaction to man, needs free spirits in an open world.
And this is why (thanks god) totalitarian regimes only seem to be made for eternity, but never survive for very long. If you keep your people in mental custody, their loyality will erode quickly.
And therefor what I wish to the Iranian people after the IRI went to the scrap-yard of History is not the type of material wealth and intellectual degradation like in SA or Emirates, but I wish them a liberation of ideas and creativity. Material wealth will come automatically with it.
And whether a “secular monarchy” is more likely to guarantee this (as in UK or skandinavia) or a grassroot democracy is more appropriate (like in switzerland) is hard to tell from the outside and depends on tradition and mentallity. I agree with you that western-style democracy can not be taken as a “conditio sine qua non” for a new Iran. I also agree with you that the global power-players should stop trying to exploit Iran for their purposes. They did this for too long time, and what the english and russians and americans considered THEIR Great Game prepared the ground for the unjustice under which the iranian people have to suffer for too long time now.

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Radius, that is another point of mine (Amir Parveniz)

I believe that what people really want is FREEDOM and this is what was stolen from Iranians as a result of the revolution, which is why it was such a true pity it occured. If we as Iranians pursue Democracy, then i believe we will lose our ability to have freedom.
Whereas, if we pursue a secular monarchy, the Institution by virtue of what it can accomplish against foreign domination and their exploitation of political parties in 3rd world countries like ours will unlike a democratic govt help people accomplish freedom. Just like it existed and was growing every day during the 1970″s with the late Shah.
Consider the Voice of America Show funded by the US goverment, Parazit, which at the begining says Azadi, Edalat, Democracy, Barabari, Jameheyeh madani. I feel that as the US Government tries to popularize the concept of democracy for Iranians a people with no institutions for it, their aim is not to help us restore freedom for Iranians. Which is a totally different subject. The USA already undermined freedom from Iranians once before, when will Iranians learn? They are behind and support muslim fundamentalism.
While I don”t agree with alot of what this Journalist Mr Evans has to say, conclusions, I agree that his facts are accurate… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpHAe70ohEk . The truth is it has been US foreign policy to maintain and expand fundamentalism, both parties liberals and republicans.
The goal of all Iranians should be freedom and justice first, this is more easily brought about by a sovereign, than groups of politicians attempting to share power.
AMIR PARVIZ

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Monarchy or Parlamentary Democracy (Radius)

Dear Amir Parviz, There is not much to contradict from your last post, I have to admit. My yesterdays comment requesting a free society for the iranian people is perhaps a very long term aim. It is nothing that can be guaranteed from the next morning after the ajatollahs are removed from power. My hope that Iran will face a future in Freedom, with same civil rights for everybody and a prosperous economy is shared by the majority of people here. But at the moment, it is like a dream, and even when the green movement overcomes the IRI regime, it will be a long and stony way to get there. In particular, one has to face the problem that all the supporters of IRI, the Basidj, Revolutionary Guards, Pazdaran, Sepah and all the others who currently benefit from the regime, that they might resist a new liberal society. It is hard to tell what it needs to make them loyal to a new, liberal gouvernment, if they loose all their privileges. In the best case (what I hope) there really might be a peaceful transformation like in post-war germany or the eastern european countries after fall of communism. Here, the former elite lost its influence (theoretically, but in some countries just converted into the new economic players). Ideally, they should face trials, not neccesarrily to punish them, but to clear and document what had happened and what was their function and help them to finding a way into the new society.
In the worst case, the former elite could go in the underground and start an endless fight against the new system. Usually the risk for the later is very high if there is no new identification, just as in Iraq of Afghanistan, where the US-backed Hamid Kazai or el-Maliki are considered puppets of the foreign powers and democracy as we said yesterday just a tool to rule the country from the outside. This is the reason why so many support the Taliban or partisan and sectarian groups there. Nobody respects the new rulers. In particular, if you have a multi-ethnic society with religious and cultural heterogeneity, what is even more pronounced in Iran due to its rich and long history.
There is no way around a strong personality at the top, at least for the first years after the political changes. This personality must be respected by all ethnic groups and must protect minorities and all religious groups equally. And for this I could really follow your idea of a secular monarchy. I agree that a strong Shah would be the best guarantee to unify the country and protect freedom and civil rights for everybody. Otherwise he/she will face again resistance and illoyality from religious leaders, who in Iran like in any other country always believe that they have their own rights and values.
But a modern monarchy simply cannot work like the european courts hundred years ago or the persian empire under Xerxes or Darious, where autocracy was the most efficient form of ruling a country. I think an efficient parlament is essential to give the people the feeling that the new system works in their own interest rather than in the particular interest of a dynasty. I think there are plenty of examples that a constitutionally monarchy as in skandinavian countries or UK or even Marocco can provide a long term stable society with the best ballance between personal freedom, responsibility for the whole country and certain degree of security. This is what I hope for a future Iran as well.

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20/06/2011

Happy Birthday, Ghazal !

Abgelegt unter: General — Tags:music — admin @ 15:53

Happy Birthday, Ghazal !
Whatever you were dreaming of, my Dear, I wish you will get today.
And all the things that you are still waiting for, they might come later but still on time. The few ones that will never come were probably not important at all.
Make the best out of everything that you already got, Ghazal, it is so much and it is precious.

I wish you good luck with everything.
I hope that life provides you the same
amount of inspiration that you gave to me.

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Hello Michael!!

Thank you so much for your birthday wishes and the nice music! You are very talented, I liked the music.
I really hope everything is fine with you. I saw M. in Stockholm, he told me you are fine and that you are trying to publish. Good luck with that.

Wish you all the best.

Take care

/Ghazal

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Dear Ghazal,
It was so nice reading your messsage. I hope you had a wonderful birthday party and got all the flowers and beautiful presents that you liked and lovely guests.
Thank you so much, Asal, for your encouraging words about the guitar music. I”m not sure, if you really liked it or you just tried to say something nice. But in any case, your comment made me very happy.
Take Care, Michael

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18/06/2011

Frank Zappas rock opera inspired by the 1979 islamic “revolution”

Abgelegt unter: General — Tags:Iran, Politics, music, persia — admin @ 15:52

Dear Michael,
do you remember the CD you gave me last year with the compilation of some rock, pop and jazz music? In fact I never really had time to listen to it while I lived in the Helmholtz Guesthouse. Last year in Munich I was so busy with other things, with my MSc project and learning the complicate mouse genetics, I also felt homesick for Sweden and my parents and therefore only listened to persian music. And of course, every other free moment you have been around and drove with me to the river bank and the beach, to nice restaurants and music-clubs and theater and many more. It was a busy time, you know, and hence the CD compilation got somehow lost among many other silverplates with scientific stuff and photographs and lecture hand outs.
Today in the evening, my brother found this CD and was attracted by the hand written label on it: 20th century rock music. He put it into his stereo and turned on the volume, and there started a nice song, very easy listening style, but I never heard it before. My dad immediately listened up and called us all. He told us that this song “Bobby Brown goes Down” is by the great rock singer Frank Zappa, who already in 1979 foresaw that the so-called “islamic revolution” in his home Iran will end in a cultural dictatorship. My dad just asked me to send you his warmest regards for introducing this intelligent, brave and tallented musician to his daughter.
(and I have to say sorry for not listening to the music on the CD before).

Take Care, Michael, I hope you are doing fine.
/ghazal

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Ghazal, my dear,

I think me and your dad would have a lot in common, in particular if it comes to politics. Your dad, however was obviously much more strikt in his decisions, and left the totalitarian regime in Iran, whereas myself always tried to find a niche in the east-german pseudo-democracy. And Frank Zappa, whom we could easily listen to via west-Berlin radiostations, was part of the entertainment in this socio-political niche.

Frank Zappa was one of the most innovative and influential, but also controversal rock-musicians. His huge oevre covered jazz-rock classics like “Peaches in Regalia” , but also some top ten hits like “Don’t eat that yellow snow” and “Bobby Brown goes Down” from the 1979 album “Sheigh Sherbouti”.

Zappa always acknowledged his music being influenced by 20th century classic music, in particular by composers Igor Stravinsky and Edgar Varese. In 1970 Zappa met Zubin Mehta, conductor of LA Philharmony Orchestra and descendent of an indian Parsi family. Zappas Mothers of Invention and Mehtas Orchestra played together the concert 200 Motels

Even though his lyrics became more and more complex, and political messages woven into satirical stories, Zappa never led any doubt what he thought about the Washington establishment and religious bigotry. In the video to the fusion-jazz piece “You are what you is” he calls Ronald Reagan a president from hell. I was always wondering how Zappa, wouldn’t he have died too early in 1993, could bear to live in a country that 10 years later was lead and send to war by the lunatic George W. Bush. On September 19, 1985, Zappa testified before the United States Senate Commerce, Technology, and Transportation committee, attacking the “Parents Music Resource Center” (PMRC), a music organization co-founded by Tipper Gore, wife of then-senator Al Gore. The PMRC consisted of many wives of politicians, including the wives of five members of the committee, and was founded to address the issue of song lyrics with sexual or satanic content. Zappa saw their activities as on a path towards censorship. His high sensitivity for political oppression was seen during production of the 1979 triple LP Joe’’s Garage, comprising a rock opera about the danger of political systems, the suppression of freedom of speech and music. Inspired in by the Islamic revolution that had made music illegal within its jurisdiction at the time, it also addressed the “strange relationship Americans have with sex and sexual frankness”.

Whether one likes Zappas very open political statements, denouncing the hypocrisis of the western moral standards and their corruption by the political system, or not, whether you think his language is sexist and chauvinistic or just right to fight the political correctness, one thing about him remains that nowbody can deny: That he was one, if not the most productive, independent, intelligent and influential musicians of the 20s century. It is sad that he died before experiencing how a new generation of iranians will reinstall freedom, music and creativity in Tehran. I”m sure he would have greeted the green movement with highest sympathy. Enjoy and share with your friends and family !

It is pitty you are so far now, so we cannot go to a concert this summer.
Hope for the future,
Enjoy anyhow, TAKE CARE, Ghazal
Michael

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17/06/2011

Political Power, Sex and the 21st Century E-Communication

Abgelegt unter: General — Tags:Communication, Generations, Google, Love, Politeness, Tag hinzufügen — admin @ 15:50

Anthony Weiner, highly praised democrate representative and candidate for N.Y. mayor resigned this week over his cyber-sex affair that is in the media since may. Mr Weiners activities outside his office duties, which involved sending explicit photographs of his most precious body areas to several femal followers through Twitter and Facebook are still difficult to judge in terms of their moral or political implications, both for his political peers and voters but even more for his wife Huma Abedin. Are they really as immoral as the Washington Times tries to makes us believe, or is this media outcry rather a hypocracy when it comes to our own secret phantasies, that we like to forbid to those who are paid with our tax money ? I”m wondering what would happened if Mr. Weiner would not have send his “Bulge” pictures and “Shaved Breast” pictures and testosteron-loaded short messages to younger ladies or university students, but to elder house-wives or congress representatives of the republicians ? Would have Mrs. Nancy Pelosi, congress speaker and his party fellow demanded his resignation with the same mercyless ? It is really hard to tell how much Mr. Weiner must be considered a liar and therefore banned from the political establishment, or whether he is a victim of the Big Brother media establishment, who is regularily searching for fresh blood to drink. I wont make any judgement here myself, I think it is about the people who voted for him as representative to decide over his future, and in particular it is about his wife Huma Abedin to consider if she wants to stay with him for the rest of their life.
What I like to suggest here, however is that Weiners affairs highlights the validity of an old issue: that of the erotic component that is related to power. In particular in the sphere of politics, that in Weiners case very simply ment that he had a sort of power over ~ 50 000 people that he represented of his New York district, power is easily gained by questionable personal qualities such as networking, bribing, lobbying. What comes with this political power is an ever increasing media presence, and it was especially the later that Anthony Weiner very obviously exploited for his cyber-sex relationships. If he would have used an anonymous user-name such as “dear-Mr-president” or “democrats-bulge” or “oral-bill” for his twitter and Facebook accounts, instead of clearly showing that it is Anthony Weiner here, your most appreciated and praised democrats futur NY mayor that sends you these steam-hot messages and pictures of his body parts, he would have received much less reponse for this, considering that the photos he send around showed a rather prude clerkes physiology (no tatoos or body piercings or scarves from gang fights or military combats). It was obviously this “added value” of offering his verbal sex and body pictures to young ladies in combination with the thrill of having all this “dirty stuff” with a guy whom the rest of the nation only knows as Mr. Super-Clean and everybodies darling. And for the failure of this attempt, i.e. exploiting a political function that has been given to somebody by his voters to attract femals for love affairs, I praise the public media who exposed this story.

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15/06/2011

Why I don”t feel any sorrow for you, Basidj

Abgelegt unter: General — Tags:Future, Iran, Politics, Utopia, cinema, history, persia — admin @ 15:49

Yesterday, I saw your face in this french documentary “Voices from Iran”, about the elections and post-election demonstrations in Tehran in June 2009. I saw your coward eyes under the black helmet, Basidj. Like all of the other black-dressed and heavily armed puppets of your leaders, you seemed to enjoy this feeling of total power over the students on the streets of Tehran, who had nothing else to defend against you than their T-shirts, canvas slipper and hand-written posters.
You felt so much superior, when you started to beat them and kick those who were already laying on the ground. You felt so powerful, fed with drugs by your fat and conscienceless commanders and equipped with the newest high-tech guns and tear-gas bullets and batons from the top weapons factories of the world. How did you felt, when you did your so-called job out there ? I guess you wanted to impress your commanders and the other members of your squad by the ruthlessness of your beating, by the precision of your shooting. But we all know that you are just a bloddy coward. You think you are strong in the moment when you torture and kill unarmed young people, mostly students, young women but also children and elder people. Did you felt satisfied for pleasing your coward commanders and the heads of this criminal gouvernment.
And when you saw how the bullets from your guns made the streets turn red, didn”t you thought that this is more thrilling than your ego-shooter computer game ? And how does it feel if you kick your steel-armed boots into the belly of somebody whom you first chained feets and arms with a cable ? Does it gives you an emotional blow to imagine how the steel covers of your boots causes pain and internal bleeding in the person laying on the ground in front of you ? Did you considered kicking again and again, not just to score higher at your commanders record, but also to repeat this image of how your stupid steel boots so easily destroy the head of an intelligent young man or girl ? And later, when you throwed those who were wounded and could not escape anymore onto pick-ups and trucks to bring them to Evin Prison or Ghezel Hesar, I’m sure you knew that this was not a journey for medical treatment or recovery, but to further harras and rape and kill them. And if you later saw the pictures of Neda Agha-Soltan and Sohrab Arabi, cowardly killed by you and your commrades, how long did those pictures appeared in your dreams, before you got rid of them with more drugs and blood-money and more violence ?
But you should know, Basidj, that what you did 2009 on Tohid square wont be forgotten. You turned a peaceful demonstration into a blood shed. The hundred thousands that walked the streets those days, wearing green T-shirts and green shawls did not had enough phantasy to think that this day might end up in violence. The girls had put on their most beautiful jewelery and make-up and the men kept their expensive lap-tops with them in their bags. People were sure that this day would demonstrate the power of a peaceful political change and give hope for a better future of this country . The people on the streets felt the dawn of a grey period of political speechlessness, and they were hoping to meet some of the political leaders to discuss the future of the country after the elections.
The millions who gave their vote in the 2009 election and later formed an endless band of the green movement in the streets of Tehran, they wont forget that their hope for a peaceful move was turned into a violent nightmare by Basidj cowards just like you. And the next time when they meet you on the same streets, don”t expect any more unarmed young intellectuals. The next time, Basidj, you will be attacked, there wont be an option for peaceful settlement any more. And when the magazin of your automatic gun is empty, and you again killed and wounded the first twenty of the protesters, than there will come another twenty and another twenty and the same to each other of your Basidj commrades. There will be hundred thousands again coming out of the universities, of the restaurants and shops and beauty-salons, from all the places they escaped to in 2009, when they had to run away from your guns and butons. But this time they wont run away any more, and they dont want to talk to you any more, but they will attack you and kill you. And then, the streets of Tehran will turn red again, but this time it will be your damned blood.
And if somebody will throw your dead corpse into the gateway of your house, there wont be anybody crying tears for your death. Your mother will come out at night and bring you corpse to the waste bin of the garden, together with the chicken-heads and rotten carrots and the bad smelling polo from last week. Your parents will be ashamed of you, there will be no mourning for you. And for all the cowardize of your life, Basidj, your children will forget your name. To avoid that others would point with fingers on them, they will tell everybody that they don’t know who their father was. Your name will be forgotten in a new, free Iran. And only the history text books will know a precise number of nameless Basidj cowards. And you will have been one of them, not more, but also not less.

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10/06/2011

Ferdosi and the Germans

Abgelegt unter: General — admin @ 18:52

In 1934 the world celebrated the great persian poet Ferdosi, who was born 1000 years ago and gave us the iranian national epos Shanahme. The journal Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft published on this occasion a report about the official reception of the German Orient Society in Berlin. A state counciler Dr. Wiegand highlighted the similar spirit one feels in Ferdosis epos and in the german sagas.

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02/06/2011

Irans New Halal Internet

Abgelegt unter: General — Tags:Communication, Internet, Iran, Politics — admin @ 14:14

Irans head of economic affairs, Mr. Ali Aghamohammadi, surprised the whole IT community today by announcing the recent ground-breaking development from the Basiji telecommunication workshop:
The new Internet 3.0 with implemented Halal Option.

At the end of an IRNA press-conference in Teheran he entered the stage in his usual black business suit and started his speech with the words:

“One more thing: Iran will soon create an internet that conforms to Islamic principles and to improve its communication and trade links with the world.”

This next-generation Internet (termed Net 3.0) will include the following advanced features:

1.) Computers will work only if their screen is turned eastward, therefore facing Mekka.

2.) The internet data transmission will be interrupted 5 times a day precisely as determined by the Ajatollah Chamenei to allow everybody to attend the prayer.

3.) Computer mouse will be replaced by a computer lamb, since the first is not mentioned in the Quran as a halal creature.

4.) Before switching on, computer plugs have to be washed thoroughly under running water.

5.) The bus-size will be limitted to 11 bit. The 12th bit will be added only upon arrival of the Mahdi.

6.) Each computer will come with a chemical spray to clean it off StuxNet-Virus.

To read how the community of iranian bloggers welcomes this new announcement, klick here.

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30/05/2011

Munich Tourists and Shoppers Sign Declaration for a Free Iran

Abgelegt unter: General — Tags:Future, Iran, Politics, Utopia, persia — admin @ 14:33

The Munich Association for a Free Iran organized a rally to protest against political oppression in Iran and inform about the raising numbers of its victims. Visitors of the city and people comming for Saturday shopping stoped at the Stachus square to see the photographs of people who were imprisoned and humilated for the crime of fighting for liberation of their country. Reading about several individual cases of torture and oppression, many of the passers-by signed a declaration demanding immediate release of all political prisoners, end of violence, torture and killing of political activists. Next to Frankfurt and Berlin, Munich was always one of the main destinations of political refugees from Iran in Germany.

کانون ایرانیان آزادیخواه مونیخ /آلمان

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20/05/2011

SADE - world tour 2011

Abgelegt unter: General — Tags:Sade, music — admin @ 00:40

Ghazal Dear, I think I was waiting for this event since 25 years. It was in 1986 that somebody working in a Leipzig record shop gave me the first SADE record, “Diamond Live” as a birthday present. It was one of the few musics from the west that by some reason made their way into the east-german shops (in very limitted edition of course). I wrote you last year, that her music was like a revelation for me, opening phantasies into a world so different from the daily university life at the physics institute. And for you, who obviously never heard her music befor, the relaxed and tempting sound and her amazing voice appeared astonishing contemporary. If asked to guess her age, you came up with somebody of your generation. But in fact she is 53 now.
When I fall in love with her music 25 years ago, I never thought that there might be the chance to hear her live. But tonight, more or less by lucky chance, I finally had this chance. After my 50s birthday party was coming to an end, at 11 pm, I decided to give it a trial, knowing that she is playing tonight during her 2011 world tour in the Munich Olympia Hall (just below the Olympia TV tower that we climed up last summer).
Although the concert was already running since an hour, I managed to sneak in, even without a ticket. The concert was great, a lot of new songs that I did heard before. Unfortunately, only very few from her recent album Soldier of Love.
I don”t know if it would be correct to say that I was waiting impatiently since 25 years to see her in a concert. Probably not. I went to lot of other music that I enjoyed a lot since then. But the love for her sound remained somewhere in the long-term memory. Everything else that came and go during this quarter of a century could not diminish this fascination. And I”m sure the same will happen for everything that I feel for you.

Take Care
Michael

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hi michael,

How did you managed to get into the Olympia-Hall at such an event ? Sade played in Stockholm during her 2011 World tour on the 10th of May, but when I saw the adverts all tickets were sold out. There were tickets for the equivalent of 180 € available on the black market, but this would be too much for me.
Did she played the one song that we heard on the radio while driving to Ikea last year ? I cant remember the title any more, but it was something like extra-ordinary love. I liked her music when I listened to it last year and when you let me guess from which year it was. I thought it is very new, maybe too new for me to know already. But then you told me that her debut album was 1984, so as you suggested there was really a good chance that I was listening to her first hits in-utero.
I could imagine my mom would have loved her songs a lot when she was pregnant with me :-), rather than the Jazz-music that you send last year.

I hope that Sade will play in Sweden again. Next time I will try to get in, with a ticket or without one: just teach me please how to slip in without one.

Hope you keep the memories of this concert for a long time,
take care
/ghazal

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06/05/2011

Natural Confusion

Abgelegt unter: General — Tags:Communication, Politeness, Politics, Smile, Talk, history, navigation, orient — admin @ 16:12

Ghazal my dear,
I hope you don”t mind me adding to our long lasting conversation and exchange of ideas some external thoughts. A witty blogger at Iranian.com (called ComraidsConcubine) posted this dialogue and therefore in a most intelligent way paraphrased the wide-spread ignorance about nations and cultures.

If you want to read more of Comraids Concubine thoughts, go to her blog in english or in persian.

Take Care, enjoy the evening
Michael

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26/04/2011

EVIN: A hotel named after a concentration camp

Abgelegt unter: General — Tags:Dreams, Evening Sun, Future, Generations, Happiness, Iran, Politics, Utopia, music, persia — admin @ 18:41

Hi Michael,
When somebody through facebook forwarded this sequence of nocturnal images from Teheran to me, I was almost prompted to ask if this is really the same place one knows from the news headlines of protests or from Ahadis movie “Green Wave”.
Suddenly, it look more like a tourist promo for Beirut. Even during my last visit to Teheran in 2008, I have not seen the city in such glamour like here in this Youtube scenes.

but suddenly, at around 3:22 min a very short picture showed a neon-sign pointing to a “Hotel Evin”, that convinced me it is Iran. Would like to know, is there really a Hotel in Teheran that carries the same name as the prison notorious for all the violence ? Which hotel owner would call its business after a place of death and violence ? And who are the customers booking in a hotel with this name ?

I heard the most horrible reports about Evin and other prisons, people in particular political prisoners are tortured there with pure saddism using physical and psychic violence in the most inhuman manner. People are killed there systematically. I feel anger imagine somebodies calls a hotel after this place of horror. When we visited last year with Shava the concentration camp near Munich (think it was called Dachau), at least people respected the memory of all those who lost their lives there. Nobody would consider calling a Hotel after this place Dachau, don”t you think so ?

Hope everything is fine with you, Take Care
/ghazal

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17/04/2011

Human Rights Award for Iranian Blogger

Abgelegt unter: General — Tags:Iran, Politics, persia — admin @ 18:15

Shiva Nazar Ahari , iranian blogger and political activist, received the Theodor-Haecker-Award for her courageous fight for human rights in Iran. In her blogs Azad Zan and Committee of Human Rights Reporters Mrs. Ahari makes public the violence of the IRI authorities against the iranian people. From her own experiences, she describes the physical and mental oppression at Evin prison.

She was sentenced in September 2010 with the allegation of Mohareb and imprissoned again, but had to be released later after rising international protests. The award to Mrs. Ahari is named after Theodor Haecker, a german philosopher and writer who stoud in opposition against the Nazi regime. Former recipients of the award are Kitwe Mulunda Guy (Kongo), Judith Galarza (Mexico), Eren Keskin (Turkey), Salima Ghezali (Algeria)and Jehan Sadat (Egypt).

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A Night Walk at Full Moon

Abgelegt unter: General — Tags:Car, Drive, Emergency, Full Moon, Science, cat, navigation — admin @ 09:21

Hi Michael,

I just arrived at home, after driving my friends home. Very tired. I sweared to myself I wont do this any more. You know what happened ? In the middle of the night, more than a kilometer from home, my car stoped without any obvious reasons (Except for a loud noise that came from somewhere under it). Hey, what is that with your german cars? It is a Benz (o.k., not very young any more), how can it just let me stand alone on the road in the middle of the night ? The disgusting thing was that my mobile also was low on battery, so can you imagine I had to walk home at 2 o”clock a.m.?
My only rescue was the bright, full moon. It was so strong, that I could always see my moon-shadow.

Hope you are fine, sleep well.
TAKE CARE,
/ghazal

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Ghazal my Dear,

Poor you, must be a frightening experience to walk home in the middle of the night. I guess it was not the kind of walk that you liked so much here in Munich, to let you thoughts flow and to recharge your vitamine D pool in the sun. I have to estimate, if and how much moon-light is any good to synthesize it. But I guess it has no UV-A, what do you think ? By the way, wouldn”t it be a interesting project to study in photobiology in cells using moon-light ?
So you worked as a driver again. I suspect people exploit your reluctance to drink any alcohol at the party and invite you as the driver.
The moon was visible here as well. If you can, make a photo of your moon shaddow.
The one below I did in our garden.

Take Care, my Cat on the Moon,
Michael

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11/04/2011

Salman Rushdie about Chernobyl

Abgelegt unter: General — Tags:Happiness, Iran, Love, Radioactivity, Science, history, persia — admin @ 19:12

Dear michael,
Finally, I gave the talk about my MSc thesis today here in the institute, and as you expected, people were much more interested to discuss the implications of the Fukushima accident (which of course also has to do with radio-iodine) than the genetic studies I did last year in Munich. I doubt if people could really estimate what we found out with you doing the genetic studies in mice.
Before giving the talk to my colleagues, I practised a bid at home and did the same presentation at home to my family. My parents were much more interested in the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, which I used as introduction to explaine the importance of the radio-iodine incorporation studies. I now understand why: When the Chernobyl disaster happened, I was exactly 10 month old, so according to all the studies that I read for my thesis, I was at the most sensitive age when the radioactive cloud reached Sweden. You see how differently people anticipate events: Nowadays everybody is worried about the Fukushima disaster from 3 weeks ago, whereas my parents are obviously still worried if their daughter might have been affected by the Chernobyl fall-out.
My dad, who is always very interested in names and their meaning wanted to know what this “Chernobyl” means. But my mom immediately shouted “Who cares about names, if the only daughter we have might have been irradiated”. Thanks god I could relieve her anxiety by showing the graphs from my thesis about the latency time of thyroid-cancer, and she understoud that the danger is already very low for me cause I”m old enough (”Eh Vay, old enough for what? Who can tell me”). Now, Mom could lean back again and Dad came back to his question about the meaning of “Chernobyl“. I still remembered that you once told me it is the russian and ukrainian word for Artemesia, a shrub used as herb for cooking and in traditional chinese medicine. Since dad is not so specialized in botanics, he looked it up in his precious Encyclopedia Iranica and found something interesting: Artemisia (or Wormwood) is called in turkish Shaybani, and this was also the name of an invader that came in the 16th century from middle asia (Usbekistan, where you got your Polou-recipie from) to Iran. His persian name was شیبک خان ازبک
and he defeated Barbur, the first ruler of the Moguln-empire. Since the persian Shah Ismail began to fear that Shaybani might look for other neighboured countries to conquer, he attacked him
in the battle of Marv. Shaybani was killed in this battle and parts of his body send by Shah Ismail to other leaders of neighboured empires as a warning.
My Dad told us all these stories of wars, victories and defeates with great passion. But Mom and myself as usual questioned the meaning of this for the progress of civilization and for the goal of human happiness. We suspected that in all these heroic stories of the battles between nations and empires, the million tears and lost lives were forgotten. Neither my Dad nor the encyclopedia iranica knew anything about the families of Shaybani, Emir of Buchara, of Barbur, the first Moguln ruler or of Shah Ismail of Persia. During these persistent fights to expand their empires or to defend it against the attacks from enemies, they were virtually rarely at home. Who were looking after their wives and children ? If today a husband and father would be absent from home so frequently, I guess the department for child care or some family judges would fine hime.

Hope you don”t have these problems, and even though you spend much time in the lab and at scientific meetings, your family does not feel neglected.
Hope you are doing fine, Take Care
/ghazal

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Ghazal my Dear,

I think I am not as bad as the military leaders of these historical times you describe in your mail. At least I always stay in contact with home, using mobile phone or skype

The history of the rise and fall of the persian empire in the 16th century, its defeat by the ottoman empire in the west and its link with the rise of the Moguln empire in the east is the background of Salman Rushdie”s novel “The Enchanting Florentine”. If you read it, you will be able to tell your dad the more private side of Shaybani, Barbur and Shah Ismail, because in this novel Rushie introduces a “lost” sister of Barbur. Her name is Qara Köz (or “black eyes”) , and she first becomes wife of Shaybani, than of Shah Ismail and finally of the ottoman general Argul, who is originally italianian and defeats Shah Ismail. The novel uses this magic realismen to show how a young, beautiful woman always changes from one winning horse to the next. But it also shows the price she has to pay for it, that she never really builds a home for herself and never raises children. This at least is the state on page 367, and there are another 108 to come. Maybe I read them tonight, maybe there will be an happy end for her.

In case there wont be a happy end for Qara Köz, do you want me to tell you the rest of the novel ?
Hope you have a nice evening, enjoy the spring, relax and don”t use your brother automatic e-mail-response program to send me an answer.

Take Care, my Dear
Michael

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08/04/2011

ELIZA - The Intelligent Answering Machine

Abgelegt unter: General — Tags:Communication, Google, Politics, Science, Talk, Utopia, physics — admin @ 17:57

Dear Michael,
sometimes I wonder if we don”t trust too much in the electronic communication, when one person writes some words to another person thousands of km away, and these words are converted into a sequence of bits and rush through computer chips and are converted into electric pulses or light waves, send back and forth to satellites until they finally reach the recipient. And the recipient for some reason does not question that the words he reads in the message are nothing else but the written thoughts that his friend has hammered into the keyboard thousands of km away.
Shouldn”t we be more cautious about the messages we receive day by day ? I don”t mean the mail I receive from you, I”m always sure that they come from you, cause they have their very unique style and always contain some code-words that mark them as authentic. But my younger brother, who is studying IT technology in the 2nd course now has shown me something they are doing currently. They got the project to develop a computer program that is able to write “fake answers” to an e-mail. I don”t know how they are doing it, but the program searches for some keywords in an incomming message, and than replies with some sort of standard sentences (that are usually not very complex or intelligent) which again contain the same keywords.
So my dear brother asked me to test his program. Therefore I send him an e-mail and within some micro-seconds already got an answer:

My Dear A.,
I send you my best wishes to persian New-Year. Did you received my present that I send you by post ? When I packed the parcel I cut my fingers with the scissors and had to put bandage on and now I can only use my left hand. I went with Shava to the mountains on Saturday, because with an injured finger the only proper thing to do is to go out for a walk in nature. We would have liked to stay there till Sunday, but I have no time because I have to prepare for the lecture at college. The students of the new curse will arrive tomorrow, and they want to be entertained properly. I hope you doing well and work hard to become the next Bill Gates or J.v.Neumann.
In love, your sister ghazal

Now have a look at the answer I received instantly from his program:

“Dear Sister ghazal,
O, I did not knew there was persian New-Year. What present you send, I did not received anything. O, you cut your fingers ? Interesting, why you need the scissors for this ! Did Shava liked the mountains ? What else did you do on Saturday ? So the students will come. I hope they will have fun.

Take Care
/your brother A.”

And now, what do you think ? Do you find that the program is doing a good job ? I know my brother was never very keen sending long letters to anybody, but at least he put his own (crazy) ideas into it. But the program that he wrote virtually only repeats what I wrote in my original message. I think it is better to carry on writing down our own thoughts, even though the answers may take a bid longer.

Hope everything is fine with you, Good Night.
Ghazal

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Ghazal my Dear,
So funny to read your experiences with your brother. Thanks god, it is just a technical project that sends you such standard and formal letters in response to a mail. The quality of a machine-based artificial intelligence was actully tested by one of the earliest and most influential computer scientist (Alan Turing) by setting up a similar device that you and your borther were using. Turing suggested, that an experimentalist should do two verbal dialogues in parallel behind two black curtains. Behind one of the curtains a human person should sit to conduct a dialogue with him, wherease behind the other curtain the artificial-intelligence machine had to be placed. If the experimentalist could not tell after a certain time where the talking machine was and where the person was, than according to A.Turing the machine has passed the criteria of having indeed artificial intelligence.
But I could imagine, that this also depends a lot on the experimentalist. Simple-minded people might get fooled very easily, they might even think that a mail-response from your brothers program comes from a real person. Other people who read and wright a lot are probably much more critical. I could imagine that you are extremely critical. I think it will not be possible for any machine to fool you. You have somethink like a seventh sense to tell what is real and what is fake.

There were several attempts among IT freaks to beat Alan Turings test. They were called Chatter-Bots and among them ELIZA was probably the most famous. ELIZA was such an artifical language dialoge program developed at MIT. The exciting thing was that it should play the role of a psychoanalyst, talking to a patient. When Weizenbaum developed ELIZA, it was the time of Flower-Power, Hippie-Music and mind-extending drugs for the young, but the elder generation discovered the healing power of psycho-therapy. I guess this was the motivation for Weizenbaum designing ELIZA as a psychatrists chatter-bot. But even though ELIZA impressed some people really a lot (they were told that the doctor has a bad flue and therefore talks to them from behind a courtain), dedicated linguists that used the Turing Test could tell that it was only a machine.

I hope you can sleep well and don”t carry on endless dialogues with a machine in your dreams.

Take Care, Ghazal,
Michael

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Hi Michael,
a last remark before midnight: Do you know why the computer program by Weizenbaum, that could participate in seemingly meaningful dialogues, was called ELIZA ? There was the character of Eliza Dolittle, a simple, uneducated person with a very basic language in G.B.Shaws play “Pigmalion” (later in the funny musical “May Fair Lady”). Two university professors, one of them was Mr. Higgins, made a bet: Higgins promised that he will “re-educate” Eliza Dolitte with brute force, give her not just elegant clothes but also a new language. And he will guide Eliza Dolittle to a reception of the high society and nobody should recognised that before she was selling flowers on the market every day. Guess what happend ?

Take care
/ghazal

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Hi Ghazal my Dear,

What is wrong with a girl that sells flowers all day long ?
(See, now you caught me responding to you in the answering-machine-style ;-).
I promise I wont do it again. But don”t expect me to read G.B.Shaws “Pygmalion” now to answer your question. It is already after midnight, and I have to go for a walk with our dog.

I”ll tell you tomorrow about what I think about Eliza Dolittles qualities as a chatter-bot.

Take Care, Good Night
Michael

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07/04/2011

Schah-Nameh. Heroic Times.

Abgelegt unter: General — Tags:Berlin, Iran, Love, orient, persia — admin @ 17:20

EXHIBITION IN BERLIN PRESENTS FERDOUSIS “BOOK OF THE KINGS” (opened till June18th 2011)

In 2010 the world celebrated the tenth centenary of the completion of the Persian “Book of Kings”. Composed of more than 50,000 rhyming couplets, the “Shah-Nameh” is one of the greatest epics in the history of world literature. It is approximately twice as long as Homer”s epics and 20 times longer than the german “Nibelungenlied”. The Persian epic poem covers a phenomenal time span, telling the entire history of the old kings of Iran, from their mythical beginnings right up to the conquest by the Arabs in 651 BCE. The epic was written by the Persian poet Ferdousi (sometimes spelled “Firdausi”, 935-1020), who by his own estimation spent 25 years composing the work before completing it in 1010 BCE and dedicating it to the Ghaznavid ruler, Sultan Mahmud (r. 998-1020).

A Thousand Years of the Persian Book of Kings is held by the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin and the Berlin National Library, to highlight the history of Firdousi”s epic magnum opus and its significant role for the Persian national identity.

Shah-Nameh (The Book of Kings) is a classic among epic Persian poetry and recounts Iran”s mythical and historical past. It was written in Persian at a time when Arabic was the main scientific and literary language of Iran.

The romance of Zal and Rudaba, the Seven Stages (or Labors) of Rostam, Rostam and Sohrab, Siavash and Soudabeh, Rostam and Akvan-e Div, the romance of Bizhan and Manizheh and Rostam and Esfandyar are among the most popular Shah-Nameh stories.

The exhibition, which will run until July 3, 2011, also displays a rich and extremely rare Sassanid collection of the Museum of Islamic Art, illuminating the historical past of the mythical legends, Artdaily reported.

Visitors will be able to see around 50 manuscripts and folios from the Keir Collection, the National Library, and the Museum of Islamic Art as well as medieval ceramics, textiles, metalwork, weapons, and artifacts from the Sassanid collection.

There are also works on loan from the Berlin Museum of Asian Arts, the Berlin Museum of Ethnology and the Deutsche Historische Museum (DHM) and two German private collections.

Berlin State Library”s Oriental Department and the Museum of Islamic Art have seized upon the commemorations as an opportunity to illustrate the epic”s influence in more than 100 magnificent objects, among them loans from the Museum of Asian Art, the Ethnological Museum and the German Historical Museum. The city of Berlin happens to preside over a unique collection of “Shah-Nameh” manuscripts and single sheets, many of which rank among the most spectacular treasures of Persian book art anywhere in the world. Also on display are examples of decorative art that illustrate the epic”s influence on the various areas of daily life in Persia. The exhibition provides profound insight into the world of the great kings and courageous heroes and illustrates just what a central role this piece of world literature plays for the Persian national consciousness, even today.

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04/04/2011

Why the Fukushima nuclear disaster is good for nature

Abgelegt unter: General — Tags:Beach, Emergency, Future, Politics, Radioactivity, Science, physics — admin @ 01:37

It is always worth to follow Monthy Pythons advise and ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE, even in case of an accident that univocally is considered a major disaster for the civilized world and in Japan the biggest catastrophy since their defeat in WW2. At least here in Germany, the most prominent critics of nuclear energy are the greens, in close alliance with WWF and Greenpeace. And as we all know how the german Angst works so well and so absolute predictable, it was no wonder the Green Party managed to kick-out the conservative christian-democrats from their stronghold in Baden-Wuertemberg, just by pointing to Fukushima and reminding every voter in their state that it were the cristian-democrats who always support nuclear energy.
This, on the first glance, looked very straight for the green party, a clear “full-house” so to say. But in fact, they might have even won twice: Fukushima not only gave them the prime-minister post of Baden-Wuertemberg on a silver plate, but there might be even more important benefits in the long-term and on the global scale. I”m talking here about the Whales and Dolphins, who over the last years were slaughtered by the thousands to satisfy the desire of the japanese cuisine. Not the UN, nor Greenpeace or WWF could achieve, what the Fukushima accident did: a natural protection for these big naval mammals for at least one generation of animals. Remember, caesium 137, the strong gamma-isotope that was released into the japanese sea and into the pacific, has a physical half-life time of 30 years, and its biological half life time is not much shorter. It preferentially accumulates in the muscle-tissue of mammals, including whales and dolphins. For them, it does not bear a real health risk, so nobody of us should worry, and if Greenpeace and WWF do so, we all know it is just their business to beat the drum. In fact, muscle tissue is one of the most radio-resistent, so whales and dolphins will live as good or as bad as without caesium-137 in the ocean. But for us humans, since we always worry and we made the german Angst one of our best export-goods, any knowledge that a few single atoms caesium-137 are in our steak or Sushi or Miso-Soup makes us sick right away. So the japanese whale-fishers and the violent Dolphin-Killers in Taiji will face some tough years to come. I guess the sale for whale and dolphin meat will drop by 99% soon. Unless some hard-liners such as Mr. “I-take-some-days-off”-Shimizu of Tepco, or Mr.”My-blue-jackets-is-a-fake-Levis”-Edano of the gouvernment or his imperial highness Mr.”I-love-you-all”-Akihito will demonstrate in front of the TV-cameras and on their web-sites how delicious whale-sushi and dolphin-soup still is, the popularity of this sea-food would go down to virtually zero.
We all know instinctively, that there always must be light, when there is shadow. Or as a good friend of mine who was cought by the idea of physical laws-of-conservation ones formulated it: For every person on earth who stops crying, another one has to break-out in tears. The sum of all the tears in the world is therefore a fixed number. Therefore, we should not feel to much mercy when we see the japanese nuclear managers spreading around their fake tears and mourning and begging for pardon. We must know: for the whales and dolphins now starts a great time, they will live for the next decades a life without fear. Like the Jews still celebrate Purim as the rescue from a masacre planned by the persian minister Haman in the 5th century BC, such will the whales and the dolphins always commemorate the year 2011, when a devine hand blow up the Fukushima reactors and spilled the caesium-137 broth into the ocean to mark all naval mammals as unedible and unhuntable.
Or would it even be possible that not God in his wise decision triggered the earth-quake and than the tsunami, that hit Fukushima so badly ? Could it be that all the whales and the dolphins of the world united and made a big, big wave like we do on a much smaller scale in the bathing-tube, that hit the coolant-pumps and auxilary generators and electricity supply in Fukushima ? Don”t forget, how intelligent whales and dolphins can be: If you ever saw the movie “Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe”, you remember how they could smell the coming disaster and with a smile on their face (which in fact they always have) they said “So long, and thanks for all the fish“.
Does not matter who really did it, intelligent creatures (like the whales or dolphins) or super-super-intelligent creature (like god or the WWF), finally we should understand that it was worth it. This little nervous break-down around a japanse nuclear facility rescued the future life of our most loved naval creatures.

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03/04/2011

This Taste of Honey - ذوق عسل

Abgelegt unter: General — Tags:Asal, Honey, Iran, Israel, music — admin @ 19:50

Dear Michael,

I send you a link to a very nice song. I found it today while browsing through Shava”s records (real old vinyl-type ones). It is by Esther Ofarim, an israelian singer who was very popular in Iran before “79. During the time of the last Shah the cultural and political relations between Iran and Israel were very intense and free of major conflicts. I very much like her song “A Taste of Honey” or ذوق عسل, not just because of the link to my name.

Have a nice evening, enjoy the song
/ghazal.

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Ghazal my dear,

Thank you so much for this song “A Taste of Honey”. When I listened to it, it brought something inside me to vibrate, like an accoustic deja-vu: I knew that I heard this melody many years ago, it was the title-melody of a saturday-afternoon TV serie, not really meant for children, but we kids were allowed to watch it. Don”t know why the director had choosen “A taste of Honey” as the title song for this serie, which was an epic about the construction of a dam, and although it was a west-german production, it glorified the working heroes at least as much as we knew it from the socialist propaganda in our own country. It is probably because I watched it every weekend while I was 10 or so, maybe over a period of more than a year, that embossed this melody in my memory for ever. But in the TV-serie, “A Taste of Honey” was played much faster, more jazz-style by a big-band and without a singer.

It was originally written by Bobby Scott and Rick Marlow as the intro for the New York premier of Shelagh Delaneys drama of the same title. It was covered by famous musicians such as Lionel Hampton, Quincy Jones, Chet Atkins, Woody Herman, The Beatles and the Hollies. Comparing Esther Ofarims version that you found among Shavas collection of old vinyls with the “Harry James Orchestra” reording below one gets an impression about the broad range of musical styles to which the original song and the story of the play-wright had inspired singers and musicians.

The jazz big-band version by the “Harry James Orchestra” was a performance at the Ed Sullivan show in 1966.

By the way, which of the two persian words in the song-title means “Asal” ?
عسل or ذوق ?

It was interesting what you wrote about Israel and Iran and that they had such a fruitful and cooperative relationship during Shahs time. How do your parents see this ? I”m always surprised when I follow discussions on www.iranian.com, most of the writers also express a view that is so much different from the anti-Israel stereotypes of the Ahmadenishad gouvernment. As usual, the people are much more tolerant and open-minded, whereas the active politicians like to keep the fire of hate and violence burning.

I hope you are alright, and you make progress with your PhD project and also with the project of your life.

Take Care,
Michael

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21/03/2011

Norooz Full Moon

Abgelegt unter: General — Tags:Full Moon — admin @ 23:02

Dear Ghazal,

Thanks a lot for writing right away. The parcel was supposed to be a gift for Norooz, one of the “Haft Seen” you described in your Norooz-presentation.
For some reason, DHL could not deliver the parcel to your address (Sturgrand 7, 16199 Enskedebergen). I think that DHL is stupid,
or maybe I put a wrong label on the parcel ? Don”t know. In fact when I first got the message from DHL that they could not deliver,
I thought that you refused to take it. I thought “Ey Vay, maybe she has been afraid that the parcel might contain bad memories.”
But it does not, Ghazal, I promise you. It contains something nice, I”m sure you will like.
It is just a pitty it wont be in-time for Norooz any more, cause it is perhaps already on its way back to Germany now.
As soon as it is here, I”m going to send it again. Do you think it is safer to send it to your institutes address ?

I hope you have a nice time with your family and friends. I wish that the whole new year is full of happiness and success and emotional peace for you. I wish that you find satisfaction and excitement with your PhD project.
Don”t bother too much how other people see you, try to stay strong and confident with your own wishes.

There was a full-moon tonight again, and I managed to catch him while he tried to hide behind the samovar.

hi michael,

the address is correct, so i really dont know whats wrong. but it is fine. thank you anyway.

my phd project is good. alot to do. not enough energy sometimes. but i try. tomorrow i have a presentation of my masterproject from munich. hope it will go well, it will be a bit hard since genetic is a hard subject for people that are not familiar with it. i just have a silly question, for the quantitative analysis. why did we use primers located between exons? how many did we use for each gene?

the “full-moon” looks more like the flash from your camera?

/ghazal

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16/03/2011

Arthur Brown aka Haji Firuz is doing the Norooz fire dance

Abgelegt unter: General — Tags:Fire, Happiness, Iran, Zartosht, Zoroastrian, music, persia — admin @ 11:49

Dear Ghazal,
On the occasion of the persian new-year, I”d like to send you some music.
Zoroastrian philosophy not only inspired Friedrich Nietzsche to write his central opus “Thus spoke Zarathustra”, but contemporary rock singers were equally influenced by this ancient faith. The idea that a divine spirit is present in nature, and it shows up in phenomenons such as fire or water had a renaissance in the era of new age and hippie-culture. Have a look at this wunderful piece of music by Arthur Brown (”I am the god of hell fire, and I bring you: FIRE”).
Arthur Brown, this very bizarre rock singer of the 70s considered himself a reincarnation of Zartosht (or Zarathustra). In the following performance Brown even tried to show up as Haji Firuz, the troubadur who ushers the persian new year with his songs and dances.

Once again Norooz Pirooz, Ghazal
Michael

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Dear Michael,
Well, this guy arthur brown really makes a very wild impression. I have never seen Hadji Firuz wearing fire on his head: usually he always stays above the fire. Are you sure that arthur brown has any relation to Zoroastrianism? I asked my mom about this, since she knows a lot about Zartoshd. Her comment was, that arthur brown reminds her more of the european carneval than on traditional persian Norooz. To be honest, I also saw people at last years munich carnival wearing costumes like arthur browns “Fire-Suit”. The whole idea of the persian Chahar-Shembeh-Suri (the night of the last wednesday before Norooz) is to jump over the fire but avoid getting touched by the fire. The red colour of his dress, however, is very Hadji Firuz style. It symbolizes the healthy and powerful new life of the new year. Therefore, on Chahar-Shembeh-Suri persian people ask:

Give me your beautiful red color
And take back my sickly pallor!

سرخی تو از من و
زردی من از تو

The music is not exactly the style I would listen to in the evening, when I seek for some relaxation. Do you remember the Paolo Nutini concert where we went last year in Munich ? This I liked a lot, it was also rock, but it was more melodic. It was really nice, and it was a very relaxing evening. Exactly what I needed so badly during all this hard work for my master-project. I still listen to his music from the CD, when I need some rest and inspiration.

Hope everything is fine with you. Soile was here to give a talk. She told me that you have very warm weather in munich now. Enjoy!
/ghazal

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Ghazal my dear,

It is really already very warm here in Munich, 25 degrees, almost like summer. If I watch out of the window, the cherry tree in front of the institute is in full blossoms.
I already suspected that Arthur Brown”s wild habbit is not really your most favorite style. You always prefer “calm” music, right. But somehow I like him, even so he did not produce a lot of songs: he became more famous for his weired stage acts (always using fireworks). Once he even set himself on fire and had to be rescued by the security guys with a fire-extinguisher. Even more notorious became an incident at the Montreux Jazz Festival 1971: Brown again played around with some firework and set the whole Montreux Casino in fire. This whole story was quickly absorbed by the band Deep Purple, who within a day or so wrote a song “Smoke on the Water”. This immediately became a rock classic and climbed the top-ten for several weeks. And of course for the garage-band that we had just set-up with some school-mates in the late 70s, playing on odd east-german accoustic guitars to which steel-strings and DIY pick-ups were mounted and everything plugged into an old Wehrmacht vacuum-tube amplifier, of course this song (or at least the first few cords of it) was just the right one to annoy all the neighbours.

Hope you are happy, with or without me.
Michael

—————————————————————-
Dear Michael,

What a funny story to imagine that you played in a garage-band this deep-purple song. I thought western music was forbidden in the east ? Was this what the neighbours found so annoying, that the young generation did not care any more about what is permitted and what is forbidden ? And you even had an old Wehrmacht-amp, I hope you at least removed the swastika from it ! Sorry, this sounds like you wanted to become the east-german version of “Rammstein”.

Take Care
/ghazal

PS: Don”t know if I am happy. To know this exactly, one needs a measure. Somebody ones suggested that you are only happy when you don”t have to think about happiness.

—————————————————————
Ghazal my Dear,

Are you about to turn into a rock-fan ? It would not be the first time that I see how a very elegant, educated and smart young lady from abroad suddenly outs herself as a Rammstein fan. But by the way, Rammstein ARE east-german. They were all playing before (in other bands) so-called polit-punk, and by this they did not only annoyed the neighbours, but the whole political system in the GDR. In terms of music quality it all was not really breath-taking, but it all had severe political implications. Very much the same as nowadays in Iran, as described in the movie “No one knows about persian cats”.

Take care, Ghazal

Michael

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08/03/2011

Ascending Moon above Munich Skyline

Abgelegt unter: General — Tags:Full Moon — admin @ 19:42

Hi Ghazal, my Dear,
Hope you are doing well with everything, with your PhD project and the project of your life (the later I always consider much more important, of course). Did you celebrate 8th of march in Sweden, the international womans day ? It is supposed to be to honour all working woman, therefore you deserve some congratulations as well.

I did a photo of the ascending moon above the Munich skyline. Don”t break out in laughter, please, but we have the TV olympic tower (the two red lights on the button right), that could be considered a bit of a skyline.

Du you remember we went up the Olympic tower last year in summer, after we bought the persian carpet. I than hoped very much they will close the tower behind us, while we were on the platform in 200 m height, and we would have to stay there the whole night through.
But I guess you would have been very much scared, wouldn”t you ?

What else ? B. got serious ill, had to stay at home for a week. I. is also at home, cause her boyfriend is there and they went to the mountains. O. is busy with the red-fluorescent cells. Mike and me try to entertain the students. I”m always sad that somebody like you will never be there again.
Take Care

Michael

i Michael,

Nice picture, thank you.
I am fine thanx, trying to do a good project with phd and life. No I did not do anything special the 8th of march. But yes it was women day. It was also “Semla day”, eveyone eats semla. Dont know what it is called in english.
But it is not my favorite. so i did not eat.

Oh, hope that B. will be better soon. Nice that I. went to the mountains. And hope the students have fun in munich.

/ghazal

————————————————————-

Hi Ghazal dear,

Thanks for writing, and for keeping me up to date. I was thinking about you today, when I saw the pictures in TV how they measure children in Japan for radioiodine contamination in the thyroid. somehow, it has a lot to do with your MSc project here, don”t you think so ?
This morning on my way to the institute I was passing the BMW world, and they gave a Jazz-conzert there. It was an absurd atmosphere, hearing the music that tried to sound very relaxed (you would say “calm”), seeing the properly dressed Munich people with a self-confident expression of joy on their faces.
They did very well ignoring the catastrophy that is going on on the other side of the world. It seems so far away, like news from another universe. But it will effect all of us, sooner or later, does not matter if it is 8000 km away like Japan or “just” 1310 km like Stockholm.

Such events are not part of our life planning, right ? We would be completely paralysed every morning if we would know the omnipresent
danger of life beeing wiped away by earth quake, Tsunamis or blasting atom reactors. People could not love each other any more, I think, let away doing somethink creative like building a house, writing a paper or a piece of music, working on a 3 year PhD project.
Somehow we have to have the ability to ignore what is going on around us.

Is “Semla” probably the persian word for semolina ?

(Sorry, but I could not open the picture that you send). Is the persian word for it
سمولینا ?
It is coarsly grinded wheat or corn (like flour, but more like a granulate ?) If it is this, I have to admit I liked very much when I was kid, and still eat it if I”m a sort of very exhausted. You said you don”t like, but maybe it depends on how it is cooked. You have to try when it is cooked in sweet milk, then it is realy tasty.
It is a pitty very much, Ghazal, I never cooked something for you while you were here. You know I am very good in cooking a meal called Plow. I learned it from a friends mother, she was from Usbekistan, and Plow is their national meal After I tried it several times, she invited me and I had to do it again under her supervision. Than we all eat it and at the end I got a certificate from her (no joke !!!). I have to say, I probably do the best Plow in central europe, and this was also confirmed when I fed last year a whole birthday party of 45 people with it.
Of course I am as usual interested in the cross-cultural relation with plow, I knew it is very common in Turkey (Pilaw) and Aserbaidshan.
I asked Omid very often how it is in Iran. He just could not figure out the word.
But meanwhile I know, the persian word is Polo (I learned from www.iranian.com), or
پلو
It is so tasty, you can not imagine (if it is done with lamb and with carrots and decorated with fresh tomato). I think you would have molten away, if I would have had the chance to cook it for you. Maybe another time I will do.

Is Semla day already the beginning of Norooz ? I”m going to send you something for Norooz, I hope you will like. It is in fact something that was originally yours, but you forgot it here, and I did some decorative work on it, so it looks more pretty now. It will be a surprise, I hope you don”t mind.

Life is a mystery, don”t you think so ? But it is also a big revelation, occasionally.

Take Care, Ghazal

Michael

PS: I will never say again “poor Ghazal”, this was stupid, I know. You are stronger than you appear, and it is good for me to know.

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01/03/2011

What means “Ey Vay” ?

Abgelegt unter: General — Tags:Angel, Dreams, Iran, Love, Politics, Science, Utopia, eyes, orient, persia, phantasy, physics — admin @ 22:57

At university I had a very good friend from Jordan. He was palestine, much younger than the rest of us physics students and extremely gifted. But he did not only had an extraordinary mathematical talent, he was also very familial with classical european music and literature. On the other hand, he had a very firm opinion about Israel, whom he completely refused the right of existence. About the last point we had a never-ending intellectual fight, whereas for most other issues, philosophy, science, values of life we felt quite similar. During the friendship with him, Ismail, I learned a lot about tolerance and that different points in some aspects of life does not has to result in a confrontation, but in fact can be a gain for both. I knew that he was muslim, praying 5 times a day, and he knew I am bloody atheist, drinking a glass of wine here and than and having sympathy for Israel.

Thanks to his permanent supply of records from west-Germany, I used to visit him to listen to some rare pieces of music. Once he brought from his shopping trips to West-Berlin Strawinskys “Le Sacre du Printemps”, played by the Berlin Philharmonics. When I heard the first tunes by the oboe, with the sudden entry of the rhythm strings, I got completely struck. Maybe this day I had already a glass of wine, but together with the music I felt more and more in one of the fairy tales of 1001 nights. Inspired by the idea of the “Sacre” I asked Ismail if he knew something about this new student, which must be from another muslim country, because she sits the whole afternoon in the state library wearing a head scarf. But I told him that even though she wears the scarf, one could see how beautiful she was and that she had the most amazing blue eyes. So I asked Ismail if he could find out her name, what he did, but only after telling me that any further intentions to meet her were very likely a waste of effort. Anyway, a few days later Ismail came to me and said “The girl you saw at the library is Samira. She is from Syria, and daughter of a high ranking Baths party leader. They are all instructed not to make any personal contacts to ordinary germans. And by the way, all of us foreign students coming to your country had to sign an agreement at the east-german embassy, promissing that we will avoid any privat relationship to german student-mates or people on the street. So you see, even our occasional get-together to listen to music, talk about quantum-mechanics and Einsteins philosophy and to argue about middle-east politics, all this might be already illegal. What you think they will call it if you start here to court a student girl from Syria ?”. In my naive understanding of friendship (and in these times friendship in the official speach of politics meant “friendship between all peace-loving nations”) I just rejected his very rational arguments and the next day went to the library again and asked the girl “You are Samira, right ?”. Under her scarf I almost could see how she wrinkled her brows, since it appeared that except of her name “Samira” she did not understood a single word. What I did not knew, that except of Ismail, who spoke fluently several languages and quickly made the brilliant jokes in german, most of the foreign students from rich countries had their privat translator, who sat next to them during all lectures and seminars and therefore making any attempt to learn the language of their host country superfluous. Therefore, our first conversation was very limited. Today I have to laugh about my silly idea to seduce a girl with the only arabic phrase I knew: “Salam Alejkum”. But at least I could invite her to “coffee”, which I was pretty sure must sound similar in arabic. She shook her head and said “Chaj”, which fortunately I knew from russian, where it also means “Tea”. So we went to the library buffet, which was located in the basement and had the chic of a station toilet. I could imagine that for her drinking a tea or coffee had another cultural implication, and this filthy buffet with its fuggy smelling air would hamper the last bit of delight, even of this third-class tea. Therefore I made signs to her to leave this filthy room with our cups and sit outside on the concrete stairways of the old library building.

Our conversation resembled very much the one between Robinson Crusoe and Friday: pointing to various things around us we would give them the names in our two languages. This way I learned that chestnut was “chestanub”, honey is “Al Asal” and eyes are “orjoun”. We probably met several times in and outside the library, and I was following Ismails warning that inviting a girl that wears a head scarf anywere else could cause a serious problem for both sides. But even the occasional encounter between the two of us on the stairway outside the library must have attracted the attention of some watchdogs from either her or my country. Somebody must have been concerned that we might find our own very individual interpretation of friendship between the nations. And they might have also kept a record of the progress we made in our conversation, which became more and more intense, but absolutely ununderstandable for any outsider, who would have tried to sneak into our talks. For our own use we had created a sort of german-english-arabic Esperanto, that to anybody else must have sounded as a completely cryptic code. But I never considered, and neither did Samira, that Ismails advise not to meet each other somewhere else than at the library for moral reasons was indeed the most foolish thing to do. Because we were sitting there like on an open display: visible for everybody who wanted to keep a record of the frequency and intensity of our short, but regular meetings. And this was perhaps seen as an open demonstration of disobedience, for two totalitarian countries a heresy much worse than would have a secret get-together been.

The security forces acted fast, silently and efficient: without any warning Samira was send home to Syria with a couple of hours notice. And since we did not had telephone, let alone e-mail or mobile in the mid 80es, she could not even say good bye. I also had forgotten to give her my address, since for us the stairway of the library was always the natural place to meet. After a couple of days not seeing her I asked Ismail if he could find out what happened to her. His legendary talent in physics has made him an admired student not only for us, but in particular for most other foreign students from middle-east countries as well. So it took him only a short talk with a guy from the syrian students group to find out that Samira was back home. The explanation was that she came to Germany only for a short summer school in aerodynamics, and this course had finished now. Funny enough, the books she always read at the library were all about high-energy nuclear physics.

Ismail with some degree of satisfaction said: “You see, I told you never try to court a girl with a head-scarf. You have to wait until somebody of her family lifts her scarf for you”. When I told him, that Samira ones already shifted her scarf backward, showing with or without intention some of her chestnut-coloured, curly hair and that she might not fit into his conventional idea of a modern girl, he band backward, started laughing and said “Oh Boy”. Ismails “Oh Boy” was a sort of final sentence of this short but inspiring relation to a girl with a head scarf that she was just about to lift without any help. It was like the two words “The End” on the final credits of a nice, long movie.Until recently, and still entangled in the belief that a german-english-arabic Esperanto is an easy way to bridge language-boarders I was convinced that “Oh Boy” means just “Oh Boy”, a very common vocative in english with a connotation that lays somewhere between compassion and admonition.

But only recently, 24 years later, I heard again this phrase, and now it sounded more like “Ey Vay !”. It was during an interview with one of the students who took part in the 2009 demonstrations in Teheran, shown in Ali Samadi Ahadis wonderful movie “The Green Wave”. And here, the interview was subtitled, and I had to learn that Ismail was using the same “Ey Vay !”, meaning “Oh God” when he commented my reckless idea of courting Samira. In these years in the late 80es the islamic “revolution” in Iran was just 10 years ago, and occasional reports about police forces in Teheran that would fix womans head-scarfs with pins on their head were taken as US propaganda. Still caught in the memories of Samira and her rather lavish usage of her scarf I did not had enough fantasy to imagine that a few strains of hair leaking under it could provoke a violent and inhuman reaction by the police. And I could not imagine that 24 years later an iranian student would talk about much worse violence on the streets of Teheran, using the phrase “Ey Vay !” to express complete frustration and disgust.

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15/02/2011

Life and Politics

Abgelegt unter: General — admin @ 07:24

Hi Ghazal my Dear,

I have to confess that today I broke the promise that I gave to you last year in summer. I then told you that I wont go to watch any of the Stieg Larsson movies of the Millenium Triology.

But since the first part of this triology (”Verblendung” or swedish “Män som hatar kvinnor”) was shown tonight on TV I thought I should watch it and build my own opinion (because my refusal from last year was solely based on what I heard from other people). I have to say: the movie even exceeded my worst expectations. I thought it is a crime movie, where a murder (a minority) is hunted by the police or the by normal people (the majority).
But in the movie, the violence and sadism was ruling everywhere. There was brutality right from the beginning, on the street against this young lady, physical violence without reason, coming from apparently nowhere.
And even the few people who did not show physical violence against each other (like the journalists at the newspaper or the business-people on the island) expressed an frightening mental coldness. I can not remember to have seen a single smile or somebody laughing during the whole movie. It seem so damned cold, as if the entire society suffers from a deep frustration.
And the violence against woman and against children was only the most extreme side of this coldness. It made me feel sick to watch it. My opinion about the whole subject has not changed a bit, it only became more solid.
I think that this violence against woman and kids, raping and murder, should not become subject of literature or movies. It should be hunted by the police and punished by the society very fiercely, but should not be used by writers or movie-directors to get famous with. In this instance, Lars Gustafsson is so much different from Stieg Larsson. I don”t say that Larsson had bad, egoistoc intentions when he wrote his Best-Seller “Millenium”, of course he raised an issue that perhaps the swedish mainstream media tried to avoid for too long time: violence of men against woman or the fear to show emotions openly . And this is true for both sexes, it is not only that men are hesitant to show feelings that would question their image of the strong country-guy, collecting hunting trophies and stay cool even if they have just killed a female elch who was mother of a baby deer. It is similar for woman, who are forced to show up as the world-leader of emancipation. Therefore, if you see each year the row of the candidates at the Miss World Election from all over the world, the south-american beauties and the asian girls and the african black magic woman, it is so easy to spot the swedish candidate: she has short cut hair, small lips, a musculus body proofing that she spends plenty of hours in the gym. And she usually wears glasses, even if she does not need them, only to remind men of the fear that she could be as cruel as their ground school head teacher. This makes me wondering if in Sweden an un-declared competition is running of who of both sexes is able to hide its natural feelings best.
I think it is an important issue to raise, and Stieg Larsson did right to do so. But at the same time he was trying to become a best-seller, and for this aim he misused the issue. He showed in detail the monstreous murder orgies of some maniacs, and he mixed it all with politics and a very boring love story and with the issue of lesbian love and the issue of big financial companies and their hidden businesses and the issue of the evil russians who re-organized prostitution in Sweden. And there, you feel, he tries - with much success - as the best seller lists all show - to find an apetizer subject for every reader. Lars Gustafsson is completely different, he is a classical fiction writer, he just constructs in his novels a different world. But this world, and the persons that act therein, are so different from the canonical swedish or west-european in talking about their dreams, that his books will never enter the top-selling lists, but may once get the Nobel-Prize.
With the Stieg Larsson movies I had the same problem as with the Holocaust. I don”t want to see a movie about mass murder against the Jews. The Holocaust against the Jews I think goes back to same mental disorder as in the case of violence against woman: it has to do with somebody - either the Nazis or the rapist - feeling weak and useless and therefore doing violence against an innocent person, thereby feeling mighty and powerful for a moment. It is all quite clear, but it is sad.

I hope, Ghazal, that the whole Stieg Larsson movie is a severe exaggeration of the situation in Sweden. I always had the idea that Sweden is a very social society, everybody very helpful, everything very safe (some even said “too safe”).
But the movie showed the opposite, a shocking
image of a society that always tries to cover all problems that could spoil the image of harmony.
I was living long enough in country called GDR, that was notorious to cover up every single aspect of live, that did not fit into its self-constructed image of a successful, progressive society with all people beeing nice to each other and in love to the ruling party and the gouvernment. This, finally, lead to a complete collapse of the whole state virtually over night.

And probably the most intelligent analysis about the reason for this collapse was written by a rather young, unknown psychologist, Hans-Joachim Maaz. His book “Emotional Blockade” shows in a very convincing way how the attempt to fit emotions into a dogmatic political system (does not matter whether it is socialist-progressive or western emancipated and succesful) first has deterious effects on the psyche of the people and at the end makes a whole society sick.

It is alway better to speak out (and maybe laugh) about your emotions, than hiding them.

hope you don”t have this problem, although you are part of the swedish society, it is much more important that you have your mom and Shava as good friends to .

Take Care, Michael

PS: I just looked outside, because I could not believe the sound coming from the garden. But it is indeed a nightingale. So amazing to hear her singing, although it is just mid of February.
————————————————–

Dear Michael,

So you did not like stieg larsson. I liked it. not all movies are friendly and nice. some are brutal. well sweden was a very safe and good place. but it is just getting worse. the last non-safe news was the limit i think, the bomb that was exploded by a suicide bomber in stockholm. But there is a general atmosphere of an underlying, hidden violence, you are right. Last year a maniac presented a gun in a big department store and shot down several innocent people. And at last years general elections some other extreme-right-wings got seats in the parlament. But there are also signs of hope, for instance a young iranian immigrant (Hanif Bali) was elected to represent Stockholm Solna in the Rijksdag.
I think he has a good program, “Let Love Rule”, but I have some doubts if the parlament is the right place to fight for this.
My interpretation would rather be, that a lot of young ladies will fall in love with this extremely handsome young guy, and at the end this love will rule him.

Lets see, how he manages

Take Care
/ghazal

—————————————————

Ghazal my Dear,

I had a look at Hanif Balis home page, and I have to admit if I would have been a girl I would also fall in love to him. Of course he has to be on Facebook, surrounded by thousand of female “friends”, who would ealier be called “Disciples”.
My experience here in Germany is that political business after a while destroys the human character. After some years in the political threadmill the people become very cynical. It is better to stay in science, or culture, or do your own business, where you don”t depend so much on others.

The most important is to stay free, to avoid living in a cage. Politics is the worst, I think, and I hope that Hanif Bali finds a way out, before it is too late.

(Ghazal, maybe you are curious to see when my resource of subjects to write mails about will be finished. I have to tell you, I still have a lot to write.
It even gets more from day to day. This is life. Its fascinating.)

O.k., I have to admit that our exchange of ideas is a bit in an imbalance. Sometimes I feel as if we play tennis, but we don”t see each other. So I play the ball over a high wall, and I assume you are on the other side, but probably you are not always there on the other side, but most of the time you are in the lab or at home watching TV or with friends at a party or out shopping. But I don”t know when you are there and when you come back, because I can”t look over this high wall. Only very rarely you come around and for a few minutes you enter the tennis-field on the other side. And it will only be a maztter of chance that I play a ball over the wall in exactly this moment and you play the ball back. And this, usually, makes me smile again, only because I hope that you were smiling as well, about my long lasting confidence that on the other side of the wall it is not the tennis-court cleaner that kicks back the ball back, but you .

(In reality, Ghazal, I don”t play tennis. Leonard and Marina play, but for me it is too boring.)

I hope you are alright, and not (as I recently suggested) too tired, sick, fed up, busy …..
but you just left a while for shopping or watch TV or went out for a party.

Take Care
Michael

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