Back from Hibernation

I had almost forgotten about this blog. I'm not much of a blogger, the main function of it for me, I guess, would be to serve as a diary or where I would make journal entries. I also think I started a blog because I got caught up in the hype, where everyone had a blog and if you didn't have one, well you felt left out :) از غافله عقب موندی

Yes, I also started this blog to practice my Farsi writing. But the main reason why I started this blog, to be honest, is because I wanted to sort out and dump on paper (so to speak) all my rambling thoughts. Maybe this way I could organize them better. You know how sometimes, you are thinking about something and you know you are engaging in an interesting topic, argument or conversation in your head, but then you either lose your train of thought and other thoughts get in the way or you can't clearly articulate thoughts and ideas in your mind. That's why many times people think they have something great to say because they have thought about it, but when they actually verbalize it, it doesn't sound as good a when it was in their heads.

So, I was hoping a blog would serve that purpose for me: force me to articulate my thoughts, oh yes, and also to practice writing. That's also important to me.

OK, so my child is still awake and is refusing to take his nap, gotta go put him to bed again - oh yeah, that's one major thing that happened during my long (blog) hibernation, I have a son now :) he is a toddler and I am a PhD mom... what was I thinking?? :)

(I'm back, where was I?)

But why did I stop writing in my blog? Of course, aside from the many events that happened in my life, some reasons could be: I'm a very private person and I don't like people to read my blog and know my thoughts, but then why start a blog in the first place? That's a good question, but I guess I have to stop being so shy and paranoid about privacy (I was brought up this way) and if I want to articulate myself and have my opinion heard, I have to get over it. But of course, I can still keep my identity private and hidden behind an anonymous blog and writing vaguely about my life. I also don't mind getting some feedback on my thoughts and comments from the world out there, of course nothing grateful or disrespectful, constructive criticism would be the best method to display disagreement.

The thing is, I have only recently opened a Facebook account. Again because I'm a private person and hate the fact that Facebook is mainly a tool for people to brag about themselves and their lives and/or snoop in the lives of others. Anyway, I only opened it after some people in my field told me that it is imperative that I have an account for networking purposes and that I should keep it very professional. So, that is what I did and I hope to keep it as professional as possible.

Write in Farsi or English, That is the Question!

I created this blog for the sake of writing, so that it would be a start for me, to get my hand going, if that is even an expression. But I am so lazy in every regard that I won't even do this little thing. Or maybe not so very lazy. It's the end of the term now and last Tuesday I had this huge presentation and I still have this paper to finish. But still. I think it has more to do with me thinking that I don't have anything to say. That's why I won't write or feel little motivation for writing.
But I think I need more practice, I still am not used to it and the longer it takes between my posts, well the less I get used to it. My last post was in Farsi and when I was writing it, I realized that I like to write in Farsi more than in English. Maybe it's because I'm more used to it. Words form more quickly and correctly in my head into Farsi than English. Maybe, no, definitely, the reason is because I don't speak English as often as before. I have very few classes, I am rarely out of the house and therefore don't speak to non-Persians. And since Hubby has moved in all we speak is Farsi. This is bad for both of us, but Farsi's just way more sweet and comforting to hear. As well, we get our messages and opinions across with more feel and sentiment than when speaking English.
Anyway, back to school. My presentation went well, I think. Poor Hubby stayed up making my power point and I editing my paper. Now the main paper is due in a week and a half and since finishing my presentation last Tuesday till now, I have not made a single effort towards my paper. I'm screwed, yes I know. Especially since I am starting to worry about some other issue. But since it's not for certain I am not going to write about it, yet.
But then I guess we have to pay the price ourselves. Our English will never be as good, I mean not nearly as good as our English, even for me who has been here for a lot longer than Hubby. He is losing even more on this, because if at least I speak to him in English, his English would improve.
So I was debating whether to write my blogs in Farsi or in English, and I told myself, "the main reason you started this blog was to practice your English writing, and now you want to start writing in Farsi?" Although I know it would be great for me to do both, I am not writing often enough in my English blog, so as to start a Farsi one. But then again,I could write Farsi here as well when I really feel like writing in Farsi.
Yeah, I think that would be good, to write both in Farsi and English, whenever I feel like either.

فو نت فا رسي

.اخ جون فونت فارسي
به زحمت دارم مي نويسم
از همسر دارم دونه دوته ميپرسم
اعساب نذاشثم براش هه هه
فعلا بسه

Noam Chomsky Article

This is an article by Noam Chomsky published in The Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2029918,00.html

A predator becomes more dangerous when wounded

Washington's escalation of threats against Iran is driven by a determination to secure control of the region's energy resources

Noam Chomsky
Friday March 9, 2007
The Guardian

In the energy-rich Middle East, only two countries have failed to subordinate themselves to Washington's basic demands: Iran and Syria. Accordingly both are enemies, Iran by far the more important. As was the norm during the cold war, resort to violence is regularly justified as a reaction to the malign influence of the main enemy, often on the flimsiest of pretexts. Unsurprisingly, as Bush sends more troops to Iraq, tales surface of Iranian interference in the internal affairs of Iraq - a country otherwise free from any foreign interference - on the tacit assumption that Washington rules the world.
In the cold war-like mentality in Washington, Tehran is portrayed as the pinnacle in the so-called Shia crescent that stretches from Iran to Hizbullah in Lebanon, through Shia southern Iraq and Syria. And again unsurprisingly, the "surge" in Iraq and escalation of threats and accusations against Iran is accompanied by grudging willingness to attend a conference of regional powers, with the agenda limited to Iraq.

Presumably this minimal gesture toward diplomacy is intended to allay the growing fears and anger elicited by Washington's heightened aggressiveness. These concerns are given new substance in a detailed study of "the Iraq effect" by terrorism experts Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank, revealing that the Iraq war "has increased terrorism sevenfold worldwide". An "Iran effect" could be even more severe.

For the US, the primary issue in the Middle East has been, and remains, effective control of its unparalleled energy resources. Access is a secondary matter. Once the oil is on the seas it goes anywhere. Control is understood to be an instrument of global dominance. Iranian influence in the "crescent" challenges US control. By an accident of geography, the world's major oil resources are in largely Shia areas of the Middle East: southern Iraq, adjacent regions of Saudi Arabia and Iran, with some of the major reserves of natural gas as well. Washington's worst nightmare would be a loose Shia alliance controlling most of the world's oil and independent of the US.

Such a bloc, if it emerges, might even join the Asian Energy Security Grid based in China. Iran could be a lynchpin. If the Bush planners bring that about, they will have seriously undermined the US position of power in the world.

To Washington, Tehran's principal offence has been its defiance, going back to the overthrow of the Shah in 1979 and the hostage crisis at the US embassy. In retribution, Washington turned to support Saddam Hussein's aggression against Iran, which left hundreds of thousands dead. Then came murderous sanctions and, under Bush, rejection of Iranian diplomatic efforts.

Last July, Israel invaded Lebanon, the fifth invasion since 1978. As before, US support was a critical factor, the pretexts quickly collapse on inspection, and the consequences for the people of Lebanon are severe. Among the reasons for the US-Israel invasion is that Hizbullah's rockets could be a deterrent to a US-Israeli attack on Iran. Despite the sabre-rattling it is, I suspect, unlikely that the Bush administration will attack Iran. Public opinion in the US and around the world is overwhelmingly opposed. It appears that the US military and intelligence community is also opposed. Iran cannot defend itself against US attack, but it can respond in other ways, among them by inciting even more havoc in Iraq. Some issue warnings that are far more grave, among them the British military historian Corelli Barnett, who writes that "an attack on Iran would effectively launch world war three".

Then again, a predator becomes even more dangerous, and less predictable, when wounded. In desperation to salvage something, the administration might risk even greater disasters. The Bush administration has created an unimaginable catastrophe in Iraq. It has been unable to establish a reliable client state within, and cannot withdraw without facing the possible loss of control of the Middle East's energy resources.

Meanwhile Washington may be seeking to destabilise Iran from within. The ethnic mix in Iran is complex; much of the population isn't Persian. There are secessionist tendencies and it is likely that Washington is trying to stir them up - in Khuzestan on the Gulf, for example, where Iran's oil is concentrated, a region that is largely Arab, not Persian.

Threat escalation also serves to pressure others to join US efforts to strangle Iran economically, with predictable success in Europe. Another predictable consequence, presumably intended, is to induce the Iranian leadership to be as repressive as possible, fomenting disorder while undermining reformers.

It is also necessary to demonise the leadership. In the west, any wild statement by President Ahmadinejad is circulated in headlines, dubiously translated. But Ahmadinejad has no control over foreign policy, which is in the hands of his superior, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The US media tend to ignore Khamenei's statements, especially if they are conciliatory. It's widely reported when Ahmadinejad says Israel shouldn't exist - but there is silence when Khamenei says that Iran supports the Arab League position on Israel-Palestine, calling for normalisation of relations with Israel if it accepts the international consensus of a two-state settlement.

The US invasion of Iraq virtually instructed Iran to develop a nuclear deterrent. The message was that the US attacks at will, as long as the target is defenceless. Now Iran is ringed by US forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey and the Persian Gulf, and close by are nuclear-armed Pakistan and Israel, the regional superpower, thanks to US support.

In 2003, Iran offered negotiations on all outstanding issues, including nuclear policies and Israel-Palestine relations. Washington's response was to censure the Swiss diplomat who brought the offer. The following year, the EU and Iran reached an agreement that Iran would suspend enriching uranium; in return the EU would provide "firm guarantees on security issues" - code for US-Israeli threats to bomb Iran.

Apparently under US pressure, Europe did not live up to the bargain. Iran then resumed uranium enrichment. A genuine interest in preventing the development of nuclear weapons in Iran would lead Washington to implement the EU bargain, agree to meaningful negotiations and join with others to move toward integrating Iran into the international economic system.

Unfinished Paper

It's been so long since I've last posted. I still haven't gotten used to this writing thing, especially blogs. Right now I am just worrying about this paper and the presentation due next Tuesday.
My worries are really legitimate since I have only 7 pages of notes, nothing original, and about 40 books scattered around me, without any idea what I'm going to say in my presentation or worse, in my paper.

Sufi and a Fever

I feel terrible, I have such a bad cold, I ache everywhere and I have the chills as well as a fever, I think. I drank Neo Citran this morning and slept till 1:00 PM, so I'd feel better later on to sit and do my work, but I had to go out on a couple of errands, and I think I shouldn't have, because it was snowing and cold outside and now my cold is worse.
I have this huge paper that worries me a lot, it's due the beginning of April, and I know I have a month for it, but since I know myself to be an incorrigible procrastinator, I have to start really early, even though I think I'm quite late already. The rest of my classmates are half-done I assume, and my paper requires a great deal of work, because I mainly have to rely on and consult primary sources.
Here is my topic: the words Sufi and Sufism have been used too liberally to describe a huge category (span) of esoterically-inclined mystics, although other words different than Sufi can be ascribed to these mystics such as 'arif, 'ashiq, dervish, sheikh and others (mental note: you are doing some work here, clearing out for yourself what your thesis is, since I still don't know).
I have to sort through Rumi's Mathnawi and Hafiz's diwan and some other Persian poets and find words that describe Sufis and then see which word the poet has used to describe what kind of a mystic, and then look at the translations of these works and see what the translator has understood from that word, and whether it is similar to the meaning of the Persian poet.
The problem is I don't have enough secondary sources on this topic, I still haven't been able to find a book dealing with this issue, although I've found scattered references in the many books that I already have.
I'm going back to class tomorrow and my very-smarty-pants classmate is having his presentation tomorrow, I'll see what he's done by now, which I'm certain, is a lot.

An Attempt to Untangle My Mind

Maybe this should have been my first post.
How is it that an idea does not stay put in my mind for more than 2 seconds? I had so many things to write about and I just forgot, it's insane and maddening, frustrating.
But I seriously need to move out, I don't know why but I feel I need to find myself in a totally new environment, I feel like my growth is stalled, although this is again one of my tons of excuses and the example of how I blame other things and people for my own shortcomings.
Right now I feel that I should watch what I write here because I don't want the people who know me to know what really goes on in my mind, to know all my faults,
I also watch what I say because I care too much about other people's opinions and feelings and seriously, I don't want to give-in to these Western ideas of individualism and breaking-free-from-all-restrictions and I don't know, so many other modern crap, but they are really tempting and true...
I'm rambling right now, but I really started this blog to just do that, clear out or at least put down in a more organized manner the ramblings in my head, so that at least when I start to think about something, I won't leave it in mid-sentence, by writing it down, I'd be at least forced to finish it, my mind is so confused right now that if it was possible to get a picture of it, it would look like the most hectic and messed-up war zone ever, all thought, ideas, feelings, goals, plans, projects and tons of others things are criss-crossing and bumping into each other at high-speed.