THE EYERANIANS

Us Iranians wake up in Tehran in the mornings. Our business and shopping area is in Dubai. Our talent is discovered in Tehran, but our genius blossoms in Europe. We go to France or London to study, but as we do not like to work in Europe, we work in the USA. Any time we lose our job, we go to Central Europe to claim unemployment benefit.
Our television programs are broadcast from Los Angeles and watched in Khorram Abad. We make our films in Iran’s deserts, but we show them in Venice, Paris and Berlin and win awards for them there.
In Cologne we support a republic and in Tehran monarchy; our most important political articles are written in Evin prison, but read in Paris. From Washington we become an election candidate, but we are not accepted in Tehran, so we boycott elections in Berlin and in London we decide to have a referendum. In Holland we become member of parliament and in Israel a president. In Tehran we disagree with the government, in Iraq we fight with the government, but in Lebanon we defend the government.
In Tehran we hold a rock concert, but our classical concert is loved by German audiences in Frankfurt; in Ankara we go to Persian pop music concerts, but we dance in Anatalya. In Canada we win the beauty competition. Our women’s rights are abused in Mashad, but we defend women’s rights in Sweden.
Our crown prince lives in USA, our queen lives in a French town, our ex-president lives in Paris, the head of our justice system was born in Iraq; in return Iraq’s Prime Minister lived many years in Iran and Israel’s president was born in Iran. We live in Iran, have fun in Turkey, make money in the USA and return to Iran to die.”

Although never elected, these so called Iranian “dissidents” claim to represent the “real” government of Iran. Interesting, especially since they appear to advocate a US attack against Iran, something that Iranians overwhelmingly oppose. And even more interesting given that they are nothing more than a front group for the Mujahideen Khalq Organization (MEK), a terrorist organization once supported by Saddam Hussein.

Alireza Jafarzadeh, a prominent member of the NCIR, recently became a “Foreign Affairs Analyst” for none other than the FOX News network. There he has become a cheerleader for a U.S. attack against Iran, repeatedly arguing that diplomacy cannot work and Iran must be confronted. He has denounced US-Iran talks as counterproductive and continues to repeat unsubstantiated claims about the existence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program. What a tool.

The picture? Massoud Rajavi, the leader of the MEK, shaking hands with Saddam Hussein.

“Them” Eyeranians can’t treat their women or gays with respect. “Them” Eyeranians do not share our Western values based on Enlightenment principles. Therefore, “them” Eyeranians are both politically and morally inferior to “us,” the rational Westerners.

So naturally, whatever “we” do is at least marginally better than anything those Eyeranians ever could do. Similarly, our worst decisions are nothing compared to the mistakes “they” make. Our superior values ensure that our actions are going to be superior as well

Clearly them Iranians have no sense of human dignity. Clearly they hate freedom, as well as the universal principles on which human rights are based. Clearly they are hellbent on spreading terror, violence, and misery throughout the globe. Clearly they are a rising storm of bloodthirsty Nazis who threaten the existence of Jews everywhere.

But let’s be a little bit more liberal - a little bit more “respectable.” Ah yes, now we avoid the issue of collective responsibility and merely say that them Eyeranians are poor people oppressed by their government. Now the Eyeranian people have become the victims. Now we speak with a politically correct language. Now we’re bleeding hearts. Now we can go back to shopping and self-absorbtion.

So now, instead of just criticizing “them Eyeranians,” we can also criticize Americans and their leaders. Indeed, are there not striking paralells between the two governments? After all, both have theocratic and dictatorial tendencies do they not? So why the hostility? Why not just engage these Eyeranians and try to make some peace?

This is the typical liberal argument, even though it’’s not an argument at all; it’s much more similar to a whining complaint than an actual policy disagreement. To them, Iran is a side issue that should take a backseat to the “more important” issues relating to gays, abortion, and stem cell research. Forget about Iran; gay marriage is so much more modern and relevant.

We disagree. We say that war with Iran is the foremost issue facing the progressive left. Indeed, if war with Iran begins, we can forget about progressive solutions to education and healthcare. There won’t be any money left for those things and there will probably be a draft. So the fate of those Eyeranians isn’t the only thing that hangs in the balance. There’s much more at stake.

In another three weeks, on 6 March, trade unions around the world are holding an international day of action in solidarity with the workers of Iran.

As you probably know, the Iranian government has been arresting workers who have stood up and tried to organize unions — including Mansour Osanloo and Mahmoud Salehi, who both languish in jails despite continuing health problems.

This repression is in violation of International Labour Organization core conventions and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — the 60th anniversary of which we observe this year.  That Declaration states that “everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.”

It is our job to turn that promise into reality for workers everywhere — including inside the Islamic Republic of Iran.

We have been asked by the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), which together with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has called for the day of action, to mobilize thousands of trade unionists online.

Please take a moment and send off a message to the Iranian leaders demanding respect for workers’ rights and freedom for jailed trade unionists:

Click here to send your message

When you have done so, please forward this message to fellow trade unionists and help us organize the biggest campaign we have ever done online.

Let us send a loud and clear signal to Tehran that, as promised by the United Nations sixty years ago “everyone has the right to form and join trade unions” — even in Iran.

The following is a great letter by NIAC’s Trita Parsi about Google’s use of “Arabian Gulf” in Google Earth.

Dr. Eric E. Schmidt February 1, 2008
Chief Executive Officer
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, California 94043

Dear Dr. Schmidt:
It has come to our attention that Google Earth recently included the term “Arabian Gulf”
on maps where the body of water, historically and contemporarily known as the Persian Gulf, is
located. The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) stands unequivically opposed to any
misuse of accepted and accurate references to the aforementioned body of water, a practice
which has proven throughout history to have been a tool for spreading dissention and
encouraging instability in the region and beyond.

It should be noted that the term “Arabian Gulf” was once used as reference to what is
known as the Red Sea, a description of a completely different body of water, rendering as
grossly misleading its reintroduction as a variant of the Persian Gulf. Historically, the accuracy
of the term Persian Gulf is undisputed. Several legal documents from the United Nations as
well as the United States Board of Geographic Names confirm the legitimacy of the term, as do
centuries of classical history, including a reference to the body of water by Greek geographer
and astronomer Ptolemy as the Aquarius Persico. The Persian Gulf has been known and
recognized as such for more than 2,500 years. Agreement on this matter has been solidified by
the signatures of all six bordering Arab countries on United Nations directives declaring this
body of water to be the Persian Gulf.

In the fall of 2004, the National Geographic Society (NGS) made the same error. NIAC
successfully demanded revisions to the on-line version as well as the 9th edition of the Atlas.
Though we found the intentions of the NGS to be benign, NIAC felt compelled to act in
defense of historical accuracy as well as to diffuse what is a highly politically charged issue.
The application of false and divisive references made to the Persian Gulf were first observed approximately
50 years ago, and formed part of a pan-Arab strategy aimed at diminishing the status of
non-Arab influences in the Middle East. Iran and Israel, being non-Arab states, were the obvious target
of this practice within the movement, initially attributed to and adopted by former Egyptian President
and strongman Gamal Abdel Nasser, later promulgated and employed (violently, as evidenced by the
Iraqi invasion of Iran in September 1980) by the deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Today, it is
frequently used as a tool of destabilization by unsavory radicals and militants.

NIAC does not presume that by alluding to the Persian Gulf with a secondary reference, your
intentions mirror those of the aforementioned parties. We remain concerned, however, that your action
will be misinterpreted by your audience as political in nature since no legal or geographically technical
grounds exist for the inclusion of such terminology. NIAC understands that Google Earth is designed as
a learning tool; therefore, accuracy is of the utmost importance. We reiterate and reaffirm our position
that the term “Arabian Gulf” is not only incorrect due to its past usage as a synonym for the Red Sea,
but that its use will be perceived as reflective of your alignment with revisionist elements intent upon
using the renaming of the Persian Gulf as a divisive political tool.

It is for these reasons that we ask you to avoid making such a political statement - even if
inadvertently - and insist that you remain true to serving as a reliable educational resource. We stand
ready to assist you with any additional information that you might request.

Sincerely,
Trita Parsi, PhD
President

Greg Von Doersten for The New York Times

By JAMES VLAHOS

Published: February 10, 2008

“MADRASA kojast?” Where is the religious school?

Leaving my hotel on the tree-shaded boulevard of Chahar Bagh Abbasi in Esfahan, Iran, I had ducked down a small lane just south of Takhti Junction, made a couple of turns, and gotten lost. I was trying to follow a seven-mile walking route recorded in my Lonely Planet guidebook — and nowhere else, it seemed, not on signs or on any local map — and wandered into a maze of alleys flanked by tawny walls.

A man repairing a motorcycle in a small garage smiled and gave me directions. “Madrasa,” he said, pointing to the right.

If you’re going to get lost, Esfahan (also spelled Isfahan), a city of 1.3 million about 200 miles south of Tehran in central Iran, is an extraordinary place to do it. There’s a centuries-old saying that Esfahan is “half the world,” meaning it contains fully half of the earth’s wonders.

Jean Chardin, a 17th-century French traveler, wrote that Esfahan “was expressly made for the delights of love”; in the 1930s, the British travel writer Robert Byron rated it “among those rarer places, like Athens or Rome, which are the common refreshment of humanity.” Read more…