A Voice of Two Cities

Read about one-Ruby- and two-Haifa- of my favorite(female) Arabic singers.

For a long time now, I'd always been confused by the "middle-eastern" look, because I was surrounded by persians, but I think that the physical appearance that the girls in the Middle East are most famous for are the eyes. If you're into all that material goodness, check out the pages I linked because the first one is an interesting dittle into the madness that erupts when singers go "bad" in the Middle East, and also, you can see Haifa, who has a really beautiful soft voice and very rapacious-sexy beats. (an interesting bunch of reading material that could shed some light on the environment in which she sings

I have a few other favorites, mostly Lebanese, because they're the only ones who seem to be able to sing anyways>>

Rola

Maria*

Nancy*

(*look 'em up.)

A quick update on entry posted November 14, 2005; with regards to the issue and the

information that was obtained on the Sivand Dam Project, the Fars Province, and the

Ye’ marde dare mire tooye mashinesh ke bere safar, va ghabl az inke ra biyofteh, chand-ta eskenas mindazeh tooye ye’ sandogh-e-kheiriyeh (ke hame jaye iran ro por karde) valli, tooye rah be safarash, tasadof mikoneh va mimireh. Vaghti mire pishe khoda, mige, “ey khoda, chera mano koshti? Man ke vazifeye kheiriyeh ra anjam dadam!” valli khoda migeh “oon pooly ke endakhti goosheh nadashteh bid”

I was having a grand old time listening to my collection of cds and waiting behind one of those 150-something-seconds red-lights near Shariati (a main boulevard in the capital) when all of a sudden I look through the rear view mirror and see this guy behind me with this really screwed up fish-out-of-water look on his face and one of his arms in a piston-like movement with whatever-it-is-down-there…I was so unbelievably dumbfounded. I could not breathe for a nano-second, imagining all of the oddities of Tehran, and then seeing that and thinking it topped them all.

The scarier part was that it was evening traffic, and the driver the was to the immediate right of the car looked like he was going to piss his pants; I couldn’t understand why that guy couldn’t do anything but look like shit and feel like one, just like me. Obviously, it had to get better, and it did. I tried not looking, and ignored what was happening so damn close to my car until I had to take one last look. Out of nowhere, there was a girl, or at least, what looked like a girl with her back to my car, sitting- facing the driver… I really don’t know what happened after that, because I couldn’t look anymore, and there were these lovely numbers on the red lights that I was just soooo fascinated with at the time. 65-64-63-62-61-….No one actually got out of their cars to do anything to those two, so it was like this strange balance between individual privacy, tolerance, and extreme hormonal digression. I don’t think I’d ever seen that happen back home, and I sure as hell was not expecting it here.

There is confusion in the argument that pre-Islamic arab tribes buried alive their infant females...and at the same time, had more than a handful of wives and dozens of concubines...Where in the world did they get these females if they were mostly being buried under ground? If the male population had soared indefinitely above the female one, how does it work out that there were more females to every male?

If there is so much frustration that the people are never aware of anything that would require their attention in order to be righted, it can be pointed to the fact that the people are NEVER AWARE. Duh.
Perhaps, if we had circulating modern communication venues (ie, internet access, public records, English language requirements) for all the people of any specific country that lacks it, we would find a group of well aware individuals, who at the time of need would confront and detangle issues that need confrontation and detangling without the follish, overstepping operations of one elite group of intel leading a mass of barbarians.

There is something that lurks behind the wall of everyday life in the IRI. Sometimes, there is a sense of movement that has gone, over many decades, paralyzed in its own wake. Sometimes it is the stagnation of the stock market, the slowly bludgeoned property values, the ever-present slovenly commerce and trade, the distrust…Sometimes; it’s the growing fear of being crushed, on your way to vacation, by a dreadfully gigantic and sluggish Truck (“Kamiune”) and the probability that there will be no emergency aid until you are long gone.

It could be the way the animals are treated, or, not treated. Cutting off a dog’s ears to improve its guard-dog abilities; or the burnt bodies of dogs used to cover up the mass murder and sexual assault of 23 children in the rural Pakdasht. I’m sure, the dogs came first, then the children; what happened to Polly Klass, why could they not install such a system here? I should probably give the rhetorical answer to that; they couldn’t, because there is no structure for such a system to be able to lean on in rural areas like Pakdasht.

Just as the social ladder predicts that peace and superficial freedoms give rise to the better things in life, the opposite sows such things as murderers, and sadists. Of course, they exist everywhere as part of all human civilizations…excluding some very native and traditional people in South America, the Pacific, Japan, and elsewhere.

If there were a miracle, it should have to be in the social and economic sectors of the IRI. There is no sensible future of peaceful, forward-thinking peoples without there being a boost in the economy. It’s GDP per capita figures are stagnant and mostly unchanged, and compared to the higher income nations, it couldn’t be a good thing, not at this moment.

[We don’t accept rationed rice and oil…we want everything else but rationed leftovers of other countries, in the developed world. Why should we (they, actually) have to feed their children with subsidized government milk (distributed during class, twice a week) that consists mostly of water and powdered milk imported from places other than IRI utters.

Why, in all human deities, do they have to give 70% of the shares of a new gold-mine industry (North-western Kurdistan) to a British company (Rio Tinto)? And claim that there were no IRI investors that would buy up the shares…when did they announce the shares’ sales, publicly?] Foreign Investment SHOULD fare great for FIs but it shouldn’t include 50-70 percent of an industry’s stocks to them.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The link, above, leads to the Bourse (stock market), and some references on IranDaily.com

Another link to Geological IRI with articles on the earth faults, mines, etc...:
NGD
Elsewhere, to University of Chicago:
Resources

Beautiful:

After listening to my multi-collective songs that I gathered from other people, I loved my collection of Beethoven, Kummer, and Haydn...treasured, beautiful central themes that I'd heard , the only thing it doesn't have is voice. I suppose voice isn't made for this classical of a giant in music. But I love folk music, especially from olde world cultures.

Listen to "Adagio Sostenuto Allegro" .

Imagine a country where ancient lands, diverse history, upstanding achievements in learning and progress, and common understanding of justice and law existed; imagine an old land called Persia.

Today, Persia is called Iran by the world, and its borders and people stand divided on rifts that run as deep if not deeper than the abyss of that history. A history marked by the first Declaration of Human Rights and the first advanced nation of the Middle East in the 19^th Century. A history that was full of troubles, survived a revolution in the 1970’s, and an existence that stares into a future of difficult questions and answers.

Alongside the future of the present day Iran, runs the future of the historical heritage of such a people as well as the world. Marked as being one of the sites of the great wonders of the world, there are thousands of treasures both documented and not, found inside its borders. Many of its national and international treasures are such sites as Pasargadae, Naghse-e-Rostam, Persepolis, and many more.

However, at this point there seems to be a very terrible and unaccounted future for one such site; The Fars province. There, archaeologists have uncovered clues to its ancient citizens, warriors, and religions and are yet to find thousands of other treasures.

Alongside those discoveries was the mausoleum of Cyrus II (or Cyrus the Great) in the Fars province. Many people do not recognize Cyrus’s history or achievements, many do not care. But for those hard-working Iranians, spending their time inside Iran, mentioning his name will bring you all kinds of stories, historical and fiction alike that would otherwise bring them to tears and inspire the listener. His figure is proudly carried on the shoulders of many Iranians and it is a worthy privilege to believe in his vision for freedom, human rights, and unity.

Somehow, that vision and the clashing vision of the ruling elite of this country have led to a long-standing decision to drown most of those treasures and finally perish this monument in a matter of months. Hashemi Rafsanjani, who led the country as President nearly eight years ago, approved a project to build a dam in the Fars province with the direction of Jalal Jamei. Now, nearly eight years on it is in its final steps of completion. As soon as it is completed, this revered leader’s tomb, parts of Pasargadae, and other ancient sites will be at the hands of the alien dam.

In a drastic and compassionate attempt to secure the safety of this national treasure, the people of Iran have done absolutely nothing. Publicly. The articles mentioned below will be few (most are censored from where I’m standing) but point out some of the outlines that the government has set for the date of the dam’s inauguration and some newsworthy points about its nature.

The date for the opening of the dam is the anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution. February 1, 2006.

Additional Notes:

Many Iranians that have met with me in discussion of this project were unaware of its existence, and were surprised to know that it was started nearly eight years ago. What a surprise, ne?

Those who generally listened to my news were taken aback, but quickly scoffed at my surprise. Most of their verbal argument consisted of a few things that they somehow turned into collective garbage of an excuse for not paying attention:

*

Because there are millions of Iranians who are living in hell; take low wages, bad housing, brain drains, pollution, etc…then, who needs to care about “asar bastani” (artifacts). “I mean, we don’t have a future, so who gives a shit about our past? Haha”

*

Since the small numbers of people that I talked to were pointing this out, I couldn’t ignore it. The response that came from most people was their anger at people of Iranian origin in foreign countries. A sense of negativity that those people would quickly rise against the drowning of some pots and pans from 4000 BC, but the lives of Iranians today didn’t get that much attention from them or the world.

Myself, at a loss for words, could not find anything to blame because of the complexity of it. But, as I see that many people are working to save Ganji from his imprisonment without even knowing half of what he is about and what he represents, I thought it was unwise for the Iranian people to pretend that nothing is going to change if they stick their heads into the ground. That and pretending they don’t care about their history seems to be destructiveness in behavior that paralyzes all movements and all fights for a better future. Letting your past disappear so easily is like erasing the path you’ve created behind you while running blindly into a dark forest.

I think most of all races and ethnicities fight for their history and ancient records of greatness. All nations protect their monuments if they are capable of doing so. I think the Iranians were capable of it, but I cannot think that they can do it now, that it is eight years into the making and opening in less than two months.

*

Because Iran is an Islamic Nation, we do not adhere to the history of heathens of that region. Yes, they were great empires and kings, but they are not worth it now that we have Islam.

If you ask me, a small percentage -in the tens probably- were aware (awareness does not translate to opposing) of this project, but that is only the elder generation; ages 40-up. Everyone below the age of 40 has quite exasperatingly shut their eyes, stuck their heads a foot underground, and wagged their tails in complacency and ignorance.

Besides, once a foreigner accuses a nationalist Iranian of anything, they bring up all the history they can remember, even history that is not necessarily recorded as argument that what Iranians say is by natural historical evidence right and good- even better than others. Yet, where do they stand when their right and good and great civilization is put in danger?

H.Utanazad's Interview By Nema was an insightful turn towards the writer's surface experiences, comments, and understanding of his own contributions.

It's a very good interview; to look through the questions and answers that H.U provides, a little world seems to open up to outsiders, like myself. It was very nice, being able to pick out certain aspects of the interview that would provide some clarity to my own ideas.

"Difficult to say. Iran is not quite the caricature it is presented as. We are a nation of 70 millions with gzillion different takes on life here. For the past two years, I have been forced to reevaluate more of my notions about Iran and Iranians than any other time in my life. In one sense—try not to think this silly--Iran is one of the freest countries on the face of our planet, since frankly who the hell respects any laws or rules or regulations around here?"



"Judging by the coverage we see in the Satellite tv here, Iranians are either dancing, whining and nagging or have legal problems and are mostly concerned with plastic surgery, shopping, remodeling homes or buying property.
Is that all there is to life there?

Can't very well build a better future with these sort of concerns exclusively, you know."



"I think you have done well and are beginning to improve even more. But you( I really mean all of us) are going to have to engage seriously with arguments and assumptions if we are to have any chance of forcing the Pejamensque contingent to retreat. Take the ones you don't like and tear them apart—one argument at a time. Do it with zest. Go at them from different angels and just do it often enough so as to succeed in revealing every one of the features you find inadequate or destructive, at least to those who'd care to see. This is a battle of ideas more than anything before it becomes the battle of armies. SO we are going to have to work hard to reframe the debate in a manner that would benefit those who have a more nuanced approach toward Iran.

I think you guys are in a better position to do this because you bring fresh perspectives to the issues and have access to more resources and have a broader understanding of life in the global sense of the word.

And you're going to have to use that advantage more effectively in order to alter the existing framing of issues. But don't let yourselves be cowered by this game of victim-hood going on in Iran. I am sure you've noticed the rotten state of affairs when you get back home. We have a tendency to nag here and not all the misfortunes can be blamed exclusively on the ruling regime and as long as we don't deal with some of the problems we normally ignore, we are going to have one pile of shit right after another, no matter who's in power."

I liked that last one, in particular, because the connected writers online, who portray their view in any socio-political stance are also at very polar ends of each other. Most of the time, I'd rather read something that has enough sources to clear up any headache that may ensue afterwards, but while some writers like Neema, do share their sources, it becomes incredibly difficult to feel engaged without them.

Nazdikhaye Jamkaran, yek chal ab hast ke mardom migan bayad dinar bendazi tooyesh, ta inke imame zaman har arezzooyi dari, baravarde kone.

Migan ke, imam-e-zaman raft tooye oon challe-ab va, ghaib shod ta akhar-e-aghebat. Hala, chera dinar? Khob, chon ab nist oon payin, dinar mindazan ke imam zaman betoone pepsi bekhare.

Che adamhaye payda mishe tooye een zamoone. Those blasphemers.

Yek Lori miyad tooye shahr va kar mikoneh baraye chand vaght. Bad az chand mah, mire pishe yek name-nevise ke baraye madar va pedaresh dar dahat name befereste. Be name nevise mige benevise ke kheilly kar kardam, hava kheilly sard ast, mardom hamash mikhan hamdigar-ro lattepare konan. Kary ke mikonam sakht ast, va kheilly digar daram koofte misham. Delam tang shode. ..vaghti tamoom mishe, be nevisande mige, "hala baraye man bekhoon". Vaghti nevisande mikhoone, marde shoroo be gerye kardan mikone...nevisande miporse "chera gerye mikoni???" va marde migeh "akhe, ta behalla man nemifahmidam cheghadar zendigiye sakhti daram"

As I collect rings and online material about the situation of many animals, I also try and put my thoughts down on the accumulated collection.

Some of my experience and learning from these animal advocates is very positive. I find nothing negative or biased about supporting people and agencies who try to prevent the murder and torture of animals. Sometimes, I hear about extreme groups burning down or attacking laboratories/butcheries, and I can agree that those actions are negative in every way. Not only does it pull the average viewer into a negative view of people like that, but it also discourages support of such groups as people will relate violence to the groups instead of the individuals. There were a few cases where I could just sit back and totally feel like it was their right to attack the building...because of frustration and exhaustion, many people who support advocates of animal and human rights can relate to the feeling of anger and tiredness. These feelings can lead some but not ALL people to take a stance that is violent and aggressive.

I find that they should be fined and or jailed for a minimun of years/payments, but that they should realize that these motives are not exactly stopping, warding, or legitimizing a cause.

It would be great if I could bang my head against the wall after saying that, because other motives take forever and some people and animals don't have forever.

Now, going into one of the sparking issues of my day, the slaughter of dogs and cats in China:

The little mystery surrounding a market of dog and cat fur is the availability and the cheap prices of producing and exporting such furs into other markets. Because of the amount of stray dogs and cats, farmed dogs and cats, and abandoned or kidnapped pets, there are millions of these animals available for such a growing market. The economic gains for China is expandable as well as the partnership that Europe and America, influentially, held with China on this trade.

Initially, my first encounters with this barely visible terror came a while ago, years back while studying animal abuse directories and agencies around the world. But, as time and change are the greatest advancements in the cause of these animals, the European Union as wel as the U.S.A blocked all trades in dog and cat furs, puppy farming, and exporting/importing of such. A great step for those agencies and everyone who cared to look and involve themselves.

Of course, the market is not going to disappear, although dog and cat fur may be banned in the US and Europe, it will continue to find its way into the markets, and even penetrate Middle-eastern, South American, and other Asian markets. The point is that until China, the biggest manufacturer of this trade stops this business, it will keep up its horrible work.

Some of my favorite artists who display work online contribute to the site so called DeviantART.
They use a cameras, pen, pencil, brush, and the naked eye. I like the work that comes out of their inspirations and poetry.

I guess it's a jump out of written opinion and into the world of frank, explicit, and desirable creativity.






Alan Lee-- Such beautiful imagination, illustrated fantastic pieces in JRR Tolkien's works.






















ArtGerm

Today, I made a terrible mistake. On my way out of the underground Subway system, I landed a place on the streets that I wasn’t familiar with, and looking for my way out, asked a friendly looking young man to help me out. I blubbered through some farsi to try and get a mental map for him. Unfortunately, my pollution induced Alzheimer blocked everything out of my head. Completely paralyzed and looking like some fish out of water (bulging eyes included) I couldn’t imagine what I must sound like to him.

After a few, he was able to map it out for me, hah. Then, of course, silly me, I asked him to get me a car, and he politely nodded. Of course, looking at him he reminded me of actors like…Ben and Matt Damon…boy next door type. I could hardly make a sensible judgment of him as anything other than that, with a scraggly college beard, and plain faced stare. Inside the car was another story. Apparently, he was reaching for his wallet but incidentally brushed up against my ass. Me being very defiant and still shocked by my brain hemorrhage ignored it, hoping he was just that good guy that I thought he was. I gave him a look that said “what are you doing? If you did what I think you did, die!” but not everyone understands my language.

So, a minute later, after a little feather flustering, I noticed his right hand (while still gripping a book in it) sneaking close and then brushing his fingers against my right leg…I couldn’t believe it, and keeping my “khoon sard”ism I gave him a frown that could have put me in line with the shape of an old lady’s backside. It didn’t stop there, he decided to pay for me, and I decided that would be fine, before the latter part.. . But once he’d done that touchy-leg thing I could feel myself “ghatying” and before I did, he got off and I asked the driver to give him back my side of the fare, and watched him leave…poroooo…The time I spent being nice and pretty seemed like a waste of energy. Scottchey ( R ) says that I should have said something to make his day, but I just couldn’t, it was too much input for less than five minutes.

(There was a computer shop guy who did something that I could have appreciated. I asked for two raw CDs and he gave me two that had this valentine theme on them, and he pointed at it, just to make sure I was looking…awwww)

For a great-grandmother's love.
Judeo-Persian literature encompassed by author Houman Sarshar.

Everyday thousands of people die of kidney failure, usually after being hooked onto a dialysis machine for years and wasting away like an undead corpse. The dialysis machine is a monster of a machine that plays the part of a kidney, using hooks and motors and devices to slide under the skin and into the vessels ultimately cleaning out harmful toxins from the affected. The idea of laying out half of your life on a hospital bed confined to four white walls, white sheets, and white curtains and a visiting hour once a day seems just as morose as death. For those who are faced with the predicament, there are two choices, dialysis or kidney transplant.

In the case of Iran, where kidney trafficking is legal and recognized by the government, there are organizations that deal with the planning, surgery, and payment of the seller as well as the trafficking of organs to the hospitals where sick buyers wait.

But, although there are two organizations dealing in this marginally socio-economic endeavor, a handful of people in the IRI are faced with a dangerous future when giving away their kidneys for money to illegal agencies.

Usually, it is the poorest of the poor who sell their kidneys, for nearly 1000 to 3000 dollars, and they cannot afford hospital treatment or transplant surgeries if they are ever affected by anything pertaining to their last remaining kidney. The sad part is that these kidneys are sold on the “open” grey markets for much more than a measly thousand or two. The price of a kidney could rise up to the hundred thousands in grey markets, making it a very dangerous and un-ethical enterprise for both sellers and buyers. The middle-man gets the most of it here.

Legally, the business endorsements by both seller and buyer are not recognized and can even result in some tough citations from the governments involved. Think of it this way, you have a priceless kidney that you want to sell, the grey market is the middle-man, and the recipient is the buyer.

But who’s to say that the money will come in full, or that any bonus that is promised will be sent? The seller is practically an illiterate or destitute individual hoping to fix up the house and get a new bicycle and there is no guarantee that they will receive the money they had hoped for, and there is no help either.

There are solutions to this, like opening up country markets to legalize this brand of human tissue trade. It sounds very invasive and immoral to most people, but if there are laws that tackled the issues surrounding the transplant trade there could be brighter futures for the buyer AS WELL as the poor sellers.

Note: In Iran, there are a few strange accounts of kidnappings, and kidney transplants procedures done on the kidnapped. Accounts of children being kidnapped and then released -minus a kidney- were echoed by a newspaper article today claiming that the kidnapper (who failed to get away) was planning on selling one of the child’s kidneys and then releasing the little kid into the city.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0609/p01s03-wogi.html

It could almost seem an option to most people in the IRI to get out of life rather than enjoy it! The fact that their lives are minutes that contain specific activities, entertainments, and experiences are rather pushed aside and the more deliberate motions of religion and cultural oppression set in.

Where the mothers and the girls cling to an antiquity of life going back hundreds of years, and the fathers and boys hold onto their vestiges of social dominance it can be presumed that very little creative energy is put into the peace and joy of life.

Many surrounding members of my acquaintance would rather complain of the horrible nature of their circumstances than to take measures to lessen that hurt or bothersome detail of life.

If only words were as loud as actions, because most of what we see here is talk, and the little action there is becomes a speck that disappears into the fray of everyday life. Sometimes, there are complaints about male taxi drivers but when female taxi drivers are brought up in conversations, all the women laugh. Sometimes, there are complaints about the smell in the banks (constitute only an open door for air conditioning) and yet, the same woman smells like armpits…it’s almost like the concept of shaving your armpits in America....not shaving could be illegal, it’s like a firsthand rule of the social life of an American, and yet, deodorant/shaving is like a falsehood here. If you look after your hygiene, you can put deodorant aside in the IRI because it’s almost considered a fancy attempt of westerners to get people to smell good (and, it’s expensive for most of the below-average poor citizens).

Sometimes, the argument for me is that the people that surround me at gatherings are mostly middle-to-upper class, and watching them in their social encounters tells me that some of these people do have a little more international insight into life.

They do have artists and writers and sports stars that they adore. But, especially lower-to-middle class acquaintances have so much less of that exposure, so much less to talk about and find similarities with. The world of “farhang” is almost ideally made only for those who are rich or richer, and that is if they are actually cosmopolitan- many richer Iranians tend to JUST be rich and still have very little else to plunge into.

My expectation of a people who are so self-indulged wasn’t that high, admittedly, because it was obvious that a majority of a community that spend more time making Gossiping an official country hobby couldn’t be bothered to do anything else. In fact, the time most women in the IRI spend on the phone or powdering their noses leaves very little else for productivity.

Sometimes, I like to think that there is a lack of entertainment, sporting, and culture. But it seems like I can out-argue myself and it becomes humiliating after a while.

I can out-argue the entertainment part because after a year spent in IRI, watching a comedy show on TV (trying very hard to understand) after a whole season of television drought makes a world of difference to the people here. It becomes an almost proud screening of a new-born baby even though the comic relief is barely happening and the slow process at which the satirical scenes play out make a visit to the dentist seem almost exciting.

Entertainment in television is about the only thing that you could call entertainment. Everything else I’m probably not aware of, or the numbers are too small. Not everyone can go rent a cart and race around near Azadi Stadium for 4,000 tomans every 3 laps. Or ride horses. Or buy rollerblades, skateboards. Sporting is in the alleys, in the roads, in your front yard.

There are very few people who can sign up for a team and play indoors or out and it isn’t very commonplace to play in an official team. Someone who did attend a league tells me that there are more games they don’t play than they practice, and all for nearly 80,000 tomans a season without any supplies. All I can think of is very little compared to what it should be. The whole point is that all classes of the system should have access to a community of entertainment, sports, etc…that it should be cemented into most youth to get out and do more, to contribute to their own lives.

More often than not, those same elite of Iranians who are capable of caring for their lives tend to patronize those less privileged than them. That and indifference makes it all more juicy.

But again, I go back to that monster of the differences between the modern world and the not-so-modern one. The one that has very transparent lines between men and women, and the one that does not. The one that gives you the option of living life and the one that encourages ignoring it.

Ah well, it’s almost acceptable to become one with the wallpaper here, and I’m beginning to like that. I could be pinned as a fool but there is validity to this socially funked atmosphere that’s described above.

Nov 02, posted today.

Update on my post title "Note: Day 1"

Opip kindly left me an article of interesting significance to my post. I'd like to hear more about animal activists in Iran.

Much love.

This is about wolves killing sheep.

"No reliable record for missing sheep Norwegian farmers received predator compensation for 30,500 lost sheep in 2004 - but only 2,760 sheep have been proven killed by wild animals, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) reports."

When a wolf attacks sheep, it kills nearly half the herd and eats only one and takes another. It wastes the rest of the herd, and that is why the farmers in Norway are so huffy about wolves and their natural relationship with their prey. THese farmers get compensation enough to buy a new herd for those they've lost, and I'm sure they buy Ewes and one or two male sheep to get more kids, but it seems to make bring up another itching idea. Why don't they pay money to the farmers to buy guard dogs for their herds? Those dogs live for at least 15 excellent patrol years, scare the shit out of wolves, and can be bought trained at a professional specialty facitlity for guarddogs.

The cost is almost 1000 dollars, I'd assume, if they could get those dogs trained and facillitated right there in parts of Norway then farmers could buy them annually with a paycheck from the government and even have a breeding plan for those dogs that could be like an investment plan as well. Four dogs to a farmer, three female one male, then get free breeding consultations and planning by the same agency that will train and sell them. Those puppies will be free, they're direct investment from the governments own dollars, keeping farmers happy and Nature smiling.

I have to say, wolves don't like dogs, and especially aggressively domineering patrol ones, and its a great plan for the sheep because happily fed dogs won't eat the sheep and will flock with them wherever they go.

Day 1:

Before I take off, I'll be counting the days and leaving some memorabilia for retraction later. One of my thoughts that attract very little international attention is the rights of living beings in our shared world today. Although it seems like human rights do not apply to animals, they should be allowed their own special watchdog as well, because there's never enough of it. I can guess it may be questionable as to bringing up an issue like this in a place in time that barely recognizes the precious value of human life (let alone Nature's beasts). But, I was very hurt seeing a sheep killed today, a sacrifice dating back to the traditions of many religions, but in particular, a painful one. The matter of taking life from the animal is grossly under estimated, the matter of sawing slowly at the front of its throat while it bleeds to death is sickening, and the matter of giving out the meat to the poor is funny. Rarely is it permissible in my eyes to take the life of a sweet voiceless animal, but to also saw at it like somekind of unforgiving mercenary seems entirely uncalled for. They say the blood goes out of the animal because it's conscious and its heart beats for that minute until they kill itl thus the flow of blood gets the circulating veins emptied. I figure that hanging the animal upside down and having an automatic guillotine to cut its head completely off is just the same...the animals body and muscles still jerk for a little letting blood out all the SAME. Is it scientifically proven that the quantity of blood purged is relevant to the consciousness of the animal? What about this sawing thing...horrible, the animal is held down, and it can say nothing but bleat its damn poor heart out while the butcher does his job just as if he were at the office. If this is a holy practice, I'm sure hoping the "savab" doesn't apply to getting a brand new car (which in itself should be a sin in a country where there are more little kids begging than there are cars).
And the feeding of the poor...If there are a handful of people ho sacrifice and torture these animals to feed them to poor people they are only a handful. The rest take half of the animal and give out the rest to friends and neighbors who are usually NOT POOR. Ding, Ding, Ding! We have a winner.

And, if there is a group working for the advocation of animal rights here, I'm waiting to hear about it. And waiting. And waiting....



Here's something I got about the killing of such animals at Eid Al-Kabir a Muslim person's festival:

" As Aid El Kabir is a festival of sacrifice each Muslim household that can afford to do so will sacrifice an animal - usually a sheep. The head of the household will turn the animal’s head toward Mecca before slitting its throat. None of the animal is wasted as all parts will be turned into brochettes and eaten, except a few small pieces of the heart and liver which the women of the household cast into the corners of each room in order to keep away evil. Special prayers are said on the day of the festival and the holiday is a time for the giving gifts and visiting friends and family. Islamic law also says that some of the meat of the sacrifice must be shared with the poor."

Isn't there a verse in their holy quran-koran that states superstitions have no place in Islam? The tying of knots on a piece of rope- or something like that?

Adios.

Martyrs:
A woman who follows the rule of the Mullah, in the IRI, cries because none of her children are martyrs of the Revolution. She plots out her future, imagining that the rules of Islam will punish her for that. And not only because her children just could not get shot or gassed, but one of them, evidently, fought against her precious Revolution 28 years ago. Unfortunately, her future is a one way ticket, and she's going first class to an Islamic hell. At least, that's what I imagine runs through her very narrowed perspective.

Packing:
Last month. Shalom Little Tehran.