Friday, November 11, 2005
Interview, Points, Nema
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.
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.
