July 31, 2003
Press freedom
Reporters Without Borders is an association officially recognised as serving the public interest. It has a news website devoted to press freedom and also a persian site.
Statistics
Nation Master is a site that transforms national statistics into interesting facts and graphs.
Geography Quiz
Did you know the Middle East? Test your knowledge by playing this drag and drop game.
July 30, 2003
Peykan
The picture on the left is the winning entry for Mazda Family Photo Contest in 1988. The one on the right is a photo of my brother with his Peykan (Hillman Hunter) which was taken the same year.
Wish him a happy birthday!
July 28, 2003
Zoor-Khaneh
This is an old picture of Pahlavan Razaz with one of his students, Bagher Miveh-chian.
Zoor-Khaneh is a gymnasium for traditional Iranian martial arts (varzesh-e pahlavani).
Zoor-khaneh website has a nice flash intro and Pahlavani website has interesting content.
July 26, 2003
Coca-Cola
Trade unions around the world have launched a boycott of Coca-Cola products, alleging that the company's locally owned bottlers in Colombia used illegal paramilitary groups to threaten and kill its workers.
July 23, 2003
Asylum Day - BBC1
As part of BBC One's Asylum Day, "You The Judge" programme gives people the chance to have their say about Britain's asylum policy. Shappi Khorsandi is going to be one of the judges. They will be stating the case of four refugees and will discuss who should stay or go then there is a public vote. "You The Judge" will be broadcast tonight at 20:00 BST on BBC One. It will also be available live and on demand from BBC website.
July 19, 2003
July 18, 2003
Deputy Comic Minister
The Iranian deputy interior minister suggested that a "hard object" caused the death of Zahra Kazemi - an Iranian/Canadian photojournalist - and added, "We still don't know whether it was the object that hit her head or her head hit the object. We suggest further investigations."
July 16, 2003
Netscape No More
Having paid $4.2 billion for Netscape in 1998 and after years of trying the browser market, AOL has decided to quit the browser market. Click here for details.
Future looks bleak for Iraq's environment
To overcome Iraqi forces, US troops fired thousands of shells tipped with depleted uranium. Concern is now mounting over use of depleted uranium and its effects on the health of soldiers and civilians. New Scientist magazine considers the evidence.
July 14, 2003
July 11, 2003
Wacky Web!
According to Brian Livingston, WWW stands for Wacky Web Week and my site is among the Internet’s greatest bits! Thanks, but is this site only about Iranian politics? Well I hope not. I just like writing about things that are current and I know a bit about.
Censorship
I have just read another worrying news. According to Persianblog -an Iranian hosting provider- the Iranian government has just stopped the activity of all Persian blogs on their servers. This could be the start of a new wave of censorship.
July 09, 2003
Thanks for reading
Deer Aamerikan ferends velkom to my saayt!
(I just wrote it with an Iranian accent, "dear American friends welcome to my site" in case you didn't understand). I noticed the number of American visitors has increased thanks to links from Glenn Reynolds, Andrew Sullivan, Samizdata.net and hopefully a few more that I don't know of yet. I really appreciate you reading this blog and seeing the perspective from a British/Iranian angle. I am a cheerful cynic, so don't take it too seriously. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing it.
July 08, 2003
Iranian twins die in surgery
It was very sad to hear that Ladan and Laleh Bijani died today at the end of a 50-hour operation to separate them. The 29-year-old sisters were well-known in Iran for their courage and academic success.
Strangelove-Rumsfeld
Has anyone noticed the remarkable similarity between Dr Strangelove and Donald H. Rumsfeld?
July 07, 2003
Interactive Guides
I really like the interactive guides on The Guardian website. The guides need Macromedia Flash Player to work. Recent guides include:
July 05, 2003
Bush on Iranian note
George Bush would be very happy to be on Iranian note! He is working on it anyway.
July 04, 2003
Iran-Onion
Has anyone noticed the similarity between the Islamic Republic of Iran's sign and the Onion's logo? (The Onion? is America's award-winning satirical publication).
July 02, 2003
Heart attack
My old school mate Ahmad called last Sunday and told me that he is recovering from a heart attack. He has just turned 39. I was shocked and saddened by the news. He was taken to hospital suffering from severe chest pain and the heart attack actually happened in the hospital. Apparently his heart stopped and he was given resuscitation.
Awful things happen but it looks like they particularly happen to my unlucky Iranian generation. In his case he is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war, lost his younger brother in the war and hasn’t heard of his older brother for many years. He told me many horrendous stories of the war. Now he lives in exile alone.