Surreal dreams of a realistic man!

Well, well well…couple of nights ago, I had quite an unusual nightmare. I was sleeping and at the same time dreaming that I was in bed and couldn’t get to sleep! My whole night was a frustrating dead-end struggle to get to sleep while I was, in fact, sleeping!

In the contrary, last night, I had a beautiful dream. Again and naturally, I was sleeping and I had strange stuff going on around - you’re welcome to call them realistic nightmares - and all of a sudden I got tired and decided to sleep (in my sleep) and voila, I had the blankest! most satisfying sleep I had in months.


I really do hope that after the screening of this Clint Eastwood-type sequel of the previous nightmare, I could enjoy the end of my surrealistic nightmares/dreams series.

At the moment, I’m truly busy at work and I do need my calm, 6-hours-a-night-sleep, to be able to function properly, if at all.

Top 10 Movies of 2006 According to me!

Some of them have links to my reviews...Click on the title to read them if you like...

10. Stranger than fiction

A brilliant comedy, Zach Helm’s thoughtful, deliciously funny and somehow bitter tale of an ordinary man whose lethargic life is seriously bothered by a strange narrative voice which bizarrely follows him around. Apart from some great performances by Will Farrell, Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson, the movie is a true pleasure to watch. It’s simply amazing. As simple as the movie itself.

9. V for Vendetta

James McTeigue’s fantastic fantasy, a sharply political comic strip about a phantom-type outlaw who fights the authority of the intrusive, corrupted government of Britain, in a dark, depressing Orwellian ambience in the near future. One of the most pleasing experiences I have ever had in the movie theatre to say the least.

8. The last king of Scotland

The entertaining tale of a fictional Scottish doctor and Idi Amin’s personal physician as a backdrop for telling the true story of Uganda’s brutal yet charming dictator. Forest Whitaker’s mind-blowing performance as general Amin, is surely worthy an Oscar this year.

7. Volver

To me, Pedro Almodovar’s best work to date, a charming, nostalgic and intimate story about women in general and in particular, an ode to femininity.

6. Little miss Sunshine

One of the smartest comedies I’ve ever seen, it’s the story of a dysfunctional family and their road trip to get their little girl to a disgusting American idol-type beauty contest for kids.

5. Departed

Another miraculous movie from one the greatest filmmakers of all time, Martin Scorsese. A gangster movie about a Boston-based Irish gang that is as much a pleasure to watch as it is a brilliant art work.

4. Letters from Iwo Jima

Clint Eastwood’s the other half of the Iwo Jima’s story, this time, from the eyes of the Japanese who were defending the Island. Apart from the masterfully executed war scenes, this movie is much more than just another brilliant war movie. A great film, not to be missed.

3. United 93

Paul Greengrass’s masterpiece about the September eleventh’s fourth hijacked plane that crashed near Pittsburg. Apart from Sean Penn’s mind-blowing short film, united 93 is simply the best movie that anyone could possibly make about this subject.

2. Pan's Labyrinth

I said whatever I could have said about this movie however, I doubt that I succeeded to reveal even a fraction of how good this film actually is. I went to see Pan’s Labyrinth with unbelievably elevated expectations, which usually is a recipe for disappointment, but Del Toro almost humiliated my expectations as being too modest. I wish I was an octopus so I could raise my all eight thumbs up instead of two, imagining that octopuses have thumbs, to begin with.

and finally...the best movie of the year...

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Well, do you really think that I give the first spot to anything other than Pan’s Labyrinth?

Best movie of the year : PAN’S LABYRINTH

Pan’s Labyrinth…Perfection well defined

If there’s only one day in the whole year that you want to relax and not bother yourself with planning stuff, that would be your Birthday but normally, when you don’t plan something ahead, you dramatically increase the chance of having a plain, unmemorable birthday which ironically is in full contrast with what a birthday is supposed to be, the most special day of the year.

But last night, my 31st birthday was strangely unforgettable

For months, I was impatiently waiting for the latest film of Guillermo Del Toro, Pan’s Labyrinth, to be screened in Montreal. To my big surprise, as I checked the website for the upcoming movies, I realized that it was supposed to be screened, exactly on my birthday. Therefore, I dearly took it as both my birthday surprise and my mysterious birthday gift.

To be honest, I can hardly remember any better gift, anyone has ever given to me nor anything I can imagine anyone ever will. It was 112 minutes of pure perfection in every possible aspect imaginable. One of the best stories, cinematography’s, acting’s, visual effects and I can go on and on forever, combined with something else from out of this world, a well-balanced combination of all human emotions at their best, to say the least.

Pan’s Labyrinth or “El Laberinto del Fauno”, is the story of a girl, Ofelia (played by Ivana Baquero) who travels with her pregnant mother to a mill-house in northern Spain’s woodlands, to settle with her mother’s new husband, Captain Vidal (played marvelously by Sergi Lopez), a precise, dedicated and viciously brutal fascist officer who’s trying to crush the last remains of resistance to General Franco and his extreme-right dictatorial regime.

Ofelia, guided by a fairy-type creature, enters a labyrinth and is told by a faun that she might be the lost princes of the underworld and should prove herself in series of bizarre missions.

The rest of the story is a spectacular polyphony of her quest in the fantasy land, and the real world’s grim and atrocious brutality of the civil war, in 1944’s Spain.

Del Toro masterfully depicts how the grisly realities of the real world with all its nauseating ghastliness leer and leek to the children’s pure fantasies and transform their dreams from beautiful fairy tales to a tense and frightful world and the way children enthusiastically plunge as deep as possible into their imaginations just to get rid of the cruelty of the environment, surrouding them. He portrays how the tragedy of war imposes an unbearable weight on children’s shoulders, to the point that they innocently carry this unfair burden of responsibilities with themselves, even in their most personal fables. However, he insists that we, humans, in our lowest, are able to create such a ferociously frightening environment that no monster in any imaginative world could ever replicate.

Among thousands of mind-blowing subtleties of this film, I really enjoyed the way Del Toro represents Ofelia’s critical age, being on the verge of puberty, by occasionally letting her show of a little bit of feminine charm, while perfectly preserves her innocence as a child.

The film, both the illustration of the fairyland and the depiction of the real world’s civil war, has been executed so brilliantly, meticulously and eloquently that it seems impossible to alter any element of this movie and come up with a better film than what Pan’s labyrinth is and that’s what I call a shear Perfection.

To me, THE best film of the year, an instant classic and one of the top ten movies of all time.

Thanks Gillermo for this magnificent birthday present.

Time-Space

I’m amazed that the theory of general relativity was proposed by a German who was living in Switzerland!

The fact that time and space are not two separate entities, should have been as plain as a Gerard Depardieu’s nose on his face for anybody who was living in Montreal!

As someone who lives in this city, I can see and feel the expansion and contraction of space with time and vise versa and I don’t need any revelation or elaborate experiment to realize it!

For example, the nearest grocery store to my apartment, in a human-style weather (like in mid-may, or mid-September) is literally right on the corner. It would take me like a blink to go there, get something and come back. But in -30 with wind-chill (like what we had last night), the same distance would expand to almost eternity! You can walk and walk and walk and never get there. I mean seriously, somewhere along the path, you might even succeed convincing yourself to give up and return home by telling, “Oh, Fuck it! Why do I need milk in the first place; I’m not a little cow for god’s sake”.

Five minutes later, being defrosted at home, bearing the cereal box’s blaming regard, I remember how in the mid-spring, I would say “do you really want to take a bus to St-Laurent? Why can’t we just walk?!” and I truly regret why the Einstein’s theory of relativity is not Tremblay’s or DesJardin’s theory!

The disappointment of an infertile story

After a painfully long waiting, I finally got to see the latest work of Alfonso Cuaron, Children of men, a promising sci-fi about a time in the near future, 2027 exactly, where for some unknown reasons, the man kind has lost the ability to reproduce. The rest is the quest of the movie’s protagonist, played by Clive Owen, to get the only pregnant woman in the world to the apparently safe hands of a vaguely described group of scientists called “The human Project”, amidst all the chaos and disorder cause by this catastrophic pandemic of infertility.

Children of men powerfully starts, acceptably mediocre continues and pathetically poor finishes. Despite the brilliance of the idea behind the story, the scenario is so incredibly badly done that it even overshadows one of the best cinematography of the modern cinema. It is indeed twice upsetting since the same idea, had it been developed more eloquently, it could have been one of the best science fiction of the recent years.

Having said those, I should also mention that it is not a bad film at all. Even carrying the weight of this wretched screenplay, it is still considerably better than most of the Hollywood’s productions, by all means. All the disappointments, in fact, arises form the legitimately elevated expectations from such a genius as Alfonso Cuaron. If he only stick with the well written stories like Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban or Y tu mama tambien and do not waste his abundant talent and technique and his potentials on such a pitiful screenplay, he could truly make magic!

Thanks for the memory...

The last king of Scotland

The Last King of Scotland is the story of a young Scottish, recently graduated medical doctor who chooses Uganda, utterly by chance, to go and help the poor and ends up being the personal physician and the advisor to the charismatic and, at the time, promising leader of Uganda, Idi Amin!

Kevin Macdonald, based on Giles Foden's award winning novel, utilizes this intriguing fictional tale to, alongside, unravel the true story of one the Africa’s most brutal yet entertaining tyrant, General Amin who has been played astonishingly good by brilliant Forest Whitaker. In fact he is so successful in depicting the seemingly humble but mysterious and multi-layered character of Amin that I would be amazed if I don’t see his name in the list of the candidates for the Best supporting actor, in this year’s academy awards.

The last king of Scotland is a stylish and visually stunning movie and it has the right dose of almost everything, from suspense and action to romance and history. The result is a film which is informative but not boring and brutal but not impossible to watch. In one word, it’s a job well-done!

A homage to femininity

Although I’m a big fan of extravaganza in cinema, whether it involves a complicated, multi-layered story like Eyes wide shut or a brilliant camera working and technical indulgence like Munich, but I can’t hide my deep appreciation for anything brutally minimal yet widely expressive, like one of Hirschfeld's caricatures or Pedro Almodovar’s recent masterpiece, Volver.

I’m neither capable nor willing to analyze Volver, but there are some points that I really like to talk about.

First of all, it is to me, his best movie so far. Although some might argue that but it is Penelope Cruz’s best performance to date and I don’t think there would be Any disagreement in that regard;

Volver, like most of previous works of Almodovar is visually enchanting and women, and particularly mothers, play a key role in it. But what is particular to this movie is the exaggerated depth of this central role and the fact that even a few men who exist in the plot are far from good! They are irritatingly nasty or in the best case, completely neutral and excessively useless! and although I don’t quite share his negative view towards men, but I can not possibly hide my deep appreciation for the fantastic image he portrays of women, which is nothing less than a cult-like worshiping ceremony.

In this movie, unlike most of the stereotype portrayal of women, they are seriously independent, impressively in control and totally capable of managing almost impossible situations when they have to. They don’t scream, they don’t freak out or runaway and most importantly, they are absolutely not those typical irrationally-emotional creatures we’ve been culturally trained to envisage them. In contrary, here, one can hardly stop noticing their capacity to suppress their emotions when they need to make a fast yet vital rational decision, very much like real women in the real life.

Another impressive aspect of the movie to me, was Almodovar’s brilliant success to reach the inner and deeper layers of female beauty.

Obviously, a woman has an outer layer of visual beauty which is not so hard to notice but there is a deeper layer which reveals itself as one gets more intimate. The first touch, the first kiss, the first sex, each of the steps opens up a whole dimension of beauty that later on, can be visualized even by the eyes, or in this case by the lens.

I have to admit that I’d never been attracted to Penelope Cruz nor I had ever found her sexy or charming, but during this movie and while Almodovar’s camera is literally making love to her by exploring her forbidden angles and her intimate gestures, it is almost impossible not to notice her exquisite beauty. I may say, he more or less has done to her, what Kubrick did to Nicole Kidman in eyes wide shut.

Apart from that, her stunning performance is not something that can be easily neglected. Also the fact that she speaks in her own language and not with her awkward Spanish accent makes her more attractive and gives her dramatically more self confidence to glow on the scene like never before.

Finally, this emotionally rich and genuinely touching movie, though sometimes too feministic for me, is something to be watched, enjoyed and adored, by all means. A true homage to femininity.

morning tea

Sometimes,
it’s too hard to wake from a dream,

when its taste,
lingers in your mouth
so long,

that your toothpaste doesn’t taste the same
and your morning tea,
gets this wild, forgotten flavor,
for a moment,

when the grass you slept on,
in your dream,
is so fragrant that when you wake,
for a moment,
you can smell it on your pillow,

and you wonder,
for a moment,
why everything
is so gorgeously Green
for a moment,

when the kiss is so sweet,
that when you wash your face,
for a moment
your regretful eyes,
with an inexplicable anger,
and a childish grudge,
follow the water,
who’s washed away the taste of the kiss
from your lips
down to the drain,

when the smoothness of the skin,
under your soft, feathery touch
has spoiled your hands so much,
that the roughness of your wet, silk scarf,
can seriously hurt your hand….
and sometimes it does,
for a moment,

it’s too hard to wake,

not harder than keep up, for sure,
with the fucking alarm of the cell phone,
6:30 sharp, on a cold snowy Sunday,
that passes through your pillow
you’re desperately pressing on your face!

and neglecting the begging of your poor bladder,
bursting with champagne and scotch,

but harder than most of things
in life,
which are harder
than living,

though waking up
is the worst part of a dream,
but the best part of being awake,
is you can end up,
with a dream,
Sometimes…

and when the dream’s gone,
in a moment,
life would be so darn great
again,

Sometimes,

A sad day for humanity!

It was hard to believe, even though we all had heard the court’s verdict.

After the long, tedious and unfinished trial of Milosevic, I was expecting a lengthy process of appeals and re-appeals, but today, the news was short and shocking. “Saddam has been executed”

Although I’m firmly against the capital punishment, even for such a ruthless dictator like Saddam, it’s genuinely hard to feel sympathy for one of the darkest figures in the modern history. Even harder for us, Iranians, who have no shortage of first-hand experiences of his merciless killing machine.

I’m not sad that he’s been executed. I’m angry. I’m furious. Angry because he was sentenced to death for a minor fraction of what he was truly responsible for. Because the history was denied from everything he knew and was buried with him forever. Because he died before talking about all who supported him for years, from United Stated and European countries to Russia and Arab leaders of the region, with money, intelligence, weapons, and sadly, by providing him the materials that enabled him to put forward his deadly chemical and biological program.

He died before he was given enough time to think about what he had done to his people, to Iranians and to Kuwaitis and to be honest, death by hanging was a gift to Saddam that relieved him from unquestionable years of pondering in prison. The gift, he was not courageous enough to give himself, the way Hitler and Goebbels generously indulged themselves with.

The day, I watched Saddam’s being brutally humiliated on TV, was one of the best days of my life. The day he got executed, I just feel shocked and betrayed.

He definitively deserved to die, but the humanity deserved much more than that.

Kiss Test

A great commercial

This is priceless!

I love Scandinavians...I really do.

Just think about what happened in United States over a millisecond exposure of Janet Jackson’s breasts and you’re going to have the idea, how far ahead these Danish people are.

Have you noticed any change in the water bill, lately?! :)

Singing in the rain!

I just watched a brilliant movie. I love when I watch a nice movie all alone. When I don’t have to talk to anybody. Where I can simply avoid some useless small talks and my sometimes-quite-pretentious analysis and critics and I can just keep the mood, as long as I want.

This month, I didn’t buy the metro pass and I remembered that I just used my last bus ticket, this morning as was commuting to work.

When you don’t have change or ticket, there’s no way around but walking home. I was not even sure I didn’t have change but even if I did, I was perfectly sure that I wouldn’t spend it on a ticket. Although only today, I’d spend twenty dollars on a heavenly “All you can eat Sushi” lunch, ten dollars for a delicious Rum and chocolate cake and a hot earl grey tea while I was reading my book and waiting for the movie to begin, sixty five dollars on a safety boots that I’m sure I’m never going to use and since I’m still unashamedly using my student card to get the discount, ten dollars for the movie ticket, I was not willing to pay two dollars and fifty cents for the bus ticket or I was just using this inexplicable stinginess to avoid another boring bus ride and enjoy walking in this beautiful, unexpectedly lovely night.

I called my friend to tell him what a fantastic movie I just watched and persuade him to go and see it, or maybe just to see how he feels today. Unlike last night, he was just fine.

I hung up the phone. Kept on smiling, I continued walking. It was nice. Not by Montréal’s standards nice! It was really warm and pleasant. Maybe if I was living in California, I would take this for granted but any Montrealers knows that a warm mid-November night is not something to be missed.

I hate getting wet. I just hate it like a big spoiled cat, but I took off my hat, and bring down my umbrella to enjoy getting wet. As I was twirling my umbrella and deliberately walking into the puddles, I saw my self as Gene Kelly in Singing in the rain. Only that I was not singing in the rain and I was not dancing either. I was just walking in the rain. I was just consciously and joyfully walking in the rain. Just walking.

The only possible way that I can think of to make this magnificent night any better, was if I was in love. Or maybe not. At least now, I have something to fancy about. FANCY! Did I mention that I really do adore using British words?

A funny one

The Third Plan!

As the world’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear program are on the rise, there is an important question to be answered. Is Iran truly looking for nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, like generating electricity, or the ultimate goal behind this mysterious program is nothing but the good old nuclear bomb, as the world suspects? And if they really are moving toward becoming a nuclear state, should the international community, lead by the United States, stop them at any cost, or it is better to let them have the bomb under certain conditions?

The irritating point about the media coverage of the subject so far, has been the blatant destitute of any collateral thinking. Analyzing the possibilities within a rigid framework, overlooking the likelihood of the existence of a third or even more answers to the same question and simply repeating the worn-out talking points again and again, is media’s chronic disease that although is not uniquely confined to this particular case but has been vividly manifested here, to say the least.

As an example for other conceivable scenarios, what if Iranians are not looking for the peaceful nuclear technology, as one may suspect, but they are not looking for the bomb either? What if they are perfectly aware that the geopolitics of the region would not give them the time they need, which according to the experts would be something between five to ten years, but they also know that the world and especially United States are simply not in the position to dictate something quite drastic like the full abandonment of the plan? What if the pragmatic leaders of Iran, which is one thing they have repeatedly proven to be, are just using the whole nuclear issue as a bully for the international community to win the best deal possible, in return to stop the entire process or to reduce it to a fairly less-ambitious program?

Let’s explore first, why the situation of Iran is different and a nuclear Iran is downright out of the question and then see why the world is simply not in a position to impose the consensus to Iran.

First of all, becoming a nuclear state, if not impossible, is much more complicated for Iran than most people may think it would be. There is a missing link in the common analysis that draws parallel between Iran’s case and those of recently-joint, unwelcome new members of the nuclear club, namely North Korea, India and Pakistan.

In the case of India, due to the enormous geopolitical and economical importance of the country in the international scene, it was almost impossible to prevent her from becoming a nuclear state where as in the case of Iran, though by no mean easy, it would be perfectly within the reach of the Security Council’s permanent members. The case of Pakistan is also undeniably linked to the case of India to the extent that analyzing it outside of this context would be ridiculously absurd. In fact, the world’s intentional disregard to Pakistan nuclear program was a well-directed policy, addressing the incapability of the international community to deter India from developing nuclear capability. In other word, a nuclear Pakistan was a necessity for the region’s balance of power to be restored.

For obvious reasons, not only this argument is not valid in the case of Iran, a nuclear Iran would severely unbalance the power structure of the region hence forces the Security Council to do everything in its disposal to prevent the scenario from happening.

The case of North Korea is an exceptionally odd one, makes it completely incomparable to the one of Iran’s. As much as the strange isolation of North Korea, makes any sort of sanctions ineffective, the vibrant economical ties of Iran to the outside world can easily bring Iran to its knees. The majority of Iran’s revenue comes from exporting oil and apart from United States and Israel, Iran has trading ties with almost the rest of the world which makes Iran rather vulnerable and the sanctions quite effective in this case. Not to mention that Iran has no similarity with the information-black hole called North Korea. Where the world has almost no clue about what’s going on inside that country, it is fairly easy to gather any sort of information about Iran hence prevent the formation of the frightening mysterious vacuum of information like the one that surrounds North Korea.

Considering the fact that Iran’s leadership, has managed to successfully overcome the myriad of crisis it has been faced with so far, it is rather naïve to underestimate their vision to foresee this obvious fact that the world, not only united stated, Europe and Israel but also the Arab leaders of the region, would simply not tolerate a Shiite, non-arab nuclear Iran in the middle east.

It is also unrealistic if one wants to consider that a power plant like the one in Boushehr, with capacity of 1000 MW (almost half of Karoon’s hydraulic power plant),in a country so rich in oil and natural gas reserves, is something that any regime would be ready to pay such a hefty price for. Maybe that is the reason why Iran always finds an excuse to interrupt the negotiations, whenever it is getting close to a deal. In fact, it seems that Iran is absolutely not looking for a way to continue the peaceful nuclear activity, or to open up the nuclear power plant or even to keep up enriching uranium in her soil. So what is the real plan?

It seems that what Iran is really looking for, is to persuade the world that she is dangerous enough to be a threat to the international community, and specially to Israel, and also powerful enough to make any sort of confrontational attempt, a massively expensive adventure. Using the scary image, they could negotiate their way to receive a considerable package of incentives, in a situation where bribing Iran would be the most rational as well as economical option and even in the best case scenario, the only option available for United States and the allies. For that matter, Iran has a lot of strong cards to play with.

Iran’s elaborate ties to the outside world, though an Achilles foot in one way; is a week point for the international community as well. Extensive investments of Europeans and Asians in Iran’s industries as well as in energy sector, creates a considerably complicated dilemma that cannot be solved without an enormous price to be paid. The sanctions imposed by United States which keeps the American companies out of the competition, creates such a delicious feast for the Europeans, Chinese, Korean and even Malaysians that would make the sanction as painful for them as it would be for Iran. Not to forget that Russia, alongside with China, has a profitable monopoly over Iran’s military deals that forces Kremlin to think twice before agreeing to any sort of sanction that could deprive the Russian’s desperately-in-need-of-cash military industry from Iran’s competitor-less! market.

Another strong card in the hand of Iran’s leadership is the fact the country is supplying a good portion of the worlds, and especially India and china’s need to crude oil and natural gas. Replacing this gigantic supplier of energy not only seems to be impossible, the process on the oil prices hence on the world’s economy can be downright disastrous and it the present situation where another major producer, Iraq, is unlikely to be able to reclaim its position in the oil market anytime soon, it’s highly unlikely if India and China with such oil-thirsty economies, would fall for such a risky decision that could bring catastrophic outcomes to their vulnerable economies.

Next card would be Iran’s recently-boosted influence on the region, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine. Considering the direct involvement of America as well as England in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the proximity of Lebanon and Gaza to Israel, any sort of stimulation introduced by Iran or the groups supported by Iran can lead to dangerous situations that could literally endanger lives of American and British soldiers as well as Israeli’s soldiers and civilians.

Another stronghold of Iran is the calculatedly widely-distributed and well-protected nuclear sites throughout a vast country that turns any military plan into an extremely complicated one, certainly far from a safe and causality-proof mission and totally different to Israel’s spotless air strike on heavily-concentrated and unwisely-unprotected nuclear facilities of Saddam, near Baghdad in 1981.

Last card, but absolutely not least is the fact that Iran’s leadership, as well as almost anybody else in the politics, are perfectly aware of the badly-reduced, overstretched US’s military power. In other word, although America always states that the military option is on the table; both sides know that it’s not really an option to be considered.

Add to this, Iran’s military power. Although obviously not as strong as to be able to withstand United States army, strong enough to inflict serious damages to US’s interests in the region.

The above-mentioned analogy, justifies Iran’s leaders sharp and seemingly irrational rhetoric with regard to Israel, their irritating disobedient from the security council’s resolutions and their obvious unwillingness toward any political solution, trying to facilitate Iran’s access to peaceful nuclear technology. Otherwise, how anyone could possibly explain Iran’s leaders demagoguery, attracting so much attention to Iran’s hostility toward Israel and defiance to United States, if what they really need is a calm, attention-free environment where they can pursue a secret military plan under the cover of a civilian reactor?

Iran is aware that the world is absolutely determined to prevent her from becoming a nuclear state. They know that Israel already has an elaborate plan and the military capability as well, to finish the job if the situation appears to be critical and they will consider to do it alone if the rest of the world shies away, but Iran also knows that such procedure would be massively costly for the international community. In fact, expensive enough to justify paying a massive bribe to Iran just to avoid the confrontation. The bribe could be an amalgam of subjects; from lifting the sanctions to the securing the future of the regime from any possible threat from the outsides. The intentional efforts of Iran’s rulers to cultivate the Iran-o-phobia among western nations as well as Israel, is only logically explainable if it is to be a well-tailored political gesture to raise the final price of the deal to the highest level possible. A quite common scene in every haggle where one side is a Middle Easterner!

Considering the seemingly unsolvable catastrophe of Iraq, it would not be surprising if a defying, rebellious Iran would give up her nuclear ambitions right before US’s presidential election and all of a sudden justifies the whole Neo-Cons’s pre-emptive adventure in the Middle East.

And on the other side, since Iran’s leaders has repeatedly announced that they are not pursing a military plan and a nuclear war head is absolutely not what they are looking for, there would not be any need for the gesture to be explained or justified for Iran’s public.

After all, if it happens it wouldn’t be the first time, Islamic republic of Iran helping republicans win an election.

4 years old drummer!

The little boy was reading the magazine passionately, while his father was buying a pack of cigarettes. The boy asked his father if he could buy the magazine for him. The father looked at him as he was paying for the cigarettes and responded that he didn’t have enough money with him.

Although it happened years ago, I still can remember the lingering gaze of the boy to that magazine as they were walking away, as well as his father’s confident voice, assuring that there was really no more money for the magazine and I mostly do remember the scene whenever I hear one of the world’s leaders, justifying why they should cut the budget for all the good things in the world, just because there’s not enough money!

I know it cost billions to fund education and health care, to protect the environment or to go on with medical researches, but does anybody have any idea, how much we spend annually on arms and ammunition?

If you think you know and it’s a boring subject, well at least you can take a guess, can’t you?

Did any body come up with 1.4 trillion dollars a year?! Unbelievable ha?

Yet somehow, we can always come up with the money for the cigarettes!