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!

Long live Wilem....Long live Pronto

Pronto is amazing. The new invention by a South African called Wilem Van Rensburg, a brand new condom that you can put it on, in only 3 seconds! No messy oily sheets, no pathetic struggle with the stubborn wrapping, using your teeth and last but not least, no finding the right side in the dark using the dim light of your cell phone!

Any guy who’s used condoms in his life would realize that it’s much more important step for man kind than landing on the moon or coming up with the big-bang theory or discovering the black holes! After all, how many black holes we have to deal with in our daily lives?! (and I mean a real black hole not the metaphoric ones!)

And the painful thing is that I had the idea about 10 years ago but as usual, I didn’t take myself seriously. Now the guy is a millionaire and I should be just a happy, relieved consumer!

And in a country like South Africa which has the World’s biggest rate of HIV infections, he’s not only going to be a millionaire, but a hero as well. I think that he absolutely deserves it!

When was the last time you were in such a good mood?

Free Hugs Campaign

Dove's for real beauty

It's really creepy

(Originally was supposed to be published last week!)

I’m going to write more. How do I know that? Well, for one reason, I have a very comfortable chair now, hundred times better than the old pain in the neck one, which was ironically giving me pain in the neck, quite frequently!

I bought it from Sousou and William who are leaving Montreal for California next month and I suppose that’s the only good which could possibly come from two good friends as well as Colleagues, leaving the city. I know I’ll miss them so bad!

Anyway, this weekend I watched three movies on DVD. First one was Spike Lee’s Inside man. An interesting action movie that although very well made, but I’m afraid to say, totally predictable and without any new idea whatsoever. One of those movies to enjoy for two hours but to be forgotten, right before the after-movie-bathroom ritual!

The second one was Terry Zwigoff’s Art School Confidential. A pretty powerful comedy, criticizing the dysfunctional, annoying environment of art schools, where pretentious debates, ridiculous manifestations of knowledge and the amalgam of biases, destroy talents and originality, in a very destructive ambience.

The movie itself, though not a masterpiece, a very satisfying movie to watch and enjoy.

Third one was a French movie by Stephane Brize called Je ne suis pas la pour etre aime or I’m not there to be loved. A simple but deeply emotional film about a middle age man, falls in love with her young Tango partner who’s soon going to get married with her fiancé. A minimalist, romantic, realistic, touching, adorable and by far, unpretentious movie which is a true pleasure to watch. In my case, it reminded me that how my obsession to learn Tango is about to pass the stage of passion and become a disorder!

By the way, for the second time, I have my camera replaced, because of a LCD’s burnt pixel. I’m so happy with the Futureshop for doing the exchange, cause after more than two months, they were not legally obliged to do so and also, apparently the number of burnt pixels should exceed a certain limit so it can be called a defect! Anyway, the Future Shop located in AMC has the nicest, most helpful managers so I strongly recommend it for your future electronic purchases!

P.S. I was humiliatingly defeated in my third comprehensive campaign to clean my room, due to the feisty resistance of my unorganized bills and papers. Although I was promised by my chief of staff that the fourth attempt would be definitively successful!

HILARIOUS!

Miserere

From the album Two Shoes by The Cat Empire...

Do you ever look around
turn your ear to the ground
show your face to the sky
on a night when the skies echoe sounds
from inside of your mind
on the stage that you shone
where the sun did become you
and move with your thoughts
through the sighs and the scenes
of the worlds you have seen
and the sights that have been
your reflection in shadows and dreams?
- your reflection in shadows and dreams

Did you ever see a man
who did walk down the street
white robe with no shoes on his feet
and on top of his head place a box with two slits
and the sign from his neck said
‘I do not exist’
or a woman who could not remember her name
did stutter and stutter
again and again
and saw you and called you her son
her eyes said
‘my being is gone
but still I’m not dead’?

Miserere

Have you ever seen a sound
have you listened to an image
have you ever touched a thought
have you ever tasted nothing
have you ever told a lie
that was true more than truth
because truth it had lied
all its life when it spoke to you?
And what did it say
it is that it is this
this goes here here is there
it is not yes it is
it was dulling your senses
your eyes they were bound
have you ever my friends
been looking around?

And the other replies
with a wave of a hand
I am already here
in this promised land
but not by a god and not by a king
and not by a spirit
deep from within
I am here
because a miracle’s a whim
it’s a flash of glory
it’s an empty tin
and maybe might lets you in
not to save you
but to keep on looking-

Miserere…

Have you ever
been so happy that you’re sad?
that the lights turn to stars
and the stars become eyes
and hello’s are goodbye’s
and the laughs are the sigh’s
and the show disappears with the note
‘until next time’

Long live living
if living can be this

Long live living
if living can be this

Long live living
if living can be this

Long live living
if living can be this

Do you ever look around
turn your ear to the ground
show your face to the sky
on a night when the skies echoe sounds
from inside of your mind
on the stage that you shone
where the sun did become you
and move with your thoughts
through the sighs and the scenes
of the worlds you have seen
and the sights that have been
your reflection in shadows and dreams
Do you ever look around
and find what is yet to be found?

How do you feel about women's rights ? I like either side of them. (Groucho Maarx)

Sin City

I saw her again. It took me a month to get over her and there she was, right in front of me.

“Hey, it’s been a long time, where are you going?” she asked.

“Hey. I’m going to catch a movie, care to join?”, I replied as I was trying to play as calm as possible while my heart was coming out of my ears and my face was getting so hot, the thin layer of frost on my glasses was melting away!

“I love to. Which one are you going to watch?”

“Sin city…it’s the recent work of Robert Rodriguez. It made a lot of fuss in Cannes this year. I saw the trailer and it looked pretty amazing”

“I saw the trailer too. It seems to be so violent and I’m not in the mood for that. Would you mind if we just sit down and have a coffee or something? I really missed talking to you.”

“Why on earth I loved her so much?! why on earth my fucking heart is still pumping so hard?! She’s the most average girl I’ve ever been with in every possible way…why I can’t get over her?!”

My heart disagreed. Apparently, the argument was not convincing enough for my stupid brain to stop pouring the deadly hormones of excitements into my veins, once again.

I couldn’t refuse the offer. I knew it was the most stupid decision that I could possibly make in that moment but I just couldn’t do otherwise!

Two years later, finally I watched the movie. She was right…the movie was sadistically violent, so graphically brutal. But I was right too. It was a masterpiece as I was expecting. One of the most stunning movies I’ve ever seen. Unbelievably brilliant!

I still couldn’t realize why I loved her once, but this time, I’m glad that my heart does agree with me, finally!