33rd aniversary of Tehran hostage crisis

No, the headline of this post does not mis-calculate the days of the year 1979. In my eyes, the hostage crisis in Tehran started on March 31st 1979, and not in November of the same year. Sure, Wikipedia and history textbooks will consider the occupation of the US embassy as THE Tehran hostage crisis, and this event indeed took place at the end of the year. This "performance" of angry students, however, only temporarily caused a freeze in the US-Iranian relationship and did not caused any direct victims. In my eyes, the real hostage crisis happend already 7 month earlier, at the 31st of March. This was the day when the islamist regime took over power, after the Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi and his entire family fled the country. The majority of the Iranian people, however had no chance of turning away from their home country, and these people are the real hostages since 33 years. Although there might have been a real majority being in unease with the authoritarian monarchist power of the Shah, the real tragedy for them started when the so-called Iranian Revolution established a cruel, in-human regime that refuses people their basic rights of freely expressing their opinion, chossing their life-style, clothing or religion. Hundred thousands of Iranian people were branded as enemy of Islam by the regime and cowardly killed by police and basidj thugs. The tragedy of many political activists of Iran, who in the 70s for honest reasons were engaged in the fight against the political unfreedom under the Shah, but suddenly found themself in a system of uncomparable opression and hypocracy is exemplified by the story of Maryam Farman Farmaian, nicknamed the Red Princess. When Princess Maryam was 10 years old she continued to learn at the first Tehran school for girls, where her sense for social rights and equal opportunities and human progress developed. She received a liberal education for the Persian women of her time, and attended university later in life while living in exile. She was a linguist, fluent in Persian, Arabic, French, Russian, German, and English. An independent thinker, she appreciated communist theory. She chose to become a member of the Tudeh party, because this political organisation was the only party willing to accept her as a woman and give her a chance to become active in the women's rights movement. Maryams enthusiams for political changes and a new society with equal rights for everybody was so strong that she decided to abandon her aristocratic name and adopted the surname Firouz in her political struggles;  her grandfather's name. She became known as Maryam Firouz in the political arena. She retained her legal name as Maryam Farman Farmaian with pride.

Read the full story here Princess Maryam

Jane Eyre's nocturnal escape inspired Kate Bush

Ghazal, my Dear, do you remember the chapter 28 of Jane Eyre, where she runs away from the wedding and has to sleep outside in the forest in absolute loneliness and despair?   A really horrible situation, right ? I red recently that one of the great pop singers of the 80s/90s, Kate Bush, was very much influenced by this scene, and two of her most famous songs, "Wuthering Heights" and "Running up that hill" are about this .

When an irrational power reaches for hellfire

While Israel prime minister Netanjahu warns the Iranian regime of a military strike against their nuclear facilities, Trita Parsi, head of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) explains the background motivation of the mullahs attitude to gain full access to nuclear technology. But his interview with the US late night comedy "Daily Show" appears more as a promotional event for his book, than the thoughtful explanation of one of the most dangerous geopolitical constellations of our times.

The Daily Show
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Iranian movies attract greater international attention

Dearest Ghazal,
Before the 2012 Oscar will be awarded on February 26th to the different categories of cinematography, I would like to say something about the state of the Iranian Cinema. This year, the highly acclaimed masterpiece "Nader and Simin - A separation" by the prominent Iranian film-maker Asghar Farhadi is nominated as the best non-english movie and for the best script.

"Nader and Simin" was not the only Iranian film which made it to the western screens during the last years. We were mesmerized by Ali Samadi Ahadis "Green Wave" and "Salami Aleikum", by Shirin Neshats "Zanan-e bedun-e mardan (Woman without Men)" and by the magic realism of Marjam Satrapis "Persepolis" and "Chicken with Plums".
Movies by Iranian directors who have the chance to work abroad (like Marjan Satrapi or Ali Samadi Ahadi) are extraordinary masterpieces, carrying a very unique handwriting of their directors. And they breath the spirit of freedom and of unlimited creativity. But because they are produced in the west, they attract much less media attention. The media and critics in the west too often judge a movie more by the circumstances under which it has been produced, and therefore grant a movie that has been produced inside the country an extra bonus for "braveness". And for this extra bonus there seem to be a consensus that Iranian movies which are a domestic production (like those by Jafar Panahi, Abbas Kiarostami, Asghar Fahadi or Mohammad Rasoulof) might lack the free-spirit and the very personal and experimental techniques and tough expressions, which are characteristic for movies like "Green Wave" or "Salami Alaikum" by Ali Samadi Ahadi, "Woman without Men" by Shirin Neshat or "Chicken with Plum" by Marijam Satrapi. How is it possible, that although anything else than happy ending soft-stories, these four movies leave the audience with a feeling of hope, with the confidence that even the biggest tragedy will find a solution, or at least a meaning ? Is it because each tragedy will loose its horror if it can be openly narrated, if a movie-director can show and say everything he/she wants to say, using the words and pictures he/she feels are appropriate in this very moment ? This way even the saddest and tragic stories like in "Green Wave" or in "Chicken with Plum" can be presented with the greatest of ease. Here, the movie will be a relieve for the director, for the actors and finally for the audience. Because the emotionally strong stories were transformed into movies with all possible and all neccessary cinematografic elements, the audience feels a strong satisfaction and happiness.
In contrast, the movies produced at home in Iran (like "Darbareye Elly" or "Nader and Simin - A divorce" by Fahadi or "Offside" by Jafar Panahi) can not make us forget that censorship is the dominating condition under which artists have to live and work. Each single word in a dialogue, every character, every scenery has to be considered under the threat of censoreship. The so-called "scissors in your own head" might help the director to finally produce a movie that passes the ideological watch-dogs of the regime, and therefore wont suffer too much from beeing "trimmed" by some uneducated beaurocrats. But the movie itself, even if it fullfills the highest standard of movie-arts and creativity, innovation and honesty, can not make us forget that it was produced under conditions of unfreedom. You still can smell the sweat of the film-makers from the fear of loosing the battle against the beaurocrats, you can feel the many frustrating moments they had when another brilliant idea had to be put aside, for the sake to get the whole project through the machinery. One feels that they had to carefully select their words and their pictures, and this leaves a feeling in the audience that not everything what should have been said and shown in the movie became real.
I still advocate the Oscar beeing awarded to Asghar Fahadi, I think the battle he fought against the dump and dogmatic Iranian censoreship and the excellent team work he set up with great artists such as Sareh Bayat, Leila Hatami, Peyman Hatami and many others should be honoured. I think that none of the directors that left Iran would have had enough mental energy to fight through all these odds as Fahadi did, always beeing aware of the risk to end up in prison or beeing sentenced with a ban to work, as his colleague Jafar Panahi has experienced it. For sure, neither Ali Samadi Ahadi, nor Marijam Satrapi or Shirin Neshat would have had the stand and the courage (and maybe other qualities as well) to go through all the husles and restrictions to produce their movies at home in Iran - but maybe under conditions of relative freedom they are the more innovative and creative art-directors. A case where an Iranian film-maker probably tried to get "the best of both worlds" was Bahman Gobadis "Kasi az gorbehaye irani khabar nadareh (No one knows about persian cats)" According to IMBD, ".. during filming, Ghobadi and his actors were arrested twice but released after giving presents to the authorities and lying about the real subject of the film." This way Bahman Gobadi found a half legal, half underground style to get a movie approved by the Iranian authorities, although it was full of satyrical episodes and signs showing that a way-out of the misery requires the abolution of the dogmatic islamic laws of the mullahs regime. But this film must be considered a singular event.

In general, Iranian movies must be judged either by their political braveness (if they are produced inside Iran) or by the high cinematographic standard (when they are produced abroad). At the current political situation and the degree of oppression of intellectuals and arts-people under the islamic regime I think it is legitimate to honour with the Oscar award the movies who are the result of a brave political fight. But in history books of Iranian movie arts, I believe, the films of the exiled directors Ali Samadi Ahadi, Marjam Satrapi or Shirin Neshat might be considered more innovative and of longer-lasting value.

Persian Drag Queens

Dear Ghazal, In general I don't like to send or forward uncommented videos or photographs. But the following one is just so funny, I think any additional words would just spoil it. Enjoy, Take Care, Michael PS: the video has recently be blocked by youtube or classified as "privat". Thats too bad, cause it was nice, funny, and not offencive at all ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Michael,

Drag Queens are cult. Makes me smile. I love how they perform. Do you also think that transvestites very often look more attractive then real woman ? Shava, however complained about the jokes they did in the video about big noses ! She insisted that big noses are beautiful, that they are precious, that they give character and are a sign of  strong personality. But now big noses become an endangered species in Iran. Because its the easiest and most profitable operation for the plastic surgeons. Shava said people who have their big nose reduced should better be send  to a neurosurgeon to get a Brain bypass operation. I hope everything is fine  with you, Take Care /ghazal --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ghazal my dear, First of all, I have to say how much I agree with Shavas opinion regarding big noses.It always makes me very sad to hear that people can be ashamed of their sharp noses. The attempt to "correct" it to resemble japanese manga figures is a regrettable and irreversible damage to the personality. Large, sharp noses were always seen as a reflection of a strong character. Therefore it does not come as a surprise they are so common among the Iranians.

In many mythologies the nose was even considered to be the breathing organ of the human soul. Therefor invading troops in ancient times used to break off the noses off statues that portrayed the local gods and goddesses. They thought that this way they can destroy their power.  What comes as a relief: a corrected nose can not be inherited to the next generation. Size of the nose is largely genetically determined (i.e. by fixed DNA variations that are differently distributed among different ethnic groups). Therefore, the iranian people, even if they have their large noses reduced by plastic surgery,  will transmit their original size as a genetic treasure to the next generations. Tell Shava that hope is in sight. The attempt to improve its own chances on the hunt for a partner by "correcting" ones nose has even a long-term effect that causes even more large noses in Iran. It is simply by increasing the chance of woman with (genetically large/surgically small) noses to find one or more partner to have children with. Therefor the natural selection for genetically small noses is fooled, since the eyes cannot see whats hidden in the genes. Befor plastic surgery, partnership preference for small noses would have really caused continious loss of the large-nose-genes with the dangerous consequence of (as Shava called it) large noses becoming an endangered species. With the advent of plastic surgery, however, sexual selection against large noses does not work any more. Therefor, large noses are not lost, but rather hidden in our genes for future generations. Take Care, my Dear  (and take care of your beautiful nose. If any moron makes silly comments about it, print out this post and stick it him on his forehead !!!)

 

 

Persian Cat rules its Empire from the Back of a Horse

Dear Michael,

While I have been away in the lab,  Shava must have found a link to your blog.  When she red the short profile of persian-cat.de, she first thought that your blog is all about child stories (o.k., I have to tell you that sometimes even your posts appear a bit fairy-tale kids-style to me !!).

Anyhow, Shava was surprised to read that the blog is a "dialogue between a cat and a mouse", and she asked me if this is part of the european and western idea that all social conflicts will eventually be settled peacefully and all creatures in the society will have equal rights to express their opinion ? She says in her opinion this is a big illusion, because there are natural differences between different people, same as there are natural differences between creatures. She came up with an old comic from her child-hood (Moosh o Gorbeh - موش و گربه),  which is about cats (persian) and mice (also persian).

[caption id="attachment_2327" align="alignleft" width="438" caption="Moosh o Gorbeh 1"][/caption]

And here you see the reality: The last thing that a cat will do to mice is to have a long conversation with them about science or the meaning of life. If a cat does not eat the mice right away for dinner, it might "rule them" from its high thrown (perhaps only to keep the poor mice nearby and have it ready to be eaten for the next meal).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the other picture from this nice old book you can see the typical situation in a "civilized society":  Those who are in power (the fat cat) can sit, and have their subordinates (the other cats) standing below them in rows, awaiting an order.

 

The picture we found at Shahre Farang.

Take Care   /ghazal

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Dear Ghazal,

This blog is phantasie, I agree. But my intention is just to defend the right of mice against the cats. A cats are widely considered a lovely pet, and benefical to man, whereas mice are always seen as vermin. But who (except us scientists) know how much the mice have contributed for the progress in bio-medicine ? Without mice, we would know very little about tissue- and bone-marrow transplantation. Our knowledge about the generation of blood cells and the regulation of the immune-system would be very basic. The first oncogenes involved in leukaemia and breast-cancer were identified in mice that developed a tumor. And the evolving field of stem-cells (which are the key for life of multicellular organisms) was 95% based on laboratory mice. As compared to all these achievements, the perception of mice and its role for mankind is too negative.  When Shava finds it strange that cats and mice could live peaceful together, she is absolute right. But I am wondering if the two could not have a distant dialogue, an exchange of thoughts ?  Couldn't it be that the natural relationship of a predator and its victim would turn into a intellectual partnership as soon as they are separated from each other ?

I like very much these old pictures from the persian book "Moosh o Gorbeh".  Too bad I cannot read the story in original persian language. But I found a german and english version of the book, by Farangis Yegane, who also draw modern illustrations for the book. I think I will read it on his website. In particular he announces a chapter where the mice plotted a rebellion against the cat.  I am really curious how they are doing this.

To 'think outside the box,' think outside the box

Dear Michael,

I finally gave the talk about my MSc project at an institutes seminar, about genetic factors associated with radio-iodine uptake in mice. People immediately became interested in the link between radioiodine uptake and retention in the fetal thyroid gland, and thje later risk to develop thyroid cancer.

I had to tell them that at least in the mouse model that we studied together in your lab, there was not such a simple link. Radioiodine uptake and pharmacokinetic are determined by genetic factors, but the long term cancer risk is obvsiouly governed by other genes. And the subtle differences between different mouse strains in their isotope retention in thyroid seems to be only a minor determinant in cancer risk. Other genes or their variants are obviously more important, but we have not found them yet.

Most colleagues assumed that there must be a direct linear connection between isotope uptake or thyroid dose and cancer risk. Only a professor from human genetics department told people they should start to "think outside their box". I did not knew this phrase before, therefore I checked it in Google. And I came across an interesting research paper in a psychological journal. The authors of the new paper were inspired by metaphors about creativity found in boardrooms to movie studios to scientific laboratories around the world and previous linkages established between mind and body.

Want to think outside the box? Try actually thinking outside of a box. In a study to be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, researchers had students think up solutions to problems while acting out various metaphors about creative thinking and found that the instructions actually worked.

Enjoy your day, and remember there are not only cages that restrict our physical freedom, but also boxes which keep our inspiration and phantasy down.

Take Care

/ghazal

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Ghazal my Dear,

Thanks for the nice thoughts. I printed out this last sentence from you and sticked it on my memory board. It is there together now with a sentence by Oscar Wilde: "We are all living in cages, but there are only a few of us who see the stars". Of course you are one of these few.

Take Care, my Dear

Michael

First system developed to assess living conditions on other planets

Hi Michael,

You recommended last year to escape onto this newly discovered exo-planet Giese..., which is 20 light-years away from earth. I told you I can not leave Stockholm , cause my family needs me here and I am busy with my PhD project.

But today I red something in the newspaper, what might make your invitation more realistic: Some researchers have developed a computer program that after putting in some data it can predict the suitability of any planet for human life. So in case you will know about a planet that is not light-years away from home, but maybe only some light-hours, we might have its living-conditions checked with this program, before going there for a short visit.

Take Care /ghazal

A rediculous spelling mistake by the UN

In 1971 the Princess of Iran Ashraf Pahlavi, sister of Shah Reza Pahlevi, presented the United Nations Secretary General U Thant with a replica of Cyrus Cylinder. This archeologic artefact stems from the 6th century BC and was excavated in 1879 by Hormuzd Rassam, an Iranian-British archeologist. On the clay cylinder a declaration is written in Akkadian cuneiform script, guaranteeing equal rights to every subordinate of the Achaemenid king Cyrus the Great, independent on nation or religion. In the late 1960s the Cylinder gained new prominence when the last Shah of Iran called it "the world's first charter of human rights". The cylinder was a key symbol of the Shah's political ideology and is still regarded by some commentators as a charter of human rights, despite the disagreement of some historians and scholars. He wrote that "the history of our empire began with the famous declaration of Cyrus, which, for its advocacy of humane principles, justice and liberty, must be considered one of the most remarkable documents in the history of mankind."

On top of the UN protocol about the ceremony are some handwritten remarks, which show that even in the surpreme international organisation some people had difficulties in not mixing historical characters and places of the mideastern hemisphere.  Instead of linking Iran to the "Edict of Cyrus", they "newly invented" an "Edict of Cyprus". It would be interesting to find out if a copy of this protocol was ever forwarded to the Shahs palace in Teheran, maybe with a post-it saying "For your information" !!  This typo remained unnoticed for more than 40 years,  although the protocol must have been available in the web since several years.

The entire UN protocol can be found here.

               

Fighting christian dominance on Blogger"s blogosphere

Where have all these babtists, evangelicals and other "born-again christian" morons learned how to write a blog ????  Is it only me who feels like sitting in the wrong movie (as we germans like to say), because always when I click the Next Blog command in the header row of my own Broken-Radius I got the impression to be thrown into a christian fundamentalists propaganda machinery. Most of these blogs then display personal profiles aiming of presenting its owner as a more faithful person than holy Thomas of Aquin or Margaretha of Bingen. What a crap christian conspiracy is occupying the cyperspace here ? I feel surrounded by dumb christian fundamentalists flooding  the web with their bigotry. 

This is as worse as it is nowadays on short-wave radio, where you dont hear BBC, VOA, Radio Moscow or Deutsche Welle any more, but all free frequencies are taken over by Radio Maria, Radio Vatican, Bible Radio and their islamic counterparts.

However small my contribution to fight this spread of christian stupidity and lies might be, I will counterstrike with some photos showing that the battle is not lost jet. and in particular to show, that the real life and the real battles are still happening on the streets. One of these street-born counteractions took place May 2010 in Munich (sorry Asal, I forgot to invite you to this event), where me and Jane from west-coast USA demonstrated our discomfort with Pope Benedikt personal cult. The demonstration under the slogan "Jolly Procession" was organized by the Munich branch of the "Freidenker Verband". 

Please note that we were escorted by the German Police, which expressed its sympathy and defended our march against the furious participants of a religious pro-Benedict festival that took place at the same time.

 

Thats NOT me and Jane, but the brave organizers of the event. This fake priest looks more disgusting than Joker from Batman, but the fake nun looks as pretty as Michele Pfeiffer.

We gave this grey day a lot of extra and vivid colours. Click on the "PLAY VIDEO" bottom below, please.  Never click on the "NEXT BLOG" bottom in the header row.