IRAN

“Human beings are members of a whole, In creation of one essence and soul. If one member is afflicted with pain, Other members uneasy will remain. If you have no sympathy for human pain, The name of human you cannot retain.” - Saadi.

What Saidi had said so many years ago, was never so applicable for the country he came from as in the past couple of days.
Elections. What you can imagine under that word and under the act can fluctuate and be subjective. In foreign Soviet Union it did not exist, in Germany it is free, in the US it is complicated, and well, in Iran? I guess that has to be determined. when a country had a revolution some 30 years ago with the aim to decrease the level of differences between rich and poor, with the aim to make Iran Iran again and get rid of Western Influences... and now history repeats.
I remember the days before the first Persian revolution. I was a child and had no idea what was happening. For us kids it was just exciting to see so many people screaming on the streets, and not having school. Little did we know that the revolution, which we were about to have, the change of government would change people's lives. Including my own. Sure, I belonged to one of the families who had ties outside the country and was able to move out again. But the remaining ones are the ones who had to live through a war, through censored media, through lack of food, lack of freedom.
Now the ones who were my age and stayed in Iran have children, who do not even know any other government except this one.
These "children" are the ones who made a new Iran, not a Monarchy, not a Islamic Republic. It is their country. They should be the ones deciding who should be their leader.
all of this said and understood, for me the question comes up why we do not see any democracy in any of the Middle Eastern countries? I guess it is the culture, people's personality of not being able to loose, of not being able to be the leaders. I don;t want to get into the discussion who should have been the leader now in Iran. I guess from my tone it is obvious whose supporter I am. But generally middle eastern cultures have a temper, which does not let them be well balanced. So what happened to Saidi's words? I guess Iranians all have his books, read them, and leave it as is. Except the new generation. My heart aches when I see the news and see faces full of hope of change. Their hope destroyed through more force. Why? Because in all the political talk the older Iranian generation seems to have forgotten what the aim of humanity should be. Iranians of the older generation who do not support this change should be ashamed, the ones who do not see the inequality should be ashamed. Come on, we were the people of Cyrus the Great, the one who was the first to write down Human Rights! What happened? I guess more people will die, more battles will be fought just to prove humanity.

US Presidential Election 2008

I know, it is three weeks too late. But I have to be honest: I had this article, and it was published in my local newspaper as a L-t-E. BUT: I forgot to post it here. Blame it on work, age, or Thanksgiving. :-)
However, that said, I thought better late than never. So here it is:

Congratulations to all Americans!

Finally, yesterday it was official; the President of Hearts became the President-elected. What a relief! For me it was the third time to vote for presidential elections, and I have to admit it was the first time that I was truly proud that I had obtained the US citizen ship. With an Iranian heritage, growing up in Germany, I came 14 years ago to the country, where I believed was the right place for “lost” people. Just to realize that it was the same as everywhere else I went. Rarely could people understand the advantages and disadvantages of bi-cultural, bi-lingual, and the issues of being neither “fish nor meat” were. Through Barack Obama, our country found a true leader, who represents exactly what the fundamentals of our nation are. It does not matter what your skin color is, it does not matter where you are from: we are one nation, all immigrants in one country. Every one of us is able to identify in one way or another with him. I believe that I speak on behalf of many people, by saying that I am proud of Barack Obama and I truly believe that he represents the term of “American” as what our Fathers had intended it to be.