And blogging prevails!

The story of under the azure dome is over! It fully occupied all my life for the last two months. My supervisor caught me emailing, writing, printing festival stuff!!! If he was not Daniel from Argentina, I would be kicked out of school by now!

On the very moment of Eid, bunch of us who were trucking back festival stuff rushed to Arash and Ida's place and saluted the moment by strong whiskey shots! A memorable Sal-tahvil!

I could claim that we had a successful festival with over 20,000 visitors. Although problems occured but they got resolved through civil behavior and respect. More to come!

It is now my first day back at the library! lots to do, the tenants election is in two weeks and my questionnare is not ready. I am behind for my interviews and many more.

Thanks to all toronto-iranians who proudly celeberated Nowruz, I am happy to live in this vibrant city of Toronto, check here to see why Sima is also happy to live in Berkely and not LA!

Under the Azure Dome Festival

يکي بود يکي نبود، زير گنبد کبود
يک شهري بود، يک جمعي بود مهاجر
جوان داشت و پير داشت، مرد داشت و زن داشت.
هر کسي در گوشه اي کاري مي کرد، گروهي داشت
يکي رنگرزي مي کرد، اون يکي خونه مي ساخت، داداشش کباب مي زد، باجناقش طرفهای يانگ و فينچ صحافي مي کرد

خلاصه چند سالي بود يکي يکي، گروه گروه، مي آمدند،
مي رسيدند

به ياد ايرونشون دور هم جمع مي شدند؛

مهندس ها، معلم ها، دکترها و آشپزها همگي يه جوري باهم بودند

دو فصل پيش، شايدم سه فصل پيش بود که ما جوانها جمع شديم، گروه شديم
گفتيم حالا ديگه نوبت ماست.
حالا که چاق شديم، چله شديم، حسابي پخته شديم بايد بريم سراغ صاحبخانه بهش بگيم
ايران ما هم رقص دارد، رنگ دارد، قصه دارد، موسيقي و شعر دارد.
صاحبخانه که کنجکاو شده بود دروازه ها را باز کرد، فرش قرمز به پا کرد
حالا از شما، از شما ایرونیها مي خواهيم بياييد کمک کنيد، همسايه ها را صدا کنيد،

توي شهر فرياد کنيد که عيد آمد، مردم، بياييد شادي کنيد

To Become Canadian?!

I filed an application, took the exam, made the oath and will have a Canadian passprt in 10 days. Canadian passport is the best traveling document, the Judge said this morning at the ceremony. He himself had two of them! Like most of the other Canadians.

The first holy places to explore are NY, D.C. preceded by Mexico! See you in January!

Are we now citizens of nations? Or villagers of the globe? Except the fact that it eases our travels, what does becoming Canadian mean?

Best wishes for you on this special Aban the 10th

It is a long time since my last presence. During this time I paid a short visit to Iran for a family emergency. I am now back with loads of work to do.

Today (10 Aban) is the birthday of a very special and old friend of mine who now lives in Germany with her lovely husband. I congratulate her on this day. She was the source of all inspirations for the, then, 15 year old Behrang. I have always appreciated being in her circle of friends, she is a smart and challenging friend. Our history goes back to the Tehran bombardement era. My grand parents, my brother and I joined her family in Garmsar to escape the rockets, my parents stayed behind. It was a group of us, I will never forget the Hide and Seek nights, I will never forget how many times my emotions lost to her rationality in our Jenagh-shekastan ha!!! I will never forget the looks we exchanged then!

Although we never got the chance to mutually build any sort of special relationship and never talked seriously about ourselves since university years but I am sure I have a friend to whom I can rely all my life.

بهزاد نبوی را بهتر بشناسیم

اگر اين منافع در تقابل با منافع مردم باشد، چه؟

ما احساس وابستگي به اين انقلاب و نظام داريم. به هر حال روي اين انقلاب سرمايه گذاري کرديم و هزينه داديم. معتقديم کساني پيدا

شده اند که مي خواهند واقعيت انقلاب ما را دگرگون کنند. به هر حال چون ما مي دانيم اصل اين انقلاب چه مي خواست، ما نمي توانيم با جواني که اصلا انقلاب را درک نکرده، امام را نمي شناسد و ... و حالا خواهان برخورد با ارکان نظام است، هماهنگ شويم. ما در

مقابل انحرافات بايد بايستيم، نه اينکه با اصل آن برخورد کنيم. ما حتي نظام مشروطه را هم نظام بدي نمي دانستيم

Behzad Nabavi in Today's Rooz says he and his followers, among the official so called reformers, cannot stand with (suppoert) the youth who has never understood Khomeini and the revolution and are willing for a major social change.

What I have always been confident in claiming is that the reformers in Iran do not possess the intellect to lead the reform, simply see how he distances himself from a huge fraction of the population to secure the throne!

Under the Azure Dome

The Azure Dome is a dome where all the Iranian myths live and flourish.
It is the name of our Festival in March 2006. Read the report.
We are hoping to have the support of the Tehrontonians for this magnificent event.

I am late

It is late. And I am off. Many things to say. Daniel, my supervisor, invited me to his house. I will spend the afternoon with him. Thesis talk and thesis talk! I would like to end this routine and join the profressionals who are performing the art of community development.

All in One

I do not know on "what" to write.
I am presenting at this conference in Aug and I have to send them my paper by next week, I have to write the final paper for the Social Housing course by mid July. Working at TLC is my other time-consuming responsibility.
I have my aunt went through an opeartion to remove her breasts for the cancer she was diagnosed and worse she is now devastated by the loss of Amou Majid.

All of above! Sometimes it is too much that one does not know how to start, right?

Amou Majid smoked his way through the black castle of death!
Fathers, do not smoke! Now that you have sons and daughters to parent, do not smoke. Please, control your crave!

You offical reformers! you all failed, what did you do to sustain your plan to guide reform after your sinking? Did you help people organize? Did you help to change the educational arrangements at schools so that kids could learn about Rights, Citizenship and Civil Society? Give me an indicator that proves me wrong in claiming that you have done nothing to initiate a grassroots move for reform.

Regardless, Ahmadinejad could be a source of inspiration for further action! He might create a global crisis or address the needs of the people, either way, it is people who win! No long-term worries, though, short-term concern is wisdom.

Reform movement could now re-commence by building on what Ahmadinejad claims he wants to do. In order to alleviate poverty, the system required to do community-based needs analysis, system needs to organize the poor. So any better chance you know that could help speed up the process? Go to the people and help them organize to address their needs even local needs, even needs that seem populistic.

As I have shouted all the time, democracy is decentralizing accountable autonomy to people.
Democracy begins in the speher of social and economic relations and then human rights come in to sustain it and guarantee its progress. Democracy is when a cab driver has a say in transportaion system or knows how and where he could put his idea in and how to monitor its effect.