Kamangir (Archer)

Polygamy, Uranium Enrichment, and the Blast in Tel Aviv

Kamangir | April 17, 2006 | Category Iran

Azadeh and I were watching Lary King Live’s recent show about polygamy. He was talking with a mother of eight who has fled from her hometown, somewhere around Colorado I guess, in the dark of the night. Her main problem was living in a polygamist community. Then he talked with three boys who were living far from their families. Their problem was similarly related to the existence of too many mothers in a very conflicting home. Till that time Azadeh and I were both thinking “those bastard men!” Then, Lary talked with three very sentimental women all of whom had “sister wives”, means the other wives of their husbands. The three women, one of whom had the experience of being the only wife of her husband, were giving a totally different story. To them, polygamists were only different to some extent. They were also claiming that they have no problem with the existence of many wives under the same roof. I looked at Azadeh and thought “either I am having a very strange wife or these women are out of their minds”. The other guest was a reporter from abc channel who had produced a commentary about polygamy. His observations, surprisingly, were definitely complying with the three women’s ones. Parts of the commentary were shown in the show. One of them showed the abc reporter in front of dozens of wives of a man. He asks “don’t you feel jealous?”, they reply something like “why should we? We are friends!” Then he asked if the man can satisfy all of them and they laughed.
We were having dinner a few nights ago when Azadeh mentioned “people are having tons of problems in Iran” and continued “what is the justification then to consume the country’s resources for nuclear electricity, if that’s exactly what is happening!” Basically, as I know, electricity is not among the most important problems in Iran. I remember having power cuts during the war with Iraq but in the last five years it was something quite rare. Thinking seriously, when I was in Iran there were serious problem with drinking water during very hot summer days, gas pressure drops during very cold winter days, and the pollution almost always. I see no benefit in pursuing nuclear electricity for these problems. The interesting part was when I was talking to my own family members, including my father whom is a mechanical engineer. Having the reputation of political activities during the revolution, not so much in favor of the Islamic side, and while the best birthday present for him has always been a book, I was shocked when he made a comment on the current nuclear crisis. He told me “after all, these European countries are attacking our dignity, they force us to avoid even academic nuclear research”. At that moment I felt Ahmadinejad has sneaked into my family.
His mom says “he was studying at the university, but because of his financial difficulties he stopped and took a job. I thought he was going to work” (see). I was thinking how can you convince a sixteen-year-old boy to blow himself up? He knew what he was doing, because they took a video of him. When I think about a boy of that age, I think the most important thing for him should be that girl he met last week in the bus. When I was sixteen my last idea was to blow myself up. I remember I tried to commit suicide. Thankfully, the drug, which I made myself, didn’t work. I do remember how much regretful I was when I was thinking I am going to die. But Hamad didn’t feel so. He did not approach the restaurant’s guy saying “I have an explosive belt around my waist but I have just decided to live more. Would you please help me take that off?” I assume that he was driven close to the scene, maybe a few blocks away. Then, he walked the whole passage till he reached to the restaurant. When he was stopped there, he blew himself up. Nowhere in these whole heart beating moments he felt, “Hey! What am I doing here?”
I like to use a Markovian notation for this, and please do not stop here because I am not going to put so much math here. Assume a system, a polygamist woman, an Iranian thinking about Uranium enrichment, or a Palestinian suicide bomber. Being Markovian, and I am using loose sentences, simply means that the situation of the system in the next moment depends only on its state in this moment. Mathematically it is preferred to show that as,
x*=xP (1).
Here, x* means the state of x at a very close future. If P has a few properties, which apply here, then as time goes on x tends to the fixed probability vector Ï€. To me that means a great opportunity for a political system. When x becomes steady you do not need any elections or even free press. So, I assume the main lover of the vector Ï€ are people like Khameneii who are “elected” sometimes in the past and then have remained in power because the system asks so, or at least does not ask for an alternative. Thinking backward, if I were a polygamist, Khameneii, or Islamic Jihad’s leader I would try to apply an equation like (1). This very simple equation actually describes why candidates in Iranian elections should pass through chambers which are governed by members of the very political oppression.
What is the solution to get rid of (1) and its consequences? One way is to have
x*=r (2)
where r is a totally random vector. That means one day you decide to wear your trousers as a shirt and the other day cars are twenty meters wide. That’s nonsense.
The practical idea is to have both random effects and correlation with the past
x*=xP+r (3)
This means although the people in power have a high chance of remaining in power again, but totally new people have also a chance. Actually, what is practiced is even much better, like the law that no one can become the president in more than two consecutive terms. Having a society which is governed by (3) means Hamad gets off the car. Suddenly he remembers the girl or a good mark he got or maybe even Britney Spears. Then, he asks himself “am I really going to blow myself up?” I don’t think his answer is what the polygamist, or Khameneii, or Islamic Jahad would like. Basically, that’s the time when people will ask “why”.

Blast in Tel Aviv

Kamangir | April 17, 2006 | Category Iran

If those black sheets with the prophet’s name were not hanging behind him, I would be thinking he is reading an essay about the “beauty of the spring”. The sixteen-year-old boy kills eight people at the scene and wounds dozens more, some of which are reported to be in serious condition. The boy, carrying the very common name Sami Salim Hamad, gives his last testimony in front of a video camera. I have not seen the video but I would expect him to say something about martyrdom and liberty. He also may have condemned the ugly “Zionists”. And then, he goes to a restaurant in a busy street in Tel Avaiv and blows himself up. Thanks to a guard at the door, whom is now killed, he could not enter and does the job right at the doorstep (see) (see) (see). I have read a few books on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. I have also watched some movies and commentaries about that, thanks to the Islamic Republic propaganda machine. As a non-believer I do not think the “fact” that some people’s ancestors have been living somewhere or the “God’s promise” to give them the land works for me. Basically, I can not accept an invasion based on these justifications. I have to emphasize that my view on the whole situations may be still dominated by the official position of the Islamic Republic, let me know if it is so.
To my understanding, Jewish people are living in Israel now. Having escaped from the tragedy of the world war and the Holocaust, they would care absolutely zero about “occupying others’ lands”. If I were them, I would think “I am living here”. Some of them may even say “my father lived here before”. So, however the whole situation began, the answer is neither “wiping the Israel off them map”, nor forgetting the Palestinian people’s rights. At least the position is like Canada, with gentle civilized white people who forced aboriginals out of their lands and are now committed to offer free education to them, at least federal law states so.
Thanks to Iranian president, when you search for photos of the event in Yahoo! News! You also find pictures of Palestinian Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal talking with Ahmadinejad about the dollars Iran is going to help to the Palestinian authority. Then the very same Hammas calls the attack a “legitimate response to Israeli aggression”. Furthermore, Islamic Jihad accepted the responsibility for the blast in a telephone call with Associated Press. When the agency posted the news on their output they generously added the sentence “believed to be funded in part by Iran” after Islamic Jihad’s name. I think that’s absolutely reasonable when an Iranian official new agency calls the attack “a martyr-seeking assault” (see).

I was thinking will the Islamic world give an appology for the prophet’s name used in a mission to kill people?

Lisa (see) has taken good pictures of the scene (see). She generously allowed me to use this image from her collection.