Kamangir (Archer)

The Real Face

Kamangir | April 30, 2006 | Category Iran

I do not think it is understandable for people living in Western countries, but the Iranian top politicians like the Supreme Leader and the President love the old-fashioned journeys to different cities. Take it as another weird habit of the Islamic Republic. For them, it is a sign of democracy. The “fact” that people come to see them is shown over and over in the national television and is announced as the nation’s support for the Islamic Republic. Any way, Ahmadinejad is enjoying his time giving speech in the poorest areas of Zanjan Province. These two pictures are taken from his journey. The first one shows an old woman raising a photograph of some men standing on a tank (its my guess). Given her wrinkled face and hands and also the cloths she is wearing, I say she is not enjoying a reasonable life. Now, why does she show that picture to Ahmadinejad? Probably she is saying, I have lost a son or a husband, or maybe both of them, in the war! So, why am I living like this? The second picture shows a hand written sheet which reads “For God’s Sake! Job!”.
To see the real face of the Iranian nation I suggest following the hand-made placards, not the officially printed ones.

No Comment!

Kamangir | April 30, 2006 | Category Iran

This is from here (see).

The Reason to Attack Iran, Right Now!

Kamangir | April 30, 2006 | Category Iran

A Hand-made helicopter was confiscated from a back yard in Sari, Iran (see). Further investigation revealed one hundred liters of pure Alcohol and fifty liters of yeast. The house owner is arrested and has reportedly flown several times with that machine. Police is still investigating the incident but the existence of alcohol seems to relate the man with smuggling. No detail is released yet, but I think the Americans should attack Iran immediately to kidnap this man and to let him take a few courses in aviation. I am sure after a very short while he will be able to design shuttles for the NASA.

Seventy Million Brains

Kamangir | April 30, 2006 | Category Iran

The bus hit the sideways and dropped down the valley. That kind of accident was nothing special for that part of the mountain-side roads if a very special logo was not painted on the side of the bus. Covered by clay, the logo read “Sharif University of Technology”. Aboard the bus were sitting top students of the Mathematics Department, many of which were famous winner of the International Mathematics Olympiad. Six students were killed, dozen others injured. A few days after the accident, I saw some of the survivors, with bandage over their heads and hands. They were talking about another student, whose condition was severe at the time.
Maryam Mirzakhani (see) is selected among the ten sharpest minds of North America (see). I remember when I took a course on Graph Theory. The text book, which was a very famous one, had her name in the bibliography. It was very interesting for me to see her name and know that she actually survived from the wounds. She was lucky to stay alive after the bus went down to the river. She was in the accident because Sharif University could not afford sending the topmost Math students by bus to a destination more than a thousand kilometers away. The students attended a national Math Conference and many of them never returned home. At least, Mirzakhani did.
She is now a professor in Princeton. I do not know if she is intending to stay abroad for ever, or she will return to Iran “to serve the nation”. What I know is that the administration’s leniency towards brain drain actually is not that bad. Personally, I prefer brain drain over brain annihilation.

Ahmadinejad once answered a reporter’s question about brain drain by saying “brain drain? I have not heard of that! Some people have left the country. But, still we have another seventy million brains here”. I hope he was not counting himself as one.

Soccer for Women

Kamangir | April 30, 2006 | Category Iran

Iran’s women soccer team and a women’s team from Berlin played a friendly game in Tehran. The game finished 2-2. Thank Azadeh and Brave Boy for correcting me.