Kamangir (Archer)

Back from the Trip: Flu and selling my soul,

Kamangir | December 19, 2007 | Category Personal

I am just back from a long trip to Europe. I had the marvelous opportunity of meeting two good pen-friends of years and I am very happy about it. And also, I attended a fantastic conference about blogging and had the chance to talk to a few other bloggers and activists and experts and this was a real learning process. But then, my souvenir from the trip was a bad flu.

I almost collapsed in Berlin while the Police officer was searching me through, because for some reason my jeans always irritate the metal detectors. At the moment that I was asking him to let me sit for a while I was thinking of tasers. What is a better method for a hijacker, than pretending that he is sick and then pass through the security with a minimal search? The officer was so nice that he brought me a glass of water and gave me a few minutes to recover. Later, while I was waiting for the boarding time, and had just finished my fantastically sweet Cappuccino, I was approached by a paramedic team that wanted to know how I felt. I was indeed impressed. A blood pressure check, a check of sugar level in my blood, and I received some medication which indeed made me feel much better afterwards.

The conference was held by a well-known institution located in Berlin and they had managed to gather a good team, more than half of which were Iranians flown in from around the world. We even managed to not stumble upon the silly politics of the Iranian diaspora for the whole time.

As I had mentioned on my Persian blog, and here as well, that I was going on a trip for a conference, I anticipated some negative reactions. The fact is, for many, “attending a conference” sounds like “getting financially supported by a suspicious foreign group which has a more suspicious plan to suck on Iran’s oil”. This, I would say, is indeed a result of numerous coups, and alike, all carried out by Iranians funded by foreigners against Iranians. Nevertheless, we need to sit together and talk. This is one of the many aspects of the Iranian dilemma.

My only response to this criticism is that I do not have any intention of turning blogging, or activism, into the main element of  my life. Therefore, clearly, I have no intention of abusing this blog as a moneymaking business. I do not necessarily criticize Iranians who are hired by “foreigners”, because I am personally in contract with the research lab for which I work. My profession is Optimization, so I work for a networking lab, a sociologist on the other hand would clearly be supported through a fund which is disbursed by a politically-charged body. Thus, I have no intention of “selling my soul” to anyone, because it is already sold to TRLabs.