the son of the captured land died...

Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish died at age of 67, after an open heart surgery in Houston, Texas.



Mr. Darwish was known as palestinian resistance poet.


two poems by Mr. Darwish...



I come from there and I have memories

Born as mortals are, I have a mother

And a house with many windows,

I have brothers, friends,

And a prison cell with a cold window.

Mine is the wave, snatched by sea-gulls,

I have my own view,

And an extra blade of grass.

Mine is the moon at the far edge of the words,

And the bounty of birds,

And the immortal olive tree.

I walked this land before the swords

Turned its living body into a laden table.




I come from there. I render the sky unto her mother

When the sky weeps for her mother.

And I weep to make myself known

To a returning cloud.

I learnt all the words worthy of the court of blood

So that I could break the rule.

I learnt all the words and broke them up

To make a single word: Homeland.....







.........................................................................

Her eyes are Palestinian

Her name is Palestinian

Her dress and sorrow Palestinian

Her kerchief, her feet and body Palestinian

Her words and silence Palestinian

Her voice PalestinianHer birth and her death Palestinian

My lai tapes...the darkest episode of Vietnam war...

It is about a week that I wait to hear this week BBC Wednesday’s commentary: The My Lai Tapes.
The commentary is about the My Lai (a village in Vietnam) massacre. I was shocked when I read articles about this event. An event that had took place about 16 years before I was born. I am so sorry for human, V.C’s and developed society. This post is a memorial of those innocent kids and innocent lovable and perhaps beautiful ladies that never see their parents, their husbands; the girls that never feel touch of a tender hand on their sensitive skin and never had the experiment of a love kiss. This post is a memorial of the books that never read, the air which never breath in and the babies that never born.
My first time connection with Vietnam takes back to about two years ago by reading the book: "life, war and nothing else" by famous writer Oriana Fallaci. The book was translated by Leili Golestan and it was so nice and fluent text.
this book and this documentary on BBCWorldService site, are my suggestion for you in this week.
This is the manuscript of this documentary from BBCWORLDSERVICE SITE:

My Lai Tapes
On March 16th 1968, five hundred and four innocent Vietnamese villagers were killed by US soldiers at My Lai in Vietnam.
Women and children were raped, cattle were slaughtered, houses burned and crops destroyed.
It became known as the 'My Lai massacre' and its significance still resonates today.
Only one solider, Lt William Calley was prosecuted for what happened on that day.
The My Lai Tapes - Part One
In the first episode of this two part series, Robert Hordierne, an American military journalist pieces together the horror and barbarism that swept through the village of My Lai 40 years ago.
He reconstructs the events that led up to that day with exclusive archive recordings from the US Army's own investigation into the massacre.
He also speaks to surviving victims and to some of the perpetrators of that historic day.
Massacre at 'Pinkville'
The Vietnam war was America's attempt to stop communists from toppling one country after another in South East Asia.
The US fought there from the early 1960s until 1975. It became America's longest war.
By 1968 there were nearly half a million US troops in Vietnam and more were being hurriedly drafted in to fight.
Most of the men sent into battle in My Lai were very inexperienced and very few of them had seen combat.
It was an unconventional war where the enemy wasn't clear - everybody and everything that moved was considered a target.
My Lai was a search and destroy mission - everything from housing and food to people was to be wiped out.
The operation lasted four hours and in that time, US troops had sustained one death and eight injuries.
In contrast 504 villagers were murdered and, in some cases, raped and mutilated.
The operation was touted as a success by the US military and the truth of what really happened remained a secret for a whole year.
The real truth
As misgivings about the Vietnam war grew, news of what happened at My Lai gradually began to surface.
The US Army then ordered its own investigation into the massacre, it was called 'The Peers Inquiry'.
In the second part of the My Lai Tapes, you can hear, for the first time, the recordings of the US Army's internal inquiry into the massacre.
The tapes lay forgotten for nearly 40 years until they were tracked down by the British journalist Celina Dunlop, who spent 2 years trawling through the national archive near Washington.
The Peers Inquiry proved that US soldiers raped and killed hundreds of civilians.
It showed just how badly trained and ignorant many of the young men were about the proper treatment of civilians during war.
The conclusions of the inquiry went on to make important and lasting recommendations about how soldiers should be trained in the laws of war.
First broadcast 23rd April 2008.”

a of police lead of Sigon execute a vietcong who had just killed...

i read about this in Fallaci's book but i was really shocked watching it .

censorship in BBC and Freedom to dissent

If there is any principle of the constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought, not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought we hate.
- Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, dissenting in United States v. Schwimmer (1929)

Nowadays Pope Benedict VXI is in America. He visited the White House and made some unforgettable speeches about the humanity, love and some other issues during his meetings with citizens and scholars of American society. Also he talks about the sex scandal in Catholic Church and sex abuse of the child.
One of the important events for me was the censorship in the BBC site; yesterday like other days I read news in BBC and there was a picture tour about the pope journey to the U.S, between those photos there was a photo with this subscript: “But the scandals involving priests has meant the Pope has not been welcomed by everyone”. After a while when I was checking that page I understood that the photo is censored.










It was so amazing seeing these two events:
- Even the highest spiritual leader of one of the oldest and the most popular religions of the world can be criticized in a free society.
- And the second: even in one of the most professional and loyal news agencies in a free world censorship can be seen.

the long way of political maturity of society

The turmoil that has accompanied the growth of the new countries of Africa and Asia demonstrates that independence does not necessarily bring political maturity and peace. From Vietnam to Zimbabwe, as colonialism has given way to the force of nationalism, political independence often has accompanied by political instability and war. The same has proved true in some of the countries of Eastern Europe, notably Yugoslavia, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and its communist system in 1991. Yet America had successful revolution. And despite the Civil War, two world wars, the Great Depression, periodic inflation and unemployment, the Vietnam War, Watergate, the impeachment of two presidents, and other issues that have confronted the nation, it has survived how did the revolutionary leaders of the America carve out an enduring new nation where none had existed before? The process was slow and difficult. As Lipset has observed:
A backward glance into our own past should destroy that notion that the United States proceeded easily toward the establishment of democratic political institutions … it was touch and go whether the complex balance of forces would swing in the direction of a one – or two- party system, or even whether the nation would survive as an entity. It took time to institutionalize values, beliefs, and practices, and there were many incidents that revealed how fragile how the commitments to the democracy and nationhood really were.
The United States, in other words, went through growing pains similar to those of new nations of Africa and Asia today. If some contemporary new nations have encountered difficulty in establishing political freedom and democratic procedures, so did America. For example, the federalists under President John Adams wanted no organized political opposition and used the Alien and Sedition Act, passed in 1798, to suppress their opponents. At least 70 people were jailed and fined under sedition Act, which made almost any criticism of the government, the president, or Congress a crime. The historical development of American nation-with all its crises and problems-remains relevant to the emerging nations in today’s world.

Democracy Under Pressure, p51

New Book, New Vision

About a week ago I went to tehran to see some of my friends ang give my proposal for the final project. Nowadays i'm busy with BA final project. Being still interested in the democray of the United States and following the presidential election competition I bought a book about the U.S political system and the way it works.

" DEMOCRACY UNDER PRESSURE" by Milton C. Cummings & David Wise. It is a very nice book.

In later posts I will write a review about this adorable book.

ellection.

Nowadays I am following the news of American presidential election. I do think it’s very interesting how this process takes place in the oldest constitutional democracy of the world.
I’ll write more on this issue later.

lets start...

This is my first effort in thinking,talking and writing in English. Yes im not a native English speaker. Of course it will be full of mistakes, I know, but i have to start because I want to write and talk in english.
Im iranian and studing architecture at University of Tehran. I am gonna graduate in BA on August.
This is my first blog; Not exactly the first,but lets think about it in this way.
The name of the blog is taken from one of Pink Floyd's albums. It's not my favourite music. But i do like the album's name...
lets start...