I like the tea party

I’ve always  criticized the stereotype that media makes about Middle Eastern people. One of my common subjects when I discuss with  friends from  different countries, is this phenomen. It happens if I mention that I’m Iranian, the first words that come out are Nuclear program, Ahmadinejad and all the other stereotypes that exist for those from the Middle East. By the way I am not supposed to talk about those ideas. At least I feel that my voice is too weak in comparison to the mass media that pump those ideas nonstop. However, I would like to mention some of my stereotype images about other people all around the world, the majority of which are completely false. I’ve had an emotional friendship with a Swede while I thought that they are coldest people in the world. I found that Germans are open mind people while it was one of my assumption that they’re close and xenophobic. I saw the Frenchs as old-fashioned people with traditional culture while I had thought they had a revolutionary mind and are anti-tradition. I found americans to be the most kind people that I’ve ever met.

Me and my Republican friend Daniel

Among Americans, republicans have an image like in western cowboys films, meaning that hey are too much a uniformly white rich community, thereby racist and anti strangers.  They are those people with an aggressive attitude who want to burn others not like them and bomb all the other countries. At least that was the image which mass media created for me as the representative image of republicans and tea party supporters.

When I was in Boston it was an opportunity to discover a different part of American society. For this purpose, I didn’t miss any opportunity to meet different people, people from different races, religions, origins, political tendency, economic class and so on. For this goal I contacted anyone whom I thought could have any links in the states and specially in Boston. One of my american friends whom I met in the elementary French course at Sorbonne university introduced me to an American-Korean engineer. After the first time that I asked him to hangout, he asked me if I minded going to church. I thought why not. Because generally my Iranian friends have connection with  liberals or progressives, it is easier for me to have links with this part of American society. However, I was curious about the traditions of Christianity,  the Bible, and the conservative people in the States. It had not ended for one time. I went to the church on Sundays regularly and listened to the sermons and hanged out with people from the church.  I even played as a member of the church soccer team in the city league.

I was observing their life style because I believe that the way in which people live everyday is more honest than their official political statements. For example, in the progressive groups, I noticed that they are almost all white while in the church, in the conservative community, the people were from different races. More meaningful than just sitting close together, I saw that many relationships and married couples were from different races. Is there any other indicator more eloquent than dating and marriage between different races that show how some people look at others without a race issue?

What am I doing here?

I’ve seen a stupid movie. I don’t know why, as I grow older, I become more emotional. That is not the role of game. I’ve had more experience but I’m looking for new adventure. Do you understand what I wanna to say? Neither do I. My fingers just slide on the keyboard and I’m following the words which come to my minds. I’ve just started a new try, to try again. I’m full of hope and emptiness. This uncertainty makes me excited. I need to have the ability to give security to people around me. I have so many good friends. still I’m alone. I like my crowded loneliness. I missed my father. I want to become a father, a good one: Three children. This is stupid and as you may think does not make sense. Don’t blame me just let me believe it. I don’t know what I am doing here. I’m nothing here. I’m full of proposals.This land got my all my assets and gave me the chances. I’ll make all again. These phrases are nonsense but it does n’t matter. Why should every text have a special sense? Make no sense! I have no solution.

I love my friends. I love my family. I love my exes. I love my love whom I’ve not fond yet. I wanna go to another city. I’m sure I’m gonna miss strasbourg. I do miss my friends here. My basket of missings has become too heavy. I can’t carry it. I like France. I miss Iran. How am I? What am I doing here? what do I wanna to do? My dreams? My beloved persons? Do you understand what I’m saying? neither do I!   

The basics points to understand Iran's politics (1)

If you are agree with whose think that we could have an objective narration or analyze about politics I recommend you to leave this post. I don't want to waste my time to argue about this issue. Instead, I am going to give you an explanation for different narration that you can notice while reading or see reports about Iran’s politics. One side is the Axis of Evil, other side is the most stable country in the Middle East, one side is a country which is accused of supporting terrorist groups, the other side is a country which performs the most effective military operation against the ISIS. One side is a country which commits to Human Rights violations, in the other side is the reports showing that 70 percent of university students in Iran are girls with astonishing social roles. One side is the Republic Islamic of iran based on islamic ideology, other side is the most secular society in middle east, one side is the most important enemy of America other side is the most pro american people in the Middle East. Which side is right? I’m not going to answer this question, maybe later on. But another question shows up: Is it possible to avoid this polarized narrations? My answer is No. why? The best way to understand the politics of every country is listen to people who come from and live there and know thier language and culture and so on. In the case of Iran and countries like even if you do this, you still don't have a convergent narration from people and this character is unavoidable. How is it possible? 

We have a deep historical gap between Iranian nation and the state of the iran one both called Iran. In the nation-state period this association is the framework. But this framework is not obvious all around the world. People don't understand their government as the most important institution of a state as their representative. By contrast the government may seem to be an enemy. The approach of the government toward to people might be like a source of support and danger. It acts like that the government and other governments (strangers) are in competition to use or manipulate this huge resource. This gap creates two sides far from each other. You are with government or against it. So, as this gap is so wide, no one can stay in middle or at least it is too difficult. It means you have to choose your side despite this fact that the real situation especially in respect of the international issue is not based on this polarized positions.

For example the it is obvious that the international sanctions against Iran damage Iran’s economic. As result of these sanctions, jobs reduce in the country and this make people poor which leads to an economic depression. Many citizens died in air crashes or due to the lake of medical materials. Even the Iranians who live outside of Iran are punished. For example Bank of America in US and PNP bank in France recently closed the iranian student's accounts. It means that the sanctions work like an act of violence against Iranian basic humans rights. Despite all these facts, you can find groups of Iranian Human Rights activists who are for the sanctions. How could it be possible? 

Another consequence of the sanctions is the these sanction do have a harmful effect on the lives of ordinary people in spite of fact they put pressure on the Iranian government. The government which is responsible for a number of systematic act of violence against humans rights. So, in the front of a huge gap between the nation and the state, those activist choose to be against the government. The deep gap that I’ve explained above, don’t let those humans rights activists do any things that can help state of Iran notwithstanding it may serve the interest of 70 million human beings. 

I’ve promised to respect tp the limit of have 500 words and actually I’ve already passed this limit so I should stop here. Yet I will write more about Iran’s politics and society, later.

How can we live longer?

When you are in isolated cell there is nothing to do and don’t exist any activity that you can engage to it. Since you get disconnected to the real world. There is just your mind. But the mind needs something from outside to work on, to process it and so on while noting happened in isolated cell. Our mind has to structure the time which means you are living. otherwise, you would die or, at least, your mind collapses. Because of this circumstance, an isolated cell put pressure on you as you are in danger of the death and this can works as a torture. 

Decorative Photo 

In the summer of 2009 I was in isolated cell for two months. On of the tactics I used to pervent my mind from collapsing was working on internal sources of information. For example I would reveiw my souvenirs to let my mind works. Or I imagined my self as a camera that flew and went through the space and time like in a movie. When I went over my memory I felt that I had forgotten so many of my memories which I persumed I would keep them in mind for ever. I lived for so many years but I had just moments in mind despite the fact that I thought I had all. But I had lost most of them. I found out that those were my valuable capital. Every moment is just a moment unless it is linked to other moments that already exist in your memory. Moments in connection make your life. You have lived to extend that you have memories. 

It is not neceserly aour biological age which designate our opportunity of living. We live as we have memorable moments. To have long life we should make the memorable moments and also try to keep them safe. If you forget some of your experiences it is as if you have never lived them. If you lose your memory completely it is as if your are another person who uses the buddy of someone else who has just died. It is not so bad if you want to get rid of some of your bad experiences so you can remove them by forgetting. Do you want to live longer? Review some of your memorable events in your mind. What did they have in common? How can you repead such memorable events? 

I am a Kindle addicted!

I like to read books on the e-reader. I prefer e-books to paper books for serval reason. First, for me finding the e-version of the book under copy-left law is easier. Also on average this platform, either buying or downloading for free, is more economical.

Second, there are ecological reasons. Tree have to cut down to make paper books, and new technology makes this unnecessary. I prefer not to cut down trees.

third, I like the new platforms. My reader friends always say that they like to touch book’s cover and smell scent of the pages. I can also imagine that some people saying they preferred handwriting when Gothenburg invented the print press. But I don’t feel that way.

The main reason that I like the e-reader might seem a little bizarre: People read books for many reason; to learn, to feel amazing of beauty of language, to develop their experience, to think, and so on. I have an additional motivation. I am a little hyper-active. When is was child my parents signed me up for two sessions in a sport club every day. Later on, I found out that was my parent’s way of getting out my energy. I have changed since then. Now I don't need to exercise to much but I still need to make my mind tired. I feel bored if I’m not under pressure of a serious project. When I’m  seating on the train, when I’m waiting for any thing, even when I go to bed to sleep, I get bored. Reading is a way to avoiding this unpleasant feeling. So I need my library all the time and anywhere: bed before sleeping, in bed after waking, when I’m on the train when I’m waiting in an office or even during breaks form my studies. With my e-reader my library is on my pocket anytime and anywhere. I am a Kindle addicted. Am I not?   

Why we are numb?

When people became angry in reaction to the ISIS I become happy because it is so horrible to see the people who don't react to the systematic act of killing others by a state. Sometimes I get  really upset since I can’t understand what is the difference between Israel which kills innocent kids with missile and the ISIS that kills the innocents with Kalachnikov. Is our reaction different just because murdering people with missiles is more normal than Kalachinkov?

Heads of ISIS and ISraeL

One of the most horrible and shameful actions of the ISIS is beheading journalists just before cameras. We feel proud when people express their outrage at it but we are calm when IDF kills journalists by snipers. Why? The matter is that we are more OK with snipers than dirk?

I’m shocked when the ISIS asks people to leave Iraq or to convert to their official religion. It is promising that people are surprised. At the same time Israel officials declare that the state of Israel belongs to one religion and others supposed to leave Israel. Why are not we surprised? 

ISIS invites some people from all around the world and deport some of the inhabitants due to their religion. Is this shameful policy different from what Israel is based on? The issue is that the head of the ISIS has beard while the head of Israel does not? Am I blind that I can't see our sensations or we are numb?

A Week in June; The Untold Story of Iran's 2009 Election

In the 2009 presidential elections in Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was officially declared the winner, elected to serve for a second term. However supporters of his two main rivals in the race, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, rejected the results, alleging vote rigging and widespread fraud. The huge street protests that followed were brutally crushed by the authorities, resulting in deaths and numerous arrests. Both Mousavi and Karroubi have been under house arrest ever since.

This film tells the story of the eventful week in June 2009 which saw the biggest political protests in Iran since the Islamic Revolution over 30 years ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxlLnxvkknM&feature=youtu.be

Do they hate me?

You can't imagine how excited I was when I was coming back to France. When I was waiting in the Boston international airport, I was thinking about my new experiences in the US. One of the new things that I discovered when I was in the US was my feeling about France. Beforehand there was just one place that I knew and I had a feeling of belong to. That was my homeland, Iran. When I went to the US, I came to feel  that there is another part of world that I know, another place where I know the language, another land where I have many friends, another soil that is full of memory. My positive feelings about France were growing while I was in the US, until I eventually truly felt that there is another place in the world other than Iran that I could belong to and think of as my home. It was great for me because I’m really tired of living as a stranger. I hope you can imagine how exciting and meaningful it would have been for me to discover this new feeling about France.

When i was on the bus that took me from the Frankfurt airport to Strasbourg I was counting the moments until I would arrive in my hometown of Strasbourg, but this feeling didn't last long. Just after I arrived i read the news. The first story was that the FN party had won in the elections to the European Parliament. A central element of the FN party’s discourse is hatred of foreigners: people who come from other countries or have a different culture or race--people like me! You’ll agree with me that it is stupid to have a feeling of belonging to a society in which the majority of the people vote for a party whose discourse is obviously full of hate against people like you. It was a horrible moment. I decided to read something else and take my mind off it. The next story was a Washington Post report that mapped racism across the world. The report was about a map of the world’s most and least racially tolerant countries. It used the color red for more racist countries and blue for more tolerant countries. The map of Europe showed a red stain. It was France.

How naive I had been. How unrealistically I’d thought about the place I thought I could belong to. How stupid had I been? I don't know. I just know that I am still a wanderer.

Different Words address Different Worlds!

Iranians shave heads to protest political prisoner ‘abuse’

http://goo.gl/nyrqp8

Every language has different worlds not just different ways to communicate. When something happens in the persian language world I cannot think about it in English. I can not read English, listen to western music when I live in the persian language world. The majority of persian speakers live in certain parts of the world but the persian world is not attached to a specific geography. When I think in english, I can't focus on what happens in the persian world and inversely, if something attracts my attention in the English world I can't read or even pay attention to what’s happening in Iran. I have access to different worlds but cannot inhabit them at the same time. Persian, English and French are not just labels for different words instead they are make different worlds. I can't write about same subject in different languages. Of course, I am not the same person in those different world. I have more power, intellect and emotions in the Persian world but despite  this, when I spend my time learning to read and write in English, I forget my persian world which seems to not have even existed. What is happening in the persian world grabs my attention so that I can not study or concentrate on English grammar that I need to learn for the TEOFL exam at this time.

After these years I find that when I am listening to Persian music I become detached from the geography where I actually  live. Because of this I can choose the world where I want to be  just by changing the music to which I am listening. Of course it is not that so easy when an important event happens in Iran, it captures me. Switching between these worlds takes energy and tears at my soul.To reduce the pain of switching between these worlds, I try to keep them apart. I read and write in persian at home and try to read and study english and french at the library. When something urgent happens in the persian world, and I can’t wait until I come back to my home, so In have to switch and then my spirit is mauled. such as in these two weeks.

American Dream

Some of the most painful moments in life are when your good image of some person situation or  place is destroyed. Choosing Obama in the country that just some decades ago enslaved a group of human beings simply because of their skin color was one of those good images for me. I always admired Americans for making such a huge change until I came to US for a visit.

A city that I was so curious to see was New York. I had just arrived in New York when one of my friends texted me and asked what my first impression was. “It seems like Sex and The City :D” I replied. when visiting  cities, instead of going to touristic places, I roam through neighborhoods all day and try chatting with strangers. I was there just for three days. I spent one day with Iranian friends and chose Manhattan and Harlem to discover for the rest of my visit. I don't remember  which station I got off the train at and started to discover Manhattan from but after a while I noticed that all the doormens were black and all the passengers that got out of cars the doors held open by people of color were white. During the first mile I said to my self that it was just by chance that positions were divided according to race , but unfortunately I did not find a counterexample. Manhattan violently shows that segregation is still part of the real world here. Bitterer than the obviously and easily visible economic inequity was the coincidence of class with racial sepration. On the last day when I roamed towards Harlem I also noticed that separation between neighborhoods on the basis of  race  was still a  real part of life. 

Photo by Hamzeh Ghalebi

The battery charge on my cell phone was finished so I went to a McDonald’s near the bus station from which my bus back to Boston would be leaving. I got a coffee and sat near the table that had an power outlet. There was an AmericansAfrican-American guy behind that table who was charging his iPhone. I looked at him and tried to find an excuse to start talking with him, when suddenly he loudly asked why i was looking at him. “Nothing i just wanna…” I tried to answer but paying no attention he asked if i wanted to steal his iPhone. He started to shout and talk so fast that with my English I could not understand what he wanted to say and had no idea what had happened. “HOLD ON… HOLD ON when you talk so fast I don't understand what you say” I interrupted him with this phrase. He stopped. “I am here as a visitor, I am Iranian. I live in France and now I’m trying to talk with people to improve my English,” I said. He became calm, and said “Cool”. I explained that I was waiting for the bus to go to Boston. “You are very welcome to the USA, land of opportunity.” he added. As  he started to tell me about the American Dream all the images of discrimination and segregation that I had seen in the city paraded through my head. I just listened. He stood up to leave and said, “This is the land of opportunity.” I asked, “Really?” He approached me and said, “Look at me. I work in a strip club and make two hundred dollars every night. You see?” I said nothing and just smiled!

19th-century behavior in 21st-century

I just listened to a NPR News podcast. It was about the conflict between Russian and the US over Ukraine. The reporter quoted two sobering statements from the U.S. administration. “The United States and our allies will not hesitate to use 21st-century tools to hold Russia accountable for 19th-century behavior,” said John Kerry. Earlier, President Obama noted “Leaders and dignitaries of the European Union, representatives of our NATO alliance, distinguished guests, we meet here at a moment of testing for Europe and the United States and for the international order that we have worked for generations to build."

They are right. Russia used its military force to invade another country without UN approval and in disregard of international law. Russia acted upon its national interest and made the decision with the support of the Duma. So the U.S. administration is right, this behavior does appertain to a past century, but does the US behave differently? The US invaded Iraq and occupied that country in the second Gulf War based upon which international law and with what approval from the UN? Moreover, was the US pretext to attack Iraq justified? Recently, in deciding whether or not to attack Syria, did Obama ask for UN permission or did he just ask the US Congress? Some might say that Obama tried to obtain UN approval. But Russia vetoed the attempt in order to protect its ally. But this raises the question whether this is not exactly like US behavior to protect Israel.

From the place that I stand - as a non-Russian and non-American - both of those powers more or less exhibit the same behavior, in which case what Russia did is not exceptional at all. For me it doesn't matter which side wins or loses. In fact, this conflict could benefit Iran. I believe that every power NEEDS to have an enemy. (I wish they didn't.) But because of the nature of power after the Cold War the US makes fake enemies like Iran and the media exaggerates how Iran could be a threat to the US. If Russia plays the role of enemy again then the US might leave Iran alone.

Differents Narratives of Same Facts

There was a party for Norouz celebration in HKS. Norouz is the first day of new Persian year that is exactly the first day of spring. It s crazy that some people start new year in the middle of winter. One of my friends who studies about Afghanistan was at the party. She is a smart cute french girl. We are doing a program to exchange Persian/English. She had gone to North Korea. No I am not kidding she went to North Korea. I was really curious about North Korea. “is it true what the media always say about North Korea?” I asked. You should know I do not have confidence in the media. She said that those things are all real. She told us so many things about her experiences that prove the things everyone may have heard about that part of word. I don't want to retell all of them for you but one part of her experience was sobering. Do not hurry! I am going to explain. I asked her if she talked with people. “we could not because some officer followed us and we could not to go every where freely.” she said. I said that talking with government guys also could be interesting. It shows how they think and how the official view works. “you know they have been brainwashed. they all were telling some things that were disconnected from the real word.” she said. I asked what was their narrative? “for example, there was some issue between North and South  but in the North they have a completely different narrative. You know they have been brainwashed.” I said ya! Every one who goes to another country could see things that native guys can not see. She looked at me as if i had said somethings weird. May be she wanted to say: Are you crazy? Those things just happened in North Korea.

Having different narration of same fact, is both sobering and some time could show that one side is being manipulated. Let s review some facts about Iran and USA issues. Do you know which is the only country that has used Nuclear weapons against civil people in history? Do you know that US helps financially those countries that have Nuclear weapons in middle east ? Do you know that iranians never, ever do Suicide operations? Do you know that about 60 years ago we, Iranians had a democratic movement and were close to a democratic regime but the CIA did a coup against that government in benefit of the former dictator of iran? Do you that know during the war between Iran and Irak USA knew and helped Irak to use chemical weapons against Iran? Do you know that the US military ship in Persian gulf shot directly  a Passenger aircraft that carried iranian tourists to Dubai? Do you know Iran helped seriously USA to attack the Taliban? Do you know that iran is the country that wages a real war against Salafi extremist in the Middle East? (see chapter 19 of this book) Do you know that one of close allies of USA in the Middle East is the most important supporter of Salafi extremist groups (means Saudi arabia?) Do you know in the last century Iran has never started a war with any country but in last decade USA attacked several countries?

What is your narrative about those facts? Do you still think that brainwashing could not happen in the USA?

Complex arguments for simple stupid things

One of the things that is strange to me in US is how much people here try to justify the actual situation instead of trying to change it. Some time they have excellent creativity to provide complex arguments for simple stupid things. But the problem is that after a while they themselves believe their own rhetoric.

One of the stupid things is how they calculate salary of waiters. In US restaurant owners do not pay completely their employers’ salary for those who work as waiter. And every client is obliged to pay them separately as part of their own bill. Americans name this part of the bill, “tips” but this is not really a tip. Tip is “a gift of money, over and above payment due for service; something given without claim or demand.” The funny part of this story is to know how they justify this stupid custom.

The first argument that they use, is that this system of payment forces the waiter to be nicer to the clients in order to get larger tips. But I see some scientific studies that show there is no meaningful relation between the amount of tip that they gained as part of their salary and their behavior. On the other hand the studies show that amount of tips depends on the general services of any restaurant and in that process waiters are small role. why do we link the salary of waiters to a process that he or she has no control over? and also why don't we calculate part of the chef’s work or restaurant owner’s equity in tips? It means that if we want to stay coherent in this argument, all services should be included in the tip system except for the unprepared food.

The second argument is that tips help the people that have small salaries such as waiter. Really? the minimum wage in US is about 8 dollar per hour but do you know that minimum wage for waiters is 3.5 dollar? Do you know why? Because restaurant owners say that the reason tips are part of the salary, means it decreases the fixed part of salary. Even the government taxes tips! This means that the tip system just helps the restaurant owner to have cheap workers.

Tip systems have other benefits for restaurant owners that is misleading to the client. Unconsciously even if you are accustomed with this stupid tipping system when you estimate the price of the meal, you forget that the tip could raise the price by factor 20 percent.

The problem is that we can not do any thing individually against this system. If we don't pay the tip we punish the waiter. If we pay the tip we perpetuate the system that uses waiters as cheap workers.

Déraciner

“Déraciner” is one of the words the French used for immigrant. It refers to a person who is uprooted from his original place. One of the phrases that we use to damn in Persian is ”در به در بشی” “dar be dar”,it means someone whowas forced to leave her place, her city and her house. Am I dammed?

I left my country 4 years ago by [...]. Why? I was a member of the electoral campaign for the reformist candidate in Iran in 2009. The regime was cheating in the election to keep “Ahmadi Nejad” in power. All we did was trying to demonstrate. I was arrested just one week after the election. I was in prison for 75 days of which two months was an isolated cell. I realized afterwards my father had bailed me out. I realized this was a temporary situation, so after a while I left Iran by foot and went to [...]. i asked some embassies of different countries and the UN to help me. I came to France because they helped me the quickest. I came to France without knowing any word of French, i did not event know how to say “bonjour”. I don't want to tell my history about how I left or how I managed a new life form nothing in another country; may be in the future!

I love new experiences and France was full of new things: new people, new culture, new language, new tradition, new geography. Learning new things and meeting new people was exiting but after while i realized the other side of excitement is my need to feel safe and calm. to feel safe i need the things that i know, i need some tradition which are memorable, I need old friends, i need to play with rules that i know.

You could imagine that easiest part of socializing is saying “Hello” and greeting someone. But I should to tell you even this simple part of social life became something that you need to think and learn about if you are not in your home country. When do you shake hands? When should you kiss cheek and how? Is it necessary to have hug? Those things happened in your country automatically. Of course I could learn those simple things, but you know it does not come automatically. In summary, every simple part of social life could require energy when you are out of your country.

But the only place that I knew was Iran, the only language that I knew how to express my complex feelings in was Persian, the only tradition that i really know every thing about was the Iranian tradition, the only culture that I could ever fully understand that was Persian Culture.

You don't feel like you belong when you don't feel safe and calm, and you don't feel safe and calm if you don't know the situation surrounding you. If your need to “belong” is satisfied then you don't realized how important it is.

It has been just 6 weeks since I moved to Boston (US);there are so many things to discover as well. this is a very exciting situation for me. this time, Iran is not the only place that I know. Now two country seem familiar to me, Iran and France. now I have better feeling for France, now i feel like i miss France and i like that. Does this means I could have the feeling of belonging to another land other than Iran?

Don’t forget their argument

A method I use to improve my English is listening to podcasts. Everyday I listen to podcasts on different subjects: politics, love and history. One of the podcasts that I have listened to is called “Making the Nation.” This series describes several important national events in the US. Some of the episodes that I listened to were about the Civil War in the US. As you know, for a long time Americans kidnapped many people from Africa and brought them to the US as very cheap workers without any citizenship rights. Slaves had to work hard and for that work they received shelter to sleep in and some food to survive. Even after the US Congress finally recognized that those people were human and that just because they were black didn't mean that they should be used as tools the southern part of the country didn't accept. Why? The southerners believed that without those cheap workers their businesses would go bust. They were right. After slavery was abolished, their businesses went bust. Don’t forget their argument: we don't agree with abolishing slavery because our businesses need cheap workers.

To improve my English several people recommended that I read in English text regularly. The first article that I read was in The New York Times because this newspaper is available on my kindle for one free month. That was some weeks ago but that report still remains in my mind. That report was about negotiations between illegal immigrant and republican congressman. Illegal immigrants are 12 million people that live in US without any document. this means they came to US like all the other Americans who arrived without getting visaes from Native Americans. it s necessary to remind you that millions of them were born in US and the majority of hard work is done by these kinds of cheap official undocumented workers. These guys have to work hard jobs without getting the minimum wage. Also, they can't go to the police to sue their master or other person because they are undocumented. On the other hand, millions of human beings in the US have to work too hard to have a shelter to sleep, some food to survive without having any rights. Could we say that US business are replacing black workers with cheap brown workers?

everyone recommends that you learn another language by talking with native speaker. fortunately I could find someone who is interested in learning Persian in return for teaching me English. usually we divide every meeting in two part. one part we talk in English the other part talk in Persian. Usually our subject is political issue. Just after Obama's State of the Union speech, I had a meeting with an African American guy. The part of Obama speech that was about Iran did not have any new points, but some point that he said about equality in opportunity for all or increase in the minimum wage was interesting for me. I asked this African-american guy what he thinks about the minimum wage that Obama mentioned. He said those phrases are beautiful but are not practical. "However, now, so many workers work for 5 dollar or less; they have to work too hard just to have a shelter to sleep or food to survive. Do you know what it does means?" i asked. he said, “you know this is not good but you should not forget that if we increase the minimum wage many of our businesses would go bust. I replied that the problem is that I dont forget this argument but do you remember origin of this argument?

Privacy

This is my first journal in English. Ok! What should I write about? The different levels of privacy in every language! What does this mean? I am going to explain. My maternal language is Persian, in last two years i was learning French, and now I am learning English. Then I learned that comparing those languages is interesting. I don't want to delve into linguistics; instead, I think the differences are tangible. Pay attention to this example: if we want to say something about our friend or introduce him in French you have to choose between “une amie”, “un ami” or “mon amie”. If you choose any of those expressions anybody would understand the gender of your friend. “une amie” it is mean that friend whom you talk about is a girl or if you saying “un ami” that friend is a boy.

But in Persian or English if you say “friend” or “doost”( friend in Persian) you didn't mention the gender. As a Persian speaker I don't understand why that when I speak in French this language forces me to give this extra Information. Moreover, this is not all of the history. Let’s return to our example. For saying some things about your friend in french we also have to choose between “un(e) ami(e)” and “mon ami(e)”. In French mentioning your friend with possessive adjectives means that the relationship is kind of girl/boy friend. I remember one of my french professors asked me “how many girlfriends do you have?”. I was surprised and said “actually none”. “why you introduce your friend with mon ami?” she asked me. In Persian or English when we introduce our friend with possessive adjective it does not mean she is our girl/boyfriend. Maybe for the French the extra information doesn’t matter, but for me as Persian speaker I feel that the French language does not respect my privacy and forces me to expose some extra information that isn't necessary and more importantly I have no choice. Also I feel that English is more respectful to my privacy. For example if I say “I did my homework with my friend” does not reveal whether that friend is female or male nor the kind of relationship we have.