Sandtank

I was surprised looking at the archives of Sandtank today... Sandtank, you're almost SIX months old! happy half-anniversary! Man, I never thought I could keep up a blog for six months... actually I never thought I could keep up anything for six months...

During the past six months what I put in my blog has changed quite a lot. I started off with mostly writing my feelings and thoughts, in English. After some time, I started adding some Persian posts to here and there, and Sandtank became kinda bi-lingual (put that in your resume, Sandtank. It's gonna earn you some extra points). For me it was really difficult to type in Farsi, so I gave it up and went back to English.

After some time, I came up with the idea of writing posts in Farsi, Scanning and uploading scanned images. This way, I'd practice my Farsi writing every now and then, along with posting in Farsi (having ur cake and eating it too).

I don't have too many viewers here, so to you dear reader, who's reading this very line right now, I appreciate your time and I hope you liked my posts. I don't like to turn my blog into a whorehouse and add a dozen links to other weblogs in order to have them add me to their lists. I prefer if only people I know read what I write.

So, all the best to you sandtank, I am looking forward to celebrating your sixth anniversary!

"To the one who understood her task and her purpose.
To the one who looked at the road ahead, and understood that it was a difficult journey.

To the one who did not make light of those difficulties,
but, on the contrary, made them manifest and visible.

To the one who makes the lonely feel they are not alone,
who satisfies those who hunger and thirst for justice, who makes the oppressor feel as bad as the oppressed.

To the one who always keeps her door open,
her ears listening, her hands working, her feet walking.

To the one who embodies the verses of another Persian poet,
Hafez, when he says: Not even seven thousand years of joy are worth seven days of sadness.

To the one who is here tonight, may she be one with all of us,
may her example multiply, may she still have difficult days ahead,
so that she can do whatever she needs to do, so that the next generations will not have to strive
for what has already been accomplished.

And may she walk slowly,
because her peace is the peace of change,
and change, real change, always takes time."

(Message from Paulo Coelho to honour Shirin Ebadi at the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony, Oslo, December 11th 2003).

No don't get me wrong here. I'm not a Shirin Ebadi fan. I just thought it's interesting to see Coelho writing this message to praise her work. The way he has put the words together is beautiful.

Ahmad joon

"...He's actually, in a strange way, he's a rather attractive man, very smart, savvy, self-assured, good looking in a strange way... He's very, very short but he's comfortable in his own skin."

60 minutes correspondant Mike wallace, when asked about Ahmadinejad's physicality.

YOU play, I'LL listen...Autophobia

Philophobia

Che

Havana
April 1st, 1965

[Fidel,]

At this moment I remember many things — when I met you in Maria Antonia's house, when you proposed I come along, all the tensions involved in the preparations. One day they came by and asked who should be notified in case of death, and the real possibility of it struck us all. Later we knew it was true, that in a revolution one wins or dies (if it is a real one). Many comrades fell along the way to victory.

Today everything has a less dramatic tone, because we are more mature, but the event repeats itself. I feel that I have fulfilled the part of my duty that tied me to the Cuban revolution in its territory, and I say farewell to you, to the comrades, to your people, who now are mine.

I formally resign my positions in the leadership of the party, my post as minister, my rank of commander, and my Cuban citizenship [...]

Reviewing my past life [...] my only serious failing was not having had more confidence in you from the first moments in the Sierra Maestra, and not having understood quickly enough your qualities as a leader and a revolutionary.

I have lived magnificent days, and at your side I felt the pride of belonging to our people in the brilliant yet sad days of the Caribbean crisis. Seldom has a statesman been more brilliant as you were in those days. I am also proud of having followed you without hesitation, of having identified with your way of thinking and of seeing and appraising dangers and principles.

Other nations of the world summon my modest efforts of assistance. I can do that which is denied you due to your responsibility at head of Cuba, and the time has come for us to part.

You should know that I do so with a mixture of joy and sorrow. I leave here the purest of my hopes as a builder and the dearest of those I hold dear. And I leave a people who received me as a son. That wounds a part of my spirit. I carry to new battlefronts the faith that you taught me, the revolutionary spirit of my people, the feeling of fulfilling the most sacred of duties: to fight against imperialism wherever one may be. This is a source of strength, and more than heals the deepest of wounds.

I state once more that I free Cuba from all responsibility, except that which stems from its example. If my final hour finds me under other skies, my last thought will be of this people and especially of you. I am grateful for your teaching and your example, to which I shall try to be faithful up to the final consequences of my acts.

I have always been identified with the foreign policy of our revolution, and I continue to be. [...] I am not sorry that I leave nothing material to my wife and children; I am happy it is that way. I ask nothing for them, as the state will provide them with enough to live on and receive an education.

I would have many things to say to you and to our people, but I feel they are unnecessary. Words cannot express what I would like them to, and there is no point in scribbling pages.

Ever onward to victory!
Homeland or Death!
I embrace you with all my revolutionary fervour.

Che

Acordeon