the politics of public space
Tehran's book fair: the politics of public space By Kaveh Ehsani The Daily Star Saturday, August 07, 2004 For 10 days in May the 17th Tehran International Book and Media Fair was held in two dozen hangar-like buildings at the capital's vast and pleasant International Fair Ground. Since 1998, after the reformist Mohammad Khatami was elected president, the annual fair has become Iran's largest public event, regularly attracting more than 2 million visitors a year, nearly as many as make the Hajj pilgrimage. This year some 2200 domestic and 1200 international publishers from 39 countries displayed 250 thousand titles. Full at: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10categ_id=21article_id=7029 _ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus
Re: Changing Sex, Changing Islam
An interesting piece! Apart from Islamic Rules, the body politics issue in Iran has its origin mostly in the cultural codes of behavior. There are many irreligious peoples who cant consider changing sex as a normal phenomenon because of their cultural roots. For example, you cant believe that how much I myself as an Iranian man goggled when a few years ago I discovered that Mr. Donald McCloskey has became Mrs. Deirdre McCloskey or that how much is exclamatory now that I am reading her _Crossing: A Memoir_. These wonderments have not their origin so much in religion (I have no religion) as in the cultural background. Therefore, it seems to me that the obstacles in the changing sex in Iran are in the society itself rather than in political scene in which the theocratic government is dominant. Of course, this is not the case for Hijab as an incarnation of Islamic body politics in Iran. M. M. Changing Sex, Changing Islam (In Iran, transsexuals, changing sex, have been changing Islam as well, under its still theocratic government): http://montages.blogspot.com/2004/08/changing-sex-changing-islam.html. -- Yoshie _ Dont just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/
Re: Newsday: Iran wanted US to invade?
That is bazaar class, farsi racism and mini imperialist ambitions, which goes to show that the real reasons behind the rise of the mullahs and the iraqi iranian war was a resurrection of the farsi nationalism. A few meaningless words!Bazaar class? Farsi racism? resurrection of the farsi nationalism? What are these at all? The mullahs in Iran are a continuation of Arabian fundamentalism with other mask. The real reasons behind the iraqi iranian war can be found in Saddam phenomenon rather than the illusory resurrection of the farsi nationalism. MM _ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
a quick query
A quick question: who are the main figures in post-woshington consensus and where can I find some of their stuff online? Thanks in advance, Maljoo _ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
Soroush interview
Only in a few countries could a philosopher of science be seen as an enemy of the state. Abdolkarim Soroush, one of Iran's best-known intellectuals, argues that science cannot progress under totalitarian regimes. His greatest crime is to suggest that this is a legitimate Islamic view. After six years in exile, Soroush bravely returned to Iran last week. Ehsan Masood spoke to him on the eve of his departure: http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opinterview.jsp?id=ns24081 _ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus
Fwd: game
http://idleworm.wolffelaar.nl/nws/2002/11/swf/iraq2.swf _ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
Re: RE: re: What is wrong with the mainstream economics?
Frederic wrote: For all those who are interested in what is wrong with neoclassical economic theory should read Steve Keen's book, Debunking Economics. He is right. Keen has successfully spent his book debunking neoclassical economics. But Keen himself starts on the wrong foot. His critiques are based on logic, while the hegemony of NE is based on sociological aspect: that's the question. Mohammad Maljoo From: Lee, Frederic [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:34739] RE: re: What is wrong with the mainstream economics? Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 08:52:20 -0600 For all those who are interested in what is wrong with neoclassical economic theory should read Steve Keen's book, Debunking Economics. If you want a critique that is directed at neoclassical micro see the attached paper. There are many ways to show that neoclassical micro is incoherent--internal critiques, external critiques, empirical critiques--to easily conclude that it should be completely dismissed. Fred Lee _ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
US public opinions of other countries
What do Americans think of other countries? Here's a Gallup poll. by Frank Newport GALLUP NEWS SERVICE Full text at http://gallup.com/poll/releases/pr030210.asp _ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963
Lula Brazil
According to Financial Times, Luiz Inácio Lula on Friday postponed a US$750m defence programme to use the defence funds in famine fight ( I can't access FT). Does anyone know anything about it? Mohammad Maljoo _ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
Re: Mass arrests of Muslims in LA
The question is which nationality, race, group, or religion is next. Mohammad Maljoo From: Yoshie Furuhashi [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:33230] Mass arrests of Muslims in LA Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 12:17:45 -0500 BBC News World Edition Thursday, 19 December, 2002, 11:37 GMT Mass arrests of Muslims in LA Families protested against the detention of relatives US immigration officials in Southern California have detained hundreds of Iranians and other Muslim men who turned up to register under residence laws brought in as part of the anti-terror drive. Reports say between 500 and 700 men were arrested in and around Los Angeles after they complied with an order to register by 16 December. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is refusing to say how many people were arrested but said detainees were being held for suspected visa violations and other offences. The arrests sparked angry protests in Los Angeles by thousands of Iranian-Americans waving banners which read What's next? Concentration camps? and Free our fathers, brothers, husbands and sons. Official radio in Iran also reported the arrests and the protests, which it said were mounted by families of the detainees who converged on Los Angeles. Deadline Under the new US immigration rules, all male immigrants aged 16 and over from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria had to register with authorities by Monday unless they had been naturalised as citizens. Immigrants from other mainly Muslim states have been set later deadlines for registration. Community groups said men had been arrested in Los Angeles and nearby Orange County as well as San Diego. California is home to about 600,000 Iranians who have been living in exile since the 1979 Islamic revolution. One of the Iranian-American demonstrators in Los Angeles, Ali Bozorgmehr, told the French news agency AFP that his community was being targeted unjustly. All Iranians that live in America are hard-working people... They love this country and all... are against terrorism, he said. 'Shocking' Ramona Ripston, executive director of the Southern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the arrests were reminiscent of the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. I think it is shocking what is happening, she said. We are getting a lot of telephone calls from people. We are hearing that people went down wanting to co-operate and then they were detained. Islamic community leaders said many detainees had been living, working and paying taxes in the US for up to a decade and had families there. Terrorists most likely wouldn't come to the INS to register, said Sabiha Khan of the Southern California chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations. She said the detainees were being treated as criminals, and that really goes against American ideals of fairness, and justice and democracy. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2589317.stm -- Yoshie * Calendar of Events in Columbus: http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html * Anti-War Activist Resources: http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html * Student International Forum: http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/ * Committee for Justice in Palestine: http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/ _ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
Re: Re: Re: economy in novels
Also, see . Bruna Ingrao, Economic Life in Ninteenth-Century Novels: What Economists might Learn from Literature, in Guido Erreygers (ed.), _Economics and Interdisciplinary Exchange_ (London and New York: Routledge, 2001). Mohammad Maljoo From: Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:32216] Re: Re: economy in novels Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 09:35:15 -0800 Stephen Hymer's Monthly Review article on Robinson Crusoe is an excellent example of using novels to teach economics. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] _ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
Re: Re: Re: Iran prof. persecuted
The sentence is symbolic as well as ridiculous. Aghajari had brilliantly resorted to the more or less identical argument that had been used by Marx: religion is the opium of both the people and state. Aghajari had criticized the Islamic principle of emulation (Taqlid) from religious leaders, arguing that the people are not monkeys to emulate. Mohammad Maljoo From: ken hanly [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:32186] Re: Re: Iran prof. persecuted Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2002 12:36:15 -0800 If this fellow is sentenced to death how is that he is also sentenced to exile and banned from teaching for ten years? Is he allowed to return from the dead to teach as long as he doesnt insult Islam? Cheers, Ken Hanly - Original Message - From: Mohammad Maljoo [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2002 9:55 AM Subject: [PEN-L:32149] Re: Iran prof. persecuted Several days ago, a court in Iran has sentenced university professor Aghajari making comments during a student gathering to death for allegedly insulting Prophet Mohammad.The local court has further sentenced Aghajari to exile in desert cities of Tabas, Zabol and Gonabad and banned him from teaching for 10 years!!! The death sentence issued against the university him, too, has outraged the university students across Iran, who have been taging strike after strike in protest against the verdict. The majority of Iranian parliament members, too, have seriously condemned the verdict, and Parliament Speaker called the death penalty against him a shame for the country's judiciary system. Also two of Hamedan Constituency MPs presented their letters of resignation to show their objection to the verdict issued by their constituency's court. It is comparable with verdicts issued by Middle Ages courts in Europe.Of course, this event must be considered as a serious war between two dominant parties in Iran.The sentence is backed by religious leader as a private reprisal. Mohammad Maljoo From: Devine, James [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Pen-l (E-mail) [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:32145] Iran prof. persecuted Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2002 07:58:14 -0800 from SLATE: ... the growing student protests in Iran over the death sentence given a prominent professor convicted of insulting Islam. (The professor, who's close to Iran's reformist president, had publicly said that people should be allowed to interpret Islam as they see fit.) Does anyone know anything about this case? is it simply that antagonism toward profs is universal? ;-) Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine _ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail _ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus
Fwd: How Saddam keeps power in Iraq
Le Monde diplomatique - October 2002 THE PATH TO WAR How Saddam keeps power in Iraq ___ Although Iraq has agreed to let UN weapons inspectors back into the country, the United States still seems determined to topple President Saddam Hussein's regime. So far, he has defeated all internal opposition and maintained his grip on power, despite the international embargo. Saddam has relied on the country's various clans and tribes, at the expense of the Baath party, which once had the main role in public life. by FALEH A JABAR * ___ THE impending United States military campaign against Iraq is reminiscent of the death foretold chronicled in Gabriel García Márquez's novel - given the Bush administration's longing for Saddam Hussein's unconditional surrender. Yet overthrowing Saddam's regime may well prove prohibitively expensive and could even lead to chaos, because of his unique political system. This has survived war against Iran (1980-1988) and stinging military defeat in 1991, after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990 and the outbreak of the Gulf war. Saddam's political durability is no fluke: it is the outcome of complex and carefully calculated plays for power. As a young man, Saddam Hussein admired Hitler's system of government. His fondness for totalitarianism came from his maternal uncle, Khairullah Tilfah (1). Stalin and communism were subsequently Saddam's exemplars. He tailored his system along Nazi and Stalinist lines, though it had a number of new features. In keeping with Nazi ideals, Iraq's Ba'ath party had four main pillars: totalitarian ideology, single-party rule, a command economy (nominally socialist), and firm control over the media and the army. Unlike the Nazi model, the Ba'ath version deployed Iraq's traditional tribes and clans in key state institutions; these groups still survive in the provinces and outlying rural areas. Three strategic posts were set aside for the ruling clan: the defence ministry, the party's military bureau (al-maktab al-askari) and the National Security Bureau (maktab al-amn al-qawmi). In the early years of the regime, state tribalism (the ruler's employment of his own tribesmen in state institutions) focused on the tribe that made up the ruling elite: Albu Nasir and its leading core, the al-Beijat clan. In later years other junior tribal groups were admitted (2). This strategy, based on fear, aimed to strengthen the regime's power base, build a monolithic ruling elite, and stem the schisms and power struggles that had plagued the army and party politics between 1958 and 1970. Oil revenues were another essential component of the Ba'ath party system. Iraq's vast oil reserves enabled the government to expand public services and social safety nets. As a result, the Westernised middle classes took advantage of expanded opportunities and prospered during the oil boom that followed the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war. The success of the upper classes exceeded all expectations, despite the restrictions of the command economy. In 1968 Iraq had 53 millionaire families, measured in dinars (a dinar was then worth $3.10). There were around 800 such households in 1980 and 3,000 by 1989. Salaried employees and property owners in the middle and upper classes became powerful social forces. They did not owe their prosperity to a free market system; they were dependent on government employment and contracts. In the corridors of power and the newly ascendant clan classes, tribal or kinship-based groups held strategic positions. These clan classes maintained a tight grip on the army, the Ba'ath party, the bureaucracy and business. Their bonds were in shared ideology and economic interests, together with intermarriage and the glorification of kinship, in spite of official anti-tribalism. This totalitarian system brought together modern and traditional elements. It sought to control the state's power structures and the restless multi-ethnic and multi-cultural masses. Iraq's Arab population are divided between Sunnis and Shi'ites, while the Kurds form a sizeable minority (see article Kurdistan: on the map at last). This blend of the modern and the traditional has been the primary source of the regime's longevity, as well as its chief weakness. In dealing with the cohesiveness and stability of the ruling elite, the Ba'ath regime contrasted sharply with its predecessors. These included General Abdul-Karim Qassim (1958-1963), who relied on military discipline to keep order, and Marshal Abdul-Salam Arif (1963-1968), who married military discipline with blood ties to the Jumailat clan. Both leaders failed to secure a stable power base. The Ba'ath party added its own original ingredients to the basic formula of army plus tribal solidarity. This new and complicated mixture took years to set since its two sides were so
Re: question
A Conference Summary paper summarizing some background papers on the status of the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors in ten societies throughout Asia Pacific: http://www.asianphilanthropy.org/appc/appc_conference.pdf From: Ellen Frank [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:28752] question Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2002 10:08:22 -0400 Does anyone know of a (preferably on-line) source that compares social programs across countries -- like unemployment, pensions, health care? Ellen Frank _ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com
Re: Re: Re: question
As noted in the Conference Summary Paper, philanthropic funding sources supporting NGO activities in China, Hong Kong, and Korea consist of individuals, corporations, foundations, and the like as well as of government. Isn't the latter a government social program, a heavy government involvement? Mohammad Maljoo Gar Lipow wrote: I can't speak for Ellen, but I suspect she was talking more aboutr government programs - especially since none of the sectors she mentions can be universal without heavy government involvement. I too would be interested if someone does know where such cross comparisons are available. Mohammad Maljoo wrote: A Conference Summary paper summarizing some background papers on the status of the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors in ten societies throughout Asia Pacific: http://www.asianphilanthropy.org/appc/appc_conference.pdf From: Ellen Frank [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:28752] question Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2002 10:08:22 -0400 Does anyone know of a (preferably on-line) source that compares social programs across countries -- like unemployment, pensions, health care? Ellen Frank _ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com _ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com
Query
I have recently begun to study a large network of para-statal Bonyads( foundations in Persian) in Iran. I would like to know if there are similar foundations in other countries. Let me introduce my query with a very short account of these Iranian foundations: the Bonyads are the para-statal foundations that play a great role in the Iranian political and economic scene, and exercise substantial power because of their connections to the religious establishment. These foundations are only responsible to the supreme religious leader ( i.e. to the non-democratic political body) and, in view of the conflict between non-democratic institutions and democratic ones, generally are against the (limited) democratic government and parliament. Hence, the Bonyads have become pivotal actors in the power struggles among different factions of the Iranian state. The Bonyads' fabulous resourses and riches have mostly their origin in booty and loot of the pervious regime in Iran. Their funding comes from assets and enterprises that they own or from donation or from the government. The government funding is made available partly from the budget and partly in implicit forms( e.g., favorable exchange rate, tax exemptions, input subsidies, and regulation waivers). In fact, they can directly recieve subsidies from the government without permission from the parliament, and at the same time they pay no tax. these Bonyads have preferential access to substantial business contracts and investment deals. Also, they dominate certain industries including oil industry and such markets as cement and sugar production, and so are the most significant actors in the Iranian finance economy.Politically, the Bonyads play a significant role in forming both domestic policy and foreign policy. Most Iranians view the Bonyads as inefficient and unjust. The economic influence of these foundations still concerns the Iranians. Even many observers hold that these Bonyads are the greatest obstacle in good governance, combating corruption, and strengthening democracy in today's Iran. Could anyone on the list direct me to resources on such possible foundations, if any, in other countries or in economic history? Thanks in advance... Mohammad Maljoo _ Join the worlds largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com
Thirld World Migrants Face Fortress Euroup
A piece on migration in counterpunch... http://www.counterpunch.org/behzad0624.html _ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com
WARNING about virus
Hi, Unfortunatly I have recently opened an attachment and activated a virus. It starts sending the same virus to my address book. Since your name is in my address book, I am sending this warning to you. Please DO NOT open any attachments you receive before checking and making sure it is sent by a friend or a known entity. This virus might be sent to you through Maildelivery, shahlaehya, mmaljoo, mohammadeskadnari, Its strange how some sick people enjoy causing trouble. Sorry for my part in it. Mohammad Maljoo _ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com
Waiting for Adam
http://www.mises.org/fullstory.asp?control=923 Waiting for Adam by Brandon Dupont The parable of the modern-day economics Ph.D. student reminds one of Beckett's famous play, Waiting for Godot, but instead of Godot, I am waiting patiently for Adam. Adam Smith, that is. He is nowhere to be found. In years of searching through economics departments at two major research universities, I have found that he is quite the elusive figure. Not that one should actually expect to see Adam Smith in a department of economics in the year 2002--I was certainly not expecting it--but his absence is telling nonetheless and stands as a major weakness in the training of the next generation of economists. Typical Ph.D. economics students may be able to tell you lots about Kuhn-Tucker conditions, Hamiltonians, optimal control theory, undetermined coefficients, differential equations, and the like. They may speak fluently the language of mathematics and speak of sophisticated programs in GAUSS, SAS, and STATA. They may look at you with a curious bewilderment, however, upon the mention of Adam Smith. Perhaps they know of him. I doubt they know of the Physiocrats. I doubt they know much of even Mr. Ricardo, aside from a passing mention of Ricardian equivalence buried under mountains of pseudo math-department proofs. Then theres http://www.mises.org/mengerbio.asp Carl Menger, the founder of the Austrian School. He was a pioneering intellectual who explained the origins of money and explained value in terms of marginal utility, but who is now shunned or forgotten. I do not intend here to impugn the teaching of mathematical economics, econometrics, and the like. Not at all. In fact, I agree that they are indispensable tools for completing a Ph.D. and teaching in a university setting. They do help organize one's thoughts and communicate with the profession, and they are clearly important tools for graduate students. However, it seems that we often neglect building rigorous intuition in our emphasis on technique. Economics is an impressive body of work, but it is precisely in that point that I am troubled. It seems that we have lost sight of the folks who brought us here, and much remains to be learned from the masters themselves. It seems troubling to me that I (along with nearly ever other Ph.D. student in economics in the nation) can get a doctorate in economics without ever so much as glancing at what most consider to be one of the defining works in the development of economic thought: The Wealth of Nations. I can earn my Ph.D. by spending my days working on mathematical proofs and optimization theory without ever even laying a finger on Keynes's General Theory, Malthus's Essays on Population, or Ricardo's Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. Austrian economists in particular would notice that, if Smith and Ricardo are largely brushed aside in the training of modern economists, Menger, http://www.mises.org/mises.asp Mises, and http://www.mises.org/mnr.asp Rothbard are also nowhere to be seen in the vast majority of programs. It bothers me that professors will extend glowing praise for proofs of the separating hyperplane theorem, but smile with a wink and a nod if I profess a troubling ignorance of the role of the Physiocrats in the development of Smith's economic philosophy. If I can solve systems of nonlinear differential equations in my sleep or know what upper hemi-continuous is, then I am deemed to be worthy of a Ph.D. in economics even if I do not know the name http://www.mises.org/hayekbio.asp Hayek, a Nobel prize-winner in the field. I wonder whether the same things bother my professors?\xa0Some, perhaps, but a dwindling minority I'm sure. Nearly all of them were trained, after all, in the same mathematical rigor. What we are doing by focusing ever more intently on technical methodology is building economists who think that the economy functions like a blackboard mathematical model. We are gaining technical expertise that might rival that seen in the engineering department, but we are rapidly losing fundamental economic intuition, and we are being ever more removed from Smith's Moral Philosophy. I am not arguing that all Ph.D. students need to be experts in the history of economic thought; that is a field with its own experts. I do strongly believe, however, that we should at least expose graduate students to the field. Is one class in history of thought in a typical five-year Ph.D. program too much to ask of our universities? Few require it anymore. It is often even difficult for a graduate student who wants to take such a class as an elective to do so, since course offerings, even at large well-funded departments, are heavily skewed to the quantitative courses. I am afraid the rush to push economists into the so-called hard sciences with never-ending emphasis on quantitative skills and nearly complete ignorance of the social side of the Queen of the Social Sciences will lead us to a
Re: Re: Nader
In his _Exit, Voice, and Loyalty_, Hirschman places Nader's campaigns in the EVL approach. Mohammad Maljoo From: Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:24485] Re: Nader Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2002 19:59:44 -0800 Jim's Thurmon Arnold comparison is very apt. On Sat, Mar 30, 2002 at 07:51:50PM -0800, Devine, James wrote: [was: RE: [PEN-L:24482] Re: FW: Krugman] Sabri asks: Here is a question to our American friends: Is Ralph Nader is a leftist? it's a matter of definition and political definitions are not only hard to make but are political footballs. Nader is sort of a New Deal (FDR) liberal who used to believe in competitive markets, anti-trust, and some kinds of deregulation (e.g., breaking up the Civil Aeronautics Administration and the Interstate Commerce Commission, the old government cartels in airlines and ground transport). He's been moving away from this for awhile, seemingly in the direction of those on this list. I'll have to read his book to find out more. JD -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] _ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp.
Fwd: Moslem Migrants/Chicago Tribune
From: behzad yaghmaian [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Moslem Migrants/Chicago Tribune Date: Fri, 08 Mar 2002 07:58:32 -0500 Hi Folks, I wanted to share with you an Op-ED piece I recently published in Chicago Tribune about migration to the West from Moslem countries. Be well. Behzad Migration of Muslims to West will continue Chicago Tribune; Chicago, Ill.; Feb 28, 2002; Behzad Yaghmaian, Associate professor of Economics, Ramapo College of New Jersey; Abstract: The Sept. 11 tragedy changed the world of migration. Combating terrorism and halting illegal migration coincided. A new enemy was created--Muslim migrants from the Middle East and North Africa. They were potential terrorists. They had to be kept out. Borders were closed. New walls were erected. The West closed its gates to migrants from the region. But the underlying causes of the migration of Muslims to the West persist. Thousands continue to venture into the dangerous journey of migration with the hope of finding salvation in the West. They flee war, political conflict, poverty and the hellish life under Islamic fundamentalism. Full Text: (Copyright 2002 by the Chicago Tribune) The Sept. 11 tragedy changed the world of migration. Combating terrorism and halting illegal migration coincided. A new enemy was created--Muslim migrants from the Middle East and North Africa. They were potential terrorists. They had to be kept out. Borders were closed. New walls were erected. The West closed its gates to migrants from the region. But the underlying causes of the migration of Muslims to the West persist. Thousands continue to venture into the dangerous journey of migration with the hope of finding salvation in the West. They flee war, political conflict, poverty and the hellish life under Islamic fundamentalism. For many, international migration is the only escape from the cultural and political violence of fundamentalism. Plagued by unending wars and sociopolitical instability, and driven away from the possibility of a life of peace at home, many have become voyagers in search of survival in faraway lands. This seems to be the story of most Iraqi, Afghani and Kurdish migrants caught behind borders in the West. Devastated by war and political violence, millions have also been subject to destructive economic changes beyond their control: the globalization of economics and culture. Displacement and migration have been the result. The introduction of market relations and the transformation of subsistence economies have changed the nature of work in many countries. Millions have joined the ranks of wage laborers, swelling the labor force in most urban areas. In the past 30 years, the labor force increased by 176 percent in the Middle East and North Africa. The unprecedented increase in the labor force has not been matched by a growth in job creation and improvement in the standard of living. High unemployment rates persist in most countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Poverty has been on the rise in many countries in the region. Intoxicated by the flashy images of the West, a large number of socially aspiring and culturally adventurous young men and women have joined the ranks of migrants in recent years. They, too, flee home for a better world. The recent migratory movement of young Iranians is a telling example of this development. The Iranian youth echo the inner aspirations of millions of young people across the Muslim world--a desire for life with dignity, freedom and the possibility of work with livable pay. There seems to be no reversal of the existing migration flow to the West from the Middle East and North Africa in the near future. A growing number of displaced Muslim men, women and children will be facing closed borders in Europe. The result will be increased clandestine border crossings, desperate use of more dangerous routes and methods of migration, exploitation and abuse by smugglers and human traffickers, and death. A policy revision is necessary to stop this human drama. _ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com Chicago Tribune.doc Description: MS-Word document
Oil, Sharon and the Exis of Evil
http://www.counterpunch.org/ February 11, 2002 Oil, Sharon and the Axis of Evil The Great Game By Uri Avnery Some weeks ago, something curious happened: Israel discovered that Iran is the Great Satan. It happened quite suddenly. There was no prior sensational news, no new discovery. As if by the order of a drill-sergeant, the whole Israeli phalanx changed direction. All the politicians, all the generals, all the enlisted media, with the usual complement of professors-for-hire, - all of them discovered overnight that Iran is the immediate, real and terrible danger. By wondrous coincidence, at exactly the same moment a ship was captured that, allegedly, carried Iranian arms to Arafat. And in Washington Shimon Peres, a man for all seasons and the servant of all masters, accosted every passing diplomat and told him stories about thousands of Iranian missiles that have been given to the Hizbullah. Yes, yes, Hizbullah (included by President Bush in the list of terrorist organizations) is receiving horrible arms from Iran (included by President Bush in the Axis of Evil) in order to threaten Israel, the darling of the Congress. Does this sound mad? Not at all. There is method in this madness. On the face of it, the matter is easy to explain. America is still in a state of fury after the Twin-Towers outrage. It has won a amazing victory in Afghanistan, hardly sacrificing a single American soldier. Now it stands, furious and drunk with victory, and does not know who to attack next. Iraq? North Korea? Somalia? The Sudan? President Bush cannot stop now, because such an immense concentration of might cannot be laid off. The more so, as Bin-Laden has not been killed. The economic situation has deteriorated, a giant scandal (Enron) is rocki ng Washington. The American public should not be left to ponder on this. So here comes the Israeli leadership and shouts from the roof-tops: Iran is the enemy! Iran must be attacked! Who has made that decision? When? How? And most importantly - Where? Clearly not in Jerusalem, but in Washington DC. An important component of the US administration has given Israel a sign: Start a massive political offensive in order to pressure the Congress, the media and American public opinion. Who are these people? And what is their interest? A wider explanation is needed. The most coveted resource on earth is the giant oil-field in the Caspian Sea region, that competes in scale with the riches of Saudi Arabia. In 2010 it is expected to yield 3.2 billion barrels of crude oil per day, in addition to 4850 billion cubic feet of natural gas per year. The United States is determined (a) to take possession of it, (b) to eliminate all potential competitors, (c) to safeguard the area politically and militarily, and (d) to clear a way from the oil-fields to the open sea. This campaign is being led by a group of oil people, to which the Bush family belongs. Together with the arms industry, this group got both George Bush senior and George Bush junior elected. The President is a simple person, his mental world is shallow and his pronouncements are primitive, bordering on caricature, like a second-rate Western. That is good for the masses. But his handlers are very sophisticated people indeed. It's they who guide the administration. The Twin Towers outrage made their job much easier. Osama Bin Laden did not comprehend that his actions serve American interests. If I were a believer in Conspiracy Theory, I would think that Bin Laden is an American agent. Not being one, I can only wonder at the coincidence. Bush's War on Terrorism constitutes a perfect pretext for the campaign planned by his handlers. Under the cover of this war, America has taken total control over the three small Muslim nations near the oil reserves: Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. The whole region is now completely under American political-military domination. All potential competitors - including Russia and China - have been pushed out. For a long time, the Americans have been arguing among themselves about the best route for piping this oil to the open sea. Routes that may be under Russian influence have been eliminated. The 19th century, deadly British-Russian competition, then called the Great Game, is still going on between America and Russia. Until recently, the western route, leading to the Black Sea and Turkey, seemed most feasible, but the Americans did not like it very much, to say the least. Russia is much too near. The best route leads south, to the Indian Ocean. Iran was not even considered, since it is governed by Islamic fanatics. So there remained the alternative route: from the Caspian Sea, through Afghanistan and the western part of Pakistan (called Beluchistan), to the Indian Ocean. To this end, the Americans conducted, ever so quietly, negotiations with the Taliban regime. They bore no fruit. Then the War on Terrorism was started, the US
Re: FW: Re: Iran
Michael Pugliese wrote: One other piece making the rounds from Uri Avnery in the latest Counterpunch, seems way too reductionist to me. Hint; It's All Oil! Michael is right. Avnery's piece looks like a fallacy of misplaced concreteness. At the same time, if oil is not under discussion in a piece on the exis of evil, it is like a conference on malaria that does not discuss the mosquito. Mohammad Maljoo _ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx
Fwd: vote
From: HZ [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Zangeneh, Hamid [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: vote Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2002 10:38:01 -0500 Here is an immediate result of President Bush's axis of evil policy announcement. Let us hope the unity expressed by President Khatami is a tactical measure and does not imply abandonment of democratic reforms, establishment of rule of law, and respect for individual freedoms and human rights. Also, please note that alongside this article, CNN is conducting a survey on restoration of US -IRAN relations. Please go to the site and VOTE . When and where there is dialogue, there is less likelihood for war and destruction. http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/02/09/iran.warning/index.html full story at: TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Nearly two weeks after President Bush lumped Iran into an axis of evil, the Middle Eastern country's reformist president Saturday urged Iranians to turn out in force for an upcoming anti-U.S. demonstration. http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/02/09/iran.warning/index.html _ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com
A Land of Paradoxes
Iran: A land of paradoxes --- Shlomo Avineri February, 08 2002 --- (February 8) - In his recent State of the Union speech, US President George W. Bush identified Iran, together with Iraq and North Korea, as belonging to the axis of evil, involved in terrorism and the production of weapons of mass destruction. Iran certainly deserves to be classified as aregional and possibly global destabilizer, and its support for the fundamentalist Islamic terrorism of Hizbullah in Lebanon is aimed at further undermining the ever-diminishing chances of Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation. But internal developments in Iran are complex, and any demonization of the Islamic republic as such is simplistic, as is a dichotomous polarity between conservatives and moderates, the latter led by President Mohammed Khatami, is not very helpful in what is a multi-faceted context. In many respects, Iran is perhaps the most interesting country in the region, with the greatest potential for a development which may lead, not to a Western-style democracy, but to greater opening and liberalization. The paradox is that this potential is embedded in its ideology as an Islamic state. The last few years have shown some remarkable developments. Among them: Holding of elections: These are limited within an Islamic discourse, and in order to run in the elections, parties and individuals have to get an imprimatur from the highest Islamic authority in the land. Hence they are obviously not free (an anti-Islamic candidate cannot run). But within this Islamic discourse, there is a fierce contest between various groups and interpretations. Women have the vote, and participate actively in political life. Because elections to the majlis (parliament) and the presidency are contested, they are meaningful. It is, for example, clear that Khatami was elected with the support of women and younger people, and the establishment candidate was not elected. There is nothing like this in any Arab country: In Egypt or Syria (just as in Belarus) there is virtually only one candidate, and he receives between 97-98% of the vote. Debates in parliament are real, with different views expressed (again, in a limited Islamic context), with real voting taking place (again, not like the rubber-stamp sham parliaments in country such as Egypt and Syria). To the Western eye, the extreme image of women in black chadors is the only picture one has of women in Iran. While this is an obvious mark of the discrimination of women, the picture is more complex. For example, in medicine: Because male doctors are not allowed by strict Islamic law to treat women patients, for years the government has encouraged crash courses to train women doctors. As a consequence, there are today many more women doctors in Iran than under the shah, and the number of women dying in childbirth is among the lowest in the region. Similarly, the government has instituted a very active birth control program, and has found a way of legitimizing it within an Islamic context (we want educated Islamic families, not just large Islamic families). Iran has consequently one of the lowest birth rates in the region. All this also has consequences for foreign policy. As an Iranian political scientist recently put it at a seminar in Germany, younger people in Iran do feel themselves as Muslims, and Iran will not become a secular society. But they view their Islam as part of their Iranian identity, whereas the older clerics viewed their Islam as a universal revolutionary identity. These younger people, the Iranian scholar claimed, are first of all Iranian nationalists, and would like to dissociat themselves from Middle Eastern politics, including the Arab-Israeli conflict. They will continue, of course, to give verbal support to the Palestinian cause, but it is not at the top of their agenda. It is a complex, and perhaps confusing picture. But anyone who knows European history will perhaps identify a parallel: the Calvinist, Puritan revolution. The Calvinists in Geneva, or Cromwell's Puritans, were - like the clerics in Teheran - biblio-centric, with a Hol Book as their model for an idealized society. Their society was supposed to be puritanical, frugal, non-permissive, with laws against conspicuous consumption and luxuries. It was also anti-feminist, anchored in patriarchal family structures. But because the Calvinists did not accept a Church hierarchy, they based - like the Iranian Shi'ites who are not part of the Sunni majoritarian universalism - their legitimacy on the community of believers and introduced elections. And once you introduce elections - and different modes of interpretation of the Holy Book ar possible and legitimate - there exists a mechanism for participation, control, dissent (limited as it may be) and the introduction
Fwd:Evil Axis
From :kaveh ehsani [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject :Fwd: Evil Axis Date :Thu, 7 Feb 2002 05:40:00 -0800 (PST) This from Niloofar Haeri. She teaches at Johns Hopkins University where she is associate professor of anthropology. Kaveh I think we[ Iranian] should all send letters to as many newspapers as possible about the axis of evil stuff and the role of Israel in this. I wrote one to the International Herlad Tribune yesterday but who knows they'll publish it. Here it is: To the editor: With regard to the report No More Mister Nice Guy with Iran [February 5], the crucial point is this: by thrusting Iran into Americas line of fire, Israel strengthens the most intolerant political groups in Iran. Against all odds, Iran has been making progress towards building democratic institituions. Its President and Parliament were chosen by thoroughly democratic means. The relentless hostilities of Israel towards Iran through American channels will strengthen Irans hardliners and destablize the country and the region. Israel is not a foe of extremist Islamic forces, it is positively their best friend. _ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com
Fwd: Israel , Iran and the evil axis
From: kaveh ehsani [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: David Harvey [EMAIL PROTECTED], Subject: Israel , Iran and the evil axis Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2002 08:07:21 -0800 (PST) Israel thrusts Iran in line of US fire As Bush weighs up the 'axis of evil', one country is bringing its full influence to bear David Hirst Saturday February 2, 2002 The Guardian America's campaign in Afghanistan is winding down, but who will be its next big target in the war on terror remains in the realm of conjecture. Of the three chief members of the axis of evil that George Bush identified in his state of the union address - Iraq, Iran and North Korea - he dedicated most of his wrath and spoke most threateningly of that hardiest of Washington's villains, Saddam Hussein. Yet, if Israel gets its way, the next target could be Iran. President Bush was forthright in his address: he told Tehran to stop harbouring al-Qaida terrorists and added the heavyhanded threat that if it did not, he would deal with Iran in diplomatic ways, initially. Israel has long portrayed the Islamic republic as its gravest long-term threat, the rogue state at its most menacing, combining sponsorship of international terror, nuclear ambition, ideological objection to the existence of the Jewish state and unflagging determination to sabotage the Middle East peace process. Israel classifies Iran as one of those far threats - Iraq being another - that distinguish it from the near ones: the Palestinians and neighbouring Arab states. As the peace process progressed, the near threats were steadily being eroded.A vital benefit of the 1993 Oslo accord was said to be that it would fortify Israel for its eventual showdown with its far enemies. The closer their weapons of mass destruction programmes come to completion, the more compelling the need for Israel - determined to preserve its nuclear monopoly in the region - to eliminate them. For a long time, the strategy of enlisting the growing Arab peace camp against Iran and Islamically-inspired extremism from afar seemed to be working. Committed, under Oslo, to fight all forms of Palestinian violence against Israel, the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, came to blows with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and the anathemas he hurled at Iran, their ideological mentor, were all but indistinguishable from Israel's. But now both threats have converged, malignantly, as never before. This, for Israel, was the deeper meaning of the Karine-A affair, the 50-ton shipment of Iranian-supplied weaponry destined for Gaza, which it seized last month. It was a most dangerous axis, said the Israeli chief of staff, that threatened to change the face of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle. As well as supplying arms and finance, Iran, the Israelis say, is developing a supervisory role over the Palestinian terror through the exploitation of its existing assets in the arena, mainly the Lebanese Hizbullah, and its new ones, a direct link with Mr Arafat and the Palestinian Authority, and a recently created Palestinian Hizbullah of its own. Had the Karine-A cargo made it to Gaza, and thence to the West Bank, it could have made at least a dent in Israel's enormous military superiority. The Palestinians would no longer have been entirely helpless in the face of Israeli armoured incursions into their self-rule areas. The weapons would also have brought whole population centres within range. Though Mr Arafat and Iran denied any part in the arms shipment, there were compelling reasons why these former friends-turned-enemies should have resumed their collaboration of old. Mr Arafat's desperate need is obvious. The ever-growing violence of the conflict and the complete failure of any country to come to the Palestinians' aid present a golden opportunity for the Islamic republic, at least for the conservative, clerical wing of its leadership, which has exclusive, unaccountable control over underground aspects of foreign policy, such as support for Islamist revolutionaries like Hizbullah and Hamas. Iran's president, Mohammad Khatami, and most of the reformist camp may seek to dilute the extreme anti-Israeli orthodoxy, but Tehran's foreign policy is very much an area of competition between the country's rival political wings. The simplest way to thwart the growth of such a Palestinian-Iranian alliance would be to deny it its essential raison d'être by restoring a peace process that has some prospect of success. But it has become clear that peace is just what the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, does not want: Palestinian violence serves him much better. Persuasion For him, the Karine-A incident provided further, dramatic justification for the undeclared but ill-disguised agenda he is pursuing in the name of retaliation and self-defence - to destroy the whole notion of self-determination on any portion of Palestinian territory. But the Israelis took particular alarm at the words of the former Iranian president, Hashimi Rafsanjani, who said recently that if
Re: Taliban Support
Wherever the religion-oriented state obtains political power in a Muslim country , the political Islam grows and the social Islam declines. For example, compare Iran with Eygpt: in Iran the state is religious, so the social Islam is failing fast and the political Islam is increasingly growing; but in Egypt the social Islam is powerful and ... Similarly, in Afghanistan a religious state had arraived on the scene and hence was not capable of chaining many minds. Therefore, it is not surprisng , as Karl Carlile writes, that [i]n Afghanistan there has been a virtual absence of popular protest against the attack on the Taliban. But Pakistan has a very poweful social Islam and, again, it is not surprising that there has been more support from elements within the Pashtun community within Pakistan I think that this issue has not to do with racial and tribial causes. When a religious state arraives the political scene, the social base of Islam in that country is weakened. Regards, Mohammad Maljoo From: Karl Carlile [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Communism List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:22071] Taliban Support Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 21:51:17 - Prominent radical cleric, Maulana Samiul Haq, head of the 35-party pro-Taliban Pakistan-Afghanistan Defence Council, told the crowd Muslims would continue to wage jihad against non-Muslims in places such as Chechnya, Palestine and Afghanistan. Afghanistan is our backbone. Why can't we fight jihad in Afghanistan? Haq asked the crowd. The Taliban have lost in Afghanistan but we are not disappointed nor discouraged, Haq said as the crowd chanted slogans in support of fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and bin Laden. Several senior Taliban leaders graduated from Haq's madrassa near Peshawar. (MER) It is interesting that the Taliban appear to have had a strongers social base in Pakistan than in Afghanistan. There has been more popular protest and resistance concerning imperialist aggression in Afghanistan against the Taliban than in Afghanistan itself. In Afghanistan there has been a virtual absence of popular protest against the attack on the Taliban. It is extraordinary that there has been more support from elements within the Pashtun community within Pakistan while virtually none in Afghanistan. Recent events in Afghanistan have had a rather extraordinary character. It is clear that little of the story has been made accessible to the public. In many ways the war itself and related events has unfolded in intended secrecy. Regards Karl Carlile (Communist Global Group) Be free to join our communism mailing list at http://homepage.eircom.net/~kampf/ _ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx
Fwd: Good analysis
From: kaveh ehsani [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Good analysis Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 08:13:31 -0800 (PST) Iran unruffled by American media's talk of war against Saddam Tehran reins in Shiite rebels while mending relations with Baghdad Ghassan Ben-Jeddou Special to The Daily Star The Iranian government is not convinced that the United States is about to blitz Iraq, at least not in the foreseeable future. Despite all the noise made by the American media on the subject, which conveys the impression that such an attack is inevitable even if not necessarily imminent, in political and strategic circles in Tehran the prospect is viewed as far-fetched. This is striking. More striking still to observers of Iran's handling of the Iraq dossier is an evident shift in its attitude toward the Iraqi opposition, specifically the Iran-based Shiite Islamist opposition and, above all, the Supreme Assembly for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI) led by Sayyed Mohammed al-Hakim. SAIRI's military wing, the Badr Forces, has several thousand men under arms in a number of bases throughout the Islamic Republic, the most important being located at the southern end of the border separating the two countries. Recently, Tehran has taken a tougher line toward these rebels. It has been subjecting them to pressure, signs of which can sometimes be detected in newspapers close to the upper echelons of the regime. The reason Tehran doubts there will be an American attack on Iraq in the near or foreseeable future is, essentially, that it believes that Washington's enthusiasm for a post-Afghanistan military adventure has more to do with domestic than strategic considerations that is, that what it seeks is military victory, rather than the attainment of a specific military objective. That being the case, Tehran believes Washington is well aware that Iraq bears no comparison with Afghanistan, and that it would be quite out of the question to replicate there the kind of rout that sent the Taleban packing like mice. As one senior Iranian statesman wryly remarked at a recent private gathering: The Americans should realize that while indeed they are the strongest global power, that does not necessarily make them the strongest regional power in every part of the world and at all times, he said. If they won't listen to those they consider to be religious fundamentalists, they should recall what Karl Marx, the theorist of bankrupt communism, had to say about history never repeating itself except as farce. More specifically, Iranian experts make the following points: l Washington managed to rally an unprecedented degree of international support around its slogan of combatting terrorism. It thus succeeded in turning international opinion solidly against the Taleban after their leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, refused to hand over Osama bin Laden or members of Al-Qaeda. It would be very difficult to duplicate this in Iraq. Washington would not be able to invoke the fight against terrorism as a casus belli against Baghdad. If it insists on targeting President Saddam Hussein's regime, it will have to do so under a different pretext, and it would inevitably encounter much Arab, regional and even European opposition. l Changing the regime in Baghdad and toppling Saddam and the Iraqi Baath Party leadership would not be a viable objective for a purely military operation. Such an operation would instead aim to destroy some of the regime's military capabilities and other facilities, and prevent it from becoming a serious military player in the region again. This would be more a matter of gaining domestic political and electoral advantage than of overturning the strategic balances in the Middle East. l Any quest to replace Iraq's regime or rulers would have to rely on Iraqi opposition forces, Shiite and/or Kurdish. The Iranians note that the Americans achieved a quick, spectacular and painless victory in Afghanistan by assisting opposition forces with air and missile strikes, but leaving them to do all the fighting on the ground and take all the casualties. They believe that the same kind of tactic will be applied to any American plans for Iraq. Deploying American forces in ground combat would entail large numbers of American casualties, which the Bush administration would want to avoid. l In Afghanistan the United States enjoyed the direct or indirect support of all the country's neighbors, and the same would not necessarily be forthcoming in the case of Iraq. l The Iranians, who keep a very close watch on the debate taking place in the United States and on the leaks provided to the media there, are increasingly convinced that the Americans are looking for opportunities to engage in
Re: Re: RE: Theory on Mullah Omar etc
As to Carl's analysis, I should say that Taliban's return to political scene of afghanistan seems very unlikely. Moreover, it seems that Afghans can not obtain a democracy friendly dialogue, even a dialogue of the deaf. So Iran dose not need Taliban to destablize Afghanistan. Regards, Mohammad Maljoo From: Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:21939] Re: RE: Theory on Mullah Omar etc Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2002 10:37:03 -0800 trying to start a flame war? On Sat, Jan 26, 2002 at 08:35:16AM -0800, michael pugliese wrote: Karl, you have your conspiranoid geo-politics more than a bit awry below. Russia supported, for several yrs. before 9-11, the -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] _ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx
Human Rights in Iran
http://www.hrw.org/wr2k2/mena3.html Iran: Human Rights Development (World Report 2000) Factional conflict within Iran's clerical leadership continued to result in severe restrictions on freedom of expression, association, and political participation. Deteriorating economic conditions made worse by severe natural disasters contributed to increasing unrest and a pervasive sense of social insecurity, reflected in clashes between demonstrators and the security forces and in harsh measures against drug-traffickers and other criminals. President Mohammad Khatami won another landslide victory for those associated with the cause of political reform when he was reelected by 77 percent of voters for a second four-year term in June, but the power struggle between conservatives and reformists remained unresolved. Conservative clerics maintained a strong grip on power through the judiciary, the Council of Guardians and the office of the Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Promises by reformists to increase respect for basic freedoms and the rule of law remained unrealized, and severe restrictions imposed on the independent print media, the major visible gain of President Khatami's first period in office, remained in place. The judiciary, and branches of the security forces beyond the control of the elected government, resorted increasingly to intimidatory tactics, with a sharp increase in public executions and public floggings. Conservative clerics taunted critics of corporal punishment, and accused them of being opposed to Islamic rule--in some cases even calling for the shedding of the blood of such critics. Such remarks fueled an increasingly polarized political stand-off, which, coupled with governmental ineffectiveness in the face of mounting economic and social problems, contributed to a volatile situation where the threat of political violence loomed large. The clampdown on the independent print media that had followed the sweeping reformist victory in parliamentary elections in February 2001 (see Human Rights Watch World Report 2001) was followed by the detention of scores of leading independent and reformist figures and activists. Many of these activists had participated in the flowering of the independent press in the late 1990s as writers, editors, and publishers. Other targeted activists included supporters of the national religious trend, a loose alliance of intellectuals and politicians advocating Islamic government with adherence to the rule of law and the constitution, who for many years had been one of the few currents of internal political opposition tolerated by the establishment. Seventeen reformist figures, many of them prominent, were brought to trial in October 2000 in connection with their participation in an international conference on the future of Iran, held in Berlin, Germany, in April 2000. The trial before the Tehran Revolutionary Court was unfair. Many of the defendants were held in protracted incommunicado detention after returning from Berlin, during which time they were forced to make incriminating statements that formed the evidence against them at their trial. Akbar Ganji, a well-known investigative journalist who was among the accused, protested at his hearing in November 2000 that he had been beaten by his interrogators while in detention in order to pressure him to confess to crimes. Most of the trial was conducted behind closed doors. On January 13, the court convicted seven of the defendants on vague charges of having conspired to overthrow the system of the Islamic Republic. The severest sentences, ten years of imprisonment, were passed on Akbar Ganji and Saeed Sadr, a translator at the German embassy in Tehran. A second translator, Khalil Rostamkhani, received a nine-year sentence, even though he had not attended the conference. His wife, Roshanak Darioush, a translator of German literature into Persian, had served as a translator at the conference but did not return to Iran to face charges. The trial and the harsh sentences imposed on local employees of the German embassy appeared designed to cause maximum embarrassment to President Khatami's government in its relations with Germany, a major trade partner which he had visited in 2000, and with other European states. The court also sentenced student leader Ali Afshari to five years in prison, and veteran politician Ezzatollah Sahhabi to four and a half years. Both were already in prison by the time the trial began in October 2000. Women's rights activists Shahla Lahidji and Mehrangiz Kar each received four-year prison sentences, but were released pending an appeal. Ezzatollah Sahhabi was also provisionally released, but he was re-arrested following public remarks he made in March and was still detained without charge in November. An appeal court reduced Akbar Ganji's sentence to six months of imprisonment but before he could be released,
The Forbidden Truth
BIN LADEN: THE FORBIDDEN TRUTH ABOUT BUSH, OIL AND WASHINGTON'S SECRET NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE TALIBAN At Democracy Now! we have often called the Bush administration the Oiligarchy. Vice-President Dick Cheney of course was the president of Halliburton, a company that provides services for the oil industry. For nearly a decade, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice worked with Chevron, while secretaries of commerce and energy, Donald Evans and Spencer Abraham, worked for another oil giant. Many of the US officials now working on the administration's Afghanistan policy also have extensive backgrounds in the world of multinational oil giants. An explosive new book published originally in France is revealing some extraordinary details of the extent to which US oil corporations influenced the Bush administration's policies toward the Taliban regime prior to September 11th. The book is called Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth. And it paints a detailed picture of the Bush administration's secret negotiations with the Taliban government in the months and weeks before the attacks on the World Trade Center. It charges that under the influence of US oil companies the Bush administration blocked U.S. secret service investigations on terrorism. It tells the story of how the administration conducted secret negotiations with the Taliban to hand-over Osama bin Laden in exchange for political recognition and economic aid. The book says that Washington's main aim in Afghanistan prior to September 11th was consolidating the Taliban regime, in order to obtain access to the oil and gas reserves in Central Asia. The authors claim that before the September 11th attacks, Christina Rocca, the head of Asian Affairs in the US State Department, met the Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef in Islamabad on August 2. Rocca is a veteran of US involvement in Afghanistan. She was previously in charge of contacts with Islamist guerrilla groups at the CIA, where she oversaw the delivery of Stinger missiles to Afghan mujahideen fighting the Soviet occupation forces in the 1980s. The book also reveals that the Taliban actually hired an American public relations' expert for an image-making campaign in the US. What's amazing is that the PR officer was a woman named Laila Helms, who is the niece of former CIA director Richard Helms. Helms is described as the Mata Hari of US-Taliban negotiations. The authors claim that she brought Sayed Rahmatullah Hashimi, an advisor to Mullah Omar, to Washington for five days in March 2001 - after the Taliban had destroyed the ancient Buddhas of Bamiyan. Hashimi met the Directorate of Central Intelligence at the CIA, and the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the State Department. The book also says that the Deputy Director of the FBI, John O'Neill, resigned in July in protest of the Bush administration's obstruction of an investigation into alleged Taliban terrorist activities. O'Neill then became head of security at the World Trade Center. He died in the September 11th attacks. Jean-Charles Brisard, co-author of Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth. He has worked for the French Secret Services and wrote a report for them in 1997 on Bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. Guillaume Dasquie, co-author of Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth. He is an investigative journalist and publisher of Intelligence Online. Related link: _ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com
Ireland Tops List of Most Open Economies; Iran...
The top ten most globalized countries in 2000 by rank were: Ireland, Switzerland, Singapore, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Canada, Denmark, Austria and the U.K. The bottom ten, from lowest up, were: Iran, Peru, Colombia, Indonesia, Brazil, Venezuela, Pakistan, Turkey, South Africa and China. http://quote.bloomberg.com/fgcgi.cgi?mnu=newsptitle=Politics%20UKtp=ad_uknewsT=news_storypage99.htad=uk_politicss=APDyXkRNKSXJlbGFu Ireland Tops List of Most Open Economies; U.S. Ranks 12th By Blair Pethel Washington, Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Ireland, Switzerland and Singapore were the world's most open economies in 2000, while Colombia, Peru and Iran were the least globalized of the 62 nations surveyed, according to a study. The globalization index, assembled by Washington-based Foreign Policy magazine and Electronic Data System Corp.'s global consultancy A.T. Kearney Inc., measures economic integration, cross-border personal contact, transnational political engagement and technology usage to reach its conclusions. The U.S. ranks 12th on the list, scoring high in the technology and political engagement measures, but low on cross- border personal contact and economic integration. ``Countries with large internal markets tend to be less highly globalized than countries which have small internal markets and therefore are forced to seek relationship outside their borders to sustain themselves economically,'' said Paul Laudicina, vice president of A.T. Kearney. U.S. citizens scored low on the personal contact measure because most people do not travel abroad or have foreign contact via telephone or e-mail, he said. That explains the high rankings of Ireland, Singapore and Switzerland, Laudicina said. Those countries depend on trade, foreign investment and tourism for much of their national sustenance. `High Water Mark' Moises Naim, editor of Foreign Policy magazine, said that because of the global economic decline, the year 2000 probably represents the ``high water mark'' of globalization. Since cross-border trade and investment flows dwindled to a trickle last year, the 2001 index could be drastically different when it is released next year, he said. China, through its new membership in the World Trade Organization, could vault up the rankings in 2001 from its 2000 position of 53rd, he said. ``Last year, when Brazil experienced a downturn in foreign direct investment from $31 billion to $20 billion, China went from $42 billion to $50 billion,'' said Laudicina. Continued investment flows, coupled with a growing consumer class and further economic integration, should push the world's most populous nation up the rankings in coming years, he said. The top ten most globalized countries in 2000 by rank were: Ireland, Switzerland, Singapore, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Canada, Denmark, Austria and the U.K. The bottom ten, from lowest up, were: Iran, Peru, Colombia, Indonesia, Brazil, Venezuela, Pakistan, Turkey, South Africa and China. _ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com
Dissidents' Trial Begins in Iran
TEHRAN, Iran - The trial of 15 Iranian dissidents charged with plotting to overthrow the Islamic establishment began behind closed doors Tuesday at the hard-line Revolutionary Court in Tehran. Outside the courthouse, some 20 family members of the defendants staged a sit-in demonstration in below-freezing temperatures to protest the closing of the trial to the public. Narges Mohammadi, the wife of accused activist and writer Taqi Rahmani, called the trial a mockery of justice. ``There is nothing valid about this trial,'' she told reporters. Mohammadi said her husband had been charged with ``apostasy,'' which carries the death sentence in Iran. The defendants are mainly writers, journalists and university professors from the liberal National Religious Alliance. Most were arrested in March for attending a meeting at the home of a prominent political activist, and some were arrested later. If convicted, they could face long prison terms. Six of those being held have been in jail as long as 13 months, some in solitary confinement. Nine others were recently released on bail. Defendants include opposition leaders Habibollah Peyman and Ezatollah Sahabi, and journalist Reza Alijani, who recently won an award from the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders. Iran has been caught up in a power struggle between religious liberals and conservatives that intensified after the 1997 election of the reformist President Mohammad Khatami (news - web sites). The popular president was re-elected last year for another four-year term. Religious hard-liners who control key institutions such as the judiciary have stalled efforts by Khatami to ease religious restrictions and allow more political freedom for Iran's predominantly young population. Since last year, the hard-liners have illegally closed down nearly every liberal publication, jailing and intimidating journalists, academics and activists. They have also jailed legislators who dared to criticize the heavy-handed tactics. The National Religious Alliance, a liberal political group opposed to Iran's hard-line clerics, rejects violence and seeks political reforms within the Islamic establishment. Iranian reformers and international human rights groups have criticized the trial. In a statement ahead of the trial, Reporters Without Borders said it was worried the accused were not getting a strong defense. ``We have full reason to fear that these journalists will not be given a fair trial. To date their advocates have not had access to their clients' files nor even to the indictment,'' the group's general secretary, Robert Menard, said in a written statement Monday. _ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com
Turning the sacred into an instrument of joy
Here is a part of Social Change in Iran: An Eyewitness Account of Dissent, Defiance, and New Movements for Rights by Behzad Yaghmaian ( It will be published in January 2002). Iranian society has had an immensely rich and diverse experience during the past six years. This book is the first systematic effort to capture the meaning and significance of this experience and to draw theoretical understanding form it. Mohammad Maljoo http://www.iranian.com/Books/2001/November/Social/ Hossein Party: Turning the sacred into an instrument of joy It was the Month of Moharram again, around the Norouz (New Year) I recall. It was in Moharram that, nearly fourteen centuries ago, Imam Hossein, the third Shiite Imam and a grandson of Mohammad the prophet, was martyred with seventy-one comrades in a war with a large army of enemy soldiers in the desert of Karbala. I remembered Moharram from my childhood days in Tehrana month of mourning, self-beating, religious parades at nights, and free food on the day Imam Hossein was martyred. I always liked going to the parades with my friends. We could stay out until really late at night. We also beat our chests imitating the adults, men in black shirts, and the kids who seemed much more devoted than us. They cried for Imam Hossein, beat their chests nearly to death, passed out, and were carried away by the men in black. Brave, heroic, and devoted, they were envied by other kids. Oh, how much I loved to be able to cry like them, and get carried away by the men in black. But I could not. I was not really hurt, no matter how much I tried to convince myself of the psychological pains of the loss of Imam Hossein thirteen hundred years back. I guess I was not a good Shiite. That was then. Now I was back in Tehran during the month Moharram many years later. This was Moharram in the Islamic Republic, the state that celebrated the martyrdom and dying for God and Islam, and made a virtue of mourning, self-beating, sorrow, and worldly pain. This was Moharram during the 20th anniversary of the Islamic Republic: no music on radio and television for a month, unshaved men in black shirts, Quran readings, black flags, and magnificent religious parades Having spent long hours writing, tired of staring at my computer screen, I heard the phone ring. You are invited to a party tonight, a Hossein Party, said the happy young relative, wishing to show me the other side of the Islamic Republic. I laughed, thinking that this was a bad joke by my bored relative. A joke this was not! I was told of Hossein Parties across the city that night. Curious and tired of writing, I accepted the invitation. A mild night in early spring, I waited for my sixteen-year old relative in front of her parent,s flat, waiting for the girls to get ready. And the girls appeared before my eyes in a column of seven. They came dressed up, made up, wearing loud lipsticks and shoes with high soles -- the fashion in the Islamic Republic. They came with nicely brushed hair, scarves pushed back to reveal their young hair, and the scent of all types of expensive and cheap perfumes filling the fresh air of this early spring night. On our way to the party, we were joined by other teams of young teenage girls and boys, all dressed in their best, wearing strong perfumes and colognes, joyfully marching towards the big party of the night. Youthful laughter, occasional ringing of cellular phones in the hands of the voyagers of joy, and secrets whispered into the ears of friends -- this was the night I went to a Hossein Party in Tehran, twenty years after the victory of the Islamic Republic. And finally at the Hossein Party, I stood in the middle of a street in the state of disbelief. A bright street, busy, noisy, and active -- this was the site of the Hossein Party I attended in the 20th anniversary of the Islamic Republic. I stood facing the local high school with walls covered with black and green flags, loud Quran recitation from the loudspeakers inside, and young men going in and out of the school, looking busy and important. Hundreds of teenage boys and girls, festive looking and beautiful, they created a spectacle of defiance in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Boys on one side of the street, girls on the other side, boys driving around in fancy cars, girls going up and down eyeing the boys -- they were the boys and the girls of the Islamic Republic on the night before the martyrdom of Imam Hossein. They stayed out late, marched in the parade, returned to the school and stuffed their sensual selves with the free food -- rice and curry, the courtesy of the Hossein Party! Boys in blue jeans, hip hairdos, and cool shirts. They stroke their chests in mourning, blinking at the girls marching behind them. Girls in expensive shoes -- their best shoes indeed. They paraded, chanting words of sorrow after their heroic boys. Eyes meeting eyes, hearts opening to hearts, the sensation of desire
Re: The Global Economy
I write to thank all who responded, particularly Yves Bajard; I now have a few good list of sources of studies . Yves, do you think that changes in informatiom technology have not contributed to affect the restructuration of the organization of world production in the global economy? Is information technology only an avatar of the organization of world production? Do you think there is no inverse relation? Incidentally, Yves Bajard kindly reminds me that if you are undertaking a research, it is your task, not orus, to identify the data base I agree with what he says, but it was not my intention to have a free ride, as I had written: I would highly appreciate any reference on these topics. Best, Mohammad Maljoo Why do you want answers to such a complex questions? In itself it would warrant considerable research, to be organized into sub-sections of the theme you raise. Also, I do not think that changes in the information technology affect fundamentally the restructur(ation of) the organization of world production in the global economy. The underlying forces of the global economy command the production and they are not technical, but due to cultural and psychological aspects of our species and social behavior. Information technology is just an avatar of the organization of world production, with a minor interest relative to the gobal problematique. Let us add to this point that if you are undertaking a research, it is your task, not orus, to identify the data base... Respectfully Yves Bajard _ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx
The Global Economy
Four days ago I asked some questions about the organization of world production. Do you remember? Apart from one case, I didn't receive any reply perhaps because of their vagueness. Well, the less vague questions are as follow: how do changes in the information technology restructure the organization of world production in the global economy? whether one can classify different approaches in this regard? I would highly appreciate any reference on these topics. Best, Mohammad Maljoo _ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx
The Organization of World Production
I am working against time to study a problem point. But some subsidary subjects have attracted my attention. : What are consequences of globalization for organaizing world production ? What is the impact of technological changes on the organization of world production ? What is the relationship between globalization and the organization of world production ? Whether one can categorize different approaches in this regard? Could you please guide me? Regards Mohammad Maljoo _ Join the worlds largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com
Mossadegh CIA (coup of 1953 inside Iran)
A New video: For the 1st time after nearly 50 years, the facts about the CIA led coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh is told by ex-CIA officers and western politicians. A rare look at the history and CIA's involvement in toppling foreign governments: http://iranianmovies.com/reviews/ciacoup.html _ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
Some Questions
Hi, Could you please say me what is the definition of Sociology of Economics? Is it a subdiscipline of economic science? What is its relationship with economics? What is its status in economics departments? What is its history? Mohammad _ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
Re: ALARM! A new publication
From: Macdonald Stainsby [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Rad Green [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] CC: Leninist International [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], Project X [EMAIL PROTECTED], Socialist Register [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:17592] ALARM! A new publication Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2001 13:45:04 -0700 Hello: We have just published 16,000 copies of an 8-page tabloid: ALARM! Against War and Racism. It's out around Vancouver, with 5,000 going to Toronto and elsewhere. They are available for pickup at 706 Clark Drive. If you live outside of Vancouver and would like some Greyhound couriered please email reply. The online version: www.tao.ca/~mayworks/911 is almost completed, with the rest of the articles being posted to the site today. The USA is planning to bomb depeleted uranium on 5 million starving Afghani people. Vengeance will not bring justice for the victims of the deplorable September 11 attacks. Irwin _ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
