Iran: The next revolution or an evolution. Random thoughts of a family doc outside of Iran

It has been over 40 days since the infamous June 12 election. Yesterday was the 40th postmortem day of mourning for Neda Soltan. I think seeing her die (on youtube) was the one of the saddest events that I have ever witnessed, and I have witnessed a lot as a family doctor. Fittingly her death has taken the face of the green movement. As one slogan said, she didn't die that day, the government did. Looking at all the events happening in Iran its seems hard to make sense of the events. After all, they, the establishment themselves chose Mousavi to run for Presidency, why not just revert back and have a re-election? its too late now, but they had the chance earlier. There must be much more in stake than just the presidency.

Is this a revolution in process? Everyone that you speak with mom, dad, uncle and friends and even think tanks in the media say they really don't want that. They don't want another government formed in the haste of a revolution. They want to direct this government to meet the people's needs. An evolution of sorts, or as Mousavi and Khatami put it, reforming the government. Is that possible? It takes very strong wills to direct this movement to where it needs to go but, no one seems to be taking the bull by its horns to get what needs to be done. Yes, Mousavi seems to be chosen by the people for this cause.....or, the people needed an excuse to come to the streets to voice their discontent and he was the vehicle they were looking for. He himself says "the Green movement chose me" and not the other way around. But, nevertheless, the fact remains that he did start the green movement as his election campaign was taking momentum.

This process has moved from "where is my vote" to "khamenei you are a murderer" as people were freely chanting in Tehran yesterday. Khamenei single handedly removed himself as the supreme leader by taking sides in the election. He started his own count down, which he might think he can void by dumping Ahmadinejad soon but I think its a done deal. His son, mojtaba, is scrambling to save the day (he has been credited with unleashing the vicious basiji militia which have killed so many students so far) so that he could replace his father, but its too late.

Every day that passes it become more a more about basic rights. The people are not dumb. They realize that its their right to have freedom, its their right to choose who governs them, its their right to live life they way they want to without someone else imposing their ways onto them. And, without fear.

I am not sure if this can be an evolution anymore. Peoples chants have replaced everything Islami to everything Irani. It's become all about "We Are Iranians". After all Ferdowsi, the ancient Iranian Poet at the time of the Muslim invasion of the Persian Empire, didn't spend his whole life reconstructing Iranian literature from the vicious remains of the invasion of Arabs for these people to undo it in 30 years.

I agree with Mousavi though. To move forward, this government needs to be forced to obey its own laws. Its own laws will tangle it all up. Nowhere in the constitution does it say that you can torture people without cause, that you can rule with an iron fist, that you cannot protest peacefully. What is amazing is that its not only the law that doesn't allow for what they do, their own interpretation of Koran and stories of Ali also condemn these actions. Mousavi, Karoubi and Rafsanjani have been very vocal about this issue on the national scene and it seems to be starting to payoff as most of the 9 grand ayatollahs in Iran (which are of higher degree than Khamenei) have started to separate themselves from this government and condemning their actions. Is this a true behavior or just survival mode, I am not too sure. I think this might be one of the only ways to cut short the hand of the Basijis (plain clothed militia), convince them that they are behaving against the teachings of Islam.

I applaud Mousavi for saying out loud what are on people's minds, bluntly even answering back to Khamenai. Khamenai said that all this commotion has been caused by foreign forces operating in Iran. And Mousavi answered: Please don't insult the Iranian people. They know injustice when they see it. If these killing are done by forigners dressed in civilian clothing, as Ahmadinejad put it, then go ahead and protect these people Mr President, isn't that part of your job?

I am Iranian, and have never ever been more prouder for my people than this past month. I thought that Iran was a lost cause but they shook me up, and woke me up. There was a time when there were afew people that you knew were actively working, publishing against the government, and everyone knows them well. What is different is that now, me, you, friends and family and everyone I meet.....they all want to know what they could do to help bring freedom from these oppressors back to Iran. As they Chant in Iran: Don't be Scared, Don't be Scared, we are all in this together. Natarseen Natarseen Ma hameh ba ham hasteem.

Mohammad Jahani

Then What?

Do you find yourself wondering about the future? about the time that you are established in your career, raising a family, living "the life"? I know that for some of you it seems far away, but have no fear, its just around the corner. Then what? whats next? do we end up looking for other challenges? Or do we just fall in the cycle of life, raise kids, worry about kids, watch our kids do what we did to our parents then grow old, weak and die. Is that it? when we do get there do we even have the time to wonder out loud "then what?"

I don't know. Its a perplexing question or thought. Is life just a race to the end? it seems like it, doesn't it. The only thing that seems to remain after we die is the wealth of knowledge that we as human beings keep accumulating and leaving for the next generation. There is a saying in Persian that:

The person who found immortality was the one that found humanity,
in humanity will the name stay alive to reach immortality


We can get spiritual on this as well, although it would take a lot of time to fully exploit this side of the question. I am Persian so forgive me for continuously drawing on my Persian heritage. Rumi, one of the greatest Persian poets liked to teach people about life by using common, popular historical figures. He once wrote a poem about a conversation between Moses and God, regarding life:

Moses asked God, why did you give us life? why make us work so hard towards life then let us grow old and die? what is the point in ending life as such? God answers: Moses that is a good question but because you need to truly understand the answer to teach it, do this for me, go plant and grow corn, then I shall give you the answer. Moses grows a whole field of corn, nurtures them, keeps them healthy and clean, finally when they had fully rippened he took a knife and began cutting them. HOLD said God: Moses you spent all this time nurturing these corns, watering them letting grow so beautifully, why have you taken to killing them now? Moses answers: They are all fully rippend my lord, if I let them be they will ruin. I need to cut them now and take them to a safe place to store them so that I may use them as I need to. God said: There is your answer to life. I plant seeds in many forms and harvest them in a variety of ways, when ripened an ready, before they rotten, so that I can use them when I need them.

I thought that was a good way to look at life but this explanation requires that you believe in God in some way, shape or form. We have a chance to do beautiful things in this world of ours, a chance to make ourselves useful, in whichever shape or form. Truly immortality might be as simple as showing a bit of humanity for when our time comes to leave this seemingly repetitive cycle we call life, it might be those small shards of humanity that god cherishs and keeps safe for later use. That was my What then. I am curious what you think.

The Perfect Factory

That is what I call USA, the perfect factory. A factory in which every member's only focus in life is to work. Gone are the times that one person could feed a whole household. New family members, the kids, are trained early on about the advantages of working hard, about earning money. Equal opportunity and feminism has led the way for man and woman to both leave the sanctuary of home and work. To leave the kids to be trained by the system, to be independent of their family, to make it easier for them as adult to leave and, yes you guess it, to work. We have gone from 1 person feeding a family of five to each person in a family of 5 looking after themselves.

How do you keep such a large group of working people satisfied to work hard from 7-9 am to 4-7 pm everyday, sometimes 6 days a week for a long foreseeable future? Do you pay them enough? No. Do you reward them more time off? No. Do you provide more benefits? No. Do they get a long siesta break at lunch time? Absolutely not, its forbidden.

Hmm. Why then would such a large number of factory workers work so hard, 5-6 days a week, without any real extra benefits? Do they love it? I think not, everyone that I have met meticulously plans their weekends and vacation times, and count down to those days.
Are they drugged or gone mad?
Lets step back for a second. America is the only remaining superpower and every year it reports an economic growth, where as other countries either remain stationary or decline. The only country that seems to be growing comparably at this moment in time seems to be china. This working system is producing results in every field known to mankind at an amazing rate and it is benefiting all of mankind in terms of science and technology, medicine, agriculture.. You name it.

Why is America so powerful and resourceful? Its directly related to its perfect factory where everyones obsession in life seems to be making money, hence working harder.

Back to the question, how do you keep this large group of people working so hard?

You pair hard work with hard entertainment. When your worker comes back home you only have 4-5 hours to recharge him/her before they go to sleep for the next shift. Design ways to remove the stress in the shortest amount of time possible. Hard work needs Hard entertainment. Make some drugs such alcohol, the leading cause of MVA related deaths, cigarettes, the well known cause of cancer, which incidentally has been linked to almost all types of cancer, not only lung, legal. Encourage adultery via TV shows and movies because its ok for marriages to split. It ensures that both couple work. It ensure instability at home, making it preferable for the kids to leave and become full time workers.

Its addictive, this need for Entertainment. Its beneficial to the factory owners. Pay individuals less, take away benefits, increase their working hours, tax them more and what happens? There might be some mumbling, some small groups voicing discontent, who eventually move to other jobs. But there will be no revolt. No changing of the system. Even George Orwell could not see this coming, or maybe he did and I just missed it in his 1984 book.

Am I saying that Americans are addicted to drugs and entertainments? That is a large statement to make and I refuse to make an assumption. What is clear however, is that the days of siesta and short work might be over for the world. After all, this is all about competition, and if you want to compete with the US you have the play by their rules of the game. I guess this is where globalization comes in and as some people say, at this point, globalization equals Americanization.

There are unprecedented movements happening all over the globe right now. Man and woman are working side by side in Iran and Saudi Arabia has allowed women in their parliament. These are the only two extreme changes that I know of, but are signs of changing ways. The globe is moving towards becoming an efficient factory.

Is the American way the way to go? I can't say. But I know this, society was formed by a man and a women forming a family, a nucleus. What are we forming when we become advocates of a perfect factory?

Journalism Without Borders

For those of you who were following and participating in the internet surge of the early 1990s, you might have come across what I am about to describe. For those of you who just began surfing the net, bear with me. I am an avid hockey fan, you cannot live in Canada and not watch hockey. Its just not possible. When I started watching hockey I fell in love with it and with the play of a few of its stars and on a daily basis would surf the net for different post game reports. I used to search ESPN.com, NHL.com, Canoe.com, Slam Hockey, Torontosun.ca, Waymoresports.ca, each told the post game story with a different flavour or twist. It would take me a good part of an hour to read everything out there about my favorite star, Mats Sundin. But there was a growing trend that I came across late 1990s. Every site I visited had the same story. Surfing the web for new stories or different views has became useless. That is unfortunate but not really an important issue when it comes to sports.

What is scary is that this trend has continued into other news categories so that now, there is really only 3 or 4 different views on important subjects. That means that a small group influences or even shapes the opinions of millions of Americans or even North Americans. There was an age old law in the US that was designed for situations like this. It explicitly did not allow for different news agency to amalgamate into one agency. It made sure that Radio stations, Newspaper companies and TV stations remained owned by different groups. That ensured variety in opinions and helped public discussions to be multidimensional. That law was recently (2 to 3 years ago) abolished by hard work from FCC chairman Mike Powell.

What does that mean for the general public? If a community only hears two sides to a story, given as "News" you tend to side with one of them, paving the way for a bipolar community. That is exactly what America has turned into. An amazing nation where its people only believe in the opinions of a few. One might say that internet is changing that, its the balancing factor. That is true. If you goto Google, MSN, and Yahoo you may get other "sides" as well but how long do you think that will last? Isn't it naive to think that this amalgamation will remain localized? At a time in the world where Globalization equals Americanization, these News Agencies will need to garner everyone's opinions to their own. Its not too far fetched to see CNN or Fox News buying stocks of foreign news agencies abroad or even outright owning them, especially in third world countries which tend to have sketchy laws against foreign ownerships.

Unfortunately there will be time in not so distant a future that when you open up internet news agencies, you will read the same news too. That is scary and I can't see that changing. There is a need for people to hear the "other side", a need for journalism to return back to its roots, not to become a celebrity like status. The News that I read and see here in the US is so different, polarized and it is geared towards a mentality of only good and bad, black or white regarding local and world affairs. This has become a Nation of Borderline Disorder (psychiatry term). I used to think how could American's think a certain way about world issues, being that almost every American I've met has been very nice. Now I know they don't have a choice. Do we have a choice? It can be said that other countries employ similar methods, brainwashes their own people as well. Like it or not we are all at the mercy of whomever pulls the string of journalists. There is a need for Journalism Without Borders.

Immigration or Selective Genetic Migration

While living in Canada I came across many highly specialized immigrants who were performing in very minor duties. There are literally thousands of Doctors, Engineers and teachers who are working as cab drivers, pizza delivery drivers , night security officers and floor cleaners. What is more interesting is that these individuals are given preference when choosing who to give landed immigrancy status. Its a simple point form application, the more educated and accomplished you are the higher number of points you get in this application and hence, the higher chance that you will be chosen as an visa candidate. That is the general rule to get into Canada, I can only assume that, except for the US lottery system, most of the western world's immigration application follows suit.
Now the question is WHY? why give visa to an applicant who is highly specialized to come over here and be a general worker? In Canada they have been promising for years that they are forming legislations that will help integrate these people into the society in their working professions. It has not happened yet. Is there another reason?

Lets take a closer look at the African Americans in the USA for a second. Have you noticed that they are highly accomplished as Singers, Musicians, Sportsman? Have you noticed that this pattern is not as evident in their continent of origin, Africa? This is a classic example of Selective Genetic migration. Who did the original slavers choose as slaves? They selectively chose physically healthy and strong individuals, people who could provide entertainment ie singers and dancers. These are the people that they brought over to North America as slaves. Since, for the most part, racial intermixing was very minimal, what we see today, to an extent, can be said to be selective genetic breeding. What I mean by this is that this particular community of people got to mix genes only with each other for over 200 years. The product of this mixing is clearly evident.

What could be the benefit of having a doctor work as a cab driver? how could the community as a whole benefit from this? It can. Not at this moment, but this individuals good genes will remain here to mix with other "good genes". We literally have an inflow of good genes into these western countries. This is a controversial statement because it assumes other third world countries don't have good genes but lets face the facts here. The best of those other countries are being cherry picked to live in the west. This is a classic example of Selective Genetic migration.

To What end is the next question. Does this mean that the western countries will eventually produce more intelligent people? I don't know the answer to that question. If genetic migration created the phenomenon that we observe in African Americans, its not too far fetched to think that it will have some sort of an effect in the future. That remains to be seen.

One People One Universe

Hello

This is the first time I am writing a blog so lets start with some introductions. My name is Mohammad. I have lived most of my life hopping from one country to another, from the time that I was a toddler to now that I am studying family medicine in the states. I have visited and or lived in all of the following countries: Iran (8 Years), Australia (1 Year), Japan, Turkey, Italy, France, Canada (about 20 years), USA, Belize (2 Years), Mexico (2 Years).

My experiences in these countries and the trends that I am witnessing around the world has led me to write this blog. This is something that I have thought about for a while. I believe that we are heading towards a world without borders. That is right. Nothing separating one country from another. Why you ask? Its simple, just look around you.

Its becoming very hard to find "natives" of any country dominating the populace of that country. That might not be the case in third world countries right now, but I think its where the world is heading into. Its a part of globalization or at least it has started that way. A big hindrance to this future outlook right now is world poverty. The rich countries of the world are trying their best to stay on as the rich countries of the world. To the demise of the third world countries. But the truth is that eventually the rich countries with their complicated technology and goods will need customers that are sophisticated enough to buy these goods. Its to their benefit to help in advancing the third world countries. Globalization or Americanisation or Imperialism, you can name it whatever you want, the end result is that there will be no borders when all is said and done.

As the great Persian Poet Saadi (12th century) once said "Humans were all drawn from the Ink of the same pen. Like Organs in the same body, if a day cometh that one befalls ill in someway, its impossible for the other organs not to feel it someday".

The truth is that we are all living in the same world. One world. And our happiness and well being really does depend on each others happiness and well being, and you can deny that fact as long as you want but its true. We are all gods creations and if we truly love god, then we should love what he has created as well because that is the fastest, and quickest form of prayer.

I appreciate anyones thoughts on this matter. I do have to go now.
Thank you for your time and interest.