Retracing roots - the Persian way
By Scott Peterson Christian Science Monitor May 16, 2000 TEHRAN, IRAN

Connect the dots if you will….

......Go West, young man, go West." Horace Greeley's 19th-century mantra echoes luringly in today's Iran: According to some estimates, 1 in 4 Iranians with a college degree works outside the country. Upwards of 1 million Iranians, for instance, have made their residence in the Los Angeles area, prompting the nickname "Tehran-geles," after the Iranian capital. In recent years, poor career prospects and a high rate of unemployment have speeded the flight that began with the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But that is not the only story. A number of educated Iranians are returning to their homeland - especially from America - some after being away for years.

The reason: identity.


….Some of these Iranians have American passports, others have green cards. Most have US degrees, and their thinking - and accents - are often a product of America's melting pot

….But here you are ... getting in touch with your culture. It's better than any PhD."

…."In your life, you need to find an equilibrium inside, and that is easier in Iran," he says. "In the US, many people hunger for this, but most don't find it. They are too busy. Everything in the West is about measurement, how big, and how much money. But this is not the man."

….Coming home to Iran does not work out for everyone, but getting back to the US is not always easy

….Spirit is where you find it, in your heart, wherever you are," says Karimi, philosophically. "I feel more American. No one can convince me otherwise. Going back to the US is something I want to do."

….I have thought about going back 100 times


…I really felt a thirst for my country, and I am still trying to satisfy that thirst.


http://www.csmonitor.com/2000/0516/p12s1.html

<Delusion Illusion Hallucination Mirage>
Mean something that is believed to be true or real but that is actually false or unreal.

Delusion implies an inability to distinguish between what is real and what only seems to be real, often as the result of a disordered state of mind <delusions of persecution>.

Illusion implies a false ascribing of reality based on what one sees or imagines <an illusion of safety>.

Hallucination implies impressions that are the product of disordered senses, as because of mental illness or drugs <suffered from terrifying hallucinations>.

Mirage in its extended sense applies to an illusory vision, dream, hope, or aim <claimed a balanced budget is a mirage>.

https://t.me/MkNotes/189

ماییم و می و مطرب و این کنج خراب
جان و دل و جام و جامه پر درد شراب
فارغ ز امید رحمت و بیم عذاب
آزاد ز خاک و باد و از آتش و آب
..‌‌.......‌‌‌.نوروز پیروز.....‌‌..

The Korean model: Grit and hard, hard, hard work.
For millennia, in some parts of Asia, the only way to climb the socioeconomic ladder and find secure work was to take an examination — in which the proctor was a proxy for the emperor, says Marc Tucker, president and CEO of the National Center on Education and the Economy. Those examinations required a thorough command of knowledge, and taking them was a grueling rite of passage. Today, many in the Confucian countries still respect the kind of educational achievement that is promoted by an exam culture.
»>The Koreans have achieved a remarkable feat: the country is 100 percent literate. But success comes with a price.

The Finnish model: Extracurricular choice, intrinsic motivation.
In Finland, on the other hand, students are learning the benefits of both rigor and flexibility. The Finnish model, say educators, is utopia. In Finland, school is the center of the community, notes Schleicher. School provides not just educational services, but social services. Education is about creating identity.
»>Finland has a short school day rich with school-sponsored extracurriculars, because Finns believe important learning happens outside the classroom.



http://ideas.ted.com/what-the-best-education-systems-are-doing-right/

خونه ی ما
پشت کوه‌های صبوره پشت دَشتای طلایی،
پشت صحراهای خالی خونه ماست اونورِ آب ، اونورِ موجهای ...
خونه ی ما دور دوره...توی رویاست..توی خواب...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0-fPwuPpAk

SNAPP or TAP30...LYFT a ride
Long but (it's) worth reading....Lyft a ride

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/jia-tolentino/the-gig-economy-celebrates-working-yourself-to-death

بابام داره می‌میره. وفتی بمیره خواهرجون از یانکی‌آباد می‌آد که بالای سر مرده‌اش گریه کنه و سهم‌اشو از ارث بگیره.

به‌نظرم ایالات متحده‌ی آمریکا را «یانکی‌آباد» نامیدن مضحک و خام آمد و ضمناً بی‌درنگ یاد گفت‌وگو با کلائودیا درباره‌ی پرچم‌ها در معبد مایپو افتادم. به خودم گفتم دست سرنوشت سرانجام او را به کشوری برده است که در کودکی آن را خوار و پست می‌شمرد.

کتاب راه‌های برگشتن به خانه در وب‌سایت نشر چشمه
http://www.vandadjalili.com/article/14/%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%87%E2%80%8C%D9%87%D8%A7%DB%8C%20%D8%A8%D8%B1%DA%AF%D8%B4%D8%AA%D9%86%20%D8%A8%D9%87%20%D8%AE%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%87

The Singularity: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Producing a film about the life of some super-cyborg is akin to producing Hamlet for an audience of Neanderthals. Indeed, the future masters of the world will probably be more different from us than we are from Neanderthals. Whereas we and the Neanderthals are at least human, our inheritors will be godlike.

Physicists define the Big Bang as a singularity. It is a point at which all the known laws of nature did not exist. Time too did not exist. It is thus meaningless to say that anything existed ‘before’ the Big Bang. We may be fast approaching a new singularity, when all the concepts that give meaning to our world –
ME, YOU, MEN, WOMEN, LOVE AND HATE – WII BECOME IRRELEVANT.
Anything happening beyond that point is meaningless to us.

What Does LGBTQ+ Mean?

Lesbian: A lesbian is a female homosexual: a female who experiences romantic love or sexual attraction to other females.

Gay: Gay is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. Gay is often used to describe homosexual males but lesbians may also be referred to as gay.

Bisexual: Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior toward both males and females, or romantic or sexual attraction to people of any sex or gender identity; this latter aspect is sometimes termed pansexuality.

Transgender: Transgender is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity differs from what is typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. It is sometimes abbreviated to trans.

Transsexuals: experience a gender identity inconsistent or not culturally associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Two-Spirited : Two-Spirited is a modern umbrella term used by some indigenous North Americans to describe gender-variant individuals in their communities, specifically people within indigenous communities who are seen as having both male and female spirits within them.

Queer: Queer is an umbrella term for sexual and gender minorities that are not heterosexual or cisgender. Queer was originally used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires but, beginning in the late-1980s, queer scholars and activists began to reclaim the word.

Questioning: The questioning of one’s gender, sexual identity, sexual orientation, or all three is a process of exploration by people who may be unsure, still exploring, and concerned about applying a social label to themselves for various reasons.

Intersex: Intersex is a variation in sex characteristics including chromosomes, gonads, or genitals that do not allow an individual to be distinctly identified as male or female.

Asexual: Asexuality (or nonsexuality) is the lack of sexual attraction to anyone, or low or absent interest in sexual activity. It may be considered the lack of a sexual orientation, or one of the variations thereof, alongside heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality.

Ally: An Ally is a person who considers themselves a friend to the LGBTQ+ community.

Pansexual: Pansexuality, or omnisexuality, is sexual attraction, romantic love, or emotional attraction toward people of any sex or gender identity. Pansexual people may refer to themselves as gender-blind, asserting that gender and sex are insignificant or irrelevant in determining whether they will be sexually attracted to others.

Agender: Agender people, also called genderless, genderfree, non-gendered, or ungendered people are those who identify as having no gender or being without any gender identity. This category includes a very broad range of identities which do not conform to traditional gender norms.

Gender Queer: Gender Queer is an umbrella term for gender identities that are not exclusively masculine or feminine—identities which are thus outside of the gender binary and cisnormativity.

Bigender: Bigender is a gender identity where the person moves between feminine and masculine gender identities and behaviours, possibly depending on context. Some bigender individuals express two distinct “female” and “male” personas, feminine and masculine respectively; others find that they identify as two genders simultaneously.

Gender Variant: Gender variance, or gender nonconformity, is behaviour or gender expression by an individual that does not match masculine and feminine gender norms. People who exhibit gender variance may be called gender variant, gender non-conforming, gender diverse or gender atypical, and may be transgender, or otherwise variant in their gender expression. Some intersex people may also exhibit gender variance.

Pangender: Pangender people are those who feel they identify as all genders. The term has a great deal of overlap with gender queer.

https://t.me/MkNotes/209

Little Johnny was on a plane when the stranger in the next seat said, "Let's talk. Flights go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passengers."
Little Johnny, who had just opened his book, closed it slowly, and said to the stranger, "What would you like to discuss?"
The stranger said, "How about nuclear power?"
Johnny said, "That could be interesting. But first, I have a question. A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same thing, grass. Yet a deer excretes pellets, while a cow excretes a flat patty, and a horse excretes clumps of dried grass. Why do you suppose that is?"
The stranger said, "I have no idea."
Johnny said, "Well, then, why do you feel qualified to discuss nuclear power when you don't know shit?

https://t.me/MkNotes/221

Did you know that dolphins are so smart that within a few weeks of captivity, they can train people to stand on the very edge of the pool and throw them fish?

CIGARETTE: A pinch of tobacco rolled in paper with fire at one end and a fool at the other!

MARRIAGE: It's an agreement wherein a man loses his bachelor degree and a woman gains her master

COMPROMISE: The art of dividing a cake in such a way that everybody believes he got the biggest piece

LECTURE: An art of transmitting Information from the notes of the lecturer to the notes of students without passing through the minds of either

CONFERENCE: The confusion of one man multiplied by the number present

CONFERENCE ROOM: A place where everybody talks, nobody listens and everybody disagrees later on

ECSTASY: A feeling when you feel you are going to feel a feeling you have never felt before

CLASSIC: A book which people praise, but never read

SMILE: A curve that can set a lot of things straight!

OFFICE: A place where you can relax after your strenuous home life

YAWN: The only time when some married men ever get to open their mouth

EXPERIENCE: The name men give to their Mistakes

DIPLOMAT: A person who tells you to go to hell in such a way that you actually look forward to the trip

OPTIMIST: A person who while falling from EIFFEL TOWER says in midway "SEE I AM NOT INJURED YET!"

MISER: A person who lives poor so that he can die RICH!

FATHER: A banker provided by nature

BOSS: Someone who is early when you are late and late when you are early

POLITICIAN: One who shakes your Hand before elections and your Confidence later

DOCTOR: A person who kills your ills by pills, and kills you by his bills !!

https://t.me/MkNotes/223

Such memories, of course, would imply the unthinkable: that Iran was as beautiful, as fun, as energizing and romantic, as Oklahoma or Montana or New York.
when all conversation would stop and she would be asked to repeat our escape story. The problem, of course, was that they wanted our salvation story as a talisman, no more. No one ever asked what our house in Iran looked like, what fruits we grew in our yard, what books we read, what music we loved and what it felt like now not to understand any of the songs on the radio. No one asked if we missed our cousins or grandparents or best friends. No one asked what we did in summers or if we had any photos of the Caspian Sea. “Men treat women horribly there, don’t they?” the women would ask. Somehow it didn’t feel OK to tell them about my funny dad with his pockets full of sour cherries, or my grandpa who removed his false teeth when he told ghost stories.
In many of the classes I’ve taught, my quietest kids have been Middle Eastern. I’m always surprised by this, since the literature I choose should resonate most with them, since I’m an Iranian teacher, their ally, since the civilized world yearns for their voices now. Still, they bristle at headlines about the refugee crisis that I flash on the screen, hang their heads, and look relieved when the class is finished. Their silence makes me angry, but I understand why they don’t want to commit to any point of view. Who knows what their universe looks like outside my classroom, what sentiments they’re expected to display in order to be on the inside
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/04/dina-nayeri-ungrateful-refugee?CMP=share_btn_fb