Eva writes:

Hi Jadi,

I came across this news item on BBC news channel, about the iranian brain drain.
Do you also consider living or studying in another country...?

Best,
Eva

And I think today is the best day to answer this question cause yesterday once brave reporter asked a same question from our president Ahmadi-Nejad. Ahmadinejad answered This brain drain is not true cause I am here ! I am one of the intellectulas of the country and I am an professor and I AM STILL IN IRAN; so there is no brain drain ! Poor man.

My answer is: Yes, there is a HUGE brain drain in Iran. Some say more than 90% percent of our international winners of scientific olympiads had left the country and I know at least 10 of my best friends who are living abroad for a better life. Those are most educated and intellectual Iranians.

But what about myself? I think I have to do my best in the world. It is good to help others and this is the most joy in life. So I try to be at the place in which I can do best. I have born in Iran and raised here; so I know the culture, the language, the people and the problems. I am more useful here. Specially these days, we have to be in our country to courage other people. Everybody is leaving the country so we have to stay here to show to others that BEING HERE AND WORKING IS POSSIBLE. You hear "nothing can be done", if I leave my country other people will say "another one left this poor country, I hope my turn will come soon". So I am not going to be another PROOF for this "nothing can be done". I am here, doing something and I am sure that one day I will be able to say "Those days I did'nt left the coutry. I stayed and did my best".

For sure if I feel that leaving the country will be more helpful to others I will leave but nowadays Leila (my wife) and I must be here to show that "working is possible".

Updated: they were released after 24 hours.

Bad news; HerlandMag.com, womens magazine writes:

Tala't Taghinia, Mansoureh Shojaie, and Farnaz Seify, women's rights activists, journalists, and members of the Women's Cultural Center, were arrested at Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran, while trying to exist the country to attend a journalism training in New Delhi India. After their arrest, security forces escorted the three activists to their homes, where their personal affects, such as their books, computers and computer cases, were searched and seized. After a search of their homes, these three activists were transferred to Evin Prison, 209th Ward.

I know all of them, they are active, courage and brave. Farnaaz (on the right) writes in Farnaaz.info but unfortunately only in Farsi. Her site is blocked. Last time I met her in a resturant. We chatted and ate pizza. She was laughing as always and talking about freedom of expression. I hope she gains back her freedom soon, safe and happy.

I am in Kenya for the World Social Forum with a limited access to the Internet. For sure I will write more about it later I can not ignore this Photo and not post it just know. No. This is not Kenya and has nothing with WSF.



This is Iran and a man is marring two woman at once ! In Islam it is possible for a man to marry 4 wifes in one time but at least in Iran this is not common. But it seems that this man is using hir "Right" and marrying two woman at the same night ! embaressing.

This is photo gallery of Southern Iran (Hormozgan). Nice photos from Mehdi Monem. Photo gallery of the Life of Southern Iran (Hormozagan).

Wow... Today I had my Yellow Fever vaccine and Tomorrow I will fly to Nairobi to participate in a computer workshop there. Good opportunity to see Africa ans WSF ;)

Hi

My name is Vivek. I was born in India and now engineering in USA. I have quesio for u. I hope u'll answer.
1) What do Iranian people think about India?
2) Is there any Indian movies or Music in India?
3) Are there Indian restaurants in Iran?

Thanks

Vivek

1) What do Iranian people think about India?
As you may guess my answer is: It is impossible to say what Iranian People think about something. I can talk about myself and the people I know. As you know, Iran and India are neibours. They had some wars centuries ago and Irnaians won and even occupied India for some years I think. For sure there were some cruelty and wrong-doings :( Sorrry !

India has also many influences on our poets and my favorite old style poem are "Indian Style" (i.e. Saeb).

I think we like Indian people these days. They are famouse programmers and we adore their multi-cultural democracy. I also am very interested in Indian religons (specially Hindu and Sikhism). I have a printed photo of Shiva in my room and many sculptures of Indian gods in my mothers house. I also respect Sikhism ideas and their peaceful view to the world. It is also interesting for us that we have some shared words in Indian and Farsi.

2) Is there any Indian movies or Music in India? (I think it is a mistake, you meant in Iran?)
Oh ! Is there any country without Indian Music and Movies ? :) I think you can not find one Iranian person who have never seen an Indian movie. We even have and expression wichi says "It became Indian" (farsi: Hendi shod) which means it ended like indian movies! Check these Farsi weblogs, they are all about Bollywood:

• http://www.bollywood4u.mihanblog.com/


• http://bahrashtari.persianblog.com/


• http://bollywoodiran.persianblog.com/


• http://bollywood123.persianblog.com/

3) Are there Indian restaurants in Iran?
Oh yes. I have gone to two of them. Taj Mahal and Tandor. Taj Mahal is a luxury place who "pretends" to be Indian. I mean I didn't liked it. The food was normal and the prices was too high. But Leila (My wife) and me are big fans of Tandor (just near 7tir square). It is an Indian hotel/resturant and as it is an resturant for Indians, the resturant has to be an more realistic Indian one. They are hot (not as a real Indian HOT) and Indian (vegetarian or chicken or lamp) and the atmosphier is friendly and charming ! I like it and we go may be once a season :)

---

Related article: Glimpses of Indian in Tehran

This is a new rule (Official text in Farsi). If you have a website, you have to register yourself here: www.Samandehi.ir. If your weblog is not registered, it will have a Unknown label and this can lead to it's blockage.

Lets have a look at the site designed by the government to collect all this data, here it is:



Nice look ? have a look at http://www.checkm8.com:



Cool ! This guys steal other companies design for this National Big Big project ! funny, but this is not all of it.


While registering you give out your personal info (I.D. number, full name, phone, address, ...) and a registration email will be sent to INFO@yourdomain.com ! Yes: INFO and nothing else. No no ! you can not have any other email for the registration !

And where all of these info will be saved ? lets "ping samandehi.ir", it is 204.15.8.253 ! where ? here:



Asbury Park at USA ! Our president have obliged us to give all of our countries websites and weblogs info to him and he is going to store it on a server in Asbury Park, USA!

For sure I will not register my weblogs because it is none of our governments business. I have wrote this on my farsi weblog (FreeKeyboard.net) and many other bloggers also said they are not going to register anything anywhere too.


UPDATE: the Samandehi.ir recently has changed some of it's logos and it's flash to say "I am original" :)
UPDATE2: the website of Islamic Guidance (Ershad) ministry (who ordered this act) was hacked yesterday ! Have a look at this hacked site's screen shots:


click to enlarge


The first post says "Why are you doing something that will result in misery? Are'nt you ashamed ?" and the second post says "Islamic Guidance website was hacked. Hi, this website was hacked due to it's lack of security. I have to add when a ministry can not secure it's website, how it is going to talk about Organizing all the Farsi websites and weblogs?"

I have added an BAM PHOTO GALARY. There photos are taken by my colleague Mahboube. She was in bam last week (3'd anniversary of Bam's earthquake)