I will not go down with this ship

Tomorrow is the last Friday of Ramadan and like always, there will be a governmental rally in the streets for chanting slogans against "occupation of Palestine". It should be noted that no rally is permitted here but the ones that government approves so there is no chance of having a rally for those who want Iran "not to claim any share in any conflict". To me, the conducts of both sides of the middle-east conflict are so distant from normal that as a human, I want to be as distant as any of those. I can not be free from mistakes by the way, all my life I heard biased news about middle-east conflict and I am sure over there in Israel there are people like me likeswise with distorted views of Iran.

Because of that, I am sure if we leave the governmental rallies and slogans apart, Iranians know so little about that place which is not good in a sense but I mean if the government of Iran leaves them alone, they have nothing to hate anyone for....I think my generation of Iranians do not like to hear the name of Iran in any headlines for any conflict...we are waiting for a chance for sharing what we have, to other like us...we want to be world citizens.

Comments

[Howard]

World citizens. That is a great phrase and a wonderful idea. I hope it catches on.

[radar pangaean]

Mr. Behi,

I salute you for your stance. When all the citizens of this globe cease to be pawns in the power-struggles of our leaders the world will be improved.

I do not hold Israel blameless in its actions against the Palestinians, but there is plenty of blame to go around for all players in that ongoing drama. Better to seek to understand our 'enemies' and find a way to live in harmony than to demonize them and attempt to destroy them.

You are a man of peace. I am proud to call you a brother in the one family of the human race.

[Wild.Life]

It is usually a safe assumption that the citizens of the everyday world have nothing to do with the power conflicts inflicted upon us by greedy corporations, power-hungry government officials, and religious zealots of all stripes that want to impose their very narrow view of life on all the rest of us.

I'm very glad to read your posts, and find out that we are truly the same the world over - wanting peace, and not knowing how to get our governments to listen to us - be it lack of shared ideology, or money.

[m]

u r so right.
it is so nice to read what is going on with people, that things are not important enough for the news cast.
could you imagine a world where marriages and births take high place on the news ?
and politicians are treated like children-imaginary-games ? ;-)
that would be nice (and prob. more clever than current situation).
anyway, i write it from Israel.
thank you for this post :-)

m.

[Hirmand]

Dear Mr. Behi,

Its funny. I find a lot of people around me here in US feeling the same towards the government of US as you do in Iran. I would love the government to keep us out of so many world conflicts and perhaps spend more of their time, effort, and money into more useful ideas.

Its amazing how two governments of the world that are receiving the most media time (next to north korea), don't come anything close to representing their own people.

[Don Cox]

"Its amazing how two governments of the world that are receiving the most media time (next to north korea), don't come anything close to representing their own people."

You may not like the Bush administration, but they did win the last election with a convincing majority. Therefore they do represent their own people.

The underlying problem in all countries is the selection of candidates for election. Iran had a good free list of candidates, giving a wide choice. The current government then took it upon themselves to decide who should be on a short list, leaving out many candidates better than the ones they included.

Something similar happens in a party-based democracy, where the inner councils of the two or three parties decide which candidates will be on the list for voters to choose from. The primaries in the US make this not totally undemocratic, but it still isn't quite right. Nor is it in Britain.