Serendipity pt 2 (128 + 1)

A follow up to part one, which you can find here.She looks around the bar, not sure how to compose herself. All the other people in the bar assume she’s waiting for some one else to arrive. Perhaps feeling a bit sorry for her, as she’s been there for an hour already. And she doesn’t look like the kind of woman you would want to miss an appointment with. But they’re dead wrong. She’s not waiting. She’s assuming. To be more precise, she’s not assuming any more. She was assuming when she braved the snow to walk to this place one hour earlier. Assuming, even though what she was assuming was extremely unlikely. But, since it was the only possibility, she had to assume.

It’s been a year since she last saw him. 365 days to be exact. That’s why she assumed he would be here again, in the same place, the same date. The only thing that’s different, is that this time they would have been alone and able to talk privately. It’s been a couple of years more since that was possible.

Half hour later she puts on her coat and walks out. Oddly satisfied, the act of coming probably as fulfilling as the imagined serendipity realized. Even though she doesn’t realize it yet, her intuition was still right. She’s not alone when she walks back home, and neither was she when she went to the bar. Inside of her are 128 cell quickly developing into a person.

Gender confusion

I was very surprised today to browse through the winner’s of Transistion Abroad’s narrative travel writing contest. Apparently, there’s a woman (scoring third place) who has been leading a very similar life to mine.

Good for her.

On the Sunny Side of the Street

Grab your coat and get your hat Leave your worry on the doorstep Just direct your feet To the sunny side of the street

A short history of civilization in 10 concepts

spears agriculture soap gunpowder colonies dishwashers contraceptives computers terrorism WikiLeaks

25th Bahman 1389

As you might have noticed, lately things are burning in the Middle East. And while the events in Egypt and Tunisia are historical, and the events in Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan and Algeria are worth following up, today I want to talk about only the country of which I can tell you something new.

I’m speaking, of course, about Iran. And I want to highlight the difference between the protests that are happening right now, and the protests of last year.

Last year, people took to the streets to demand there vote back, after massive, barely covered-up election fraud brought president Ahmedinejad back to power for another term. People got killed, both during the protests and afterwards, after being sentenced in court for disrupting the peace.

This year, the stakes are different. People aren’t asking for their vote back. They’re asking for an end of the current dictatorship that holds the country in an iron fist. Maybe surprising, considering the people are actually allowed to vote for a president, but we’ll talk about that in a future post.

When I was in Iran, I asked one of my friends why people keep complaining about the president, while the real person that wields power in the country is the Supreme Leader. And the answer was simple. When complaining about the president, you risk being beaten up, maybe arrested for a while. Complain about the Supreme Leader, however, and you run the risk of disappearing. Perhaps shot by illegal police when you’re protesting, or jailed, tortured, raped and executed afterwards. When the first news came in of a planned protest in Iran, one correspondent of Al Jazeera made a great observation. “A good day of protesting Iran is worse than the worst day of protesting in Egypt”.

Two things, probably at odds with each other. I’m hoping Iranians will one day have the government the majority of them want and deserve. And I’m hoping my friends are ok.

Nesfe Jahan, pt 84

I asked him the way to the Iranian embassy. He went ten minutes out of his way and paid my bus ticket. Erzurum, Turkey.

Nesfe Jahan, pt 83

Maranjab desert.

Nesfe Jahan, pt 82

They look innocent, until you get them in a classroom. Guclukonak.

Nesfe Jahan, pt 81

Turkish and Kurdish teachers, Guclukonak, Sirnak province. Can you guess which is which?

Nesfe Jahan, pt 80

Donkeys. Of course.