Crash

It was a few days after September 11 that I understood for the first time in my life what being a foreigner or according to those days a stranger in another country really meant ,it was the spring of 2001that we managed to pull together a trip the united states well it was quite an experience for me after all it was America the trip like every long distant and long lasting vacation (well to me it seemed like a vacation but to my parents especially my father he was on business ) had its ups and downs any way we had the chance to see the twin towers almost 3 days before the disaster. But to me America was something more that big cities, amazing sky scrapers and lots of food to me America wasn’t that mean that I had expected and at the same time it wasn’t such a dream land either to me the united stats was a place that no matter what culture you had you could climb the statue of liberty and by standing on the crown of lady liberty believe that you are on the top of the world America was a place that you had to search for American looking faces the people in you daily life like the grocery man or the cleaning lady your door man and etc. were all either Mexicans ,Afghans ,Chinese ,Arabs and etc so frankly you didn’t feel left out as foreigners more amazing that unlike many countries with a high population of immigrants that most migrant are occupied in low budget jobs in America there are many Iranian, Indian, Afghan and etc doctors engineers lawyers and journalists I must admit that the for me America was not the big bad wolf in fact I felt pretty good (well I admit not as safe and sound as I do in Tehran but it was a felling more than ok) but a few days after our visit to new York and after the terrible tragedy suddenly all that changed in a way that made me believe there is absolutely NO place like home .
It was in those days that I felt what it is like to stared at to be frightened all though I was never called a terrorist or a Nigro (back to the days were being black was a big mistake ) but still I didn’t fell as welcome as I did without blaming anyone.
Days past and I came back home and forgot about the feeling of post 9/11 in the united sates until in 2005 after watching the Oscars I managed to see the best picture of the year named crash a film that managed to make me remember the felling I had 5 years ago


Directed by: Paul HaggisWritten by: Paul Haggis, from his storyCast: Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, William Fichtner, Brendan Fraser, Terrence Dashon Howard, Ludacris, Thandi Newton, Ryan Phillippe, Larenz Tate

A Brentwood housewife and her DA husband, A Persian store owner, two police detectives who are also lovers. An African-American television director and his wife, A Mexican locksmith, two car-jacker, a rookie cop. A middle-aged Korean couple…They all live in Los Angeles. And during the next 36 hours, they will all come together...
But not that kind of Christmas gathering that brings joy or a parade that make you united just standing in a line a kind congregation that can only happen in multi cultured countries like the America.
Crash explains the complexities of racial conflicts in the united stats. The first shot of the film focuses on a car crash scene and the fighting of two women one and Mexican American police officer the other a Japanese women from the very first scene you can tell that the film is not aiming to give you a pleasant evening or afternoon this film is aiming on your conscious and emotions . Crash involves several different races in its context African Americans, Mexicans, Asians which in each of these races a story of racism and unfairness which at the end all of them lead to prejudice and obsession.

In the film there are two young African American boys (the rapper Chris “Ludacris” Bridges) and Peter (Larenz Tate)) which seem to have a kind of narrative role all along the film these two young men argue mall along the film the more aggressive one the rapper Chris “Ludacris” stars bringing up the conflicts and negative views that moist of the black community in the united states have he starts pointing out to the most simple facts in the Los Angeles area and turns them in to severe racial issues . Facts like big bus windows which he sees them as a way to control the behavior of the black in public places like a bus, or he starts analyzing the looks of different people like the housewife (Sandra Bullock) and her DA husband (Brendan Fraser) which led to their car being high jacked…..
over all the way crash attends to the problems of racism in the USA is quite interesting but here in this end of the globe the Iranians had made quite a connection n with the film well not that we hadn't been mentioned in holly wood cinema before there were films like" The house of sand and fog" {(2003) directed by Vadim Perelman } which even an Iranian actress (Shohreh Aghdashloo) was nominated for the Oscars but in crash the connection was different well our first generation of immigrants which in this film was the father( Shaun Toub) of the family still was represented as an aggressive an unsatisfied character ,well we cant den the un satisfaction part for mist of the Iranian immigrants especially these with low profile jobs and forced migrations but as an Iranian I see crash an unfair movie to us there are many Iranian especially in the La district who are really left out of the film well call me nationalist if you want but I think we do deserve a fair hearing ion the movie and more representatives like the blacks and Mexicans got in Crash if we saw a black high jacker we saw a black women in charge of a senior health company , the women that was the DA's assistant or the TV producer I'm not trying to be paranoid or even picky but you if your not an Iranian you don’t know how it feels to hear you language in a international and Oscar winning movie you just want to have a chance to say well we may get angry like any one else but hey we do have reasonable (not that Farhad's anger in the film was unreasonable) and mature individuals like Farhad's daughter which was educated and wise enough to put fake bullets in the riffle in our community as well the next thing that bothered me was the role of Farhad wife you see in Iranian families may me male oriented ones but the mother of the family usually has A very key role in every situation unfortunately we saw the same mistake in The house of sand and fog that the Iranian mother is a sobbing weak and unstable character which her whole world is around her husband and kids , the last part maybe true but its not that they are weak because of it the Iranian mother is a very strong and reliable figure that in moist families may not have the final world but she definitely ones the important and key words of her families daily and important routines.
Of course the film made a good impression on Shereen (Marina Sirts) the daughter (next generation) of the family but in my opinion it wasn’t enough

but over all I found crash a fair film I liked the screen play and the performances a lot but the most important thing about this movie was the new context it brought to Hollywood the context of a America that can not rely on its usual icons like Bogart, MacDonald and etc for being recognized any more an America which is so multi cultured now that many people call it Home you have to decide whether they are wrong or right.



A few words about the director:
born: Canada,March 10 1953

Paul Haggis, who is fifty-two, was born in Canada; he crossed the border into the America in his early twenties. For many years, he worked successfully in American television, and was responsible for, among other things, the short-lived but much-appreciated series “EZ Streets.” A few years ago, Haggis, working with his friend Bobby Moresco, wrote the screenplay for “Crash” on spec. Most writers who have been around as long as Haggis wouldn’t write anything—not even a thank-you note—on spec, but the virtues of working this way are obvious enough: “Crash” was created freely, without the usual anxieties that shape big-budget films. The screenplay then attracted a number of people eager to take some chances, including the star, Don Cheadle, who helped raise a production budget of $6.5 million, which is roughly one-tenth the budget of the average Hollywood studio feature. Yet “Crash” doesn’t look small. Haggis, in his first outing as director, has put together an extraordinary cast, and the stories are set high and low, in Brentwood and the ghetto, among cops and civilians, the young and the decrepit elderly[1].

[1] http://www.newyorker.com/critics/cinema/?050502crci_cinema

Its been quite a while since I posted a new message here

no excuse to not do what you love huh?

but I guess we all go blank once in a while...... but look on the bright side Ill try my best to make the past few weeks up to those who's like it here even if you are not so many `……  

Book of the week

No matter how much of an intellectual person we think we are most of us Hide a funny secret when it comes to watching films maybe when we are with friends we light a cigarette (if we have the habit) or order a dark black coffee in a very high profile café and star babbling about intellectual cinema like Bernando Bertolucci or Godar and…..but we all know that in the bottom of our hearts there has been days that most of us enjoyed another type of cinema of course before reading Kafka.
Remember those films that a girl falls in love with a boy and a bad incident separated them for years and at the end the lived happily ever after sound familiar ?yes that’s right I'm talking about the wonderful and amazing world of every love has a happing ending of Bollywood
The book I m introducing this week is about the impacts of these type of movies on pupilc culture and the impact of globalization on the Bollywood film making industry this book is written by
Raminder Kaur (Editor), Ajay J Sinha

Details :

Paperback: 343 pages
Publisher: SAGE Publications (July 1, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN: 0761933212  

Picture of the week


When it comes to freedom you have to say absoloutly

No comment 

Scarlet O'Hara and women's rights?!!!!!! (part one)

Being a woman to many people has two definitions it's either being pretty and good-looking or it's just a total giving person who does nothing but sacrifice her whole rights to make other people happy and put a smile on their faces!!!!
But the truth is that the world today thanks to the new communication and facilities has changed so much that it's hard to find only two meanings for any word today let alone a word as powerful as women.
I know that by reading the previous paragraph many of you are either puffing and hissing that ok ok here goes a another feminist wanna be not even a standard feminist that has just started and is going to go on and on about how these evil men are stepping on each and every one of women's rights and at the end you are probably guessing that my slogan for this passage will be" Down with men" but that’s not the issue here I promise! I might have some enthusiasm fore women's rights I always have but I am certainly not a anti anything activist here except for anti war and anti misunderstanding and anti everything that makes people come apart but this is not the issue here
This week I want to talk to you about the changes that women characters have faced in the cinema through out the recent years.
If you are a movie maniac like I am you have probably seen the old movies were women were defined as very sober and soft characters which usually were not that capable of taking matters in hand I think one of the first famous movies that started giving women a more serious chores was Gone with the wind(1939) I suppose most of you have either seen the movie or read the book but for those of you who are allergic to classic movies and novels the gone with the wind story is about a young women (the famous Scarlet O'Hara) and her life through the American civil war this fill has one 8 academy awards and is named one of the most outstanding love stories of the cinema history
Well, yes Gone with the wind is a astonishing love story but in my opinion this film is suggesting a more serious outcome than just getting ret butler (Clark Gable) and scarlet back together in this movie scarlet faces the civil war in America a war that sweeps her family, money and most important of all the defined women that she was before the war all scarlet O'Hara cared about was how she looked how many marriage proposals did she receive and…. Although through the war this beautiful southern American girl (played by Vivien Leigh) through the war had a very fulfilled love life but she had no choice but to survive the so called Yankees therefore scarlet O'Hara the sweet little daddy's girl turns in to a struggling young women that has to be a man and stay a live ibn this progress Scarlet does get some help from Ret and other men she marries (again for survival0 buy this women is turned in to a new creature after the war
A creature that in today's world they have all sorts of names like Single, moms, police women .women doctors , women politicians and……..
I guess this is why many people believe that all though the movies can still be a activity for just having a good time but now days because of many reasons like having more women which work, study and speak in a global ranking
We are having stronger and more reliable Scarlet O'Hara's today
I guess that’s the reason movies like Step mom, Lara croft, And etc are produced.

So In my opinion even the most radical anti women rights people are getting to the place that Hey the world IS Changing…….

TO BE CONTINUED …….

Aids; A Global Nightmare


Last week I talked about a very important matter in the globalization field which was the Global warming case this week I want to emphasize on a another important issue in the globalization discourse, an issue that also concerns many many lives, an issue which is becoming increasingly global and universal every single minute; The issue of a deadly virus called Aids.


A global virus

Medically speaking Aids stand for Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) now in many cases AIDS is mistaken by another name called HIV well maybe using the word mistaken may be a big error itself but the reason a person is diagnosed is that he/she is in the final and most serious stage of the disease caused by the Human immunodeficiency Virus which is the HIV. Symptoms begin when an HIV-positive person presents CD4-cell (also called T cell, a type of immune cell) counts below 200. AIDS happens concurrently with numerous opportunistic infections and tumors that are normally associated with the HIV infection.
AIDS was first recognized in 1981 and has since become a major worldwide pandemic (stories have it that a chimp was the main cause of spreading the deadly virus) you have probably all heard how the virus spreads and in what ways in can be prevented.

The issue that I am willing to indicate here is not the, medical perspectives (which are all very important in their own ways ) in fact I want to move around the block a bit at think about the sociological aspects of this matter in first days that Aids was still anew born monster in the world many countries thought to themselves that "oh the poor Africans here comes another catastrophe " but through out the years the scattering of the disease has proved them wrong and now nearly all the countries around the globe face this deadly virus of course the disturbing fact still remains that the poorer countries face more infections due to lack of health programs and protection but still the other countries even the very wealthy ones seem to suffer alot according to the answers .com website "In the United States, more than 733,000 people have AIDS, and an estimated one to two million people has HIV infection without the symptoms of AIDS. Internationally, since the AIDS epidemic began, more than 16 million deaths have been attributed to AIDS".

Many static's suggest than more than 95 percent of the HIV cases are in the developing countries so as we can see a very severe case that was born in the African region of the world is now a very universal issue there for in my opinion universal actions must be taken place.
In the past few years many countries like Iran that Because of there ideological back ground may have had the impression that they are unlikely to be affected by the disease but even these countries have gained enough symptoms and cases to become concerned for instance in Iran there is about 10,000 officially recorded cases of. But experts say the real number could be as high as 40,000.so as you can observe being affected and concerned about HIV is no longer linked to being rich or pore or coming from a certain country the HIV issue is global and is becoming more global every day
In my opinion it is the duty of cultural and governmental institutions and organizations to fight the disease globally this case is not a private sandal or a local catastrophe it’s a threat to all of us!! 

Picture of the week

Aids is a universal matter

Give it a thought,a serious thought 

The Earth is on Fire.....

"Things are happening a lot faster than any one predicted" the statement you just witnessed are the exact words of Bill Chameides - the chief scientist of the Environmental Defense corporation (in the Us) -in his inter view with time magazines April 23thrd issue (you may see the link in the side bar) on Global warming, but besides the very sparkling journalistic topic Global warming how are we really responding to this issue? Many analysts believe that most of us just think that a news paper or television program is talking about the global warming issue because a: it doesn't have any thing else to talk about or b: it’s a hot topic these days and at the end of the day we get to the point that "its something like the Michael Jackson case it will fade away eventually" but according to the Time Magazine this issue is not a celebrity case and believe Me it is insisting on the fact that this case Will not go away .
Now I know that when it comes to globalization we all think that "Wow this is a modern serious issue (at least I thought that way ) but as I have mentioned in my previous thoughts see globalization burgeoning in very unique issues that are mostly taken for granted , The global warming issue is a explicable example for this to be honest the first time that I looked at the cover of Time magazine (issue 23thrd of April) I was quite shocked I thought that any thing would be the cover story head line than the "BE WORRIED BE VERY WORRIED" phrase which was settled over the back ground of a polar bear at sea at the Canadian High Artic which in the inside scoop of the magazine you see a detailed information on how the bears are drowning every day because of the melting ice of the Artic ocean due to hot water?
Before you think I am one of those very green activists that worry about mother nature every second of life let me make a hush hush confession that I really never thought of animals and the environment more than thinking" wow what a quite puppy' or noticing cherry blossoms in the spring but when I started reading the full coverage of the Magazine I realized that actually this is a very very vital issue.

There was a part that indicated the growth of societies like China and India are effecting the global environment immensely, well that seems like a part theme for antiindustrial activists but the truth is the earth is really going towards a slow and silent death the reason that through the past few years there has been so many natural catastrophe's like The tsunami (the Indian ocean Tsunami in 2994) 0r the heart breaking Bam earth quake in Iran ( December 26 ,2003 ) and etc we all know that these incidents claimed many lives.

With no doubt jumping to the conclusion that the industrialism and social progress of societies are leading to the destruction of the world is a little of the edge but this time that you are speeding with your car and injecting more Co2 (which by the way is the main cause of Global warming) or if you are dumping garbage (another cause) or wasting energy (yes! this as well) just think for a while that really what if you are stating the basis of another catastrophe ??

Picture of the week

Let's take Global Warming more seriuosly 

The following passage is my abstract for our class assignment .
I chose immigration and Diasporas as my subject because I feel the population of Iranians that have immigrated abroad due to social and political reasons still play a very significant role as Iranian's all around the world .

Globalization and Immigrants: The Iranian Diaspora Identity
This paper is an examination of the globalization impact on the immigrant’s identity with particular emphasis on Iranian Diaspora around the world.
Throughout the nineteenth century, day by day progress that industrialism imposed on the world, many countries especially the more developed ones started experiencing a new type of population in their countries, a population may have just arrived but it seemed like they were certainly not planning on leaving any time soon. These new inhabitants were poring in different countries that would offer them food, jobs and their most important issue; Security. It was in year 1789 that the word "Immigrant" appeared in a book called The American Geography by Jedidiah Morse, this new phrase was basically described as a` person who leaves one country to settle permanently in another. By increase in local, regional and global immigration, understanding of the Identity of the “Others” in a world of numerous multicultural societies become an issue that especially with the growth of communication and in the path of globalization critical field of socio-cultural studies. Therefore one cane argue that in the multicultural society, otherness and authorization eventually become very articulated. To understand Iranian Diaspora, this paper will look at it in relation to the Iranian core society as well as host society of Iranian immigrants around the world. So dialectic of Iran, host society of Iranian and Iranian Diaspora will be source for examination of Iranian Diaspora Identity.



<