Doors ... and the Great Wall of China

Door is an insidious thing… I have thought about it time and again.

It is only for the possible – or what is more, the positive – existence of a door that one keeps on looking around a walled area… If there were no doors, walls could utterly maintain and stand by the significance of the impasse, to wit the constraint, evermore. Still, if so, every wall could be a decisively negative certitude and knew well what to do confronting everyone…

If there were no doors, each wall could, without a hitch, resound with the inscription suspended by Dante at the entrance to hell; but, regrettably, one has to confess that doors have deprived them of so impeccable and sheer a sense.
***
More than that, a door is a full-blooded parasite.

Its personality is totally subject to that of wall; still one should suspect this point, in that though only walls can justify the existence of doors, they cannot sustain the finality and their arrant emphaticness I referred to before, in the presence of doors. But, there would not be after all anything more useless and ludicrous than a door if there were no walls. However I do not know a thing about painting, I can easily paint such a door:

What is more ludicrous than a door that – separate and independent from a wall – tries to have a personality?

Yet, a door that is not constructed in any wall has the astounding potentiality of provoking thought…

I have given my mind to such a door; and sometimes it has made my mind think about borders and passageways of borders, with no change in its form necessarily.

Actually, a free-standing door that can be nothing, is a good passageway for thinking, through which one can find way to many realms.
***
The necessity of walls is felt soon by observing a door. I ask if we sense accordingly the necessity of doors by observing a wall.

I do not suppose so. It may be so, but not that much to me, at least. I find walls more logical than doors, and believe that doors are vacuous hopes: they repudiate the character of walls when opened, and their ((own's)) when closed.

A wall is simply not more than an obstruction if there is no door in it; but nothing betrays its own entity as a door that bears a heavy lock… Maybe that is the reason why we cherish Roman and Greek castles more than old fortresses, and maybe that is the reason why we feel relieved and restful by recalling those sumptuous and colonnaded castles; and feel dubious and anxious by remembering those stealthy citadels; maybe... I do not know...

One more point: the uncertainty that makes us to construct walls…

The lofty walls before which we feel a dire need for doors…

And the doors which should be secure and specifically invulnerable, and have heavy locks...

As though life would be impossible but among walls and doors, but among this hurly-burly, this ambivalence, this opening, closing, and reopening:

Building a wall,
Constructing a door in it,
And
Closing the door!

Is it not a laughingstock? Why, yes. On the whole, it is hilarious.
***
The Great Wall of China has been a matter of discussion at times – and each time with a different outlook. It is said that the Great Wall of China was founded to fortify the country against the invading northern tribes.

It was an interesting point, having had one third of a Chinese generation victimized; let us say, a whole generation… because the graveness of such a matter is not weighed through the number of its victims.

The truth is that what immolated an innumerable group of people was not the main surmise of the theory i.e. the possible invasion.

It cannot be said that only the general principles of this theory are modified here; the blind spot of the theory is that the constructors of the wall (not indeed their commanders) did not construct a door in that wall! As a result, the main catastrophe they wanted to ward off beforehand by wall-constructing, changed readily and came forth more unsparingly in the same form and structure they had walled! Ah! And this is, I think, the destiny of all those who overlook the importance of doors. The northern did not invade but the southern did not find any door to escape through.

I would like to confess that I was ungrateful to doors in the beginning of this discourse.
In the history we human beings make, nothing is more remedial to us than a door to escape through.

Doors are essential; even a door constructed in no wall…

In this world – of no validity – we live in, doors are more requisite than everything else, even the Great Wall of China…


Ahmad Shamlou (12 December 1925 – 23 July 2000)
Tr. by Mohammad Forough

Not to speak ...

... - for a beginning (!) of all those - choose any of your favourites  -  who do deserve more than quite a bit more than a tiny swearboarding, tonight I decide(d ) to just give you a glimpse

of  where I'd like to shoot them.

PS: I do, of course, know that according to f.e.  the laws in China, Iran and the United States of America and to name but some contemporaries, Dick Cheney, Donald  Rumsfeld, Prince Erik, Ayatollah Khamenei, Ahmadinejad  et al., and even the debicile George Walker Bush would need to be sentenced to death.

Well. Yes. Putin, too. And the Bastards of Beijing. And ... and .... as said: choose your names.

However, why should Mr. King have been the last one to have a dream?

It's time to make dreams come true, would you agree?
Thus, on the risk to make one step backwards on the quest to become the politest blogger in this universe and those yet to discover:

Fuck the warmongers!

The peace of the night.

A voice from (?) Iran

Although I'd not like the Iranian people to get rid of their brutal, cynic, hypocritical and intolerant regime only to end under the knout of another group of fanatics*, I do offer this link.

h/t internation musings

*Mind you, the (courageous) altruists and idealists who'd help to overcome a suppressing regime would mostly not be those who set the rules for the future, as - again: mostly ... the revolution will eat its children.


PS: The questionmark in the title is there just to mark that I cannot veryfy the 'from'.

When the mirror speaks the truth

Germany 1953, Hungary 1956, Czechoslovakia 1968, Chile 1973-1990, Argentina 1976-1983 , etc. etc. ..., not to forget the so-called Congo-Crisis which by no means ended in 1966, Cambodia 1975-1979, Ruanda 1994 etc. etc. ...

... (almost) whenever criminals in power are being told by their people they are not the fairest in the land, they do behave like a certain stepmother.

And now in Iran?

To cut it short, as you will know the latest news:
The Iranian opposition is said to claim (regarding to their reliable sources within the interior ministry) Mousavi got 19 m votes, Ahmadinejad less than 6 m.
Given that comes close to the truth it is doubtable that the official result could be prepared without Khamenei's placet.

Still ... I'd like what right now is happening in Iran to end like what happened in Europe in 1989 rather than what happened on the Place of Heavenly Peace.

I really hope so, the more as one can hear from so-call US-strategy think tanks they'd prefer Ahmahdinejad to remain in power, as (whatever) sanctions would be easier to launch.
Same goes obviously with the falcons in Israel.

Publishers, go on sleeping

He got tortured in the prisons of the Shah; he got tortured in the prisons of the pious Ayatollahs. He's one of the greatest living Iranian authors.

Read what wikepedia has to tell about Mahmud Doulatabadi.

After all, some of his best works have been translated into German.

And where are, f.e. the English publishers/ translators?

Sleeping?

Ah, yes. The biography f.e. of a lady-star who proudly claims she's never read a book promises to sell better, hm?

A letter from Farzad Kamangar

No, I do not know if Farzad Kamangar is still alive.

I hope.

Tonight I happened to read this letter from him.

No, I do not know, if it is authentic and - given it is - how he'd been able to write it and 'smuggle' it out of his cell.

However, having spoken to two (renowned) Iranian writers once being tortured in Iranian prisons, I tend to rely on the letters authenticy and its contents.

Well, read and judge yourself.

Urgent appeal to save the life of Farzad Kamangar

Via Jams O'Donnell:

'Education International (EI) has been informed that Farzad Kamangar, the Iranian Kurdish teacher and social worker sentenced to death on "absolutely zero evidence" according to his lawyer, could be hanged on Wednesday 26 November 2008.

According to several reliable sources, he has been taken from his cell 121 in ward 209 of Tehran’s Evin prison in preparation for execution. Jail security officers are said to have told him he is about to be executed and they are making fun of him, calling him a martyr.

The Revolutionary Court issued the death sentence against Kamangar on 25 February 2008. His lawyer has said: "Nothing in Kamangar’s judicial files and records demonstrates any links to the charges brought against him." Kamangar was cleared of all charges during the investigation process. The last time Kamangar was seen, he was at the health clinic of Evin prison and his physical condition was poor. Witnesses testify that he has been beaten again. Kamangar has not been allowed to see his lawyer or family members for the past two months.

EI has been appealing to the Iranian authorities to commute Kamangar's death sentence and ensure his case is reviewed fairly.

Now, EI is once again appealing to Iranian judicial authorities to halt the execution. EI is also asking members of the international community urgently to intervene.'

Please click here to send a message of protest to President Ahmadinejad.

Update:
Tried four times, however when pushing the 'send message'-button the message would not be sent.

in case you wish to speak out, you may directly address President Ahmadinejad, by using your own account and sending an email to following address:

dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir

This is the message I sent:

Mr. Ahmadinejad,

having learned right now that Farzad Kamangar faces hanging in the next few hours, I call upon your humanity to immediately commute his death sentence and have his case re-examined through a fair trial.

The peace of the night,
Sean Jeating, Germany

- - - - -

Choose your own words, or - in order to save time - you may copy and paste the message above - don't forget to sign with your own name, though. :)

Thank you.

Iran: Mullahs banned from mosques*

Tehran - Iranian clerics have been banned from appearing in prayer rooms and mosques because they are said to promote a culture of fear and intolerance, according to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

The measure was announced on Monday and reported by Iran's official news agency Irna.

Ali Reza Karimi, director of the ministry's press and disinformation department, said the ban included the use of Iranian clerics with overseas Farsi language satellite networks.

He urged to respect the ruling to safeguard what he calls national dignity.

Ah, sorry, this is the news of another day.

But now:

Tehran, 7 July (AKI) - Iranian artists and athletes have been banned from appearing in commercials because they are said to promote a culture of consumerism, according to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.
Continued here.

* Sorry. Just noticed that the check-correct-title- surveillance failed. The responsible person was immediately sentenced to ten seconds of severest swear-boarding.

Spreading Mr. O'Donnell's delight

Oh dear.

Just in time I remembered that only yesterday I came to learn that long posts put most people off, and hence one should try to keep it to three or four paragraphs, and thus deleted the 69 paragraphs I had composed in order to give you a brief introduction why I'd spread Mr. O'Donnell's delight.

Alright then: Herewith it's done.



Ah, 'or four'. This offers me the opportunity to wish my esteemed readers a most pleasant weekend. :)

What a wonderful world

Welcome, welcome!
Did you have a nice day?
Yes? Oh, how lovely. I am delighted.

Me? Ah, thank you very much. A splendid day it was.
The more as a couple of minutes ago I happened to read one abstract of the Progress Report on Human Civilisation.

Okay, they may have chosen another title, but after reading you will agree that my title is surpassing theirs. Just go on, read it.

And as soon as you have finished, let's altogether lean back and enjoy the rest of this wonderful day.

The Peace of the Night.

Let's have a liberating laughter

There has been "Journalist's Day" in ... in ... yes! Exactly! In Iran.
Big parties, of course, in Tehran, Isfahan and Ghom.

Thus, before going on, please celebrate reading more details here.

Back? Fine!

Yes, neither you nor Tetrapilotomos need to tell me that sarcasm has seldom helped solving a problem. For some people, though, irony and sarcasm (not cynism!!) is the shelter to which they flee when feeling close to getting overwhelmed by their sadness, their wrath, their helplessness. Irony, sarcasm for distracting purposes.

Bearing ironic or sarcastical thoughts in the maternity room of one's brain could, by the way, be a nice and most entertaining alternative (that moreover mostly would not produce long-term consquences) whenever feeling there is nothing else to do.

And now back to "Journalist's Day" in Iran.
The scissors in one's head may cut the road on which thoughts are travelling from the brain into the feather. But it would not be able to reach the realm of thinking. The thoughts remain free.

That is why - with a cheerful thanks to Colin at Adelaide's Green Porridge Cafe - I dedicate the following joke first of all to all journalists in Iran, but also to anybody living elsewhere and feeling/being persecuted, harrassed and incarcerated.

Now might a joke about a President absolutely down under be not half as lovely when being told let's say in North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Syria, England, France, Germany, China, Russia or the U.S. of A., only to give some examples.
But look above. Thoughts are free! Just choose your favourite protagonist, and enjoy at least some seconds of liberating laughter.


Prime Minister John Howard was visiting a primary school and he visited one of the classes. They were in the middle of a discussion related to words and their meanings.

The teacher asked the Prime Minister if he would like to lead the discussion on the word "tragedy". So the illustrious leader asked the class for an example of a "tragedy".

One little boy stood up and offered: "If my best friend, who lives on a farm, is playing in the field and a tractor runs over him and kills him, that would be a 'tragedy'".

No," said Howard, "that would be an accident".

A little girl raised her hand: "If a school bus carrying fifty children drove over a cliff, killing everyone inside, that would be a tragedy."

"I'm afraid not," explained the Prime Minister "That's what we would call a great loss."

The room went silent. No other children volunteered.

John searched the room. "Isn't there someone here who can give me an example of tragedy?"

Finally, at the back of the room, a small boy raised his hand...In a quiet voice he said: "If the aeroplane carrying you and Mrs Howard was struck by a "friendly fire" missile and blown to smithereens, that would be a tragedy.

Fantastic!" exclaimed John Howard. "That's right. And can you tell me why that would be a tragedy?"

Well," says the boy "It has to be a tragedy, because it certainly wouldn't be a great loss and it probably wouldn't be a bloody accident either.

Your turn, Lysistrata

Oh dear. Reading this makes really difficult to tame one's fingers not to produce indecent words. So I should like to give over these huMAN judges to the Devil's Kitchen. He would find the right rants. Although I am not sure the letters of alphabet will do. Perhaps it's time to create some more.

But one decent wish should be allowed.
Waking up tomorrow, I should like to hear this breaking news:
"On behalf of and authorised by 28 million Iranian women Lysistrata delivers the very ultimatum!

The Peace of the Night.

P.S. Ah, resorting oneself either to wishful thinking and/or swearing; talking Billingsgate, railing, cursing and execrating: All this is fine from time to time, and - yes - it demonstrates, it can demonstrate solidarity; a kind of solidarity.
Unfortunately, though, it does not change anything. It does, f.e. not help these women.
And that is why sometimes I do ask myself, if what I am writing here and others there is not just a sign of helplessness, of defeatism, of ... loquacious cowardice.

As Heinrich Heine said:
Der Knecht singt gerne Freiheitslieder
des Abends in der Schenke.

The peasant loves singing rebel songs [songs of freedom]
in the pub at night.