Author: sereshk

Posted on

War on Iran, ‘Leverage’, Negotiations – and One of the Oldest Cultures

Collage of two pictures, one ofan old water pump operated by a hand using a lever. The other showing oil wells in front of a dusky skyline.
Images licensed via Adobe CC

‘Leverage’: A nice term almost, when you think of old pumps that would bring water to the surface and into a home. A lever sometimes used to do the ‘pumping’… Exactly that is part of it when you think of getting or having “leverage” in negotiations: One or the other party to an intended deal being able to put pressure on. For their own good.

That’s what this war and the occasional recent (apparent?) ‘flares’ of attacks to break that truce indicate:

Remind each other of the respective position. Let’s remember that it was the US who started this. Internal affairs in Iran haven’t been anything easy to think of – or ‘write home about’; quite to the contrary. But this is not about that government, let’s remember that too.

It’s about oil, Iran having the largest oil recovery industry in the world(!).

About a country, the US of A, whose population looks to the car as something almost like a body appendage: indispensable. Therefore petrol must be cheap. Which in turn means oil has to be cheap to and keep flowing in…

Especially with a president and his ‘coworkers’, his ‘entourage’, or cue-givers…, who refuse to look into a future of being less dependent on fossil fuels, which in the long run could make it better for all: Better water, air and less dependency on ‘any old’ oil well.

Let’s also keep in mind that negotiations take time. Which this president hasn’t got anymore, really: His second term in office is running out. If he wants to leave any kind of legacy beyond the recall of court actions, Epstein papers and worse, he has to make haste.

In the case of Iran that is one thing to better avoid. Haste.
I love that old culture, reaching back thousands of years, into a rich and also troubled history. Full of poetry and wisdom and art.

Three crucial and very striking aspects of many people I had the joy to learn to know better in a comparatively long life are these:

    • perseverance
    • patience
    • pride

That also has its roots in the history of the country: For a couple of thousands of years and to this day being at the heart of a region that always was the turnstile to all cultures you can think of, far east, west and near east.

The free flow of all that’s good in mankind’s history and mind into and through this country, of languages, arts and influences of knowledge and wisdom – together with the resilience built up over troublesome landscapes with hot, forbidding deserts, constant threats by neighbours attacking and earthquakes into the bargain – have created a ‘fellowship’ almost of a people who at their best will neither give in to blackmail or extortion, and will keep their calm, their pride and their preparedness for reasonable offers to the last.

A wise man will look for good counsel. But some people are not wise enough.

Hopefully this shameful war will end sooner rather than later to make room for negotiations – that will need patience and real offerings.

Picture of the tomb of Persian poet Hafez in Shiraz, 2019, courtesy Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons license
Posted on

“By Hook or By Crook”: The Extortion Machinery Called Trump-Administration

German flag in a gold circle, suspended from an air born heart shape by a fine chain.

(Image by Alexey Hulsov from Pixabay)

Germany’s situation is bad? Beg your pardon? We are getting along fine, taken all in all, thank you. Who started a war to divert attention from his legal problems? To finally be able to make Iran succumb to their terms because they need oil so urgently? After 2018, cancelling those uranium enrichment control contracts, without reason. (Link to New York Times report from 2018.)

Who pressured the whole of NATO into spending more on their annual on weapons in order to get the weapon’s industry in the US to calm down? 5% instead of 3%, all of NATO who didn’t already?
Since, most of NATO members buy there.

Whose economy has slumped for years? Where are thousands of people killed in the streets because that same weapons industry clings to that myth of the society needing its civilians be ‘under arms’, because the right to protect ‘house and home’ is ohhh, so important?

Who initiated the storming of Capitol Hill in 2021?

Whose universities are being threatened or actually cut off from fundings in order to get scientists to acknowledge one’s own world view?

WHO IS IT, BONDING WITH PUTIN IN RUSSIA FOR PRACTICALLY A DECADE NOW?

TO WHAT END?

To have more leverage, of course. To threaten people and scare them in their boots in order to get the ‘deals made’. Someone with no consideration for anyone but himself and the likes of him:

A bunch of self-centred, cruel and completely ruthless, wealthy, shameless crooks, in his own case already ruled guilty in front of a US court on 34 counts of bribery, corruption and molestation. Practically fleeing the shameful and horrifying truth of those Epstein papers.

SHAME ON YOU! 

Author’s Note: This blog is not strictly kept along the lines and rules similar genres of text, such as commentaries in newspapers, are like. ‘Blog’ derives from ‘weblog’ originally, which in turn is based on the combination of the two words ‘web’ and ‘log’. The log being a book that recorded daily events on ships and was – and still is, as far as I know – mandatory to maintain.

‘Blogs’ therefore represent a category of entries or texts that usually are crisp, rather short and focus on the main subject primarily, often made to look like actual diaries and openly discussed thoughts.

In literature, one well-known genre is the fictitious ‘novel of letters’: A longer text or book made up of letters all written by the same person but creating the impression that several protagonists were involved at a time and wrote letters to each other, a careful ordering by fictitious dates included.
One of many famous examples in English literature is “The Woman in White” by Wilkie Collins, a high-towering author among many of that also rich English literary culture.

(Recommended too: This kind of novel saw a hype that showed already in the course of the 18th century. Try Henry Fielding’s satire “Shamela” for real good fun…another one of the greats.)

I write my posts sometimes, when angry and I also like to imagine that the person addressed might ‘click by’ one day. Even if they don’t, which in some cases could be highly unlikely, in theory, I use this platform to show all who care that such voices, who think and say similar words, are there. And the numbers of visitors seem to prove me right, to some extent.

Thanks to all who come by here and who care!

Posted on

‘Peanuts’? ‘Drama’? Or Just ‘Life’? – Pick Your Battles

Collage of two images, two people arguing in shadow and a female figure on a hill calmly looking at the dusky sky.
Images licensed via Adobe CC, my arrangement

Many little things can happen in everyday life. Depending on your outlook you might think that complaining about any odd thing is part of being – demanding. Proving that you have ‘standards’ and do not put up with everything.

On the other hand it has been scientifically proven that getting into arguments and fights often, ‘saps your energy’:
That kind of energy that you feel is missing after emotional times; such as important, life-changing exams.

When you want to stay healthy and keep your ‘nerves in order’ you may want to think again about complaining. About fighting because of small annoyances.

There’s that little interesting story in workplace psychology that those who don’t complain are eventually ‘killed’ – as in: let go – just as the chicks of turkey are  – speared by their mothers’ beaks because they consider the chicks to be dangerous strangers for not ‘crying out’; squeal.

I have gone through many hard times in the course of my life. Considering. I learned the hard way to keep my ‘nerves in order’.

So often, when we cool down we also will find that things are not that bad: Even deserve praise, actually. I learned that, too.

To change perspective can make all the difference.

“Pick your battles”. To live and fight another day.

Posted on

“There is a Method to the Madness”: The USA, the Trump Administration and the Iran War

A house in ruins and befor it the two hands of a person held up, showing the words stop war written in red coloour on them.
Image by pvproductions from freepik.com, free license

A madhouse, one might think, when looking at some of the online messages a so-called president, that sorry excuse for a man, Trump, sends – rather lets be sent.

That he practically does everything to ‘reign’ the news is the method, part of it, I am referring to. When you start looking into some of the connections, the ‘buddies’ and the ulterior motives to actions and policies in the past that repeat – because the underlying principles stay the same – you start also realizing that the apparent madhouse is part of an image.

Because, anything sensational ‘makes the news’.

A ‘scoop’ is what the career of many journalists depends on. News are sold, that’s why they are made to look sensational, even in cases when they aren’t really.

I posted about this before. Basically, we need to look at both sides of this outrage of a war, the plain extortion by a wealthy and greedy part of society in that country, the USA:

    • The whole cruel and tragic story of that war on Iran becomes clear when looking at all the facts.
    • Analyzing news and media and developing a ‘media literacy’ is crucial, just as it was before the internet was there.

The Iran war was started at least as long ago as 2018, and when you think about how things need time to be developed it started much earlier than that.

The pattern is the same as in Iraq: “Weapons of mass destruction” seemed reason enough to attack a country whose dictator had been instated with US acquiescence and support. When he started to try and become more independent, that country was seized, including the oil wells…which burned for years afterwards. With all consequences a war can have.

Those weapons were never found. And that is a fact, officially confirmed.

Iran’s last shah had sold oil to the US for dumping prices. He was a dictator really and recieved the support of several US governments all through his reign. The hungry people started to rise at last and when he became unable to control them and guarantee cheap oil, he was ‘sent packing’.

The Islamic revolution seemed an ‘inside job’ and thus manageable – but wasn’t.
Eventually, the refusal to sell other than at market price as far as oil was concerned made the need ever more urgent to get the upper hand again, from the point of view of US governments – and the two most powerful forces there:
The weapons industry.
The public clamoring for cheap gas / petrol.

The USA to this day never has attacked any country for altruistic reasons.

In 2018, the Trump administration cancelled the working contracts on uranium enrichment control; working, as officially confirmed by the IAEA, more than once.

Now they are still offering a peace on their own terms.

What do you call that in business and private life? – Extortion. It is a punishable offence.

Posted on

Iran, War, a ‘Lame Duck’ President in the USA and the Inernational Community

Collage of images, the US flag in front of a cloudy sky, before that a drawing of a duck waddling towards the viewer, looking angry, beside that the shape of the ancient Persepolis palace gates and behind that the Iran flag in front of a sunrise and oil pumps.
Images licensed via Adobe CC, my graphics

The ‘lame duck’ effect is a comparatively old phrase: It describes the fact that due to the ending time in office a president in his second term is less effective. In other words, his power decreases just because everybody knows the end is near.

The Epstein files, Trump’s own guilt, ruled in front of a US court for corruption, bribery and molestation, his cruelty towards his own people in Minnesota or California; his international politics in regard to tariffs that have been found illegal in the USA itself.

He has ample reason to want to cover up. War is an ancient method for that, has been used by kings and dictators for centuries, if not thousands of years.

Additionally, Iran’s oil recovery industry is the largest in the world.

The uranium enrichment control contracts with Iran had been reached after 10 years of negotiation and were in full working order even according to official reports of the IAEA. Trump cancelled those contracts in 2018 without any reason.

This whole attack would be funny, if it wasn’t a cruel war; the typical Trump tantrums of an ill-mannered child: “This is my sandcastle, I’ll kick you and yours if you don’t do what I want.”

The bully, using scare tactics.

There’s no discussion necessary that the internal handling and rules as well as laws of the present Iranian government are horrible.

I still tip my hat to them for holding out against this huge machine of extortion.

Iran is more than just a few wild mullahs and a revolution gone wrong. It’s an ancient and beautiful culture and society in many respects of the customs and traditions that are thousands of years old.

Shame on someone like that US-criminal at the helm of a country still fighting for its own culture and sometimes having a hard time of it… Where still far too often money is the ‘sole mover’…

Posted on

Alexander and Diogenes or: What Really Counts in Life

Drawing of Diogenes sitting in a barrel and Alexander in warriors' armour meeting.
Image: National Galleries of Scotland collection. Photo, National Galleries of Scotland. (Creative Commons license)

“Stand out of my sun.” Imagine that, said to the most famous conqueror and king of the time. That was Greek philosopher Diogenes talking, in ancient Greece, Corinth, to be precise, so legend has it. Talking to Alexander, who is still called the Great. Diogenes had become famous for his life style and believes: He refused all wealth, riches and luxury and is said to have lived in a barrel most of the time.

The barrel is most probably a synonym for extremely reduced living conditions. By choice, in Diogenes’ case. He was founder of a concept that circled around good deeds,  and a ‘return to nature’. The natural state of living. These ideas since have frequently cropped up in the history of mankind.

People are not all the same. Sounds simple, but it is not always. Some you’d rather not meet, such as those similar to the present president of the US. The ancient legend around Alexander and Diogenes of Greece makes that point, in very simple terms:

What really counts is to train your thoughts.

For many, wealth and fame as a goal in life often are considered to be the basic: The ‘pursuit of happiness’ it is also called, sometimes.

When people start looking for happiness in wealth and fame, because the applause of others seem to make them happy – or content, you may find yourself in ‘queer street’, as that old saying goes. In war, actually, which is not as funny as that ancient ‘queer’ phrase makes it seem, but cruel.
Greed and cruelty very often come with hunger for wealth and more wealth and power. But happiness people often miss out on.

The story “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” by Leo Tolstoy, great Russian 19th century writer, is just as eloquent and clear on the subject. Although it may seem obvious, the way Tolstoy renders it, it is compelling in its vivacity.

“Stand out of my sun.” There are people, who harm others just for their own good. I’d rather not have to meet them if I can help it.

Posted on

Iran, Israel and the US – Next Stage in a Conflict Made Into War: Confusion

A drawing of a figure wearing a hat, goggle and a coat, raised fists and wiring on an opened mouth and hands, as wells the rest of clothing: mouth and hands in red background colour, other parts in dark grey, with terms and phrases that cover open aggression on the red parts and underlying weaknesses of character on the dark ones.
Image by John Hain from Pixabay

Now after a month of attacks and counterattacks, alternately hopeful negotiations are mentioned in official statements and yet at the same time attacks continue. We all know that a truce could be a first step in negotiating peace.

But, what if certain parties don’t want peace, really?

“A Bully’s Paradise” ?

Because the ulterior motives are not  part of statements – but can be deducted based on similar occurrences and past events?

Again, this is about power, money and thus oil; natural resources. Iran has the largest oil recovery industry in the world. Which can be partly seen from the prices rising currently to breaking point.

“Levers”: They are technical appliances; but the term is also used for an artificial ‘bottleneck’, a pressure point that is meant to make the other party to the conflict more lenient.
Or make them buckle and give in.

None of the parties concerned is apt to do that soon, so it seems: Iran, because they know what it could mean to the country as a whole, if they would ‘sell out’.

Netanyahu and Trump because they need this war: Their respective administration’s support is waning, their population needs reasons why they are put through such a lot of suffering.

But: There are no reasons that bear inspection or a closer look:
Except greed – and a too large ego – and selfishness.

Stop killing people! Dar(…)n it!!

Posted on

Rhythms, Nature and Light: Circadian Rhythms, the Clock and Our Lives

An old clock of a church showing calendar and sun and moon phases on the same dial.
Image: Lübeck, St Mary’s church, clock image. Free for use, pixabay.com.

We all know that a clock is something to show us the time of day. An apparently simple device, in former centuries the sun’s course as a sign on a dial: The sundial.

To some extent that also shows nicely what can be ‘off’ at times these days: Our natural rhythms that depend highly on the light and dark changes of the region we grew up and live in.

The research on that is part of medicine as well as the humanities, social sciences: What is it that determines our health apart from moving our body regularly and eating the good food?

It’s the rhythms of sleep and being awake that in turn are based, by nature, on sunrise and darkness.

‘Circadian rhythms’ is the phrase for it. One fine entry by Harvard Medical School can be found here, a recent study’s results that are suggestive: Circadian Rhythms and the Brain

A while ago already the so-called ‘daylight saving time’ was introduced in many countries. Depending on where we live the clock will be turned forward an hour in spring and back in fall.

The original idea was to actually save energy, power consumption and thus also fossil fuels.

It already has been widely acknowledged that the effects are rather negligible in terms of power saved. On the other hand animals, children and quite a number of grown-ups feel the effects more than we would perhaps believe.

Sleep disorders or sleep deprivation are serious issues in regard to health. They can cause even illnesses.

The turning of the clock does not lead to such disorders necessarily.

But the idea of natural rhythms and an innate need for sleep, rest or wakefulness can be crucial.
Just as the self-awareness of ancient systems for improving health, such as Yoga, Ayurveda and TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) can make a difference in a person’s life.

So, if you were wondering too, what is helpful, it can be the start to understand that our body is a fine-tuned and highly efficient instrument, whose functions were developed over hundreds of thousands of years.

Starting to treat your body as your friend can make all the difference.

Posted on

A War’s False Claims: The First Thing to Die in a War is the Truth

A chess board with red and silver fields and red and silver pieces facing each other, the top parts of each piece looking like a small bomb.
Image by Juraj Lenhard from Pixabay

The sad facts we find in the news these days are ‘statements’ for cameras’ sakes as well as claims: Statements meant to make an outrage right after the fact.
Claims as to actual intentions or aims or targets of a war that was completely off limits from day one.

A president who actually seems to deem himself to be the harbinger of relieve or righteousness… a ceremony in the White House that looks like another sect becoming founded, for the simple minds actually believing this; even Secretary of Defense Hegseth stating it: That a mission is being conducted, similar to other Christian missions.

It’s so sad it would be ridiculous if it wasn’t so cruel.

Because the original intentions are clear and never could be in any doubt for anyone knowing just a bit more about the situation:

    • Oil, money, power. Period.
    • “Weapons of Mass Destruction” in Iraq were the purported target of the US war against Iraq in 2003. They were proven to be false claims, too.

Once again:

    • Until 2018 the uranium enrichment control contracts with Iran were in effect – and working: The IAEA confirmed that in its official reports.
    • The Trump administration cancelled those contracts in 2018, without any reason.
    • Since then, the so-called negotiations with Iran were an actual bullying and pressuring the opposite at the table with inacceptable conditions.
      • In history it has been known before that such ‘negotiations’ were just so much window-dressing. That way it’s easier to claim that all possible steps had been taken and now the time for action had come.
      • Take any precedent in recent history and you will find the same pattern applying: Vietnam, Iraq, Korea. The US just hitting out whenever they have a ‘need’.
      • Might really be the sole reason: The US economy relies heavily on the largest industry there is over there, the weapons’ manufacturers… make them happy by using weapons and thus make room for more orders and thus more profit.
    • Israel’s president Netanyahu at the same time – known as a hard-liner long before actually taking office – drove and still drives Israeli settlers into Palestine territories.
      • His support in the parliament and even the majority of Israeli people was constantly decreasing. So he started a war.
      • Another war as cover-up.
    • When the last shah of Iran was ‘let go’, the CIA was involved. That’s a proven historical fact.
      • Have the recent uprisings in Iran and the cruel reactions by the Iranian government been ‘used’ – or people’s unrest even been initiated – to justify an otherwise downright criminal act of starting a war…?
      • Someone like that president of the US who initiated the attack on the Capitol in 2021 seems not beyond anything, really.
      • Apart from everything else known about that person who is ‘leader’ of the USA’s government: A criminal ruled guilty in a US court.

How do they look into the mirror each morning I wonder.

We need to make this clear: There is no way that this can ever be made right. Instead of negotiating hitting a whole region and killing and destroying into the bargain. For obvious ‘incentives’.

Posted on

Iran, Iraq, Oil, War and the International Community: NATO, UNO and EU for Limits

Ein Mann steht auf einem Flachdach und betrachtet eine schwarze Pfütze.
Image: Radio Deutschlandfunk (Germany), “Nach einem Luftschlag auf eine Raffinerie in Teheran ging sogenannter Schwarzer Regen auf Teheran nieder (Bild vom 8.3.2026) (AFP / ATTA KENARE)”

Prices are rising… well, what would one expect. People are being killed. Now the ‘black rain‘ over Tehran is another step towards destruction. The region going up in flames. The country scarred already and becoming another Iraq…?

It’s good to see that they are starting to act again, NATO, EU: ‘Trump’s war’ is not his doing alone, of course.
As a ‘figure head’ he ‘works’ based on the interests behind him too: The industries, most importantly the one producing weapons. The population, who as a majority depend on their ‘way of life’, namely cars for moving across country in the USA, with cheapest prices of all… they trust that any president will observe this concept, this idea, and the government will take care of petrol.

War is no heroic deed of people doing the good thing. War is not only a ‘costly affair’… it always is part of a framework of interests and needs of those in power, those with money and those with ulterior motives. Such goals are not always easy to ‘dig down to’, define.

In the news we usually get the actual event. What we need to do is more reading, to get at the facts behind the ‘images’. Reliable sources. Remember that news have statements in them, which in turn are based on interests and needs and –  very often also on diplomacy.
What also helps to understand the ‘goings-on’ behind the scenes, the real motives, is this age-old concept:

“Cui bono?” – “Who benefits?”

If you ask that about anything, it will get you farther in understanding.

This is no ‘piece of cake’, especially not for those being killed and wounded every day. Being scarred for life by health risks and cruelty and greed.

We need to prove that the international community is stronger holding out against one or another country and their selfish, incompetent and greedy ‘potentates’.

NATO, UNO, EU.

Yes, we can.

Privacy Proudly powered by WordPress