Category: Iran

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The Economy, Experience and Resilience: Yes, We Can

A twig fresh and green drawn as image growing on an apparently dry surface.
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

Epidemics and pandemics never were easy to get over. In the past we didn’t have the technology or the knowledge on how to protect or how to safe or how to vaccine people against viruses. There were times when viruses weren’t even known. Most of us know them now. The aftermath of a pandemic or epidemic though was known through history even then:

Economic upheavals, you might say, were common. As they are now. At the moment the introduction of AI on all levels seems to cause similar reactions in markets and companies as the introduction of personal computers – at the time.

Will it take over? Will people become superfluous in working life because of it?

By this time, many know a bit more, due to computers, actually…
go figure… ◕‿↼)

I am a technical writer by profession and have documented AI successfully. The US agency Gartner mentioned that documentation specially in their Magic Quadrant on Metadata Management Applications in 2019. That’s why I can safely say here, too:

    • AI is incapable of replacing humans altogether. What will happen and already does, is a shift of tasks.
    • And: New kinds of jobs will be created – and do even now, to some extent, such as the ‘prompt engineer’.
    • AI, although the name suggests it, does not ‘think’. It is based on probability formulas that are ‘chained’ into certain orders and thus called algorithms.
      That is: Statistics.
    • Therefore, humans will always be needed – as programmers, users and monitoring personnel, at least.

What we are looking at now is a global economy crisis that is mainly due to the short-sighted handling of tariffs on the one hand and ‘war on oil’ on the other by the present US government.

When all is said and done, trade and economy are based on consumers’ buying. If they don’t because they can’t – prices rising all the time – what do they expect?

Supply and demand: That’s the basic ‘law’ of the system. Break the chain and you break the demand – and thus the profit.

For all those of us who have gone through, or are going through, layoffs for example, that is particularly hard. Even more so when there’s no protection through labor unions.

But giving it up – or ‘handing in the tools’ … is no option. In trade, at exchanges, it’s called ‘baisse’ and ‘hausse’ or high and low.

We can get through it. With trust and confidence – in the right places.

YES, WE CAN.

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The Leaders of the Free World…? Trump, Putin and Birthday Parties – or: ‘3rd Party Funds’

Female sitting in front of laptop that shows air-borne, transparent analytics and graphs.
Image licensed via Adobe CC

3rd Party Funds*: For decades it was something scorned in many parts of Europe: It meant to many that you were being financed by companies with an actual, lively interest in your research, for example. You would be easily corrupted. And most probably would even be obliged to do things in return. Well, it’s not new really but one more proof of the corruption of a person like Trump an indeed sorry excuse for a man:

It would be funny: This almost naive craving for attention and acknowledgement. Now the Kennedy Center to be closed he had claimed his name to be added on a plaque… OMG … The education he could have had with his ‘funds’, i.e. money – and missed out on.

Or the wars he started. Supports. Supports Israel’s extreme right hard-liner Netanyahu.

It’s so cruel that one can only wonder, if he really is actually sane in mind – that is, accountable…?

Well, to some extent it would be a relieve, if he wasn’t. Yet, on the other hand to not be able to hold him accountable would be a shame. In court.

It still is part of the story that he started the war with Iran to cover his severe involvement with the Epstein papers. The fact that all through his life, the first and foremost consideration was more money and more power – by hook or by crook. And rather more often by crook.

It’s obvious that he doesn’t intend to negotiate with Iran. He wants his way, and his way only. And that of his followers of course.

I couldn’t be more joyful at the prospect that some time soon, this president will be history too and his time to leave the oval office draws near, because his last term as president ends.

*Note: The term is used differently in parts of the world. The European connotation stems from research and science in universities around here: Funding by interested, outside academia situated companies and organizations.

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“More of the Same” – Pressure as a Means to an End – or: The Never-ending Story of a ‘Limited’ President in the US

Ali Qapu Palace, Isfahan, Iran (Image by mostafa meraji from Pixabay)

“More of the Same” was what Paul Watzlawick called the tendency in humans to try again and again and again – although it obviously does not work… “Counseling”: That’s what you get when you hit a blind spot and are unable to find your way out of a tight place alone.

But: This president is famous for his set ways and the need for ‘winning’. He always ‘sells’ anything he did or does as a great idea and the winning streak. That’s part of the family history; and in an interesting and strange way also part of the founding myth of the United States: The greatest, most free and of course always ‘successful’ nation on the planet…

What is success, exactly? It depends, actually. On your definition. Basically and rather simply put, if you want to knit a jumper and it involuntarily turns out a scarf, you might call that unsuccessful… In this day and age, based on a money-ruled outlook, anything less than extreme wealth is, what…? Freedom…? ◕‿↼)

Getting down to brass tacks here:

In 2018 this scoundrel and criminal of a president (ruled guilty in a US court of law on 34 counts) cancelled working contracts with Iran on uranium enrichment control. Working, as confirmed at the time by the IAEA.

Iran as a nation has a wonderful culture and history of a couple of thousands years standing. The businesses are served well too by the wisdom and knowledge of it.

One of the most striking attributes of the culture is the calm, quiet pride they carry. At the same time a high amount of resilience based on hundreds of years of history fraught with earthquakes, attacks by foreign nations because of greed and a challenging climate that encompasses all you can think of: Deserts, snowy peaks and lush fields and gardens.

They won’t succumb.

What is the ‘end’ to those desparate means of this ‘limited’ president and his administration? Oil, of course. I posted about it before and I feel like repeating it as often as possible: The last shah was dependent on US support. In return he sold them oil on the cheap.

The US-American modern culture thinks of cars as almost an appendage: No car, no ‘drive’… The idea of freedom (what is that exactly… ◕‿↼) ? ) is based on being able to go anywhere, anytime; on cheap petrol, of course.

That means, cheap oil.

Iran’s oil recovery industry is the largest of the world, with natural fossil fuels such as gas and – oil in abundance. Any questions?

This shameful war and pressurizing has to stop.

More of the same? Yes, indeed, trade and business sanctions have been tried already, for decades, at this point. To think that the Iranian peoples (rich even in languages and dialects) have to suffer death and dire straits because of a couple of greedy people who can’t get enough, is a shame. Period.

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War as a Power-game: USA, Iran, Threats and News – or: “Who Benefits?”

A drawing in golden-yellow hazes and simple outlines, showing a sun, a mountain in front of the sky and before the mountain a figure walking towards the mountain.
Image by Parsa Farahani from Pixabay

It’s a never ending story with this US-president: Threats, tantrums rather, like children who yet learn the limitations of life. “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, a movie title actually. “Ugly” that is this sorry excuse for a man. Not because of his looks, but because of his non-existent character.

This war on Iran was a *sham* and a *shame* from day 1.

A sham, because it pretended a real reason for an attack: a nuclear programme of Iran for building weapons.

A shame because people are being killed every day for the greed and self-centred outlook on life people like that president and his followers have:

As long as you are rich and perhaps even powerful as a man you ‘count among men’… the  phrase originally meaning, people(s). Yet, actually, it’s only people of like mind.
They don’t know about the finer feelings, happiness or real companionship, friendship or love. They only evaluate lives from superficialities; more champagne… more haute couture gowns… for the wives they ‘buy’.
‘Buy’?
Well, in effect, money makes it, right…? (For the women of like, silly mind, that is…)

A few facts, once more:

    • It was the first administration of this person playing at president, who cancelled the contracts with Iran on Uranium enrichment control – in 2018. Those contracts were working. Confirmed by the IAEA, among others.
    • Iran’s oil recovery industry is the largest in the world – with some of the largest oil fields of the world beneath the surface of the country.
    • When Iraq was under ‘scrutiny’ and eventually the former president Bush jr. started war on it, the purported ‘weapons of mass destruction’ seemed the reason.
      • They didn’t exist. A fact also, for all who want to do research on it.
      • The dictator Hussein they later scorned was set up with US support.
      • He started to move towards more independence from the US.
      • So, they struck.
    • Oil now comes ‘on the cheap’ from Iraq.
    • The USA traditionally depend upon cars, ever since they became a household standard.
      The population expects to be able to go anywhere, any time, on cheap petrol…
    • The economy in the US has been failing after the pandemic severely as it did almost anywhere else.
    • If not by actually making businesses and people profit, what is there to do?
      • Start a war:
        • The demand for all goods appertaining to it will go up.
        • The weapons producing industry in the US is their largest and most influential… when demands for weapons rise, they profit. ‘Benefit’.
        • <Sardonic outlook on>: A few people less in the country won’t hurt him or those close to him and so… who cares? As long as it makes them more money?<Sardonic outlook off>

Wealth seems desirable, from the outside: It is being ‘marketed’ that way especially since Calvin in Switzerland and later the Presbyterians.

The rich and  powerful actually are rather lonely, often depending on all kinds of synthetic medicines… to show the ‘happy face’.
How can you be close to human beings if all you know about is being artificial?

Iran has a rich and extremely old tradition. They are a peaceful nation and population, with many original and unique languages apart from the official Farsi. The history of this country is fraught with earthquakes – and wars, because so many outside nations were greedy. In former centuries, the UK, France and Russia. Later, the US joined.

If anything, Iran and its people have learned resilience. They will not succumb to someone putting the pressure on. Negotiations are another strong suit, they own, from tradition.

Let’s hope that someone somewhere will come to their senses at last and soon and understand that this no way to go about it. Killing people, into the bargain…

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Iran, Oil, War and a ‘Lame Duck’ of a President: If You Cannot Make Them Believe, Make Them Pity You…

A 'duck meet', a heap of small ducks for the bathtub.
Image by Manfred Richter from Pixabay

‘Lame duck’, the common phrase for a politician or leader of state who is about to leave and therefore not really effective anymore, power waning. But the present president of course will do all he can. The Washington Post reports…a threat against that president? Pityful attempt…

That newspaper is Jeff Bezos’ to do what he wants with it, has been for a couple of years, it says so on its homepage.

Yes, indeed, Amazon founder and Trump follower Jeff Bezos bought it. And we are supposed to trust such reports?

No way.

Let’s also remember a few facts about Mr Trump’s biography: He’s not only a scoundrel ruled guilty in front of a court of law of the US, he has actively swindled thousands of small stakeholders out of  their lives’ savings during the 1960s.

There’s a fine documentary about Mr Trump on PBS FRONTLINE, by Michael Kirk, an award-winning director, called: President Trump. A very painstaking assembly of facts and proven to be true by independent sources.

There was this strange ‘attack’ on Mr Trump about two years ago… ohh how they seemed to pity him; a mere scratch on his ear, not even worth an adhesive bandage.

Let’s remember a few facts:

    • The Trump administration cancelled working contracts with Iran for uranium enrichment control in 2018.
      • Proven to be working by the IAEA.
    • Mr Trump himself repeatedly in front of press representatives has called himself a ‘deal maker’. He does anything to get the other party to succumb to his terms.
      Commonly called ‘scare tactics’.
    • He is known to be a fierce admirer of Putin in Russia. (Link to the New York Times, as yet free press)
    • The EU as well as several Arabic states, have confirmed that negotiations with Iran were well advancing and looking up, more than three times over during this shameful war.
    • The USA are famous for their ‘free roving’ culture of cars around the country:
      • They need cheap petrol for that.
      • It’s also a well-known fact that no president who does not do all he can for cheap petrol has no good basis in votes – or with voters.
    • The industry producing weapons is the largest and most influential in the USA.
      A war opens up the need for more weapons…
    • When the last shah of Iran still reigned, he was actively supported by the US and paid them back with cheap oil. A historical fact easy to be confirmed.

The basic truth is this, let’s remember it too:

Whatever your colour, creed or conviction, you are not supposed to either bother, torture or kill other people. Period. 

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Putting the Pressure on… Or: USA, Iran, a War, Oil: As Per Precedent

 

Drawing f black feathers falling on a white background.
Image licensed via Adobe CC

It’s been reported more than once and the present president of the USA, whose name I try to avoid naming, even publicly praised himself for it: The scare tactics he chooses to employ. Scare them and then get the deal made into your, that is his, favour.

Cruel, selfish and completely given to the idea that money rules, and power is better, the ‘more the merrier’, for decades he has been part of a group of people who believe that a person is ‘good’ if they have money.

Actually, looking at US-American history, it’s only partly surprising that so many people there believe it:
Religious beliefs are at the bottom of all that.

The Puritans were the largest group to enter the North American continent and originally, in turn, Calvinists.
Calvin, a Swiss protestant, among many other ideas postulated that a human was God’s favourite if wealthy. By granting people wealth God would show his special grace towards them.

Is it surprising that over 300 years later the founding myth of the US, used as a ‘badge of courage’ and a sign, makes people believe strongly in this idea?

Basically: “Be rich and you are a good person”…?

History of mankind and actual events show nicely, how true it is that greed makes people cruel and violent.

The working uranium enrichment control contracts with Iran were cancelled in 2018 by the first administration of this president. Working contracts, officially confirmed by the IAEA.

Additionally, also historical pattern, starting a war is one of the best-liked ‘tools’ to divert attention from graver or downright illegal internal affairs.

The present president of the USA was found guilty on 34 counts of bribery, molestation and corruption in front of a US court of law. He was heavily incriminated in relation to the so-called Epstein papers.

That’s why he needs sensation, a war, to make people forget about all the other atrocities.

 

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Truce the US-Administration’s Way…? – Light at the End of the Tunnel – The War on Iran

A map of Iran, showing its flag, behind it barrels of oil and a dollar sign. In frot a dove of peace flying across, bearing the olive twig as sign of peace.
Images licensed via Adobe CC, my arrangement.

Such suffering, such useless destruction and waste – completely unnecessary killings.

I am happy that there is actually a light at the end of the tunnel, as that famous phrase goes.

But at what price!

People scarred for life. Civil population as well as military: What does all this do to a human being?

Interestingly one of the most striking records of souls in pain comes from the US: Award-winning director John Houston as early as 1946 directed and published “Let There be Light“.

The present president whose name I avoid  naming, is wholly responsible for this ‘charade’:
Just as was the case with Iraq in 2003-2011, no reason could be found. Not the weapons of mass destruction. But: Oil in abundance. And a nation reeling from the onslaught to this day.

The present president and his ‘horde’ cancelled working and observed contracts of uranium enrichment control with Iran as early as 2018. Confirmed fact. Do we need to say – or think – more?

“Cui bono?” – “Who benefits?” The central question, so often.

If it wasn’t so dreadful, cruel and cold-hearted, a moneymaking ‘cult’ behind it: One would have to laugh at that behaviour for being so extremely ridiculous, practically childish.

Let’s hope – and pray, if you will – that an actual agreement finally will be reached.

Do we need to ask what they plan to do for the ‘victory festivities’ in the US surely to be held – and just as the inauguration – financed by the big tech companies…?
That agreement needs to be reached in a hurry to have a reasonable period of time elapse before they start them…and early enough before the end of the last term in office of this sorry excuse for a man that is that US president.

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Iran – Iraq – “Weapons of Mass Destruction” – When Patterns Repeat…

An owl drawing with mandala patterns all over it, a grey mandala pattern and a coast with red sand and red reflecting light in small water lines
Images by 경복 김, Mumtaha Tabassum and Barbara A Lane from Pixabay; my arrangement

When the USA decide on making war, they are adamant. That’s a fine quality in many respects. Yet, in war…? Or making it…? Why, really? After the attacks on the twin towers the US declared war on half the world. That attack was a tragic and cruel occurrence. But it does not provide any justification for shunning international law.

On the contrary: Laws are there for all of the community. In ancient Greece Socrates, the philosopher proved it by accepting a rule that was common then – and drinking the poison from a cup he could have avoided, as a punishment. He died.

When something goes wrong, the US are the first to claim their right, their benefit… the ‘rights’ of the NATO members, for example; that is they ask for and actually pressurize the others to spend more on their annual defense budget, 5% instead of 3%, as only happened around 1.5 years ago.

But: How often did – and do – the US to this day act cruelly against other nations? Without consulting anything but their own foreign interests? What about Japan?
The first and last time ever that nuclear weapons were used in a war. As a testing ground, more or less.

The tests of nuclear weapons in the archipelagos of Bikini they used, to spare their own country? The Bikini islands feel the consequences to this day. So nice and small and quiet and right there… easy to use.

Usage. Benefit. Profit.

That are the pillars of the US-American society and have been since their founding.

The weapons producing industry is the most important, influential and powerful there. And they benefit from NATO members ordering.

In 2003 the war on Iraq was started: “Weapons of mass destruction”, so the official message, apparently had to be recovered. Since Iraq’s dictator Saddam Hussein had apparently accumulated them breaking international agreements they had to be made safe.

To this day, those weapons weren’t found. That’s official. None.

Saddam Hussein originally had been instated with US support. He was their ‘vassal’ in a country that also has huge reservoirs of oil and gas. When he started to become too independent, war was declared. Eventually he was found and killed.

The oil wells burned for years after that. The country is devastated.

Any old lie will do.

Check your sources. Refer to books in libraries written by respected authors of the field. Check more than one important and traditional newspaper of (reasonably) working democracies.

Iran? It’s got oil. It’s got the largest oil recovery industry in the world. Uranium enrichment control contracts were in full working order until 2018, when Trump and his ‘cohorts’ cancelled them. But: the government in place since the revolution of 1979 did not succumb to US pressure.
Regarding their internal affairs that government was a poor example of a dictatorship ‘dressed’ as democracy, including all legal pressure, limitations and punishment as well as control into the bargain typical for such systems.

But let’s remember: The last shah had been instated by the US too. He sold oil to them at dumping prices. When the literally hungry and ‘huddled’ masses rose in the country, his power waned. Finally even his downfall and flight from the country was supported by the US.

The people of Iran are of a peaceful and also proud mindset. If attacked, they fight to the last. They always did. They do not sell  out their country for cheap bargains to anyone.

Looking at history as well as present ideas you can be pretty sure of that.
This completely unnecessary war has to be stopped.

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The Sad Story of an Unnecessary War – Iran, the US and a Uranium Enrichment ‘to Use’…

Image by Bruce Emmerling from Pixabay

War: a means to an end. Indeed, often it’s more than one end only. In this case there are several:

    • Sell weapons (for the industry, the providers of supplies…), make a profit – or two.
    • Get your hands on the oil in the country: The US need oil. Iran has it, in abundance. Additionally, it’s got the largest oil recovery industry in the world.
    • Distract attention from severe internal problems, such as Epstein papers in the US.
      • Or the waning support for a president and his administration who seem to ‘lose it’ – not just once or twice, but regularly.
      • A president, who’s also a criminal, ruled guilty on 34 counts in front of a US legal court of law, for bribery, corruption and molestation.
      • The ever increasing drug problems of a society that far too long advocated the always handy pills –  and the always ‘working human’.
    • Make people forget that this had been planned long in advance, as long as 2018, at least, rather longer: When the Trump administration during his first time in office cancelled the working contracts for uranium enrichment control with Iran – that had taken 10 years to negotiate.

It would be a wise man to get proper counselling well in advance – and act accordingly. But then: Whenever did the current president prove to be wise…?

He has been proven to have committed about any felony in the book… This war is a shame and a crime. Nothing else and nothing in between.

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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 too 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
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