We're just back from a Monday morning walk in the gorgeous Banhofstarsse in Zurich. Nasser dropped us there at 9 AM when nobody was actually on the street and then picked us up at 3 PM.
It sounds funny, but let me honestly say that prices here are not that different with Toronto, except there is no GST and PST (tax) added on things you buy. So the unbelievably cheap and hip cloths at the H&M tempted us into buying some 400 Francs of good-looking clothing. (Black linen jacket for 50 Franks, can you believe it?) Although H&M have launched it's first store in Toronto, I don't think it would be as cheap, especially after adding the Canadian Tax. So I think we should get a new suitcase.
We actually experienced the cleanest and most modern public washroom--we paid one franc each however. But I should tell you that paying for a nice and clean public washroom when you badly need it, is much better than having no public washroom like Toronto. Why the Toronto municipality don't do the same? Suddenly they become socialists when it comes to urgent needs?
The other thing that stroke me odd was that people in Zurich show no fear to have eye contact with passing by strangers. Although they don't necessary smile at you when they look at you--sometimes it make you wonder if there is something wrong with you. But it was much better of an experience comparing to Torontonians' wierd fear of eye contact with strangers. I really wonder why--Do they find us more attractive here or what?
We are in Zurich, Switzerland in a small village called Horgen. The place we reside and I now write from face the Zurich lake. It's just stunningly beautfiul.
Yesterday afternoon we went for a walk aruond and saw some amazingly beautiful, modern houses with huge windows facing the lake. Our friend here said they are at least worth 2 million Francs.
I love the way people in Eroupe care about design in the whole.
I just finished installing Textpattern and now I'm palying with it. I have to say that it's the best thing since Movable Type.
It's pretty obvious that it's developed and designed by some serious blogger who completely knows about MT's strengths and limits.
The amazing thing about it is that it's already Unicode friendly and produces friendly URLs. It's also very simple to use and chnage. I also liked comment moderation, sub-categories, sections, and especially links; which is separate than the main content and can be used as a linkdump (or Linkdooni.)
Just two things:
1. Where is the password recovery option?
2. How can new users sign-in by their own nad how to admin them? I need this be able to launch my collaborative weblog, say Blognama, which is very much Metafilter alike.
Is there any other modern country in the world in which people can't get a hold on any newspaper for three weeks? Well, Iran is perhaps the only place.
A lot of important things are happening (Yassin's death, 9/11 inquiry, Libya's developments, etc.) and not a single paper is getting published during the three week long Norouz holidays, starting around March 18.
Three or four years ago because of the important possible developments, reformists papers decided to cover the three week holiday and it was quite helpful. But now everyone is silent.
Funny thing is that even the reformist news websites do not get updated. Isn't this ridiculous?
Somebody should stand up and dare effectively reduce Norouz holidays to three or four days. This is not how a modern government could run.
Ok, this is absolutely frustrating, getting a US Visa for an Iranian-born Canadian landed immigrant I mean.
Dave Winer (with the great help of Jeff Jarvis) have invited me to this years BloggerCon at Harvard, hoping that with a longer notice I could get a visa this time. But it wasn't the case.
I logged on to the US Visa appointment website a couple of weeks ago and tried to book an appointment. But the earliest available time was on April 21st, a week after the conference!
I wrote them and asked them to book an earlier appointment, they did so, but it was on April 1st, in the middle of my short trip to Switzerland this weekend to see my parents.
Then I though to apply for an earlier appointment in Montreal. I did so and again received the confirmation letter by mail for an appointment on April 6th.
However it was cancelled again since I don't live there and I have to get the appointment from Toronto consulate.
Is there anyone out there who can help me get an earlier appointment from Toronto consulate? I badly want to be in Boston for the BloggerCon.
UPDATE:
- Jeff is trying to get some help in his latest post. I just talked to him and asked him for help.
Actually, I'm not upset for Sheikh Yassin's death, although I don't mean the death should've come as any sort of assassination. Sheikh Yassin was promoting a culture of death and destruction and his health condition and charismatic figure shouldn't fool us.
Apparently he has been more of a violent political activist than an educated Islamic cleric--He didn't finish his educaition in Al-Azhar university in Egypt. So there is no particular distinction between him and other terrorists who approve attacking non-military targets for their --however sacred-- political-national agenda.
in this manner, Sheikh Yassin, is not different than other terrorist leaders or groups such as Osamah Bin Laden, Masoud Rajavi (MKO), Motalefeh Eslami (Iranian extremist group in 60s), Saeed Emami (Iranian intelligence official responsible for killing of intellectuals in late 90s), ETA, IRA, etc.
I believe that methods are more important than goals, and judging the methods based on goals is completely misleading. Sheikh Yassin is as much terrorist as Sharon in that both believe they can reach their political goals by means of violence and terror.
By the way, take a look at a small poll I've put in my Persian blog asking my readers about their feeling on Sheikh Yassin's death. Surprizingly about 35% are sad or very sad, while 35% have no feelings and about 30% are even happy or very happy for the death of Sheikh Yassin. I know these online poll are not reliable at all, but it doesn't hide how much young Iranians are different with Arab Muslims in the mid-east.
Up to 100 million people around the world celebrated the Persian new year (or Norouz) last week. But it's rather sad to see the event is not recognized enough in many parts of the world.
But in the U.S. it was not that bad: Governer Schwartzeneger sent a message, as well as some Canadian officals. (I can't find the links though)
It's quite a while that Khamanei, or the Supreme Leader as is usually called, hold his important public meetings in a new place. Previously he used to have his guests in a small hall in his own house. They all used to sit on the floor, with no chair.
Actually I've been to that room once. Strangely enough, I was there twice. First time with Hadi Mofatteh, my teacher and friend in Nikan high-school; and second time when he pronounced the formula of marriage (Aqed) for my ex-wife, Pegah, and me. What a stupid person I used to be when I got out of that wierd religious high school. (It's a long story that I may write about it later. I have never talked about it even in my Persian blog.)
But recently he hosts them in a big, white room--with chairs, not only for himself, but for all guests. Seems as if he is suffering from some kind of joint problem--the little step under his feet can show that. So since the doctors has prevented him from sitting on the floor, all his guests have to use chairs as well.
Sitting on chair to many religious and traditional people in Iran is sort of a Western thing. Ayatalollah Khomeni never had his guests on chair in his tiny room, so was Khamanei until recently.
I just wonder what other changes can aging of the leaders bring to Iran.
A post by VP Abtahi about the desire of some open-minded Iranians to have a porn-free net access for their children, and a brief discussion about it on my Linkdooni, has created a new ethical/policy-making dillema for me. The problem is very delecate:
How can you prevent the desire of some people to keep their children off Internet porn from becoming a good-looking justification for the political censorship by the governemtn? In other words, how can you defend the freedom of speech on the Net where people are quite supportive of the censorship on erotic content?
Note that unlike the West, child pornography is not an issue yet in Iran. Instead, children's access to porn is more important.