Diego Garcia

Awhile back, I wrote about Malaysian AirlineFlight 370. At that point in time, all my links worked and everything I talked about in that blog was backed up by research. Unfortunately, things have a way of disappearing. Some links disappear, others are erased on purpose, and YouTube videos go into oblivion, especially the ones that are excellent and informative. Once in a while, new data appears that proves me wrong, and I’m fine with that. But I’m still sticking to my post on disappearance of the Malaysian Airline Flight 370. Even if a lot of the data has disappeared, my post is solid on its own. So, why talk about this?

Well…The military base I talked about in Diego Garcia, is back on the news because the exiled residents of the Chagos Archipelago are asking the British government and United States for an apology and reparation (see video below.) Also, I found a great video regarding the Diego Garcia inhabitants, and how they and their pets were removed to make room for a military base. If you’re interested, I suggest you watch it or that may disappear soon too (see above video). I’m so glad that I found this video because the report is by Christiane Amanpour, a well-respected journalist.

It is important to question everything, and don’t just accept what we hear. This applies to the current situation between Israel and Palestine—there are lots of hands involved. Wonder why Iran is the way it is today? There were lots of hands involved in destroying its democracy, and replacing it with dictatorship, and later with a religious government. But those are topics for another time. I just think we should all look at each other as human beings and not as nationality, race, religion, and gender.

The only time governments care about human rights is if it is politically advantageous to smear another country in the name of human rights. Here are some of the words or sentences politicians use to shut people up as they continue to accomplish crimes against humanity: We’re doing it because it is a matter of national security, You are either with us or against us, it is against the word of God, you are antisemitic, you are a terrorist, and so on and so forth. They weigh and measure negative words, and instill it in people’s minds, such as unpatriotic, atheist, anti-vaxxer, mob mentality, and etc.

So, why not take our time before passing judgement? The truth may not come out today or tomorrow just like the assassination of President John F. Kenndey, but eventually when things calm down, and people have gotten over the shock, and digested the information, the truth will reveal itself.  

 

Is it the job of retailers to be the Gestapo of the US government?

Recently, An Apple store employee in Atlanta, Georgia refused to sell an iPad to a Farsi-speaking customer claiming that they are simply adhering to the US policy of sanctions against Iran.

When the customer contacted the Apple corporate office to complain, they simply told her, no worries, go buy it online. WOW!!!!!!

I don’t know about you, but I love to window shop and sometimes when something special catches my eyes, I go ahead and buy it. I don’t want to be forced to sit behind my computer and shop when I can just as easily walk outside on a nice beautiful day and browse the stores in my neighborhood. After all, I live in the U.S, the so-called “land of freedom.”

Now, comes in Apple telling me that I’m only allowed to buy their products online and that I’m not allowed to shop at their store simply because I’m "Iranian". What an offensive thing to say. And what if I was Cuban or North Korean? Will they soon have translators in their stores, eavesdropping on their customers? Should we all soon be afraid to talk in our mother tongue when we enter a retail store?

Do retail stores have the right to stick their nose in our business and ask us about our nationality before selling us a product? Isn’t this discrimination? It wasn’t as though this customer was purchasing a weapon. Even then, they simply do a background check regardless of nationality, race, religion or sex. But in this case, the argument is even weaker. This poor customer was simply purchasing an over-priced, over-rated stupid electronic gadget called an Apple ipad.

Personally, I would never go back to a store that would discriminate against me and I would go even further and slap them with a big lawsuit for discrimination and tell everybody I know not to shop there unless the store was willing to give me the product I was planning to purchase for free, a minimum of a $100 gift certificate and a big public apology for behaving like an ass.

Remember the Nokia-Simmens story & how their stock took a nose dive when Iranians all over the world boycott their products? Same can happen to Apple. As arrogant as they may be, no company is too big to fail when they mistreat their customers.

Retailers are retailers. The government is the government. The police are the police. It is not the job of retailers to police the country.

STOP THE RAPE IN THE MILITARY

How can we defend human rights and women’s rights in Afghanistan when according to VFP (veterans for peace) and a new department of defense study, 1 in every 3 woman in US military is raped. In 2007, 10% of the rapes reported were army men. On October 13, 2009, a national campaign was launched in order to bring about the notion that what goes on in the military can no longer stay in the military.

It all started with a March in New York’s Time Square recruiting station when veterans for peace were chanting “STOP THE RAPE IN THE MILITARY.” US Army Col Ann Wright speaks out and introduces Staff Sgt. Sandra Lee who came out for the first time at a press conference to announce that she was raped twice while deployed in Iraq. You can watch her speak here and see other videos regarding this subject and what the U.S. military doesn’t want you to know - men are being raped as well.

Leah Bolger, another member of the VFP who was never sexually assaulted because of her rank in the army, says “when you’re an officer, your chances of getting raped is less than when you are a junior who is afraid to report the rape in fear of losing his/her job.” Unfortunately, recruiters aren’t warning the recruits that they have a 33% chance of being sexually assaulted when they join the U.S. army. VFP goes on further to say that to please tell the world that this is unacceptable and has got to stop.

Staff Sgt Sandra Lee has been threatened and booted to leave by the U.S. army under the terms other than “honorable discharge.” This is sad indeed and I wish more men and women would speak out about rape. The assaults are "dishonorable conduct" by army personnel and not the victims. No rank and no amount of money in the world are worth hiding such an important issue. These inexcusable sexual misconducts will continue as long as the voices of those who fight to protect our country are silenced by “our honorable U.S. army.”

I was living a shallow dream

I have been a lucky person my whole life and never really had major tragedies. I left Iran long before the Islamic revolution and grew up in the U.S. When the Shah was overthrown, I was too busy getting ready for college. My family never talked about it much and I didn’t think much of it. Ten years ago when there was a student uprising in Iran and many were killed, I had a new job in a new industry and was too busy learning the ropes to pay much attention to what had happened. But recently as I watched the images of what had happened then, I realized I was living in a shallow dream.

In June and July of this year, many Iranians were killed. I saw their faces all over my television set and on the internet. I have never felt death until now. I have never seen such suffering with my own eyes. I have never seen such courage up until now. Sure, I have read and heard about it and I have seen it in movies, but I have never felt something so real and so close to home. I feel the pain of all Iranians as if it were my pain and the naïve and carefree girl inside of me has departed forever. I will always remember June of 2009 as the beginning of one of the darkest times in my life and the only thing that keeps me going is the fact that I am half American. No, I am not half American by blood but I am half American in essence because The United States is where I grew up for the majority of my life. And I know that Iran does not recognize dual citizenships, but you see, I cannot separate the Iranian and the American in me. They both blend in in a silent harmony.