Entry 37

Yesterday was George W. Bush's inauguration ....
A few minutes ago I was watching Euronews ...
There were pictures of people protesting against Bush holding posters of him and the people in his government , on which there were written " Bush is not our president " , etc.
There were also lots of symbolic coffins of American soldiers prepared by the protesters ...
On the following news there were pictures of Bush and his wife dancing the tango at the reception after the ceremony ...
I don't know how they felt at that time ... launching such a war and invasion in Iraq and then dancing the tango and celebrating his reelection ...

Entry 36

Yesterday we had a meeting in my institute ...
The supervisor proposed two subjects and wanted to know our opinions about them ...
The first one was to make departments for each level consisting of two or three experienced teachers so that they can help the new teachers ...
The second one was to modify and revise some of the textbooks and change some books in some levels...
The meeting was very useful ...
On the whole these kinds of meetings are very good and useful ...
We exchange our ideas , talk about our problems as well as saying funny events having happened in our classes ...
There was another subject about which we talked and discussed, and that was about having dinner with each other in a restaurant next week ...

Entry 35

Again there was an earthquake , but this time not in the earth , but under the ocean ...
A disaster ...
Last year exactly on the same day , we had it in Iran: in Bam ...
And this year on its anniversary I'm depressed for the poor ones in Bam as well as the ones in Asia ...
UNISEF stated that 1/3 of the dead were the children who knew anything about the cause of the wrath of the nature while they drowned in huge flood ...
Last year we blamed our government a lot for not building strong buildings like the ones built in Japan which can resist against a powerful earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale , but this time the disaster was not in the earth and among the buildings , but in the ocean and among water, so nobody could be blamed ...
I think mankind is still weak before the nature despite all he has done & all the progress he has made ...
I feel really sorry for him ... !!!

Entry 34

It was the first time I saw this kind of " Cheating " in my class ... !!
They are girls ...
One of them is very weak & I believe she must study in three terms lower...
Last session they had dictation ; a very clever & smart student _ who is really naughty, of course _ was sitting beside this weak one ...
While I was dictating the text to them, the smart student asked me to read more slowly so that she could have enough time to write it down...
At the end , when I was gathering their papers , I noticed that the weak student put her paper within her book fast and turned around and got a paper from the smart student behind her...
She tried to do it fast but couldn't succeed ...
Anyway , the story is this : the smart student had written two dictations : one for herself & another _ of course with a different handwriting _ for the weak one ... and the weak student had tried to hide hers fast & give me the other one ...
They are about 13 years old ... !!!

Entry 33

I wonder why English language has become the first living language of the world ...
It surely has its own linguistic, cultural, sociological, anthropological, psychological & political reasons on which I'm not an expert , but I think one of the main reasons is the US and England's domination and sovereignty over the world in every aspect ...
I think they've tried ( and I don't know how ) to make their own language the dominant language of the world ...
I love English language a lotttttt and I'm an English teacher myself ...
I hope I haven't been so much prejudiced about this matter, but it's something that has kept my mind busy these days ...

Entry 32

The other week I met some of my old & intimate friends from university ...
It was a long time I hadn't seen them ...
They got very surprised & happy when they saw me ... and had my promise that I will meet tham the next month ...
We talked about everything ... we laughed ... we said jokes ...
We also told each other about our joys as well as our problems in our lives ...
Coming back home , I was thinking that having such friends is reallyyyyyyy worthwhile, valueable & enjoyable ...
After the dull & routine life everyday, it's very exciting & relaxing to visit our intimate & reliable friends, spending some time with them & talking about our joys & problems in our daily lives ...

Entry 31

Miss World 2004 from Peru ...
I was watching Miss World 2004 ...
Among the five last candidates there was a girl from the US who was so lively & prepared to be chosen as the first ...
I don't want to be so pessimisst about the role of the US and its interference & trying to be the first in everything ... but everything shows that it is so...
The last five candidates were from countries such as Peru , the Dominican Republic , and some other countries ... and choosing one girl from the US was a little strange ...
It really seemed strange ... whoever watched it would feel a little surprised why she was chosen ... it seemed as if she must be chosen , because there cannot be anything like this ceremony in the world in which US does not have a role ...
Although she was not chosen and this girl from Peru was chosen at last as Miss World 2004 , everything showed that struggles had been made for the contestant from the US to be among the last five candidates ...

Entry 30

Today I went to the old parts of Tehran to buy something ... it was near my grand ma's house...
It was a long time I hadn't gone there ... I went to remind the good old days I had there with her ( who has passed away now !)
I entered the alley ... it seemed soooooooo much narrower than it was before ... I always thought the alley was veryyyyyyy wide ...I was crying ...
I found a place where her house used to be ... but there was not her house any more ... a new modern house was built instead of hers ...
My tears got dry ... I couldn't imagine the previous building , the door , the windows & the good memory of those old days ...
Once I wished I hadn't gone there so that I could remind the good old memories ... but then I thought that I must accept life as it is ...
This has happened & will happen for all grandchildren of all years ...
Let's love our childhood memories in the past & remind them , but live in the present ...

Entry 29

... Dream ...
What is dream? ...
Since we were a child , we had dreams... and this was the only thing we chose strongly & with great self confidence, never thinking whether we can reach it or not ...
When I was a child, I always wished to be a flight attendant or an astronaut ... and never thought if it was possible or not...
I just wanted them... and I enjoyed a lot thinking about them , because I could DREAM & WANT whatever I liked ...
When we grew up and faced the reality , these wishes & dreams became paler & paler ... because they had come out of our infinite mind and had entered into & interwoven with the realities of our life ...
We still have wishes & dreams , but their names have been changed : they are GOALS ...
I think our goals in our lives are our dreams which have become more logical ...
Now when we dream , we dream according to the realities of our lives , first we see the realities and then we dream ... and maybe we don't dream at all ... for example I don't wish to be an astronaut any more, because I know it's impossible ... but isn't it a pity to kill this dream in myself ?... what should I do with it ? Isn't there any way to make it alive again?
Yes , there is ... I believe one way exists & that is ART :The only way to save and keep our childhood dreams & wishes is to change them into art:My beautiful childhood dream to be an astronaut can remain alive forever in the form of a painting , a poem , a symphony , a statue or a beautiful story , and be alive forever..., so let's keep our inaccessible and beautiful dreams forever ...

Entry 28

This article is written by Michael Moore after the reelection of Bush ...
I found it very interesting:



Friday, November 5th, 2004
17 Reasons Not to Slit Your Wrists...
by Michael Moore

Dear Friends,

Ok, it sucks. Really sucks. But before you go and cash it all in, let's, in the words of Monty Python, “always look on the bright side of life!” There IS some good news from Tuesday's election.

Here are 17 reasons not to slit your wrists:

1. It is against the law for George W. Bush to run for president again.

2. Bush's victory was the NARROWEST win for a sitting president since Woodrow Wilson in 1916.

3. The only age group in which the majority voted for Kerry was young adults (Kerry: 54%, Bush: 44%), proving once again that your parents are always wrong and you should never listen to them.

4. In spite of Bush's win, the majority of Americans still think the country is headed in the wrong direction (56%), think the war wasn't worth fighting (51%), and don’t approve of the job George W. Bush is doing (52%). (Note to foreigners: Don't try to figure this one out. It's an American thing, like Pop Tarts.)

5. The Republicans will not have a filibuster-proof 60-seat majority in the Senate. If the Democrats do their job, Bush won't be able to pack the Supreme Court with right-wing ideologues. Did I say "if the Democrats do their job?" Um, maybe better to scratch this one.

6. Michigan voted for Kerry! So did the entire Northeast, the birthplace of our democracy. So did 6 of the 8 Great Lakes States. And the whole West Coast! Plus Hawaii. Ok, that's a start. We've got most of the fresh water, all of Broadway, and Mt. St. Helens. We can dehydrate them or bury them in lava. And no more show tunes!

7. Once again we are reminded that the buckeye is a nut, and not just any old nut -- a poisonous nut. A great nation was felled by a poisonous nut. May Ohio State pay dearly this Saturday when it faces Michigan.

8. 88% of Bush's support came from white voters. In 50 years, America will no longer have a white majority. Hey, 50 years isn't such a long time! If you're ten years old and reading this, your golden years will be truly golden and you will be well cared for in your old age.

9. Gays, thanks to the ballot measures passed on Tuesday, cannot get married in 11 new states. Thank God. Just think of all those wedding gifts we won't have to buy now.

10. Five more African Americans were elected as members of Congress, including the return of Cynthia McKinney of Georgia. It's always good to have more blacks in there fighting for us and doing the job our candidates can't.

11. The CEO of Coors was defeated for Senate in Colorado. Drink up!

12. Admit it: We like the Bush twins and we don't want them to go away.

13. At the state legislative level, Democrats picked up a net of at least 3 chambers in Tuesday's elections. Of the 98 partisan-controlled state legislative chambers (house/assembly and senate), Democrats went into the 2004 elections in control of 44 chambers, Republicans controlled 53 chambers, and 1 chamber was tied. After Tuesday, Democrats now control 47 chambers, Republicans control 49 chambers, 1 chamber is tied and 1 chamber (Montana House) is still undecided.

14. Bush is now a lame duck president. He will have no greater moment than the one he's having this week. It's all
downhill for him from here on out -- and, more significantly, he's just not going to want to do all the hard work that will be expected of him. It'll be like everyone's last month in 12th grade -- you've already made it, so it's party time! Perhaps he'll treat the next four years like a permanent Friday, spending even more time at the ranch or in Kennebunkport. And why shouldn't he? He's already proved his point, avenged his father and kicked our ass.

15. Should Bush decide to show up to work and take this country down a very dark road, it is also just as likely that either of the following two scenarios will happen: a) Now that he doesn't ever need to pander to the Christian conservatives again to get elected, someone may whisper in his ear that he should spend these last four years building "a legacy" so that history will render a kinder verdict on him and thus he will not push for too aggressive a right-wing agenda; or b) He will become so cocky and arrogant -- and thus, reckless -- that he will commit a blunder of such major proportions that even his own party will have to remove him from office.

16. There are nearly 300 million Americans -- 200 million of them of voting age. We only lost by three and a half million! That's not a landslide -- it means we're almost there. Imagine losing by 20 million. If you had 58 yards to go before you reached the goal line and then you barreled down 55 of those yards, would you stop on the three yard line, pick up the ball and go home crying -- especially when you get to start the next down on the three yard line? Of course not! Buck up! Have hope! More sports analogies are coming!!!

17. Finally and most importantly, over 55 million Americans voted for the candidate dubbed "The #1 Liberal in the Senate." That's more than the total number of voters who voted for either Reagan, Bush I, Clinton or Gore. Again, more people voted for Kerry than Reagan. If the media are looking for a trend it should be this -- that so many Americans were, for the first time since Kennedy, willing to vote for an out-and-out liberal. The country has always been filled with evangelicals -- that is not news. What IS news is that so many people have shifted toward a Massachusetts liberal. In fact, that's BIG news. Which means, don't expect the mainstream media, the ones who brought you the Iraq War, to ever report the real truth about November 2, 2004. In fact, it's better that they don't. We'll need the element of surprise in 2008.
Feeling better? I hope so. As my friend Mort wrote me yesterday, "My Romanian grandfather used to say to me, 'Remember, Morton, this is such a wonderful country -- it doesn't even need a president!'"

But it needs us.Rest up,I'll write you again tomorrow.

Yours,

Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com