Iran: Local leaders and military commanders killed in blast

Two separate explosions in southeastern Iran have killed civilians and military personnel. PressTV covers the story:
The first attack took place at a unity gathering of Shia and Sunni tribal leaders on Sunday morning, in the Pishin area, a region situated in the borderline Province of Sistan-Balouchestan.
Reports indicate that provincial IRGC commanders Brigadier Nour-Ali Shoushtari and [...]

Life in the moment, or a moment in life

Excerpt from and thoughts on Pablo Neruda’s I’m Explaining a Few Things:
And one morning all that was burning,
one morning the bonfires
leapt out of the earth
devouring human beings
and from then on fire,
gunpowder from then on,
[...]

A review of Christian Hänggi’s ‘Hospitality in the age of media representation’

Christian Hänggi’s dissertation, ‘Hospitality in the age of media representation,’ puts forward an argument for society and culture to integrate a broad sense of economic, ecological, and social sustainability into the atoms and networks of our personal and interpersonal relations. This amounts to a radical transformation of our socio-political landscape, integrating Nietzsche’s concept of reflective [...]

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the head of Iran’s Guardian Council

(First published at Elm-e Iran)
Iran’s Guardian Council, a prominent branch of the country’s political system, is often in the spotlight both inside and outside of the country, and at its head sits Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, a man of long political experience.
This twelve member government organ has been at the centre of many announcements regarding official [...]

Iran’s political contest continues as the Guardian Council rules out annulment of the elections

Iran’s Guardian Council (profile below), charged with reviewing the election results, has ruled out the possibility of annuling the elections, a ruling that effectively maintains the contested president Ahmadinejad in his post following his landslide victory of June 12 that many believe was rigged. This ruling appears to close the door to the opposition pursuing [...]

Iran: Post-election news regularly updated

First published at Rabble.ca.
Political events in Iran continue to unfold following the June 12 presidential election. For the past week, I have tried to (and often failed to) keep up with the rapid-fire clips of news coming from Iran. This has been helpful, at least to me.
I wish to shift gears now, though, and contextualise [...]

Iran elections update

Mousavi has claimed victory in the presidential election, and IRNA (state news channel) claims that Ahmadinejad is the clear winner. It’s only midnight on the day of elections in Iran and tens of millions showed up to vote (with estimates stating about 70% voter turnout).
It’s much too early to claim victory for anyone, so it’s [...]

Turkey’s role in the project for a transformation of US global power

US president Obama’s most recent statement on his support of Turkey’s accession into the European Union is a clear enunciation of the value of Turkey in the medium and long term schema of US foreign policy.
“I’ve said publicly that I think Turkish membership in the EU would be important,” said Obama during a joint press [...]

Iran’s political system

This article very briefly outlines the formal political structure of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
A very brief history
A legislative branch was first established during the Constitutional Revolution that began in 1905, at the time eroding the absolute power of the monarch. The legislative, and of course the entire state structure, has undergone significant change in [...]

Art and power: the emancipatory potential of contemporary art

Reading Benjamin’s piece, ‘Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,’ stirred some thoughts (more like questions) that I’m here articulating because I’m working through them and I welcome the insight of others.
Benjamin writes that all works of ‘authentic’ art are inseparable from the fabric of tradition and that these often served a ritualistic service. Isn’t [...]