soulbeancafe@googlemail.com
Blog: Soul Bean Café
>>> Peyvand Khorsandi's new index
Naïve Noam
Imagine ceding moral high ground to the neo-cons
August 2, 2007
Taste of censorship
It is still not too late for Iranian film-makers to shoot off a few letters in defense of Marjane Satrapi
July 7, 2007
North-South divide
The well-to-do of Tehran take time off and head to the segregated beaches of the north
June 6, 2007
Clive
A smack around the face with a baseball bat would have been less numbing
April 25, 2007
Checking out
In my coffin I want you to place a double-double burger from In-N-Out -- “animal style”
April 18, 2007
Generation skip
Videos and photo essay: Peyvand Khorsandi and Kiosk lift and rock Berkeley audience
Jahanshah Javid
April 17, 2007
Mind the map
When baldness occurs in the shape of somewhere that might be bombed
March 25, 2007
300BC
A short film
March 16, 2007
Ali
Diary of a UK asylum speaker
March 6, 2007
The brave blogger
If the Martians attack Iran I will go back and fight
March 2, 2007
The case for fish
A meditation
March 1, 2007
A Thanksgiving message
After Mostafa Tabatabainejad was ejected from UCLA library using a Taser-gun on 14 November 2006
December 8, 2006
Best, of the worst
Khatami
October 29, 2006
First Iranian Flash Gordon
Iranians respond to Anousheh Ansari's weblog
October 1, 2006
Fast-forward man
Interview with Jim Muir, who has reported from the Middle East for more than 20 years
September 26, 2006
An Iranian week
Ahmadinejad, Khatami, Ansari to Ganji...
September 21, 2006
Mac friendly
Nazanine Moshiri, newscaster, ITN, London
September 13, 2006
From 30 to 63 in five years
Reflections on 9/11
September 11, 2006
The plumber
No sex and the city
September 7, 2006
No sex and the city
Sixty pounds for a bottle of grapes and this is what you get
September 2, 2006 The great library
– a dialogue
August 24, 2006
Dabashi on picnics
Peyvand Khorsandi talks to Columbia University professor of Iranian studies and comparative literature Hamid Dabashi about picnics
August 22, 2006
Calm amid the storm
Middle East expert Hossein Shahidi responds to six questions about Israel’s conflict with Hamas and Hezbollah and the prospect of war with Iran
July 20, 2006
Better days in Bombay
P hoto essay: A trip to Bombay (now Mumbai)
July 14, 2006
Pulp lies
In a visual culture, nothing short of video evidence will force some columnists to abandon their lies
June 18, 2006
The foot and I
One day, my left foot refused to support my weight any longer
April 14, 2006
Mr Eshraghi
Sohrab Eshraghi taxed our tips
March 28, 2006
Persian letters
Marjan & Atta
March 20, 2006
The sentence
Short story
March 1, 2006
Two men in London pub
I'm from Iran. That's where I am from. Persia.
February 25, 2006
Root of all the world's troubles
February 14, 2006
What is nuclear ambition? In the conventional sense, “what” is a word that one puts in a sentence. Of course, the same can be said of most other words - such as most, other and words - and indeed “and”; and while we're at it “indeed”.
But “what” in conventional usage tends to precipitate inquiry, whereas other words mean what they say. To “What is the meaning of 'what'?” the listener might respond: “I don't know what you mean.”
It is clearly the word “what” and not religion that is the root of all the world's troubles.
My lost friend
February 10, 2006
Up a mountain, I saw a goat. I said: “Goat, will you be my friend?” The goat said no.
Then I saw a donkey. I said: “Donkey, will you be my friend?” No, said the Donkey.
I looked to the sky and said: “Clouds, will you be my friend?” It started pissing down.
Then came a Republican. He said: “Hey. I'll be your friend.”
I said: “Get lost, mate.”
How to suppress a bus strike
Make imprisoned leaders draw cartoons satirising the Holocaust. Invite BBC Persian to report on winner
February 8, 2006
Short fuse
February 6, 2006
Self-congratulatory “secular' columnists have rushed to attack “Muslim” reaction to a few piss-poor cartoons in the Danish press. One on this site is prepared to die to defend freedom of speech, while writing under a pseudonym! Firstly, those who burn down embassies do not represent all Muslims. It is moronic to present Islam as a unified entity, as the press is doing -- and Iranian bloggers, of whatever political hue should know better.
Secondly, in a world where any critic of Israel risks being branded as “anti-semitic”, aggrieved Muslims have a case for double standards. It is a fact that you will not see generalisations made about Muslims and Arabs, in the media applying to any other people with such frequency. Should the cartoonist have drawn a picture of the prophet's turban as a bomb? Of course, but using wit -- something the cartoonist lacked -- he could have drawn one that didn't actually go off.
As for the braying mobs, someone should say to them, badbakhtaa bereen be kaaretoon bereseen, na be kaarton!
Nazi and the cleric
February 3, 2006
Nick Griffin, fuhrer of the British National[-Socialist] Party, was cleared yesterday of inciting racial hatred. The prosecution had presented footage taken by a BBC journalist where he had slammed Islam in a small pub meeting as a religion that proliferates using rape - nothing wrong with that, it's his job. Yet the Beeb continues to refer to the BNP as “far right” rather than Nazi - do its news producers dispute fact that the BNP is a Nazi organisation? This might explain why the broadcaster was so surprised by Griffin's frankly mild rants about Muslims.
Meanwhile, an Islamo-fascist called Abu Hamza awaits the jury's verdict for soliciting others to murder Jews. The press have got it right by portraying Hamza as a nutter - not too difficult with his hook for a hand. But Griffin, with his Newsnight slots is becoming more and more the respectable politician - and he's not even an MP. Observe similarities: Both men defend freedom of speech, are in their mid-forties, hate on a professional basis -and have one eye. Yet one tends to get off the hook more.
Coffin
ALI catches sight of plaque on coffin and starts to cry
January 25, 2006
Blog, blog and away
It's incredible, there are more blogs than there are Iranians
Decembe 29, 2005
President Kong
King Kong focuses on the mind of one man and his fraught relations with the West: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
October 28, 2005
Every morning Sarah
The other week, late at night, two boys standing on a porch threw a stone that hit the back of my skull. I wonder if that stone ended up any the wiser.
October 28, 2005
The drink
The Iranian in me kicked in at a pub
October 4, 2005
The late potato
At five in the morning Mr Potato woke up in a
sweat
August 23, 2005
Gaza
Palestinians look on, as the sulking Zionists roll up their rugs
August 17, 2005
Stop
press
Niger offers citizenship to Ganji
August 2, 2005
Summer
sneeze
Execution is an effective cure
August 1, 2005
On
Live8
Poem
July 29, 2005
Birthday
letters
A tribute
July 28, 2005
Shooteh bad
Lessons in Persian II
July 24, 2005
The President and Akbar Ganji
Khatami has ordered an investigation into the sheer
variety of Persian dishes of which Ganji has been deprived
By Hadi KhorsandI
Translated by Peyvand Khorsandi
July 21, 2005
Growing
weaker
Amir Reza Koohestani's play in London's Royal Court
July 21, 2005
Jacket
over a cross
The jottings of Ali Mashangian
July 16, 2005
Against
the grain
Aggressive interruption of unpopular views
July 12, 2005
Waiting
for Hasan
Asylum speakers news, a radio sketch
show in progress
May 11, 2005
From
the edge
Asylum speakers news, a radio sketch
show in progress
May 10, 2005
Asylum
speakers
A radio sketch show in progress
May 9, 2005
A
Flamenco lesson for Michael Howard
Persian Jew condemns British Conservative leader's emigration
policies
April 20, 2005
The
phone with no ring
Satanic communication
April 13, 2005
Palestinians
are key
In response to Hossein Derakhshan
April 11, 2005
Tarzan
among apes
Farhad Hakimzadeh and his Iran Heritage Foundation
April 9, 2005
Peanuts
and pistachios
Another Iranian-American woman; another book
April 2, 2005
Heritage
shmeritage
‘Preserving’ Iranian culture
March 25, 2005
Blair,
death and Dignity
Who, one wonders, is really in the business of death?
March 14, 2005
Igor
There are some things you just don’t say
March 8, 2005
Beg
to differ
Aghdashloo vs. Googoosh
March 3, 2005
Dorrita
My luck with women
February 24, 2005
Which
children of the revolution?
Shorts
February 24, 2005
Goa
Letter from the tropics
December 31, 2004
Najaf
Six feet under
August 26, 2004
Little
Red Riding Iraqi
“Blood? Hey! You’re not Aunt Zeinab. Those
aren’t her dentures.”
August 23, 2004
Saturday
school
Lessons in Persian
July 21, 2004
Behind
the rope
London club
July 20, 2004
Moore
Shrek
Two films
July 12, 2004
Hasan
Jones's Diary
A day in London
July 6, 2004
Burn
The uses of zereshk
July 1, 2004
Rightly
arrested
At least detained British soldiers in Iran weren't wearing
orange suits and chains
June 25, 2004
Charlatan
cinema
Makhmalbaf's "Kandahar"
June 4, 2004
The
Ostrich
On the Israeli assault on Rafah refugee camp in Gaza
May 25, 2004
Walking
to the side
A day of protest
May 23, 2004
Pax
Americana
One year after the Iraq occupation
March 17, 2004
It's
reigning women
What a year for Iranian women
February 27, 2004
Reverse
extremism
France, it seems, has adopted an opposite extreme of intolerance
to that enforced by the mullahs in Iran
February 16, 2004
Hatred
for all things Islamic
Socialism in bed with capitalism
February 4, 2004
Nigger
with a badge
Shorts
December 24, 2003
Remarkable
Political quotes
December 9, 2003
The
occasional diary of Ali Ziba
Naughty thoughts before the London march
November 19, 2003
TV
tale
Soap opera
September 15, 2003
Inside
the prison
For Zahra Kazemi
July 18, 2003
At
home with a poet
War is over for those who want it.
War is far from over
June 3, 2003
Notes
from the edge
Blair's nemesis?
December 20, 2002
Dance
for Khordadian
It is astonishing that a country should detain its top ghermeister
June 21, 2002
What
a trip
We talked, we laughed and there was no mention of Pacino
Photos
April 4, 2002
Peyvand,
Elham & Saman
Norooz show interviews
March 2002
Bushiranians
"Duh, who do we support if America bombs Iran?"
February 2002
Hey!
Molla! Leave teachers alone
Apologies to Pink Floyd
January 2002
Latest
news
War on terrorism
October 2001
I'm afraid, pops
"Dad, this the end of the world?"
September 2001
.................... Say
goodbye to spam!
|