Nizar Qabbani, poet lover

 Nizar Qabbani, poet lover

نزار توفیق قبانی

Nizar Qabbani

در بندر ابی چشمانت ... از نزار قبانی با ترجمه احمد پوری

The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

Audacity of Hope

by Barack Obama

                                         

I really was happy when Barack Obama became the 44th US president, but I became his fan while he finished his inauguration. This week I finished his second book, I really enjoyed It, I liked especially from chapter Eight ( The World Beyond our Borders).

      Rhetoric is one of the abilities that individualize Barack Obama from other current American politicians and perhaps from world politicians.

Here are some notes from this book.

We might not solve every problem but we can get something meaningfully done. page 2

it's a flaw that is endemic to modern Life, -endemic, too, in the American character- and one that is nowhere more evident than in the field of politics. whether politics actually encourage the trait or simply attracts those who possess it is unclear. someone once said that every man is trying to either live up to his father's expectations or make up for his father's mistakes and I suppose that may explain my particular malady as well as anything else. Page 3

" Life is not obligated to work out as you’d planned." page 3

When Obama explained his first day in Senate I have understand his feeling. he finished this explanation with valuable sentences

" ln the world's greatest deliberative body, no one is listening." Page 15

And we will need to remind ourselves, despite all our difference, just how much we share: common hopes, common dreams, a bond that will not break. page 25

I've always felt a curious relationship to the sixties. In a sense, I'm a pure product of that era: As the child of a mixed marriage, my wife would have been impossible, my opportunities entirely foreclosed, without the social upheavals that were then taking place. page 29

In politics, if not in policy, simplicity was a virtue. page 33

In both the house and the Senate, and in state capitals across the country, there are those who cling to more traditional conservative virtues of temperance and restraint- men and women who recognize that piling up debt to finance tax cuts for the wealthy is irresponsible, that deficit reduction can't take place on the backs of the poor, that the separation of church and state protects the church as well as the state, that conservation and conservatism don't have to conflict, and that foreign policy should be based on facts and not wishful thinking. page 37

While president Bush said quietly to Obama: "I hope you don't mind me giving you a piece of advice." 

" not at all, Mr president.'

He nodded. " You've got a bright future, he said “very bright. but I've been in this town awhile and let me tell you, it can be tough. when you get a lot of attention like you have been getting people start gunnin’ for ya. and it won't necessarily just be coming from my side, you understand. from yours, too. everybody’ll be waiting for you to slip, know what I mean? so watch yourself." page 47

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Page 53

But we cannot avoid these tensions entirely. at times our values collide because in the hands of men each one is subject to distortion and excess. self- reliance and Independence can transform into selfishness and licenses, ambition into greed, and a frantic desire to succeed at any cost. More than once in our history we've seen patriotism slide into jingoism, xenophobia, the stifling of dissent; we've seen Faith calcify into self-righteousness, closed-mindedness, and cruelty toward others. Even the impulse toward charity can drift into a stifling paternalism, an unwillingness to acknowledge the ability of others to do for themselves. Page 56

Values are faithfully applied to the facts before us, while ideology overrides whatever facts call Theory into question. page 59

There is a constant danger, in the cacophony of voices, that a politician loses his moral bearings and finds himself entirely steered by the winds of public opinion.

Perhaps this explains why we long for that most elusive equality in our leaders- the quality of authenticity, of being who you say you are, of possessing a truthfulness that goes beyond words. Page 66

So long as we understand that our values must be tested against fact and experience, so long as we recall that they demand deeds and not just words. to do otherwise would be to relinquish our best selves. page 69

There's a saying that Senators frequently use when ask to describe their first year on Capitol Hill: "it's like drinking from a fire hose." Page 71

In that sense, wherever we lie on the political spectrum we all subscribe to the founders' teachings. page 86

Conservative or liberal, we are all Constitutions. page 88

We want to get our way, but most of us also recognize the need for consistency, predictability, and coherence. we want the rules governing our democracy to be fair. page 89

Ultimately, though, I have to side with Justice Breyer's view of the Constitution- that it is not a static but rather a living document, and must be read in the context of an ever-changing world. page 90

It's not just absolute power that the founders sought to prevent. implicit in its structure, in the very idea of ordered Liberty, was a rejection of absolute truth, the infallibility of any idea or ideology or theology or "ism" any tyrannical consistency that might lock future generations into a single, unalterable course, or drive both majority and minorities into the cruelties of the inquisition, the program, the gulag, or the jihad. the founders may have trusted in God, but true to the enlightenment spirit, they also trusted in the minds and sense that God had given them. they were suspect suspicious of abstraction and liked asking questions, which is why at every turn in our early history theory yielded to fact and necessity. Page 93

Whether we are for or against affirmative action, for or against prayer in schools, we must test out our ideals, vision, and values against the realities of a common life, so that over time they may be refined, discarded, or replaced by new ideals, sharper visions, deeper values, indeed, it is that process, according to Madison, that brought about the Constitution itself, through a convention in which "no man felt himself obliged to retain his opinions any longer than he was satisfied of their propriety and truth, and was open to the force of argument." page 95

But deliberation alone could not provide the slave his freedom or cleanse America of its original sin. in the end, it was the sword that would sever his chains. page 96

The best I can do in the face of our history is remind myself that it has not always been the pragmatist, the voice of reason, or the force of compromise, that has created the conditions for Liberty. the hard, cold facts remind me that it was unbending idealists like William Lloyd Garrison who first sounded the clarion call for justice; that it was slaves and former slaves, men like it Denmark Vesey and Frederick Douglass and women like it Harriet Truman, who recognized power concede nothing without a fight. page 97

Please stay who you are, they will say to me. please don't disappoint us. Pageb102

In politics, there may be second acts, but there is no second place. page 108

Money can't guarantee victory- it can't buy passion, charisma, or the ability to tell a story. but without money, and the television ads that consume all the money, you are pretty much guaranteed to lose. page 109

Politicians held captive by their big-money contributors or succumbing to interest-group pressure - this is a staple of modern political reporting, the story Line that weaves its way into just about every analysis of what's wrong with our democracy. page 120

From John F. Kennedy

Few, if any, face the same dread finality of decision that confronts a Senator facing an important call of the roll. He may want more time for his decision-  he may believe there is something to be sides for both sides - he may feel that a slight amendment could remove all difficulties - but when that roll is called he cannot hide, he can not equivocate, he can not delay - and he senses that his constituency, like the Raven in Poe's poem, is perched there on his Senate desk, croaking "Nevermore" as he casts the vote that stakes his political future. Page 129

Justice Louis Brandeis: that in a democracy, the most important office is the office of citizen. page 135

Whether or not the world is already flat, as columnist and author Thomas Friedman says, it is certainly getting flatter every day. page 145

That's not the America we want for ourselves or our children. and I'm confident that we have the talent and the resources to create a better future, a future in which the economy grows and prosperity is shared. what's preventing us from shaping that future isn't the absence of good ideas. it's the absence of a national commitment to take the tough steps necessary to make America more competitive - and the absence of a new consensus around the appropriate role of government in the marketplace. page 149

Calvin Coolidge: " after all the chief business of the American is business."

Our greatest asset has been our system of social organization, a system that for generations has encouraged constant innovation, individual initiative, and the efficient allocation of resources. Page 150

A nation that can't control its energy sources can't control its future. Ukraine may have little choice in the matter, but the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth surely does. page 171

I am optimistic about the long-term prospect of the U.S. economy and the ability of U.S. workers to compete in a free trade environment - but only if we distribute the costs and benefits of globalization more fairly across the population. page 176

If the guiding philosophy behind the traditional system of social insurance could be described as " we're all in it together," the philosophy behind the Ownership Society seems to be " you're on your own." Page 179

In other words, the Ownership Society doesn't even try to spread the risk and rewards of the new economy among all Americans. Instead, it simply magnifies the uneven risk and rewards of today's winner-take-all economy. If you are healthy or wealthy or just plain Lucky, then you will become more so. If you are poor or risk or catch a bad break, you will have nobody to look to for help. That's not it recipe for sustained economic growth or the maintenance of a strong American middle class. It's certainly not a recipe for social cohesion. It runs counter to those values that say we have a stake in each other's success. It's not who we are as a people. Page 180

Let's start with wage American believe in work not just as a means of supporting themselves but as a means of giving their lives purpose and direction order and dignity. page 180

" The free market's the best mechanism ever devised to put resources to their most efficient and productive use," he ( Buffett) told me." The government isn't particularly good at that. but the market isn't good at making sure that the wealth that's produced is being distributed fairly or wisely. some of that wealth has to be plowed back into education, so that the next generation has a fair chance, and to maintain our infrastructure, and provide some sort of safety net for those who lose out in a market economy. And it just makes sense that those of us who've benefited most from the market should pay a bigger share." Page 190

What happened? in part, the cooling of religious enthusiasm among Americans was always exaggerated. On this score at least, the conservative critique of " liberal elitism" has a strong measure of truth: Ensconced in Universities and large Urban centers, academics, journalists, and purveyors of popular culture simply failed to appreciate the continuing role that all manner of religious expansion played in communities across the country. Page 200

In a sense, my dilemma with Mr. Keyes mirrors the broader dilemma that liberalism has faced in answering the religious right. liberalism teaches us to be tolerant of other people's religious beliefs, so long as those beliefs don't cause anyone harm or impinge on another's right to believe differently. to the extent that religious communities are content to keep to themselves and faith is nearly confined as a matter of individual conscience, such tolerance is not tested.

But religion is rarely practiced in isolation; organized religion, at least, is a very public affair. the faithful may feel compelled by their religion to actively evangelize wherever they can. they may feel that a secular state promotes values that directly offend their beliefs. they may want the large Society to validate and reinforce their views.

And when the religiously motivated assert themselves politically to achieve these aims. liberals get nervous. those of us in the public office may try to avoid the conversation about religious values altogether, fearful of offending anyone and claiming that - regardless of our personal beliefs-  consistently principles tie our hands on issues like abortion or school prayer. (Catholic politicians of a certain generation seem particularly cautious, perhaps because they come of age when large segment of America still questioned whatever John F. Kennedy would end up taking older from the Pope.) some on the left (although not those in public office) go further, dismissing religion in the public square as inherently irrational, intolerant, and therefore dangerous- and nothing that, with its emphasis on personal salvation and the policing of private morality, religious talk has given conservatives cover to ignore questions of public morality, like poverty or corporate malfeasance.  page 213

Jefferson and Madison in particular argue for what Jefferson called a "wall of separation" between church and state, as a means of protecting individual liberty in religious belief and practice, guarding the State against sectarian strife, and defending organized religion against the state's encroachment or undue influence. page 217

When I read the Bible, I do so with the belief that it is not static text but the Living World and that I must be continually open to new revolutions- whether they come from a lesbian friend or a doctor opposed to emotion. page 224

In fact, economists who've studied the issue - and the young men whose fates are at stake - will tell you that the costs and benefits of the street life don't match the popular mythology: at the bottom or even the middle ranks of the industry, drug dealing is a minimum- wage affair for many inner city men, what prevents gainful employment is not simply the absence of motivation to get off the streets but the absence of a job history or any marketable skills- and, increasingly, the stigma of a prison record. Page 257

What would that be worth to all of us- an America in which crime has fallen, more children are cared for, cities are reborn, and the biases, fear, and discord that black poverty feeds are slowly drained away? would it be worth what we've spent in the past year in Iraq? would it be worth relinquishing demands for estate tax repeal? it's hard to quantify the benefits of such changes - precisely because the benefits would be immeasurable. Page 259

They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific assurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internment during world war II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction. page 261

I wanted to call the group and explain that American citizenship is a privilege and not a right; that without meaningful borders and respect for the law, the very things that brought them to America, the opportunities and protections afford those who live in this country, would surely erode; and that any that anyway, I didn't put up with people abusing my self - especially one who was championing their cause, Page 267

America is big enough to accommodate all their dreams. Page 269

For decades we would tolerate and even aid thieves like a Mobutu, thugs like a Noriega, so long as they opposed communism,  occasionally us covert operation world engineer the removal of democratically elected leaders in countries like Iran- with seismic repercussions that haunt us to this day. Page 286

Our escort officer signaled that the chopper was all ready to take off. I wished the major luck and headed for the van. Mark came up beside me and I asked him what he'd learned from his conversation with the senior officers.

"I asked him what he thought we needed to do to best deal with this situation."

"What did he say?"

"Leave." page 301

Globalization makes our economy, our health, and our security all captive to events on the other side of the world. And no other nation on earth has a greater capacity to shape that global system, or to build consensus around a new set of international rules that expand the zones of freedom, personal safety, and economic well-being. like it or not, if we want to make America more secure, we are going to have to help make the world more secure. the second thing we need to recognize is that the security environment we face today is fundamentally different from the one that exist fifty twenty-five or even ten years ago. Page 304

The United States’ GDP is greater than that of the two largest economies and fastest-growing economies- China and India- combined. We need to maintain a strategic Force posture that allows us to manage threats posed by rogue Nations like it North Korea and Iran and to meet the challenges presented by potential rivals like China. page 307

One of our team called me over and showed me a yellowing poster taped on the wall. It was a relic of the Afghan war, we were told: instruction on how to hide explosives in toys, to be left in villages and carried home by unsuspecting children. A testament, I thought, to the madness of men. A record of how empires destroy themselves. page 314

I don't dismiss these critics out of hand. America and its Western partners did design the current international system, after all; it is our way of doing things- our accounting standards, our language, our Dollar, our copyright laws, our technology, and our popular culture - to reach the world has had an adapt over the past fifty years. If overall the international system has produced great prosperity in the world's most developed countries, it has also left many people behind- a fact that Western policy makers have often ignored and occasionally made worse.

ultimately, thought, I believe critics are wrong to think that the world's pool will benefit by rejecting the ideals of free markets and liberal democracy. when human rights activists from various countries come to my office and talk about being jailed or tortured for their beliefs, they are not acting as agents of American power. 315

If we want to win the hearts and minds of people in Caracas, Jakarta, Nairobi, or Tehran, dispersing ballot boxes will not be enough. We'll have to make sure that the international rules we're promoting enhance, rather than impede, people's sense of material and personal security. page 317

In other words, for most families, having Mom stay at home means living in a less-safe neighborhood and enrolling their children in a less-competitive school. That's not a choice most Americans are willing to make. Instead, they do the best they can under the circumstance, knowing that the type of household they grow up in - the type of household in which Frasier and Marian Robinson raised their kids-has become much, much harder to sustain. page 338

The Two-Income Trap by Elizabeth Taylor and Tyagi

 انتخابات چهارم نوامبر ۲۰۰۸ ریاست جمهوری آمریکا که باراک اوباما برنده انتخابات شد، شاید خوشحال ترین فرد بعد از خود اوباما و اطرافیانش من بودم. نه به خاطر اینکه احتمال میدادم چند سال بعد برنده لاتاری مهاجرت به آمریکا بشوم بلکه امیدوار بودم رهبران ایران با آمدن اوباما که رییس جمهوری با گرایش های نرم و منعطف تری هست، رهبران جمهوری اسلامی از خر شیطان پایین بیایند و مردم ایران یک نفس بکشند. اما اوباما که جواب نامه اش را از علی خامنه ای گرفت و انتطار داشت رهبر جمهوری اسلامی مشتش را وا کند، به مشاورش گفت: « مثل اینکه که رهبر جمهوری اسلامی ایران به جای مشتش فقط یک انگشتش را باز کرده است. » ، همان انگشتی که دختران ایران زمین این روزها به رهبر نشان میدهند. این هفته که کتاب جسارت امید باراک اوباما را تمام کردم یک بار دیگر به آن خاطراتم رجوع کردم و حسرت فرصت های از دست رفته برای ملتی که قرن هاست به دنبال زندگی و آزادی برای زنان و مردان سرزمینی است که در ناامیدی پیر میشوند را خوردم. خوشبختانه کتاب جسارت امید باراک اوباما توسط ابوالحسن تهامی و آرش عزیزی در ایران ترجمه شده است.

        وبلاگ فارسی ام را که از سال ۱۳۸۴ مینویسم به مثابه یک دفتر یادداشتی است تا خاطرات و نکات قابل توجه کتاب هایی را که می خوانم را در ان بنویسم تا اگر دنبال موضوع خاصی بودم که قبلاً خوانده ام به راحتی به آن دسترسی داشته باشم و شاید به این امید که روزی دخترم از کتابهایی که خوانده ام خوشش آمد و جملات مهمش را در این وبلاگ بخواند. یک نمونه از ان را در این لینک می توانید ببینید.

باراک اوباما پیروز شد

        به باور من بجای مداخله مستقیم نظامی بزرگترین مسیولیت کشورهای غربی و توسعه یافته می بایست ابتدا ترغیب و سپس متعهد کردن کشورها به پذیرش و اجرای دقیق استاندارهای پذیرفته شده برای انتخابات آزاد بر اساس الگوهای تدوین شده در اعلامیه حقوق بشر سازمان ملل متحد برای تمامی کشورها عضو باشد. ( برگزاری و نظارت در همه مراحل تحت نظر نمایندگان سازمان ملل متحد) و قانون اساسی هر کشوری می بایست آزاد های منعکس در اعلامیه حقوق بشر سازمان ملل متحد و برگزاری و اجرای انتخابات آزاد را تضمین کند و هیچ کشوری حق نداشته باشد به بهانه های مختلف از جمله مذهب و شریعت و یا شکل حکومت محدودیتی برای شهروندانش اعمال کند. آزادی های مندرج در اعلامیه حقوق بشر در قانون اساسی  هر کشوری سنگ بنای آغاز دموکراسی ، پیشرفت و شایسته سالاری در هر کشوری است تا از وقوع بسیاری از جنگ ها، مصیبت ها و نسل کشی ها پیشگیری شود و فقر و جنگ به حداقل ممکن برسد و از طرفی پتانسیل انسانی تمامی جوامع برای توسعه منطقه و جهان هموارتر شود. بنابراین  لازمه عضویت همه کشورها در سازمان ملل و تجارت جهانی و نظام مالی جهان می بایست منوط به انتخاب روسای کشورها و مسولیت آنها بر اساس اصول اولیه دموکراسی باشد.

        بجای تحریم های بی ثمر و کم اثر تحت عنوان تحریم های هدفمند می بابت از پذیرش نمایندگان، سفرای این کشورها در سازمان ملل و همچنین ار همکاریهای اقتصادی و سیاسی جهانی و منطقه ایی با این کشورها خودداری شود. پذیرش آنها در هر سازمان منوط به برگزاری انتخابات آزاد شود در این صورت تحقق این موضوع بخش عمدی از مصایب داخلی غالب کشورها و تهدیدات خارجی آنها برطرف خواهد شد و سایر کشورها مجبور نیستند کمک های بشر دوستانه بی پایان غذایی و دارویی و بدتر نیروی نظامی برای کمک به این کشورها ارسال و یا اعزام کنند.

        این روزها که این کتاب را میخواندم ایران ، سرزمینی که در آن به دنیا آمده و بزرگ شده ام حدود دو ماه است که بعد از مرگ مهسا امینی در شرایط بسیار دشواری بسر میبرد. مردم در سیطره حاکمانی هستند که حتی پانزده درصد از مردم از آنها حمایت نمی‌کنند. آنها بر مردم هشتاد و شش میلیونی حکومت میکنند. حاکمانی که با تبعید و زندانی کردن روشنفکران، رهبران فکری، روزنامه نگاران، فعالان سیاسی و دانشجویان داخل کشور شدت بخشیده اند و با تهدید افراد و خانواده های آنهایی که در خارج از کشور زندگی میکنندهمه روزه ادامه میدهند. از طرف دیگر با سرکوب اعتراضات مردم خسته از سخت گیرهای مذهبی و بی تدبیری اقتصادی و فساد سازمان یافته با شدید ترین نوع خشونت برخورد میکنند.

جسارت امید با ترجمه ابوالحسن تهامی

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