اهداف جامعه ایرانی چیست؟ « ما چگونه فکر می کنیم» و آنچه که در ایران مهم انگاشته می شود.

۱۳۸۶ خرداد ۱۴, دوشنبه

Nuclear Energy, Balancing Benefits and Risks


Author:
Charles D. Ferguson, Fellow for Science and Technology
Council on Foreign Relations

April 2007

56 pages






Click here to download ( pdf file)

Increased concern over energy security and global climate change has led many people to take a fresh look at the benefits and risks of nuclear power for the United States and other countries. The debate surrounding nuclear energy also intersects with critical U.S. foreign policy issues such as nuclear proliferation and terrorism. This Council Special Report, produced in partnership with Washington and Lee University and written by the Council’s Fellow for Science and Technology Charles D. Ferguson, provides the factual and analytical background to inform this debate.

Nuclear Energy: Balancing Benefits and Risks is a sobering and authoritative look at nuclear power. Dr. Ferguson argues that nuclear energy, despite its attributes, is unlikely to play a major role in the coming decades in strengthening energy security or in countering the harmful effects of climate change. In particular, the rapid rate of nuclear reactor expansion required to make even a modest reduction in global warming would drive up construction costs and create shortages in building materials, trained personnel, and safety controls. There are also lingering questions over nuclear waste, as well as continued political opposition to siting new plants. Nonetheless, the report points out steps the United States could take—such as imposing a fee on greenhouse gas emissions—to level the economic playing field for all energy sectors, which over the long run would encourage the construction of new nuclear reactors (if only to replace existing ones that will need to be retired) and help reduce global warming.

Dr. Ferguson has written a fair and balanced report that brings the nuclear energy debate down from one of preferences and ideologies to one of reality. Nuclear Energy: Balancing Benefits and Risks is useful to anyone who wants to understand both the potential and the limits of nuclear power to enhance energy security and slow climate change.

مسئولان نظام در سالگرد ارتحال جانسوز امام خميني (ره)/آرش خاموشي ايسنا

Gates: Taliban Fighters Use Iran Weapons

(KABUL, Afghanistan)—Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday that Iranian weapons are falling into the hands of anti-government Taliban fighters but he stopped short of blaming Tehran. Afghan President Hamid Karzai seemed to dismiss the matter.

At a news conference at the presidential palace, Gates offered possible explanations for the flow of weapons from Iran to this war-scarred country, including smuggling. He mentioned no specific weapons, but NATO officials recently cited the discovery in Kabul of an armor-piercing roadside bomb, the same type U.S. officials have long complained are entering Iraq from Iran.

"There have been indications over the past few months of weapons coming in from Iran," Gates told reporters with Karzai at his side. "We do not have any information about whether the government of Iran is supporting this, is behind it, or whether it's smuggling."

Gates, on his second visit to Afghanistan since becoming Pentagon chief last December, said that while the weapons appear to be going to Taliban fighters, some may be headed to criminals in the Afghan drug trade. Asked his own view, Karzai appeared eager to give the Iranian government a pass.

He said there was no evidence of Iranian government involvement, adding, "Iran and Afghanistan have never been as friendly as they are today."

There is no reason for Iran to aid the Taliban, Karzai said. "It is in the interests of our brothers in Iran" to support the development of a more stable and prosperous Afghanistan. He said that also applied to Pakistan, on Afghanistan's eastern border, where U.S. officials say Taliban fighters have found haven and easy passage for cross-border attacks on U.S., NATO and Afghan troops.

A prevalent view among U.S. officials is that Tehran, while not an ally of the Taliban, is seizing any feasible opportunity in both Iraq and Afghanistan to complicate U.S. stabilization efforts and to tie down the American military amid tensions between Tehran and Washington over Iran's nuclear program.

Later, Gates flew to Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, at the heart of the fight against the Taliban, where he conferred privately with U.S. and NATO commanders. Afterward he flew to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan to meet with government officials on Tuesday.

Before the Kabul news conference, Gates flew by helicopter to Camp Morehead, a sparse military outpost ringed by mountain peaks several miles outside Kabul. American and French special forces there are training Afghan commandos in stealthy operations U.S. officials believe are crucial to undermining the Taliban. The first class of recruits is four weeks into its 12-week course.

At Morehead, Gates met Gen. Bismullah Khan, one of the most well-known of the former mujahadeen fighters from the days of Soviet occupation. The general, now head of the Afghan National Army, gave Gates a large book that he said featured descriptions of battlefield exploits by Ahmed Shah Massoud, who played a leading role in driving the Soviet occupation army out of Afghanistan. Massoud, later an Afghan minister of defense, was assassinated by al-Qaida agents two days before the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

In an interview with reporters traveling with Gates, Khan said he is pushing the U.S. to accelerate the training and equipping of the Afghan National Army to hasten the day when it can fight the Taliban without relying on U.S. air and ground support.

"The problem we have is that we are not able to conduct operations independently," Khan said through an interpreter. He cited specifically a lack of Afghan air support and the kind of "direct fire" support provided by tanks. "We are looking forward to the day when we can fight the enemy independently."

The general was asked how soon he thought his forces could function without U.S. military support.

"We ask for it to be as soon as possible," he replied. "I will ask the secretary of defense to expedite the (training and equipping) process so we can do this. The only way to defeat the enemy is to become independent."

The U.S. is committed to training and equipping an Afghan army of 70,000 soldiers, hoping to reach that figure by December 2008.

"It's not going to be enough," Khan said. "We will ask for more."

Modest in dress, rich Iranians pay for nice noses

By Fredrik Dahl and Caren Firouz Fri Jun 1, 11:34 AM ET

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranians flouting Islamic street dress codes may risk being hauled in by police for questioning by "psychologists," but the frequent sight of bandaged faces from cosmetic surgery raises not so much as an official eyebrow.

For a visitor to Tehran, the number of young women -- as well as some men -- sporting post-surgery gauze on their faces is striking. It prompted one U.S. newspaper last year to label Iran a "nose-job nation."

"Nose surgery is very popular," said Iranian plastic surgeon Nabiollah Shariati, as veiled women filled his waiting room eager to go under the knife. "It makes people feel good about life and themselves."

Business is brisk for hundreds of doctors specializing in this highly visible trend in the conservative Islamic state, as nose and other facial surgery enhances the only features an Iranian woman is not obliged to conceal.

More commonly associated with the rich and famous in Hollywood, surgery is in demand among trendy and well-off Iranians keen to correct perceived flaws in their looks.

Speaking in the green marble-floored office of his private clinic in an affluent part of Tehran, Shariati said he carried out two or three nose operations a day, or 3,000 during 16 years in the profession.

"Every year the figures go up," he said. "Compared with the United States and European countries they are much higher in Iran."

This may seem a contradiction in a country where since the 1979 Islamic revolution sharia law has discouraged women from seeking to attract the attention of the opposite sex.

Besides covering their hair and bodies with the Muslim headscarf and loose clothing, such as the head-to-toe black chador, women who use heavy make-up are frowned on and those who transgress modesty rules can be fined, lashed or jailed.

But a senior Iranian cleric, Ayatollah Mahdi Hadavi, said Islam allowed facial surgery as long as it did not harm the person: "It is permitted based on Islamic rules," he said. "Being beautiful is not something prohibited in Islam."

NOSE REDUCTION

Shariati said the authorities had not raised any objections to his line of work, and he believes the Islamic dress code actually helps explain why nose surgery has become so popular in the Middle Eastern country.

"Because of the hijab women have to wear the face becomes the most prominent part of the body," he said.

Reducing the size of the nose was the most common request: "Iranian noses are on average a little bit larger than European and Asian noses."

One of his patients, Arezoo Abbasi, complained of her big nose as she prepared for the hour-long procedure dressed in a blue hospital-style gown.

"The beauty of Iranian women can only be seen in their faces," she said shortly before anesthetics put her to sleep.

Iranian-American journalist Azadeh Moaveni describes in her 2005 book "Lipstick Jihad" how demand for cosmetic facial surgery surged after the revolution, when women were banned from revealing the shape of their bodies.

"It was an investment in feeling modern, in the midst of the seventh-century atmosphere the mullahs (Iran's ruling clerics) were trying to create," she wrote.

"It assuaged so many urges at once -- to look better, to self-express, to show off that you could afford it, to appear Westernized," Moaveni added.

Shariati said he charges between 15 million and 20 million rials ($1,600-$2,200) a time -- cheap by Western standards but a considerable amount in a country where many earn the equivalent of a few hundred dollars a month.

I WANT A BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER

Haniyeh Asli, a 20-year-old waiting for a check-up a few days after surgery, said her mother had encouraged her to go ahead with it and both were very happy with the result.

"I want my daughter to be beautiful," said her mother, Manijeh E'tesami. "Her nose had a little bit of a high ridge and she also had some breathing difficulties."

She would have surgery herself if she were younger, she said, adding Iranians tend to have large noses: "It seems to be something genetic."

Shariati said most of his patients were women between 20 and 30 but more men were also coming to see him, even though they do not face the same dress restrictions.

Mohammad Nasiri, a 20-year-old with long black hair, said he opted for surgery because his nose was slightly crooked.

"Reaching a certain age you become more conscious about how you look," he said. "I have quite a fine face and the nose sort of stuck out. Now it is more balanced."

But not everybody is satisfied: "It was much better before," said 28-year old Roya Soltanian of her long, thin nose.

Others disapprove of the trend altogether.

"I think I'm the only one who is not here for nose surgery," said Hadi Salimi, 27, whose baby son was suffering ear problems. "I feel sorry for some of these women," he said. "What matters is inner beauty."

کمک یک میلیون پوندی یک ایرانی به حزب کارگر

محمود خیامی
محمود خیامی یک میلیون پوند به حزب کارگر در انگلستان کمک مالی کرده است. (عکس آرشیوی)
محمود خیامی بنیانگذار و مالک سابق شرکت ايران ناسيونال (ايران خودرو فعلی)، مبلغ یک میلیون پوند به حزب کارگر در انگلستان کمک مالی کرده است.

بر اساس بیانه خبری حزب کارگر، این حزب مبلغ 540 هزار پوند را دریافت کرده و آقای خیامی متعهد شده که مابقی آن را در آینده نزدیک در اختیار این حزب قرار دهد.

کمک مالی افراد به احزاب در بریتانیا امری پذیرفته شده است و احزاب اطلاعات مربوط به آن را در اختیار عموم قرار می دهند. از لحاظ ارزش کمکهای مالی اعلام شده به حزب کارگر، کمک آقای خیامی در جایگاه دوم پس از کمک مالی دو میلیون پوندی "لرد سینزبری"، سرمایه دار بریتانیایی، قرار می گیرد.

آقای خیامی دلیل این کمک مالی خود را موفقیت حزب کارگر به رهبری تونی بلر، نخست وزیر بریتانیا، در زمینه های پیشرفت اقتصادی، بالاتر بردن سطح زندگی مردم و گسترش عدالت اجتماعی در بریتانیا اعلام کرده است.

وی گفته است که به برنامه ها و ایده های حزب کارگر پایبند است و از این حزب حمایت می کند.

تونی بلر در واکنش به کمک مالی آقای خیامی ضمن تشکر کردن از وی، از دیگر فعالیتهای او در زمینه گسترش گفتگوی بین ادیان نیز قدرانی کرده است.

بنیاد خیامی که در سال 2000 تاسیس شده است در کنار فعالیتهای خیریه ای در زمینه های بهداشت، کودکان و پناهندگان ، فعالیتهایی را در زمینه گفتگوی بین ادیان را نیز در برنامه خود قرار داده است.این بنیاد در سال 2005 کنفرانس دو روزه ای تحت عنوان ""آیا اسلام خطری برای غرب محسوب می شود؟" به منظورایجاد تفاهم بین اسلام و غرب برگزار کرد.

محمود خیامی یکی از معروفترین صاحبان صنایع ایران تا پیش از انقلاب بود. وی شرکتهایی مانند ایران ناسیونال، بانک صنعت و معدن و فروشگاه زنجیره ای کوروش (قدس فعلی) را پیش از انقلاب در ایران تاسیس کرده است.

آقای خیامی با وقوع انقلاب و مصادره شدن اموالش از ایران خارج شد و از آن زمان تا کنون ساکن انگلستان است.

گزارش تصویری /مراسم هجدهمین سالگرد ارتحال جانسوز بنیانگذار جمهوری اسلامی ایران

گزارش تصویری /مراسم هجدهمین سالگرد ارتحال جانسوز بنیانگذار جمهوری اسلامی ایران
مراسم هجدهمین سالگرد ارتحال بنیانگذاری جمهوری اسلامی پیش از ظهر امروز با حضور میلیونی شیفتگان و عزاداران سوگوار و اعضای بیت امام و مسئولین عالیرتبه نظام و شخصیت های کشوری و لشگری و میهمانان خارجی در محل مرقد مطهر امام خمینی (ره) برگزار شد.