Egypt

These days all eyes are on dear Egypt! I have a classmate from Egypt and he shares most of the news on Facebook. Just like me, two years ago.. And I'm probably the only one in our department who really understands the anxiety/hope/fear/uncertainty that he feels right now. It's a weird feeling, and you will only understand it when you experience it yourself. All these news that you used to watch passively on TV, happening in other countries, on streets that you didn't know, suddenly happen in your own neighborhood, and people shown are your own neighbors and classmates and students.. it's just not describable!

There's two major differences though, between what happened in Iran and what's going on in Egypt now, and I'm not sure how it will play out but the chances of people succeeding will be higher in Egypt compared to Iran. (And needless to say, Egyptians' success will definitely inspire Iranians more too)

So here's what I see as the major differences. (One) Egyptians have one particular focused goal. They want Mubarak and his team out of the next election, by protesting and forcing him to resign. In Iran, we wanted a fair election, and once the election time passed people started getting branched, some wanted a regime change, some wanted the election to still be revised, some wanted the killers of people to be tried. And people only wanted to go through non-violent methods, through diplomacy, because we thought we already overthrew Shaah through chaos and violence and the revolution was stolen, so we didn't want to go through that again in a couple of decades. The movement wasn't as focused as this one, because each group had one solution in mind, and there wasn't a single person to chose one of the solutions.

(Two, and I think this is super important): Egyptian government is not as isolated as the Iranian government. It's backed by USA, possibly Israel likes them(?), and many countries around the world. This support is a double edge sword. On one hand, Mubarak can be assured that whatever he does to protesters (killing, etc.) is not frowned upon, and that he will get military aid for the army and police for many coming weeks/months to suppress the protesters. On the other hand, as soon as this foreign support is stopped, which could easily happen depending on whether USA or other countries suddenly see their interest in having Arab nations' larger support, THEN, without this protection, the courage will leave them and the government will give up and bend to people's demands.. Iranian government, because of its long isolation didn't have this support and had learned to go on without it. Shaah had it, and one of the reasons for the revolution back then to succeed was the withdrawal of this support.. Now Egypt's situation could also change a lot by the foreign governments' actions within the next few days/weeks.

I don't know much more, so I'll just conclude with mentioning that it's so unbelievably inspiring to see a nation getting closer to freedom. I recently watched a video clip by a young Tunisian singer (Amel Mathlouthi) about freedom and it brought tears to my eyes. May all people on earth get to live in fair, free countries soon, and may them all sing the freedom song in their own language.

Entrepreneurship

These days I've been watching and listening to many talks I found on Stanford Entrepreneurship Seminars website: http://ecorner.stanford.edu. If you haven't checked it out yet, my gosh don't waste a minute! Each and every talk makes me so exCITED!! All these great success stories, how the students, our own age (and younger) got to work and made something that changed the world....

There's a lot to do, that's for sure!!! These days Information Technology and Software engineering is like the old Civil Engineering and Architectural...  Before internet, people used to build shops on this or that street, they got famous because of the good quality of their offering, built more branches and eventually (as I like to look at it) make something that created so many jobs and added value to the world, and made the world a better place..

Now, Internet is like a new district that a number of people (varying by each country) pass through everyday. Before, civil eng. people built "physical" houses and cafes and shops..,  and now on this district, IT people are the builders. very neat world, isn't it?(Specially when you know a little bit of IT yourself! :D) Of course just like before, a shop that created something of good quality that people needed would be successful and valuable. So is true about online business.

Something valuable...Connecting people who otherwise wouldn't have found each other (for example, connecting a person who wants to do something good for the world, and a school that needs a couple of old but working Computers); Collecting local information and providing a useful service (like, online traffic maps,.. ); This list just never ends!! And guess what, it's all about thinking what you want to add to the world, putting down the first block right, and you've got it!

That's definitely part of the plan for me these days.. Creating values, hopefully leading to more jobs and better life-styles, more education, and more responsible citizens, and ultimately, better world! I did some research about this general path... Unfortunately, because of the sanctions against Iran it's a little hard (next to impossible actually) to hire from Iran while I'm studying here. (Not that the company is all up and ready you know, but still...) Very counter intuitive, if you ask me, to stop a family from having a stable income, rather than having them constantly worry about the next day's food, and house rent, and their health, and yet expect them to have enough peace of mind to care about their kids' school performance or attendance, to read news papers, or be aware of their civil responsibilities, etc.

I think all good things begin only when people don't have to fight for their survival..

Anyway, I'm back to more listening and learning and thinking (and of course as a PhD student, doing my research as well!) :P

Talking to an old Indian guy on the plane.

 About two weeks ago, I was flying back to Pittsburgh from NYC, and I had just said goodbye to my little brother (who's now studying in UWaterloo! Time flies...!!), and I was pretty sad, and somehow my seat was next to an Indian old guy...

 He loved to talk, and I love to listen, specially to older people, who have so much experience!! So, we ended up chatting about a loooooot of stuff. Actually from the moment I sat till the moment we stepped out of the plane, on that cold dark gloomy evening, in that tiny scary plane.. we talked non-stop and I didn't realize how time went! (I recommend talking on the planes!)

 We talked about how having a Master is really better than having a PhD when you only want to go have a non-research job in industry, and then about his trips to India, and about Indian independence (somehow he didn't expect someone of my age to know Gandhi, which is so odd  because Gandhi's one of my heroes!!) and then about Pakistan's separation of India, and how the two countries killed each other's citizens for several years, and how different the two countries have become (India, democratic, Pakistan always under military dictatorship, etc.) and I asked him if he thinks the two countries will ever be friendly, and what would be the right thing to do to make things better.. would it be education? money? what? 

 He told me he travels a lot to many countries and in his opinion, in third world countries (India, Pakistan, and of as he thought, probably Iran too...) there's usually no one who can *not* afford sending their kids to school because of the school costs... He said education is free mostly in Pakistan and India. And I know in Iran it's free too.. He said the problem is, when a house has many kids and low income and unemployment problems among other things, the parents *need* their kids to go get some money from somewhere.. They prefer to send them over to get a job on streets, in a shop, somewhere, soon, to support the family. 

For a long while, I had thought that education improves the culture and ultimately makes many positive changes in the society, and I wanted to go to Iran and while being a university professor there, start/join a non profit teaching network or something like that, and just teach underprivileged kids all around the country.. Now, I think... maybe a much better goal would be to instead **create jobs** so that the kid's mom and dad can get some constant salary, and then maybe the kids can be sent to school after all.. 

I know it's such a tricky complex issue.. but ultimately, it seems that just increasing the life quality of the underprivileged families might result in themselves taking care of the rest. 

Sooooo, what do you guys think about this all? Anyone ever had a experience, or talked to an experienced wise person who knew about these issues? I'm inclined now to focus more on creating jobs to help the country rather than building schools and teacher networks etc. that's of course important too, you know, but I'm thinking that without taking care of the first the second would not be as effective... Any thoughts?! 

P.S. Thanks for the comments guys! Artashes jan, haha answering those questions will have to wait a few years/decades! :D 

P.P.S. Gosh I've missed your all!!! 

Back to writing! Hello world!

Well, to those of you who had seen some of my writings before, hi again!! :D

As it turns out, I just can NOT go on without writing. I'm too used to that now, and my thought will not be organized without putting them into words, it seems. I need to vent, rant, daydream, report, and somehow look back and see all the childishness and naivety, and the enthusiasm and the dreams that make me who I am, and if these are only in my head and I talk about it, it comes and goes. But if I write it down, it kind of sticks to the reality and I'm pretty sure someday it will become the reality. Also, I'm finding that this way I can find more friends who share some of these passions with me!

To those who are reading my words for the first time: hi! My name is Narges, and I've had quite an adventure so far in the world of blogging, and in the real world, too, in fact! I used to write in this old journal from when I was about 20 for about 5-6 years.

I had set a goal for my old blog: To talk about Iran and Islam from the point of view of a young Iranian Muslim girl, and somehow, after 5 years I felt like the message was conveyed, and the journal had served what it was made for. That's why I stopped writing in there.

However, these five years of writing about my thoughts and dreams and interacting with different people had transformed me beyond my expectations! I had started the blog to transform other people's views. What ended up happening was my own views getting broader and opener and I just can not describe how much I got from the experience. I don't know if I ever changed anyone else's views, if I ever made another person more open minded, but at least ONE person in this world (myself) learned a lot from this experience.

That journal served its purpose: Created a better understanding of Iran and Islam. Maybe for the readers, but definitely for myself. But my purpose, and as I'm sure, many of you guys', always have been to make our world a better place. Well, that's the plan for this blog!

I am now a 27 year old young woman, soon with a doctorate degree from a great school in the USA, and somehow, the real world is just within my grasp! (How exciting is that?!!!) I have some level of independence now, many skills, lots of connections, and hundreds of dreams, for making this world a better place: Improving life condition for people, creating jobs, increasing education, and encouraging people take responsibility of their own life... These are my dreams. The second chapter of my life is to give them a try!

At some point during these years, I finally realized that no one is going to make your dreams come true for you. You need to be the change you have wished for, in this world! And it's quite achievable, and very satisfying and fulfilling, and gives more meaning to our daily lives!

So, let's begin!!!!!