Ahmadinejad

[DavidGig]

Yea, his sense of humour is somewhat strange, isn't it? Remember when he announced he was going to tell a joke, and then said "People who want nuclear weapons are retarded".

There are serious translation difficulties in moving between English and Farsi, particularly in real time. That's what organizations like MEMRI count on. (Think of the whole "wiped off the map" ruckus.)

I kind of liked this part of his speech (translated in Iran):

"The era of darkness will end. Prisoners will return home, the occupied lands will be freed, Palestine and Iraq will be liberated from the dominion of the occupiers and the people of America and Europe will be free of the pressures exerted by the Zionists." (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Speech to the United Nations, 2007)

[t.]

hello everyone, new here

but firstly,
i should get it out of the way that i'm a muslim arab/scandinavian, and have lived in a couple countries in the middle east as well as scandinavia, and have many iranian friends, some of whom were involved in the government before the taking over by the shah and were forced to flee

i say that because i think it lends me a bit of credibility when i say that generally people in the west don't know what the hell they talk about when it comes to middle east politics and especially culture.

i'm sorry, but it's just true, you really don't.

as far as women's rights go, please, i'm so sick of hearing about it...

sure, there are people who take their religion too seriously in the middle east and thus some men treat their wives with less respect than they should, and yes, female circumcision appears every now and then in southern egypt....
but when you people talk about women's rights you really don't know how much you generalize...

the best example i can give you is that it's like opening up a discussion about how american women are so mistreated and lack basic human rights based on the fact that there are men in utah who marry 50 wives and mormons in the midwest who treat their wives as less important than men...

these things you hear occur more on cnn and bbc than they do in the real day to day life in the middle east, and western women REALLY don't understand the hijab issue.


Now, as far as ahmadinejad goes, he's neither a saint nor a devil, so i won't take any specific stance on that.
but what i can tell you, is that the real news is one badass organization, and you should all watch these interviews:

https://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisepisode=56

-- this is with aijaz ahmad and he sums up my thoughts perfectly

https://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisepisode=55

-- this is with pepe escobar


i can't tell you how highly i regard this news organization
it's the only solution for the future of news media

[luke]

alright t, welcome to forum

looking forward to hearing more from you on the reality of the middle east

they got some good interviews on that realnews site. nice one

[Mandy]

i can't tell you how highly i regard this news organization
it's the only solution for the future of news media

I do respect what "The Real News" are doing, and their trailer is on https://www.spiderednews.com/MediaBias.htm?vid=167928

The issues they will need to overcome is mainly funding for their staff and to fund an infrastructure which will support huge traffic. This is one reason why https://www.spiderednews.com use TVU's P2P network.

The internet is the best chance for unbiased media sources due to the low cost of operations. The governments know this, and that is why they plan to scupper it by way of "Internet 2" which has traffic prioritization/2 speed traffic, which will mean that alternate media (of which I also include Couchtripper forum, What Really Happened) will be stuck on the slow lane.

One thing is strange :
The "share" embed code for the 2 reports mentioned above :
https://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisepisode=56
and
https://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisepisode=55

appear to be the same.

CORRECTION : Might have been a bug in the web site if you have both pages open at same time. Seems OK now when you only have one open :

<embed src="https://therealnews.com/permalinkedembed/mediaplayer.swf" width="450" height="320" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="&file=https://www.therealnews.com/media/trn_20 ... splay=true">

<embed src="https://therealnews.com/permalinkedembed/mediaplayer.swf" width="450" height="320" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="&file=https://www.therealnews.com/media/trn_20 ... splay=true">

[luke]

Iran Clarifies Leader’s Remark on Gays

TEHRAN, Oct. 10 (Reuters) — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran was misrepresented by Western news media when he was quoted saying there were no homosexuals in Iran, and actually meant there were not as many as in the United States, an aide to Mr. Ahmadinejad said Wednesday.

Addressing Columbia University last month, Mr. Ahmadinejad replied to a question about homosexuals in the Islamic Republic, saying, “In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country.” Speaking through a translator, he also said, “In Iran we don’t have this phenomenon.”

The remarks drew widespread criticism in the West.

“What Ahmadinejad said was not a political answer,” said Mohammad Kalhor, the media adviser to Mr. Ahmadinejad. “He said that, compared to American society, we don’t have many homosexuals.”

from here

[harry perkins]

That 60 minutes interviewer from the link in the first post reminds me of the wooden interviewer in Natalie Portman's SNL rap.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsKblciD7U0
I particularly liked his "what do you like about President Bush?" line of questioning.

[Mandy]

A caller just called into the TalkSport show to say

“In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country.” was a mis-translation, when what was said was Iran doesn't have the same issues.

That makes more sense, since it means Iran doesn't have the frictions seen in the West

[luke]

looks a few posts above yours mandy ...

i emailed him that last night!

[nekokate]

A caller just called into the TalkSport show to say

“In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country.” was a mis-translation, when what was said was Iran doesn't have the same issues.

That makes more sense, since it means Iran doesn't have the frictions seen in the West

And you are prepared to just believe that? Is this now a fact to you, just because "a caller" said so, and it suits you?

I'd like to believe it was a mis-translation, but for fuck's sake, let's let the professors of Farsi speak, and not "a caller".

[Mandy]

No Kate .. I don't just believe it.

This is a post to say people who do propagate that "original" statement as a fact should recheck & quote their sources.

[luke]

you don't have to believe the caller, mohammad kalhor, the media adviser to ahmadinejad has also explained what he meant

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/world ... ref=slogin

now, that could be damage limitation after the event, not speaking farsi we can't check the original footage, someone must have done though

[Mandy]

you don't have to believe the caller, mohammad kalhor, the media adviser to ahmadinejad has also explained what he meant

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/world ... ref=slogin

now, that could be damage limitation after the event, not speaking farsi we can't check the original footage, someone must have done though

I agree, which is why I am liable to believe the media adviser. They know that if they lied, then THEY will be smeared on every paper / web site.

The caller now mentioned he read the transaltion on https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/

[nekokate]

The reason I find it so hard to believe is this: How fucking incompetent is Ahmadinejad? Can he forever claim that his interpreters are useless and said things that he never said? Why doesn't he hire interpreters who ACTUALLY KNOW FARSI?

I am on the side of Iran, but this Walter Mitty character, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, does nothing but help anti-Iranians!

Either he had a translator who was useless, in which case he is an idiot for hiring her, or he had an accurate translator, in which case he is a fucking loon.

[Mandy]

The reason I find it so hard to believe is this: How fucking incompetent is Ahmadinejad? Can he forever claim that his interpreters are useless and said things that he never said? Why doesn't he hire interpreters who ACTUALLY KNOW FARSI?

Kate, do you really think the "interpreters" who translated his speeches are "HIS" ??????????????

Come on ...

His original speech about (not) wiping Israel off the map was translated by the West.

This latest speech (about homosexuality) was in a US university. I am unsure if he chose the translator, but even if he did, then "live" translations are liable to have errors.

[luke]

i must admit, sometimes its like he's working for bush! theres quite a few things when asked he could clear up, but he never quite manages it - like you say, it doesn't do anything to help irans case