Warsaw and Geneva ,two Venues for Global Peace

I attended the COP19 conference on climate change in Warsaw last week. The global community has sensed an urgency in the matter, but little action has been taken to reverse the devastating trend of the warming of the earth's atmosphere and the ensuing extreme weather events , drought, rising sea levels and immense social and economic losses incurred upon societies. In Warsaw, global powers that are responsible for the major part of the green house gases produced during the industrial era were not ready to accept their historical responsibilities and developing countries, many who are still grappling with abject poverty in their societies, were not ready to undergo quotas to reduce their GGHs drastically, when the major part of the industrialized world including the US never acceeded to the Kyoto protocol. The EU initially pushed to impose their version on the rest of the world but they faced a strong group of like minded developing countries who threatened to leave the conference if consensus was not achieved based on common understanding. In the end, a neogiated text was agreed upon in the final moments, to save the negotiation process. During my stay in Warsaw, I was invited to speak about the role of women in promoting global peace at the European Academy of Diplomacy, I also delivered my country speech at the opening of the high level session on the first day. A press conference with Polish journalists, a speech at PISM a Polish peace research institute on the Internal and External Evolution of https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/s/?view=att&th=1429fa1502b42547&attid=0.1&disp=attd&safe=1&zw and a long working dinner with the Polish foreign minister were also on my agenda. Since the sensitive 5+1 negotiations with Iran were underway then in Geneva, they overshadowed our talks in Warsaw. I had the chnace to speak with the President of Poland at his reception and along with the Iranian delegation we had a lengthly meeting Mr.Ban Ki Moon, the UNSG. In that meeting, I told him I tweeted last night : Planet earth pleads us tonight: Give the world a chance for peace in Geneva , give the global environment a chance in Warsaw. He liked the tweet but sarcastically also noted that it was similar to what he had said a few weeks ago : Give diplomacy a chance in Syria! The success of the 5+1 and Iran negotiations in Geneva was a great achievement for peace and multilateralism, as opposed to the violence and conflict prone policies in today's world. This success proves that even the most difficult and apparently insurmountable obstacles can be overcome with patience and dialogue.https://mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment/u/0/s/?view=att&th=1429fa1502b42547&attid=0.1&disp=attd&safe=1&zw&saduie=AG9B_P-en6RqDALqBdRUe3mK1csg&sadet=1385872288279&sads=TvPHgoxBnrX1FI_wImmXINOyNOQ

Virtual Migration

 Although we are witnessing the globalization trend worldwide, but this has not resulted in a denial of national identity and nationalist sentiments. In fact globalization has enabled nations to appreciate their culture and national heritage . It has also created concerns for those who fear that this trend will result in the monopoly of a certain culture at the expense of marginalizing other indigenous cultures. However, inspite of their roots and attachments many have decided to migrate, either in pursuit of better circumstances of life and work or due to the pressures and limitations on basic freedoms. Many developing countries have experienced the "Brain Drain" during the recent decades. Unfortunately Iran has topped global statistics in some years. The exodus of well educated and in many cases wealthy Iranians has been more significant during the recent years. Many feel reluctant but have no other choice other than to move ahead.

In a similar context in the web, virtual hosts and service providers have created cities  for bloggers .These hosts may have a national or international identity. For the past years I was a member of Persianblog. I had a  Persian weblog Greenebtekar on which I wrote 431 posts and received thousands of comments. A few months ago I was filtered by the Government and ultimately my Farsi blog was shut down. I presented my defense to authorities indicating that I had not broken any laws or crossed any lines. As a child of the Islamic Revolution, I sincerely believed in freedom of speech  and believe that Islam is a religion of tolerance and dignity.

I had no choice but  to migrate from an Iranian host Persianblog to an international host and new address on blogspot: www.greenebtekar2.blogspot.com    .

I hope I can continue to write for my Iranian fellow country men and women, and for my own heart.                                                                               

Freedom of Expression ?

For several hours ,I was under peaceful siege and questioning of dozens of journalists who sought to find replies for their political , social, urban and international queries. I took some time yesterday (Thursday) afternoon to visit the National Press Fair held in Tehran. The Press Fair is now an annual event and many newspapers and news agencies take part to introduce their work and activities in the field of journalism. The free press has faced many challenges in the past in Iran and some members of the press were absent due to the ban that the judiciary has set on their publication, nevertheless many independent newspapers and reformist press were present. It was a very demanding function, since I was constantly ushered into different booths and expected to visit and of course, provide an interview for each. Some of these newspapers now have a considerable readership, although many argue that the numbers are still much lower than what should be expected considering high literacy and education rates in Iran.

A popular Tehran daily, Hamshahri, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Tehran Municipality, now has a group of affiliated journals as well. I spent more time with them, since as a Tehran City Councilor ;I felt we needed to take more stock of the assets of the newspaper group for better urban management. In meeting with some of the more conservative media I could not refrain from stressing upon the importance of observing freedom for the press and allowing a wider spectrum of views and criticism to be voiced. I criticised some of the current policies in curbing freedom of expression and troubles created for independent press. There were many people around us asking for autographs, contact numbers, proposals and ideas for urban management and environmental protection. I guess I missed some of them in the crowd and the hassle created.
The interviews were mostly political , the news agencies were asking about the alignment of political parties and their coalitions. They were also inquisitive about Mr. Khatami, of every 10 people I met 9 were asking whether Khatami would accept to stand as a candidate in the upcoming Presidential elections. "The answer is not clear yet, otherwise you wouldn't all be asking the question. Mr. Khatami has not made the decision. There is alot of pressure on him to stand, but he has his reservations and that makes it difficult to decide." I told them.
After 3/5 hours , there were still many media asking for interviews , the closing of the exhibition at 8 pm was a relief for me. My vocal chords were just not holding up. I left the fair pondering on the reasons why as an Islamic Democracy we have not fared well in tolerating criticism and allowing more freedom of expression as stipulated in our Constitution.
The Reform movement has endeavored to create an opportunity to accommodate the principle of freedom of expression and the right to criticise power, but that has proved to be a difficult ordeal in the past.We have to hope for the future.