Amir Shahi

Hundreds of newspapers have been shut down in Iran; international reporters have been banned; hundreds of Iranian journalists are in prison; internet has almost been shut down; the sophisticated filtering system has blocked the contact of the Iranian people with the world; the police is massacring people in the streets in broad daylight and then blames the violence on the people themselves; the government is giving out lies after lies; all the minority ethnic and religious groups are suffering from the official oppression; prisoners have been tortured, raped, murdered; the Basij militia shoots unarmed civilians in the streets; students have been expelled from the universities because of protesting against tyranny…

While you, people of the world, are celebrating the New Year by embracing your loved ones with joy, while you dance to the Christmas tunes, the young people in Iran are dancing to the macabre music of the bullets and embrace batons and teargas. While you are hugging each other and wishing a happy new year, mothers in Iran are forbidden to shed tears for their children who were brutally murdered by the police trucks running them over. The people of Iran are alone, they are broken, they are tired, but determined to go on.

Do you think this has nothing to do with you? Do you think that you only need to worry about your domestic affairs? Do you think that saying a few words of condemnation will redeem you from your global responsibility towards human rights? Is this the global citizenship you preach?

This is the most dangerous State in the world. Hesitate in acting and you will see how this government, rooted in lies, will destroy your own children. What do you expect? Do you think that a totalitarian regime that does not show mercy to its own children will have pity on your people? Do you think that this beast will stay calm and watch you? Wrong! Hesitate and see.

The people of Iran have spoken with their torn throat and through the last sparkle of life in Neda’s eyes; they have written their vows with their own blood on the pavements in the streets: They want to be global citizens, they resent terrorism, tyranny, lies, wars, nuclear weapons… and they have died the most brutal deaths for speaking out. Why are you watching silently? Do you think you are safe? Do you think that this cancer will be contained inside the borders or Iran? Do you think that the rotten claw of this grim reaper will not reach you? Wrong. Hesitate and see.

It is time to act. There are people drowning in Iran. Do not believe the lies of the Iranian government. This government that denies all these brutalities is the same that denies the Holocaust, that claims that there are no homosexuals in Iran, that Neda Agha Soltan was killed by CIA, MI6 and BBC, and there is freedom of press in Iran.

How to act? We do not want any violence. This government is falling. Just do not support the government. Do not recognise the current government of Iran. Do not negotiate with them – How can any negotiation with someone who tells nothing but lies and is willing to break any promise, be fruitful? Do not be deceived by their lies. Expel the Iranian ambassadors and diplomats. You will lose nothing and will gain everything by supporting the future of Iran. Hesitate, and you will be run over by the evil machines of this rotten government. Hesitate, and you will be weeping over the graves of your own children.

It is time to act. Hesitate, and when you regret your hesitation, it will be too late.

Arash Hejazi, 30 December 2009

PS: Farsi and French translations are available at Dr. Hejazi’s website at http://arshhejazi.com

Geography is a hobby of mine, so I tried to find out the meanings the the names of different countries and regions, enjoy

Africa: Land of no cold (Greek)

Albania: Cragsmen

Germany: Land of Germans

Angola: From Negola, title given to local commanders

Austria: Eastern [Kingdom] (Dutch)

Ethiopia: Land of sun burnt (Greek)

Uzbekistan: Land of independent chiefs (Persian, Turkish)

Spain: Rabbit (Phoenician)

Australia: Southern Territory (Latin)

Estonia: The eastern road (Dutch)

Scotland: Land of Scots

Afghanistan: Land of Afghans (Persian)

Ecuador: Equator (Spanish)

Algeria: Islands (Arabic)

El-Salvador: Saint Savior (Spanish)

Indonesia: Indian Islands (French)

Uruguay: River where the painted birds live (Guarani)

Ukraine: Border zone (Slavic)

America: Name of the Italian explorer (Amerigo Vespucci)

Italy: Goddess (Greek)

Iran: Land of Aryans (Persian)

Iceland: Land of ice

Bahamas: shallow Sea (Spanish)

Bahrain: Two seas (Arabic)

Brazil: Red wood (Portuguese)

Britain: Land of painters (Greek)

Bangladesh: Bengali Nation (Bengali)

Bhutan: Tribe (Tibetan)

Bolivia: Name of the South American politician (Simon Bolivar)

Paraguay: This side of river (Guarani)

Pakistan: Land of cleanness (Persian, Urdu)

Panama: Full of fish

Portugal: Land of Gal tribe (Latin)

Tajikistan: Land of Tajik (Persian)

Tanzania: From Tanga lake

Turkmenistan: Turk + Iman (Believe) + Istan (Land of): Land of Muslim Turks

Turkey: Land of strong people (Turkish)

Jamaica: Land of Springs

Chad: Lake

China: The central land (Chinese)

Denmark: Land of Dan tribe

Russian: White territory (Russian)

Romania: Land of Romans

New Zealand: Zealand is the name of one of the Netherland’s states; Means Sea

Japan: Land of shining sun (Japanese)

Sri Lanka: Magnificent Island (Sanskrit)

Switzerland: Land of Lagoons

Sudan: Blacks (Arabic)

Syria: Land of Assyria (Semitic)

Sierra Leon: Lions Mountain

Chile: Snow

Iraq: Low and flat land (Persian)

Philippines: Name of a Spanish king (Philip)

Qatar: Rain (Arabic)

Costa Rica: Rich Coast (Spanish)

Canada: Village

Columbia: From the name of Christopher Colum

Kenya: The White Mountain (Kikuyu)

Kuwait: Indian Citadel (Arabic)

Georgia: Land of farmers (Greek)

Lebanon: White (Hebrew)

Morocco: West (Arabic)

Egypt: City

Mexico: New Spain (Spanish)

Norway: North Way

Nigeria: Land of Blacks

Venezuela: Smaller Venice

Wales: Strangers (Dutch)

India: From Hind: wet (Persian)

Yemen: Blest (Arabic)

Few days ago, I bought this wonderful text to speech software called “Natural Reader” from Natural Soft. It greatly helps me by reading out almost any sort of document I have and I just enjoy sitting in front of my display and looking at the highlighted paragraphs being read 100% naturally!

You wont believe it, but it reads them for me just like a human and I have no idea how the heck they have programmed such masterpiece! I bought the personal version for $50 and it is worth every penny I paid!

The best thing about it is I can convert my ,let’s say PDF, files into MP3 and listen to it using my MP3 player! How lovely it is to listen to your novels, books, notes, etc. before you fall asleep!

After the big disappointment we faced after visiting MAS office, we decided to hunt a bigger fish; Kuching International Airport. Airport management has always been part of my interest and I have always wanted to know airport management coups with all those huge and sophisticated IT infrastructure they have. We decided to study Kuching’s airport as it’s the third busiest airport in Malaysia (after KLIA and KKIA). On 25rd we went to the airport management office located on the ground floor (Arrival Hall) and were warmly welcomed by the staffs specially after we mentioned that we are university students who want to do research. After around 10 minutes time, we were guided to  Airport Engineers Manager’s office. We managed to talk to one of the highest officials and had a rather short interview with him. He told us that  the management of IT infrastructure is performed remotely from their HQ at KLIA and they have only few technicians to deal with first-level helpdesk needs. Sounds pretty same as MAS case! Yeas, he told us that as far as he knows, all of the big organizations in Kuching, specially the government ones, have outsourced their IT duties to companies physically located in KL and we will have a very little chance to find a big IT department in any of those organizations.

Well, this is how it is and now we have to try TM as our next destination company. We left the airport and headed towards TM located at Jalan Simpang Tiga

on 23rd I went to Malaysia Airlines main building with Shakeer to find out if they are willing to be our research case. We chose MAS as it’s the biggest airline in Malaysia and also operates internationally, so that’d be an excellent choice.

We dropped by and were told that we should have written in before they can help, but the HR officer was a kind and friendly lady who let us in and called the head of IT to come and attend to us. After we asked him about their IT department, he made us surprised by saying that there is basically no IT department in Kuching HQ and all of their IT related duties are outsourced to IBM in Kuala Lumpur. They are only in charge of doing the first level helpdesk support and the rest of the tasks and administration are done through remote connections from KL.
We asked them how about a in case of a critical failure and they said in that case they will write a report containing the details of the failure and they would send the technical experts from KL, which, I think, would increased their service delay drastically.

I had previously heard about outsourcing and how fast the spread of it is, but could never think of this kind of risk transfer in such important business.

I learnt that it is not professionally acceptable to simply drop by a company’s office and making such important enquiry without writing in beforehand. The second thing I learnt is that there is a lot to learn about outsourcing as I still do not understand how MAS tackles the issues of outsourcing as they do not have a backup team for emergency cases.

It’s the name of this interesting subject I am taking this semester. We will form a group, pick an industry, select a company which is working its business in that industry and get into it to find out about the IT related issues they are face and how they manage to tackle them.

I think it will give us a hand-on experience on how different companies are applying information technology in their business and the advantages and disadvantages of doing so. Besides that, we could make a strong network of friendship with those professionals whom we would like to take their places sooner or later, chat with them and learn from their experiences.

Anyways, we held our first in-group meeting on 22nd August in order to talk about the possible industries on which we will conduct our research. Each of us proposed one and talked about it for a few minutes and tried to justify his thought.

What we decided was that we picked a few industries and some companies within them so that we will have some alternatives in case some of them do not meet the requirements of our topic or are not willing to cooperate.

The following industries were found to have active companies and/or organizations in Kuching:

Education:
inti college

ICT:
Phoenix Soft
SAINS

Travel and Tourism:
Hilton Hotel
Four Point Sheraton Hotel
Malaysia Airlines
Kuching International Airport

Telecommunication:
TM
Astro
Celcom
Maxis

I proposed the Travel and Tourism industry as I think that first of all it’s a global kind of business and secondly, the people involved in it are hospitable and friendly.

We will try to establish a communication with them to see what happens. We will meet next week to share the outcomes of our research and will pick the most suitable company then.

What I learnt from our first meeting is how different each of us understands the same problem and tries to solve it. I mean we read through the project outline and at the end, we found that each of us has understood a different aspect of it. I think it’s due to the diverse nature of our group as each of us is from a different country with different problem solving methods. We could easily manage to bring each other to same ground of understanding and proposed a united solution to it, which is the best part of being a part of an understanding and well cooperative group.

This is sensible article I just received from Isabel and did not find it a bad idea to share it with you

“Ever wake up in the morning and wish you could sleep just a bit more? (This girl is kidding me right?)
I hear ya. I’ve been totally sleep deprived, and I know you can relate.
Let me tell you about a friend’s wedding I went to in Wichita Kansas. If you have ever attended an "out of town" wedding you know it’s jam packed with events: lunches, dinners, late night celebrations. Don’t get me wrong, I had a great time but I was SO tired and SO sleep deprived and it actually hurt. It really hurt.
The worst part of all, is after just 1 day of sleep deprivation I started reaching for chocolate and sweets for a quick pick me up. (Oh yeah, now you can relate.)
How does sleep (or sleep deprivation) affect your weight loss efforts? Believe it or not, the impact is huge!
Here are just a few reasons why sleeping may be the missing link to your weight loss efforts:
1. When you’re tired, it is so much harder to make healthy choices. I’m not sure if this is more about psychology or physiology or a combination of both. However, I know I have experienced it firsthand. When I get a good night’s sleep, sticking to my regular exercise and healthy eating routine is a cinch. But when I’m sleep deprived, I somehow think that chocolate and sugar will make me feel better. The truth is, it never does! It actually makes me feel worse. Much worse, because the blood sugar highs and lows makes me more tired and cranky than before I ate the sweets. (Nothing is worse than a cranky Isabel. Well, maybe cranky Amir is worse, but who am I to say?).
2. Now for some science. Researchers from several separate studies have found a link between sleep and the hormones that influence our eating behavior. Two specific hormones are involved. Ghrelin is responsible for feelings of hunger. Leptin tells the brain when it’s time to stop. When you’re sleep deprived, your ghrelin levels increase at the same time that your leptin levels decrease. The result is an increased craving for food and not feeling full (a hormone disaster as far as staying on track with a healthy eating plan). Nothing is worse than craving food and being hungry at the same time.
3. Many people don’t know this, but your body adjusts itself based on your circadian rhythms and the amount of sunlight outside. Without getting too deep into the science, these rhythms and light tell your body to physically recover approximately between the hours of 10pm-2am and to mentally recover approximately between 2am-6am. If you aren’t getting to bed until 12am, you are missing out on 2 crucial hours of physical repair. This can result in all sorts of aches and pains that do not get better, no matter what you try. I have seen clients relieve bad backs and aching joints by just getting to bed by 10pm. I have even seen people get smarter by sleeping til 6am (ok, I made this last statement up, but wouldn’t that be great?). All kidding aside, I have seen people act consistently sharper when they are well rested.
How are you going to get a good night’s sleep to ensure you are not sabotaging your weight loss efforts?
Here are a few tips for getting a good night’s sleep:
1. Don’t watch TV before bed. You may not realize how fired up the news or your favorite TV show gets you before bed time. Instead grab a book or your favorite magazine and read in bed. This works wonders, especially a good fiction book that will help you forget the day’s events.
2. Cut your caffeine intake early in the day. An afternoon coffee or tea can still be racing through your blood stream at 10pm. Cut out your last caffeinated beverage by noon. This includes all coffee and teas (except herbal teas). Once you catch up on your sleep, you won’t be so dependent on your afternoon java kick.
3. Avoid sugar before bed. (You were avoiding sugar anyway right?) Consuming sugar right before bed leads to a blood sugar roller coaster ride, potentially waking you up in the middle of the night due to a blood sugar low.
4. Put your work away before bed. There is nothing worse than a racing mind before bed. Crunching numbers and reading work documents right before bed may lead to dreams about work (or nightmares). End all work at least 2 hours before bed. If this is not possible for you, you may need to reassess your work schedule a bit.
Whatever the adjustments are for you, remember, sleep may just be the missing link in your nutrition, exercise and health regimen. Stick to your Diet Solution Meal Plans and tuck yourself in at 10pm each night.
Night, night!
In health and happiness,

Isabel De Los Rios”

It’s been a while since the last time I posted here. Well, like any other final year student, I was, and still am, busy doing my final year project and at the same time sharing a lot of time with my family. It was a fast, but at the same time enjoyable holiday for me. During the time, I managed to make a good progress in the project and take some short trips here and there to show my family around.

Anyways, one of the lovely places we travelled to was Bako National Park. During this almost two and half years that I’ve been living here, I had heard a lot about it, but never had a chance to pay a visit, so this time once the family said that they wanna have a nice adventure, it came the blink . You would not believe it, but till the very last moment (I mean leaving the house) I had not decided on where to go! It suddenly turned into my mind and I told my friends (yup, this time we had company) that destination is Bako and as I was the leader, they accepted and the journey started.

Bako National Park is actually very close to Kuching and you can reach there using a very scenic road in less than half an hour drive. You don’t actually arrive at the national park. Instead, you have to take a 20 minute boat trip from the HQ (where you park your car). One way ticket is RM 9 per person and you will see a lot of natural beauties.

They told us at the HQ that all of the rooms were occupied and we had to head back before 5 PM, when the last boat dispatches! We should have booked our room in Kuching by calling their office. Well, we got a little disappointed, but did not find it worth to go back to Kuching or anywhere else. One of my friends said, let’s go and hope someone cancels their booking! We went there and asked the officer in there to let us know if anyone cancels! WOW! it happened and he approached us! “SOME ONE CANCELLED AND YOU GUYS COULD GET THE ROOM NOW” hehe! that was the best thing I had ever heard! We got a semi-D house with two rooms for RM 78 and that was a good deal actually

Let me tell you something. If there is one place for you to visit in Sarawak, that’s gonna be Bako National Park. It is very close to city, very beautiful, accommodation is cheap and reasonably clean and there is a lot to see there specially if you are a fan of hiking and trailing!

They got many trailing paths, from 500 meters long to 78 KM! he choice is yours. The paths are well organized and properly painted with unique colors, so you will have a little chance of ever getting lost!

We walked around 15 KM in one day and tell you what, we enjoyed our every single step. We started the trailing at 5:30 AM and got back when it was almost sunset! That was hilarious in one word!

Here are some of the photos we  took:

Tomorrow is the first day of my last semester and I feel crazy about it

I hope you have enjoyed the photos

There comes again: Final Examinations… My exams will be held on 15th, 17th and 22nd of June and I’m through an intense schedule to prepare for them. This semester is my second last and I hope I can finish it well. I’d be unable to update my blog her during this time and will get back to here as soon as possible…

Take care