Iran wants peace. It’s a peaceful nation. Iran wants to have constructive relations with the rest of the world. Really.
I saw it with my own eyes when I was in Iran:
"We want to be peaceful friends with all the nations in the world."
Seen and photographed in Shiraz, Iran in January 2009.
Christian churches everywhere are trying to keep Sundays “work free” and try to influence legislatures to keep shops closed on Sundays.
I am all for a lot of free time and I think that most people put far too much emphasis on their work life, but I want this to remain my decision. It is not the government’s business when I work, and it definitely isn’t some church’s either.
And isn’t it ironic?
The guys who fulminate against working on Sundays put on their own biggest shows on – exactly – Sundays:
"It may be a bit inconsistent with what we preach, but please let this not deter you from obeying us."
By the way, if you have missed the Sunday service, here is your chance to catch up with it.
Immigration advice is a big business. Millions of people want to emigrate every year and seek out lawyers, attorneys and other immigration advisers.
Only four left.
How can you tell a competent adviser from a fake one? I will have more on that subject soon, but you always have to be suspicious if somebody claims to have information about every country in the world. Nobody will realistically be able to keep abreast of the legal developments in more than one or two countries.
Preparing for my trip to Somalia, I came across this website which pretends to be “the guide to immigration everywhere in the world”. Their website included the following sentences about Somalia:
People immigrate to Somalia for different purposes. Some people immigrate to Somalia for work. Others move to Somalia to have a better life and seek out Somalia citizenship.
I have not yet been to Somalia, but I doubt that many people immigrate to Somalia, unless you consider the sailors who are kidnapped by Somali pirates to be “immigrants”. I doubt even more that people move to Somalia “to have a better life”. Where would you need to live in order for Somalia to appear as the better alternative?
“We were promised a land of milk and honey.”
Obviously this “World Immigration Guide” just copies and pastes whatever text they have and uses it for 193 or so countries. If you ever come across a website that sounds like this generic typical internet bla bla devoid of all style and content, run away. You are better off seeking proper advice from real experts. But not from this lazy lawyer, please.
Don’t climb the pulpit in a mosque and pretend to be an imam!
inside Vakil Mosque in Shiraz, Iran
Luckily, not many people were listening to me and my sermon at Vakil Mosque in Shiraz, Iran.
Another rule: if you pretend to be an imam, at least don’t pretend to be the 12th. He is a special one.
Don’t go to a mosque to steal the Quran!
at Hakim Mosque in Isfahan, Iran
Obviously, I didn’t steal any books. But ever the bibliophile, I needed to take a closer look.
(I did however take a prayer stone with me from Hakim Mosque.)
“I do more before 9 a.m. than most people do all day” is one of my mottoes.
I love to get up at the crack of dawn, when the whole city is still asleep and I can work or study for a few hours before everybody else wakes up. Also, the morning sunlight is a fabulous thing to see and enjoy. There is nothing better than the feeling of achievement when by 0900 I have already been so productive as I know many people won’t become all day. It’s time for breakfast then, or for a rewarding walk along the beach.
For those of you who are too young to remember, the slogan “we do more before 9 a.m. than most people do all day” comes from a US Army commercial from the 1980s.
The military recruitment ads have gotten better since, I think.
Always eager to improve its “democracy”, the Islamic Republic of Iran has introduced primary elections to sift the pool of candidates. Not unlike the current Republican primaries in the US, candidates will have a hard time if they are not hardcore religious conservatives.
Two candidates have already been eliminated.
(Hat tip to German satire magazine Titanic and the Free Iran Now blog for the idea.)
I really don’t understand the hype about Windows 8.
I already use Windows 95.
According to my calculation, I am 87 versions ahead.
It’s probably better to leave these people alone. They will find us if they want to.
Of course I am curious to find out about these yet uncontacted tribes. It would probably be extremely interesting. But in this case, moral restraint should trump scientific curiosity.
Have you ever wondered why Germany, Europe’s economic powerhouse, is contributing so much money to help Greece when even Greeks themselves are not contributing much more than going on strike, setting banks on fire and blaming Germany?
The following photo of German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble reveals how this came about.
German Finance Minister Wolfang Schäuble during a debate about financial aid for Greece in the Bundestag on 27 February 2012
Stuck in a particularly tricky Sudoku puzzle, Wolfgang Schäuble thought:
Damn it! This bloody Sudoku is too hard.
Let me find something easier to work on, for a change.
Ahhh, the Euro zone debt crisis and Greece’s insolvency! Yes, that’s it.
I’ll get back to this Sudoku after saving Greece.
And so it happened.
The Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos immediately had an open hand for his German counterpart.
“Thanks, man. Not a moment too soon.”
The Happy Hermit 