Friday 3 April 2015

Explained: 10 short answers to 5 key points on Iran nuclear deal.

Edited time: April 03, 2015 14:46 RT.comVienna. (Reuters/Heinz-Peter Bader)

After 18 months of negotiating, Iran has come to a preliminary agreement with China, Russia, France, UK, US and Germany (P5+1) on Tehran’s nuclear program. But what is Iran giving up to seal the deal and how can it benefit in the long run?

Uranium enrichment – Iran has agreed to only enrich uranium to 3.67%.

What is it? The process of turning uranium found in the ground into nuclear fuel that can be used to create nuclear energy, or potentially a nuclear bomb.

Why is it important? To build a nuclear bomb, uranium needs to be enriched to about 90 percent. The 3.67 percent agreed by Tehran means it would be practically impossible for Iran to build a nuclear weapon, but would allow it to use nuclear material for peaceful purposes.

The outcome: Iran gets to keep its nuclear program, albeit a limited one, while the likes of the US now know it will be much harder for Tehran to build a bomb.

n workers stand in front of the Bushehr nuclear power plant. (Reuters/Majid Asgaripour)

Centrifuges – Iran cuts centrifuges from 19,000 to 6,104, with 5,060 for enrichment

What are they? Centrifuges are vital to extract nuclear fuel from uranium in its mineral form. They work by spinning around at high speeds, which separate the different particles, eventually just leaving enriched uranium

Why are they important? The 6,000 or so centrifuges Iran has been allowed to keep are first generation and not the technically-advanced modern versions. This is like comparing a regular family car with a Formula 1 car, with Iran getting the former. If Tehran wanted to build a bomb now, it would take a very long time.

The outcome: Israel and US Republicans wanted Iran to give up all its centrifuges, while Barack Obama was originally prepared to let it keep 6,500.

Uranium enriching centrifuges. (Reuters/Caren Firouz)

Uranium stockpiles – Iran to cut the amount it keeps from 10,000kg to just 300kg

What are they? Uranium is the key ingredient necessary in order to operate a nuclear program. Once it has been enriched, it can be used to generate power or create a nuclear weapon.

Why are they important? By giving up 97 percent of its uranium stockpiles, Tehran has effectively given up any possibility to create a nuclear bomb.

The outcome: By reducing its stockpiles, Iran has increased transparency with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), while also making a commitment to use its nuclear program for peaceful purposes.

(Image from Wikipedia)

Inspections – IAEA will have access to all Iran’s nuclear facilities

What is it? The IAEA is an organization that promotes the peaceful use of nuclear power and is against the building of nuclear weapons that are used for military purposes.

Why is it important? This will allow the international community to see if Iran is keeping its end of the bargain. The IAEA will be able to monitor everything concerning Tehran’s nuclear program – from the reactors to the materials, such as uranium and centrifuges.

The outcome: With such transparency in place, it would be almost impossible for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon without getting caught.

Sanctions – Iran will see crippling sanctions lifted, if it keeps its end of bargain

What are they? The latest sanctions were introduced against Iran in 2006 after Tehran refused to halt its uranium enrichment program.

Why are they important? Sanctions introduced against Iran have had a devastating effect on its economy. Areas such as oil and gas have been affected, while Tehran’s finance sector was also hit. This made it difficult for to trade on the world market, while areas such as Iran’s aviation industry suffered, as they were unable to get spare parts from the US and the West.

The outcome: The sanctions will only be fully lifted once Iran has proven it has stopped its nuclear enrichment program. Once they are lifted, it will be a massive boost to Tehran’s economy as it will increase trade and see new investment into the country.

Fallout from Iran nuclear deal

If Iran keeps its end of the deal, the West will know Iran’s nuclear program is peaceful. For Tehran, it will be able to produce nuclear energy, while also be showing to the Iranian public that it has not caved in to the demands of the US and its allies.

The nuclear deal reached between Iran and the P5+1 group (China, France, Russia, UK and US) and Germany is a victory in diplomacy. However, it has the potential to destabilize the region, with Saudi Arabia and Israel both wary of any thawing of relations between Iran and the West. Riyadh has already stated it wants its own nuclear program, while Israel’s relations with Washington have hit their lowest point for years.

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About the Forum

The Forum initially started its work in December 1997 with the intention of promoting research culture and activities among doctoral candidates in one of the British universities in London. The Research Forum convened 8 sessions a year on humanities-related topics between 1997 and 2013.

The Forum now focuses on the production of self-taught courses, articles and commentary on some aspects of the news for students as well as the general public. The last meeting of the Forum took place in July 2015.

Mowlānā Jalāloddin Balkhi, known in Persia as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī and in the West simply as Rumi, was born on September 30, 1207 C. E. in Balkh Province, Afghanistan, then on the eastern edge of the Persian Empire. Rumi descended from a long line of Islamic jurists, theologians, and mystics, including his father, who was known by followers of Rumi as “Sultan of the Scholars.” When Rumi was still a young man, his father led their family more than 2,000 miles west to avoid the invasion of Genghis Khan’s armies. They settled in present-day Turkey, where Rumi lived and wrote most of his life.

As a teenager, Rumi was recognized as a great spirit by the poet and teacher Fariduddin Attar, who gave him a copy of his own Ilahinama (The Book of God). When his father died in 1231, Rumi became head of the madrasah, or spiritual learning community. The school reportedly had over ten thousand students, including masons, grocers, weavers, hatmakers, carpenters, tailors, and bookbinders.

Rumi’s oldest son, Sultan Velad, managed to save 147 of Rumi’s intimate letters, which provide insights about the poet and how he lived. Rumi often involved himself in the lives of his community members, solving disputes and facilitating loans between nobles and students. The letters are described as having lines of poetry scattered throughout.

In 1244, Rumi met Shams Tabriz, a dervish “God-man” who had taken a vow of poverty. Their meeting is considered a central event in Rumi’s life. Though accounts of their meeting differ, one story claims that Rumi was teaching by a fountain, and Shams walked up through the crowd of students and pushed Rumi’s books into the water, including his father’s spiritual diary. “You must now live what you have been reading about," Shams told Rumi. Rumi believed both his real life and his real poetry began when he met Shams. “What I had thought of before as God," Rumi said, “I met today in a human being.”

Shams and Rumi were close friends for about four years. Over the course of that time, Shams was repeatedly driven away by Rumi’s jealous disciples, including one of Rumi’s sons, Ala al-Din. In December of 1248, Shams again disappeared; it is believed that he was either driven away or killed. Rumi left the madrasah in search of his friend, travelling to Damascus and elsewhere. Eventually, Rumi made peace with his loss, returning to his home believing Shams to be a part of him: “His essence speaks through me.”

Rumi’s mourning for the loss of his friend led to the outpouring of more than 40,000 lyric verses, including odes, eulogies, quatrains, and other styles of Eastern-Islamic poetry. The resulting collection, Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi or The Works of Shams Tabriz, is considered one of Rumi’s masterpieces and one of the greatest works of Persian literature.

In his introduction to his translation of Rumi’s The Shams, Coleman Barks has written: “Rumi is one of the great souls, and one of the great spiritual teachers. He shows us our glory. He wants us to be more alive, to wake up... He wants us to see our beauty, in the mirror and in each other.”

For the last twelve years of his life, beginning in 1262, Rumi dictated a single, six-volume poem to his scribe, Husam Chelebi. The resulting masterwork, the Masnavi-ye Ma’navi(Spiritual Verses), consists of sixty-four thousand lines, and is considered Rumi’s most personal work of spiritual teaching. Rumi described the Masnavi as “the roots of the roots of the roots of the (Islamic) Religion," and the text has come to be regarded by some Sufis as the Persian-language Koran.

In his introduction to an English edition of Spiritual Verses, translator Alan Williams wrote: “Rumi is both a poet and a mystic, but he is a teacher first, trying to communicate what he knows to his audience. Like all good teachers, he trusts that ultimately, when the means to go any further fail him and his voice falls silent, his students will have learnt to understand on their own.”

Rumi fell ill and died on December 17, 1273 C. E., in Konya, Turkey. His remains were interred adjacent to his father’s, and the Yeşil Türbe (Green Tomb) was erected above their final resting place. Now the Mevlâna museum, the site includes a mosque, dance hall, and dervish living quarters. Thousands of visitors, of all faiths, visit his tomb each month, honoring the poet of legendary spiritual understanding.

Source: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/jalal-al-din-rumi

Your Life Discourse!

It is soooo good when you realize that your life and every road you have taken made and makes sense... Even when you feel that the world will not applaud you for what you are doing, you find you have to do it yourself and clap your own hands. Later everything falls into place. In my doctoral thesis, I studied how the self-discourse is constructed along history. It is a fact that we describe our past like a coherent story. Even though we know that the discourse of our life is a construction, our life is actually built by roads and paths we accept, that come and go, and later make all sense because they are part of our own being. Once in a while we feel that our past is actually part of us.

Marcia Neme Buzalaf
marciabuzalaf@gmail.com.

Scholarship and Academia

Benedit Spinoza is one of the original thinkers among Western philosophers. When he was offered a Professorship of Philosophy at Heidelberg University at age of 31, he turned it down arguing that he wanted to be left alone to do his philosophising “in accordance with his own mind”. He proceeded to live a solitary life, earning his living by grinding and polishing lenses for spectacles, microscopes and telescopes – at the time a new profession.

Being a great philosopher and academic is a rare development: Descartes, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Marx, Mill or Nietzsche did not teach philosophy. The exceptions are Kant and Hegel.

Nothing much has changed since: academia is still not the right place for real scholars today. Mottos such as ‘publish or perish’ have mainly resulted in the production of shallow, regurgitated or ego-boosting publications. Universities are also no different from other corporate capitalist entities that seek to maximize their profit at the cost of quality service. They neither provide the scholar nor the student with a conducive environment for their development or self-fulfilment.

Thoughtful Sentences

Integrity: When the thoughts we think are the same as the words we speak, others will feel our integrity.

Enthusiasm: Those who are fired with an enthusiastic idea and who allow it to take hold and dominate their thoughts find that new worlds open for them. As long as enthusiasm holds out, so will new opportunities.

No Task Too Difficult: If you do everything with the feeling of happiness, there will be no task too difficult to perform.

A Long And Healthy Life: There are three ingredients for a long and healthy life: live with attention but without worry, use time in a worthwhile way, keep your thoughts pure, positive and filled with strength.