SHARQ: Air pollution has become an integral part of life in Tehran. Although a majority of those now living in the overcrowded capital are immigrants from small towns and villages, they have no way for returning to their original dwelling places. There are many attractions that seem to persuade the people to stick to Tehran. These include access to better job opportunities, better education, health, social services and leisure. Almost all measures taken by the government to encourage people to shift to other cities and towns for good have failed. When Tehran became the capital of Iran nearly two centuries ago, no one had even contemplated that a city once famous for its good weather and serenity would one day become so polluted. Relevant officials have failed to find a solution to one of the most pressing problems presently afflicting the capital.

AFARINESH: Just two days ago armed bandits killed a bank guard and escaped with the money stolen from the bank. Of course, it is not for the first time that criminals attack banks. There are certain parameters that facilitate bank robberies. First, most banks lack a proper security system. Second, places where banks are located are tempting for the thieves. Third, security systems in banks in the industrial countries are linked to the nearest police stations, this is while only few in Iran have similar arrangements. Fourth, films and television series aired by the state-owned radio and TV organization (IRIB) also play a role in pushing rogues to rob banks. We can and should learn a lot from other countries and the way they protect their banks.

QODS: It is quite some time that Iranian newspapers refer to the oil mafia in their news and analyses. Maybe the main reason for high voter turnout in the ninth presidential election in June was the promise of strong action against the mafia by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Several lawmakers and oil experts have discussed how corruption in the key oil sector can and should be confronted. They produced reports on kickbacks received by oil dealers in different transactions. However, none of candidates proposed by the president for the sensitive portfolio believed in the oil mafia. Even the present oil minister, Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh was quoted as saying that he is unaware of any such thing as the oil mafia. But lawmakers have time and again demanded investigations into regular reports alleging corruption in the oil business. The point remains that if one simply does not believe that such a thing exists, how is he going to fight against it?!

Do we view America’s relationship with Israel as constructive or destructive to America’s best interests? The general answer to this question is this: America will not have peace until the Israel question and our financial and military relationship with Israel in its current form has been disposed of in a peaceful manner.
World institutions such as the United Nations, NATO, The World Bank, and the World Trade Organization have sufficient capacity for settling the Arab-Israeli dispute, without unilaterally burdening the American people financially and militarily.
America must finally break away from the notion that Israel is intended, by our American blood, sweat and tears, in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, to be the sole beneficiary of the body, and of the productive work, and taxpayer dollars of other peoples, especially the taxpayer dollars of the American people.
The Israeli state must adapt itself to respectable constructive work towards peace and respect of other nation’s borders, as other peoples do, or it will sooner or later succumb to a crisis of unimaginable proportions, socially, financially, militarily.
America, straining under the pressure of its massive domestic and international debts, cannot for long bear this burden of Israel’s inability to make peace with its neighbors. If the financial community, politicians, religious institutions and military sympathetic to Israel and Zionism, inside and outside America, should succeed in plunging Americans into a world war, this time including Iran, then the outcome will not be a victory for Israel, but rather the annihilation of many thousands of Jews in Israel, and countless American soldiers stationed throughout the Middle East!
With all due respect to Israel and its American Jewish lobby, too many American mothers have witnessed the tragic loss of their sons and daughters while fighting some of Israel’s myriad enemies to guarantee the safety of Israel’s borders.
We at Truth Department work only for peace and justice, nonviolence, and seek to prevent war. This accounts for our continuing analysis of the Middle East and Israel’s relationship with America, and our strident efforts to spread the word of peace among all peoples.