Wednesday, September 08, 2004

[Persian] Right answers need right questions!

Salam!
I was not really intended to write on this subject until Mr. Bakhshi’s notes encouraged me to get involved. As the title says for itself, it is hard to expect right answers while asking problematic questions!
In such discussion the concept of avoiding paralogism or “Gheyase Mealfaregh” should be considered e.g. oranges and apples could not be compared. Iran and Canada are very different countries; one has a history of civilization of more that two millenniums and the other is a young colony! Therefore the social structure of them could not be compared in a fair way.
Apparently, Mr. Bakhshi has provided some pieces of historic information without a logic connection between them. At a glance there have been some glorious times in Iran’s history even after Arabs invasion as well as social and economical advancements. It is not fair to neglect all about Iranian cultural heritage after Islam (he has already mentioned to Ferdowsi as an icon) just by focusing on wonderful achievements of some ancient leaders. The effect and results of Amirkabir’s efforts for modern Iran is not much less than Cyrus the great. Military conquests of Nader are not less hilarious than any other proud Iranian commander.
Certainly a reasoning not supported by enough evidences will lead to dubious results. That’s why labeling cities and people who are living proudly in a country for centuries won’t help understanding their so called “outrageous” behavior. Overall, it seems that “the integrity” is also missing in that note.
Now let’s go over the questions for God’s sake!
1- Do you consider Canada a successful country and if it is so what has got you attention in it?
Well, success is wide spectrum word and could not be used without some identifiers for its domain. For example Canada might be considered successful in wood industry but not in fishery. It has no brilliant military success at all. And regarding space exploration is years behind US, Russia and Europe. At least, the second part is more sensible. Although it is very personal and might be useful just as statistic index. Again this should be taken into account that the feature of interest is somehow belongs just to Canada or it has come to viewers attention in Canada for the first time!
2- Did you find Iranians in Canada experiencing a decent life style and will you encourage other people (this should point Iranians apparently) to come to Canada?
Again a very cheesy question with no real answer. If the observer goes to elite Iranians community in Vancouver and enjoys communication with people like Mr. Khosrowshahi and Ghermezian of course the answer to first question would be positive and in contrary a visit to some parts of downtown Toronto will give a quite negative answer. This is very depended on who you know rather than what you know. Again due to bias of group under investigation (Iranian students of U of O) this might not even end up to a statistically worthy outcome.
About the second part, the rule of thumb is, every human being is a utility maximizer in rational condition; therefore, the encouragement doesn’t count at all. Immigration is a big step in everyone’s life that needs quite vast set of reliable reasons and motifs. On the other hand advising (Towsieh in Persian might be a more suitable word) needs a good knowledge about the person whom is going to receive the advice. I will definitely advise a person who is interested in Alcohol drinks to enjoy the freedom in Canada and advise the other person who is restricted about family values to be very careful in Canada.
It sounds foolish to encourage people in general, to rush to Canada (unless gold mines in Yukon get activated again)!
3- Do universities have better situation in Canada than Iran and if it is so, what’s the main difference?
Well finally a question that is in the field of a student organization. Although, this question is already biased by hidden imposing better conditions in Canadian universities. It seems that the questioner is just interested in yes answer and that’s why the second part of question is just for positive respondents i.e. if the answer is NO, it is not necessary to state the big difference anymore!
Anyhow if still there is any interest in comparison between oranges and apples, this is a good opportunity to be considered!
Have fun!
Prince Ali.