Daily Archives: May 18, 2011

17 posts

Canadian Journalist Dorothy Parvaz Released from Iran

Parvaz was born in Iran to an Iranian father and American mother. Her family moved to British Columbia where she obtained a degree in English literature at the University of British Columbia. She had only quite recently accepted a job reporting for Al Jazeera, being based out of its headquarters in Doha, Qatar. She disappeared on April 29, 2011 and it was later revealed that she was detained by Syrian authorities on her way to report on anti-government demonstrations in that country. She was eventually deported to Iran where she was held for a further 19 days.

That Parvaz has multiple citizenships and passports seems to have been the pretext for her detainment. On Tuesday, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman claimed Parvaz had committed several passport violations on her trip to Syria, stating that the journalist had “traveled to Syria with expired Iranian passport, planned to work without a press permit and had several passports on her.” While Parvaz likely used her Canadian or American passport to enter Syria, Iran doesn’t officially recognized multiple citizenships for Iranians.

Parvaz’s family have been jubilant today after receiving a phone-call from her last night around 9:30 pm PST to let them know she had been released and was planning on returning to Vancouver by Wednesday or Thursday. “It was one of the best moments of my life,” said her father. “I’m 68 years old and I’ve never had a moment like it.”
CBC, Al Jazeera, Seattle Times.

Was Cornel West Right to Call Out Obama on Poverty in America?

Dr. Cornel West is an American racial theorist, civil rights activist and philosopher of political and moral ethics – perhaps you’ve heard of him? Like with most thinkers or philosphers whose ideas are actually worth half a damn, West is a somewhat controversial figure. He’s what some might call “radical” in his politics and more importantly, his ideas. Recently, West has made some rather petty and provocative statements about Barack Obama’s presidency. However, despite West’s self-important pontification on the issue his critiques are unfortunately right on the money. Continue reading

Official Book Club Selection: Round 1

Hey, birds. Use this as your thread to suggest the next selection for the Crasstalk Book Club (Thinner than Oprah™). Here’s how it’s going to work.

  • Suggest a book in the comments.
  • Fonz the book(s) you’d want to read.

On Saturday, we’ll be selecting the top three for a face-off, and, remember, if your book is chosen, we expect you to host. This week we’re reading a Romance, so to be fair to other genres, we ask that no Romance novels are suggested.