It’s the time…it’s the time to introduce you to our jury…

This post is going to be short and dense.

It is my honour to introduce you to the JURY of Iranian Progressive Youth’s International Essay Contest 2011.

(in alphabetic order)
Francesco Maiolo - University College Utrecht (Assistant Professor - Political Science);

Marietje Schaake - European Parliament (D66 political party, the social-liberals from the Netherlands);

Herman Tak - Roosevelt Academy (Associate Professor - European Anthropology);

Arjen de Wolff - Executive Director of Radio Zamaneh;

and IPY’s Board.

Have you ever imagined that your work could have been assessed and evaluated by such a mix and diverse group?

Don’t miss the chance…

step 3…

I received an email two days ago from someone in Tunisia! She/he wanted to know whether the contest is open for non-Iranians as well; and of course the answer is YES.

I also received an email from someone in Pennsylvania…and another email from…and another one from…

The call for essays for this contest has gone through most of the Dutch Universities and University Colleges in the Netherlands and some had promoted our contest directly as well, for instance, Amsterdam University College made a publication about this contest in its Weekly Announcement, Roosevelt Academy also made an announcement on their Facebook Page about this contest, The Alumni Association of University College Utrecht also published this contest on their website.

Almost all the European Student Associations (including UK) have been contacted as well and we have received positive and supportive responses from many of them to name a few: The Student Association of University of Luxembourg, The Student Union of Latvia, The Student Associations in Italy, International Student Offices throughout Scotland.

Some Universities in United States have also been contacted, through our personal network and Prof. Moalem from UC Berkeley, department of Gender and Women’s Studies took the lead in promoting this contest among her students… and same with some Universities in Australia.

Moreover organizations like:

AWID: Association For Women’s Right In Development;

Dena Publication in the Netherlands;

Expatica: News and Information for the International Community;

Radio Zamaneh;

Enduring America;

Arseh Sevom;

Mezrab: the Cultural Centre in East Amsterdam;

United4Iran;

…and others...have also kindly promoted our International Essay Contest through their websites and networks.

How have you been informed? And who have you informed afterwards? It’s a chain…pass it on…

I’m nervous…

This is the last day of March…the 10 days count down is gonna start in an hour…I’m nervous, so is Ali.

We keep writing here and there, talking to different groups, promoting the contest wherever we can; yet, we are both nervous…

The success of this contest is not in our hands, this project is absolutely a ‘result-oriented’ project, the process does not matter that much to be honest…the number of essays that we get matters, the quality of the essays that we get matters…this makes me nervous cos I do not have that much of control over this, I have to wait and wait and wait...till the deadline…

...

Are you still following?!

Your audience...

Do you write often?
Do you write on regular basis?
Do you write on regular basis for a weblog?
Do you write on regular basis for your thesis?
Do you write on regular basis for a radio?
Do you write on regular basis for a column in a newspaper/newsletter?
Do you write often?

And if yes, who do you write for?
Who is your audience?
Who reads the weblog you write for?
Who credits your thesis next to your supervisor?
Who listens to your radio?
Who follows up the column that you write in that newspaper/newsletter?

You don’t know?! You don’t care? You don’t mind?!

If you write for IPY’s International Essay Contest:

all the ones who are on IPY’s Network, will read your essay;

all the ones who are on Radio Zamaneh’s Network will read your essay;

all the ones who are on Enduring America’s Network will read your essay;

all the ones who are on Foundation for Iranian Studies’ will read your essay.

The choice is yours!

Who do you want to be your audience?

…last few minutes…

I have few minutes to write what I want, before the midnight…but will I manage? Or would it matter? A post is a post, few minutes before or after midnight should not make a difference right?

Himmm…but NO!

It is true that a post is a post, but ‘my’ promise was not just ‘a’ promise…I promised to send a post very single day (still wondering whether that includes weekends or not) till the deadline…

I keep my promise cos I keep having hopes, cos despite all the disappointments I want and I choose to still have hopes…I want to go back, I want to live in Iran…I want to be at HOME again…

I keep up with this…but I need you…I need your ideas, I need your thoughts, I need your essays…I want us to be ‘the’ change, the change that will come by us standing in front of ministries, embassies, offices of United Nations around the world, the change that will come by us supporting each other, the change that comes through sharing our ideas…I keep having hopes, be my hope by writing and sharing…

…can an activist have a weekend?!

I started writing on a Sunday; it was officially during the weekend that I wrote the text…it’s been a very short while that I have promised myself not to work over the weekends, maybe just 2 or 3 hours but not more…weekend is weekend, I promised myself to take care of my body and my mind…I did not want to end up being in the category of ‘burned-out’…so this weekend arrived: I was struggling with the temptation of writing but at the same time was wondering: “Could an activist have a weekend?!”

Weekend would make sense if you have a week that you work and when you reach the end of the week then you do not work any more and that would be your weekend, as simple as this. But now my question is: is activism a work/job? And if so, could an activist have a weekend then?

I am not an activist! I am not an academic either!

I am not anything that is a category, is a label and is a way of being…

I live my way…I do what I want but I can’t hide[1]…

I want to live in/at the moment…and over the last weekend, every single moment I wanted to write, I wanted to share, I wanted to tell you how things work for me…I wanted to write about my disappointments and frustration whenever I got a negative reply from the ones I invited to be part of the jury…I wanted to write about my excitement and pleasure when I got positive replies from the ones I invited to be part of the jury…

I missed writing over the weekend…I want the week to never end…

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[1] Taken from lyrics of ‘here with me’ by Dido from the album ‘No Angels’

step 2…

...keep writing…keep writing reminders…keep writing reminders for the ones you want to be involved, for the ones you want them to sit in the JURY of IPY’s International Essay Contest: I sent 183 emails just and just for this purpose!

So I keep writing, and you keep reading and following me…do you want to know who is in the jury? I’ll write for you but first let me write down who did we want to be there:

Since this is an academic contest, it was very clear from the beginning that there should be academics on board. We tried to bring teachers from different universities and disciplines together for this jury; at the same time we wanted politicians to be involved as well cos they are the ones who need to hear what has been suggested[1]; moreover, we needed to have the media on bard as well: after all, free media is the fourth pillar of democracy[2]! All in all, we have 6 members for our jury now…from all the groups I mentioned and as we announced in our call as well, IPY board will have a vote in this selection...and that makes us 7!

Do you want to know who is in this jury?
Yes?

Then keep reading cos I keep writing…

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[1] I will elaborate on this in another post.

[2] Wow! What a sentence…I can question myself about the statement, but let’s do that in another post, deal?