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Published online 8 July 2009 | Nature 460, 160 (2009) | doi:10.1038/460160a
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Iran presidential candidate speaks out
2005 contender Mostafa Moin talks about how the international science community can help Iran.
Biomedical researcher Mostafa Moin was a reformist candidate in Iran's 2005 presidential elections, following which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president. In a 2006 interview with Nature, Moin, a former minister for higher education and for science, argued that building a stronger civil and democratic society in Iran was key to the country's scientific development and it becoming a knowledge-based society.
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hi i'm an undergraduate student in sharif university in iran , There are many talented students and genius proffessors here in iran that feel the pressure and that bannes their way to be a productive part of the science world i think our first priority need for scientific graduation is the link and communication with the whole world universities independent of political situation we just want to be scietists
Hi I'm an graduate student in Tarbiat Modares University in Iran. At now,thinking students about science is new government main aim.And they are successful. Firouz Rasouli Jamadi
There are many cases in the near history where the Western world tries to impose its system on other countries. The best example is the World Bank, which is the greatest single source of funding for large dam construction. Dams are ecological disaster, as we now come to know. For example, the construction of Hoover Dam in the 1930s resulted in virtually no freshwater reaching the Colorado Delta that flows into Mexico. This structure severely affected the fishing industry in Mexico. While Western ecological and environmental agencies point fingers at countries like China for its construction of its Three Gorges, these agencies turned a blind eye on the disasters that the Western world has brought to the rest of the world, not to mention the greenhouse effect. Institutions like the World Bank ought to be responsible for imposing an erred science to countries that needed its funding. Of course, lobbying groups that benefited from these projects also play a huge role in silencing environmental agencies like Greenpeace from protesting on these issues. The view that Islam and science are incompatible, again, is another Western propaganda. After all, Nature is owned by a British publishing company. One needs to realize that a large part of the present Muslim world was once colonized by Western powers. France, for one, has always been reluctant to share its technical resources with its colonies. For this reason, we see that many countries which were French colonies in the past are less developed. In one case, the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe are still treated as vassal state by the French government. The French government owns the sugar cane plantation and processing industries, which are ran by civil servants in France whereas the locals who are mostly blacks worked in low-paying jobs. Minimal coverage by the Western media of the uprising in Guadeloupe and Martinique which had spread to French Guiana is again attributed to Western lobbying efforts and media bias. The Western powers have always meddled with the affairs of the Middle East countries, in most cases, to their detriment. Allow me to give another historical example. The British government, along with the United States government, instituted the Shah in Iran so that they can get cheap oil at the expense of the quality of lives of the Iranians. In 1954, the Shah signed a 25-year contract with Britain (40%), US (40%), France (6%) and the Netherlands (14%) to run the Iranian oil facilities. Even though a 50-50 split was agreed upon, Iran was not allowed to audit the consortium profit report nor were Iranians allowed on the consortium board of directors. Under such contractual agreement, the Iranian government is robbed of its oil revenues by Western powers and corporations that lobbied their governments. This incident left a distasteful feeling among the Iranians and eventually gave credibility to Ayatollah Khomeini?s vociferous propaganda. If the focus of the discussion is based solely on the events that are happening in Iran, the Western powers should be blamed for their foreign policies that are consequential of the problems that plagued the Middle East. The Middle East will flourish in its own way when the Western powers stop meddling with their affairs.
Being in close contact with Iranian scientists in Iran, I can see how Ahmadinejad administration affected Iran scientific progress. Iran was in a stepwise progress in science, lots of Iranian scientists outside Iran attracted to what happened in Iran during Khatami' s government. Unfortunately , Ahmadinejad populist policy push lots of good scientists to escape from country, instead a new generation of Iran revolutionary guard related scientists were grown in Iran who sometimes make same fraud as Ahmadinejad's fraud in recent election. Looking at ROYAN stem cell institute and its propaganda is a good example of fabricating results same as election results fabricating. But Ahmadinejad's administration benefited from this fraud. They advertised for Iranian that Iran is on top of stem cell research; even the supreme leader talked about stem cell research in Royan in Friday pray ceremony which is supposed to be a religious gathering. Using government media, they fabricate their achievement ( I can talk about stem cell research ), advertise it as the best in the world . Last week in ISSCR meeting in Barcelona, There was 23 works headed with one person ( Mr H.B) . I am sure there is not even one scientist in the world in most advanced stem cell research institute who can conduct all these 23 claimed work. If they can fabricate Iranian votes inside Iran, why do we let them to sell their biased data to us in scientific meeting? One may tell that presenting some data does not mean anything in scientific world BUT it will misconduct Iranian people inside Iran as government is expert to make propaganda.
Washington Post, Monday July 13th: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/12/AR2009071202337.html "It perhaps suggests the Iranians are talking about investments and influence that they don't yet have," he (State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley ) said. "But they are certainly feeling their oats, and they are certainly trying to exploit opportunities where they think they exist."
This article shows urgent need for unity as well as cooperation between Iranian scienticts and scholars in Iran and abroad to strength their position in fighting for freedom and democracy.