Iranian Theme Park Teaches Children War Tactics

This photo posted on Iran's state-run news agency site IRNA purportedly shows a child being trained to fire weapons at Iran’s perceived Western enemies.

Iran opened a military theme park this week, designed to educate children as young as eight-years-old on how to fight in a war and fire weapons at its perceived Western enemies.

Located in a western suburb of the city of Mashad, the “Park of the Revolution’s Children” marks “Sacred Defense Week," an annual commemoration of the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980’s, according to a park brochure.

“The participant children are trained in shooting virtual fixed and moving targets including moving objects decorated with the U.S. and Israeli flag,” Hamid Sadeghi, the managing director of Children and Future Cultural House, which supervises the activities of this park, told Raja News.

The conservative Raja media outlet is affiliated with Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, which has thousands of troops fighting in Syria on behalf of the government of Bashar al-Assad. The opening ceremony of the park held this week featured several speakers including the family of a high-ranking Revolutionary Guards commander killed in Aleppo this month.

Sadeghi did not respond to calls from a VOA reporter seeking comment.

This photo posted on Iran's state-run news agency site IRNA purportedly shows a child going through a training session on how to use firearms.

In a photo essay released the state-run Iranian News Agency, children at the park are pictured carrying weapons in field drills, navigating an obstacle course and gathering around bonfires while wearing military apparel similar to Revolutionary Guard uniforms.

The children learn how to defend a sacred monument that resembles a Shi’ite holy site in Damascus which Iran says it is protecting in Syria’s civil war, Sadeghi told Raja News.

“Children divide into groups of eight to ten upon their arrival to the park and one picks a group leader,” he said. “They say goodbye to a model shrine at the beginning and engage in war games, training and teaching and will defend the Syria shrine at the end of this 40-minute track.”

Human rights activists in the city say they are quietly trying to dissuade families from allowing their children to participate in park activities.

“But since we do not carry any weight in terms of authority, our efforts are not very fruitful and we can be face hardship if we push more,” one activist leader told VOA.

“We urge international organizations to take these issues more serious as it may contribute to the future of extremism. Their propaganda is very strong and targeting low budget and uneducated families…. this can really twist children’s future and push them toward violence and make them keen to display violence.”

The activist asked for anonymity fearing retribution from authorities if her name became public.

Roya Boroumand, executive director of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation, which monitors and tracks human rights in Iran, called the theme park “a vivid violation of international protocols and misuse of children’s emotions.”

“They are playing with the future and faith of these kids by seeding the excitement of war in them which might affect them all their life and their decisions in the future,” Boroumand said in an interview with VOA.

“Boys are inherently interested in war games and consider this as a game but do not know what is waiting for them in war zones. Enticing them with these kind of games is despising and not acceptable.”

Iranian children are taught how to use firearms for battle, according to a post on Iran's state-run news agency IRNA.

The Iranian government often glorifies war and its alleged military might.

State-run television released a propaganda video in April aimed at encouraging young people to join Iranian forces in Syria.

The video showed children taking up arms and singing a song about “martyrs who defend the sacred shrine.”

Iran causes panic after firing three mortar shells into Pakistan

Shelling prompts official complaint from Islambad to Iranian diplomats

An Indian army soldier looks towards the site of a gunbattle between Indian army soldiers and rebels inside an army brigade headquarters near the border with Pakistan, known as the Line of Control (LoC), in Uri on September 18, 2016 Getty

Iran reportedly fired mortar shells into Pakistan's Balochistan province on Wednesday, causing panic among the local population.

“Mortar shells fired by Iranian border guards landed in the district of Panjgoor,” a provincial government official said, according to The Indian Express.

Two of the shells landed near a Frontier Corps checkpoint while the third landed at a place called Killi Karim Dad.

No loss of life or damage was reported following the shelling. 

Pakistani security forces have reportedly tightened security at the border following the shelling.

Authorities in Islamabad have raised the issue with Iranian officials.

Pakistan shares a 559 mile border with Iran, which has accused Islamabad of allowing terror groups to use its territory to launch strikes across the border. 

Last year, Iranian border guards also fired three mortar shells into Balochistan, according to The Express Tribune. No deaths were reported.

In 2014, the two nations reached an agreement to share intelligence to combat terrorists on the border.

The shelling came hours before India claims it sent troops into Pakistan to carry out "surgical strikes" against suspected militants.

However, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif rejected India's claim, saying India fired from its side of the heavily militarised frontier in the disputed region of Kashmir. 

"The Cabinet joined the Prime Minister in completely rejecting the Indian claims of carrying out 'surgical strikes'," Mr Sharif's office said in a statement.

Domestic pressure had been building on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to retaliate after 19 soldiers were killed in an attack on an Indian army base in Kashmir on 18 September India blamed on infiltrators who crossed from Pakistani territory.

Mr Modi's government has been struggling to contain protests on the streets of Kashmir where more than 80 civilians have been killed and thousands wounded in the last 10 weeks after a young separatist militant was killed by Indian forces.

India evacuated more than 10,000 villagers living near the border and ordered security forces to upgrade surveillance along the frontier in Jammu and Kashmir state.

Yet another secret side deal in Obama’s awful Iran pact

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif poses with Secretary of State John Kerry

Yet another troubling secret side deal tied to President Obama’s disastrous Iran nuclear pact has now come to light. At this point, Obama has dropped more shoes than Imelda Marcos.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the ransom for the US hostages Iran released in January went beyond that $1.7 billion cash payment: Washington also agreed to immediately lift UN sanctions on two major Tehran banks.

What makes this especially worrisome is that the banks — Bank Sepah and Bank Sepah International — were under sanction for financing Iran’s ballistic-missile program. And those penalties were to remain in force until 2023.

Team Obama said Washington agreed to secretly lift the sanctions as a gesture of good faith because Iran had been complying with the nuclear deal.

But, as we’ve since learned, Iran is only in compliance because of a series of secret technical US concessions — without which Tehran would never have met the deadline for sanctions relief.

Not to mention that its continuing ballistic-missile program itself violates the spirit of the agreement.

It’s also come out that Obama agreed to lift sanctions on Air Iran imposed for ferrying weapons and supplies for the Revolutionary Guard.

And that yet another side deal relaxes key restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear program in a decade, rather than the original 15 years.

Not to mention that Iran was given the right to “self-inspect” its Parchin military base, where nuclear detonators were built.

None of these were disclosed by the White House; reporters had to dig them up. And the administration’s response to each has been to deny or rationalize it away.

Sen. John McCain is right when he says the nuke deal grows more dangerous each day and that the president is “treating the American people like fools” — even as he seems to be getting played by Tehran.

Iran: Revolutionary Guard commanders and regime’s parliamentarians oppose The UN Convention on Rights of the Child

NCRI - The Revolutionary Guard’s General “Mohammad Reza Naghdi” along with some members of Iranian regime’s parliament have announced their opposition to the bill to join the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, stating that joining this convention will lead to closure of the Student Basij.(Regime’s paramilitary force)

In an interview with the state news agency “Basij News” on September 26, the Revolutionary Guard’s Naghdi said: “This is against the Islamic law according to which a person has a duty to fight upon reaching the age of puberty (in Iran 9 years old for girls and 15years old for boys) whereas joining this convention is prohibiting a Muslim from doing his responsibility.”

Naghdi stated that joining the Convention on the Rights of the Child is “totally irrational” and that “it’s not going to happen.” He added: “This is by no means possible that we ask millions of young people who are ready and organized to defend their country, to put their guns down and put their trainings away and go sit at their houses. This is a retreat and our Basijies will never retreat.”

The Commander of Basij also said: “We are not obliged to join this convention. This is totally irrational and there is no reason we voluntarily do something that we are not obliged to.”

In an interview with the same news agency, the Revolutionary Guard’s “Ali Fazli”, Deputy to Naghdi in Basij, has asked the parliament to reject the bill on joining the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Fazli stated that joining the convention is like “surrendering our power and start begging instead.” He added: “We had 36,000 student martyrs who were allowed to go to the front line when they reached their puberty.”

To prepare the ground for another round of killing the children, regime’s parliamentarians like Akbar Torki, Javad Hosseini Kia, and Hossein Ali Haji Deligani, and also delegates of Faridan, Songhor city and Shahin Shahr city, have announced their opposition to the bill, saying that it will restrain the activities of the Student Basij.

Boycott of world chess championship 'would hurt women in Iran'

Leading player urges contenders to look beyond hijab law, to the boost contest would give women’s sport in country

Mitra Hejazipour, pictured, said: ‘These games are important for women in Iran; it’s an opportunity for us to show our strength.’

One of Iran’s most respected chess players has hit back at calls to boycott next year’s women’s world championship in Tehran over rules about the wearing of the hijab.

A number of chess players, including the US women’s champion, Nazí Paikidze, have called for a boycott of the February 2017 games over concerns that they will have to comply with the Islamic republic’s compulsory headscarf law.

But Mitra Hejazipour, a woman grandmaster (WGM) who won the 2015 Asian continental women’s championship, told the Guardian on Friday that a boycott would be wrong and could undermine hard-fought efforts to promote female sport in Iran.

“This is going to be the biggest sporting event women in Iran have ever seen; we haven’t been able to host any world championship in other sporting fields for women in the past,” Hejazipour, 23, said from Tehran. “It’s not right to call for a boycott. These games are important for women in Iran; it’s an opportunity for us to show our strength.”

Her comments were echoed by Ghoncheh Ghavami, a British-Iranian woman who spent five months in jail in Iran for campaigning to allow women to watch men’s volleyball games in stadiums.

Ghavami, whose time in jail drew international attention, said from Tehran: “The world must hear the pro-reform voices of people inside Iran and not ignore these pleas by isolating the country.”

Ghavam said millions of people in Iran believed in women’s right to choose whether or not to wear the hijab and had shown their opposition to the policy. She was referring to women risking arrest by defying the morality police and lobbying to obtain social rights such as being able to play more sports.

Calls to boycott the country would only serve to hurt women in Iran, she added. “I am firmly against the international community using the compulsory hijab as a means to put pressure and isolate Iran.

“Day by day, Iranian women are becoming more empowered and are pushing aside traditional, legal and political discrimination … Those who are worried for the situation of human rights in Iran, if they are really serious, have to acknowledge these efforts and see these capacities.” 

Wearing the hijab has been an integral policy of the Islamic republic since the1979 revolution. Foreign dignitaries have adhered to the rule while on Iranian territory.

Paikidze, a Georgian-American who holds the titles of international master and WGM, told the Telegraph on Thursday it was “absolutely unacceptable to host one of the most important women’s tournaments in a venue where, to this day, women are forced to cover up with a hijab”.

Nigel Short, a British chess grandmaster, called on the sport’s governing body, Fide, to find a different venue, telling the Times: “The hijab is a symbol of Islmic repression.”

But Hejazipour, an MA student at Tehran University and one of Iran’s five WGMs, pleaded with her compatriots to come to her country despite the rule. “I understand that it may be difficult for them to wear the hijab, but I want to tell them that if they show understanding and patience, and if they come to Iran, there’s also a positive side to look at,” she said.

“Iran is a beautiful place and has an amazing culture. If Iran can host this event, it will be a big step for us; it will help our women chess players and it will boost women in other sporting fields. It will pave the way for them, too.”

Elham Yazdiha, a Turkey-based Iranian sports journalist, said she was confident Hejazipour’s view reflected the voice of sportswomen in Iran. “Calls for a boycott will only disappoint Iranian women and destroy their hopes,” she said.

It was a shame, Yazdiha added, that Iranian sportswomen who were already facing restrictions at home faced additional restrictions from abroad. Iranian female basketball players have been barred by international bodies from playing in world events because of wearing the hijab.

Women can vote and drive in Iran but discriminatory laws persist. In court their testimony is worth only half that of a man and they also face inequality over inheritance rights. But they have a strong presence in civil society. Women in Iran have held senior government jobs; the country currently has a number of female vice-presidents and one female ambassador.

Despite the restrictions, many people in Iran are proud of representing their country. In 2013, Shirin Gerami became the first female triathlete to compete for Iran in the sport’s world championship. In August this year, Kimia Alizadeh made history in Rio as she became the first Iranian woman to win an Olympic medal.

“Women’s sport in Iran has expanded in recent years in various fields – you can realise that by seeing the growing number of medals sportswomen are bringing to Iran,” Hejazipour said.

Iran Arrests 25 Christians in Raid Persecuting Believers for Their Faith in Jesus Christ

Christian women attend a church service in Tehran, Iran,

At least 25 Christians have been arrested in the Islamic Republic of Iran solely because of their faith in Jesus Christ, it has been reported.

According to the National Council of Resistance in Iran, Iranian human rights outlets are reporting that over two dozen Christians were recently arrested during a raid by authorities in the southern city of Kerman.

Security officials raided Christians' homes where they confiscated belongings and arrested as many as 25 believers. As of now, there has been no reason given for why the Christians were arrested and their location is unknown.

As Iran is ranked by Open Doors USA as the ninth worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, the authorities in the Shia nation are widely known for their hostility towards Christians.

Hostility toward Christianity and the Bible is so great in Iran that Christians must worship secretly in house churches. When religious police suspect Christians are gathering to worship in secret, they have been known to raid homes, arrest church leaders, worshipers and confiscate and destroy Bibles and other religious material.

In August, armed Iranian agents raided a house church in the central city of Isfahan and arrested 11 Christians. The agents also confiscated Christian literature found in the house.

Then on Aug. 26, authorities raided a Christian picnic that was held in a garden in Firouz-Kouh County, which is north of the capital of Tehran. At least five people of the party had been arrested, according to Morning Star News. 

Mohabat News reports that police in Iran have begun cracking down on Christian weddings and gatherings in which Islamic principles are disregarded.

A shopkeeper sets up a Christmas tree at a shop in central Tehran, December 23, 2015.
Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/iran-arrests-25-christians-raid-persecuting-believers-faith-jesus-christ-170306/#5zZMMyu8PF5G0PBq.99

Not even on Christmas are Christians in Iran safe from persecution. On Dec. 25, 2014, regime authorities raided a house church in in Roodehen and arrested nine Christians.

According to NCRI, the Iranian government also executed seven Christians on Christmas Day.

Despite the Iranian regime's hostility toward Christians, Christianity is on the rise in the Islamic Republic.
As there are believed to be anywhere from 450,000 to 1 million Christians living in Iran, according to a source close to the Iranian house church movement who told The Christian Post in March that a "great, great number of Muslims are turning to Christ."

Iranian-American Pastor Seed Abedini, who was imprisoned in Iran for over three-and-a-half years, recently shared the video testimony of one of his fellow Christian inmates in Iran. The video was recorded before Ali Asadi was set to be executed.

According to Abedini, Asadi said in the video that he is not afraid of his coming death because he knows that it is the Iranian leaders who should be afraid of God's judgement.

"That kind of life who Muslims leaders in Iran have is a really scary life, because of God's judgment on them and they should FEAR [God]," Abedini quoted Asadi as saying.

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/iran-arrests-25-christians-raid-persecuting-believers-faith-jesus-christ-170306/#rhzdWxmlIhSmfRSY.99

In Iran, Where Have All the Promises of Moderation Gone?

Rouhani is caught between disappointed reformists and restless conservatives.

In Iran, the much-vaunted nuclear deal with the P5+1 nations (US, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France plus Germany) has borne little fruit.

So much has changed since the signing of the nuclear deal and what once seemed like a major diplomatic victory is turning into a liability for the incumbent government in Tehran.

The nuclear deal was the result of intensive negotiations which commenced as soon as President Hassan Rouhani came to office in August 2013. But since the signing of the deal in 2015, the pace has slowed considerably.

President Rouhani’s electoral message had been simple and to the point: Iran needs moderation and prudence to come out of isolation and free the economy from the shackles of international sanctions.

His victory, which was endorsed by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, was testimony to the urgency of the task.

The 2015 deal provided for the curtailing of Iran’s nuclear program and subjected its nuclear facilities to stringent inspections. This was a way to assuage the West by showing that Tehran it did not pursue a weaponization agenda in return for the lifting of sanctions that had crippled the national economy.

But the adoption of new sanctions on Iran by the US Congress over its ballistic tests, and remaining sanctions related to Iran’s sponsorship of terrorist organizations (Hizbullah and Hamas), have undermined the promises of the nuclear deal.

This does not bode well for Rouhani and his team.

While many Western and Asian trade delegations rushed to Iran in the wake of the agreement, progress has been excruciatingly slow as international financial institutions remain risk-averse in dealing with Iran.

As a result, the expected economic recovery after years of mismanagement under the former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues to remain elusive.

Change of tune

Against this background, Rouhani’s critics have become bolder. A common criticism leveled at Rouhani’s team is that Iran gave up so much for so little in its nuclear negotiations.

The conservative faction, who calls themselves the Principlists, sees the nuclear deal as political capitulation, a betrayal of the principles of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Even the Supreme Leader, who cautiously endorsed the deal has changed his tune and frequently refers to the United States as untrustworthy and deceitful. In a majorspeech to the military commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in September 2016, he dismissed suggestions that Iran may pursue further negotiation with the United States. He was categorical in that position: “dialogue with the US is harmful and unhelpful”.

Supreme Leader Ali Khameini has adopted a tougher line towards the US. HAIDAR HAMDANI/AFP/Getty Images

The conservative camp has taken heart from the absence of a major economic turn-around and attacks Rouhani’s team for being misguided.

At a recent Friday sermon, for example, the Tehran prayer leader argued that the economy would have been in much better shape if the “government had spent its energy on the resistance economy, rather than wasting efforts on the [nuclear] deal”. Resistance economy is code for a self-sufficient economy, glorifying Iran’s contracting economy under sanctions.

Rouhani’s critics also draw strength from the rapid rise of General Qasem Soleimaniwho led the Iranian military engagement in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State.

Soleimani is celebrated as a war hero, a symbol of Iran’s military might and of what Iran could achieve by investing in its armed forces.

The Supreme Leader has openly backed this perspective and stated that Iran’s position in the region is best guaranteed by the strength of its security forces, not negotiations.

A feeling of betrayal

Faced with this rising tide of opposition, Rouhani has done his cause no favours by neglecting the core demands of his reformist followers. Key among them has been the release of two presidential contestants from house arrest.

Mehdi Karoubi and Mir-Hussein Mousavi challenged Presidential Ahmadinejad’s 2009 victory, rejecting the results as fraudulent and inspiring the Green Movementthat was only suppressed with extreme use of force in the streets of Tehran and other major cities.

Their release has been a key demand for the reformist camp which lent its weight to Rouhani’s electoral campaign in 2015. This support was instrumental in his victory, but many prominent reformists feel betrayed as the president has deliberately avoided the issue.

Another disappointment is the contracting space for NGOs, as the judiciary has moved to curtail social activism. The arrest and harassment of activists, and prison sentences for dual-national Iranians, point to a deliberate agenda of undermining the reformist camp and linking them with an external conspiracy.

The Rouhani government has not protested this push by the conservatives who dominate the judiciary, citing the separation of powers. But this justification rings hollow in a system that is ultimately ruled by one man.

Rouhani is in the final year of his presidency with a mediocre record. Short of a major trade and economic boost to vindicate his policies it is hard to see how he might mount a credible campaign for re-election in 2017.

The irony is that his term has coincided with the presidency of Barack Obama in the US who distinguished himself as open to direct negotiations with Iran, still a taboo in many American circles. Yet, there have been no steps towards bilateral rapprochement.

History might judge Rouhani’s term as a tragic missed opportunity.

Shahram Akbarzadeh is a Professor of Middle East & Central Asian Politics and Deputy Director (International) of the Alfred Deakin Research Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

م. سروش: یک ملتی اندر عذاب از این جناب مستطاب

بیگانه ای بر خاک ما فرمانروایی می کند

مفلوک و ناچیز آمده حالا خدایی می کند

دین کرده او سرمایه در مکّاره بازار وطن

بوزینه بر منبر شده هرزه درایی می کند

در خلوتش این بی حیا همزاد شیطان می شود

اما در انظار این دغل زهد ریایی می کند

فقه و اصول او بُود دزدیِ مال دیگران

از اینهمه جور و ستم کِی او اِبایی می کند؟

از سفرۀ زحمتکشان نان را به غارت می برد

قارون دوران گشته او اما گدایی می کند

صد سال نوری فاصله دارد به این دُور و زمان

هر جا که کم می آورد نوحه سرایی می کند

نه شرم دارد نه حیا هیهات از این شیخ دغا

بر رنج محرومان ما بی اعتنایی می کند

رحم و مروت مُرده در جان و تن این اهرمن

با رجم و شلاق آمده کارِ ولایی می کند!

از جان خود بگذشته و مالش به یغما رفته او

آنکس که اندر این میان چون و چرایی می کند

یک ملتی اندر عذاب از این جناب مستطاب!

هر صبح وشب از شرّ او فکر رهایی می کند

پابلو نرودا

«به آرامی آغاز به مردن می کنی...» ـ پابلو نرودا

پابلو نرودا (زاده 12ژوییه1904 ـ درگذشت: 23سپتامبر1973)، شاعر و دیپلومات شیلیایی و برنده جایزۀ ادبی نوبل سال 1971. از خردسالی به شعر و ادبیات علاقمند بود و نخستین مقاله اش در 16سالگی در یک روزنامه محلی به چاپ رسید. در هنگام دانشجویی انتشار مجموعه های شعرش او را به شهرت رساند. هنگامی که کنسول شیلی در مادرید (اسپانیا) بود، جنگ داخلی اسپانیا درگرفت و در جریان این جنگ بود که با سیاست آشناشد و به هواداری از کمونیسم پرداخت. در همین سالها بود که با فدریکو گارسیا لورکا، شاعر نامدار و شهید جنگهای داخلی اسپانیا، دوست شد و این دوستی به پیوندی عمیق راه یافت. زمانی که کنسول شیلی در پاریس شد، در انتقال و یاری رسانی به پناهندگان جنگ اسپانیا به فرانسه فعال بود.

نرودا در سال 1945به شیلی برگشت و در سنای شیلی به عنوان سناتوری کمونیست راه یافت و رسماً عضو حزب کمونیست شیلی شد. در سال 1946 با شروع سرکوبی مبارزات کارگری و حزب کمونیست به زندگی مخفی روی آورد و در سال 1949 مخفیانه به آرژانتین گریخت و چند سال بعد به شیلی بازگشت.

در دهۀ 1960 از مخالفان سیاست آمریکا، به ویژه در جنگ ویتنام بود.

در سال 1970 از ریاست جمهوری سالوادور آلنده در شیلی حمایت کرد.

در سال 1971 برنده جایزه نوبل ادبیات شد.

12 روز پس از کودتای آمریکایی پینوشه در شیلی که به قتل آلنده منتهی شد، در بیمارستانی در شیلی درگذشت. در همان زمان شایع شده بود که مأموران حکومت کودتا به فرمان پینوشه او را به شهادت رساندند.

مجموعه اشعار نرودا و بیشتر آثار او، بارها، به فارسی ترجمه شده است.

شعر «به آرامی آغاز به مردن می کنی اگر...» نرودا، برگردان احمد شاملو را در زیر می خوانید:

«بهآرامی آغاز به مردن می‌کنی
اگر سفر نکنی،
اگر کتابی نخوانی،
اگر به اصوات زندگی گوش ندهی،
اگر از خودت قدردانی نکنی.

به آرامی آغاز به مردن می‌کنی
زمانی که خودباوری را در خودت بکشی،
وقتی نگذاری دیگران به تو کمک کنند.

به آرامی آغاز به مردن می‌کنی
اگر بردۀ عادات خود شوی،
اگر همیشه از یک راه تکراری بروی ...
اگر روزمرّگی را تغییر ندهی
اگر رنگهای متفاوت به تن نکنی،
یا اگر با افراد ناشناس صحبت نکنی.

تو به آرامی آغاز به مردن می‌کنی
اگر از شور و حرارت،
از احساسات سرکش،
و از چیزهایی که چشمانت را به درخشش وامی‌دارند
و ضربان قلبت را تندتر می‌کنند،
دوری کنی...

تو به آرامی آغاز به مردن می‌کنی
اگر هنگامی که با شغلت،‌ یا عشقت شاد نیستی، آن را عوض نکنی،
اگر برای مطمئن در نامطمئن خطر نکنی،
اگر ورای رؤیاها نروی،
اگر به خودت اجازه ندهی،
که حداقلّ یک بار در تمام زندگیت
ورای مصلحت‌ اندیشی بروی...

امروز زندگی را آغاز کن!
امروز مخاطره کن!
امروز کاری کن!
نگذار که به آرامی بمیری!
شادی را فراموش نکن»!