To LA Times I am ALIVE

I do not expect newspapers such as Iran Daily to bother with facts and checking their claims. However I used to think Los Angeles Times to be a professional journalistic institution. Their article on Iran Civil Aviation claims me dead, while I am alive. I have written them twice, contacted 4 different people there. I have not heard back from them except for a short email saying matter is being forwarded to their foriegn desk. Anyway this is my letter to them:

To Whom It may be concerned,

Times September 15th report on Iran civil aviation by Borzou Daragahi is simply untrue. It represents the biased approach of some Iranian officials and is not even well researched. The article claims Mr. Mehdi Dadpei (my father) was killed with his son in airplane crash in Mashhad. Since I am his only son, I can assure you I am very much alive as I am writing you these lines.

I found it appalling that Mr. Daragahi did not even bother to check his facts. A simple google search would have revealed how biased and fictitious the reports he relied on were. It also is an affront to the legacy of a well respected aviator and a great man. Mehdi Dadpay was a great pilot and leader who served his country and people to his outmost. Mr. Daragahi’s article is a miserable patchwork of official speeches and IRIB fallacious reports that were trying to white wash the grave conditions of Iranian civil aviation industry. All of the quotations in his article are already reported and printed in Iranian media. I am surprised why these officials wanted to stay anonymous, when they already have gone on record with Iranian medial saying the same things.

For Mr. Daragahi to offer my father as a scapegoat to be blamed for the present conditions of Iranian Civil Aviation is a betrayal of the simplest principles of decency and journalism. I consider it an insult and a misrepresentation of facts and reality.

Sincerely Yours,
Ali Dadpay


----I also would like to say to Mr. Daragahi that it is customary for college students to copy, he should have known better!

What a Summer!

What a summer was this summer of 2009! I spent its 3 months back home with my family after a long absence. It was indeed great to be back home, to be united with those loved ones whom one cares most about. And yet the Providence had something else in mind.
The election turned a page in history that proved to be the end of an old chapter and the beginning of a new one. And indeed this was an end, the Tehran of my childhood was long gone. Even in Mehrshahr that lovely suburb 40 km out of Tehran old villas were replaced by buildings and apartment complexes. The new generation only a few years younger than your correspondent, is more arrogant, confident, fearless and in the same time more pragmatic and realistic. To see them walking hands in hands in street of Tehran crowding the streets, the cafes, the malls and every else was to see a new wave getting ready to hit the shore.
And yet for me the end of old era was magnified by a personal loss. On July 23rd I lost my father in an air crash in Mashhad. He went like he wanted; flying, taking care of his crew and passengers. I should write more about him soon, the shock still is there, the loss still is too fresh. I miss him, we all do.
So here is one update after few months, i doubt if ever in history of our time we had such an eventful summer. The world is not the same any more.