You certainly have some very bright students. Their responses are right on target. Yes, I've seen "Taxi Driver" and it is a brilliant film. I think this was Scorcese's high point as his succeeding films, to me at least, are uninteresting. Also, the young Robert DeNiro was brilliant in this film and in "The Godfather" too. Lately he's all over the place in a collection of brain-dead comedies that prove he's money-crazy. Two books that I can heartily recommend are "Revolt of The Masses" by Jose Ortega Y gasset (an ancient classic) and "The Coming Anarchy" by Robert Kaplan. My reading is a bit scattered but in the past several years I've drifted towards geo-political stuff simply because the world, as we know it, is in the midst of convulsive change and I'm trying to make sense of it. Robert Kaplan, a modern writer, travels throughout the former Russian Empire, Africa and the middle east and has much to tell us. I'm a bit uncertain of how available books and magazines etc. are available to you. Are your libraries good and can you order material that might not be in tune with your gov't? Another book you should read is Daniel Yergin's treatise about the great oil companies and how they drained the middle east. I'm suddenly unable to recall the title but I'm sure you can find it. Finally, you described life in Iran as "soul-breaking", a very provocative description. Please try to detail for me some of the difficulties you are coping with. I'll close with one last observation. Freedom is a double-edged sword. It's advantages are obvious but they come at a very steep price. For example, here in the U.S. we are saddled with a very corrupt pop culture simply because there are no strict guidelines regarding dress, music, literature and behavior. Moronically banal tv talk shows and sitcoms fill the air as this is what the masses demand. After all, they have huge buying power so the advertisers aim everthing at this jungle mentality. When Muslim's call us "The Great Satin", I can't really blame them. As the great Winston Churchill once said, "democracy is the worst system in the world.......except for all the others. FRED