Apr 24, 2004- Apr 30, 2004

The last week's headlines were dominated by social news rather than political events:

On Sun Apr 25, the main headlines were about the collapse of a bank building in southern part of Tehran:" 75 people survived and were pulled out from the rubbles"- Sharq wrote. In the accident, 18 people were injured including one who died later from the trauma. No official announcement was issued to explain the reasons.
Later, it was said that the building was too old to bear with the overloads because of some construction operations going on in the building. "One of the officials of the bank said that the responsibility belonged to the Metro Company which was digging the ground beneath the building."- Aftab wrote.
For the capital city with thousands of old houses which can not bear even with the slightest shocks, the incident could be an alert about the critical situation due to many active faults beneath its grounds.
On Mon, Apr 26 , Vaqaye Ettefaqiye wrote:" The responsible officials were summoned to the court."

On Mon , Apr 26 , dailies covered the death of five patients hospitalized in a famous hospital in Tehran. They died because of anesthetics. The story was that all the dead had gone under for operations and never had gotten back to consciousness. The reason was announced to be the use of expired anesthetics. The news was the first link in the chain of disputes among the hospital officials, the company which distributes the pharmaceuticals and the Ministry of Health (the main responsible body for distribution of anesthetics in the country.) "No one has been arrested yet."- Vaqaye Ettefaqiye wrote on Mon, Apr 26.

After a long time of silence, Khatami spoke to the young people gathered in presidency palace on Wed 28, on the occasion of Youth Day. Twenty young men and women from of the youngest populations in the world, spoke to him quite frankly. The most courageous one, a university student whose words were supported by the audience with a long applause, hinted at Khatami's silence and said: "Mr President! My friends and I have been thinking what to tell you. Finally, we decided that I stay silent for three minutes in front of you….. You have been silent when the university dormitories were attacked by the vigilances, when the newspapers were shut down, when the minister of Higher Education resigned to protest. I'm asking you Mr President, how long are you going to keep on this silence? Isn't it time to break it? I am asking you Mr President, why our generation is frustrated? I am telling you, it's your fault."- Vaqaye Ettefaqiye wrote.
Another girl, a young journalist and blogger protested the internet filtering. A former prisoner expressed his anxiety of the fate of hundreds of boys and girls like himself who can not go back to a noble life because of the high crime rate in the society. Khatami tried to answer the protesting young ones using the same words once could excite the people. Some six years ago these words had dragged millions to ballot boxes to vote for him and for Change. The hopes and excitement is substituted by despair and frustration now.
Khatami tried to paint a bright picture of the current situation through comparing it with six years ago. But it seemed that his words hardly could reach even the people inside the presidential palace, let it be alone seventy millions of Iranian population.

"My knees are too weary to be able to dance with the tune that officials play for me",- Bahman Farman-ara Iranian famous director said in an interview with Vaqaye Ettefaqiye on Wed 28, to express his anger and despair and to protest the restrictions that the directors face. The daily wrote about the 63 year old director who came back to the country after twenty years from Canada just a few years ago and the frustration he feels now because of the policies dictated by the officials. Being a religious intellectual, he never expected to be under such pressures and restriction. In the interview he announced that he prefers to stop film making as long as the restrictions are there to bother him: "If I was a person to make films according to the orders I receive, I would have done it much sooner- when I was younger." At the end when he was asked if he thought that the officials could help to solve the problem, he answered "I don't think so!"