I have so much to write about my adventure
to Iran that I cannot begin to cover all that I
want to say. I feel more like a foreigner in my
own country of England, than I do being an actual
foreigner in a foreign country like Iran. Strange,
but true. For me, Iran is also demographically,
socially, culturally, politically, and emotionally,
and historically a predominantly male-oriented
society of the kind I have never witnessed quite
before. Everything seems subservient to the
male and most especially the women. Iranians
are neither Arabs nor Europeans, they're
Persian or Irani.
I shall endeavour now to write about
such issues inside Iran of home-
lessness, cost of living, web censorship, oil
rationing, bogs (not blogs) or public toilets,
infrastructure, sense of humour, Islamic prayer
days, cashing American Express travellors
cheques, Islamic art, the new refugees, tourist
scams, Iranian Christians, traffic accidents,
police radar guns, and above all the issue of
UN and Yankee economic sanctions
against the people of Iran ...
Homelessness is handled by providing
state accommodation for all. Folkz are
not allowed to sleep or stay on the streets.
They are picked up and given shelter
off the streets.
Web censorship by Iran of Western
newsites is much like I found in China
when I was there earlier this year. But
unlike China, Iran seems otherwise
alot more open to its citizens
accessing the web.
Iranians buy a litre of oil or gas or petrol
for 10 pence or 20 cents. They are
rationed to 100 litres per month unless
they're taxi drivers or running a business.
For that they can get an additional 80 litres
per month. The problem for Iran is not
crude oil, but the ability or means to refine
such oil. It's something like having a
rough diamond, but needing other folkz
to cut and polish the diamond for you for
it to be sold on the world market. Iran's
crude is a rough diamond, but needs to be
refined for sale and use by being cut
and polished for it first so to speak ...
Beware of bogs or public toilets!! You'll
rarely find the usual Western version of such
with a toliet bowl and seat and a wash
basin unless you're at some fancy Tehran
hotel. No sir, you'll find instead a loo laid
in the ground and where you squat and
do your thing ... And, toilet paper is not
to be found either. Rather, a small hose
is provided for one to clean up one's
own bodily excretion and urine. It's a
dizzy experience, let me say ... Don't ask
me please about the women's WC ...
As for the infrastructure regarding
roads and streets at Persia's capital,
I found them wanting ... They're
uneven and poorly constructed
and dangerous to walk if you don't
look carefully due to the sidewalks
or pavements going up and down
from one section to another. Drain-
age consists of deep troughs running
along or across the sidewalk or
pavement. If you don't look each
time, you can either find your foot
in the rough or you fall on your
ass or asrse quite easily ... Public
road repairs seemed almost non-
existent to me ...
The Persians have a wonderful sense
of humor and when I would put on
faces they'd laugh as good as the
rest of us. They like irony, too.
Jokes about me being a foreigner
inside Iran was always met with a
good laugh and poking fun at myself
and then at them would always bring
the house down ...
Acts of Faith are strong in Iran.
Friday Prayer Day means most
town and cities solidly close down
all day. It was something like Sundays
were of years ago in the American deep
south and in England prior to WWII.
Mosques and shrines are everywhere
and full not just on Fridays but on
most other days, too. As an Anglican,
I encountered no prejudice whatsoever
from anybody I met in Iran ... Nor did I
hear any anti-British sentiments against
me. When I was Isfahan, I requested that
I attend any Christian Sunday service in
town if such was available to me. And, sure
enough it was. I attended the local
Armenian Orthodox Church for the First
in Advent and was taken along the back
alleys of the city to find the church for me.
It was a 400 year-old treasure of Orthodox
Christianity that I found and although the
service was in Farsi, I understand the
whole ceremony of the Blessed Eucharist
and I was overjoyed to witnesss such
as a visiting Christian inside Shi'ite
Iran ...
"Don't leave home without them," de-
clares the American Express travellors
cheque television ads in the states ... Well,
if you plan on taking them to Iran you'd be
alot better off leaving them at home - period.
I took American Express travellors cheques
with me -- not in US dollars, but in EUROS --
and found no bank would cash such travellors
cheques not even the Tehran Headquarters of
the Melli Bank. Yes, they'd cash Euro bank-
notes or British banknotes into Iranian Rials,
but not American travellors cheques or checks.
I had not choice but to use American Express
travellors cheques from my bank because those
were the only type they'd issue me and others.
As for banks, Iran must have more banks than
any other country I have visited. Everywhere
they're dozens of banks of every name possible
on what seems like every other street in
Tehran, Rasht, Shiraz, and Isfahan ...
If I wanted to cash my travellors cheques
the only option I had was on the local
blackmarket which would entail at least
a 25 per cent loss to me of the face value
of each cheque. So for 100 Euros, I would
have gotten 75 Euros back. With the London
bank fee and commission I paid to get the
cheques in the first place to take safely with
me from England to Iran, I would be even
more out of pocket having already paid the
bank's exorbitant fee and commission of
over £22.oo or $44.00 ... So what did I do?
I simply brought back those American
Express travellors cheques I had right
back to England. Since the euro continues
to increase in value, I hold on to them un-
til I need them next on some other travel
adventure come this upcoming New Year
of 2oo8 ... Bravo!!
Iranians resent the term Islamic art
because as Persians their own art is
actually Irani art ... The term Islamic
art is used by most Westerners to
describe the artwork from Islamic
countries. But in Iran, Irani art is
their art and it's not per se Islamic
in origin or anything else but Irani.
I must stop quickly, but will say
more once I can get back to my blog ...
A group of Iranian High School students
asked me to sum-up what I thought of
George W. Bush. I told them: "Bush is
America's First Shah. And like the last
Shah of Iran, Bush is equally brutal
against the Iranian people ..." The
students almost wanted to hug me for
what I instinctively said as we stood
having gazed together at the more than
2.500 year-old UNESCO world heritage
site of monumental Persepolis. It was there,
too, that Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
held his $100 million celebration of Persia's
founding while the people were starving and
subject to torture by the shah's secret police.
When the extravangant party was over,
it was also to be his last party inside Iran ...
Harvey Morris' recent report in The
Financial Times on what appears to be
some disturbing similiarities
between the shah's then ruthless
regime and today's government of
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
(1956- ). is an eye opener. The pres-
ident was, incidentally, one of the
Iranian student leaders at the
American Embassy at Tehran during
the hostage crisis at the rise of the
Islamic Revolution in 1979.
For me as a Westerner to have spend
such time has I did inside Iran was
remarkable and such a personal joy ...
I happen to like the Iranians
and I like their country and their
culture and history truly fascinates
me ... And, why not?
Cheers for now,
+The Crimean Christians, 2oo7.
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