The memory of a traveler, part 2

Politics

The best-known politicians are Ahmedinechad, Imam Khomeini and Imam Khameini. From our conversation with people we got the impression that Ahmedinechad is a relatively powerless puppet on a string. Khomeini enjoys a decent reputation. Khameini has the title of “Supreme Leader”, but speaks for more powerful mullahs who are rarely seen in public. Virtually everything in Iran is controlled by mullahs.
Among the people we spoke to there is little love lost to the mullahs. They are generally seen as power hungry, greedy for money, “don’t really work” and have, contrary to ordinary Iranians the luxury (?) of several wives. We had expected that pictures of these three politicians will be seen in high numbers, but to the contrary. Austrian politicians are seen much more frequently, grinning stupidly down on us.

The exiled son of the Shaw is enjoying wide-spread secret admiration and some Iranians are questioning why they have overthrown the Shaw. An elderly taxi driver spontaneously showed us an old banknote with a picture of the Shaw: “…good man”. Several Iranians expressed their dissatisfaction with Ahmedinechad’s provocative statements on the stage of world politics. Iranians want to be respected members of mankind and not the outcasts.

Persians strongly dislike Arabs and they make every effort to say that they are NOT Arabs. One has the feeling that the Arab conquest had taken place just a few years ago and not many centuries ago.

Tehran

Is a gigantic city, located at the foot of the Elburs Mountains (17,000 feet). No one really knows how many people live in Tehran, but no estimate was below 15 million people. Although on any weekday only one half of the cars are allowed to drive and gasoline is rationed, traffic is beyond description and makes it one of the most polluted cities of the world.. The creativity of Tehran’s drivers is most impressive.

E.g. try to make a U-turn on a 6-lanes-expressway where traffic is bumper to bumper, divided by double solid yellow lines. In Iran this is possible and no one would honk his horn. Almost every minute you can see a new creative detail, how Tehrani drivers cope with the challenges. Crossing such a street requires from pedestrians utmost physical and mental fitness. You need to guess which driver would stop and which one would not. Don’t resort to crosswalks, they don’t mean anything. No, Iranians are never aggressive when driving (almost the opposite of Germans). It is very important that, before you start your creative maneuver, you avoid strictly any eye contact, as this can be seen as a sign of weakness or might reveal your intention prematurely. Once you have tricked your “opponent”, put on your most disarming smile, make a few friendly and apologetic hand gestures, and within seconds you are off to another adventure.

And Allah is sitting on a cloud and smiling benevolently down onto the world he has created….

Far less exciting is mingling with the pedestrian world. Black is the most fashionable color for women. Iranians are absolutely not afraid of getting in touch with foreigners. They explain that they are also of Indo-European descent and in order to prove that, they have Iranian words ready that sound very similar in other Western languages. The language sounds pleasantly, almost the opposite of the Czech language. Iranians use the Arabic alphabet, writing from the right to the left. They use “real” Arabic numbers and write them from left to right.

At the airport a 9 year old boy asks me whether I speak German (American tourists are traditionally hard to find….). He would like to practice his German. He speaks without accent, using perfect grammar and has a huge vocabulary. He has learned the language on TV (!). His father, who speaks no foreign language, proudly watches his son “performing”.