Adventures of Mr.Behi

The Pirates of Petrol

Petrol is outrageously cheap in Iran and I think it makes perfect sense not to subsidize it to the level that it is. It is ridiculous for a giant oil exporter to spend so much money importing petrol while so much of it gets into hands of smugglers who pass it to neighboring countries or gets burnt by old, inefficient cars. Rationalizing the crazy level of internal consumption should have done so long ago....

Knowing that the subject of the above paragraph is Iran, can automatically suggest that things would not be as simple as they should...petrol price is such a sensitive issue that all previous governments did not dare making any drastic increase...they feared what happened in Tehran last night (see pictures).

First of all, I do not understand the Iranian mob! so you collected some more liters of cheap petrol, that means a couple of more kilometers!! and burning petrol pumps! who are they punishing? but at the same time, it is so much to expect from the middle-class and bottom level of Iranian economy to bare this after such a dreadful decline in the economy and the level of unemployment and inflation...and now  shadow of more sanctions...but it is not a big deal...I am sure Iranians will get used to it...I am sure many of my fellow countrymen will consider selling their 1970's monstrous Chevrolet Blazers! or think twice before wandering around the streets Thursday nights...

Instead of global slogans against other countries and spending billions for second hand Russian nuclear plants, shall we make some more refineries? first things first...

Peace

I wish I had my camera with me....this morning was a windless one along Tripoli coastline. My office is overlooking the sea and the shore is just a few hundred meters away...not even a small wave nor a tiny ripple on the water so much so that I could see the reflection of a big boat in the sea and it was at least a kilometer or two from the shore...and then I watched a small motor boat sailing from far western part of my view towards the east, opening the water like a zipper or perhaps like a very skillful tailor...two wave fronts started drifting so slowly from each other, so quietly and gently as if they did not want to disturb the nap of the coast, generating a wedge of slightly darker colour...the boat was long gone off from sight on the east side of my view and the small front wave has still not reached the shore...

Now it is around sunset and I am writing to cool my head off a little after a long day...the sea..still peaceful although there are some small ripples here and there...seems that water drops are trying to compete to reach the part of the sea that is coloured by the dusk...it might as well be like a red -orange- carpet for the waves..they know well that people will look mainly towards the sun as she goes down and will say..how beautiful!...only if the waves knew that they are the main source of beauty for the sun as she goes down beyond them...they show the sun plain and simple...like a drifting boat...like a traveller...and we all get the feeling that we shall wave her good by as she is all alone...leaving us once again...

Betrayed...

I am as old as the Islamic revolution in Iran. All these years, from pre-school to university, I heard slogans against Israel and in favor of Palestinians from every and each government tribune. Palestinian politicians have been coming and going to Tehran and all the time we heard about direct and indirect support to them by Iranian government.

All those years, Iranians paid a huge price supporting the Palestinians...how much pressure from the world we (as people) received because of our governments action in condemning peace process between Israel and moderate Palestinians (I am not sure if it has been a real peace process or not) and Iranian government never explained to us why we should do such unquestionable support.

I am ALL RED now!...reading the last paragraph in this BBC report.

"...In one Fatah video, the dismissed Prime Minister Ismail Haniya is shown embracing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran - picking up on Hamas's close links with Shia Muslim Iran to discredit the Islamist movement...
...Hamas touches on the same theme with a video showing the late Fatah-founder Yasser Arafat embracing "the enemies of the Palestinian people" Ayatollah Khomeini, as well as the pope"

These guys that Iranian government always supported with the price of isolating Iran are actually considering us enemies. This is the most stupid policy making ever...it is not strange, when Saddam fell and Iranians were celebrating, Palestinians declared days of morning...sorry dear Palestinians sorry if our backs hurt your knives!! I ask Mr. Ahmadinejad...please receive this... your government is putting Iran under blade of condemnation to support these guys...answer this question that "How Palestinian politicians relates to us when they use Iran as means of condemnation in their internal propaganda?

We want our feet out of the Palestine-Israel problem...out of Lebanon-Israel problem...out of Syria-Israel problem...out of any conflict or problem in the world. Let Iranian people to be able to support other people freely as they like...we do support those who suffer under human rights abuse and those who are in need no matter where they come from...do not spoil our genuine sympathy with others with your bitter politics....better say...stupid politics...it does not even in favor of you!   

The grass, the fence and the apple in between

"The other side of waters" is a folk term in Iran for "beyond boarders". Living outside is like one big dream for many when they are inside So many factors contribute to this "surge of immigration" and you rarely see a good university graduate, a powerful investor or a skilled professional that does not have an eye on immigration.
It seems that Iranian are brought upon as very long range planers. Iran happens to be so unpredictable for  many, that having the "Plan B" for life becomes a must and the grass always looks greener if you manage to pass the fence.
So many of our friends are now living in Europe, US or Canada (one is still finishing his studies in Japan though). We are the ones who ended up in Africa for the moment :) but sometimes think about having a plan for residing in one of those places way long in future. It is however also cool to wait for your company to put you in a new adventurous place after a while...places that you would not normally choose to live if you were to decide yourself...future is not predictable..leave it as it is...another Iranian proverb says: "When you throw an apple, It will rotate so many times till it comes to rest" things will change and the apple of our life is just thrown...it may as well hit us in the head and help us to discover something new...:)

Before I forget

Not blogging for a while is something that makes me a little miserable. This is like an alarm sound reminding me that I am not spending enough time for my private life. Spending most of the day at work and thinking about the list of pending issues leaves not much capacity for reading and writing and shooting pictures.
Tripoli is in the verge of summer. Mornings quickly connect to the extreme heat of the mid-day. Cool evenings are giving way to warmer dusks. Life goes on....Before I forget, last time we got the chance to get out nice was the weekened before the one we passed and we went to this place...yes it is Libya...

 

The Bag Pipe

The British ambassador had another big party last night and when we got home after sunset, we saw a man in Scottish costume playing a bag pipe for his guests. Later I found out that the party meant to celebrate birthday of The Queen of England. For that, we faced yet again another security restriction around our place. I was so pissed off that I wanted to write to the ambassador and complain.
I was talking to Mrs.Behi and we were wondering if any Iranian diplomat was invited and then was imagined how cool it would be to dress up and crash the party as Iranian delegates...:)

Pings in Prison

...Iranian government is in love with technology!They are not satisfied with the current level of filtering that hunted down so many sites and blogs already. Now it is in the news that they are installing new robotic technology to trace weblogs that link to forbidden addresses and filter them away. This is crazy. Imagine the huge network of pings, links in posts and comments and you will start to understand how grave the situation is about to get for surfers inside Iran. Now people can not even link to filtered blogs!

One cool idea: Any hacker out there? Please get into major governmental websites and make some hidden links to forbidden blogs. That would be so cool to see the website of the president getting hunted by the new filters!

Imagine filtering in Iran 25 years later: Press release: Iranian telecoms company announced today the employment of new multiphase electromagnetic scanners in the national internet control system. The announcement explaines  that by the start of next month, hidden cameras will be placed in public places to scan brain waves of citizens and those who even think of writing anything against the laws or even start to think about linking to a forbidden weblogs will be prosecuted and their weblog will be filtered!

New Room for Mrs.Behi

Many of posts here are about things I did or places I went together with Mrs.Behi. Even most of the political and socials talks come in writing before or after our daily chats about the subjects. She is by far the most dedicated reader of this blog and since while ago, has also been a guest writer here. Now she started a blog of her own while staying as guest writer here. The blog is named "My Mind ROOM" where she will be writing about her insights and ideas.