You know the trips of these foreign bloggers and vloggers were covered in Iranian media inside and outside Iran. Iranian tourism minister was quoted admitting it was Iranian tourism ministry idea and it was them who invited these people through Iranian influencers. I know we had major disagreements between us in the past couple of years mostly on football related issues but I have never seen you as an agent of the regime on payroll. At least observe fair and square. I assume you watch TV and follow news. You should have seen the quotation I am talking about minister in past 2 months. Here an Iranian news source talking about this and idea of sponcering more famtrips of bloggers to bring tourists. It also mentions govt of Turkey and Saudi Arabia do that as well. https://donya-e-eqtesad.com/بخش-گردشگری-48/3585650-جذب-میلیونی-گردشگر-با-فم-تریپ Well I am not MEK or Monarchist. That's a fact. I am Secular Democrat and anti-Islamic republic. I may agree with some monarchist on some issues but I hate MEK on same level of Islamic Republic regime of Iran. Where do you stand here? Do you support the regime? Do you think you can reform it? I can get an Idea where Iranian monitor stands. Btw I don't have anti Israeli mentality either. In a free and democratic Iran, we should have normal relations with all neighbors based on respect and mutual interest. I know you are sour from our past debates but the fact that you still read my comments despite not answering, means you still care to read. I sometimes read your comments despite some disagreement as well. Now if you want to restart the flame of enimosity just tell me here like a man. Otherwise I have to interest fighting with you with words. If you think I am wrong just point it and I explain. It is better than name calling and labeling others falsely.
@Mani: Otherwise I have no interest fighting with you with words. If you think I am wrong just point it and I explain. It is better than name calling and labeling others falsely. It is the habit of Islamic Republic agents to label the political and social activists and the opposition groups as MEK members, separatists, terrorists, thugs, foreign agents or wild militant anti establishment members.
OK, I'll bite: I read the article for a bit, and the whole Kaka-esque thing, but it didn't say why he was detained. I mean it must be a great country if British porn stars go there to get nose-jobs, right?
Popularity of terrorist Qasem Suleimani among Iranians. People are cheering the young lad and basically say God bless you and death to dictator Here is popularity of late Iranian king Reza Shah among football spectators. These are the ordinary people who are not covered in Iranian TV and Media. They want to put a lid on them. They are calling "King Reza Shah, God bless your soul" Here Iranian students are refusing to walk on American and Israeli flags painted on the floor outside Tehran University. They say: " Basiji/IRGC thugs have no honor, you have no honor..." Pointing out to few regime thugs with beard who walked on flags
It must be if even columnist Annika Hernroth-Rothstein, a staunchly pro Israeli Jew, in response to the question: What surprised you the most about Iran? A: How much I loved the country. Q: Really. A: Yes, besides Israel, I have never fallen so deeply in love with any country." Go to minute 11:40-11:50 of the video below.
No argument from me, I would love to visit there, as it seems like a fascinating country, full of all kinds of contrasts and complexities that just can't be summed up in a sound byte. But why was the journalist detained?
Did she say she loved Iranian people or govt? General ordinary Iranians are kind and hospitable no argument there. She applied under a European passport if I am not mistaken and the regime admitted they didn't know she was a pro Isreali reporter otherwise they would not give her visa. Some hardliner parliament members bashed Iranian foreign ministry for giving visa to her.
Iran is a definitely full of complexities, contrasts, and hardly a country that can be 'summed up in a sound byte'. For once, something I read here that I can agree with I don't know. I hadn't even heard about it until I read that piece.
Iranian regime corruption and mismanagement need a book to write about, but I try to mention some examples here and there. Iran as a semi arid country has been suffering from shortage of water for some years. Water supply mismanagement of Iranian government and IRGC made it even worse. U.N. Warns Iran’s Water Crisis Will Become Dangerous if Left Unchecked https://www.mei.edu/publications/un-warns-irans-water-crisis-will-become-dangerous-if-left-unchecked IRGC makes money building dams but no matter if it is really needed or it is harmful, IRGC takes the contract and collect the money. One example is building a multi billion dollar dam project by IRGC near a massive salt mine on Karun river (Iranian largest river). The salt mine is gradually dissolved in the water and brought the salinity of drinking water to a harmful level. Consequently, it is making fertile lands of lower Khuzestan owned by poor farmers to barren land, because the water evaporates and the salt remains which makes it impossible to grow any plant. Khatamol Anbia company which is an IRGC related company, built this dam. Here is the info in Persian about Gotvand dam built by IRGC. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.radiofarda.com/amp/27753192.html https://iranechoes.blogspot.com/2019/04/peopleIranian.html?m=1 English sources: https://financialtribune.com/articl...on-to-controversial-gotvand-dam-scheme-costly http://www.trackpersia.com/gotvand-dam-environmental-disaster/ http://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/html/10.11648.j.ajce.s.2015030202.20.html Here is info in English about disaster in south west Iran and dust storms How Iran’s Khuzestan went from wetland to wasteland https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.th...khuzestan-environment-wetlands-dust-pollution In Persian It was reported last year that the CEO of huge IRGC related company "Khatamol Anbia", Mr. Ebadollah Abdollahi was arrested in Dubai trying to escape the country with 100 million dollars and some gold bars. It was later denied by IRGC but nothing was shown as proof to cancel other reports. Here is Mr. Abdollahi along Commander-in-Chraf of IRGC Mohamad ali Jaffari when he was still in charge of Khatamol Anbia company. He was removed from office before trying to escape from the country.
Corruption and scandals in financial organizations and banks run by IRGC IRGC established many Iranian banks promising higher than usual interests and collected a lot of money. Later the money was either diverted to war in Iraq and Syria or pocketed by IRGC commanders. These banks were Arman, Ghavamin, Caspian, Samenol Aeme, Samen, Tat (Ayandeh), etc. People who lost their savings protested outside banks and questioned the central bank authorizing these banks without investing them having enough collateral assets. The protests were continued and crushed by IRGC. They stole the money and silenced the people who lost their savings, and to some individuals offered a small fraction of their savings in return.
Child labor in Iran is a serious problem. Because so many families are falling down below poverty line, it forces the kids to earn a living to help their families. The rent, food and living expenses are crushing the poor and lower middle class month after month. I tried to not use any photo posted by MEK online. Alireza Beiranvand, Iranian national team goal keeper, was working all of his childhood from being a shepherd, construction worker, pizza man, dishwasher, carwash employee and so on. He used to sleep on the floor of a Pizza shop while training with teenage team of Naft Tehran as a goal keeper. He save a penalty by Christiano Ronaldo in last world cup.
While Iran does have ugly things to show as well, and that is a part of Iran as much as the ugly parts of America are a part of America too, to draw a picture of "IRAN" looking at "Sistan and Baluchistan" province is going to be badly misled about Iran. The region, which borders Pakistan, represents a very distinct demographic, economic, social, political and cultural sub-part of Iran. A small part of Iran, but one that shares much more in common with the Indian subcontinent than with Iran. The population is predominately Baluchi; Sunni and the problems in this region of Iran are rather unique. Even Iranians such as myself, who have traveled all across Iran (everywhere in every province of the country), don't go to this region because it is not safe. Even so, even this most impoverished part of Iran has some nice things to show. https://www.itto.org/iran/province/Sistan-and-Baluchestan-Province/
Believe me the level of negativity far surpasses the positivity. Once I was posting threads about anything positive about my beloved country of birth, me an exiled Iranian in US. Here is one of my old threads about beauty of Iran. https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/a-window-to-iran.2031737/ If Iran didn't worth it, I would have just forgot about it years ago, just like many Iranians abroad, but I do love Iran and it's people, so I try to inform others, that it is the fault of Iranian regime and not majority of Iranians. Iranian people are kind and hospitable. They are not like Iranian regime crazy, fanatic, hellbent on destabilizing other countries or being enemy of the west. Would you like me to post pictures from Khuzestan province to prove my points or do you prefer photos from Lurestan, Boyer Ahmad, Kurdistan or our poor countrymen from Kermanshah whose livelyhood got destroyed by earthquake a couple years ago and still living in tents and temporary housing? Meanwhile Iranian regime was sending money and arms to Bashar Al Assad in Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hashad Al Shaabi in Iraq and Houthi rebels in Yemen. Do you want me to post pictures of poor Isfahani and Azerbaijani farmers who have no water or do you want me to show you how our Turkmen citizen live after the last flood? Which one do you want? just pick one and tell me.
@PL You can find pictures of poverty everywhere. And I am not here to tell people what to post anyway. Feel free to post what you wish. And I will post what I wish. I care to do my part in telling people what I believe is the 'overriding truth' about Iran, even if others like to accuse me of engaging in propaganda and even being paid for it (I wish. If you think that the image of Iran among Americans (and those in the West) is too positive and that "positive image" needs to be counter balanced by the negative or ugly things in Iran, post away to your heart's delight. I don't presume to tell others what to think, what to say, or what to post.
90% of Iran's population are "Shia", represented mostly by Iran's Persian and Azeri communities. That doesn't mean all Persians and Azeris are doing great! Of course not. Or that there is no poverty in the Iranian Shia heartland. That would preposterous. But I, personally, wouldn't try to tell the story of IRAN by going outside of the areas which comprise 90% of its population. Their story is relevant to how Iran treats its minorities, but not to tell people about the majority in Iran. Similarly, I wouldn't represent the narratives of exiled emigre opponents of the 'regime' (many financed ultimately by foreign powers and their agendas) as representing the true voices of Iran. Public sentiments in Iran are, instead, captured by scientific polls, including those taken by various western pollsters, such as the ones by the University of Maryland even before General Soleimani's assassination:
MEK is a cult. They’re basically the Iranian equivalent of khmer rouge. Having fought alongside Saddam and having committed acts of genocide in Iran at the behest of Saddam, they’re by far the most hated group in Iran. And they know this as well. And so when Aljazeera did an investigative report about them by interviewing their former members, in Albania where they have a troll farm, basically running an army of MEK trolls on Twitter, Facebook and random popular discussions boards to influence the debate on Iran, it was revealed by the former members that they were instructed by their bosses to deny being affiliated with MEK while posting online, and instead pretend to be “secular democrats” and even “monarchists” and go as far as criticizing MEK, in order to hide their affiliation with MEK, knowing very well what a bad reputation their organization has, even outside Iran. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/06/twitter-iran-bots-mek/ The MEK has a history of running online disinformation campaigns. Al-Jazeera has documented a Russian Internet Research Agency-style troll operation run out of Albania, interviewing former MEK members who detailed how the organization controlled thousands of accounts to spread propaganda about regime change and other political aims.
You showing me the latest luxury condo development will not deter me from thinking that Persia is still friggin' awesome!!!
Someone (Dr. Wankler) had mentioned the Tehran Derby. It is about to start. To both watch some Iranian football and get a sense of what many Iranians are focused on for the next couple of hours, you can watch the derby below. http://www.jjtvn.ir/fa/live