Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Kashan Mansions

Kashan is known for its beautiful, restored mansions. They seem to rise out of the earth.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Still Incomplete Milad Tower

The still incomplete Milad Tower looks out over one of Tehran's busy public transport junctions.

Finally completed in October 2008, the Milad Tower (Borj-e Milād) is Tehran's iconic, 435-meter-tall multi-purpose tower, serving as a major telecommunications hub, cultural center, and tourist attraction, featuring observation decks, restaurants (including a revolving one), museums, and various entertainment facilities, making it the tallest tower in Iran and a symbol of modern Tehran.

Guide to Tehran

Existential graffiti in Iran

Roughly translated:

I write to leave a reminder
So that if I disappear one day
A reminder it will stay

Guide to Tehran

© Iranvisitor.com

Thursday, June 07, 2007

"Eeenja Iran-e!" (This is Iran!)

This is an excuse I hear a lot when things are not the way they should be. It's usually employed once a solution to a problem is identified and thoughts turn to putting it into practice.

"But this is Iran!" It's not as easy as that! Sure, that's the problem and this is the best way to get around it but this is Iran. Don't expect things to go so well....

[ followed by any/all of Iran's 3 great national excuses.]

1. First of all people 'don't have culture' here [the Farsi word for this is 'bifarhang' which has no direct translation] they don't know how to behave. You tell them one thing and they do another. They're uneducated and they don't know how to follow rules....

2. And the government doesn't let people get on with their lives. One day one politician launches a policy, the next day he's gone and his replacement wants something else. He gives government jobs to all his cronies and they start filling their pockets and before they've had enough so they can really start work their boss gets the sack and another politician/set of cronies starts all over again!

3. Do you expect the West would let us improve? We were developing a perfectly good democracy until the US stepped in and took away the only decent leader we'd had since Abbas the Great [meaning Mohammad Mossadegh]. And the British are twice as cunning.... Everyone knows George Bush is in Tony Blair's pocket. The mullahs all take their orders from England. It's been like that for centuries and don't think it's going to change soon!

Guide to Tehran