On the streets of Tehran, 'we like America'

Zo hoort U eens iets anders,
en van een ander.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/06/27/news/iran.php

On the streets of Tehran, 'we like America'
By Michael Slackman The New York Times
TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 2005

TEHRAN Outside the mosque where Iran's
president-elect, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, went to vote
Friday, a parade of cars, trucks and scooters rumbles
by, day in and day out, right over a picture of an
American flag painted on the blacktop road.

The message is unmistakable, that America is still the
Great Satan, the enemy of the people of Iran, the
nation vilified by the grandfather of this country's
Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and
to this day chided by today's supreme religious
leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

But Hamid Reza Solimaai is embarrassed by that flag on
the ground. So are Sayed Reza Mirsani, Manochek
Janshidi and Mohsen Malek Mohammadi. All work in shops
on Samanegan Street, the road in East Tehran where the
flag is painted, and all said they see that flag in
the road as a relic of an era that has passed.

"The government has imposed this on people's minds,
painting flags on the road," said Solimaai, who was
working Monday in a closet-sized storefront repairing
tires. "Almost all the people hate this."

Mirsani labored over a blast furnace of an oven,
baking bread.

"I can recall the good old days, before the
revolution, when we had good relations with the United
States," he said. "We all lived better. Now we live
worse."

In the realm of international relations, the United
States and Iran are enemies. American officials
attacked Iran's presidential elections as
undemocratic, while Khamenei said that the 60 percent
turnout "humiliated" the United States. But on the
streets of Tehran, from the gritty neighborhoods in
the south, to retail areas in the center of town, to
the posh northern neighborhoods, America is spoken of
more like an estranged cousin, maybe an annoying
cousin, but nevertheless one with whom people would
like to reconcile.

"The people of the U.S. live like us," said Mohammadi,
as he worked inside his film processing shop along
Samanegan Street. "The politics are in the hands of
politicians. Ordinary people cannot change this. I
would love to go to the United States, not necessarily
to live there, but to see how they live and how they
feel about Iranians."

The election of Ahmadinejad, a religious conservative
aligned with some of the country's most reactionary
forces and who takes office Aug. 3, has raised some
concern in Europe and the United States that the new
president would aggravate the already strained
relations with the West.

But in his first news conference on Sunday,
Ahmadinejad sprinkled small overtures to the West
between his bombast. On the streets, it was clear in
conversations with dozens of people over the last week
that there is no appetite for getting into another
showdown with the United States. In fact, most people
said they are hoping for just the opposite.

"This is stupid," Mahmoud Safteri said of the flag on
the roadway, as he stopped into the bakery to buy some
bread. "Tell them it's not the Iranian people. Tell
them it's the government."

Ahmadinejad and his followers have taken a tough line
on foreign policy, one rooted in a sense that the
United States does not show Iran respect, and that
resonates with the public. Almost everyone interviewed
said that for relations between the two countries to
improve, the United States would have to treat Iran as
an equal, not as a second-class country.

At Ahmadinejad's headquarters two days before the
election last Friday, Hassan Khalili, a spokesman for
the campaign, said, with his voice rising in anger:
"When foreigners talk about this country, they laugh
and make fun of us."

But like many others, even Ahmadinejad's closest
supporters made a distinction between the elected
leaders, and the people. When asked if he meant all
Americans, Khalili looked shocked, and said "No, we
like the American people," then leaned over and kissed
an American reporter on the cheek.

Throughout the Middle East, attitudes toward the
United States are often far more nuanced than the
images suggested by images often played on evening
television news programs of protesters burning
American flags or effigies of President George W. Bush.

Many people who want more democratic governments in
this region, whether on the left or the right, say,
however reluctantly, that they view the United States
as an effective vehicle to force change in regimes
unwilling to yield power.

In Iran, attitudes toward the United States are even
more positive, in part, it seems, because so many
Iranians know someone living there. Solimaai, the tire
repairman, reached behind a stack of tires and grabbed
a laminated business card for a body shop in Harbor
City, California. He said it is owned by his sister,
Fatima, and her husband, who have lived in the United
States for 20 years.

"I'd very much at least like to go and see the United
States," he said.

Across town, as the roadway feeds into an overpass
leading to the center of the city, motorists see a
huge image of an American flag painted on the side of
an apartment building. The image, which is about five
stories tall, has skeletons in place of stars, and the
red stripes are the trails of bombs falling to the
ground. "Down With U.S.A." it says in English at the
top of the flag, and on the bottom, in Persian, it
says "We won't go along with America, even for one
moment."

"It's ridiculous," said a man standing on the sidewalk
below. The man, a driver for a government official,
became frightened when his boss arrived, and he
hurried off without giving his name.

But two blocks up the road, Ahamad Yaghobi, who was
working behind the counter of his jewelry shop, said,
"We don't hate America. We like to have better
relations. It's just the governments."

The single largest symbol of Iran and America's
troubled relations is still the former U.S. Embassy,
which was sacked and its employees taken hostage
during the revolution that brought the Islamic
government to power in 1979.

"We will never go along with the United States, the
Great Satan," reads one of many anti-American slogans
on the red brick wall that surrounds the compound.
"The United States is the top of all criminals," read
another.

But there are no longer crowds in the streets chanting
slogans. Pedestrians hurry by without even glancing up.

"These are things that are done by the government
people and people don't necessarily like them," said
Mohsen Hasseni, an accounting student as he walked by
the wall. "It was political tit for tat as far as Iran
was concerned. That's all."

UNQUOTE


--
To be controlled in our economic pursuits,
is to be controlled in everything -- F.A.Hayek.

Magna est veritas et praevalebit
(great is truth, and shall prevail)
-- Del Kennedy

Government is not the solution,
government is the problem.
-- Ronald Reagan.

> "This is stupid," Mahmoud Safteri said of the flag on
> the roadway, as he stopped into the bakery to buy some
> bread. "Tell them it's not the Iranian people. Tell
> them it's the government."

Ja, ja, dat roepen ze hier ook ...

Helaas is dit waarschijnlijk een minderheid.

> Ahmadinejad and his followers have taken a tough line
> on foreign policy, one rooted in a sense that the
> United States does not show Iran respect, and that
> resonates with the public. Almost everyone interviewed
> said that for relations between the two countries to
> improve, the United States would have to treat Iran as
> an equal, not as a second-class country.

I rest my case ...

> Many people who want more democratic governments in
> this region, whether on the left or the right, say,
> however reluctantly, that they view the United States
> as an effective vehicle to force change in regimes
> unwilling to yield power.

Wedden dat de VS binnenvalt ze er opeens heel anders overgaan denken ...;-(