Sunday, March 1, 2009

8

Iran's contemporary history (1900 - 2009) is seldom a 'secret' or a 'mystery' for aware people around the world . I don't intend being a bit 'off-topic' by developping or entering in the details of the events here , because all the History experts and scholars have already written a lot about and all the filmed sceneries exist and are available in all the archives , but I just mentioned that to put in the 'light', the social and political context in which if not all iranians , but at least the iranians of my generation have lived in .

First of all never 'no one' consults us to see if we wish or agree with 'being born' in this world or not , and once born , we never choose our family , our place of birth or our socio-economic surrounding or 'class' , as a result we are just the bearers of incredible sort of impacts , from our genetic inheritance to our personal experiences and education .

When you are born in a non-industrialized country which is first of all full of natural resources, essentially the oil , and secondly located somewhere on the planet's map which makes you a strategic region for all the 'industrially-advanced super-powers ' , you become the 'center of attention' and the 'target' of all sort of 'greedy' intentions of those 'super-powers' in a way that you lose your 'sovereignty' and 'the others' decide for your 'destiny' . Then your country is never 'yours' in reality , and you can hardly become the master of your social and 'personal ' life .

In such circumstances , while the different sort of socio-economico-political events determine your 'private' and social life , keepinp still your head up on your body for some long time , and 'guaranteeing' your individual 'integrity' , seems somehow an 'heroic act' .

As we know after the WW II , when the 'world' entered into the 'cold war' , Iran became more and more the 'strategic basement' for the 'super-powers' , as a result , iranians were witnessing the 'scenery' of all sort of disturbances , unrest , riots and the changing of multiple 'governments' , if any , if we should taking into consideration the 'nature' of those 'governments' .

...Finally when in the 60's , my beloved wife and me moved to Tehran , we 'enjoyed' somehow a 'relative' social stability , without forgetting that a sort of 'underground dissatisfaction ' of some social 'layers' and groups or 'classes' of the society was still 'awake' .

Once again I was grateful toward the 'Providence' for having given me an angelic creature like my wife whom I always considered as my 'savior' in all circumstances . She was a very well balanced woman and very talented in fashion designing , in a way that when we settled in Tehran , before I could find a 'job' , my wife already began working as a fashion designer . With her support and help , few months later I created my art workshop and start producing artworks and selling them which allowed us to live a decent life before the birth of our children .

The financial situation of the most social groups and families was below the average , but given that they had all already experienced the 'worst' , they were in general 'patient' and 'satisfied' .

After the birth of our children , our life became progressively hard and because I wished the best for our children , suddenly I realized that I had not the means ,and our expenses were above of our income .

Those days , for the first time I felt a sort of anguish which was different from all the ones I had experienced before , because this time the life and the destiny of my wife , my children and my whole family was in danger .

I tried and hanged on all sort of occasions to earn few money and even didn't hesitate to borrow some from friends and acquaintances . Thanks to the hobby of my childhood and youth which was the literature and poetry and my very good background in this matter , I began writing step by step an anthology of my poems published in some iranian magazines which helped us considerably in our financial situation .

Later , after the translation of my poems in english I could gain an award from the International Poetry Institution which was a bronze medal of Edgar Allan Poe (shown in the section of 'gadgets') . This was the most rejoicing event of my life on those days , and it really cheered me up , because I was rewarded for the quality of my poetry and secondly because of my name 'Teymur' which is known as 'Tamerlane' in the western world and also because of the title of Edgar Allan Poe's poem 'Tamerlane' .

The real life called me again with its 'insatiable' material needs . Our children were happy and intelligent , and each day they were growing and their needs with it . When they reached the age of going to school , I reminded my own childhood in Tabriz and the endeavour of my father for giving me the best education . But I realized that our financial situation was not good enough in order I invest for the best education of my children in the best school of Tehran .

By nature I was a 'mystic' person and once again the 'Providence' came at my help and an unexpected solution 'appeared' .

One of my close friends of college in Tabriz , with whom I worked on architectural projects , found me and proposed to cooperate with him in some cultural buildings projects . I accepted his proposal without hesitation and this event improved our financial situation in a way that I had not have to worry about the education of my children in the best school of Tehran .

In the next part of my blog I will talk about the tremendous changes which happened in Iran's economy at the late 60's and early 70's because of the sudden increase of the price of oil and the huge amount of money which poured in profusion into Iran and gave a totally a 'new' shape to the society , creating new social 'layers' and 'classes' separated by many invisible, but very strong lines, and giving room for 'injustice' of all sort .





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