A Self-Sufficient Megalomaniac in Iran
Aug. 2007
No oil money at the dinner table as promised…
Iranian President Mahmjoud Ahmadinejad’s grand vision to reform Iran and let every one have a taste of the oil money has turned out to be in dire need of an overhaul. The Wall Street Journal reported recently that Iran is in economic shambles. Below is a summary of surprising facts gleaned from this article:
• For the past five weeks, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Islamic Moral Brigades have been clashing with groups of young Iranians on the streets of Tehran and other major cities over the government's crackdown on "immodest dress."The crackdown is seen by many Iranians as another step toward an even more suffocating social atmosphere in the crisis-stricken country.
• Last week tens of thousands of angry workers, forming an illegal umbrella organization, flexed their muscles against President Ahmadinejad on International Labor Day in Tehran and a dozen provincial capitals. Marching through the capital's streets, the workers carried a coffin draped in black with the legend "Workers' Rights" inscribed on it. They shouted "No to slave labor! Yes, to freedom and dignity!"
• Mr. Ahmadinejad centered his 2005 presidential campaign on a promise to "bring the country's oil money to every family's dinner table." After the election his position was boosted by a dramatic rise in oil prices, providing him with more than $100 million a day in state revenues.
• Because it controls the oil revenue, which comes in U.S. dollars, the Islamic state has a vested interest in a weak national currency. (It could get more rials for the same amount of dollars in the domestic market.) Mr. Ahmadinejad has tried to exploit that opportunity by printing an unprecedented quantity of rials.
• The president's favorite catchword is "khodkafa'I" or "self sufficiency."To the horror of most Iranians, especially the millions connected with the bazaars, who regard trade as the noblest of pursuits, Mr. Ahmadinejad insists that the only way Iran can preserve its "Islamic purity" is to reduce dependence on foreign commerce.
• Convinced that Islam is destined for a "clash of civilizations" against the "Infidel"--led by the U.S., of course --President Ahmadinejad is determined to preserve what he regards as the Islamic Republic's "independence."
• Khodkafa'i has had catastrophic results on many sectors of the Iranian industry. Unable to reduce, let alone stop, imports of mass consumer goods (including almost half of the nation's food) controlled by powerful mullahs and Revolutionary Guard commanders, President Ahmadinejad has tightened import rules for a range of raw materials and spare parts needed by factories across the nation.
• One result of the president's weird policy is the series of strikes that have continued in Tehran and at least 20 other major cities since last autumn. Last year, one major strike by transport workers in Tehran brought the city of 15 million to a standstill for several days.
• Right now tens of thousands of workers in industries as diverse as gas refining, paper and newsprint, automobile, and copper mining are on strike.
• President Ahmadinejad, however, is determined to impose what looks like a North Korean model on the Iranian economy.
Get the full scoop
Iran's Economic Crisis
By Amir Taheri
Our take
Pounding your fist on the table and blaming the U.S. for your country’s problems doesn’t make your country’s problems go away. Like Venezuela’s Socialist Hugo Chavez, Iran’s President likes to direct all the blame on the U.S. It is nice to hear, for a change, that his own citizens are beginning to see through the smoke screen policies of a demagogue.
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