Tahreem……u gotta be kidding….Tahreem must be a city in Yemen . Pity those of us who even thought of boycotting the elections in Iran and were counting on people not showing up at the polls , myself included.
Last night I was coming home back from Airport, it was around 2 am. Right before the Parkway intersection there was a huge traffic jam, well …..It was a total stoppage. First I thought it’s an accident or road repair..but when a screaming bunch in car covered with Ahmadi Nejad posters ran by.it became clear it’s the campaign thing. Let me tell u this was beyond the going to world cup celebration by far. We hung around 3 30 am before finding a way home. The parkway bridge, Pahlavi street, Freshte all were littered with campaign posters and papers. Rafsanjani’s fans were quite vocal “ Amir kabir Iran, Hashemi e Rafsanjani” …the mainly Basiji boys some looking as scary as ever were chanting “ dooctoor dooset dareem. Dooctoor dooset dareem” ….one of them came to me saying…” Agha ma 8 sal Hashemi ro emtehan kareed…hala biaeem o 4 sal be Ahmadi Nejad Shance bedeem..” somebody else said “ hala deege vaghte tahseel kardehast”.
In any case during the last month I have witnessed a presidential campaign with such youthful energy and fierce involvement that I never saw in 27 yrs of living in U.S I wasn’t around during Khatami’s election. This in part is a byproduct of a young country u can say and I bet u the Friday vote(tomoro) will break all records. The fear of Ahmadi Nejad has done its job and now majority is loving Rafsanjani to come back….amazing..Hah?
I have also learned one other lesson, Iranians are the hardest bunch to predict. They don’t fit any established behavioral pattern. During weeks before last Friday’s elections I asked anybody I knew or ran into, about whether they are planning to vote and just about every body said no way they would vote. They lied , most of them voted..they themselves said so when asked again .. so what… they contradicted their own words. And now there is a strong will by everybody to elect Rafansanjani . most people are scared of AhmadiNejad.
Its common belief that Kherad e Jamie is not usually wrong. I don’t know…but now u can clearly see the huge divide that is as big as the oceans that separate the Iranians inside and outside. Up to 2 yrs ago the people inside were hoping on big things coming from abroad and were more active in their opposition to IRI , now however after getting false promises from abroad and watching America’s problems in Iraq, they have given up on any hopes of getting rid of IRI and basically trying to pick the bad from worse. U can’t fault them can u?
Last night I was coming home back from Airport, it was around 2 am. Right before the Parkway intersection there was a huge traffic jam, well …..It was a total stoppage. First I thought it’s an accident or road repair..but when a screaming bunch in car covered with Ahmadi Nejad posters ran by.it became clear it’s the campaign thing. Let me tell u this was beyond the going to world cup celebration by far. We hung around 3 30 am before finding a way home. The parkway bridge, Pahlavi street, Freshte all were littered with campaign posters and papers. Rafsanjani’s fans were quite vocal “ Amir kabir Iran, Hashemi e Rafsanjani” …the mainly Basiji boys some looking as scary as ever were chanting “ dooctoor dooset dareem. Dooctoor dooset dareem” ….one of them came to me saying…” Agha ma 8 sal Hashemi ro emtehan kareed…hala biaeem o 4 sal be Ahmadi Nejad Shance bedeem..” somebody else said “ hala deege vaghte tahseel kardehast”.
In any case during the last month I have witnessed a presidential campaign with such youthful energy and fierce involvement that I never saw in 27 yrs of living in U.S I wasn’t around during Khatami’s election. This in part is a byproduct of a young country u can say and I bet u the Friday vote(tomoro) will break all records. The fear of Ahmadi Nejad has done its job and now majority is loving Rafsanjani to come back….amazing..Hah?
I have also learned one other lesson, Iranians are the hardest bunch to predict. They don’t fit any established behavioral pattern. During weeks before last Friday’s elections I asked anybody I knew or ran into, about whether they are planning to vote and just about every body said no way they would vote. They lied , most of them voted..they themselves said so when asked again .. so what… they contradicted their own words. And now there is a strong will by everybody to elect Rafansanjani . most people are scared of AhmadiNejad.
Its common belief that Kherad e Jamie is not usually wrong. I don’t know…but now u can clearly see the huge divide that is as big as the oceans that separate the Iranians inside and outside. Up to 2 yrs ago the people inside were hoping on big things coming from abroad and were more active in their opposition to IRI , now however after getting false promises from abroad and watching America’s problems in Iraq, they have given up on any hopes of getting rid of IRI and basically trying to pick the bad from worse. U can’t fault them can u?
