There is of course another possibility Siavash jaan and that's one that Mahdi and FZ touched on. Knowing how few optimists we have left on ISP
I usually try to reserve those types of comments until after a few other friends have come out of the optimists' closet! :hug:
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That other possibility is that this was an underwater earthquake (a significant event with no visible effects), creating a huge socio-political and economic tsunami that will only be felt when it reaches the shore. If the event was/is significant enough, it would be tough to imagine how it would not be a devastating one for those "death to America" huts who have been selling Sandis on the beach and telling the story of a Great Satan for the last 35 years.
Much like Rio in Brazil - another country whose citizens suffered immensely under a military dictatorship - the citizens have been overlooking the pristine and seemingly calm waters of Sandis Beach from their shanty town in the hills. For 35 years, they have wandered down to the beach to hear about the myth of a far-away Great Satan from these Sandis hut owners... The stories of the hateful white man that came to Iran to steal her oil; the hateful white man that uprooted the poor from their shanties in another far away land and helped build big castles called "Zionism" where those shanties once stood; and the same white man that all but killed the great hero of the Iranian nation some 60 years ago. Perhaps, this myth would not have turned into the best selling story that it is today, without the cathartic images of those hateful white men being escorted out of their "spy den" on Sandis Beach, blind-folded, weak and humiliated - defeated at the hands of a legendary hero who would one day bring justice and wealth to the shanties of Hassan Abad...
As the ripples of that Tsunami reach the shores, the distant sound of sirens from Sandis Beach can now be heard in the old and broken shanty town. On the beach, there's talk of a Satanic storm of Quranic proportions among the panicked hut owners. But on the narrow alleys of Hassan Abad, a different rumour is circulating... that a great hero by the name of Hassan has travelled from the base of the Alborz mountains to the land of the Great Satan only to find a friendly black man where the hateful white man was supposed to live. There's lots of murmurs and questions being asked... Could the legend of Sandis, told for all those years, be untrue? Where is the Great Satan and the hateful white man? What became of that hero foretold to bring justice and wealth to the streets of Hassan Abad? And Where is the justice and wealth, if not in the hands of those same people who have been selling that story?!
But there's also excitement and anticipation there because of an old Iranian legend, all but forgotten, about a man named Fereydun, also having lived at the base of the Alborz mountains, who brought wealth and justice to the world and freed her citizens from the shackles of a superstitious and blood-sucking villain who had brought down the son of a blacksmith. Could this son of a blacksmith be the same man who travelled down from the shanty hills of Hassan Abad to challenge those hut owners 8 years ago? What became of him and the free bags of rice and potatoes he used to send to Hassan Abad? And what happened to his best friend that so many years ago claimed that the far away land was our friend and not the Great Satan? Could he have been telling the truth and is that why he was frowned upon and sidelined by those hut owners? Could he be the same Esfandyar from the old Iranian legend blessed by the heavens whose enemies would suffer a cursed life of bad omens until the day they died?!
It is hard to tell if anything but small waves will hit the shores of Sandis Beach... But the citizens of Hassan Abad are nonetheless empowered and excited for now, looking down at the beach from the safety of the hills on which their humble homes sit, they listen to the sounds of the sirens from down below and wonder to themselves which legend they should believe in - the one full of lies and fury or one that foretells of a bright future and grand homes built on a beach that once housed the charlatans selling the legend of Sandis - rearranged by the heavens in a storm that will forever be remembered...