Iran and the West

9pm, BBC2

From the same stable, and in the same vein, as The Death of Yugoslavia,
so almost certainly brilliant.

 

I spent a large part of my early years in Iran, +6 months onwards, and
am interested to see what they say.

Lovely place and people.

Aj

 

Yes, on my 'must-watch' list tonight.

(Used to live there, too)

 

Really, where abouts and when?

Abadan '58 to 72

Aj

 

I spent a month or so there back in the mid 70s and it was a great
experience - really nice people.

 

British Embassy, Tehran, 1969-72

 

The nicest people I've ever met.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Colin Irvine

Easy to say when you're not wearing an orange jumpsuit. :^)

 

Well yes.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Colin Irvine

Heh. The Middle East is, IME, an odd place[1].

During the time I spent in Jordan I met some really interesting people.
Pleasant, personable folk. And then - stone cold sober - they would come
out with a statement that would take my breath away. And then carry on
as if nothing remarkable had occurred.

I very quickly realised that there was no point at *all* in discussing
the matter, it was self-evident, and had been told to them by the imam.
It was therefore True.

It reminded me of a family I used to know. They were *horribly* racist,
and would litter their conversation with similar "thoughts". Again, no
point at all in discussing it. Only, it wasn't an imam in their case.
Rather the opposite... ;^)


[1] No shit, Sherlock...

 

Had that with a Pakistani reporter on one of our other papers.

We were discussing 9/11, for some reason, and she came out with: "You do
know that on athe morning of the attacks, all Jewish people in the Two
Towers were given the day off?"

There was a silence, and as nobody else seemed to want to take up the
cudgels, I did, and gently and politely, but *very* firmly pointed out:

1. This would have been an almost impossible undertaking, given the
multiplicity of companies in the WTC, many of which were totally
unconnected.

2. Jewish people, lots of them, were among the casualties.

3. Such an incredible organisational feat would have been impossible to
keep secret - *somebody* would have mentioned it before the attacks.

4. And the fact that nobody could be found who would say they'd been
warned *after* the attacks didn't imply a conspiracy to cover it up, but
more the impossibility of it being done in the first place.

With (4) in mind, I invited her to consider Occam's Razor (which she'd
never heard of), and the likelihood, therefore, that what she was
spouting was total bollocks, and ended with an observation that if she
wanted to be a reporter, this wasn't the way to do it.

"But there's lots about it on the web..." was her reply. Honest. Silly
tart.

 

5. human life is so sacred to us, that no Jew would be so callous as to
just stay off work, knowing (or even suspecting) that two planes were
going to be flown into the towers the next day, with the inevitable
massive loss of life

D.

 

"Heh ho lads! Who's up for dying at work today? Everybody in? Great,
I'll meet you for coffee at the WTC canteen at 08:30, we'll have time
for a Latte before the express trip to paradise. What do you mean 'you
have to take the cat to the vet?', laddie we are talking of the sanctity
of human life here, not some fucking kitty litter problem, get on the
fucking train and I'll see you there.".

Anyway, it's obvious it was a Jewish conspiracy.

 

I meant they'd have informed the authorities.

D.

 

Our VW threw a valve through a piston 50 miles out of Mashad.

1) A guy in a Landrover immediately stopped and offered us a free tow
back into Mashad to the VW dealer.

2) The garage owner told us it would take a couple of days to fix and
insisted on the six of us coming back to his place for dinner and
kipping on his sitting room floor.

I can't see Iranians in Britain getting that sort of treatment.

 

snip>

Bwahahaha.

 

Oh good. I am glad we got that one cleared-up sharpish. I wouldn't want
to think that the recent "problems" with an iPeople or iNation on the
eastern coast of the Mediterranean could have been misconstrued as
anything other than the preservation of life.

PS. Yes some of them "Palestinians" are a bunch of cunts too.

 

Did it for the insurance, you mean?

 

I can't see Britons in Britain getting that sort of treatment.

 

Dammit! It took ages to type that. I can't believe these conspiracy
theories persist, I'm sure it's something in human nature akin to
religion. Oh well.