Monday, August 22, 2005

Down with Germany! Down with France!

Flew back into Tehran. Paid too much for a cab. Well, just about 20 cents too much. I guess I can live with that. My driver has the radio on. The news. Reporting on Friday prayers. Chants of Khameini! Khameini! Khameini!

Subject of sermon: nuclear power, AN's cabinet, and the usual "down withs:" Israel, America, England…Plus 2 new ones: Germany and France. Welcome to the club!

"What do you feel when you hear 'Down with America'?" My driver asks me.

"Frankly, I don't like it. But it does not bother me too much because no one has ever been rude or insulting to me. Even the Basiji are polite and friendly when they find out I am an American."

"We are a hospitable people. You won't meet a more hospitable people anywhere in the world."

Maybe not…

The driver's brother lives in San Jose, California. His sister lives in Germany. His other brother is a fisherman in Bandar Abbas.

Get home. Friends greet me. Sleep.

2 comments:

Qasem said...

I enjoyed the "May be not...". I think "may be not..." is a fair expersion that one may use in such a situation, perhaps regardless of the country which one resides in.

Anonymous said...

Not so bad at all! Be happy. At least you get home, your friends greet you and you sleep.

Belive me, it could be worse. You may go home, but there may not be a friend to greet you. You are not a Middle easterner who, due to his face, the westerners generally accuse him of being a terrorist. And the rest of the middle easterners know him as the person who has strayed from Islam and is an infidel. I assume that you know whats are the consequences of being an infidel, who was a Muslim once.

One of the hopes of the above, however not hypothetical, situation is to increase one's creativity obliged by the monotony of being alone.

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