Oh yeah? I can think of thousands of ways that things can get worse. There is no rock bottom, I can guarantee that. There are only ledges on the way down. Get yourself on one of those ledges and hope that you can pull yourself up.
I have been accused of being biased against Iran by one of my recent readers. I think that if you read the entire site you will see it is 100% bar aks (opposite). I am in a funk now. When you get in a funk, everything goes wrong. Here’s a small list: crazy, vindictive landlords who want to get us arrested for giving notice; broken promises; missed deadlines; bad communication; out and out lying and purposeful misunderstandings; hospitals and death. Oh and politics. There is always that when you can’t find anything else to depress you.
“We are borderline clinically depressed,” K told me this morning. “I saw a program that described all of our symptoms.”
Us and just about everyone else in this country…
“Many of our friends are leaving the country,” a friend tells us. “They feel like the last eight years were a sham – that we are back at square one.”
“They have discovered 300 million dollars of corruption in the oil ministry,” K tells me.
“They’re scratching the surface.”
I remember before the war with Iraq when reporters and
blogger" were saying that Iraq was not preparing for war at all. Iraq did not prepare for a war that most believed was inevitable. On the other hand, rumor has it that Iran is preparing for war: a war that most believe is, in fact, unlikely.
They are dragging out the negotiations: giving themselves time to build relationships with the Russians (oops! Soviets! Or uhhh Russians) and the
Chinese and god knows what else. Some Iranians I speak to believe that the regime will eventually come to an agreement about the nuclear issues, but I am not so sure. Why would they come to an agreement with the EU and US when China doesn’t care about their nuclear ambitions or their human rights record?
“All of our clients are from China,” a lawyer tells me. “We don’t open the doors for Iranians even. They are never satisfied with our work; they call at all hours of the day and night; they don’t like to pay; and they are inefficient. Our Chinese customers love us. They have money. For them, we are cheap.” (The lawyer wasn’t commenting on foreign policy, nuclear power, or anything else but his business.)
On the other hand, there seems to be a shrinking sense that nuclear arms will make Iran more respectable. What could be causing this diminishment of enthusiasm? Could it be that most Iranians wanted to believe that the nuclear program was, indeed, peaceful? Could it be that they are now realizing that it is not entirely peaceful? Could it be that the regime may be thrilled with its new-found friendship with China, but that most Iranians look to the West when they see their future? Could it be that Tehran’s metro construction has struck water and caused the near collapse of a busy street?