Sunday, May 22, 2005

Wrapped in plastic

Plastic wrapping
I took an inter-city bus ride this Iranian weekend. On the way out we saw a pretty dismal Iranian film, The Ziggurat Goddess, about a young man whose wife and child die in the attack on the WTC in NY. The only notable part was the ability of the documentary footage to make my heart beat fast and my breath short.

On the way back, we saw an equally dismal film: this time from Hollywood. Cutthroat Island was its name if anyone is interested. From my window seat, we had a great view of the flowers. Families were out picking berries from the trees that grow along the highway. At one point the wind picked up. A particularly resourceful group held a chador under a tree a let the wind do all of the work. The berries flew off the tree straight into the chador. It was brilliant.

Every new Peugeot we saw was still wrapped in plastic. The fenders, the seats, and the steering wheels were still covered in plastic wrap. Iranians love plastic wrap. Offices leave the plastic on their office chairs along with the tag. If something comes wrapped in plastic, it stays wrapped in plastic.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Haha... do Peugeots still come in that ugly blue plastic cover over the fenders? They should at least use a colourless variety.

We also keep the original batteries that come with home electronic devices.

Anonymous said...

that's the only good u can expect from a chador:)

Anonymous said...

More annoying than those plastic wrappings (at least to me) are those tags like "It's a Sony!" on the corner of TV screens or on VCRs that stays on for years...

Anonymous said...

An explanation for the plastic wrappings could be that those cars or furniture, kept in their manufacturer wrappings could be sold at a higher price in the second hand market. In economies like Iran, with a demand more than supply, the second hand manufactured goods could be sold at much higher prices than are expected in the free market economies.

Anonymous said...

A visual aid:
http://www.iranian.com/Arts/2005/June/Moin/Images/13.jpg

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