Inviting Americans To Iran
By Kourosh Ziabari
11 November,
2008
Countercurrents.org
Nowadays, Iran is promoting itself as an emerging power of politics, economy and culture which modifies the global equations directly a great deal and lots of world countries count on as a reliable and influential companion.
Intrinsically, a new surging power would not be favorable for the western states who are seeking for international dominance and hegemony perpetually, so there must be ways to get rid of this new-born power or hamper it down anyway.
With the extending amount of Iran's exports in mind as the world's 3rd largest oil supplier and regarding the excessive augment of national GDP in the country which surpasses the GPD value of countries such as Portugal, Czech Republic, Israel, Ireland, Finland, Ukraine, Croatia, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Luxemburg – who are either a member of EU or a cordial attached of the US - the American statesmen and their close allies might tell to themselves that China and Japan are sufficient for the Asia to be the continental giants, so a new pole i.e. Iran is totally additional and unwelcome, choking it is more rational rather than allowing it traverse all of the stages of progress and development.
In such intricate circumstance, the nuclear dossier would be the best pretext of pressuring and lobbying to isolate Iran by disguising that the country is pursuing the mass destruction weapons and atomic bombs; a deceptive and compelling story which intimidates the public opinions and confutes them to shun Iran, otherwise there would not be any subterfuge for picking a quarrel with Tehran.
Obviously economical and financial competitions are the main reasons of US and western powers crippling the nuclear case of Iran, otherwise they know better than all of us that Iran has not the goal of developing nuclear weapons and never had been before.
The ex-presidents Reagan and Carter both confessed publicly that the main depositors of atomic arsenals are the neighbor countries of Iran who produce mass destruction materials under absolute corroboration without being any restricted or demanded to dismantle.
US and European cronies though, test-fired all of their "soft missiles" toward Iran and its people during the past few years by imposing bunches of sanctions, cautioning against nuclear strike and funding the terrorist groups inside the soil of country to spread violence and instability in the oil-rich Iran and fulfill their desired conclusion which is the relinquishment of Tehran from achieving nuclear technology.
It worth noting that currently, Iran is among the world's top 7 countries retaining the domestic technology of satellite production, among the world's top 20 countries publishing the most ISI journal papers – which is a fundamental index of scientific development - and among the world's top 10 exporters of machinery and industrial services, so nuclear technology is the last redline which remains to be crossed by the country and that would not be acceptable. Logically, prevention is better than cure and stopping Iran from acquiring the nuclear knowledge is counted as a "do or die" job to be done with the utmost sagacity by the most disgraceful authorities.
But despite of the hostile stance which the US states has taken against Iran and its people in the past 30 years, the free flow of cultural, academic and scientific relations between the two nations was never incurred, even expanding every day.
For instance, travel and tourism are the lucrative and substantial facilities that may lead to the expansion of cultural ties between nations and civilizations and Iranians are exploiting this tool in a dexterous manner.
While the mainstream media are striving in their best to alter the view of Iran to the global audiences and provide a horrible image of it to their consumers, and under the huge masses of black propaganda conducted by the US state-run media corporations, Iran is receiving near 2.5 million tourists annually which is an incredible number and puts the country 35th in the world ranking of tourists arrivals (2008) passing countries such as India, Brazil, Uruguay, Denmark, Finland, UAE, Slovenia and Portugal who are not suffering from the same problems of Iran, not being enforced to confront the extreme waves of negative advertisement.
Most of the tourists arriving in Iran are journalists, students, academicians and athletes who come to participate in a special event or for leisure purposes.
Beside of the Muslim tourists who come from Singapore, Malaysia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the Arab countries of Persian Gulf to pilgrimage in the north-eastern city of Mashhad, the community of Iran's travelers is consisted of Europeans (mainly from Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, France and Belgium), Asia-Pacifists (mainly from Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand) and eventually Americans (mainly from Venezuela, Haiti, Bolivia, Brazil and the US).
In the past 3 years among the rising tensions between Tehran and Washington, multitude of famous Americans voyaged to Iran to see whether they could discover the evidences proving the idea of "axis of evil"!
The Hollywood affiliated actor Sean Penn, the outstanding academic scholar Richard Nelson Frye, the veteran documentarist Richard Leacock, the, 2005 Nobel Prize laureate of economy Prof. Thomas Schelling and the world-renowned 1993 Nobel Prize winner of physics Joseph Hooton Taylor were among the distinguished professors who have just visited Iran during the past 2 years.
Almost all of them were not going to accept that what they saw in Iran was realistic; declaring that seeing "giant buildings" and "restaurants" in the country amazed them a great deal.
Obviously, that's a consequence of western media black propaganda on Iran that the Americans do not except a modern, industrialized, flourishing image of Iran when they arrive. They count on Iran as a dried, deserted, unsettled land with its "languishing" people all wearing "black", women covering their faces, streets empty of edifices and towers, nobody laughs or allowed to, music and entertainment banned everywhere, nobody accessing the internet or new technologies etc.
Such proofs indicate that Iran is turned into a "misrepresented" and "misinterpreted" country due to the media aggressions it tolerated beside of the offensive rhetoric of western governors perpetuated in the past years, but the Iranian people who are the narrators of "Alexander" and "Ottomans" invasion of their country know well how to be patient and compromise with the tribulations and adversities.
Actually,
Iranians are the only people in whom historical record there is no
advent or sign of occupation or violence; meanwhile they are the only
people who are frequently being accused of terrorism and hostility.
Personally, in the past years that I extended my international relations,
I have had plenty of American tourists or friends as guests who I
invited to Iran and received them with my best to just guide them
observe by their own eyes and witness with their own conscience.
It doesn't matter to us if expositing the "axis of evil" makes President Bush feel better or singing "Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran" is a part of Sen. McCain's commercial advertisement.
Those are the "people" of America who are precious and respectable for Iranians, so if you are an American citizen with some not profound information on Iran, deciding to evaluate the honesty and accuracy of your statesmen about my country, just accept my official invitation to travel Iran and stay here as long as you desire; you can be sure that the portals of my country are wide-open in front of you, who are the "seekers of truth".
It is not exclusively any motto or declaration, but truly Iran is a country which lies it roots in the exhausted soil of a 15,000 years history and you can not find out what it is really unless you perceive and examine it by yourself. "Betting" is unlawful in my religion; otherwise I would certainly bet you that by coming to Iran, you will realize the pure meaning of tranquility, peace and friendliness.
Don't reckon it as arrogance, but individually, I will continue constructing the pedestals of world's dialogue with Iran until the angels descend and call for the expiration of my longevity.
Kourosh Ziabari, Iranian journalist and freelance writer, the member of Stony Brook University Publications' editorial team, interviewed by Canadian, American, Egyptian, Italian and Beligan magazines, a guest columnist of Press TV website, the author of book "7+|" and a guest blogger of Newsweek Post Global.
Persian Blog: http://kouroshz.blogfa.com
English Blog: http://cyberfaith.blogspot.com
