New face of Iranian community in Toronto

THE SMELL OF BAGHALI

I would like to first state that I was raised in
Canada from the age of 4.  I had
never been to Iran and just recently went and now I know why Iranians are so
wealthy in Canada. Toronto has got nothing on Vancouver (where I live) new
Iranians and Chinese own 95% of all homes over 5 million and there are
thousands of them out here.  Iranians
(pooleh mofteh nafto) bring here and waste it. I honestly am absolutely
disgusted and embarrassed by Iranians and their retarded primitive mentality and
want nothing to do with them, their customs, behaviour, attitudes and
especially their second rate women, who will lick a fat, nasty hairy bald JAFAR
looking guy from Aladin from his nasty bald head to his nasty ass hairy feet if
his father is wealthy, over a well educated strong self made income earning
stud 9.8 times out of 10. That friends is pure prostitution 9.8 times out of
10 and seems to be very common among Iranians women. They even do it in Canada, where they have every single opportunity to earn
and become successful as a woman. Never have and never will date an Iranian
women. By the way 10s in Iran where killing themselves all day long to be with
me (I mean to Come to Canada) disgraceful mentality, old and young, rich and
poor. It is a shame. All they know how to do is scam, import money and if the
scams fail, import some more money. They would not last a day in this country
the legit way on their own 2. By the way, my father is very wealthy but has not
given me nor my bro a penny and wanted us to become men, unlike these (Baghali
Polo) kids who can’t even afford to pay the gas of their 250k cars without
their father’s oil money. Honestly, new immigrant Iranian’s behaviour and
attitudes are not different than Arabs from Saudi Arabia and yes that is a
serious insult. Canadians, look at Iranians as RICH ARABS and nothing more.
Only as good as the money they bring into my economy. PERIOD.  Do not kid yourselves folks, they do not give
a flying   9483  about your customs and Ayde Norooz.   Oh, by
the way to be very conservative, 70 percent of the time these Haj Aghas come to
Vancouver, buy a mansion 5 million and up, the wife goes to the first family
lawyer and files a divorce and gets the house in and around 90 percent of the
time.  

somehow true

I too have been wondering why some of us are cold towards each other and don't really seem to care, or we are somehow kind of selfabsorbed or we tend to critize each other a lot. I agree with you on that matter. As for the young ,well, what do you expect? the name tells it all. Not only are they young but Iran and out, the West gives a great influence and a new culture. It's normal. It's a phase they go through. You cant expect perfection... As for education, a lot are still thinking about it since it's highly valued for Iranians. The ads you see in newspapers, maybe they dont have time to go back to school or their english is not good.

To Nel

Thanks for your
feedback. Your tone seems to be more accusing rather than constructive...

I have never
claimed to represent a certain group of Iranians versus a group of newcomers or
FOBs as you are trying to put it. My intention was to share my views on the
wave of nouveaux riches immigrants that have come from Iran and seem to be a
rather numerous bunch compared to previous waves, let’s say before the year
2000, when immigrants were coming more from the professional and academic
backgrounds. I have never said that the professional ones have stopped coming. For
your info the Canadian government has, in recent years, adopted new rules for
immigration and it has made it more and more difficult for regular immigrants
(professionals and academics included) to come here, and it gives much more
preference to what we “investor immigrants”, who are basically people who have
$100,000 and want to invest it in a business here in Canada. Therefore, this is
the reason why we see more and more people from the “nouveau riche” category
coming here, especially people who have made huge amounts of money in the
housing market of Tehran.

Also, this was
in no way a sociology article. These are my daily observations on some changing
patterns within the Iranian community of Toronto, and judging by some comments posted
here previously, it seems that I am not the only one who has noticed them. It
is not hard to notice who is a newcomer and who is not. There are some areas
where Iranians of previous waves have settled, and you can only know that if
you live in Toronto, which obviously you don’t.

And I would also
add that you are not as informed as you think: thanks for pointing to my
awkward English, but maybe I should remind you that Canada is a bilingual
country and a lot of people speak French better than English, and I happen to
have lived many years in Quebec. I happen to be out of Iran for 25 years if
that can also help you!

As for the level
of culture in Iran: I happen to talk to people and inform myself on the
situation there by asking questions! It’s that simple, my friend! I also went to
Iran on several occasions. Most people who have recently moved from Iran and
whom I have talked to point out how social relations have become superficial,
how driving has become bad, how people have become rude and how corruption has
become more and more rampant? Should I continue?

One last thing
about the driving: a friend of my brother, who happens to the son of a rich
investor, is 22 and owns a BMW X-5 and was stopped driving 220 km/h on the
highway between Montreal and Toronto. He got his driving license revoked, but
still continues to drive around the city and has no worry whatsoever to be
caught. The reason? He is rich and his Dad will take care of it! I have heard
stories like this so many times in the past few years.

Regards

well said Flying solo

to the writer of the piece:
uptight nags sitting on the fence are as annoying as bad-mannered showoffs

it's not just spoilt rich kids who have been getting out of Iran in the past years, but a large number of proper professionals who have lost hope of ever getting anywhere in Iran's bad economy, so your assumption about new comers all sharing the same background is wrong

the patronising been-there-longer-than-you-FOBs attitude is also similar to those, whose parents immigrated from shahrestan, looking down on new comers to Tehran

I find it hard to believe that all Iranian stores are as bad as you describe, on the other hand if the restaurant is packed already why improve the service!! maybe that's part of the flavour to be treated rudely!

as for the driving, well, the police can always give them a ticket. if they don't, so much for the Canadian traffic management

But the most amusing part of your piece is this---> "This only shows me how the general level of culture and social life in Iran has become low, and how people are careless about making any change in their lives there."

the English and the choice of words are not what I'd call authentic, it sounds translated from Farsi, so how long you said you were living there?

but this is not the point, my question is, are you a sociologist? are you quoting a reliable source? and how do you exactly measure the "level of culture"????
Iranians have changed a lot in the past three decades in certain ways, that could be and has been the subject of research
but it makes no sense to make such snap judgements about an entire nation by such fleeting glimpses of the diaspora

Flying Solo

Yes, I'm aware of the distinction.  :-)

I just think that "salad bowl" is more indicative of what I perceive the more positive and attractive aspects of America to be.

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i completely agree with this

i completely agree with this artical,
the country we used have 50 years ago when Reza Shah was around was respected by every country in the world. nowadays you say your persian and people have no clue what it means to be persian.
this new attitude these FOB persians have when they get off luftansa and hope into the S-class and drive to westvan like a bunk of goofs
its a waste to see what people these days are becoming
but then again its not just persians
u can see it in asains and east indians to

Perspective of an Iranian in Toronto

Hi,

I live in Thornhill, all those place's mentioned i've been to on numerous occasions.

I agree with most of the points in this article. I will however add, that i've also been to Tehran and Iran to play professional soccer for 3 years. I moved to Canada in 1994 and went back in 2003 when i was 18.

At first Tehran was a huge culture shock to me, because comming from Thornhill, a relativly quite and small city compared to Tehran. I also was not very Iranian!

Soon i realized that many of the customs i thought were not rude, were very rude to my Elders in Iran. As a professional player, i had to adapt to the culture of Iran so i would not seem rude.

Soon i realized that us Iranians have a very high class culture and that the people who run away from Iran and come to the west, are those who try to imitate western cultures.

Most of the Iranians here in Toronto , would be considered EXTREMELY rude in Iran.

This new class of Iranians are the one's who try to act out against the IR regime, but in turn give themselve's a bad name and the IR a good name because the IR warn's of this "rude and materialistic western culture" which are anti-islamic.

to FLying Solo

Ms. FS

 No, I totally disagree. In Canada, immigrants have to adapt to a certain way of behaving. Just because we accept immigrants from just about every country in the world does not mean they can bring their crooked manners here! PArti bazi, reshve, driving like in Tehran, not being able to line up properly or not being able to serve customers in a friendly manner, or not paying taxes are NOT acceptable in this country. 

America the Melting Pot

Anonymous Fish:

US Melting Pot is distinctly different from Canada's Salad Bowl.  America is a mindset - Canada is a country. 

Solo

how ironic.  we were just talking about this... how every ones calls the US a "melting pot" and we thought that "salad bowl" was so much more appropriate.  the US is made up of many different ingredients and is much more appealing than a pot of "nothing in particular".

Let's put it this way

There is nothing wrong with having money and living luxury life . Fusses are from those who cannot compete or don't know how.Obviously those people are the most jealous ones.Good news is Iranian taking over ,Mashala.

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> 100% right

I totally agree with this article, damet garm vaghan. Finally, someone has pointed out the negative aspects of our 1/3 world culture exporting itself all around the world. A culture wich has been demolished by this regime,and let's face it : with the help the of iranian people .

As iranians care more about their nose shape, and their cars : this has a direct consequence in coutries where the ''new'' imigration waves land.

What you basically describe is very unique to Toronto : thanks to the generous Canadian immigration policies. All these nadid padid act the exact same way in Sweden, and in a less extend in Germany.

I've been travelling to the Greater TO area on a regular basis since my childhood. Many of my close relatives decided to leave a racist and conservative France in the mid-80s , for a better future. As a matter of fact, they made the right choice. But their communities have evolved into what they were escaping from Iran : backward attitudes, parti bazi networking, dumb ass people with no brain.

I somewhat agree with

I somewhat agree with writer's comments. I have lived in Toronto since 86, and have seen a change in the Persian community in the recent years, I think it started in 2000. More rich Iranian started coming to Canada with fat valets, egos, and spoiled kids. Yeah, and the comment about guys with stupid haircut, don't get me started on that. I specially find the kids from these people annoying, they pay large sums of money to go to Iranian private schools, in hopes of getting their marks up to par for universities. Some these schools have got a bad rep now since they basically sell marks to these students so they could get into universities, a trend emerged as a large number of these fools got in and choked on the first term, the universities have smartened up in recent years.

A lot of these new comers with large amount of money think they can start a business here with irani bazi, and evade taxes in some shape and form, every once in a while some of them go up in smoke. the newspapers and magazines here a joke, they are just real estate and immigration ads. If a non-Iranian reads opens one of these papers they think that that's the only thing Iranian can do.

But other than this new crowd, and by no means I mean all of them, Toronto also has a solid Iranian population base with people who have branched out in different sectors of industry and made lots of strides.

And the girls with heavy make, and boys with flashy dress and big greasy hair, sitting in a smoke filled cafe smoking gheleyoon, don't ask how cheap that looks.

nonetheless, I am proud to be Iranian and living in Toronto. I love this city and wouldn't want to live elsewhere.

I'm not quite sure what

I'm not quite sure what this report about the new Toronto is about. Toronto has always sucked, basically for this same reason. Too many show offs. It's just that fashion trends were a little less "in your face" ten years ago. Also, the first wave of immigrants were adjusting and trying had to retain their culture. Now, the second wave isn't as scared anymore. The children can go out longer. Date more. Party hardy and so on. People like me had to fight for every priviledge and now opened the door for these other kids (sorry).

I've never been to Toronto and not returned with a sense of immense relief that I'm outta there! I went to an Andy concert once about 10 years ago (yes, I'm hanging my head down in shame now) and every girl was dressed like a ho and the guys were ALL THAT.

I think you are just noticing these things now because you're not part of that group and you can stand back as an observer. And I don't mean YOU per se, but the first wave.

LA, Toronto, Vancouver = Ogh

Mr/s kingpillaroffaith

"This only shows me how the general level of culture and social life in Iran has become low, and how people are careless about making any change in their lives there..."

As long as you see the problem and you see where it comes from, this is great!! So now, you know how to act to make a difference. Maybe you, as a true civilized Iranian could act differently to show them the best way of acting and thinking for the future of our country.

Dear observant khaleh

I have a nagging suspiscion that what you mentioned is exactly the point behind the recent blogs...  

I have been to Toronto many times and it is not anywhere near what this article is claiming.

IRANdokht

Thats

one of the reasons , I moved from TO , when the 1st wave of bacheh hajiis & hajii kebobi culture landed in the late 80,s . & soon will move to a Small farm town ... better to live among civilized horses and cows than deal with their id-less clones in Tehranto .Cheers!!!

//www.iranianidentity.blogspot.com/

I agree, but if u read my

I agree, but if u read my last paragraphs, I am explaining that the trends they have brought are slowly taking over the community.

Regards JJ

Google News search

Just performed a search on google  news using Iranian as a search term and this thread appeared.

I did feel a little embarrased with the content of the article appearing on google news search as the content feels a little bigoted- Is it just me?

I mean rich investors are found everywhere and often they are tax exiles as to not to pay too much tax in the country that they make their money. And whats wrong with kids receiving an education in another country. After all a large proportion of the Iranian diaspora left Iran to get an advanced education.

Manners

It takes time to shed odd and inappropriate behavior learned in the old country.

Meanwhile you should stay away from these newcomers. Chera khodeto herss meedee? :o)

to be perfectly fair...

i don't think it's about "iranians" as much as it is the generation.

superficiality and greed are the motto of the day.  however, i don't live in canada so i'm obviously not qualified to speak of that in particular.

souri khanoom... where are you????