"The care of human life and happiness

Looks like Mahmoud finally caught on--if you say stupid things, everyone will know about it and you will look, well, stupid! I remember the first time Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said those words about Israel. I was watching the BBC, and they had some old journalists on who were analyzing what "wiping Israel off the map" really meant. One of them, an old female journalist, said something to the effect that "someone has to pull these Middle East leaders aside and tell them that the internet and satellite revolution have already happened and these days if you say something in a small room in a village somewhere in a province in your country, chances are your voice and image are picked up on a cell phone and transmitted all over the world within a few seconds, so be careful what you say." She said Middle Eastern leaders have a hard time understanding that there can no longer exist two separate types of speeches for two distinctly different audiences--one for internal use and one for external use, and that everything they say should be treated as "For External Use."

I don't think Mahmoud watched that BBC program, and I don't think he heard that advice.

He continues to get into trouble for the things he says to a mostly rural and provincial audience and is later surprised to see his speeches broadcast worldwide. Of course he can't quit making those speeches now, either. This is an important election year for him and he will have to increase his populist talk, not decrease it! What to do?

Not to worry! Iranian state news agency, IRNA, to the rescue! Yesterday IRNA published an informal guideline on its site, basically telling all reporters to refrain from quoting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speeches during his provincial visits. The piece appropriately entitled “Ahmadinejadi Literature,” basically chides Iranian reporters for having made a big deal out of his two most recent “catch phrases” in speeches in Zanjan and Khuzestan. He had made the following statements in those speeches:

در جمع مردم زنجان در تاريخ 29 آبان ماه تصريح کرد؛ «اگر بدخواهان به حقوق ملت ايران تجاوز کنند، اين ملت با چاقوي زنجان دست و پاي آنهارا قطع مي کند.»

رييس جمهوري همچنين صبح چهارم آذر در خوزستان گفت:
«وقتي کشورهاي غربي شاهد پيشرفت ايران بودند، هر روز يک قطعنامه تهيه و در شوراي امنيت عليه ما صادر مي کنند. من امروز به آنها مي گويم آنقدر قطعنامه بدهيد تا قطعنامه دان شما پاره شود.»

So, the IRNA piece tries to tell reporters not to report what they call “Adabiaat-e khodemani,” or “family-style literature” used by Mr. Ahmadinejad!!

Take a look at the news piece. It’s so humorous you forget the seriousness of the problem with a President who doesn’t know what he is saying, and a state news agency that tries to justify the unjustifiable.

This is yet a further gag order on the poor Iranian press to stop reporting the non-stop ranting of the ill-qualified politician at the helm of Iran, so that he may get re-elected. What a farce! Why am I surprised?!