LETTER

I read in the news that Tehran has signed a pact to help rebuild Baghdad. If it weren’t so painful to contemplate this news, it could actually be amusing! After almost 20 years since the Iran-Iraq War, many Iranian cities are yet to return to their original state after the war’s destruction.

Four years since the Bam Earthquake, the city continues to be in ruins without tangible hopes for a solid reconstruction. It would seem that as far as reconstructions go, Baghdad should be waiting its turn on a long list of reconstruction projects Iran will have to tend inside Iran, some of them 20 years overdue.

I was reminded of a blog post I saw last September by an Iranian blogger. He is a middle-aged Iranian man whose blogs are aptly called: “Life After 50.” I was gripped by simultaneous sadness and pride when I read that post. I thought I would share it here with you. Here’s the link to the original post in Farsi, and here’s my translation of it in English.

What was the point of breaking Abadan’s Siege?

Dear Mr. Mayor of Abadan, read this and do as I tell you.

There is no trace of re-construction in Abadan. I went to visit some of my relatives there for a few days, a city with 40-year-old memories for me. The city whose girls were portrayed so beautifully in Aghassi’s songs, and whose boys spent their evenings standing by the palm trees in those girls’ neighborhoods.

And now it is a city without a plan, without beauty, without vivacious boys, and full of walls where bullet wounds have not healed yet. But I have decided to return this city’s beauty to it. This city will have to become my country’s most beautiful, warmest, and most exciting city again.

I would like to request the Mayor of Abadan, the City of Standing Palm Trees, to take a trip to Abadan, and visit Abadan streets.

Mr. Mayor, I don’t know how old you are. Do you remember Abadan’s siege? Do you remember the War? Do you know what war is? Do you know how it felt to be surrounded in Abadan by the blood thirsty Dracula that Saddam Hossein was? Do you know how much blood has been shed for this land, for Abadan, to remain, so that you could become its Mayor one day?

Mr. Mayor, look at those walls. You can still see bullet marks on the walls of homes in every neighborhood. You must know that the War with Saddam has been over for a few years now. I don’t want Abadan to ever be under siege by our enemy. I am afraid it appears that Abadan is still under siege, but this time under siege by ignorance and lack of planning, and ….

Let me ask you. Doesn’t anyone in the Ministry of Interior ever ask you what you are doing, and why those bullet marks are still evident? And why you have such a poor report card?

You must be aware that your salary is paid by these same people you would never let into your office.

You must know that your salary is generated through this same land, so that you can live.

You must know that your salary is paid through taxes paid by engineers working for the oil industry, and the fishermen on Arvand Rood who also pay their share of your salary.

Please send your reply to me at this address, and tell me why nothing fundamental has been done about the problem. What are you lacking? What kind of help do you need? I want to see the reconstruction plans for Abadan. Prepare them. How far along are you with those plans?

What are the growth indices you have forecast for this city? What programs are in place for its employment, recreation, tourism, agricultural development and industry?

Have you any land development plans for this region or not? If you need anything, let me know and I will provide it for you.

If Abadan were to stay exactly the way it looked when it was under siege, tell me, then what was the point of it becoming freed of that siege?

What is Abadan lacking?

Next time I am in Abadan, I will come directly to Abadan Municipality, and if I see that you haven’t taken worthy action, you are going to have to face me.

The end.

Nazy Kaviani's blog      after50s.blogspot.com