Pictory

DK jaan did I start it or did you?!

I'm not sure which one of us started it, looks like I did.  I liked your first comment so I just wanted to say that's how it was and this guy isn't saying anything out of the ordinary.  In any event, do you know where was 24 esfand square?  Today it is called enghelab and I'm not sure which main streets crossed 24 esfand? 

Everything is sacred.

Anonymouse Jaan Did I say the contrary ? ;0)

To begin with you started this conversation but personally I don't see any major differences of opinion with you in this regard. We may have different perspectives of history but I don't think either of us is against the Freedom of the Press or the Right to Freedom of expression be it of citizens or journalists for that matter. But this is supposed to be a pictory section and naturally it takes a look at the past.

One cannot avoid to make observations in hindsight after all ...

DK jaan who "was" reporting prior to these protests?

Right before these protests there were more than 400 foreign journalists in Iran and they reported up to 2 weeks after the elections before their time was up.  And in that period they reported same way and on apparently the same thing this guy is reporting.

When people get fed up with something, especially in our beloved Iran, they've shown they're capable of demanding their rights one way or another.  We (you and I) have to wait and see where will this one lead to.

I just don't understand the desire to blame things on media and don't know why we're having this conversation.  The 1979 revolution is done and finished.  We can learn from it, all the positives and negatives.  The biggest positive to me is how to use the lessons learned today and establish this illusive democracy. 

If today after only 30 years, we've matured enough to take the next step, that is the best news of them all.  Wouldn't you agree?  30 years is not much in a nation's history, especially a nation as ancient as Iran.

Maybe we had to go through 30 years of an Islamic Republic to reject this form of Govt and theorcracy.  

Everything is sacred.

Anonymouse Jaan Yes But Who is Reporting from Iran today ?

Certainly not journalists who are imprisoned or banned from entering the country but the people themselves through Twitter and Youtube.

Now I am not saying that professional journalists at the time were not doing their jobs properly or that all the reports were biaised. Certainly not and if we had had an entirely Free Press at the time I don't think that what appeared at first as a kind of "Mai 68" Revolt like in France would turn into an Islamic Revolution ...

But Iran at the time was a curiosity to most people in the West and it was not until we had an Iran IRaq War that people started to look at the region with more scrutiny and even then people kept confusing Iran and Iraq ...

We also have to consider that this is TV Journalism and that in those years regular viewers were not as educated to images and how they are used to suggest things without necessarily showing them.

In our internet age we are more attentive to details and can often dissect a report and have a critical eye.

But in those days the Power of the Audio Visual Media was far more effective than the written press.

Being in the Line of Fire was enough to justify that what the War Correspondent or foreign Correspondant was true.

The Islamic Revolution was the First Revolution to be covered by TV on a daily basis very much like the Vietnam War was the First dirty War to be covered by brave War Correspondents.

The Eye Catchy images that would impress the viewer was often used as a source of information regardless of the content. That has changed very much today. An Image no matter how impressive does not immediately turn it into a source of information. It is scrutinized, the context is analyzed etc before being used as a source of information.

Even the poor Neda whose image has become a Symbol of the current Revolution was not chosen as TIME Person of The Year, which explains how much the Press has evolved.

In the 70's She would have become a Far Greater Icon than she is already today ( and quite deservingly) , very much like that Vietnamese girl Phan Thị Kim Phúc covered with Napalm running naked in the Streets of Vietnam's capital:

//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TrangBang.jpg

But no I don't claim that everything in this report is false, nor that everything was biaised but I think that many journalists were surpassed by the events as is often the case in Revolutions where everything is far more unpredictable than even in a War.

Some journalists at the time however did a fairly good job including BBC correspondents like John Simpson:

//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Simpson_(journalist)

I have even looked through some French Reports on the French TV archives L'INA and was surprised by some of the objective reports on the Revolution that contrasted with the opinion I had at the time that the Foreign Press was always hostile to the Shah's Attempts to calm down the situation or blindly supportive of Khomeiny's religious vision.

On Shah's Departure and Bakhtiar's newly named government:

//www.ina.fr/economie-et-societe/vie-sociale/video/CAA7900174901/retro-shah.fr.html

Regis Faucon narrated the report presented here by a Prime Time News Anchor of TF1, France first Channel:

//www.ina.fr/economie-et-societe/vie-sociale/video/CAA7900169901/depart-shah-d-iran.fr.html

Or here on the First Left Wing Parties who demonstrated against Bakhtiar's government and the Regime prior to the arrival of Khomeiny from Paris ( even if it says similar things as in this report on the Shah's Fortune. corruption etc ) but it is supportive of Bakhtiar and his good intentions:

//www.ina.fr/economie-et-societe/vie-sociale/video/CAA7900134501/rouhollah-khomeini-a-neauphle-le-chateau.fr.html

Khomeiny's Return:

//www.ina.fr/economie-et-societe/vie-sociale/video/CAA7900405401/retour-ayatollah-teheran.fr.html

But well Khomeiny fooled everyone and the rest I am afraid is history and free to all interpretations based on each person's experience or convictions ...

The Pahlavis=1000 families

The lack of social justice which allowed  the so-called privileged class to monopolize the economy and, more importantly, the judicial system was the main reason for Shah's downfall. The Pahlavist-Chalabists crusade to pass the buck to the Brits or any other foreign power, for that matter, is a grandma type of kvetch only.

The Pahlavis, all mullahs, and all public figures associated with the Green Movement  must disclose the source and the amount of their wealth/income.

I completely Agree and Disagree

Your last line I am in full agreement with.

I think all economic indicators aside, one should examine a country's revenues and how well the income is dispersed.

And that's about it.

Don't forget this was a king that never built a single palace for himself while around the world from saddam and arabs to others they were building 20 to 30 palaces each.

Move a step further and ask how many thousands of schools and hospitals the shahs team had created. As literacy climbed from 12% to 88% under his stewardship of Irans resources.

How did shahs team fight for Irans rights? This is how come the mullahs received such a huge oil royalty and guess who made that happen?  How did they create iranian steel which employed over 88,000 people with industrial jobs and another 700,000 even higher paying jobs in the private steel sector.

But really why defend the Shah at all?

Because Iranian Freedom depends on rebelling for the sake of the character of the good against the corrupt and deceitful.  Which is something most Iranians irresponsibly did not do in 1979.  And irresponsibility is why freedom turned to tyranny, that is why iranians have enjoyed and will continue to enjoy tyranny for years to come.  The people did not responsibly manage freedom and rebell for the sake of the truth regarding the shah.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't risk my life to protect the shah even if it would restore iranian freedom. Why?  After seeing Iranians level of wisdom at work, I know it is better to have compassion for myself and my family more than for a deceived and unwilling people.

Read Shahs book, mission for my country and discover that the Shah wanted elected democracy by the people for iran, among people loyal to iran first and not just an elite of super rich like in the west or communist elite in the east. He knew.. what democracy could be in Iran and was stopped from achieving it.

And they called him and had iranians calll him a dictator, despot, authoritarian and a tyrant.

Baba, enough with excusing the Shah

one could possibly say that the citizens of Saudi Arabia today live in relative prosperity compared to other nations.

But a detailed analysis look shows that Saudi Arabia has a population of close to 30 million.

Oil Revenues is close to 300 Billion/yr.

In effect, that should translate into a per capita income of $ 10,000.

However, the truth is that per capita income is close to $5000 with the Kings and Princes siphoning off close to $150 billion/yr + spending enormous amounts on miliray ware.

Now because Saudis are doing ok and the tuition of their students abroad is paid for does that justify that $150 billion gets hiested by the ROyal family??

Similarly, in Brunei , people are doing pretty well.  But when you compare oil revenues and each citizen's share from the oil revenues, you will see a great injustice.

I think all economic indicators aside, one should examine a country's revenues and how well the income is dispersed.

Good Proof Of AntiShah Propaganda

What a great historical document.  Shows the blatant propaganda used against the Shah.

No mention of the real news like, the largest growth of middle class anywhere in the world. 

No mention of the Islamic feudal system, being Islamic, was in fact due to clerical corruption in which less than 1000 churches/families controlled most of countries wealth. 

No mention that the Shahs White revolution in 1965 ended the Islamic Feudal system and gave the large land owners land to ordinary people.

No mention that khomeini's violent opposition to this was because the churches were part of the 1000 corporation/families to lose most of their land and money, so he rebelled against this and was sent into exile by the shah because of this.

So the poor leader who was responsible for firstly the white revolution and secondly bringing industrial jobs to Iran that paid each person $3000 to $6000 , instead importing cheap farm produce which were jobs that created only $200 a year per person for hard back breaking work all of which create a middle class, is portrayed as a person that has been mismanaging the Iranian economy.

Grotesque Propaganda!

So they blame the person who brought the success, the shah, and on the other hand hide/conceal the real corrupt villains, the islamic authorities, whom the UK is Supporting to come to power.

They are experts in propaganda.

And for 30 years have we ever heard any complaints against the mullahs by ITN?

Of course not, while each single year the mullahs receive more from oil royalties than the previous 2 shahs received in almost 60 years no complaints are made, even as Iran drops from 9th wealthiest nation to 103rd even with over 20 times the royalties coming from oil.

The reason this is not called mismanagement and corruption is because this expert propaganda is used to fool the masses so Western Companies can prey on the remains of the foolishness of the Iranian people.

Shame Iranians still believe the shah was a stooge of the West and no one taught them how to rally around the flag. 

No Wisdom, No Monarchy.

Now the west is pushing/reporting on a Green movement for democracy and Iranians will get another nice taste of what it means for a large mass to have such little wisdom.

آقا کسی‌ از ده بالا تو این هزار فامیل بود؟

این شاه چه مرد مردمدوست مسلمانی بود و هیشکی قدرش رو ندونست.  این هویدا پست فطرت رو مثل گوسفند برای مردم قربونی کرد باز هم داد و هوار راه انداختن.  کی‌ با منه؟ جاوید شاه، جاوید شاه، جاوید شاه، جاوید جوانشاه (ببخشید جی جی خان، از دستم در رفت).

Here is a few, so you know it is not a myth

Not exactly a thousand but close to that number ran either the politics or the commerce in Iran for.  Here are a few

Ghaffari, Akhavan, Khayami, Samii, Farman farma, Rezaie, Yazdani, Marzban, Elghanian, sotoudeh, hakimzadeh, Entezam, etc. etc. etc.

so no, they are not a myth, just like in America where the elite run 2% of the wealth.  The difference is the middle class in America has the largest population more so than any other country in the world. 

Very interesting.

These old News at 10 clips show the buildup and aftermath of The Revolution so vividly. It's almost like even after 30 years you still wonder what will happen from one clip to the next (even though you know the story a million times over). This one in particular describes the volcano about to erupt very well.

...

Geoffrey Archer is right, it's thousand family rule! But, who ruled or still rules England? I bet the number of families ruling the whole G. Britain was less than 100 back in 1978!

these bastrads were simply jelous of Iran and would love to see Iran in disarray, Iran was not like  Argentina was in 1982! That's what they feared and also wished to "steal the Iranian Gold reserves, stocks and assets". They did exactly that.

DK jaan how many families would you say Iran had at the time?

This report mentions 1000 of them, the rest were middle class or upper middle class or lower middle class or just your basic low class! ;-)

I'm not disagreeing with you.  I think we can't dismiss all media reports cause if we do then the media is wrong in their reports on Iran these days too. 

Everything is sacred.

............

1000 families are matter of speech to say so...........

But 1000 tales are the truth we are witnessing today.     Maziar

Anonymouse Jaan I don't claim the contrary ...

That is the problem ...

I saw and heard alot of these BBC reports at the time. Many seemed more impressed than aware of what was really going on. It reminds me of the Reports we got when Rumania had it's revolution.

At university I spoke with fellow Rumanian students during a course on communication and they had the same reaction regarding reports made by foreing journalists and correspondents on the Revolution.

The Timisoara Massacre for instance which was a fake for instance.

But I have nothing to say against this report other from the fact that the journalist clearly did not give the full picture of Iranian society and such biaised comments were amongst the things that fooled foreigners on Iranian society under the Shah.

The Coronation and Persepolis ceremonies was eye catching so it was easier for them to sell the idea of a "Bokassa" Style monarchy as if Iran was some kind of African kingdom of VERY Poor Vs VERY Rich.

That Was ANYTHING But the TRUTH !

One wonders where the Middle Class Fitted in this Report ?

My Humble Opinion,

DK

Interesting comment DK jaan but it is what it is, a media report

Everything is sacred.

Sorry But We didn't Do Our Shoppings in NY or London but ...;0)

Our Local Elephante Shoe Shop or MAll run by Iranians and for Iranians.

I don't think I ever traveled abroad before 1977 only to come and visit my grandparents for the summer vacation and  other than that we spent all our Summers in Shiraz. My father divided his time between the Medical School and University where he taught his students and the Clinic and consulting office where he worked.

As far We were neither Poor Nor Corruptly Rich but simply belonged to the Middle Class. Many Even the houses shown in this clip were built and owned by Middle Class Iranians who had returned to Iran as engineers or doctors and set up their own business' That was the case of my father and we did not belong to the Aristocracy AT ALL ...

So I really don't know what this fellow is talking about ...

Or Who are these 1000 families ...

Things were Not perfect in IRan but the country was on the road of progress and Opportunity was available to all regardless of one's background.

One of my fathers colleagues came from a Peasant family and his name was Javadpour.

I can swear apart from Medicine he was interested in Nothing. I mean really Nothing. He was a Real Dahati by upbrining but he became the WORLD EXPERT in Urology. Married an American wife and then spent the rest of his life in the US. When the Revolution started this fellow was no more in Iran.

When we in turn left Iran for exile, my father got in touch with his old friend. The Guy had as I said become a World Expert and nicknamed The POPE of Urology admired in conferences world wide but totally uninterested in what his home country had become. But More astonishingly he was not interested in ANYTHING but his Job and did not know how to dress or eat at the table. I was something like 15 at the time and my father invited him to a Restaurant in Paris with me and my mother. He litterally ate like a pig and even put his hand in my dish and started picking in my food.

It was SO Embarrasing ... LOL

At the time my father was trying to get naturalized French and had a hard time finding a job. But this guy was at the pinnacle of his professional career.

I even remember putting a Figaro magazine which showed child soldiers during the Iran Iraq war under his nose and all that caught his attention was a subtitle on the latest medical techniques.

He just did not even pay attention to that dreadful cover's dramatic photo of an amputated Iranian child soldier.

I was just Stunned !

I don't claim that there did not exist priviledged people in Iran who made a fortune only through close contacts with the Shah's family or entourage nor that the Shah did not favor families who were either related to the Pahlavis or who were loyal to the Shah's own Father and therefore constituted a kind of Aristocracy a la Pahlavi that suplanted the Qajars but I really don't think one can claim that the country's fortune was in the hands of a minor few.

Many and not just fortunate families had the opportunity have a proper education to have a decent life and to a great degree climb the social ladder.

But what this report says like many others at the time is ridiculous. And not surprising because many of these foreign correspondants had little knowledge of what life in Iran was like nor did they speak the language. We were as advanced as Turkey at the Time and who claims today that Turkey's economy is in the hands of a 1000 families.

Valah Che Beghom ?

Ta Gabre, AH, AH , AH , AH ...

Mah Nafahmeedom !

Interesting comment JD. Karoubi's wife is rich like John Kerry's

PS my favorite car is once again in this video racing around in 2 occasions! 

Everything is sacred.

1000 family

Basically it was an expression that the combined tangible and intangible assets of 1000 priviledged families were more than the assets of the entire population of the country.

Today, after 30 years, that number is reduced to 250 families whose accumulated wealth and accrued income is more than the rest of Iranians combined. Interestingly enough Karoubi himself is one of the richest men in Iran.

A proof, that God helps those that help themselves.

I am curious

I keep hearing the phrase 1000 family ruled in Iran, but not once I have heard who these people are?

so in sprit of openness I am asking all the IRR lackey's and their fellow communist symphatizers to list the names of the 1000 families so once for all we know who they are.  Surely there must be a list some where right?