Monday, November 14, 2005
"Khoda Kone Ke Khabam Nabarre"
Imagine a country where ancient lands, diverse history, upstanding achievements in learning and progress, and common understanding of justice and law existed; imagine an old land called
Today,
Alongside the future of the present day
However, at this point there seems to be a very terrible and unaccounted future for one such site; The Fars province. There, archaeologists have uncovered clues to its ancient citizens, warriors, and religions and are yet to find thousands of other treasures.
Alongside those discoveries was the mausoleum of Cyrus II (or Cyrus the Great) in the
Somehow, that vision and the clashing vision of the ruling elite of this country have led to a long-standing decision to drown most of those treasures and finally perish this monument in a matter of months. Hashemi Rafsanjani, who led the country as President nearly eight years ago, approved a project to build a dam in the
In a drastic and compassionate attempt to secure the safety of this national treasure, the people of
The date for the opening of the dam is the anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution. February 1, 2006.
Additional Notes:
Many Iranians that have met with me in discussion of this project were unaware of its existence, and were surprised to know that it was started nearly eight years ago. What a surprise, ne?
Those who generally listened to my news were taken aback, but quickly scoffed at my surprise. Most of their verbal argument consisted of a few things that they somehow turned into collective garbage of an excuse for not paying attention:
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Because there are millions of Iranians who are living in hell; take low wages, bad housing, brain drains, pollution, etc…then, who needs to care about “asar bastani” (artifacts). “I mean, we don’t have a future, so who gives a shit about our past? Haha”
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Since the small numbers of people that I talked to were pointing this out, I couldn’t ignore it. The response that came from most people was their anger at people of Iranian origin in foreign countries. A sense of negativity that those people would quickly rise against the drowning of some pots and pans from 4000 BC, but the lives of Iranians today didn’t get that much attention from them or the world.
Myself, at a loss for words, could not find anything to blame because of the complexity of it. But, as I see that many people are working to save Ganji from his imprisonment without even knowing half of what he is about and what he represents, I thought it was unwise for the Iranian people to pretend that nothing is going to change if they stick their heads into the ground. That and pretending they don’t care about their history seems to be destructiveness in behavior that paralyzes all movements and all fights for a better future. Letting your past disappear so easily is like erasing the path you’ve created behind you while running blindly into a dark forest.
I think most of all races and ethnicities fight for their history and ancient records of greatness. All nations protect their monuments if they are capable of doing so. I think the Iranians were capable of it, but I cannot think that they can do it now, that it is eight years into the making and opening in less than two months.
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Because
If you ask me, a small percentage -in the tens probably- were aware (awareness does not translate to opposing) of this project, but that is only the elder generation; ages 40-up. Everyone below the age of 40 has quite exasperatingly shut their eyes, stuck their heads a foot underground, and wagged their tails in complacency and ignorance.
Besides, once a foreigner accuses a nationalist Iranian of anything, they bring up all the history they can remember, even history that is not necessarily recorded as argument that what Iranians say is by natural historical evidence right and good- even better than others. Yet, where do they stand when their right and good and great civilization is put in danger?
