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I find Iran to be a truly baffling civilization. Iranians are so educated and orderly, but the country punches so below its weight class in terms of prosperity.
by rayiner 1y ago
I find Iran to be a truly baffling civilization. Iranians are so educated and orderly, but the country punches so below its weight class in terms of prosperity.
- jeromegv 1y agoSanctions surely aren’t helping
- pinewurst 1y agoTheocracy surely isn't helping
- decremental 1y ago[dead]
- bawolff 1y agoThe situation the article is about seems more to do with corruption and mismanagement than sanctions.
- elcritch 1y agoIt's hard to manage a water supply and economy in Tehran when your top minds are busy running proxy wars in Lebanon and Iraq and funding or supporting ones in Syria, Yemen, and Gaza [1, 2]. It's sad to such a great people subjugated by their government. 1: https://www.cfr.org/article/irans-regional-armed-network https://www.cfr.org/article/irans-regional-armed-network 2: https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/proxy-wars/map https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/proxy-wars/map
- orbital-decay 1y agoDams blocking the inflow to Lake Urmia that almost dried up nowadays were built by the Shah, for example. Man-made environmental damage and corruption aren't new by any measure, as well as unstable water levels and shortages in arid zones. See e.g. Aral Sea which fluctuated in the range of dozens of meters over centuries before finally drying up, which was enough to establish and subsequently abandon multiple settlements on the lake bed during the Mongol Empire.
- elcritch 1y agoTrue, but water desalination plants also exist and Iran has plenty of oil to power them.
- bikeshaving 1y agoGeographically speaking, over 80% of Iran’s land is classified as arid or semi-arid, and it is likely to face over 5°C of warming by the end of the century: the impacts of climate change will likely be more severe in Iran than the regional average. The region suffers from extreme weather including both droughts and flooding, seismic activity in the form tectonic uplift, particularly near the Makran coast, and constant attacks: economic attack by sanction, cyber attack on energy infrastructure, and lately even kinetic attack from neighbors. The fact that the regime hasn’t collapsed is a testament to Persian, Iranian and Islamic culture, and I hope its people find ways to prosper when the deck is so stacked against them.
- xenospn 1y agoAlmost everything you’ve described, except for natural disasters, is an own goal. There’s literally no need for the country to be poor and on the brink of collapse. They are doing it to themselves.
- shadyKeystrokes 1y agoOn the fruits of their hands labor you shall know them..
- maest 1y agoThere may have been some external meddling from a certain international superpower.
- rayiner 1y agoIran isn’t a breadbasket exactly, but it has more arable land per person than Germany, Italy, the UK, or Ireland. And vastly more than Japan. It’s relatively temperate now—future warming doesn’t explain its current situation. On top of all that, it has oil! In 1980, just after the revolution, Iran had a PPP GDP per capita above Taiwan, China, and South Korea. And only modestly behind Poland. Today those countries are far ahead. Same for Thailand, Malaysia, and Turkey. The economic sanctions are a symptom not the cause.
- 1y ago
- FridayoLeary 1y agoI wonder what happened... It is a crying shame and the Iranians deserve better. At the moment 16 million people may find themselves without water in the near future. I'm lost for words. If one positive thing could be found in this situation it might finally be the thing that brings down the regime. I think it's fair to say this year has been an annus horribilis for them.
- jojobas 1y agoIt's all British/American fault. /s
- shadyKeystrokes 1y agoDont forget the mighty CIA.. so mighty they couldn't even stop trump from ruining it for the military industrial conplex with isolationism. Anything to prevent the realization that left policies are and where rejected by the people.. if you start introspection, the movement immolates.
- mhb 1y agoI suspect that the IRGC will be the last ones with empty canteens.
- FridayoLeary 1y agoThey will still be empty eventually. It might still become a stable situation though. If you look at pictures from North Korea the only person who doesn't look malnourished is Kim Jong Un. Otoh water is different from food. Also it's the middle east. They might have to cut back on their aggression but their antagonists (who by now is literally everyone) won't.
- Blackthorn 1y agoGee, I wonder what possibly could have happened over the last 50 or so years that might have damaged their prosperity.
- UltraSane 1y agoThe incredibly incompetent theocracy irrationally obsessed with destroying Israel?
- mattmaroon 1y agoTheir government spends itself into poverty fighting proxy wars against Israel both directly and indirectly through sanctions. It’s a theocracy so economics is not the most important thing to their leaders.
- bamboozled 1y agoThey are governed by Islamic fundamentalists ?
- culi 1y agoWell it's the most heavily sanctioned country on earth...
- tgma 1y ago[flagged]
- nandomrumber 1y agoYou got down voted for this, but it gave me a chuckle. Some people have no sense of humour. Maybe Tehran just needs to tax the locals an additional 2% so they can finally start delivering…
- tgma 1y agoHacker News crowd does its emotional outrage voting but the similarities are uncanny: Khomeini's first famous speech when he got back was promising free water, electricity, and busses. They are delivering on the free water promise by setting Qty=0.
- pinewurst 1y agoAnd there’s free electricity in Evin Prison too.
- tgma 1y agoSure it’s free when connected but they had scheduled blackouts over the summer in Tehran to make sure IRGC Bitcoin miners keep working.
- _zagj 1y agoThe air quality is also atrocious, in line with other socialist states, along with the lack of laws against animal cruelty: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_welfare_and_rights_in_Iran https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_welfare_and_rights_in_I...
- nandomrumber 1y agoEquality: everyone can have nothing!
- samrus 1y agoSanctions will do that. Both soft and hard
- _zagj 1y ago> truly baffling It's an Islamic theocracy with nuclear as well as regional hegemonic ambitions; what about the corresponding impoverishment of its citizens is "baffling" to you?
- hearsathought 1y agoThere is nothing baffling about it. When the world's superpower targets you for destruction, it's impossible to prosper. What's baffling is how long they've been able to persevere. Imagine if the US targeted germany or japan or saudi arabia for destruction. They'd be in far worse situation than iran.
- yubblegum 1y agoNothing baffling about it. Religion was used by a clerical class to marshall the lumpen masses with promises of free handouts in this world and paradise in the next. Their own thinking set (of the ruling clique) are bound by ideology - whether as matter of actual belief or means of governance - so they do not make any decisions based on national interest or reason. It is the ideology that does the 'thinking'. (Sounds familiar? Warning bells for other locals, maybe? ..) Most educated Iranians you know, btw, are (drum roll) in diaspora, for good reasons.