For the second day running the Quest has turned to vaguely political matters (rest assured fart gags and gameshow references will return shortly). The Olympic torch continued its cataclysmic jaunt around Europe, getting extinguished four times on its way round Paris. It's just disgusting - The French are beating us at everything! Better food, nicer weather, a more charismatic leader, and now they've turned us over 4-0 at symbolic torch snuffing. Britannia is weeping.
I'm not set to impart another Olympic fact (though rest assured, I have plenty in the locker) but am turning from China to another nation that likes to sit at the back of the UN chamber, chewing gum with their walkman blaring while carving a large 'I' in the desk - I'm talking, of course, about Iran. It's long been next on George Bush's hitlist (I won't call him Dubya - it makes him sound like a cartoonish oaf rather than the deeply sinister man he really is), but has so far avoided being forcibly introduced to liberty. I wonder that the odds were 2 years ago on Bush (a) not invading Iran and (b) being replaced by a black guy - stratospheric, I should imagine.
But what of the leader of Iran? Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a controversial figure, to put it mildly - his Chavez-esque antagonism of the Western world had gone some way to endearing him to me, but sadly he appears to be a right-wing loon of the highest order. He has stated that the Holocaust is a myth, and that Israel should be wiped off the map, before claiming that he is not anti-Semitic. I'd have to say that you couldn't really get much more anti-Semitic than that. He appears to be sending his country back onto a more conservative path, following the kiboshed efforts of the previous president, Mohammad Khatami, to introduce widespread reforms. But who was stopping him? After all, Ahmadinejad has been built up as some kind of crazed dictator by the Western press, so surely he, and the presidents before, answer to no-one? Well, while I'm sure most people know the answer to this, I did not.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the president of Iran, but he is not the leader. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, successor to Ayatollah Khomeini, is the supreme leader of the country.
Now, I'd like to point out before I come across as an ignorant doofus, that I was aware that Ayatollah Khomeini was once the leader of Iran. However, the media attention afforded to the new president led me to believe that he was now the daddy, so to speak. But no, he answers to the new Ayatollah, who has been supreme leader since 1989 and who technically controls all aspects of the nation's economy, politics and media. A crazy, embarrassingly outdated system, I think you'll agree. Khamenei has even stepped in to cool the fires created by the president, claiming that "Iran has never threatened and will never threaten another country", the diplomatic equivalent of leave it George, he's not worth it. Ahmadinejad has, according to Wikipedia anyway, attempted diplomatic discourse with the U.S. administration on a number of occasions, only to be told to do one. So, the malevolent world leader we've all seen on our front pages appears to be quite different in reality.
The fact that I'm so in the dark about the leadership of such an influential nation is a sad indictment of not only my ignorance, but that of so many around the world. A client I have at work, who was born in Iran, informed me that you only need an MOT every ten years. I realised that in spite of my best efforts to be culturally aware and globally minded, my subconscious still perceived Iran as a place stuck in the Dark Ages, with a people dominated and broken down by religious and cultural oppression. I didn't imagine people popping to the garage to get their brake pads checked (admittedly, they don't have to go that often). I guess that's a drop in the ocean of mutual suspicion and misunderstanding that will one day destroy the world. Like I said, fart gags and gameshow references will be back soon.
I'm not set to impart another Olympic fact (though rest assured, I have plenty in the locker) but am turning from China to another nation that likes to sit at the back of the UN chamber, chewing gum with their walkman blaring while carving a large 'I' in the desk - I'm talking, of course, about Iran. It's long been next on George Bush's hitlist (I won't call him Dubya - it makes him sound like a cartoonish oaf rather than the deeply sinister man he really is), but has so far avoided being forcibly introduced to liberty. I wonder that the odds were 2 years ago on Bush (a) not invading Iran and (b) being replaced by a black guy - stratospheric, I should imagine.
But what of the leader of Iran? Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a controversial figure, to put it mildly - his Chavez-esque antagonism of the Western world had gone some way to endearing him to me, but sadly he appears to be a right-wing loon of the highest order. He has stated that the Holocaust is a myth, and that Israel should be wiped off the map, before claiming that he is not anti-Semitic. I'd have to say that you couldn't really get much more anti-Semitic than that. He appears to be sending his country back onto a more conservative path, following the kiboshed efforts of the previous president, Mohammad Khatami, to introduce widespread reforms. But who was stopping him? After all, Ahmadinejad has been built up as some kind of crazed dictator by the Western press, so surely he, and the presidents before, answer to no-one? Well, while I'm sure most people know the answer to this, I did not.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the president of Iran, but he is not the leader. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, successor to Ayatollah Khomeini, is the supreme leader of the country.
Now, I'd like to point out before I come across as an ignorant doofus, that I was aware that Ayatollah Khomeini was once the leader of Iran. However, the media attention afforded to the new president led me to believe that he was now the daddy, so to speak. But no, he answers to the new Ayatollah, who has been supreme leader since 1989 and who technically controls all aspects of the nation's economy, politics and media. A crazy, embarrassingly outdated system, I think you'll agree. Khamenei has even stepped in to cool the fires created by the president, claiming that "Iran has never threatened and will never threaten another country", the diplomatic equivalent of leave it George, he's not worth it. Ahmadinejad has, according to Wikipedia anyway, attempted diplomatic discourse with the U.S. administration on a number of occasions, only to be told to do one. So, the malevolent world leader we've all seen on our front pages appears to be quite different in reality.
The fact that I'm so in the dark about the leadership of such an influential nation is a sad indictment of not only my ignorance, but that of so many around the world. A client I have at work, who was born in Iran, informed me that you only need an MOT every ten years. I realised that in spite of my best efforts to be culturally aware and globally minded, my subconscious still perceived Iran as a place stuck in the Dark Ages, with a people dominated and broken down by religious and cultural oppression. I didn't imagine people popping to the garage to get their brake pads checked (admittedly, they don't have to go that often). I guess that's a drop in the ocean of mutual suspicion and misunderstanding that will one day destroy the world. Like I said, fart gags and gameshow references will be back soon.
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