May 08, 2005

Surprising: The Iranian Street is Pro-America

From Regime Change Iran: Iran: A Close Shave Connected Traveler to People Eager for Answers about US.

Iran may be part of the Axis of Evil, but you’d never know it talking to a typical Iranian. The Average Jelal wants to be friends and hang out with you at his favorite teahouse. But first he needs to make sure you understand that he and practically everyone else he knows hate the country’s religious leaders more than you could ever imagine.

Beards are a sign of piety in Islam. Once I ditched mine, Iranians felt free to show me around, invite me to dinner, vent about politics and ask about life in a free country. I chatted into the night at the teahouses, exchanged e-mail addresses and snapped pictures of strangers who just wanted to be in an American photo album.

I knew before going that Iranians like us more than we think. Now, it’s hard to exaggerate the point. Iranians pine after American freedoms and mimic our culture. They’re like a self-conscious teenager hero-worshipping an older friend.

In the capital city, Tehran, “The Ultimate Fried Chicken Joint” is a popular restaurant. In Yazd, a southern desert town, a street advertisement for an optometrist shows the cartoon Charlie Brown holding an eye chart and his sister Sally in an eye patch. People wear stars-and-stripes shoes and stars-and-stripes shirts. There are achingly bad Iranian versions of American pop music.

Kerry Opposes Gay Marriage

Kerry: Mass. Dems Wrong on Gay Marriage.

Sen. John Kerry is moving to the right on the hot-button issue of gay marriage, announcing on Thursday that he doesn’t support efforts by Massachusetts Democrats to include a gay marriage plank in their party platform.

“I think it’s a mistake,” Kerry told the Boston Globe. “I think it’s the wrong thing, and I’m not sure it reflects the broad view of the Democratic Party in our state.”

The move represents a substantial shift for the top Democrat, who rejected Bill Clinton’s advice last year that he come out for one or two of the gay marriage bans then on the ballot in several states.

“I’m never gonna do that,” Kerry reportedly told advisers after speaking with the ex-president.

Let’s see if can maintain this view for a significant length of time.

United Arab Emirates’ Custom of Kidnapping Children to Serve as Camel Jockeys

From Anti-Slavery:

Boys, as young as four years old, continue to be trafficked to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as camel jockeys, despite repeated statements from the Government that this practice has stopped.

Anti-Slavery International sent a photographer to the UAE in 2004, to investigate whether children were still being used as camel jockeys, following government announcements that new regulations were being enforced.

Photographic evidence proves that using children as camel jockeys is commonplace in Dubai and other Emirates.

In July 2002, the UAE Government announced that using children under-16 and lighter than 45 kilogrammes to race camels would be banned from 1 September 2002 and offenders punished. From what Anti-Slavery International saw in January 2004, and evidence from organisations in the countries from which children are taken, the regulations against this abuse are still not being implemented.

Traffickers are abducting or luring young boys away from their families in South Asia and Africa with promises of well-paid work, education and training. In reality they are kept in brutal conditions, deprived of food and water to keep them light and subjected to hazardous work; racing at a speeds of 40-50 kilometres per hour.

A photo gallery is here.