I spent almost a whole month in Iran, I was at the doctor’s office, under the surgeon’s knife, figuratively speaking; traveling around, sight seeing tourist attractions, visiting holy sites, shopping extensively because of my wife, walking about and a heck of a lot of other things that don’t come to mind; through all of this I managed extensively use the public transportation systems.
I was driven in the local taxis’, I rode the cramped buses, and the jam packed Tehran metro system.
Now I saw the aftermath of a terrible car accident, a dead drug addict lying in the streets, and avoided an accident just waiting to happen with some faulty wiring that later zapped a child, five minutes after we left a restaurant, the child was terrified but thankfully unhurt; and I also spent the better of thirty four and a half hours out of 48 hrs, traveling cross country on long distance busses, but through all this hardship and inconvenience what caught my attention the most was not the poverty, oppression, corruption or despair but rather one of the effects of these conditions on the proud people of Iran for more that twenty years.
You get to see a lot of strangers and how they interact with one another; everyone reacts differently, through out all my travels and interactions, I observed how people had somehow lost their decency.
Where once the younger generations would get up and give their seats to the elderly, now they just look away and pretend not to notice, where once people stopped to help others in need, now all they do is stand and stair, then walk away without the slightest bit of a guilt.
It’s sad, but you’d think if people were hard life, in whatever manner, they’d at least fight hand and foot to make sure they retain their decency and good within them.
Perhaps people react differently in different places……now
Unfortunately, I have seen slight glimpses of this in our country, I hope they fade away, the diversity in our society has existed for a long time, people have always been good and decant, I just hope that the fact that there have been a large number of newly nationalized citizens, within the last seven years, does not effect such a negative back lash.
Decency is a commodity when lost is not re-attainable, at any cost.
Citizen X :| This is how i see things... (in layman terms)
