The FdDST e.V.: A Critical View
In Bryan Singer’s excellent first film, ‘The Usual Suspects’, five criminals meet, apparently by chance, in City Hall’s Holding Tank. One is not surprised that the result of this encounter is a series of capers.
Had they been Germans instead of Americans and law-abiders instead of law-breakers, they would most likely have founded a Verein. The literal translation of this thoroughly German word, as supplied by the dictionary, is a society or an association. There are, however, a number of associations (no pun intended), connotations and implications inherent in this word which are difficult to convey to anyone not familiar with German culture and society. An approximation is the English word club, in the sense of Gentlemen’s Club. A registered Verein (or eingetragener Verein, abbreviated e.V.) can be founded to pursue any one common interest of its members. It must have a charter, a managing committee and chairman, always has a treasury and enjoys certain tax benefits. Some of these societies, such as the innumerable Allotment Gardeners’ Societies, are subject to much derision, but many of them provide invaluable public services.
The FdDST e.V. does not belong to the latter group. FdDST stands for Freunde der Deutschen Schule Teheran (Friends of the German School [in] Tehran). Its membership is limited to alumni of said school, one of the many International Schools that flourished in Iran under the Pahlavi regime. The Americans had one (TAS or Tehran American School, where, incidentally, Donna Leon, author of the immensely popular series of detective novels featuring Commissario Brunetti of the Venice Questura, taught for a while. Tennis matches and poolside lounging seem to have taken up most of her time and her statements regarding the country during her stay there are as fatuous as her books), as did the British, the French, the Italians and the Swedish. I’m certain that there were more, these are only those that I definitely remember. In addition to these there were also a number of private schools without direct national association in which the language of instruction was English. Most famous of these were Community School and IranZamin School.
The pupils of the nationally associated schools consisted of the children of diplomats of the respective countries, those of the representatives of companies registered there who were posted to Iran for periods of usually two to four years and children of mixed marriages, one parent a citizen of the respective country, the other Iranian, in almost all cases the father.
The late but unlamented MohammadReza Pahlavi, one of the most brutal, corrupt, inept, oppressive and stupid invertebrates ever to head a country, had a vision which he almost never failed to mention in his innumerable speeches. It was irrelevant whether a connection to the subject at hand was evident (or even existed)- the little routine was incorporated by Imperial privilege. Iran was, in Mr Pahlavi’s view ‘at the gates of the Great Civilisation’. Details as to what this state of bliss consisted of were never supplied. Iran was ante portas for quite a while, for decades, in fact, up until the time when the Pahlavi dynasty was deposed of. Mr Pahlavi was, to his unpardonable discredit, ashamed of his backward people, their ignorance and illiteracy. This lamentable state of affairs was and is one of the characteristics of all Third World countries. Another is that a small elite benefits from the labours of the majority. A responsible and sensible ruler would have endeavoured to better that. That, however, would have conflicted with the interests of the influential elite, whose very power and prosperity depended upon the exploitation of the masses. Instead, to appease international, i.e. Western, opinion, Tehran and a limited number of other large cities, such as Isphahan, Mashad and Shiraz were transformed into superficially modern metropoles, while the rest of the country was left to its own devices. Suffice it to mention that in February 1979, at the time of the Pahlavi family’s forced departure into exile (with five billion United States Dollars!), thousands of villages had no electricity, medical services of any kind or running water. Instead, drum solos by Mr Pahlavi’s eldest son, performed to an audience of national and international political representatives, were featured on the evening news. Said son, the intended successor to the Peacock Throne, who now lives in the United States, considers himself the legitimate ruler of Iran, albeit in exile. Patients with similar delusions people psychiatric hospitals worldwide and are for the most part kept under heavy medication for their own and others’ safety.
The sum of five billion Dollars is one that was touted by the clergy after it took over power and is not substantiated by evidence. There is no doubt, however, that the Pahlavis robbed the country. The founder of the dynasty, the despotic and uneducated Reza, who hailed from the province of Gilan at the Caspian Sea, was an officer in a Russian Cossack regiment stationed there, with no income other than his pay. After his ascent to power, in the rapacious manner characteristic of him, he took what pleased him and amassed an indecent fortune. This tradition was honoured and continued, with no small success, by his children, with the exception, perhaps, of his daughter Shams. Her sister, Ashraf (the name derives from the Arabic noun ‘sharaf’, which means honour (!)), had a hand in prostitution rackets and the drug trade.
Mr Pahlavi and his father did create by force a delicate and tenuous Middle Class, whose admiration for and support of the monarchy was intended as one of its power bases. As seen on TV in 1979, it was this same Middle Class that took to the streets by the millions to demand a swift end to His Imperial Majesty’s reign.
Civilization, in both Pahlavis’ view, meant the Western, and in the case of MohammadReza, the American version. Reza decreed that Iranian men must abandon traditional dress in favour of suits and that women must be unveiled. To this last end, policemen hid behind trees and street corners to forcibly remove women’s Tchadors, their traditional (black) covering. As a result, quite a number of women refused to leave the house thereafter, for months and even years in some cases. This procedure is representative of all ‘reforms’ initiated by Reza. It is worth mention that, when he became too obnoxious to bear, he was sent into exile (albeit on Mauritius) by the very Western powers (the British, to be exact) he toadied to. Early in 1979 the civilized and Westernized Iranian people thanked him in unequivocal fashion: they destroyed his mausoleum in the south of Tehran.
Education worth its name (as that offered by the International Schools) was limited to the offspring of the affluent. Affluence was, certainly with exceptions, connected to corruption, exploitation and injustice both personal and social. The example of the deceased brother of one of my father’s best friends, who had one of his stable-boys whipped in the presence of a number of his guests (on his estate in the vicinity of Tehran) for a minor infraction, is representative. He died of the direct results of an overindulgence in Scotch and opium.
From the 1950s onward, a great number of young Iranian men from the Middle and Upper Classes left the country upon graduation from high school to study abroad, i.e. at American and European universities. In part this was a symbol of financial prowess and social status, for the proud parents at first and later, upon their return to Iran, for the graduates themselves. Many of these young men (the number of women among these students was negligible) brought back home not only a degree, but a wife as well. In Germany in particular, these ‘Persian Princes’ were popular and respected, due to the fact that the late Soraya, Mr Pahlavi’s first wife, whom he allegedly divorced for her infertility, which made her unable to bear him an heir, was the offspring of the marriage between an Iranian and a German.
The children of these liasions constituted the majority of my fellow pupils at the DST. Almost all left prior, during or immediately after the upheavals of 1978 and 1979 which led to the ‘Islamic Revolution’. Most settled with their parents in Germany, usually in their mothers’ hometowns, but a number went elsewhere, primarily the USA. It is understandable and laudable that the FdDST e.V. was formed shortly afterwards. Networks of this sort, based upon common experience, have always existed. The FdDST was and is quite active, with a website (www.fddst.de), quite well visited (as evidenced by the number of entries in the guestbook), reserved tables in pubs for informal weekly meetings in all major (and some minor) cities, annual reunions, etc.
What disappoints me however, is that these ladies and gentlemen limit their exchanges to- in part embarassingly sentimental- reminiscences about the ‘good old times’ prior to the upheavals that forced their parents to leave- or flee- Iran. It is understandable that at the time we had little or no awareness of the country’s realities, political or social. We were children, adolescents at best. We sat safe and dry on a boulder in the middle of a torrentous river, clueless as to the violent currents and the undertow.
Twenty-four years have elapsed, however, and it is lamentable to witness the absence of a maturation of political and social attitudes and views. It is time to admit that the pleasant life we had was at the expense of bitter deprivation, injury and wrong inflicted upon the multitudes which many of my former schoolmates still refer to as the ‘Lower Classes’. To these, however, we were and are deeply indebted. A first step toward repayment of this debt is to acknowledge that they existed and led their handicapped existences parallel to our pampered lives, often in the same house. They watered the lawns as we swam in the pool, did the housework and enabled your mothers to lead the idle and indolent lives they could never have been able to afford had they stayed in Germany. These servants were the fortunate ones, much more fortunate, at least, than those who laboured in the brickyards in the south of Tehran for a pittance and lived in hovels under unacceptable circumstances that stole from them what little dignity and self-esteem they had left.
Most of my former schoolmates have attained positions of affluence and influence in their lives. They are vehement and vocal in their critisism and derision of the corruption and incompetence of Iran’s present rulers. Yet the idea does not appear to occur to them to return to the country they claim to yearn for, where they claim their hearts and roots are and to contribute to its betterment. It is easier to talk, though, than to act. To act would mean to leave the amenities of life in Europe for the relative hardships of life in Iran. They probably expect another upheaval that will dispose of the theocrats- an upheaval to be carried out by the Lower and Middle Classes presumably- that will enable them to return to Tehran on a red carpet and reclaim their positions of privilege. That, however, is an illusion. It is also despicable and ignorant of the country’s political realities. In this hope they will be as disappointed as the Drummer Prince. The Romanoffs have waited for their return for quite a while now, too. I suggest that the Pahlavis and the Romanoffs establish a Verein of dethroned despots. There are quite a number of former Imperial and Royal Highnesses and Majesties from African and Central European countries who would appreciate the idea and apply for membership, I’m certain.
I dared voice these views, in a mild version, on the FdDST’s website. I was attacked, critisized, denied membership and ostracized. One particularly unsavoury fellow abused and insulted me (in a manner rather revealing of his birth and descent) in a number of cowardly anonymous emails. In Mr Pahlavi’s time, freedom of opinion and thought and their expression were not welcome and firmly discouraged. Dissent was a matter treated in the notorious Evin prison. Treatment invariably involved the atrocious infliction of pain both physical and psychical. This attitude has its roots in a particular mental disposition, of which intolerance is a main ingredient. The presence of this particular mental dispositon is evident in the FdDST. This may appear to be an exaggerated, inaccurate and unfair comparison. I would, however, like to quote in translation a Persian proverb: They are excellent swimmers indeed. It is just that they haven’t had access to the sea yet.
I recommend that the FdDST e.V. greet visitors to its website with an official hymn. Aerosmith’s ‘Dream On’ would be apt- or GüMix’s ‘Wake Up’. I’ll be glad to help with the copyright issues.
Had they been Germans instead of Americans and law-abiders instead of law-breakers, they would most likely have founded a Verein. The literal translation of this thoroughly German word, as supplied by the dictionary, is a society or an association. There are, however, a number of associations (no pun intended), connotations and implications inherent in this word which are difficult to convey to anyone not familiar with German culture and society. An approximation is the English word club, in the sense of Gentlemen’s Club. A registered Verein (or eingetragener Verein, abbreviated e.V.) can be founded to pursue any one common interest of its members. It must have a charter, a managing committee and chairman, always has a treasury and enjoys certain tax benefits. Some of these societies, such as the innumerable Allotment Gardeners’ Societies, are subject to much derision, but many of them provide invaluable public services.
The FdDST e.V. does not belong to the latter group. FdDST stands for Freunde der Deutschen Schule Teheran (Friends of the German School [in] Tehran). Its membership is limited to alumni of said school, one of the many International Schools that flourished in Iran under the Pahlavi regime. The Americans had one (TAS or Tehran American School, where, incidentally, Donna Leon, author of the immensely popular series of detective novels featuring Commissario Brunetti of the Venice Questura, taught for a while. Tennis matches and poolside lounging seem to have taken up most of her time and her statements regarding the country during her stay there are as fatuous as her books), as did the British, the French, the Italians and the Swedish. I’m certain that there were more, these are only those that I definitely remember. In addition to these there were also a number of private schools without direct national association in which the language of instruction was English. Most famous of these were Community School and IranZamin School.
The pupils of the nationally associated schools consisted of the children of diplomats of the respective countries, those of the representatives of companies registered there who were posted to Iran for periods of usually two to four years and children of mixed marriages, one parent a citizen of the respective country, the other Iranian, in almost all cases the father.
The late but unlamented MohammadReza Pahlavi, one of the most brutal, corrupt, inept, oppressive and stupid invertebrates ever to head a country, had a vision which he almost never failed to mention in his innumerable speeches. It was irrelevant whether a connection to the subject at hand was evident (or even existed)- the little routine was incorporated by Imperial privilege. Iran was, in Mr Pahlavi’s view ‘at the gates of the Great Civilisation’. Details as to what this state of bliss consisted of were never supplied. Iran was ante portas for quite a while, for decades, in fact, up until the time when the Pahlavi dynasty was deposed of. Mr Pahlavi was, to his unpardonable discredit, ashamed of his backward people, their ignorance and illiteracy. This lamentable state of affairs was and is one of the characteristics of all Third World countries. Another is that a small elite benefits from the labours of the majority. A responsible and sensible ruler would have endeavoured to better that. That, however, would have conflicted with the interests of the influential elite, whose very power and prosperity depended upon the exploitation of the masses. Instead, to appease international, i.e. Western, opinion, Tehran and a limited number of other large cities, such as Isphahan, Mashad and Shiraz were transformed into superficially modern metropoles, while the rest of the country was left to its own devices. Suffice it to mention that in February 1979, at the time of the Pahlavi family’s forced departure into exile (with five billion United States Dollars!), thousands of villages had no electricity, medical services of any kind or running water. Instead, drum solos by Mr Pahlavi’s eldest son, performed to an audience of national and international political representatives, were featured on the evening news. Said son, the intended successor to the Peacock Throne, who now lives in the United States, considers himself the legitimate ruler of Iran, albeit in exile. Patients with similar delusions people psychiatric hospitals worldwide and are for the most part kept under heavy medication for their own and others’ safety.
The sum of five billion Dollars is one that was touted by the clergy after it took over power and is not substantiated by evidence. There is no doubt, however, that the Pahlavis robbed the country. The founder of the dynasty, the despotic and uneducated Reza, who hailed from the province of Gilan at the Caspian Sea, was an officer in a Russian Cossack regiment stationed there, with no income other than his pay. After his ascent to power, in the rapacious manner characteristic of him, he took what pleased him and amassed an indecent fortune. This tradition was honoured and continued, with no small success, by his children, with the exception, perhaps, of his daughter Shams. Her sister, Ashraf (the name derives from the Arabic noun ‘sharaf’, which means honour (!)), had a hand in prostitution rackets and the drug trade.
Mr Pahlavi and his father did create by force a delicate and tenuous Middle Class, whose admiration for and support of the monarchy was intended as one of its power bases. As seen on TV in 1979, it was this same Middle Class that took to the streets by the millions to demand a swift end to His Imperial Majesty’s reign.
Civilization, in both Pahlavis’ view, meant the Western, and in the case of MohammadReza, the American version. Reza decreed that Iranian men must abandon traditional dress in favour of suits and that women must be unveiled. To this last end, policemen hid behind trees and street corners to forcibly remove women’s Tchadors, their traditional (black) covering. As a result, quite a number of women refused to leave the house thereafter, for months and even years in some cases. This procedure is representative of all ‘reforms’ initiated by Reza. It is worth mention that, when he became too obnoxious to bear, he was sent into exile (albeit on Mauritius) by the very Western powers (the British, to be exact) he toadied to. Early in 1979 the civilized and Westernized Iranian people thanked him in unequivocal fashion: they destroyed his mausoleum in the south of Tehran.
Education worth its name (as that offered by the International Schools) was limited to the offspring of the affluent. Affluence was, certainly with exceptions, connected to corruption, exploitation and injustice both personal and social. The example of the deceased brother of one of my father’s best friends, who had one of his stable-boys whipped in the presence of a number of his guests (on his estate in the vicinity of Tehran) for a minor infraction, is representative. He died of the direct results of an overindulgence in Scotch and opium.
From the 1950s onward, a great number of young Iranian men from the Middle and Upper Classes left the country upon graduation from high school to study abroad, i.e. at American and European universities. In part this was a symbol of financial prowess and social status, for the proud parents at first and later, upon their return to Iran, for the graduates themselves. Many of these young men (the number of women among these students was negligible) brought back home not only a degree, but a wife as well. In Germany in particular, these ‘Persian Princes’ were popular and respected, due to the fact that the late Soraya, Mr Pahlavi’s first wife, whom he allegedly divorced for her infertility, which made her unable to bear him an heir, was the offspring of the marriage between an Iranian and a German.
The children of these liasions constituted the majority of my fellow pupils at the DST. Almost all left prior, during or immediately after the upheavals of 1978 and 1979 which led to the ‘Islamic Revolution’. Most settled with their parents in Germany, usually in their mothers’ hometowns, but a number went elsewhere, primarily the USA. It is understandable and laudable that the FdDST e.V. was formed shortly afterwards. Networks of this sort, based upon common experience, have always existed. The FdDST was and is quite active, with a website (www.fddst.de), quite well visited (as evidenced by the number of entries in the guestbook), reserved tables in pubs for informal weekly meetings in all major (and some minor) cities, annual reunions, etc.
What disappoints me however, is that these ladies and gentlemen limit their exchanges to- in part embarassingly sentimental- reminiscences about the ‘good old times’ prior to the upheavals that forced their parents to leave- or flee- Iran. It is understandable that at the time we had little or no awareness of the country’s realities, political or social. We were children, adolescents at best. We sat safe and dry on a boulder in the middle of a torrentous river, clueless as to the violent currents and the undertow.
Twenty-four years have elapsed, however, and it is lamentable to witness the absence of a maturation of political and social attitudes and views. It is time to admit that the pleasant life we had was at the expense of bitter deprivation, injury and wrong inflicted upon the multitudes which many of my former schoolmates still refer to as the ‘Lower Classes’. To these, however, we were and are deeply indebted. A first step toward repayment of this debt is to acknowledge that they existed and led their handicapped existences parallel to our pampered lives, often in the same house. They watered the lawns as we swam in the pool, did the housework and enabled your mothers to lead the idle and indolent lives they could never have been able to afford had they stayed in Germany. These servants were the fortunate ones, much more fortunate, at least, than those who laboured in the brickyards in the south of Tehran for a pittance and lived in hovels under unacceptable circumstances that stole from them what little dignity and self-esteem they had left.
Most of my former schoolmates have attained positions of affluence and influence in their lives. They are vehement and vocal in their critisism and derision of the corruption and incompetence of Iran’s present rulers. Yet the idea does not appear to occur to them to return to the country they claim to yearn for, where they claim their hearts and roots are and to contribute to its betterment. It is easier to talk, though, than to act. To act would mean to leave the amenities of life in Europe for the relative hardships of life in Iran. They probably expect another upheaval that will dispose of the theocrats- an upheaval to be carried out by the Lower and Middle Classes presumably- that will enable them to return to Tehran on a red carpet and reclaim their positions of privilege. That, however, is an illusion. It is also despicable and ignorant of the country’s political realities. In this hope they will be as disappointed as the Drummer Prince. The Romanoffs have waited for their return for quite a while now, too. I suggest that the Pahlavis and the Romanoffs establish a Verein of dethroned despots. There are quite a number of former Imperial and Royal Highnesses and Majesties from African and Central European countries who would appreciate the idea and apply for membership, I’m certain.
I dared voice these views, in a mild version, on the FdDST’s website. I was attacked, critisized, denied membership and ostracized. One particularly unsavoury fellow abused and insulted me (in a manner rather revealing of his birth and descent) in a number of cowardly anonymous emails. In Mr Pahlavi’s time, freedom of opinion and thought and their expression were not welcome and firmly discouraged. Dissent was a matter treated in the notorious Evin prison. Treatment invariably involved the atrocious infliction of pain both physical and psychical. This attitude has its roots in a particular mental disposition, of which intolerance is a main ingredient. The presence of this particular mental dispositon is evident in the FdDST. This may appear to be an exaggerated, inaccurate and unfair comparison. I would, however, like to quote in translation a Persian proverb: They are excellent swimmers indeed. It is just that they haven’t had access to the sea yet.
I recommend that the FdDST e.V. greet visitors to its website with an official hymn. Aerosmith’s ‘Dream On’ would be apt- or GüMix’s ‘Wake Up’. I’ll be glad to help with the copyright issues.
posted by Arta Buneta at 7:25 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home