Iran: From plastic cups to nukes
What has football and plastic got to do with politics in Iran? As much as the question would flummox you and me, it has a link, in that it defines the happenings in the Islamic Republic with a population of 75 million people. It is a country which is probably unparalleled when it comes to the rich heritage it enjoys and the critical role that it played in the molding of world history with a civilization as old as human memory can recall.
Iran, like any other country, was going through turbulent times and was probably looking for a change. It did not come as a surprise then when it elected a new president in what many considered as a surprisingly smooth election process, without the ensuing violence and riots as was expected.
So, what made this transition seemingly easy, where one got to hear of Hassan Rowhani, a proclaimed moderate, emerging as the person who would be leading the country? Firstly, everyone in Iran wanted to see the exit of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from the country’s political scene and a new person occupying the president’s chair.
The other reason for the smooth election, believe it or not, was that the Iranian youth were busy celebrating Iran’s victory in football and subsequent qualification for the 2014 World Cup to be held in Brazil.
What one doesn’t understand is that the joy of qualifying for the World Cup is short-lived, and in the longer run, what matters most and what hurts is the pace of economic and social reforms. Will Rowhani be serious about the role he is about to accept or will he play ball, literally, as in the case of the former Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi? That is a million-dollar question and don’t forget that the Shah was taken by surprise when he was in far-away Buenos Aires, and Rowhani will be grounded in Teheran!
Iran under the Shah achieved a high point in terms of pride and unity among Iranians on June 1, 1978, when Iran’s football team was among the 16 teams that went to the World Cup which was held in Buenos Aires then. All Iranians, particularly the youth, were so united and so patriotic during the World Cup that the Shah of Iran began to believe that he was invincible and that his regime was rock-solid.
And to top it all, the then US President Jimmy Carter hailed Iran as an island of stability. What happened subsequently is now history. The Shah of Iran was toppled and Ayatollah Khomeini became the Iranian supreme leader. And on April 1, 1979, Iran changed its name to become the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Until the 1979 revolution, Iran was regarded as one of the most open and respected countries in the world with very advanced education and health care system at that time. It was also considered as the hub of trade and industrial center for Asia at a time when China had primitive infrastructure, South Korea was struggling politically and socially and the Gulf states had no petrochemical industries. In other word, Iran in 1979 had a 30-year head start. So, what went wrong?
One year before the revolution, Iran was looked upon as the future bridge connecting the West with the East. Indeed, Pan Am, with its heart in New York, had Tehran as its transit point for its round the world operations. Iran then was and continues to produce the best saffron in the world and exports the most delicious caviar. The country was also credited with making the most exquisite carpets in the world besides boasting of having one of the largest amounts of proven oil reserves.
What is more, at that time, Iran was making the best plastic-ware in the world. In the 1960s and 70s, plastic was fast turning out to be the most used commodity in the world including plastic cups, plastic dishes, plastic bags and many more. At that time, the Middle East countries were far behind in plastic industry, and Iran was making the best plastic products, especially the plastic cups, which fetched as lot of money for the country.
Sadly, Iran killed the proverbial golden goose that was laying the golden eggs. Iran and the Revolutionary Guards didn’t realize what they had and the fact that they could have been the richest country in the world by controlling the plastic industry in the area.
So, what happened to the Iranian plastic industry in Iran? In the 1950s, Habib Elghanian established a company called Plasco which later grew to be the largest and most technologically advanced plastic manufacturer in the Middle East. He brought Western technologies to Iran and continued to do so for 20 years. He became a billionaire and was the best known philanthropist in Iran. When the dust of the 1979 Iranian revolution settled, many thought that this businessman would be made Iran’s commerce and industry minister. But, instead of giving him the opportunity to develop the Iranian plastic industry and industrial infrastructure in general, he was executed by the new regime, leading to the extermination of the Iranian plastic industry.
And today, Iran is at a crossroads again having faced isolation for a long time. For many years, Iran had strong political relations only with a few countries, such as Syria, Venezuela, North Korea and some outlawed organizations like Hezbollah.
Iran was always considered a threat to the Gulf countries and a threat to the West because of its ambitions to become a nuclear state. Unfortunately, it is the people of Iran who are paying a price for the consequences. The choice is with the new president. He can open a new and brighter chapter with the country’s neighbors, who are looking for a more moderate Iran with good relations stretching from the East to the West. Iran’s economy is deteriorating and its currency’s strength does not befit its status. The country would be better off producing plastic cups rather than nuclear heads!
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