Log in to become a member of Paul Lappen's Fan Club!
Iran: Everything You Need to Know, John Farndon, 2007, ISBN 1932857567
Iran, so much in the news these days, is a country of contradictions. On one hand, it is a very puritanical country controlled by Islamic clerics, where dissent is severely restricted. On the other hand, Iran is one of the oldest countries in the world, tracing its history back over 2,500 years. The name Persia (what Iran was called until the 1920s) conjures images of harems and Persian carpets, not chadors and religious police.
Throughout its history, Iran has had leaders who honestly cared about the people, as well as leaders who only cared about lining their own pockets. Since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, when the last Shah was overthrown (another leader who cared more about the size of his bank accounts than about the people), and despite the existence of an elected Parliament, Iran has been run by hardliners.
Iran's official reason for moving toward nuclear power is that, one day, its huge oil and gas reserves will run out, so they should start looking at other forms of energy, sooner rather than later. They also don't have much in the way of refining capacity, so imports are needed. Iran accuses the West of nuclear hypocrisy. Iran has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and they can't have nuclear power, but Israel and India, which have not signed the NPT, gets lots of nuclear help from America. Why? Granted, some actions and statements from the Iranian government have not helped the situation. Both America and Iran have plenty of reason to be very suspicious of the other's words and actions. Time will tell.
This is not meant to be a scholarly, comprehensive look at Iran, but a quick, factual read full of information that won't be found in the American news media. It works very well, and is very much recommended.
Paul Lappen is a freelance book reviewer from Connecticut whose web site http://www.deadtreesreview.com contains nearly 700 book reviews on all subjects, concentrating on small press books.
This author of this Article has choosen to make this article available with free reprint rights. Click here to copy this article.
Disclaimer: All information on this site is provided for informational purposes only! By no means is any
information presented herein intended to substitute for the advice provided to you by any health care or other professional
or organization.
