By Salvatore Scimino
14 de julio de 2012
Ruins de Persepolis, Iran. Source: Destylou-Historia.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is not what the Western press generally speaking wants us to believe is. It really is an ancient land filled with friendly people whose hospitality is a sacred matter. Iran is a land full of surprises.
Iranians consider guests as a God´s Gift and treat them at home with warmth and unmatched hospitality. They still enjoy family traditions that have been almost lost in the West, where we are mostly preocupied about turning human relationships and practically everything else into a series of economic transactions.
Generosity stands out as one of their cultural traits. For instance, if you want to see how Iranians treat the folk musicians that play on the streets for a living (Videos 1-2), all you have to do is stand by on a corner and watch and you will be surprised to see how many people go out of their way to throw a khomenei into the player´s can.
Videos 1-2. Street singer in Iran.
Charity is very important in Iranian´s lives. The public has charity boxes on the streets in the cities where people can drop in their donations for social programmes throughout the nation.
In the West there are too many people that suffer from stinginess and more at times of economic crisis. However, this sin can be found anywhere in the world, just as much as the opposite side of the coin, generosity. No place is perfect.
Amongst the young people you can hear complains and criticisms about the Iranian system, for they are interested in imitating and adopting the Westerner´s ways without asking themselves a very important question: Are people in the West happier with all of the paraphernalia they have? Is happiness in having or in being? The grass so often looks greener on the other side of the fence!
Iran has played a very important role in the evolution of human societies. When other people were still living in the prehistoric era, Iran was already a land with a great civilisation.
It was their king Cyrus II the Great (600 a.C- 530 a.C) who united the Iranian Tribes and gave the world the first bill of human rights, which is one of the reasons why historians say that this king is the only one who deserves to be called great.
Europe is a child of the East culturally speaking, and a mixture of the rest of the continents botanically speaking. Furthermore, in the last few centuries of social evolution, Europe has behaved as a haughty offspring, since it has been home to the most terrible predators of natural resources ever to be unleashed upon the planet and humankind as well. We are all suffering the consequences of his "enlightment era".
We say this not to be radical but because it is about time we give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.
Nevertheless, no place on Earth is Paradise. We must remember that. The real Shangri-La lies in a place deep within our own hearts.
We invite you to watch the following videos (Video 3-4) about Iran. It is important to get to know and love our brethren who live on this wonderful land, home of noble people.
Video 3
Video 4.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario