Yet another conspiracy theory
well, it is very common among Iranians to blame everything, even sometimes good things, on someone who is controlling everything behind the scene! usually in International matters it goes back to British policy makers, and there are many conspiracy theories, which as a matter of fact some are not just imaginary. Maybe this tradition has it's roots in some incidents that actually involved some sort of conspiracy in the past.
Anyways, recently a huge discussion is going on between Iranians not just on the Internet but even in Iranian daily newspapers, and even the government is involved, about the use of "Persian Gulf". National geographic has recently decided that on their maps they should also include another name where they refer to Persian Gulf.
I don't want to discuss the two sides of debate, though definitely I'm on the PERSIAN GULF side. but there are two things, which seem important to me.
First; Let's assume you have a pen and you call it "my pen", and I would rather like to call your pen, "eraser", now if someone would really want to know if you have a pen or eraser, what he could do is to for example search the Internet and see if you really have a pen or eraser. since you have your homepage and have written in it that "I have a pen" he would be assured that you have a pen. now assume that I raise a debate by telling everyone that you hate erasers. many news agencies will start writing that I claim that you hate erasers and you don't keep your eraser well!! so thanks to discussions and news sites, next time one would want to see if you really have a pen or eraser, he will not end up just in your homepage. but in many other sites that in fact call your pen an eraser! so you could say after a while people would be divided into those who think your pen is a pen an those who think otherwise.
Second; The old Arab-Persian wounds won't heal even without someone putting more salt on it. what would be the primer benefit of making sure that Iran does not have any support in the region, even from the Arab states, isolating it before a severe action? maybe at least this could also serve as test for approximating the level of nationalism among people both in Iran and in Arab states. but after all do you think that National Geographic will risk it's reputation to be a part of conspiracy!? and By the way do you think that it is really a big harm for their reputation?
Posted by Shauheen at November 22, 2004 02:50 PM