Living in Iran is very much fun.
Why?
Because it is rather like a video game. The only difference is that while for our foreign readers, it is more like “watching” (or reading) a video game, for us, Iranians, it is like being in the game and playing it.
What is the game about?
Just try to survive! As long as you can. (Of course, regardless of the geographical position, eventually all of us are doomed to be “game-over”!)
But living in Iran, it is quite complicated to postpone the “game-over”, because the obstacles are very much different, and happen quite unexpectedly.
“Whenever I go to a dentist, I am very much worried”, says Parisa, 32, a mother. “I always think, if anything happens in that very moment, I cannot even scape! Or I don’t know what I can do. All the time, I am extremely worried”.
She expresses her feelings after she has heard about the explosion at Sina Medical Clinic, a limited surgery centre next to Tajrish Square, north of Tehran. The clinic was located in a tiny allay. It seems that a circuit shortcut caused electricity cables to catch fire. Fire reaches the oxygen cylinders which were stored in the back yard of the building and the cellar. Some of the cylinders explode and the building goes in fire. 19 people lost their lives. Game over.
Whenever, such accidents happen, all the safety regulators start discharging themselves by saying that: “we had warned the owners that the building does not meet the essential and necessary standards”, etc. etc.
One wonders why the authorities just warn the owners and not revoking their licenses.
(Probably they want to keep the game more exciting for us!)
According to Mohsen Hashemi, The President of Tehran City Council, there are nearly 34,000 unsafe buildings in the capital. High buildings built in narrow alleys, non-standard electricity connections, absence of fire distinguishers or lack of scape and emergency exists, to name but a few.
Some of the buildings are used for purposes which are not built for, and an example was Sina Medical Clinic and certainly it is not going to be the last one.
That’s why Parisa is worried whenever she is in a situation where she cannot play the game she wishes. You can never check the standards and documents of the clinic you go to! You only hope that they are already checked by authorities.
Then if you survive accidents like explosion, you might die of other things. Coronavirus outbreak seems to have regained its power in Iran. Within the last 24 hours, it has taken 221 more lives. Hospitals in many cities are full and 19 provinces have been indicated as “red zones”.
So far, more than 12,000 people have lost their lives due to Covid-19 in Iran. Some reports however indicate that the real number might be much more than this, reaching as twice as many.
Even if we survive Covid-19, we may get shocked by hearing the exchange rate and the speed at which Rial is losing its value. In the past week, Rial has lost 20% more and 1 USD has become equivalent to 220,000 rials.
And if you are still healthy you can think back about three years ago when one gold coin was 12 million rials. Today the same gold-coin is 102 million rials.
Still alive? Then we have another adventure for you. Just go to beautiful Iranian countryside and high mountains, as we do and run up (and) downhill! If you don’t fall down, that keeps you strong and fit to face other obstacles. Watch our Bonus Video!
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