SKYSCRAPER HEAVENS
The title of the book is Skyscraper Heavens. Those two words came to mind before dawn the morning of December 31, 2014.
The Skyscraper is a male-dominant image, a phallus, a corporate, higher than you, conception of engineers, developers and heads of law firms, banks and insurance companies, to name a few. It also has a history [See, “Tower of Babel” Genesis 11:4 et seq.], the necessity of shared resources of a unit or firm [e.g. a library or intelligence unit], The World Trade Center Attack, Manhattan, New York City, New York, September 11, 2001, as well as to objectify in concrete, glass and mirrored terms the concept of professional success in the industrial era [see Marcuse, Herbert The One Dimensional Man (1964); see also the history of modern hi-rise design perhaps beginning with the Eiffel Tower], but design engineering is not a central theme of the underlying work, also known as Installment 77 at https://johnrubens.wordpress.com, nor of this work.
Narration and dialogue interspersed with the backdrop of a Middle Eastern Revolution vary the time and source of the material we receive as readers of the story. Sometimes by his simply slipping a DVD into a player and sharing what he hears in quotation marks as we proceed to the end of the book. Khalid and his two friends, the cousins Jahan and Jaleh, help us as readers to perceive the underlying events of a revolution with the help of pre-recorded DVD’s and a CD from the 1990s’ Walkman era.
Skyscraper Heavens juxtaposes recorded and present events and posts them as a mosaic of information. Focused research, investigation and discussion of historically significant events in a revolution of the recent past by Khalid, Jahan and Jaleh, present a varied storyline as the underlying record of revolutionary events is dictated to us by one of the characters or by a handy disc player provided by an ambiguous third-party employer of the trio. The numerous opposing parties that present themselves throughout the duration of the revolution and in fact make up the major events of the underlying revolution of 1978-1980, form a mosaic of the dialectic.
Prologue:
When I was a student at Warren College, one of a cluster of colleges at the University of California at San Diego, I took a job as a janitor, cleaning dorm rooms during the transition from Spring to Summer Quarter in 1980. One day, I was browsing the cork bulletin board at the Student Center in my spare time and came across a 3 x 5 inch flash card soliciting a ghost writer for a book about the Iranian Revolution. American hostages were still being held in Tehran at the time, and being a Lit./Writing major, I took down the phone number on the card and contacted ‘M’ for the first time. ‘M’ was a newly arrived resident of the United States, a former professor and the Director General of Educational Research of the National University of Iran, Tehran (1966-1978); we started work on the book in San Diego on July 7, 1980.
I was so happy working on a book about a major media event I remember riding my brown Schwinn ten-speed all the way from La Jolla to the Marine Corps Air Station—Miramar. Stardom was just over the next hill, or so I thought. That was thirty-five years ago. We worked almost every weekend for a few hours and then his wife would cook an Iranian dish for the family which I was always invited to once we were finished working on the book. It often got hot and steamy in the dining room at dinner time, and that meant quitting time. Mrs. ‘M’ smiled as we relinquished the dining room table back to her. The whole family was called in from the other rooms in the house and we would sit down together at a big round table adjacent to the kitchen to enjoy each other’s company during the delicious supper prepared just for us.
The book was originally submissed for publication to a half-dozen publishers in the winter of 1980-1981 under the title The Iranian Revolution: Iran’s Struggle with a New Father. Although I did not find a publisher willing to take on the responsibility of publishing such a controversial work at the time, I did get two encouraging rejection letters, one handwritten simply stated the work was not their “cup of tea.” Again, this cup of tea is currently located at the blog johnrubens.wordpress.com under the title Installment 77: An Account of ‘M’ [Call No Man Father] copyright July 8, 2014. ‘M’’s son wrote me in 2014 telling me that his father sold the story he told me to an unidentified buyer for “not much money” after I left the San Diego area.
The names of the people, places and institutions in the following work of historical fiction have been changed to protect the innocent and a few conjectures added due to the benefit of revelations gained from continuing education and the added perspective from the mere elapse of time.
Prelude:
“Call me Khalid. I’ve got a story to tell you about the Baugi Revolution, or what I remember of it, but I’ll begin by relating some of the major political events that transpired some twenty-five years before that in the early 1950’s. These 1950’s events had a direct bearing on the seminal stirrings of revolution that took hold in 1978-1980 era the remnants of which still exist today.”
Father May I?
“Doctor Rahmat, a populist, led the people of Baug from 1950-1953 as their Prime Minister. He supported inclusive government but his administration became increasingly criticized because the population of Baug was disjointed and spread out over a large geographical area. The metropolis of Tealandir was the governing seat of Baug. As its Capitol, rulings from Tealandir affected every Baugi, even if they lived thousands of miles away. Many grew dissatisfied with life in Baug, and opponents of the Rahmat Administration became openly vocal about the incessant compromising that had to be done to mollify every stakeholder and citizen of the country.
“For their part, the huge oil companies of United Corporate [UC] could not stand Rahmat’s laissez-faire government and decided to overthrow him with a coup d’etat. UC supported the coup because they wanted to install a former leader of Baug named Amir, back to lead his dictatorial government. Such an installation would allow UC greater influence in the ways and means of petroleum procurement. The Amir Administration would be hailed as a model of the Common Concept of Mutual Interest [CCMI] between Baug and UC, which had been strained for as long as anyone could remember.
“A slender, scrappy and determined individual named Jahan I met in the courtyard outside our mosque told me the logistics of the 1953 coup d’etat were spear-headed by the Central Wombat Agency [Wombat] of Sargon in conjunction with the disaffected youth of Baug. He said in the ‘first salvo’ buffeting Rahmat, demonstrators shouted taunts, degrading his name while alternatively lifting praises to the Amir day throughout the day and night. The relentless derogatory chants and Rahmat’s misplaced trust in the lawfulness of the assembly allowed the demonstrators to overcome Rahmat’s Guard and enter his compound. After a brief struggle, Wombat’s people seized Dr. Rahmat and transported him to prison to await his fate once Amir’s government was firmly established in Baug.
“The success of the coup made Amir’s return to power imminent. Another rival of Rahmat’s government, the Emilians to the Southwest, concealed Amir and his extended family in order to preserve an opportune moment for Amir’s emergence and return to the Imperial Throne of Baug as His Eminence. For his part, Amir was grateful and indebted to his Emilian benefactors, and planned to lead Baug to an alliance with them and their Western allies. The designs Amir had envisioned before the last great world war, to lead a land of skilled and educated peoples as one nation could now move forward to fruition, or so he thought.
“Jahan soon introduced me to his first cousin, an attractive medical doctor named Jaleh. They looked alike with their black straight hair and tanned complexion, but while Jahan was wiry and surprisingly brutish for his lean frame, Jaleh was supple and compassionate. We were in Baug to investigate the Baugi revolution which began in the 1970’s on a grant from United Corporate. They provided us with a stipend and the essential materials, including a scrutinized expense account to conduct our research. Sometimes Jahan would fill me in on what he knew about the revolution and other times it was Jaleh, but increasingly, we used secondary sources such as DVD’s. Sometimes we would listen together and discuss what we heard and saw, other times we operated separately. The work would have been boring if it didn’t feel somewhat like a television episode of Mission Impossible. Although we were directed to destroy the DVD’s once ‘consumed’ I never did.
Let’s Flashback: Why Rahmat’s Government Was “Troublesome”
“What I have so far on the history of Baug that Jahan told me was that the Rahmat Administration gave Baugis a sense of freedom and liberty that they hadn’t had for decades. His Administration was modeled after democratized nation-states such as Sargon of the Continent of Kir and Jahangir of the Continent of Bahar. In those two democracies, citizens were allowed to retain certain inalienable rights allowing them to think and act on their own initiative and to speak out loud what they believed to be true. These freedoms were upheld as rights protected by the Baugi Constitution until the coup toppled Rahmat’s Administration in 1953.
The Bahram Party
“The numerous political parties which existed in Baug during Rahmat’s rule were allowed to co-exist and thrive in accordance with the concept of free-will embedded in the Baugi Constitution. The lax attitude in the regulation of social discourse however, created an opportunity for the Bahram Party to disrupt the delicate balance which shaped Baug and maintain the peace within its borders. The Bahram Party was determined to destabilize ‘peace’ in Baug at whatever cost, and to overthrow its opposition, whoever that might be, at any given time. During periods of unrest, Bahram was able to make inroads at fracturing the confidence Baugis still had in their free democratic Constitutional society.
“The Wombat Agency, as one might expect, did not like Rahmat’s tolerance of Bahram Party members. Bahram distributed pro-Xerxes [communist] propaganda with bravado aimed primarily against Sargon. The leaflets and tracts lambasted Sargonian foreign policy and its ‘imperialistic’ motivation to dominate the vital interests not only of Baug, but of the entire developing world, and the populace of Baug was paying at least some attention to the materials distributed. Bahram supported the leading communist nation Xerxes as well as other nations of the world less technologically advanced than Baug. It opposed Sargon’s influence and that of its allies operating within Baug’s borders.
“The Bahram Party continued to gain popularity under Rahmat until Sargon took action to counteract their propaganda drive. The Sargonian decision to dissolve the Bahram Party was two-fold: 1) to diminish its influence in Baug and 2) once the Bahram-Xerxesian influence waned, Sargon could reestablish its access to Baugi oilfields without public unrest [Sargon and Jahangir were effectively shut out of the Baugi oil industry because it was determined by the Rahmat Administration the two juggernauts were not paying a fair price for Baugi petroleum product].
“Yesterday I, Khalid, had tea with Jahan at a small café in Tealandir. The café was filled with wicker chairs and teakwood tables stained with the residue spilled sweeteners and dark infusions. Jahan said Rahmat started planning an oil embargo as soon as he assumed power in 1950 because that was the central theme of his campaign platform. Until Sargon and Jahangir paid a fair price for Baugi crude oil, Rahmat would continue to embargo their access to it.
“Many Baugis were very sensitive to oil-interested politics in the early 1950’s. Between 1951 and 1953, oil production in Baug was at a virtual standstill because the service contracts between Jahangir and Baug to extract and distribute petroleum were seen by influential Baugis as unconscionable. For instance, it was widely publicized that Jahangir only paid royalties of 16% of the profits it made on Baugi oil. For their part, Sargon bankers were driving inflation higher as the price of crude and the myriad products that relied on its production, refinement and distribution escalated.
“In response to Baugi’s oil embargo of the early 1950’s, Jahangir gave the Rahmat Administration an ultimatum: either relent and end the embargo or suffer naval occupation of the Baugi Gulf (with all the implications of a ‘blockade’). The Baugi populace reacted tout de suite [Fr. immediately]: they told foreign oil businessmen and technicians in no uncertain terms they were no longer welcome in Baug. The Baugi’s natural petroleum resources they had been exploiting since the turn of the 20th Century could no longer be accessed by the West. After the mass expulsion of the Western oil interests, Rahmat set out to nationalize oil.
“Once the oil sector in Baug stabilized, foreigners would again be able come to work in Baug, but solely for the nationalized program, not for oil companies under Jahangir’s jurisdiction. Jahangir’s workers, primarily engineers, did not like working for Baug’s nationalized petroleum industry because they were being told how to do their jobs despite their expertise and their Baugi superior’s lack of it. Not wanting the disrespect of being treated like second class citizens in a foreign country subject to the dictates of a state-controlled bureaucracy, disgruntled oil industry workers complained to their sovereigns and Jahangir’s government persuaded their foreign nationals to abandon their positions and leave the country. Baugi national engineers and technicians did not have the expertise to run the petroleum industry in their country without outside help and the industry fell into disarray. If that was not enough, no one was buying Baug’s crude oil product due to political pressure from Jahangir. Jahangir made a spectacle of Baug’s ‘breach’ of its contract with them and sued them at the International Court located in Fairhausen, a city in the Western Alliance States [WAS]. The way Jahan told it to me at the café, the Jahangiris relied too much on their outspoken political persuasiveness and economic clout than by the nuts and bolts of contract law enforceable by the Court. They thought the situs of the Court being in WAS would aid them in a decision favorable to them, or at least more favorable than the current state of affairs. Nevertheless, the International Court ruled in favor of the Baugi Government, not them.
“The ruling was based on the fact that Jahangir began exploiting Baug’s petroleum resources under alleged contracts that were not produced at trial by the Jahangir, and Jahan told me, ‘the Baugis allegedly did not have copies of the agreements to enter into evidence.’ The Court went on to point out that Baug had won a hard fought independence from Jahangir and was no longer a colony of its Empire but a sovereign nation. As such, a sovereign nation not only has the right of self-determination, but the means to ensure that right. The Holding of the Court: Baug had the sole right to all mineral resources located beneath the ground of its territories. Although the Baugi government asked for restitution, it could not prove a theft of its sovereign natural resources over the preceding sixty years. Since neither Baug nor Jahangir produced copies or originals of any ‘agreements’ the two sovereigns allegedly had been working under since Baug’s independence as a State in the late 19th Century, neither did the Court retroactively nullify said ‘contracts’ but did nullify any ‘alleged agreements either of the two countries may have thought they were working under going forward subject to the instant judgment of the Court’.”
As Jahangir Recedes from the Baugi Oil Picture in the mid-1950’s, Sargonian Oil Companies Step Up Negotiation Efforts to Win Contracts in Baugi Petroleum Interests; Baug’s Perception of Sargon as Influentially Treacherous
“Initially, Sargonian Oil Companies supported the Rahmat regime. Former Sargon President Parry West Troopman was sent as an Ambassador to Baug to discuss possible oil trade with Rahmat’s Administration in 1953. Sargon’s Acting President, though a rival of Troopman, knew it was important to send a ‘balance by imbalance’ message to Rahmat. A rival diplomat of high regard sent to meet with the Baugi Prime Minister meant Rahmat would have to be on his toes—all ten of them, in order to discern what this show of enthusiasm from Sargon, an ally of Jahangir, indicated for Baugi business concerns.
“For his part, Rahmat wanted to aggravate Sargon, but at the same time continue to sell and ultimately transport oil to them. Jahangir meanwhile urged all their allies in WAS, not merely Sargon, to boycott Baugi oil in order for their economy to suffocate. Baug suffered severely from the boycott, but did not implode. Its oil production slowed to the point they could barely supply their own people with fuel and Baug’s inability to produce that surplus oil for export acted as a catalyst to their already rising inflation and huge trade deficits.
“The Bahram Party relished the fact that Rahmat was in a bind, after all, they wanted to rule Baug in his place. On the issue of oil exports, the Bahram Party actively opposed Rahmat’s suspension of oil exports to the West and provoked public outcry over the policy. Soon thereafter, Rahmat’s once adoring public was demonstrating in the streets of Tealandir. In 1953 era Baug, Rahmat needed money more that the ‘West’ needed oil (the War in the East was also winding down, creating a slackening demand for product). Rahmat, determined to ultimately sell more oil to American oil companies at a higher price, set about to quell Bahram-inspired rumors and retain his composure, after all, the plurality of Baugis still admired his steadfast political objectivity, honesty and manner.
“Sargon and Jahangir continued to have radically intertwined economies despite their mutual disengagement with Baug. Both countries had and continued to have identical vital interests in Baug– Rahmat ‘blinked’. He was forced to sell oil to Sargon’s oil at their prices because some of his major domestic political antagonists were impatient with the rising inflation and lack of revenue from oil, by far Baug’s primary natural resource and source of income. If that was not enough, Xerxes did not approve of the Rahmat regime either. Along with Sargon and Jahangir, the former allies of the last Great World War devised a plan to boycott Baugi oil even if it was offered to them for sale below market. The three-way solidarity was enough to ensure an economic depression in Baug at the time.
“Hello fellow traveler, I hope you’re enjoying the story, there isn’t much sex, but a bit of religion and violence lies ahead. Khalid here, the sumptuous Jaleh told me once that Xerxes was like the player who likes to wait for the odds to improve at the black jack table before betting big or a clearance sale at the marketplace before buying, all the while checking the opposition as if in an ice hockey game to keep their competitors off-balance and assure their capitalization of the special circumstances. The collusion of Sargon, Jahangir and now Xerxes caused a material change in the world order adverse to Rahmat’s Administration. Their unity not only diminished Baug’s economic security and frustrated Rahmat’s trade strategy with the West, it deprived Baugis of a prosperous life.
“The Bahram Party in line with their Xerxesian overlords stepped up efforts to disenchant and launched ad hominem misinformation campaigns against Dr. Rahmat, including rumors he was a ‘puppet of Sargon’. Like bees buzzing around his head, Rahmat’s adversaries began to overwhelm him. Divisive domestic and Western factions alike attacked him for crippling the Baugi economy with his ‘out of touch’ trade policies. Inflation, along with the civil unrest that followed it, was the ‘Achilles heel’ that led the populist leader straight into a prison cell.
“As the trade embargo was finding its feet, an Emilian ship loaded with Baugi oil was seized by the Jahangir Navy in the Kasparian Ocean. Political tensions immediately heightened between Jahangir and Baug and Sargon, for its part, sought new methods of gaining access to Baugi oil. The ‘new methods’ apparently were working in tandem with their allies of degrees, Xerxes and Jahangir, measured by the loyalties they shared in past wartime allegiances.”
JASPER HOSSEIN AMIR SHAHRAZ [hereinafter Referred to as “Amir”]
“With three super-powers and global commercial interest shutting Prime Minister Rahmat’s government out of the world economy, Jasper Hossein Amir Shahraz [Amir] sent a Declaration to Rahmat informing him he was deposed of his authority and that General Arman would assume the office of prime minister. Rahmat would have none of it. He had just won his case on Baug’s entitlement to all natural resources beneath the earth’s surface within its borders at the International Court in Fairhausen and wanted to parlay that victory into something greater. He had some clout left, at least in the eyes of developing nations around the world. He could appeal to the United Patrons and Matrons [hereinafter referred to as UPM].
Prime Minister Rahmat had it figured right this time. Amir’s Plan A, a mere Declaration of Claim, backfired and the royal contender to Rahmat’s populist government was forced to leave the country, first to neighboring Dilshad to the west of Baug , and later south to Emilio, in fear for his life. However, within three days Amir and his close associates arranged Plan B: a plot to overthrow the Rahmat-led government. Amir’s flight to Emilio provided a diversion for General Arman, who was also in hiding, to arrange the coup against the Baugi National Front [BNF], Rahmat’s political party. Rahmat continued to maintain if not enjoy a large following in Baug due to the fact that Amir and his associates were afraid of how Baugis and specifically how city folk in Tealandir might react to the coup [also known as ‘General Arman’s Plot’ or GAP].
The principal and most vocal opponent of GAP was the Bahram Party, who had been growing progressively stronger under Rahmat’s Administration. The main supporters of GAP, according to what I heard from Hussein, a poly-sci professor at Tealandir University, were Sargon, Jahangir and Xerxes. General Arman acted as a go-between, peacemaker and benefactor to those three nations as he maneuvered strategically toward attaining the political office of the Prime Minister of Baug under an Amir-led government. In exchange for the beneficial status General Arman awarded the three super-powers, Sargon, Jahangir and Xerxes in turn agreed not to interfere with General Arman’s Plot or stage a meddling counter-coup once the effective takeover of Baug was accomplished by Arman.
“Up until 1953, of the major world powers, Jahangir had the most regulatory influence in Baugi trade matters. As the year passed, American diplomacy and persuasiveness won out as did General Arman in the coup of ‘53. Jahangir had two basic objectives in Baug: the first and foremost was the dissolution of the Bahram Party and its entrenched propaganda machine. The other, once dissolution of the Bahram Party was effected or nearly certain to transpire, Sargon could fill American oil tankers with lawfully purchased Baugi oil and redistribute it to them. To achieve these two Jahangiri objectives quickly, strategically and efficiently, Sargon promoted the concept of re-introducing Jasper Hossein Amir Shahraz, who’s family had formerly sat on the throne of Baug, as its Royal Head of State.
“Oh man, this stuff drains you? Drains me too and I’m not done yet, nowhere near done. In fact, the story has only just begun. Yeah, it’s your storytelling stranger Khalid. I hope to make your actual acquaintance someday dear reader. Maybe I wasn’t clear in detail about how the 1953 coup was effectuated. I reiterate next.”
THE COUP D’ETAT: 1953
“A rabble of pro-Amir demonstrators, led by twenty-one Baugi military officers, staged the coup which was organized by Sargon’s Executive and its Wombat Quick Squad. Some of the twenty-one officers overseeing and/or carrying out the rebellion were enemies of Rahmat held in Baugi prisons at the time. After the success of the coup, Rahmat was thrown into a prison cell, and the internal Baugi officers that helped orchestrate the coup were set free.
“The Bahram Party told its members and officers that a new Baugi government must be formed as soon as possible so that General Arman would not have the time to consolidate power in a military dictatorship. As far as the communists were concerned, anarchy and revolution were preferable to having all the authority with Arman or anyone else. Bahram had a plan of their own which did not include Amir, Dr. Rahmat or General Arman. The communists intended to ‘fatigue the new government,’ until an opportune moment would set the stage for a subsequent uprising. In this way, they would not have to ‘double-cross’ their comrades in Xerxes who were temporarily allied with ‘the West’ at the outset in the 1953 coup. Xerxes planned to allow the Wombat-devised coup to go forward and seize control of the Baugi Government subsequently, at their discretion. Bahram Party organizers wanted to install a leader who could be manipulated while consolidating their Party’s political power. In 1978, the Ayatollah Babak was to become this individual.
“Around the same period, a network of communist military officers were discovered accidentally by General Arman’s government. A specific officer was apprehended carrying a suitcase with the names of 1200 people that had infiltrated the Baugi military service. Six hundred of the names found were part of a conspiracy of anti-Amir military officers ranging from lieutenant to colonel [hereinafter Sr. Officers]. The names of the other six hundred soldiers [hereinafter Jr. Officers] were written down in a complicated code. A major in Arman’s armed forces, distinguished as an expert code breaker, was called in to decipher the names of the Jr. Officers found in the briefcase. Unbeknownst to Arman, the code breaker he commissioned was a communist infiltrator who took the codes of the 600 Jr. Officers and fled the country, never to be found again. Fear and intrigue prevailed in the wake of the disclosures that a Baugi Major left the service of the country. Since the identities of the 600 Jr. Officers remained unknown, the secret police and informants later investigated the case in an attempt to uncover their true identities. Communist influence seemed to pervade daily life in Baug, but such was the case in almost every country of the world in 1953. Even in Xerxes, its leader Moussa Payam was said to be livid with rage at his daughter’s defection to the West and was nearly as totalitarian and brutal as he was during the era of his dissident purges.
“The Amir’s personal guard was not without its defectors. One morning before the last Great World War, Amir found a derogatory note next to him when he awoke and knew he could have been murdered that night instead of merely threatened. That incident shook his confidence so much he was visibly shaken when he appeared in public. Due to the circumstances that surrounded the coup and the warning letter, Amir was suspicious of all of his allies, even his closest friends. Il etait raison [French: “He had good reason”]. What was not as apparent perhaps, was Arman’s transfer of power back to the Amir after the coup.”
AMIR TAKES THE HELM OF BAUG
“Along with the six hundred Senior Officers that were arrested by General Arman’s forces, the Baugi Government arrested several communist politicians. Of these, forty were executed and the others imprisoned. The strong military response of Amir and Arman frightened Baugis. The aggression was seen as a totalitarian gambit and short- term strategy utilizing martial law; yet, unlike before, there were no protests over the government’s consolidative action. It was under these coercive circumstances that the Baugi oil pacts with the Western powers and Sardonian oil companies were ratified by Baugi Parliament. Baug’s Parliament decided that eight major concessionaires from different nation-states should undertake the production and sale of Baug’s oil. Rahmat’s government, and his goals for Baug were successfully suppressed and a new regime would begin to greet the populace with different goals and ideals to focus upon—and it pleased Amir’s Western benefactors.”
MAJOR PETROLEUM CONCESSIONAIRES FROM SARGON
“The major concessionaires of Baug’s oil resources were based and/or headquartered in Sargon and paid taxes to them. General Arman made a deal with Sargon’s oil companies and was awarded a foundational fee of 60-70 million dollars to use as he pleased. In the new Baug-Sargon oil contract, 51% of the net oil profits belonged to Baug, while 49% belonged to Sargonian oil companies that owned the concession. Sargon was the Principal and responsible for exploration, feasibility studies, production, sales and distribution, including associated storage and transport of the petroleum product(s) and could deduct these expenses from the gross revenues.
XERXES BEARS GIFT
“In the early 1950’s, Xerxes wanted the ouster of General Arman at any cost. In an act of goodwill, they returned eleven tons of gold it had acquired from Baug during the last Great World War. Although former Prime Minister Rahmat had demanded return of the gold while he was yet in office, Xerxes did not oblige him with the transfer at that time. Now that circumstances had changed with plans for the timing of the coup fixed, Xerxes hoped the ‘gift’ [return] of the gold would help ease relations between the two countries before the leadership change-over. Baug had the wherewithal to invest in the infrastructure, labor and expertise needed to reinvent itself again as a world leader. Xerxes’ gesture of good faith in returning the disputed gold made Baug’s ‘investment in the future’ program worthwhile.
“Although Baug did indeed become enthusiastic about the gold returned by Xerxes to its sovereign soil, trade relations between the two stalled. Sargonian and Jahanjiri concessions were already paying top dollar for Baugi oil and Xerxes could not compete with their bids. Rather, Xerxes temporarily took a ‘backseat’ to their former allies in regard to Baugi oil exports. Xerxes made it clear they would not interfere with the West’s arrangement with Baug if and only if assurances were first promised that Xerxes would receive some future benefit advantageous to its vital interests in the region (e.g. wheat from Sargon, most-favored-nation trade status, future oil contracts or defense treaties). A “divide and conquer” strategy was replaced by one of bargain and compromise—a cold war of global trade. The understanding was ‘We’ll let you have your way this time but you better make sure we get ours next time or were taking it.’
“Khalid here again. The publisher wants everyone to read this book! Why after thirty-five years would I want thousands of readers to read about a revolution so current they made me change the names, places and institutions it refers to? My own mother finds it confusing. Some dude from Fallus Sextus told me his father told him, ‘If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.’ Others on social media add, ‘If you don’t enjoy what you do, don’t do it.’ Still others, university intelligencia from the West Coast of Sargon say, ‘Just do it.’
“Khalid is here to tell you what Jahan told me: war is tricky business. So here I am plugging along with this account where the names have been changed to protect the innocent. Money does talk and whether you are a multinational corporation or a sovereign nation, you have to back up what you say or have hell to pay. You may end up in clown’s gear like me, in prison or dead. Sarkis Reuben has an interest in a company that will delete your history so you can start a new one. Look him up on the internet. Of course, his name has been changed for purposes of this book, but maybe he’s appeared by now, like #SlenderMan. You get the idea. The name of the company he promotes and invests in is called #Cybercrust. His company will turn your history to dust in the blink of an eye. Whether you are a multinational corporation, a university, a sovereign nation, one of its agencies or departments, or just an individual like you or me, you can wipe out what you’ve said in the past for whatever reason and start fresh like an absolved sinner. So now you don’t have to back up what you may have written or said in the past. It’s not relevant anymore. ‘New day, fresh start’ as my stock guru the gentle pirate told me time and again. ‘Arrrr mates’, it’s a great time to be free on the open seas.”
BARGAINING WITH THE BIG GUYS
“Negotiations with the Middle East in the early 1950’s became the precedent for a new type of agreement between the superpowers of the Sargon, Jahanjir and Xerxes with respect to Baug. Xerxes conceded to Arman’s policy in order to focus its attention in other areas of the world, such as Rosana, its southeast neighbor. Xerxes felt that the Northern Rosana government, an assured acquisition of theirs, could do their bidding for them against South Rosana, without getting their own hands ‘soiled’ by war. Once Xerxes found a sympathetic group to do their bidding for them, there was no reason why they should not prioritize the aid they give to comrades abroad in order to overcome their mutual enemies.
“In Baug itself, the situation was not as clear-cut in regard to Xerxes’ influence within its borders. Those that opposed a communist state outnumbered those who wanted one; that was the pluralistic sentiment. But like a boat in rough water, Baugis were unsure what their Baugi neighbors favored as far as public policy or governmental structure(s). What the plurality did agree on was they wanted change. Change was the only mantra they had any assurance in.
“As a result of the foregoing, Xerxes did not interfere with Baugi trade during the early 1950’s or threaten it with coercive tactics that would ‘rock the boat’ now being captained by the ‘West’. No, Xerxes was determined to ‘wait it out’ for the appointed time when they could tell Sargon and Jahangir, ‘Our turn now–move out of my way!’”
AMIR AND THE FOUNDATION OF HIS SECRET POLICE FORCE O.I.H.S.B.
“In 1958, Wombat established a secret police force (secret service) for Amir called the Organization of Information and Homeland Security of Baug (hereinafter referred to as OIHSB). OIHSB was established to maintain order and keep the power in the hands of its ruler, Amir. OIHSB used totalitarian techniques and used totalitarian methods to achieve political stability. This Unit would be known to capture and detain anyone who opposed the State or who displayed dissatisfaction with the new regime.
“There were several groups of individuals, Jaleh said there were probably several khalqs, or ‘militias’ or ‘gangs’ who opposed Amir. The different types of organizations, or ‘groups’ with differing views on Amir were: 1) the Baugi National Front, or BNF of which Dr. Rahmat was a party member and who was imprisoned when Amir seized power successfully after the 1953 coup d’etat, 2) the Communist Party, aka the Bahram Party and 3) Clerics (i.e. the Ayatollahs). Amir used his secret police force OIHSB to suppress all these ‘groups’ from interfering with the State (sic) of Affairs (sic) in Baug.”
“Hey, what if they hit a high-rise?”
“What?” responded Jahan peering at me. “Who’s ‘they’”?
“Just trying to minimize losses,” I replied.
“Losses?” Jahan was still peering at me, but now he was bearing down. I wondered if he had a pistol.
I shut up and he showed me the disc with the Arabic or Farsi, I couldn’t be sure as he waved it in front of me but didn’t stop his motion so I could view the characters closely.
He took out a black leather briefcase with re-enforced leather corners and heavy-duty hinges. He gave me two shots of imported French brandy.
“You want Gran Marnier? I’ve got Gran Marnier.” Jahan peered down as he got up from his stool, seeing if I was looped yet.
“Sure,” I obliged.
It was then I noticed sound emanating from the suitcase. It was the DVD he waved before me. It must be.
What was I talking about? Oh yeah, before I knew it, I was on my second snifter of Gran Marnier and listening to the history of the Baugi Revolution of 1978 from a suitcase.
“PRESIDENT JETHRO JOSEPH KINNET’S INFLUENCE IN BAUG (circa 1960-1963):
“During Jethro Joseph Kinnet’s term of office (1960-1963) a wave of political ‘coup d’etats’ swept the third world especially in many countries south of the equator [hereinafter referred to as the ‘developing world’]. Political unrest prevailed. The reasons for the unrest were a general dissatisfaction with their respective governments and the widespread desire to establish a ‘better society’ even if by means of violent upheaval(s). Kinnet’s method of restraining communist governments from taking over smaller, underdeveloped countries was to influence the presiding government to respect human rights. Kinnet’s diplomacy acted as a deterrent to anarchy and revolution in Baug because Amir knew what limitations Kinnet might impose on him should disorder reign in the streets. Kinnet’s theory was that if the people were content with their government and their leaders, they would have little reason to revolt and turn to violent confrontation.
“Kinnet was a significant factor which led to many reforms in Baug under Amir’s Administration. He advised Amir in the early ’60’s to moderate the use of his power while keeping in mind his duty to serve his constituents. Baug was a model of a transition State, not entirely industrialized, yet one of the most advanced surviving ancient civilizations. In developing nations, where close monitoring of its national rulers had not been as comprehensively studied as it had been in Baug immediately after the last Great World War, communist governments would send emissaries to infiltrate and disrupt them until they became discontent with its leaders. Kinnet stressed the institution of a policy for human rights that would appease the public and decrease the chance of a revolution from occurring. The Kinnet Administration recommended Dr. Rahimi, Secretary of the Financial Ministry in General Arman’s cabinet to be appointed the new Prime Minister of Baug’s Parliament. Rahimi was very close to the Kinnet family and had represented Baug in the recent oil pact with several Western concessionaires. The Western nations of Sargon, Jahangir, Fairusa and Gaspar seemed to all agree on Rahimi as the new Prime Minister. After vetting and discussion, they found him to be an able and fair negotiator. Rahimi was ultimately appointed through Kinnet’s influence and Amir made special efforts to tolerate his rival’s presence; they were not the best of friends. Since Rahimi had been installed at the urging of President Kinnet, he had a special distinction in Parliament that none of the other members had. Thus, Rahimi was relatively insulated from Amir’s oversight and had the clout to express his personal views at Parliamentary sessions even if they were incongruous to Amir’s.
REFORMATION: THE SIX PRINCIPLES
Amir and Rahimi worked together to reform the Baugi Constitution. The signature product of their tenuous political alliance was known as the Six Principles of Amir’s Revolution. These principles were as follows:
1) All large land owners transfer some of their land to the peasants who had worked it as lessees. Up until the reform, landlords would rent out their acreage to peasants much like European feudal lords had done with serfs in the Middle Ages. Now, peasants could be farmers, ranchers or entrepreneurs with a chance to make a living for themselves and their families and enjoy the windfall of the fruits from their labor and management.

2) Young, educated people were sent to villages to teach the peasants how to read and write. The young adults also familiarized the country-dwellers with recent technological advances in health, medicine and agriculture.
3) Medical school graduates were to spend at least two years serving poor villagers in Baug without a salary prior to entering the greater medical profession [in lieu of mandatory military service].
4) Nationalization of Baugi forests, which had been owned by private landlords before the reform.
5) Bestow women with rights equal to those of men
6) Establish new election regulations.
Two of the six points infuriated the clergymen. They didn’t like the transfer of land to the peasants or making women’s rights equal to those of men. The transfer of land to the peasants meant they would have to rely more on almsgiving from them rather than solely from the wealthy landowners. Prior to the reforms, clerics received an allowance from the rich landlords. After the reforms, they were at the mercy of the almsgiving of the peasants who were now an intermediary endowed with the means to give back to the clerics what was once given to the clerics directly from the wealthy. The clergymen’s ‘job’ prior to the reforms had been to quell dissent among the poor so they would cause landlords a minimal amount of ‘trouble’. Clerics did not believe women should be granted equal rights to men but rather, subject themselves ultimately, to the dictates of men. Accordingly, Ayatollah Babak accused Amir of formulating the Six Principles due to feminist political influence in Sargon and Flint. Ultimately, Amir had the power to silence Babak and other clerics by imprisonment, so most of Baug’s priests obeyed him, however reluctantly.
THE AYATOLLAH BABAK AND THE SHIET DENOMINATIONS OF ISLAM
“Both major denominations of Islam, Shiet and Sunni, co-exist in Baug, although Shiet (also referred to as Shia) is much more prevalent within its borders. In fact, Baug is the hub of the Shiet denomination. Babak was among the Shiets since birth, and had been recognized as a Great Ayatollah at the suggestion of Sayyid Shahin Darien [(1905-April, 1986) hereinafter referred to as Darien]. Darien was a Grand Ayatollah of Northern Baug who recommended Babak ascend to the position of Grand Ayatollah during the Baugi reforms of the 1960’s-1970’s. The Shiets have a ceremonial rite in memory of Imam Hossein, the nephew of Mohammad the prophet, founder of Islam in the seventh century A.D. In 1963, during the ceremonial day of Hagation, an anti-Amir demonstration was held in Tealandir, led by the Ayatollah Babak. The demonstrators shouted derogatory remarks and slogans against Amir until he ordered his guards to open fire into the assembly. Approximately one hundred people were killed in the shooting that afternoon, although Babak went on record accusing Amir of executing 15,000 people. The Ayatollah Babak’s claim that 15,000 people had been summarily executed by Amir’s guard backfired.
“There exists an allegory known to Baugis which Amir used to persuade his people he was ‘right’ and Babak was therefore obviously ‘wrong’ about the number of summary executions at the afternoon demonstration. Jahan told me the story and it went like this:
“Once there was a very powerful king who conquered India named Nader Shah. One day, he became very angry with one of his subjects and ordered he be given 1,000 lashes and thrown into the dungeon. The condemned man was giddy with laughter when he heard the sentence.
‘Why are you laughing?’ asked the king.
‘Your Highness replied the sentenced subject, ‘either you have not had the experience of being whipped or you cannot count. If one is to endure 1,000 lashes, he certainly will not live to see his prison cell!’
“The allegory was thus used to parody Babak’s penchant for exaggeration. A videotape of the incident clearly shows no more than 100 could have perished. Thus, Babak either could not ‘count’, or made use of the puffery to impress upon Baugis his moral superiority to Amir. Since it had to be assumed the Ayatollah Babak learned to add long ago, Amir’s regime persuaded Baugis that it was Babak, and not Amir, who used malicious chicanery to shuffle facts and hide the truth of the number executed.
Similar events led by the clerics beholden to Babak occurred elsewhere in Baug, but most Baugis accepted the Six Principles because this aspect of Amir’s reform freed them from the domination of the landlords. Babak had misread the sympathies of the majority of Baugis and his reputation became tarnished in trying to defame Amir. Soon after the Hagation uprising and subsequent smaller demonstrations throughout Baug, Amir sought punishment for the Ayatollah Babak. The Grand Ayatollah Darien was instrumental in saving Babak from execution as well as affording him exile in neighboring Dilshad. The general population revered Ayatollah Babak as a figurehead of Shiet Islam and would have objected to any violent means of punishment even without Darien’s support. Pushed into a corner and wanting to absolve himself of the violent governmental responses to the Hagation and ‘after-shock’ demonstrations, Amir settled on exile as the ‘solution’ for Babak, as it would at least diminish his influence in Baug. Babak was later made a ‘Great Ayatollah’ by Darien in 1965.
AFTER PRESIDENT KINNET OF SARGON
“Some months after these demonstrations, on November 22, 1963, Sargon’s President, Jethro Joseph Kinnet was assassinated during a campaign trip to Sargon’s southern perimeter, Fallas, Sextus. After Kinnet’s death, Amir removed Dr. Rahimi from office in the absence of political pressure from the Kinnet Administration. Amir had been afraid of Rahimi as a mouthpiece of scrutiny and a threat to his regime’s unquestioning control. Amir chose a relatively inexperienced man named Aspar Jesper Parviz [hereinafter referred to as Parviz] to succeed Rahimi as Prime Minister. Parviz was essentially one of Amir’s ‘yes-men’ and allowed Amir to exploit his ignorance of affairs of state. The manipulation of Parviz by Amir was so complete, it gave the public the impression the two men were coordinating the balance of power in the constitutional Baugi government when in actuality, Amir had become the virtual dictator of Baug in the wake of Kinnet’s death.
“Inflation characterized the term of Parviz’ office, and after a few months, on March 7, 1964, Navid, a more knowledgeable politician, became the new Prime Minister of Baug. Navid was supported by Sargon and the price of domestically-purchased oil in Baug rose dramatically due to the volumes sold at a discount to Western oil companies abroad. During his term in office, Navid raised the price of petroleum twice. Baugi’s were furious with Navid’s actions, especially since they were still coping with the inflation brought on by what Jaleh told me was ‘Parviz’ slipshod Administration.’ Although the international spot price of oil remained relatively constant, Baugi domestic oil prices continued to increase under Navid’s leadership and with it, the public’s temper.
“The stage was gradually being set for revolution. Public sentiment was boiling over with negativity directed at the Amir Regime and more individuals were speaking out and sharing their negativity with neighbors, friends and colleagues. The end of inflation and ‘hard times’ seemed nowhere in sight and the populace found itself of the brink of chaos. Tension over the inflation situation was causing fissures in the ancient civilization of Baug.
THE SIX PRINCIPLES: THEORY VS. PRACTICE
“In time, the ‘Six Principles of Amir’ were not enforced by his administration and the populace began to believe he had deceived them. The land that the peasants received from the landowners was rapidly being sold off to pay the delinquent loans they took out to begin farming the land. The bubble the Six Principles created was bursting. During the first year of the cooperative effort, the government stopped funding the peasants and they had no chance of paying back their loans unless they were extremely fortunate with their first harvest. There was no subsidy to save their land or a bridge program to stop most farmers from being evicted from their land. Without a ‘bumper crop’ or favorable commodities prices at which to liquidate their agricultural products, the lack of follow-through on the government subsidies caused the eviction of many farmers from land transferred to them just a year earlier. Doctor Jaleh said these evictees became known as the vagabond peasants who were forced to migrate to various cities where they could find work to support themselves and their families.
GUL AS PRIME MINISTER
“The years started to melt together in 1965 after Navid was assassinated by a secret organization belonging to the clerics in February, 1964 and Gul, who was the Finance Minister in Navid’s administration, became the new Prime Minister in January of 1965 and served in that position until his arrest following the Baugi Revolution of 1978 and ultimate execution on April 7, 1979. Gul’s first decision in office was to decrease the price of oil to domestic buyers. This was significant in that it was perceived by the public as a goodwill gesture and eased tense public relations between them and the Baugi government.
Gul’s political platform seemed honest and open compared to recent occupants of the Prime Minister’s seat. He criticized the way his predecessors had mishandled its affairs, and accepted the shortcomings of his own role as Finance Minister under Navid. Baugis were optimistic after he announced new governmental reforms. Gul’s dreams of effortless prosperity were short-lived however. During his former tenure as Finance Minister under Navid in 1963, Gul imposed heavy property and luxury taxes on the rich. After he became Prime Minister, Gul imposed 250 new taxes above and beyond those citizens continued to pay since 1963. For example, if an individual, group or family wanted to travel outside of Baug by air, the principal traveler had to pay a two hundred dollar travel tax in addition to the respective airfare charge(s). Subsequently, a one hundred and fifty dollar surcharge was imposed and collected for each additional passenger on the flight as well. This policy, as could be expected, infuriated the rich, but appeased the poor whom Amir was most anxious to please at this juncture because they rarely if ever flew.
GOVERNMENTAL CONTROL OF IMPORTED AND EXPORTED ITEMS
“All important imports and exports were governmentally controlled under Gul’s Prime Ministry. The most important commodities traded in Baug are grain, sugar, oil and industrially manufactured items according to Jahan and Jaleh. The services the government controlled exclusively before the Revolution were the railroads, the postal service and the airlines. Managers of the various smaller divisions of commerce were bribed on a regular basis while others simply embezzled surplus money using accounting principles and methodologies enabling them to ‘skim off the top’ of the accounts without anyone being the wiser. The government was unable to supervise all the subsidiary commerce division heads and graft soon became prevalent. Division managers enriched themselves often without being called to account for their actions to the public’s detriment. For example, if an individual asked for permission to build a house, the housing office might say, ‘No, not unless you pay me this extra fee’ (as a bribe). During the rampant corruption of the division managers, one ‘Minister’ was found to have embezzled four million Sargon Dollars from an undisclosed sugar contract. When questioned by reporters about the embezzlement, Prime Minister Gul said governmental officials ‘deserved’ the added monetary job perks due to the important vital nature of the work they accomplished for the Baugi people.”
NATIONALIZATION OF BAUGI OIL; BAUG’S MEMBERSHIP IN THE OIL EXPORTING SOCIETIES (OPS)
“In an act of goodwill toward his people, Amir had the corporate status of all foreign concessionaires in Baug dissolved. Oil resources within Baug’s borders were to be henceforth the natural resources of the sovereign nation of Baug. The foreign oil companies would continue to sell and distribute oil, but the petroleum products themselves were declared a state-owned public trust.

The nationalization of Baugi oil meant both increased revenues and greater political leverage within the OPS cartel, of which Baug had recently become a member.”
AMIR’S DOMESTIC POLICIES, FOREIGN RELATIONS COMPARED
“International leader and investor Amir placed large sums of money in foreign accounts and bought foreign denominated securities to assure the safety of his family’s assets were he to be thrown out of Baug as he had been during his confrontation with Dr. Rahmat in the early 1950’s. Among Amir’s holdings was a 25% ownership in a German-based corporation named Roulet, and a relatively large position in Parapet World Airways. Amir also built oil refineries in Ponce, Irdut and Padistan and put Baugi management in charge of them. He gave financial aid to the United Mind Republic, Jahangir, Padistan and several developing countries of the continent of Ponce with whom Baug shared diplomatic relations. In 1976, the economy of Jahangir was in recession and in dire need of economic stimulation. Amir’s immediate investment and the currency float between Baug and Jahangir spelled increased Jahangiri employment and a shot in the arm for Baug financially.”
I stopped the player and thought to myself, “Go see Jahan before he goes to Dilshad. Cousin Jaleh was a silent third party most of the time when we met. Doubt she’s coming this morning. I knew whatever I told Jahan would get back to Jaleh, but on the rare occasions I did speak to Jaleh alone, there was no indication she would be obliged to tell Jahan anything about it. I wonder if one or both of them is a spy for Xerxes? ‘Why do they want to meet so early on a Sunday?’ I repeated in my mind. We were supposed to meet in the Jahreel Café at the Hotel Tealandir. On the way there I saw a woman in a white mini showing leg up to her hips. I’ve been sleeping in Sunday mornings too long. She’s a lurid example of an ear-plugging rehabilitated wind-up doll—all you need is the time, the money and the inclination; but not on Sunday. I wonder if it’s still Saturday night for her. No bags under her eyes. They working shifts in front of the Café? Oh, she’s probably a zealous hospitality hostess out on the sidewalk.” As I was daydreaming of what the encounter would be like (my approach would be to ask her if she wanted a drink), I continued briskly toward the Hotel Tealandir.
Jahan wasn’t there yet. Just like him, I made him wait last time. Instead of ringing the buzzer to get into the hotel, I waited outside by a fire hydrant. Nicer than it used to be. Kahane Construction read the sign on a new condominium complex across the street from the hotel. Somebody’s got to get rich in this recession. I wonder if the real estate crash was planned so these developers could make a windfall on new construction and comcomitant control.
“Khalieeeeeee!” Jahan announced, calling me by the nickname he gave me.
See how he smiles—a cocoon smile, I thought to myself. “Hey, Jahan.”
“Jaleh said to give you this”—Jahan handed me a small brown Sargonian joke book entitled The Bathroom Joke Book. I didn’t open it—I could barely get my eyes open despite the testosterone jolt when I passed the hostess in the white mini in front of the Cafe. My wife had kept me up until 2:45 in the morning watching obsolete movies from the year 2000.
“Thanks…tell Jaleh thanks.”
“You look good. Keep wearing these,” he said, pointing but not quite touching my cotton chemise. I had bought it at a bargain-style French-themed boutique in Tealandir last winter but never wore it more than a few times so it kept its new shape and bright plaid design of red and black.
“Thanks Jahan. What time you leaving this afternoon?”
“About 4:57 , something like that. What are you doing today?”
“Going to church. My significant other wants me home,” I replied, hoping my time with Zareen was important enough for him not to ask me for a ride to the airport or take him to a nefarious hideout on the wrong side of Tealandir before his trip to Dilshad, and why am I standing in front of him at 9:00 a.m. on a Sunday?
“Your ‘significant other’. Some significant other!” he said under his breath.
“What?” Why don’t they like each other? I know but don’t want to admit it. She see’s right through Jahan and he knows it. They are two of a kind and are as repellant to one another as two positive sided magnets. What will he be doing for the next six hours before getting to the airport? Why’d he insist on me being here at nine?
“Well, I guess that’s it then,” he said.
“You’re going?”
“Yes,” he smiled. I could see the thoughts playing out like a checklist as he went over the “to-do” items which didn’t include me.
“I’m sorry I didn’t get to see more of you this trip” I said before we shook hands instead of embracing as we had the day before at the demonstration against police brutality after not seeing each other in almost a year. “It’s in the book?”
Jahan looked at me, sizing me up. “Don’t work too hard Khalid. It’s easier for me to get to your level than for you to get to the Transfiguration. Jaleh told me to tell you that.”
“Bye Jahan” I replied with a little more volume as we retreated from one another.
Jahan replied curtly with a sharp sweeping wave of his right hand over his head. I wonder if he knows jiu-jitsu? He gave me a used t-shirt once that had the name of a jiu-jitsu studio from a Baugi region about a hundred and fifty kilometers south of Tealandir.
A CHAMELEON HATH A SMALLER BRAIN, BUT FITS RIGHT IN—NO BRAINER
“Show up with the worst epilepsy fit and join-in.” That was the advice of the streetcorner agitator I met along the sidewalk about how to incite a riot. Shuffling through the Tealandir Airport, I read part of a sign as I stepped onto the escalator, “Increase the potential of your…,” I didn’t bother pausing to hear what the punch line may have been that day. The escalator was taking me back to street level and I had plenty of punch lines from the book of jokes Jahan gave me. Five-hundred Sargonian, not bad for a couple days work in Baug. Of course, I had to pay my own airfare to Daumishka and back. Still got a hundred-and-fifty in my wallet. Oil, oil, oil. Guess there’s more money in it than I thought. Whatever happened to fuel cells and electric motors?
Where were we, oh yeah, economics: Jahangir, international trade and educational subsidies. I put the DVD back in the drive.
“The domestic policy of Amir was far different than his open-handed foreign policy. To attain the pre-eminent international status he wanted for Baug, he served those sovereign powers whom he believed would give Baug a step up. In conjuction with a policy of service to international powers greater than Baug, Amir was keen to enrich and expand Baug’s educational standards into the modern age. In the scholastic year of 1973-1974, Amir allotted $1,500,000.00 per day to feed all students under sixteen years old, and gave $100.00 per month to each university student. In the elementary and high school programs for students under sixteen, the money for the food was sent in large quantities to the several different supervisors in the various districts of Baug. The supervisors in charge of distributing the lunch money for each child often found ways to withhold some of the money earmarked for the students. The district supervisors allowed skimpier lunches as time progressed and in doing so, were able to divert more and more surplus money to themselves as an unsanctioned ‘reward’ for their thrift and ingenuity. Sadly, the ‘unused’ portion of the lunch money that was embezzled often surpassed the amount used to buy the student lunches to feed the children.
“Of the 150,000 students in Baugi Universities, at one point 80,000 students, more than half, were not Baugis. The adult students who were not Baugi nationals received four-hundred dollars a month to study in Baug if they were sympathetic and receptive to goals of the Amir regime. Their Baugi contemporaries, Baugi’s who had reached the age of majority would garner only a one-hundred dollar a month allowance from the Baugi government. Although foreign students were presumably without family in Baug and could possibly incur more living expenses while in Baug, many Baugis saw the discrepancy in the amount of the allowance for foreign students grossly disproportionate. Rather than mollify the parents of Baugi students, the subsidy of foreign students by Amir infuriated them and the public at large as well. Despite the displeasure of the general public, foreign students continued to be subsidized by Baug to ensure their participation in Baugi Institutes of higher learning. Perhaps Baugi’s got an unspoken message from the prioritization embedded in an education subsidization program skewed to benefit foreign students that they could be replaced in a future workforce by non-nationals who remained in Baug after completion of their studies.
“Of the utmost concern to the general public was lower prices on food, but it seemed Amir’s was a top down approach to ‘educating’ future Baugi leaders and functionairies. Foreign students would be the lateral replacements for many Baugis who failed to find a position in a ‘reformed’ Baug. The subsidies caused some stress on Baug’s Treasury and food prices rose steadily since Amir’s reintroduction to power in 1958. Baugis became discouraged with the amount of support they received from the central government and grumblings began among Baugi citizens that Amir was depriving them of their birthright. In retrospect, if Amir had known beforehand the financing of the educational sector would break down and embezzling would occur, he might have used the student allowance money differently, to fight inflation, for instance. However, many of his top aides and directors were out to garner privileges for themselves in spite of Amir’s altruistic sentiments toward the underprivileged classes. Since the administrative directors did not share Amir’s altruism in regard to the poor, they may have felt underprivileged in a counter-inclusive sense. A ‘me-first’ mentality gripped the nation during this difficult time and blatant selfishness prevailed. At the turn of the twenty-first century in Sargon for instance, this sentiment was expressed colloquially as ‘I got mine, screw you.’
“Embezzling fever spread all the way to the top of the political arena in Baug. One classic example of the government’s misuse of funds was discovered when a large sum of money was deposited into a Swiss bank account under the name of Baug’s Federal Police Chief. As an alibi, the Chief said that he sent the money to the bank in his name so that no one would suspect it was actually Amir’s money. The Police Chief claimed he had every intention of giving the money back to Amir when it was prudent to do so. It could be assumed Amir was under extreme scrutiny and criticism by the free press at the time. Amir accepted the Chief’s alibi, and kept the money for himself. People continued to demand lower food prices while concurrently, economists recommended that Amir lower the price of gasoline instead of funding educational nutrition and foreign aid. The savings from cutting the educational subsidies would cover a wide range of goods and services for the benefit of the general population in Baug. The diversion of funds would ease overall inflation, increase employment and raise Baug’s standard of living. For whatever reason, Amir did not follow the advice of the economists but continued Baug’s education-financing and nutrition program. As one might expect, heightened civil unrest ensued and the rally cry of this particular anti-Amir campaign was ‘the government is Amir—the economics are Amir’s’.”
POLITICS OF DEMOCRACY IN BAUG
“Amir was interested in Baug becoming a modern democracy and demanded that citizens have respect for the Constitution. By giving lip-service to the Constitution, he pleased those for whom he was benefactor, and brightened the appearance of his nation in the eyes of the West.
“There were three primary political parties in Baug. The leaders of each party were pre-selected by Amir’s inner circle, primarily relatives, in-laws, or trusted friends of his family. The three parties during Amir’s domination of Baug’s Constitutional political system in the early 1970’s were: 1) the Baug-Sowin Party, which was Prime Minister Gul’s party and had the majority in Parliament, 2) the Sardom Party, and 3) the All-Baugi Party. The parties were structured in a way that benefitted the Amir’s regime. Individuals Amir and his council trusted were appointed as leaders of a particular party. In the three-party system, Amir believed he might manipulate the government through ‘divide and conquer’ tactics within a balance of powers Constitutional framework. If he could juggle the limbs of the branches of his relatively small nation relative to the other industrial powers of the time, the citizens might be none-the-wiser, but Amir may have underestimated the intelligence of the citizens of Baug. They knew the three-party system in Baug was ‘fixed’ and many declined to vote or participate in Baugi-style democracy. As a result, Amir’s secret police strike force OIHSB forced people to vote or face the consequences of incarceration or worse. Despite Amir’s insistence that Baugi citizens vote, intense scrutiny of his constituency continued and terror tactics utilized by his police force. If the requisite number of votes were not sufficient to elect a certain individual, OIHSB would see to it ballot boxes were stuffed with the requisite number of ballots needed to ensure that the name of the preferred candidate tabulated higher when votes were tabulated after the polls closed.”
OIHSB REVERSE-PSYCHOLOGY
“In 1962, OIHSB ordered some lesser members of Parliament with little seniority to criticize some minor aspects of Amir’s Administration in hopes it would start a constructive dialogue with Baugi’s and get them involved in government policy. They must have been reading their Marcuse. The theory behind the criticism was also to get citizens in the habit of seeking constructive rather than destructive changes in their democracy. OIHSB’s plan backfired and the ‘little criticisms’ began to irritate and snow-ball into gigantic ones.”
I paused the DVD. I read in the funny papers when I was a kid about a king who reigned long ago in Bahar. He believed the people in his kingdom needed something to complain about to motivate them, so he started rumors about himself that were untrue, but his subjects believed them and he was ultimately murdered because they did. Looks like some brazen citizens of Baug took the same tack. Some in a population can smell a lie more acutely while others are simply less tolerant of the stench.
Turning on the DVD player, the narration continued: “Underground coalitions distributed pamphlets criticizing the Baugi government, saying such things as ‘Even the government itself knows it is corrupted.’ Propaganda tracts sent anonymously to houses and apartments aroused public interest in the alleged political corruption and/or gross mismanagement.”
PRIME MINISTER GUL AND THE NORTHEAST PROVINCE OF BAUGISTAN
“Baugistan is in the far north-east corner of Baug. The inhabitants of Baugistan are made up of primarily of Moslems of the Sunni denomination of Islam and have practiced a quasi-independent self-government sometimes at odds with the interests of Baug’s centralized political machine in Tealandir. Like their predecessors who led Baug into weak oil deals with Western oil companies, centralized Baugi authorities stationed in Tealandir made oral or other secret ‘agreements’ that were fluid, or in Western legal terms, vague and ambiguous and perhaps tainted by fraud or illegal kick-backs, also known as bribes. Events such as a water shortage in Baugistan, depended on the circumstances and were adjudged in Tealandir on a case-by-case basis. In the instant water shortage crisis, Baugistanis requested recognition of their inalienable rights as Baugi citizens or in the alternative, sovereignty as an independent Baugistani Sunni Nation. Prime Minister Gul demurred and told Baugistanis in response to their incessant pleading that he had no direct jurisdiction in the matter. He inferred that the outlying region of Baugistan, at the furthest reaches of Baug, was essentially under the jurisdiction of Amir, and that due to the nature of Baugistan’s demands, he no longer had jurisdiction in the case. When asked at a parliamentary session in Tealandir why the people of the outlying provinces were not allowed to fish in Baug’s territorial waters, Gul replied “I am not your prime minister. Under the dictates of my appointment by Amir, I have no jurisdiction in the matter. If you have any questions pertaining to that problem, you will have to seek redress personally from Amir.”
“Relations between the Central Government of Baug and residents of Baugistan continued to be strained as Gul gave a deaf ear to their incessant requests of assistance. There was a lack of bi-lateral communication and in its wake, infrastructure development in Baugistan hiccupped. For instance, one summer Baugistan was caught unprepared for drought caused at least in part by the damming of the Kojak River. Paperverum, a nation bordering Baug to the southeast, dammed the Kojak at the request of Xerxes. The Kojak which was widely recognized as an ancient holy river and cultural monument by the three countries it ran through, Baug, Paperverum, as well as Padistan to the northeast. The people who lived in these three nations bordering the Kojak, which ran south to north, depended upon its resource value. Baugistani farmers found themselves on the ‘wrong’ side of the dam in terms of water availability during the crisis and were forced to migrate to another province or neighboring country where they were essentially evacuees seeking water to irrigate their crops and provide for their livestock. The Kojak was to Baugistan both a source to meet the temporal needs of its people (sustainability), and a recognized sacred site, whose source literally ‘spilled over’ national borders. The Baugistanis argued they were not given sufficient notice of the building of the Kojak Dam in Papaverum, upriver from the Baugistan border, nor of the devastating effects the dam would have to their livelihood and culture. If they had notice and a grant of humanitarian aid, they could have drilled for well water and survived the water shortage, but as it was, many became displaced refugees.
“For its part, Papaverum was asserting its sovereign rights and had a higher elevation geographically than both Baug and Padistan. The fact that Papaverum could increase its capacity to generate hydro-electric power and store water for itself and at its discretion, water and electricity for its neighbors, was advantageous to its vital interests. As the upriver nation, it could legally collect some share of the water and generate electricity, enriching Papaverum. ‘Let the bean counters divide the spoils,’ Xerxes told Papaverum. This was progress. This was an efficient improvement of their country and at an appropriate site to build such a dam.
“One of the two members representing Baugistan in the Baugi Parliament stood up and spoke at an Assembly meeting asking Prime Minister Gul for the necessary funds to help villagers in his region to dig water wells in the northeast to enable them to survive the summer drought. As it was, farmers in northeast Baug had been relocating to provinces that had sufficient water for crops and livestock for some time now. The population of Baugistan dwindled to approximately 900,000 people during the water crisis due at least in part to a lack of proper federal land management and public works by the central authorities in Baug. Gul remained indifferent to the plight of the northeastern farmers and their legal representatives. Baugistan was geographically distant from the prosperous capitol of Tealandir, which made it convenient for the prime minister to ignore them. Gul thought he could get by with the flattery he espoused in the capitol of Tealandir by saying such things as, ‘Amir takes care of his people’. It was inconceivable to the prime minister that the farmers were in as desperate a situation as their representatives in Parliament claimed. When Gul refuted the honesty of the representatives from Baugistan, he exacerbated the strife which already existed between the federal government and those empathizing with the Baugistanis. Nevertheless, Gul made his position clear–no aid of any kind would be sent to the northeast region of Baug.
“The general public later found out Gul was in fact the dishonest party in the water dispute. He either had not performed his due diligence on the needs in the region of Baugistan or he was simply lying. As soon as refugees from Baugistan reached Tealandir, they told their stories of hardship to those living in the capitol. Tealandiris now began to wonder if they would be the next to be ‘thrown under the bus’.”
My wife Zareen and I were late for church services which were being held at a community compound that held such events in limited engagements. The regulating authorities did not like permanent Christian installations, but as long as the proper fees were collected for the event, the Christian services were allowed to proceed. Although we were both Sunni Moslems, we went to a Christian service the week before. This limited engagement service was of the Roman Catholic denomination and near Kaspar Square in Tealandir. Being late, we sat at the first available seat, making as little noise as possible. Zareen looked up at the priest who was giving his homily now.
“And why is it new age values in Western society would tell us there is no inherent evil in the world but only gray areas of right and wrong? Oh, he wasn’t evil when he raped a teenager; he may have been foolish and weak, but not evil. Or he wasn’t committing an evil when he stole a box of apples from the supermarket; he was hungry and lacked clear judgment. Why?
“What is it about calling an evil act evil which Sargonians and the rest of ‘em object to? Because if they called evil for what it was, they would have to consider that the individual does not control one’s own destiny. There are other powers at work in this temporal world of flesh and blood besides their western psyches and behavioral processes. There is a greater power! God is great!”
“God is great,” the assembly responded. Zareen and I heard some in the crowd start to chant “Allah Akbar!” We left without socializing with anyone. The next day I was scheduled to meet with Jaleh. We hadn’t seen each other in months. I had been corresponding solely with her cousin Jahan.
The next morning there was a mist in the air and some warm rain had fallen overnight in Tealandir. I could smell the fragrance of fruits, nuts and flowers waft from the open market in sunlit Kaspar Square nearby. I felt a tap on my right shoulder and turned around—it was Jaleh. She had on a brand new red, green and blue Adidas windbreaker with matching dark blue Adidas sweatpants that shined like silk. They fit her curves exactly, but not so snuggly as to bring undue attention to her in the neighborhood.
“Boo.”
“Ha ha ha—Jaleh,” I replied in a start.
Jaleh laughed her all but silent circus cackle. The kind a sibling might utter after a successful practical joke. “Want to go to the South Pole together?” she asked.
“South Pole?”
“Oh, what did I say?” catching herself, “I meant South Ponce,” she gleamed as if to flirt.
“You ever hear a ‘Hottentot Story’ Jaleh?”
“Hottentots?”
“Yeah, my father and grandfather used to tell us Hottentot Stories at bedtime. They are a tribe of South Ponce.”
“I’ve heard of Hottentots but never was told a bedtime story about them. Are you going to tell me a bedtime story Khalid? Hmm?”
“There is always a mystery to each Hottentot Story told that resolves itself on the subsequent night of storytelling. One of the first bedtime stories our father told us was about the Hottentots walking through the jungle after a day of adventure when all of a sudden they heard a shrieking cry ‘cut your head off; cut your head off.’ That’s how the story ended two nights in a row. He got a lot of mileage out of that line with us guessing, ‘Where did that cry come from?’ Who was crying ‘cut your head off; cut your head off’ and why? We eventually found out it was a mynah bird warning the Hottentots of an impending ambush by a neighboring tribe. The Hottentot Stories were a ruse my dad played to get us to go to bed in the summer months because it didn’t get dark until 9:30 p.m.”
“Okay” Jaleh said, looking down and away, a little disappointed the story didn’t include her and ended up with my siblings in bed.
“There was another episode where the Hottentots heard a thumping sound under a huge log that blocked their path through the woods. Father would distract us and knock on the wood frame of one of the beds, scaring us. I don’t remember what caused the thumping though. I think it was anti-climactic.”
“Kind of like your stories,” Jaleh teased.
“Yeah, and my missions…no, I don’t want to go to South Ponce. As far as I’m concerned, both my father and grandfather have already been there, done that,” we laughed.
“Fine, then let’s talk about the decentralization project we roll out next year in Baug, starting with Tealandir.”
I looked at Jaleh and listened to her blueprint for the stabilization of Baug by transferring distribution points from the center of Tealandir to a peripheral axis round about the city. She went on to explain how the decentralization project would free up more land in the center of Tealandir by the efficient use of land in the suburbs, increasing Baugi employment and facilitating enhanced transportation networks. The network idea could be duplicated in other cities she said, once an assessment proved its feasibility and preferential use of resource allocation. “Manufacturing and distribution belong together in the periphery,” I would recall her saying yesterday morning in the Square.
‘Some Doctor’, I thought to myself.
AMIR’S CONTAINMENT OF PUBLIC UNREST: IOHSB CRACKDOWN circa 1975
Back at home with Zareen, I brought a tablet into the bathroom and continued listening and watching the images on the DVD Jaleh had given me the day before.
“The people of Baug felt that the representatives of the several parties should convene to discuss and perhaps to litigate the country’s myriad problems. Amir felt such a convention would be counter-productive and weaken Baugi morale. It would take aim at the country’s deficiencies while disregarding the tremendous benefits his regime had introduced to the nation through industrialization. Accordingly, Amir denied his people a ‘representative’s forum’ and called for an all-inclusive one-party political system, the Publicorpz Party, in which all Baugis had to join. This, Amir hoped, would quell controversy and strife by putting an end to factions hell-bent on victory or nothing for their respective allegiant followers.
“It was these allegiances that were becoming a problem. Several government ministers perceived Baug’s political system was top-heavy and believed that whosoever held the supreme office in this ‘land of sand’ as it was sometimes referred to, had a ticket to riches beyond belief. Amir surmised as much when he noticed factions ally against him as they had against Dr. Rahmat during his term of office years earlier. Amir proceeded to proclaim publically that membership in the Publicorpz Party would be mandatory. No dissenters, abstainers or other parties would be tolerated. All Baugis would join the Publicorpz Party or be exiled from the country in disgrace.
“In the wake of Amir’s proclamation, an engineer refused to become a member of the party and instead of being exiled as most dissenters had been, the government sent him to an asylum to be tortured and beaten. The courage and steadfastness of the engineer drew nationwide attention and OIHSB was put on high alert to quash anti-Publicorpz rebels. OIHSB used this period of suppression to consolidate their power and learn about the workings of their people whom they were assigned to watch. OIHSB brazenly demonstrated how they would deal with dissenters and non-conformists. No longer afraid of the public, OIHSB all but boasted about their power to incarcerate and torture if necessary to achieve Amir’s ends of a peaceful, prosperous and educated Baug. Dissenters would be singled out and beaten at will. All would be members of the Publicorpz Party. All had skin in the game.
Amir declared the Publicorpz Party would have three principles:
1) The belief in an Imperial Regime with allegiance to Amir
2) Respect of the Baugi Constitution
3) A strict belief and conformance to Amir’s “Six Principles” [see “REFORMATION: THE SIX PRINCIPLES” above]

“During the course of the next two years, Amir asserted almost absolute control of the Publicorpz Party. Even though Gul was supposed to lead Party as acting prime minister, it was evident he did little to oppose Amir and to keep his power in check despite the Party’s principle to ‘respect the Constitution.’ In the summer of 1977, after two years of this disruptive state of affairs in Baug, the public grew increasingly frustrated and intolerant of the tactics of their government. Amir sensed it was time for a leadership change within the Publicorpz Party and named Omid Koushar, who had been interior and finance minister in Gul’s cabinet and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Baug’s OBS delegation, as the new leader of the Publicorpz Party chosen to succeed Gul, who had been prime minister for the preceding fourteen years.
“Political life however, was not over for Gul, for as soon as he left the prime minister’s office, he became the chief minister of justice. The chief minister of justice coordinated negotiations between Amir and his cabinet. The new position, somewhat like a ‘Chief of Staff’ in the West, suited Gul. Coming off fourteen years of criticism for not recognizing the Baugi people’s demands, he welcomed not having to dodge their complaints in public. As Chief Minister of Justice, Gul could enjoy moving closer to Amir’s ‘inner circle’ and further away from public scrutiny. Gul set out to transform the office as soon as his predecessor, Parviz, vacated the post of the Chief Minister of Justice. Chief Minister of Justice Gul was able to rub elbows with the other ministers, glean information and exercise his power in Baug more than ever before. During negotiations between Amir and his ministers for instance, Gul was often a useful mediator and Amir’s go-to man to get deals done. Although he had to share power with the monarch Amir and Prime Minister Omid, he was certainly a major figurehead of the Baugi government during Omid’s Administration [August 7, 1977-August 27, 1978].”
“It was interesting what you said about the children being ‘racist’ and didn’t even know it,” I told Jahan. “I wasn’t there but discrimination isn’t always bad. For instance, you said I played the “shady character” better than anyone else,” I reminded him. “That’s good enough for me,” I told him. “That’s good enough for me!”

Jahan gave me a CD in an old “Walkman” with a pair of bent headphones that still had the earcushions on them from the 90’s. The CD was already playing. I could tell the material was ancient, but not quite obsolete.

“The new one [DVD installment]’s still in production,” Jahan said. I guess there was no frosting on this cake. “Audio only”, was printed on the face of the CD when I opened the player-cover of the walkman.

I recalled what the defense minister had said at the time, “We go with what we have.”

After a few minutes of yogic deep breathing, I found a quite place to sit down in the nearest café and began listening to the older mode CD.

“In 1976, the Baugi Parliament approved a bill that would raise the price of domestically produced gasoline indefinitely every year by sixteen cents a gallon. The Baugi National Front and certain clergymen exhorted the populace to protest the terms of the bill. The lynchpin of the protest was to maintain a boycott against the buying or selling of petroleum products for one day. Clergymen were told to spread the word, ‘people are not to work or drive their cars during the boycott in order to demonstrate to those in favor of the price hike we can do without gasoline for one day.’
“Most people in Baug were afraid to miss work because of the consequential retribution delivered care of OIHSB. Traffic in Tealandir the day of the petroleum moratorium was less than usual, but not so scant as to attract significant attention to the boycott. Because the clergy and the BNF had placed such importance on honoring the boycott, when it failed to generate across the board participation, Amir believed the worst was behind him. The clergy and the BNF did not have the Baugi populace in the palm of their hands thought the Amir regime.
“The clergymen of Darivsh demanded that Amir permit Ayatollah Babak to return peacefully to Baug. The people of Darivsh, led by their representative clergy, demonstrated publically to make their position clear to Amir and those administering his regime. After being provoked by the demonstrators to violence, the police attempted to intervene, when rioting broke out. The police tried to disperse the crowd with machine gun fire before the rioting escalated and spread to the local neighborhoods. People from all Baug’s provinces mourned for the dead after the unrest and brought up fresh protests against Amir’s brutal regime for the fatalities.
OMID AS PRIME MINISTER OF BAUG [August 7, 1977-August 27, 1978]
“In 1977, Omid raised the price of nationalized commodities such as petroleum. The increase in prices nationalized products riled the public, which had been growing increasingly discontent with Amir’s Administration. The people of Baug wanted to change the one-party system and moved to incite passionate demonstrations accusing the government of the injustices of economic hardships of the urban poor and the outlying peoples of Baugistan. In response to the demonstrations, Amir’s Publicorpz Party sought to protect itself through the use of surveillance and OIHSB police enforcement. Amir used the Publicorpz Party as a tool to keep peoples’ thoughts and actions within the confines of one political ideology—his own. Amir was eventually able to establish and retain his one-party system through the use of his secret police, OIHSB, who continued to use totalitarian tactics against Baugis.
“OIHSB used brutal forms of psychological conditioning upon individuals (including its own members) to maintain an authoritative influence over them. Baug’s system of repression was paternalistic and ‘top-down’ which, although a constitutional monarchy on its face, included a savage secret police force answerable ultimately to Amir alone. Execution, exile and imprisonment not only petrified individual citizens from opposing Amir’s police force directly, but also prevented professional reactionaries from organizing groups for the purpose of inciting widespread contempt of the Baugi monarchy. Without leaders to coordinate a counter-offensive force against the Baugi government, citizens opposed to Amir became nothing but timid ‘sitting ducks’ ripe for an OIHSB crackdown. As the years of Amir’s reign passed, the thin fabric of his actual authority frayed. He became desperate, fearing that the public’s discontent and hatred would be unleashed upon the regime all at one time, ripping it apart. He began to delegate more and more of his authority to OIHSB as the cohesive yet brutal force to regulate public behavior and corral its movements away from the ambit of their authority. Despite their Herculean efforts, an unsettled social environment and chronic civil unrest continued. The pressure on Amir was too much and he showed visible signs of suffering a nervous break-down. As Amir lost his bearings, the thread-like tentacles of OIHSB’s organization began to lose their grip on the civilian masses and more and more individuals set their faces against Amir. A unified, consolidated opposition had not become part of the general Baugi psyche as of yet, but various alternative forms of government were being explored and openly discussed in public despite the OIHSB crackdown.
“Oh, you’re going to church today, isn’t it?” Jahan asked in the best English he could conjunct.
“Yeah, why don’t you let the 500 media outlets know about it,” I replied, wondering why he was raising his voice in the café filled with men, half with turbans. “The preacher is gonna give a sermon on the ‘Great Whore of Babylon’” [Rev. 17:5] I lied. “The mother of harlots”, I saw one turbaned man turn his head to look at me briefly, another next to him gave a start but didn’t look up. I wondered how many cared enough to listen.
“Ever see the film The Planet of the Apes Khalid?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“You might not like what you find there Taylor” he teased, referring to the film’s Dr. Zaius warning astronaut George Taylor not to investigate the forbidden zone with the human woman Nova.
“The mother of all wars…” I replied, thinking of a well known adversary of Baug’s, a tyrant neighbor named Shahin Shahraz who coined the phrase. I wondered then if Shahraz got the idea from the New Testament book of Revelation. Maybe he was wondering in his own mind what the attributes of a “mother of harlots” were. Somehow, Shahraz came up with “the mother of all wars”. I was stumped yet mystified. “You heard from your cousin?” I asked.
“Jaleh? She’s out on assignment in Aspiria. There are clashes. Finding out if any can help us.”
“What your end-game in all this?” I asked after a brief pause, while sipping my tea.
“End-game?” he laughed. “What is your ‘endgame’”?
“To get paid and laid I guess,” I said, while thinking of further possible reasons.
“Keep getting paid and laid. I like that Khalid. Paid and laid. That’s my end-game too. Paid and laid,” Jahan said. He must have been in a bitter mood today. Probably didn’t get laid.
“I saw a hostess in a white skirt last time I met with you over on the sidewalk over there.” I pointed to the spot where I saw her advertising her legs to me.
“Don’t know Khalid…getting paid and laid.” We laughed and drank our tea. There were worse things in life than killing time in a cafe sharing tea. I should have been happy but I was getting homesick. Refugees were streaming into my home country of Dagastan from the armed conflict with Aspiria. Eighty Aspirian soldiers and sixty militant rebels were killed in fighting only yesterday on the border according to the newswires. “Khalid, don’t worry, we’ll get you home soon to Zareen,” Jahan assured me. He was usually right. Never known him to be wrong yet.
Are my thoughts that transparent to Jahan and easy to read? I thought to myself. What a wimp he must think I am.
“Just don’t have too many kids; take it from me—it can get complicated. No more time for tea in the Square with Zareen…or Jaleh,” he chided with a chuckle.
I went to the library to research education in Baug and how the students were allotted a stipend which was supposed to pay for student lunches. What I found was a maze of political intrigue. Besides the cleric Babak, who had just become an Ayatollah, factions fought among each other and against each other like the great tribes of pre-colonial Kir, or many of the major law firms, lobbies and political parties of today.
Two fronts staking out positions against Amir’s Publicorpz Party were the Baugi National Front [BNF] and the Bahram or “communist” party. The BNF was more moderate and business-oriented than either the clergymen or the Publicorpz Party. It was comprised mostly of merchants, middle-class citizens and students. Its leaders were the colleagues of the former Prime Minister Rahmat, who by 1978 was deceased. These colleagues carried on the traditions of the party in secret since Amir had placed a moratorium on freedom to associate in a political party other than the Publicorpz Party.
The “communist” or Bahram Party, whose members were primarily students, workers and educated people dissatisfied with Amir, democracy and capitalism in general had their base of operations at Tealandir Technical University [hereinafter referred to as TTU]. All three movements, the clergy, the BNF and the Bahram Party worked from different vantage points (loci) against Amir: the clergy with Khomeini’s followers at the mosques, the BNF in secret and the Bahram Party from the universities, and specifically TTU. OIHSB could not be everywhere at once.
The Bahram Party’s centralization at TTU gave them immediate recognition and widespread notoriety in the public eye. So much was their popularity among the people from that location that the government thought it necessary to transfer TTU out of Tealandir into Estera of Baug, a suburb of Tealandir. The move was designed to disrupt the triad aligned against Amir and the lines of communication among TTU faculty, students and administrators.
Amir and his cabinet made the claim that the move was not essentially political in nature but would enable the universities to be closer to the metal smelting factory near Estera of Baug. The closer proximity of the smelter to TTU had several advantages but the timing was not lost on the Bahram Party. During pre-arranged demonstrations, the communist speakers used the university relocation as political ammunition and blasted Amir. University students and faculty resisted the move even before the demonstrations began and now they had communist mouthpieces going to bat for them. As a result, the faculty and students sensed a ‘solidarity’ and empowerment. The TTU relocation was another example of Amir’s program of bullying. For his part, Amir had dissenting university faculty ‘laid-off’ for their disregard of his decision to relocate TTU. Laid-off professors gained the support of factions who felt the relocation to be yet another underhanded scheme of Amir’s. One of these factions was the merchant’s lobby of Baug. The merchant lobby wanted the university professors who were laid-off paid their forfeited salaries. Merchants donated to professors stipends from their own personal wealth to recompense them for their lost jobs until they could be reimbursed by the central Baugi government. In a show of unity and self-respect, the professors did not accept the merchants’ offer of money but rather opened a bank account and distributed information about the account, including the account number, and asked that all teachers and educators in the country donate whatever they could to the account. Their colleagues responded generously to the request and the unemployed professors limited themselves to only half of their former salaries although the donations far exceeded the capacity to pay them a full paycheck.
The restraint of the professors in utilizing the charitable trust account demonstrated their suffering and self-sacrifice. They wanted to show the attentive and anxious people of the country that the time to revolt was at hand. Their restraint of material livelihood came down to a quiet impression of a collective fast. The fasting, its demonstration of self-sacrifice and suffering, showed a deepening resolve to overthrow Amir’s regime. Removing Amir’s Administration from Baugi leadership meant single-minded thinking of the people needed. Like the communists and merchants before them, the teachers were beginning to tell their stories and they were getting their message through to a point where it seemed a threshold had been reached. Baugis desired more than ever to unify in protesting the mishandling of their government and its leaders in the Publicorpz Party, of which Amir was a member. In order to make the daily demonstrations more effective, the professors implored everyone daily to live a frugal existence in order to strengthen in solidarity against Amir.
@dekebridges @HistoryFlick If I was rich, I’d get the rights to that photo for #SkyscraperHeavens, anti-novel based on 1978-80 events #Iran.
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– Bill Gates, 1994 @HistoryFlick

Compilation Copyright March 21, 2015 John Rubens

Skyscraper Heavens due out November, 2015