Pressure cooking chicken

A recipe for hope in Iran: Start with protests

— THE NEWS these days seems filled with the Penn State scandal, the 2012 Olympics, and the latest poll in the still early but already wearing American presidential election. Meanwhile, Iran marches towards its nuke. The world frets, and that country’s nuclear program proceeds.

Once again, this past Tuesday, the distinguished diplomats at the European Union met with Teheran’s representatives for still more negotiations aboutsaid nuclear program. The subject this time: whether there should be more negotiations. We’re not kidding.

Meanwhile the centrifuges keep spinning at Natanz despite an occasional virus, and Iran’s nuclear scientistskeep meeting with not-so-mysterious accidents. (There are those in the real world who can’t afford to wait while Europe’s diplomats twiddle and Washington leads mainly from behind.)

There is some good news for anybody sufficiently sane to wish Iran’s nuclear ambitions ill. Some evidence indicates that all those economic sanctions against Iran’s fanatical regime may be working.

No, really.

You’d be forgiven if you’re surprised by that news. But there were demonstrations this week in which thousands of people took to the streets of Neishabour, Iran, to protest . . . the cost of chicken.

Yes, chicken. Iranians have this much in common with Arkansawyers: They like their chicken. A lot of folks over there had already given up more expensive meats because of rising food costs. Chicken had become the chief source of protein for those Iranians who could still afford it. Now the price of yardbird is soaring.

Why? Economic sanctions against Iran have jolted that country’s economy and driven prices up, up and up. Chicken now goes for about three dollars a pound. Three dollars a pound. Which means a wing and a leg will cost you an arm and a leg.

Iran being Iran, one of the chants heard on the streets of Neishabour was: “Death to inflation!” (Again, we’re not kidding.) Another, more hopeful and much more realistic chant was: “Shame on you, government; you must resign!” (We hope that rhymes in Farsi.)

The protests have been noticed:

Iran’s mad little president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has called for an emergency meeting to discuss the Chicken Crisis. Iran’s parliament has called on ministers to explain all these inflated prices. Clerics have addressed the problem, too.

And what do you know, the media, even in Iran, is all over it. One newspaper’s front-page headline last week: “The days of chicken politics”

It must be getting bad, or at least Iranians must be getting hungry, for people to take their grievances to the streets. That’s not safe in Iran. It’s not as if that country had a First Amendment with its right to assemble peaceably to voice their grievances. See the killing of Neda Agha-Soltan circa 2009. The young lady was shot through the heart by a paramilitary sniper while she watched a protest. And her death throes duly videotaped. There’s no evidence she wasparticipating in the protest. She was just watching. But that’s enough to merit the death sentence in Iran.

So it’s telling when protesters are willing to risk protesting in Iran. For they have no Bill of Rights toprotect them against cruel and unusual punishment. On the contrary, that is the standard response of Iran’s regime.

IF YOU’RE not surprised that the protesters in Iran chanted “Death to inflation!” during the latest protests, you probably won’t be surprised to hear the response of a government official in Neishabour to the demonstrators’ demands.

The city’s chief prosecutor happened to be in a mosque when the demonstrations erupted, and went out to address the crowd. He urged the protesters to go back to their homes and work with their local officials to address any complaints. And he added, in the best style of little dictators everywhere:

“Many men and women today came from every corner to join the protest and they chanted some slogans. And we have recorded everything and identified you. I hope the day doesn’t come that you stand against our regime and officials.”

If that’s not a threat, it sure sounds like it. Neishabour’s city prosecutor sounds like a pol on the fast track to promotion. He clearly knows howthings work in Iran. Usually lethally.

Here’s hoping this little popinjay has to find another line of work soon, along with the rest of Iran’s current (and bloody) regime. It would help if more protesters demanded more resignations. As they were doing Monday in Neishabour. May that country’s tyrants great and small soon follow in the shaky footsteps of all those in the region whose tyrannical ways have caught up with them of late.

No wonder Iran’s rulers look on Bashar al-Assad’s latest troubles and must tremble. The fate of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, and now, Iran’s ally in increasingly chaotic Syria, cannot assure Iran’s mullahs and their puppet president. And now come protests like this one in Neishabour. When tyrants tremble, the free can hope.

Editorial, Pages 16 on 07/26/2012

Upcoming Events