| Topic: |
Science > Prophecies-Of-Nostradamus |
| User: |
"Satan" |
| Date: |
04 Jun 2006 01:29:09 AM |
| Object: |
Petrol-Sniffing Buzz Will Eventually Be Followed By A Nasty Headache |
Petrol-sniffing buzz will eventually be followed by a nasty headache
June 3, 2006
Tehran is spending its huge oil revenues in the wrong places, writes Ed
O'Loughlin.
PERSIAN high culture has long had a discreet taste for hashish and
opium, and more recently cheap heroin has flooded Iran from
Afghanistan.
But in the last couple of years Iran has succumbed to another
addiction, a high-octane crank that fuels pipe dreams for many and
nightmares for some.
Massive injections of oil money, the result of the recent surge in
energy prices, have revived the ambitions of Iran's new breed of
radical Islamicists, who believe their country can become an economic
and military superpower, the political leader of the Islamic world.
Led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and galvanised by Iran's pursuit
of its own nuclear capability, the radical conservatives - many with
roots in the Revolutionary Guard and armed forces, rather than the more
traditionalist Shiite clergy - see surging oil wealth as a one-fix
solution to all of their problems.
Sitting on the world's second-biggest gas reserves and the
second-highest oil production in OPEC, they believe Iran can use the
oil-price windfall to feed its people and build up its strength.
Meanwhile, the West, although worried about Tehran's often duplicitous
nuclear program, is too desperate to prevent oil prices from going even
higher to impose meaningful sanctions.
Bogged in Iraq, the US has no ground forces left with which to invade
Iran, and air strikes on its nuclear facilities would only increase the
power of the radicals at the expense of those who favour accommodation
with the West.
No wonder Mr Ahmadinejad seems to be enjoying himself so much these
days, whether mailing religious harangues to the White House, going
walkabout among the adoring poor of south Tehran or explaining to
Israel why it should cease to exist: sniffing petrol can give you quite
a high.
Alas, no buzz lasts forever, and sooner or later Mr Ahmadinejad's dream
is bound to crash to earth. Economically, Iran is heading for a
disaster that even high oil prices cannot put off forever - and oil
prices can go down as well as up.
Experts say the surging doses of oil money are gradually poisoning
Iran's "real" economy - the region's most developed and diversified.
While other Gulf oil states like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar import
most of their labour, expertise, equipment and goods, Iranians
traditionally grow and make things for themselves.
But since the 1979 revolution much of this economy has fallen under the
control of state companies, largely controlled by the armed forces and
shadowy networks of Islamic "charities" run by powerful clergymen.
Restrictive practices, graft, monopolies and embezzlement abound, and
reform is needed to revive big but ailing industries. But why bother
with painful and difficult reforms when you're up to your armpits in
cash?
Rather than putting its windfall oil revenues aside for future use, or
investing in infrastructure, health and education, Tehran is injecting
it directly into day-to-day spending.
"There is no productivity, but that's not important to them," says a
Tehran economist, Saed Laylez. "Instead, we change petrodollars to
local money and pay salaries for jobs that produce nothing. We are
creating a social welfare system indirectly."
The Government's biggest challenge, he says, is to find jobs - or at
least incomes - for the million people who reach working age each year,
the children of a birth explosion that has seen the population almost
double to 70 million since the 1980s.
Many of those without jobs emigrate, he says, and the rest can still
live cheaply thanks to huge subsidies for consumer staples like food
and fuel.
Petrol in Iran costs about $A0.11 a litre, about an 18th as much as in
neighbouring Turkey. As a result, smuggling of subsidised fuel abroad
is believed to be draining billions of dollars each year from state
coffers - much of it into the hands of corrupt officials.
Sooner or later, experts say, the Government will have to stop
subsidising everyday expenditure and employment, - and risk losing the
support of the urban and rural poor.
For now, with the Government cracking down on journalists, banning
political meetings and suppressing non-governmental organisations, many
middle-class Iranians are keeping their heads down and waiting for
better times, or else joining in Iran's horrific brain drain.
But, says an opposition journalist, Isa Saharkhiz: "Iran is a country
where deep down in the social layers things happen that you don't see
on the surface. In the years before the revolution it was like a
volcano that showed no smoke but then exploded. Before the revolution
the Shah was the most powerful man in the region, and then suddenly he
was gone."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/petrolsniffing-buzz-will-eventually-be-followed-by-a-nastyheadache/2006/06/02/1148956547931.html
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| User: "Jim D." |
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| Title: Re: Petrol-Sniffing Buzz Will Eventually Be Followed By A Nasty Headache |
04 Jun 2006 07:02:54 AM |
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"Satan" <francm@mail.com> wrote in message
news:1149402549.670989.168670@f6g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
Petrol-sniffing buzz will eventually be followed by a nasty headache
June 3, 2006
You must have a very bad headache then, mr. satan.
Jim
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| User: "Docrodile, Reptile Extraordinaire :######~~" |
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| Title: Re: Petrol-Sniffing Buzz Will Eventually Be Followed By A Nasty Headache |
04 Jun 2006 05:18:02 PM |
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Jim D. wrote:
"Satan" <francm@mail.com> wrote in message
news:1149402549.670989.168670@f6g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
Petrol-sniffing buzz will eventually be followed by a nasty headache
June 3, 2006
You must have a very bad headache then, mr. satan.
Jim
Well, because of the high gouged gas pricing, I've switched from
mid-grade to regular for sniffing. I admit the quality drop has now
produced bad headaches -- although not nearly as bad as the headaches
the Bush baboons' ruinous policies are causing.
And that degenerative bunch includes your sweet innocent lil' corporate
oil tycoon, Rice -- the damn *****!
Docrodile :))
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