I have just returned home after 5 weeks in Iran, mostly for a family vacation. There were many interesting experiences, a lot of them positive. Skiing at about the height of Mt Cook just a few minutes from the city was a lot of fun, as was a bus trip to the ancient city of Kashan, which has had inhabitants nearby for the last 8000 years. Meeting relatives (by marriage) and some old and new friends, buying bread from the neighbourhood bakery, and eating the very high quality and cheap pastries were other highlights.

Of course the political and economic situation is very bad and getting worse. Taxi drivers (of whom we used a very large number – no way was I going to try driving for reasons discussed below, and buses are not that convenient) almost uniformly blamed the government and had no faith in the idea of an Islamic Republic. The rial depreciated sharply against the US dollar and other currencies during our trip. The government appears to be using the strategy of internet “filtering” (censorship) to avoid discussion of anything important, although as usual they were not very competent: the NZ Herald newspaper website was unavailable, although the NY Times was easily accessible. Most internet-savvy people I met were well aware of how to bypass the filters. The drawback is that speeds are reduced to the point where some services don’t really work (I couldn’t see anything on Youtube).

Iran seems to be the opposite of Sweden in the area of design. Doorhandles are loose and when tightened, the locks no longer work. Light switches are routinely dangling from the wall with wiring exposed. Quality control in building seems to be an exception.

Tehran seems to be one big health and safety violation. Some of the highlights I noticed: most taxi drivers have disabled the seatbelts in the back, and seem bemused or offended if this is pointed out (my favourite was the guy who said he would drive carefully and slowly on our trip home, although most of the trip was on the motorway); exposed wiring is visible in many public places; construction workers using welding torches with no eye protection. The most obvious health hazard is the foul stinking air which at this time of year is at its worst.

Many of the health hazards are traffic related (my guess is that the major contribution to the air pollution comes from vehicles, many of which seem to be of low quality and run on low grade fuel). The lane markings are completely ignored, and traffic proceeds (slowly in most places) by a process of everyone trying to claim the right of way and then negotiating silently with the other drivers, who by now are within a few centimetres of the car, approaching at an arbitrary angle. Apparently Iran has 4 times the death rate from traffic accidents that NZ has. We only saw a couple of accidents while there. The low speeds in Tehran must make fatal accidents less common, so I wonder how bad it must be in other places.

This leads to the idea of the rule of law, and the difference between writing laws and enforcing them. Particularly local government rules on footpaths, essentially none of which are wheelchair accessible in the hilly areas because they have steps every few metres (presumably each household deals with its own vehicle crossing and no one checks that they mesh together into a usable path).

It is hard to escape the conclusion that a country with a lot of natural resources, great potential for tourism, a strong and enduring culture with (as yet) strong family units, is being let down by an appallingly bad governance system. I don’t subscribe to the view that just because they have never had a decent government in 2500 years, they can’t have one now, but it does seem that a culture change is needed. Judging from some academic and industry contacts we made, it seems that this change is under way a lot faster than we expected in some sectors, but it seems it will still take considerable time.