Posted on 05/31/2005 4:12:52 PM PDT by nickcarraway
TEHRAN -- The United States may see oil and terrorism as Islamic Iran's main exports, but many young people here will be quick to disagree.
The Islamic republic, home to some of the most qualified young people in the Middle East, has been exporting its brainpower at an alarming rate - with an estimated 150,000 frustrated graduates taking flight every year.
And as a joke going around Iranian universities, having a PhD means that you are more than likely to head overseas for a job doing Pizza Hut delivery.
"It doesn't really matter what your graduation grade is. It makes no difference what contacts you have. You just cannot find a decent job," complained Somayeh, a 25-year-old graduate of industrial design.
Officially, the unemployment rate among graduates stands at around 16 percent. Experts say that the real figure is far higher and caution further that the figures are also hiding an additional, far larger problem of underemployment.
Somayeh, for example, eventually found a job as an office secretary.
She is now a prime candidate to join the visa queues outside foreign embassies and not the polling stations when they open on June 17 for Iran's presidential elections.
"For a simple secretary who answers the phone, they pay 800,000 [Iranian] riyals [$90] a month. How can someone raise a family with such a low salary?" Somayeh said.
The eight candidates bidding for Iran's presidency have all been paying lip service to the unemployment issue, but the signs are that few young people have been convinced that change is on the horizon.
Turning around a stagnant economy strong on providing bland, job-for-life and low-paid administrative work but little else will be a tough task. Most Iranians seem to agree.
Ali, a depressed graphic designer in his mid-20s, can be found trawling though the labor ministry's employment directories. He said that he had all-but given up hope of finding a job in Iran.
"For a good job with decent pay it's a never-ending search," he said glumly, all set to join the 4-million-strong Iranian Diaspora spread across the United States, Canada and Europe.
"Now I'm looking for something in Germany or Australia. It may be totally unrelated to my skills, like packing boxes, but at least the salary is decent."
The other attraction of heading abroad is greater individual freedoms - and this is another factor that leaves young people uninspired by the forthcoming presidential elections.
The polls will mark the end of the mandate of incumbent President Mohammad Khatami, who managed to lure voters in 1997 and 2001 but failed to live up to his promise to shake up the way that the Islamic republic is run.
"I do not think there will be a large number of people, especially among the youth, who will be voting," said Somayeh.
"For Khatami's first and second election, me and my family rushed out to vote. But he couldn't solve the problem of unemployment, so what can the next president do?"
According to Mehdi Sahraian, an economist and professor, the governmental five-year plans put in place since 1990 have consistently fallen short when it comes to job creation.
"In the current 2000 to 2005 plan the annual target for new jobs is 700,000, but the figures are only reaching 350,000," he said.
"The government needs to prepare the ground for private sector growth to absorb the workforce, but the problem is that 80 percent of the economy is controlled by the government. The government is the biggest rival of the private sector."
"The situation has instilled in young people a utilitarian approach," explained Fariborz Raees Dana, another economist.
"We cannot offer them opportunities in the fields of politics, economics or science. So they simply move on."
bttt
ROTFLOL
Same joke as in the US if you have PhD; in LIBERAL ARTS.
Hey, I know the manager of a successful mutual fund that was an English major.
IRAN HAS 70,000,000 people. Oil revenues don't go so far with such a burgeoning population. Iran's other major export is pistachio nuts.
They can come here, where typical Human Resources sychophants will fall all over them. They need to hire them because of their skin color.
No, here you become a school teacher, get 3 months off every year, and complain about how you are so underpaid compared to other "professionals".
Interesting tidbit. You learn something new here every day.
For decades, the health care system in Cuba was touted as advanced for the region, with doctors in abundance.
Closer scrutiny by independent media revealed that a Cuban doctor had about as much knowledge as an American nurse.
So much for higher education.
Depends on who's doing the teaching.
I imagine "A"s are handed out generously for Hate Jews 212...the art of strap-on munitions.
Actually I should say a big export of Iran is pistachios. Believe it or not you can find Iranian pistachios in Israel. Or at least a few years ago you could. One way or another they make their way to Israel. I ate some when I was there.
What problem? It's a liberals dream world,
And their charges still leave not knowing American history, American civics, math, English, science, or true literature (Classics) because of all the PC feel good crap that the NEA says must take precedence like conflict resolution, life-style acceptance, etc.
What is even less known is that Iran used to distill an absolutely excellent vodka and their caviar was superb. Of course, that was during the days of the Shah.
Judging by Iranians whom I've met in US, they have good science and engineering programs. Quite possibly, the best in Islamic World. Mullahs must have realized that theology is not sufficient for building nuclear weapons and other advanced weaponry.
They have to take some ideological courses, but a lot of Iranian students realize what a nonsense that is.
perhaps Iran should be spending less money building nuclear reactors and more money diversifying the economy [I don't know about where you live but the nuclear power plants in Ontario are money pits, billions have been poured into them and I think only one reactor at one plant is ever actually functioning]
maybe Hezbollah needs a big budget cut?
maybe they need to cut the money flow to the "insurgents" in Iraq?
maybe the Mullahs, a la the Baathist regime in Iraq, should stop robbing the treasury of Iran
because unemployment = revolution.......
yes I saw a great doc on a typical Iranian family, surprised the Iranian gov't allowed that kind of access
I loved grandma the best, she fought in the revolution in 1979 and she was disgusted with the Mullahs, she said I put my life on the line just to have one corrupt regime replaced by another, we need a new revolution, go grandma!
the father was trying to find ways to keep his eldest son and eldest daughter in Iran but he was having troubles making ends meet, he admitted the economic opportunities were even worse than under the Shah, and his kids were longing to go to England for their education because they said the schooling esp in technological areas they wanted to pursue sucked in Iran, the father was afraid they'd go to England and never come back......
the girl was just getting a used 286 computer, she knew she was getting a dinosaur, this was a documentary filmed just a few years ago, before the hardliners rigged the last election.....
"PhD" means the pizza toppings were piled higher and deeper. Practice makes perfect.
"The government needs to prepare the ground for private sector growth to absorb the workforce, but the problem is that 80 percent of the economy is controlled by the government. The government is the biggest rival of the private sector."
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The most underreported and underanalyzed fact about the middle east is that they are all top down socialist economies with little property rights.
'Causes of Terrorism'
http://www.neoperspectives.com/terrorism.htm
that is not to the Mullahs credit, I would bet the Shah had all that set up before the revolution, the Mullahs were at least smart enough not to tamper with those programs, though like I said, the Iranian teenagers spotlighted in that documentary felt they could get better education outside Iran, now they may have lived in a more remote area, not in Tehran
[after all the Shah had embarked on the beginning of a nuclear weapon program and the Mullahs merely picked it up from there]
but yes I too have met many Iranians in various tech based fields and they are doing quite well and they sure have no intention of going home, the one fellow I knew best was a whiz in computer science, he was working with one of my best friends at a Toronto based multinational making good money and they both transferred to the Swiss office where he is now a part time professor at the University of Zurich, married a gorgeous blonde Swiss girl and works in the same field but for a different company based in Zurich, making six figures easy.
Of course Iranians being Persian and not Arabs have always been ahead of the rest of the Muslim world, I thought though that Iraqis didn't lag too far behind, for all his brutality, Saddam did introduce modernization of the Iraqi education system in the 1980's, no doubt so he could have his own WMD specialists on the payroll, rather than having to find people from outside the country......
and at least Iranians have the option of leaving.....
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