Iran

[Mo Docherty]

Iraians are the most friendly hospitable ppl in the world

[Tony Taylor]

Iraians are the most friendly hospitable ppl in the world

I was always treated very well while in Iran, but was always careful to observe the rules.

[Rodney Mills]

I worked and lived in Iran for 3 1/2 Years. I was sent there by the parent company to open a branch of remote site catering. I shocked the heck out of them, after three months I had landed contracts for catering three drilling rigs, a 250-man pipeline construction camp. And the running of two of Italia lines, former passenger liners the Michelangelo and the Raffaello, purchased to house officers and men of the Iranian Navy. The second year we budgeted to do $10 million in sales and actually did almost $12 million. I paid back all the start-up money and became the most profitable division in the company. They doubled my salary and paid me a hell of a bonus. And I bloody well earned it. Iran was the most frustrating place I have ever been.

Iranian while being friendly can tell whoppers and can never say that they don't know something and can turn their answer somehow into the truth:

You are lost in the desert of Iran. You spy a group of Iranians. You ask them which direction is it to the USA. There becomes a wild discution among the group, everybody pointing in a different direction. Finally, the one with the loudest voice wins the augment and points the way. Unfortunately, he directs you into the desert towards Russia and you die. He will not feel guilty ar wrong and justify it by saying I didn't walk far enough, after all the world is round and if I had walked across Russia and kept going in the same direction by boat I would arrive in the USA.

I was promoted back to New York as VP of operations over all divisions of the company, Middle East, North Africa South American and the USA.

As our company in Iran was going down the toilet, I had to keep going back to salvage what I could. I manage to sell the Iranian company to a Dutch catering outfit, that must have not read the newspapers. Got all our money out and left Iran on the day the Khomeini came in, two weeks after the Shah had left Iran. I paid our travel agent about $500 commission for a ticket on the last flight out. from Tehran to Rome.

We got all our expat employees safely out via first, cars across the border into Iraq, by small boat to the Emirates, train, Air and mini-buses, everyway short of swimming for it.

We did lose one employee though, about two months or so before the end. He was English and employed as cook manager for a small camp we had of US engineers. He went into the nearby town to purchase supplies and never came back and was presumed killed. He didn't "Jump ship" because he left an expensive Hi Fie outfit and other personal effects and never returned to his family. It made all the news in the UK at the time.

I wasn't sorry to leave Iran, apart from the revolution, it was a most frustrating place to live, but for me it was a hell of a steppingstone in my career path and changed my whole life.

Cheers, Rodney

[j.sabourn]

Rodney I have a very good friend ex shipmate who was employed in the part of the world you mention but in a different part of the industry . He lives not too far away from me and even last week took me to see a specialist doctor, as have no transport. However he sometimes looks in on this site and if he does , might deign to confirm what you say as told me of the escape boat they always had on stand by to make a fast exodus out of the country. More so during the Iran/Iraq war. JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

I would say that Americas meddling in Persian politics that set Iran on the course it has ended up in. They wanted the corrupt Shah on the throne to get access to the oil, didn't work out. When I was there as one of the last tankers before it all blew up,' Persia had a good Premier, but the Americans wanted their man the Shah in charge. There has; since the second world war been Western interference in the Middle East, hence the anti Western profile. When one gets backward native people like the ones around Aden, who we have all seen in our sea time, well they are as easily led as children. As the saying goes , "There but for the Grace of God go I. doesn't excuse what is happening but it helped it along.
Des
Des

[j.sabourn]

The Yemen has always been the birth place of mid eastern terrorism . Another associate now dead started his career with the forerunner of British Airways pre war. He finished as head accountant of Singapore and Malaysian Airlines before retiring . One of his stories during a distinguished career was when stationed in the Yemen and Britain had troops still in Aden he put his name on the passenger list of one of his employers aircraft and finished up back in London , refusing point blank to return to the Yemen. When I read some of the so called exposures of the press I just ignore. If want the truth it’s better to get from the horses mouth than its backside. Cheers JS

[j.sabourn]

#15 I would say Des it was the oil companies themselves that caused most if any conflicts of interest . They invested a lot of money in the Middle East and they the natives would still be riding camels instead of Mercedes Benz’s today. However being western moneymakers wanted a return for their investments the same as any other business’s of the western world. The usual story when thieves fall out. Fortuanetly it mostly is between the Arab states themselfs as in most cases it is the Arab way of doing business by Haggling. But get that one malign influence into that equation to change the course of the haggle that is the difference , the former president of the USA was a haggler and probably still is so that is why he has so many followers. JS

[Johnny Kieran]

There you have it, the fatcats rule the world.

[j.sabourn]

#18 But for the world to survive the working man is a necessity. JS

[Johnny Kieran]

#18 But for the world to survive the working man is a necessity. JS

Not for much longer, by the way things are going with this AI thing, there won't be any such thing as a "man", let alone a "working man".
Hey! just thought, maybe that's what the covid thing is all about? First lot failed, so they got up another.
Cheap labour, or no labour, is the only way forward for a dedicated fatcat.