Iran’s president Ahmadinejad– completing the Cuban leg of his latest Latin American tour– reported, after meeting Fidel Castro, that he was happy to find the semi-retired Cuban leader “safe and sane.”
Here in the US, the phrase “safe and sane” traditionally has been used to promote caution for celebrants of Independence Day on the Fourth of July. After a spate of gruesome injuries caused by fireworks, many localities adopted “safe and sane” laws banning their private purchase or use. (This film exposes the dangers of failing to observe a a safe and sane holiday.) However I had never before seen the term applied to a human being before, and I’m not quite sure how to interpret it.
Meanwhile, back in Iran, all may not be as safe or sane as Ahmadinejad might like. For one thing, nuclear science appears to be a notably unsafe profession. For another, the recent collapse of the Iranian currency has Iranians so desperate that they are rushing to exchange their rials not only for dollars but for Euros.
The Bazaar Arz, the narrow 19th-century arcade that’s the center of Iran’s foreign exchange market, is crammed with people trying to sell their currency as sanctions tighten and tensions with the U.S. escalate. In nearby shops, imported laptops and smart-phones change price hourly. The rial weakened 20 percent in the past month at the official rate offered to Iranians traveling abroad, and by even more in the bazaar, where demand for dollars and euros is surging.
It’s increasingly tough for Iranians to satisfy that demand. Websites posting currency rates were blocked last week, many official change bureaus were closed, and the government has halved the amount of dollars that Iranians planning trips abroad can buy. Central Bank Governor Mahmoud Bahmani denied the sanctions are causing problems, then linked the rial’s plunge to the political standoff. “The enemy is depending on creating psychological tensions,” he said. “If we are intimidated, we will be playing into the enemy’s hands.”
The rush for hard currency shows those tensions spreading among Iranians, even before the latest sanctions are fully implemented. The U.S. and European Union are moving toward an embargo on oil purchases from the world’s third-biggest exporter and restricting dealings with its central bank.
And The Washington Post’s Tehran correspondent Thomas Erdbrink tweeted that text messages including the Farsi word for “dollar” were blocked.
Update: Commenters suggest that the phrase “safe and sane” is a mistranslation. Damn.
