of, in complete disregard of all
standards, in burial sites in a city whose drinking water
procurement system depends for 30% to underground reserves.
100 human cases of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever, most
probably introduced through the porous eastern frontiers, have
so far been reported throughout the country.
Socially,
in the past seven years, the average age of prostitution has
dropped from 27 to below 20; in Tehran alone, an estimated
8000 drug and prostitution rings are active; in 2002, the
narcotics economy has generated US$1.8 billion per year, an
8-fold increase compared to 1995[3].
While officials put the number of drug addicts at 2 millions
with 300 000 intravenous users[4],
“HIV infection… [estimated at 30 000 individuals]…is on
exponential rise”[5].
More than half of Iran’s youth suffer from a variety of
“anxiety”, “depression”, and exhibit a violent
behavior stemming from “hidden violence”[6].
The very exceptional occurrence of “cardiac arrest” under
the age of 20 is now common place in Iran’s industrial
centers and on steady rise[7].
Of Choice and Change…
We at the Iran Institute for Democracy do
not believe in the gradual reform of the irreformable, for
what should not have been built in the first place can not be
reformed. Our objective is to end the systematic destruction
of our country.
Our fundamental problematic and the
challenge we face as a nation reside not in any cosmetic
reconfiguration of the theocracy but in the antagonism of two
antipodal cultures: that of an open, competitive, and
democratic system, with local accountability and global
responsibility, versus a closed, opaque, corrupt state
mercantilism.
Iran will have to choose.
