New Iranian blogger Amir -- one of many now posting from the land of the soon-to-be-free, several of whom are linked by Jeff Jarvis -- tells an ominous story of black Land Cruisers:
The police has two different specially marked vehicles. There are white and green Mercedes Benzes that can be spotted in the streets daily. There are also Black Toyota Land Cruisers that can be spotted only on special days.
Due to the increase of the instability of the society over the past few weeks first the number of the green Mercedes Benzes increased and as it got more chaotic more of the black Land Cruisers were also spotted. It is evident that most of young people are more afraid of the black Land Cruisers than the green Mercedeses. there reason for that is the Land Cruisers can hardly be seen in the streets and they only come out when the situations are very severe.
The reason for this change is mostly psychological rather than physical. The main purpose of the police force for this change is to create and intensity and fear among people and to keep themselves in a high position in society.
The English isn’t great (it’s still way better than my Farsi) but the message is clear. And “special days” is brilliantly ominous.
Posted by Tim Blair at June 25, 2003 07:46 PM | TrackBackHis command of the language is better than a certain SMH web diarist. Which is pretty awesome given than he's not getting paid $80,000 per year to write, is writing in his second (or maybe third) language, has no editorial support, and doesn't post 'back on deck next week' messages every other week. I also note correct use of the apostrophe.
Posted by: Preston Whip at June 25, 2003 08:56 PMIs there any possibility that Mercedes and Toyota can be lobbied not to sell spares for newish models to Tehran? Just a thought (they may very well buy the stuff black market) but this sort of pressure is needed on any companies that sell stuff to the Iranian regime.
Posted by: wilbur at June 25, 2003 09:22 PMHaha.. I don't know why but "the land of the soon to be free" just made me teary eyed. :)
Posted by: Bob at June 27, 2003 03:41 PM