Clerical Error
Since moving to the Middle East to teach, I have become a regular reader of the online version of the Tehran Times. Usually I skip right past the front page and go straight to the "Economy" section but today something caught my eye. That something was something I expected to see but didn't, i.e. some discussion of the then 12-hours-old State of the Union address by US President George Bush, an address that offered harsh words for the Iranian government
The same is true of Iran, a nation now held hostage by a small clerical elite that is isolating and repressing its people. The regime in that country sponsors terrorists in the Palestinian territories and in Lebanon, and that must come to an end.
The address also contained both stern warnings
The Iranian government is defying the world with its nuclear ambitions, and the nations of the world must not permit the Iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons.and words possibly intended to reassure and encourage:
And, tonight, let me speak directly to the citizens of Iran: America respects you and we respect your country. We respect your right to choose your own future and win your own freedom. And our nation hopes one day to be the closest of friends with a free and democratic Iran.
But I found nothing on the front page that mentioned those words. Instead, I found something related to the Iranian foreign minister's warning that
"any move to report or refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council over its nuclear program would signal the end of diplomatic efforts to resolve the issue."
And while that's is all an extremely important topic, I teach business, not geopolitics, and this was not I was looking for. So, I kept searching, this time in the Economy Section. And then I found it, the 18th of 21 links on the page, a link to an article via Bloomberg that read "Venezuelan-Iranian JV may start assembling cars in 10 months." It's not a long article and up until the last paragraph it reads like the garden variety joint ventures that are part and parcel of international business.
A Venezuelan-Iranian joint venture may start assembling cars in the South American country within 10 months, Venezuela's light industry minister said. The company may assemble cars in the former Fiat SpA plant in the central industrial city of La Victoria, Light Industry Minister Edmee Betancourt said in an interview with Union Radio. The plant would follow a similar Venezuelan-Iranian venture that builds tractors, she said.The article also contains some interesting but by no means important information about the demand for cars in Venezuela:
“It's possible that the plant will be installed there,” Betancourt said. The plant will assemble economy cars, starting at a base price of 16.1 billion bolivars ($7,497), she said.
Venezuelans bought a record number of vehicles last year, as increased government spending fueled consumer demand. Sales rose 70 percent to 228,378, beating the previous record set in 2001.Okay, so Venezuelan's are buying a lot more cars this year than last and the Iranian auto manufacturers, probably Iran Khodro, sees an opportunity to tap into this market. And then there was this, the last paragraph, the last sentence of which seemed oddly out of place
President Hugo Chavez signed several economic cooperation accords with former Iranian president, Mohammad Khatami, in May (2005). Chavez said on May 22 that he plans to seek Iran's help in developing a nuclear energy program.
That last sentence got me thinking: was it put there on purpose? Or was it a clerical error? And what about that word, energy? Was this another clerical error and they really meant to say "weapons" instead? Finally, I wondered, would it be a clerical error for the mullahs to build Hugo Chavez a nuclear "whatever" program?
Tags: State of the Union | ikea | iran | venezuela | nuclear energy | iaea
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