Nadene Goldfoot
I just finished watching Netflix's The Septembers of Shiraz, which is the shocking story of what took place in Iran when the Ayatollahs were able to step in. It's about the Iranian Revolution and what it did to the rich and to the poor.
Shiraz is a city in south-central Iran, known for its literary history and many gardens. The marble Tomb of Hafez, honoring the revered poet, sits within its own garden. To the east, the Mausoleum of Saadi houses the 13th-century writer’s mosaic-tiled tomb and an underground pool. Shiraz is a gateway to Persepolis, the ruined 6th-century-B.C. capital to the northeast, with its immense gateways, columns and friezes. it sets the scene of this movie, something horrible happened here.
The poor people of Iran rebelled against the Shah, who I had thought was a great fellow. He and Israel were getting along; nothing like today under the Ayatollahs who are so full of religious fervor with all it's hatred against Judaism. His government was probably like all the other kings and queens of the world; only more dictatorial. Mohammad Reza came to power during World War II after an Anglo-Soviet invasion forced the abdication of his father, Reza Shah Pahlavi. During Mohammad Reza's reign, the British owned oil industry was briefly nationalized by Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh until an Army coup d'état supported by the UK and the US deposed Mosaddegh,
The British and the USA reinstalled the Shah, and brought back foreign oil firms under the Consortium Agreement of 1954. The Shah went on to become a dominant figure in OPEC, promoting a surge in oil prices that crippled Western economies. People had become pretty Westernized. When the Shah was booted out, what did his sponsors do about it? Nothing?
Documents now revealed expose Israel’s extensive and exceptional relations with a foreign country, not only because these political and security-based relations were with with a Muslim country, but because the relationship with the Shah’s dictatorship was strategic and central to the State of Israel from a security, economic and political point of view. At the time, Israel’s relations with many other countries were limited mainly to weapons sales in exchange for votes in international forums.
Thus, for example, Israel purchased a significant portion — and in some years all — of its oil from the Shah’s regime, while Iran used Israel as a middleman to sell its oil to third countries. The alliance over oil required that Israel and the Shah ensure the safety of shipping routes. This strengthened their partnership in the struggle against Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser’s repeated attempts to promote ideological and military alliances throughout the Middle East that were hostile to Iran and Israel, particularly in the Gulf states and the Arabian Peninsula.
The story was about a Jewish diamond cutter who had his own business in Iran. Suddenly the rebels were in control. The Shah must have been just forced out of the country. They now had the power and were going to rob the rich. Their argument was, why should not all people have the same amount of money? Why should there be people who have more and can have all these things while there are poor who cannot even afford shoes for their children? It was the old banter of Communism.
I can tell them in lecture after lecture why. There are so many reasons why a democracy is so much better. I'll start with my father.
My father, Meshke (Morris)-real name was Moses, standing in pcture, was born in 1908 in Portland, Oregon to new immigrants from Lithuania, Nathan Abraham Goldfoot and Zlata (Hattie) Jermulowske. His father was in a fatal horse and wagon accident and was killed when Dad was 4 years old, leaving a pregnant widow who couldn't speak English, only Yiddish and her 3 children; 4 year old Meshke, his 6 year old brother Kheskal, and Elsie. My Bubba had lost Abraham, the baby, and soon would give birth to Anne. Bubby was illiterate; and would remain so, and our unknown grandfather had been literate in reading Hebrew.
Zlata managed to barely eke out a living plucking chickens, raising goats, doing what she could, while my father and Charlie sold newspapers at age 4 and 6, continuing with their jobs. There was no help for her other than agencies that would have taken away her children from her. She had relatives nearby; one who wanted to adopt my father. He was so cute! She said "NO." She kept them all together, or rather they kept each other all together.
Dad boxed professionally as Billy Meshke at the Neighborhood House when of age to do so, then worked in a kosher butcher shop. That led to his own business, small at first, then growing by leaps and bounds into Silver Falls Meat Packing Co. He died too young in this very specialized business, but he was proud of his efforts. He had given up baseball in high school as he didn't finish his last year due to needing to work to provide for his family. He was an athlete.
This would have never happened under Communism. The ability he had would have gone uncultivated. It grew as he helped it develop. If he wanted more money---he had to get the education for it, and that he did, in that kosher butcher shop. He had background and knowledge.
You just don't get anywhere with an empty head with no knowledge. People in the USA do everything they can to get the education they would like to have. Most of us are too young and too dumb to know all this, so our parents step in and help us with decisions like what school to aim for in their education.
Another man I know, just died at 95, was a lawyer, worked till he died like my father, and his father had the law firm already established, so he followed in his father's footsteps. That's good as he most likely has the genes fit for being successful, anyway. He worked hard as a lawyer with the background of a great education and like friends.
His work that he produced was worth a lot of money due to that background. It didn't come to him in scanning comic books. He sweated a lot to get through his schooling. All those books in the background had to be read to know the law. Lawyer have basic prices they know they can expect to receive for their work. The more successful they are, the more they can charge if they want.
Now, his social security has been reduced from a normal payout to a much lesser one due to his financial status of being wise and investing his profits and having a larger income. His money that his wife is not receiving is going to new immigrants who are illegals, people in general like myself to raise our social security for next year's income. Remember, the richer lady is receiving less than us.
Heaven help her as the stock market is falling rapidly. It's all like being in a gambling parlor. It's a gamble for the rich. They tend to worry a lot about it, thus erasing years from their lives in such worry that the regular guy or gal knows nothing about. Whatever in life, there's always something to worry about; whether you don't have enough money or if you're going to lose the money you have.
The story centers on the maid of the Jewish family and how when she thought about her son's explanation of the rebellion, she had to agree with it. She saw only how it could benefit her; while she herself was angry with the lady of the house for not ever thinking about her position in life.
To be a citizen of a country has always had meaning behind the title. It should mean that the people are all being supplied the basic needs of life, but to excel, there must be avenues to go about doing it for the ones who put out the effort. For years our basic education through high school has meant a job afterwards; that you are a literate person who has met the qualifications needed to be productive in whatever position you take of that level. To do more, we have higher education all over the country, and grants, etc, for those who meet the qualifications, or the tuition.
Texas just did something about their being so close to the Mexican border. They put illegals on buses and sent them all eastward to show Biden that he has to help Texas in their illegal immigration problem. They must have thought, "Let Biden deal with it and see how he likes it ! "This is what closed the doors to Jewish immigration in about 1924. Americans were afraid the Jews would take their jobs. They didn't want the competition, so while Jews were dying in Europe, they couldn't find a country to open their doors to them. The influx of Jewish immigrants was over. It wouldn't even change during the ravages of the Holocaust. To allow a German Jew into this country, my great uncle had to be the sponsor for one and pay for all his needs, and even to get him a job if he couldn't. It's always money that's the 1st concern in this life; money and one's religion.
I know what I went through to immigrate to Israel. I had to undergo a 10 month Hebrew program and pass the test at the end to get a teaching position. I was given low-low-low income housing for that period. I was helped in getting a teaching position. Is the USA capable of doing this for immigrants?
Of course, I was a wanted immigrant in Israel, and right now the USA doesn't need anymore Spanish speakers in the USA, or soon Texas will revert back to being a Mexican state.
Salma Hayek Pinault is a Mexican and American actress and producer. She began her career in Mexico with starring roles in the telenovela Teresa as well as the romantic drama El Callejón de los Milagros, for which she received an Ariel Award nomination. Her father, Sami Hayek Domínguez, is of Lebanese descent. His ancestors hail from the city of Baabdat, Lebanon, a city Salma and her father visited in 2015 to promote her movie Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet. She was raised as a Catholic.
Adrien Nicholas Brody is an American actor and producer. He received widespread recognition and acclaim after starring as Władysław Szpilman in Roman Polanski's The Pianist, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor at age 29, becoming the youngest actor to win in that category. His father is a Polish Jew. Brody says he was raised "without a strong connection" to either Judaism or Christianity.
Resource:
https://www.netflix.com/title/80106744
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septembers_of_Shiraz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Reza_Pahlavi
https://www.972mag.com/israel-shah-iran-dictatorship/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11215335/Texas-sends-two-buses-containing-100-illegal-migrants-Vice-Presidents-DC-HOME.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salma_Hayek
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrien_Brody
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