July 13 2001

An Iranian refugee Merhan Karimi Nasseri accidentally lost his nationality and his papers in 1988 and, through an almost surreal bureaucratic muddle, ended up living for 11 years in Terminal 1 of Charles De Gaulle airport, sleeping on the red plastic bench between Burger King and Pizza Grill.

Nasseri wasn't the only person to get lost at that airport, although he was certainly its longest resident. The building proved to be a logistical nightmare when it opened, as passengers got hopelessly disorientated criss-crossing the doughnut-shaped terminal through those (in)famous plastic tubes.

Jahanshah Javid of Iranian.com has visited a Persia that not many Iranians (Persians) have heard of: ''I had been listening to Googoosh and passing through corn fields for thirty-something hours straight on Interstate Highway 80 West when something caught my eye. I thought I saw an exit sign for 'Persia'. I stopped on the side of the road and drove back. No I was not hallucinating''.

For further images of Persia, Iowa, and J.Javid's full story on his amazing discovery, please visit www.iranian.com

The Sunday Times
April 22, 2001

We have found three British Iranian families in the Sunday Times Rich List, 1000 top rich people in the UK, for 2001. Bearing in mind that technology sector
has had an extremly bad year. Here are the extracts from The Sunday Times:

1) Sir David Alliance and family
Ranked 61 with assets of £450m

Alliance, 69 was the leading figure in British textiles. He built up Coats Viyella over 43 years, only to see it laid low by cheap imports. He left Coats in 1999 and now focuses on N. Brown, the mail order firm that is the basis of the family fortune. The Manchester-based quoted company increased profits in the first half of the last year to £22.7m. The family has a £383m stake and other assets.

2) Robert and Vincent Tchenguiz
Ranked 122 with assets of £280m

If the huge number of mobile phone masts scarring Britain is to be rationalised it may be by the Tchenguiz brothers. Their Rotch Property Group has linked up with DERA, the research arm of the Ministry of Defence, to develop aerials for the latest mobile networks. As leading property players, with pubs, petrol stations and City office blocks, the brothers hope to put the masts on top of their sites, creating a new income stream, but Robert, 44, and Vincent 40, already do very well. We can see a property empire of at least 17 companies, including Rotch, with net assets of just over £241m. Other assets, such as a yacht in Cannes, take the pair to £280m.

3) David Khalili
Ranked 268 with assets of £120m

Khalili, 55, was born in Iran but is now based in London running the Favermead Property Company. He has an Islamic art collection reckoned by a specialist magazine to be worth more than £200m in 1995. We are more cautious and settle for £100m. Favermead made a 3.1m loss in 1999 but had assets of £35m. In all, we value Khalili at £120m.

When he was 18, Zia Atabay had his first hit as a pop singer in Iran.

Now in his fifties, he lives with his wife Parvin and young daughter in a luxury mansion outside Los Angeles running his own TV station.

But the path from teenage idol to media mogul has not been straightforward.

When the shah was overthrown in 1979, Zia Atabay tried several times to escape to the West.

On one occasion, he was forced back by snow while walking...

To read more of the original article click on the following link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/941920.stm

Schumpeter, the celebrated Austrian economist, articulated long ago, the central role of entrepreneurs in the introduction of new products, new methods, new source of supply and few forms of supply and forms of organisation.

While the innovative role of entrepreneur to promote economic development is widely acknowledged the role of immigrants as entrepreneur in their host country has not received due recognition and appreciation in Europe. The old continent with its own indigenous population and strong tradition has been less inclined to acknowledge the entrepreneurial role of the immigrants despite ample evidence of such activities in continental Europe at least in the last forty years. The same of course does not apply to North America which is populated by immigrant population. Recognition of the central role of the immigrants to promote economic development by undertaking risk and initiatives in USA and Canada is interweaved with popular culture there.

However the role of immigrants in promoting economic development is by no means confined to European immigrants who settled in America continent or Australia and New Zealand. Indian, Lebanese, and chinese immigrants have been historically well known for their business activities in several African, latin American and Asian countries as well in Europe and USA.

The role of Iranian entrepreneurs in their host country is a more recent phenomena, even though the pace of their development has been remarkably fast in both USA and Europe. BIBA is the confirmation of this fact.

The people who immigrate by definition are risk takers since they dare to reside in a country which is initially alien to them. Furthermore they are barred from entry into certain fields of professional activities open to the natives. They are not allowed to enter political and military establishments or the civil servants. Nor are they able to enter those industries which require in-depth insight into the indigenous culture such as entertainment. Entrepreneurial activities are one of those fields which is open to them and in which they can flourish.


Dover, the point of entry for most immigrants into the UK

In Los Angeles every other Persian you meet is a doctor or a lawyer or a mechanic who has just released a solo album. There's an Iranian Yellow Pages. A rival Iranian Yellow Pages. There's a 24-hour radio station. A rival 24-hour radio station.

Doctors and Lawyers splash images of themselves, power-dressed, sexy, tough -- HOLLYWOOD -- across the print media and on the Persian TV channels. Image is everything. If it's not Dr. George Kelooni MD (Phd) (Bsc) (Er, that's it) it's the Law Offices of Aliyeh Makbeel. Then there's those who have western partners.

There are Iranians and there are Iranians. Ravak, 25, moved to LA five years ago with her family from downtown Tehran where they still live together. Her father now runs a newsstand and she has now fulfiled her dream of making a living from dancing: she has a network of mothers and daughters ("I'd never teach Iranian men -- they would not be there for the dancing!") whom she instructs in Persian, jazz, hip hop and belly dance -- this enables her to fund her biology degree at USC. She recently joined a church. "It gives me a sense of identity," she says. LA, like most big cities, can be a lonely place.

Tannaz, 26, arrived from Tehran nearly two years ago. She, too, lives with her family and for the past few months has been working with an Iranian television company, presenting their half-hour show on Sundays. Her English is still at beginners level, her aim is to be a successful actress in the Iranian community. She doesn't drive and is very wary of working with Americans. "It will be ages before my English is good enough," she says.

Behzad, 28, is financial adviser , "When I am not sky-diving." He was disillusioned with life in London and headed West about ten years ago. He shares a trendy apartment with a Persian student at USC who has an incredible CD collection. Behzad is athletic, good-looking and but refrains from accepting the LA lifestyle: "I can't take all the smiling, you don't know who to trust."

Sheila, 31, is an actress. She lives in the mountainous Topanga area just outside LA. She took me for a tour: the area is popular with people who some might describe as hippies. We visited her friends house, on a private estate owned by a man who will only let his property out to vegetarians. The home we visit might seem ramshackle, but it's occupants wake up to a breathtaking view of a valley and can take outdoor baths in the tub on their porch. Half an hour's drive from suburban LA, doors to all nearby houses are always unlocked. "People trust each other here," Sheila says.

The Starbucks on Ventura and Petit is popular with young. stylish, American-Iranians in the San Fernando Valley, right next to a Barnes and Noble bookshop where industrious students read and the less academically inclined nod off until awaken by store staff. The Shamshiri restaurant on Westwood is famous for the size of it's servings. Food is not served in plates but in boats. It takes three waiters to carry one portion of Chello Kabab to a table.

An elderly Iranian couple clamber on to a packed bus. The woman walks with great difficulty to a seat, cursing the driver under her breath for not helping her. Her husband tries to calm her. What's remarkable in LA is that you see Iranians and you see Iranians.

Los Angles, CA, November 7, 2000 - In a historical address to over 6,000 people including thousands of those who have signed several recent petitions, the Persian Watch Cat (PWC), an Iranian-American anti-discrimination center, has presented Professor Davood N. Rahni, the distinguished Iranian American scientist as its elected president and chairman of the Board of Directors. Over one million Iranian-Americans and Americans are encouraged to join this new organization and to help restructure the status of their respective communities within this great nation of ours.

"We certainly have an ambitious task ahead of us" acknowledged by president-elect Dr. Rahni. "Hence, perpetual promotion of, and receiving tangible recognition for our Community in the US, diffusion of any stereotyping and collective or individual discrimination against us, and pursuit of appropriate legal action, petitions, newsletters, and press releases are among our upcoming endeavors for which your leadership and input is so sincerely trusted, requested, and applauded."

PWC is hosted exclusively by the unique Internet domain http://www.antidiscrimination.org. This is the first and currently only Iranian American antidiscrimination organization in the US. Founded in late 1999 by a distinct collection of renowned Iranian American professionals and supporting American compatriots as nonprofit organization, PWC is currently based in Los Angles, San Francisco, San Diego, New York and Washington, DC, and is expanding rapidly with new branches in almost all other major US cities.

Over the last few months, PWC has demonstrated unique abilities in collecting thousands of endorsing signatures for its petitions against fingerprinting of Iranian passengers at the US airports, unilateral sanctions, and mistreatment of Iranian-Americans by Lufthansa German airline officials.

Over one million Iranian-Americans currently reside in the United States. According to the US Census and other analyses, they are among the most educated and professional cultural minorities in the history of America. Nevertheless, during the last several years, they have been exposed to some of the most humiliating regulations implemented by the Clinton administration, including fingerprinting and photographing of their elderly visiting parents upon entry to the US airports.

"It is time to put an end to these outrageous and discriminatory behaviors and to finally end these demoralizing and malicious accusations of the hard working Iranian-Americans as potential terrorist or threat to our flight safety" added Khodadad Sharif, Esq., a practicing Iranian-American attorney in San Diego and the elected Executive Director of PWC, appalled by the obligatory luggage-search implemented by the Federal Aviation Administration for those who travel with an Iranian passport, or have Iranian heritage. "We have to take legal actions to secure the ending of these malicious accusations."

"Not even patriotic Japanese Americans during the World War II had to experience what we are experiencing nowadays" added a Dr. Kalantar, a practicing physician in California and a member of the PWC board of directors. "They want to be respected as hardworking citizens" mentioned Dr. Brad Hernlem, a member of PWC board of supervisors and a husband to an Iranian wife in Berkeley, California. "Iranian Americans have a lot to say in this country."

P.S. You may join PWC by completing an application at
http://www.antidiscrimination.org

As a way of reaching our target audience for Death by Heroine a number of publicity events were mapped out. Eventually we planned a series of talks under the banner heading Contemporary Iranian: A civil History

The only obstacle was recruiting the suitable crew. Such individuals would be qualified, interested and willing to embark on this adventure. From the onset three candidates were selected. The next task was to gain their consent. The first two respected recruits were signed up. Dr. Homa Katouzian agreed to hold a talk at the School of Oriental & African Studies entitled The Anglo-Iranian oil Crisis and its Effects on Civil Life, and Professor Fred Halliday suggested The Mossadegh Government and International Relations at London School of Economics and Political Science. The next prize was yet to be won, John Simpson. World Affairs Editor, BBC Television. A difficult task lay ahead.

Initial contact was made by telephone and Death by Heroine was duly dispatched with a promise of a reading on a flight to Ireland. Communication was stilted by the honourable gentlemen's many foreign trips. Eventually a message was passed on congratulating 30 Bird on the play. Success, our fish was hooked.

The next step was to reel him in. A thousand and one phone calls later, just as we were to give up our quest, the fish himself answered the phone. Courage was summoned and the question arose. What a coup. John Simpson had agreed to hold a talk for us entitled Iran: A Path out of Revolution at The Riverside Studios.

The stage was set, three talks had been arranged without a financial outlay with the purpose of promoting the play Death By Heroine. The whole series was a huge success, an unusual marketing tool but an effective one. Approximately 400 people attended. 200 of which actually travelled to the venue where the production would be performed. Awareness of 30 Bird's project and venue had increased, as well as the potential audience figures.

At the outset 30 Bird Productions knew that promoting the play and a new company, the ''usual '' channels would have to be expanded as the competition was fierce (there are approximately 60 West End Theatres, an d16 Off West End)

The main purpose of such a promotional event is publicity, but in reality the implications are much wider. Such events provide an arena for the company involved to promote its corporate image. Every detail from the quality of the food served in the venue's café to the presentation of the staff involved creates an impression. For 30 Bird this is one of the most fundamental aspects of a marketing strategy. Anyone involved with 30 Bird's project is viewed as a representative of the company. This means that the quality of our speakers reflected the quality of our work. By holding the talk by John Simpson at The Riverside Studios, 30 Bird productions managed to increase product awareness and knowledge of the market.

In other words our audience knew exactly how to travel to the venue and what to expect once they had arrived. Friends could be met in the friendly bar/café before a performance. The prestige surrounding the talks reflected the production of Death by Heroine and all those involved from our business sponsor, Couts de Lilse to Riverside Studios.


John Simpson, World Affairs Editor, BBC Television