“May Permanence Prevail”
Today’s story still makes my heart flutter when I tell it. Last week I told you that funny story about my friend Fons tricking the customs agents when arriving at Schiphol airport. But sometimes you can’t leave the airport fast enough; this story is about my trip to Iran at the time of the Revolution in 1988. This one is what they call “a doozy!”
Let’s call this story: “May Permanence Prevail”
The Iranian revolution started in January 1978 culminating in the Shah’s fleeing Iran a year later. We all know what happened since and in a tragic way mighty Persian culture was reduced to a pariah state. Persia goes back to 550 BC when Cyrus the Great founded the First Persian Empire, which in phases lasted until 650 AD when the Muslims conquered the land. Since, the Persian Iranian territory has been part of several other empires or kingdoms, but the upshot is that the Persian culture itself always stood fast until today. A strong, patriotic, and proud people. The Iranian of today still radiates that – in both its diaspora and residents.
The world’s three major treasury collections are the Crown Jewels, the Tzars’ treasures at the Kremlin, and the Persian Treasures in Teheran. Yes, I have seen all three of them in person and that alone is something to treasure. Now in the Central Bank of Iran, the Persian Treasures display objects from different dynasties such as the Safavi, Afshari, Zandi, Qajar and Pahlavi.
The most famous one being “the diamond of light sea.” This is bucket-list stuff, folks.
At age 28, I had the privilege of visiting Persia at the very end of its Pahlavi period. Our London-based consulting team had been assigned to do a strategic and operational review of an important bank – at that time controlled by the Shah’s family. The objective was - according to the bank’s president at the time - to present the Shah a 65th birthday present in the form of a strategic plan making this institution the largest Iranian Bank.
Well, it was early fall 1978 and our consulting team of five had spent three weeks working on this assignment, when we were told to stay at the hotel and only travel in the bank’s private limousine. There was serious unrest in the Teheran Bazar district and reports of the military shooting at citizens. In retrospect, it is amazing we were here right at the time of a fundamental conflict that would have lasting global implications.
At the time Teheran was such a modern town with many men and women looking as “Western” as we were used to at home. Fashion, music, downtown bars, restaurants, shops, and global companies, etc. - all not that different from our life in western cities.
We visited the local branch of one of the mainframe computer vendors to ask them about the IT operations at the Bank, having found its capacity much beyond the operation’s needs. The direct advice we received was “don’t bring this up again and in general you all need to start thinking of leaving Tehran.” We did a week later, and the Shah never got his birthday present.
It came quite suddenly, as one day we were told to immediately head for the airport and find any flight out of Teheran. I got myself on an old Iranian Boeing 707 to Rome connecting to Switzerland where Sherry was waiting for me. Our project leader gave us a bunch of Iranian Rials in the taxi to the airport. “Don’t ask, just put it in your passport as you get checked at passport control.“
I was never so happy when landing in Zurich to join my new wife. Having seen firsthand the depth and resilience of Persian culture, knowing that one day also this coup d’etat will not survive Persian permanence.
I hope you enjoyed today’s story, reliving it with you was almost a little too much for me! For next week’s episode, I’d like to stay in that region of the world and take you to Egypt on our wonderful journey into the history of the pharaohs and the pyramids. There, too, we had some hairy moments, but it all ended up in us getting into one of those silly laughs you can’t quite stop while knowing you really shouldn’t laugh at all. See you next week with our episode titled “The Call to Prayer.”
Ready to share your own cherished memories? Submit your story by using the form below! We can't wait to hear your unique experiences and celebrate the power of memories together.