Skybird
11-02-09, 07:29 AM
http://www.tehrantimes.com/Index_view.asp?code=206844
Seismic activity in that region is said to lead to major earthquakes every 150 years, and the last one was 1830, so they are already over time.
However, there probably are other reasons behind this decision too, a German commentator pointed out. Megacities have become ungovernable in case of riots and civil unrest, and maintaining the state's control in an urban environment with this thing of assymmetrical warfare happening in the streets has been shown to be very difficult. They certainly do not plan to move the city's 7 million people (13 in all the governmental district of Teheran) into a new city, but what they do is moving out the governmental institutions and organisations critical to the functioning of the regime.
the idea that tyrants build big, wide, straight alleys in their capitals that lead straight to the centre of the city, is not new, and was and is practiced in many parts of the world. It helps to shuttle troops into the city in case of civil war and rebellions. the mullahs in Iran try an alternative: they move themselves out of the critical areas of future conflict, to be secure from civil unrest and rioting in the future and being able to fight for the survival of their regime from another, better protected place.
In case of a major earthquake in Teheran like the one obliterating Bham, those 7 million inhabitants of Old Teheran nevertheless would still be exposed to it, of course.
If this is not perfect opportunism at work. I almost want to applaud them.
Almost.
Seismic activity in that region is said to lead to major earthquakes every 150 years, and the last one was 1830, so they are already over time.
However, there probably are other reasons behind this decision too, a German commentator pointed out. Megacities have become ungovernable in case of riots and civil unrest, and maintaining the state's control in an urban environment with this thing of assymmetrical warfare happening in the streets has been shown to be very difficult. They certainly do not plan to move the city's 7 million people (13 in all the governmental district of Teheran) into a new city, but what they do is moving out the governmental institutions and organisations critical to the functioning of the regime.
the idea that tyrants build big, wide, straight alleys in their capitals that lead straight to the centre of the city, is not new, and was and is practiced in many parts of the world. It helps to shuttle troops into the city in case of civil war and rebellions. the mullahs in Iran try an alternative: they move themselves out of the critical areas of future conflict, to be secure from civil unrest and rioting in the future and being able to fight for the survival of their regime from another, better protected place.
In case of a major earthquake in Teheran like the one obliterating Bham, those 7 million inhabitants of Old Teheran nevertheless would still be exposed to it, of course.
If this is not perfect opportunism at work. I almost want to applaud them.
Almost.