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We begin tonight’s edition of A Window to the Fatherland with
Dr. Alireza Nourizadeh:
Today we speak to our special guest Mr Abbas Shokri who is from the city of Shiraz and lives in Norway and begin ourconversation with him by asking about his feeling about the death toll in his birth place as a result of the recent devastating flood in there.
Abbas Shokri:
I have not been back to Shiraz for the last 32 years but I can perfectly visualize the geography of the city in my mind and can confirm that on the sideways of the main road between Isfahan and Shiraz there were two flood diverting channels that local people used to call them Masil.
However, the regime’s officials had turned these essential facilities into motorway for controlling the local traffic and the Revolutionary Guard had also built some building on the banks of the motorway for their own business in an area called Akbarabad.
It is a great shame that the regime has called the current flood as a natural disaster because it is purely a human made disaster.
In Norway where I live the amount of rainfalls is far greater and frequent than what has happened in Iran but wehave never had a disaster because the flood diverting canals are in place and the state is prepared for any such crisis.
You must have heard that the flood in Shiraz has also reached the ancient site of Persepolis but the canals that our people had made 2500 years ago have flushed out the floodwater and saved this precious cultural and historical site from destruction.
The videos that we have received from Shiraz and other Iranian cities hit with the flood show how our peoplehave been helping each other at this time of national crisis while the regime has only shown sympathy and lip service to their needs.
