It would be interesting to interview ordinary Iranians in Tehran and see if they know where USA is on the map.

(at April 5, 2006 10:08 AM)

I'm sure most of Iranians know where USA is on the map.

(at April 5, 2006 12:02 PM)

Not only the US but I guess an average middle school Iranian is able to point out the location of most of the countries on earth. It's not magic, that's part of the thick geography book we all had to read in school!!

(at April 5, 2006 07:14 PM)

I am not as convinced as you two. Ordinary Iranian may or may not know as much. You are both educated Iranians. One should not assume too much!

It would still be interesting to do the same voxpop in Iran!

(at April 7, 2006 12:55 PM)

I think everybody would know where the US is,maybe not the states in right order but not that far off to pin point OZ or NZ as USA.Don't you think so?

(at April 7, 2006 04:56 PM)

I wouldn't be so surprised if majority of Iranians don't know where USA is!

N.B. They misled the people by having Iran written on Australia in this video.

(at April 7, 2006 07:54 PM)

I agree, I think average iranians would very well know where US is or Russia is etc. Sure if you go to a remote village in Kuzestan (just an example) probably they won't know. But the target of this movie was average americans who have access to all sorts of books, media, internet, etc.

(at April 7, 2006 08:02 PM)

These people were average Americans in Los Angeles area. For many Iranians (and people from other parts of the world) it is shocking to see how the average American is unaware of the rest of the world. Majority of people here not only don't know about the basic geography and location of the other countries, sometimes they even don't know about their existence.

I have no statistic proof for what I am about to say, but from my own experience of living in the two countries I can say that the general knowledge of an average Iranian with a bachelor degree is much higher than an average American with the same degree. More Iranians know where Australia is located on a map (even if the word "USA" is written on it!), more Iranians know that people in Switzerland speak several different languages, and more Iranians know Arizona and California are two states in the United States. Here in the US, I have seen people who did not know New Mexico is not a part of Mexico but an state in the US. But I have not seen even one person in my entire life in Iran who didn't know if one of the Iranian states belongs to Iran or not. In the US only a minority has heard names such as Pearl Buck or William Faulkner (both Nobel Prize winners in Literature) while I am sure in Iran a bigger percentage of people have heard (not read, but at least heard) the names of some prominent writers and poets such as Sadeq Hedayat and Sohrab Sepehri.

The US is a backward third world country with the money and army of an empire. The country is based on the ideas of the Enlightenment, but it is losing that heritage very quickly and moves towards the dark ages, thanks to its strong Christian Right. Iran is a backward third world country too. Economically it is in a very poor condition. Culturally it is still fighting with the Islamic fundamentalist ideas and it has a long way to get rid of them. But in my opinion what makes it dramatically different from the US is the way people see themselves: Iranians see themselves as a nation that is "behind" so consciously or unconsciously they try to learn about the world. Americans on the contrary are a nation whose majority has this illusion of living in the most advanced society of the world, and the most perfect one. They think that they know about everything, and even if they don't they still have the right to do whatever they want. If an Iranian does not know about something it is mostly because he/she is not provided with the right information. But when an American doesn't know about the same issue it is mostly because he/she does not care about it. Living in the middle of an imaginary "dreamland" never encourages you to learn about the rest of universe. What do you need to learn when you think you are already superior to everybody else? What do you need to learn if you think you don't need to gain any knowledge about the rest of the world because you already have conquered it with your gun?

(at April 10, 2006 10:09 AM)

Army and money of an Empire? I didn't quite understand what The Other meant by this. The US army that was developed (in theory) to outbalance the might of the Soviet Union is not able to accomplish its tasks in two miserable (financially and militarily) countries of Afghanistan and Iraq. I don't see this army as capable or mighty. I just see a huge propaganda machine behind it.

I arrived here in the US last year to do my postdoc after spending 4 years of my PhD in the United Kingdom (and traveling and spending time in almost all western europe). I spent a couple of months enjoying settling down in the new country, getting used to local accents, finding shops, getting a car, getting used to dollar bills (that all look the same in the first glance) and so on. I enjoyed the change, for the sake of change.

However, now that I'm settled, the 'realities' of this society have started to reveal themselves before my eyes. Don't get me wrong, US is a nice country, but it's just mentally and intellectually so different from my previous experience that sometimes I wonder what sort of mentality actually runs this system. Traditional Christian values are very strong, I mean the way society looks at religion is probably similar to the way it works in small-city/rural Iran. When I tell people about my past, the first thing they say is "WOW" - because at most they have visited only a couple of American States. While in Europe I wasn't considered a terribly well-travelled person (mind you I feel better about myself in here LOL).

Yes the European Englightenment might have played some role in shaping the US system, but it's true outcomes were never implemented in the US. Or let me rephrase it, Enlightenment is not a one-off process that people could import, it was a major shift in the way of thinking and it's a continuing process, which largely stopped evolving in the US and kept the average way of thinking way behind the enlightened west.

And in terms of wealth (material and social wealth) I have not came across any statistics or hard evidence to prove that wealth per head in the US is higher than Norway, Japan or even Kuwait for that matter. On the other hand I see many poor-looking people including black americans and poor immigrants side by side tall skyscrapers everywhere I go.

Nevertheless this is for me a great and eye-opening experience. I enjoy the scientific environment I'm in, with one complaint, it's not as cosmopolitan as it was in the UK.

(at April 11, 2006 12:11 PM)

By the "Army and money of an Empire" I mean:
1. The wealth that comes to the US, which is beyond any other nation in the world.
2. The military whose budget equals to the military budget of the rest of the world combined; plus its presence in every major region of the world, from the Arctic to Antarctica, and from columbia to Japan.

For more about the GOP of Norway in comarison to the US and the rest of the world you can go to the World's Factbook (at CIA.gov) and check the information there. I think the US is right after Norway in the chart (the forth in the world.) Iran is on the bottom of the chart right after Namibia.

(at April 14, 2006 09:53 AM)

Correction of a typo: I ment GDP (per capita.) The link is here:
http://cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html

Iran is number 99 (out of 220).

(at April 14, 2006 10:02 AM)

Wealth is good but when it's not mine I don't care :) You are right The Other. What I mean wasn't actually GDP (per capita), it was the distribution of wealth, which is obviously extremely twisted in this country, especially when you compare it to european countries and more specifically Scandinavia.

(at April 14, 2006 04:05 PM)

I think this article on NBC is related to this post:
Young Americans shaky on geographic smarts
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12591413/

(at May 3, 2006 02:26 AM)