Swansea, seen through Iranian eyes

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/26/swansea-iranian-eyes-immigration

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Browsing my late father’s papers recently I came across a strip of passport photos. There are two shots, and he’s looking too far up, then too far down in each one, caught out by automated flashes. It doesn’t matter, though, as this is not an official document.On the back he has written, in Farsi, “In memory of a trip to Swansea, its beautiful beach, colourful boats, and foreign folk. At a bus station, Sunday afternoon, 3 July 1966.”

As a child of this country I do a double take at “foreign folk” – he was the foreigner, wasn’t he? It’s all relative, of course. Including the appeal of Swansea. I’ve never been there, but through that Iranian stranger’s gaze it seems a picture of charm. A sunlit riviera, alive, friendly, a repository of quaint customs, like beach donkey rides and cockle eating. A place as exotic in its own way as the palaces of Persia.

Iran-watcher Christopher de Bellaigue wrote last month in this paper of another traveller, Mirza Muhammad Saleh Shirazi, whose last name tells us he was from the same southern town as Dad. But Shirazi’s voyage began nearly 200 years ago. He had been sent by the crown prince to study English culture and technology (he returned after a few years to set up his country’s first newspaper). During a trip to the west country, he met locals, saw Salisbury cathedral from the top of a coach (its spire no doubt inviting comparisons with Shiraz’s own Shah-e Cheragh shrine), and marvelled at the great port of Plymouth.

This week the Guardian asked 100 immigrants to share their stories. Our pages were thrown over to discussion of policy, but also to the human experience of migration. It’s been a welcome corrective to the usual cost-benefit analyses, and an important reminder of the unique power any migrant has to change the way we see ourselves. Every newcomer’s eye on Britain’s dark satanic mills is one that might be able to see them as something magical instead: a city with colourful boats, a beautiful beach and foreign folk – because we’re all foreigners to someone.

Barack and Bibi’s problem

Dad was an avid collector of newspaper clippings, mainly about Iran, and hundreds of yellowing examples fill his files. Were he around today he’d not be short of new material. As nuclear negotiations resume, the intricacies of one key alliance have been pored over by columnists: that of Barack and Bibi. But perhaps a better understanding might emerge from the therapist’s chair.

Seeking to understand the rift that may yet scupper efforts to bring the Islamic republic in from the cold, psychologist Avidan Milevsky, a specialist in family counselling, has imagined the two leaders in treatment. He identifies “three classic dysfunctions” bedevilling the relationship: enmeshment, triangulation, and emotional cut-offs. Triangulation is where Iran comes in: “Instead of trying to influence one another by talking about their problems, both Barack and Bibi have made it a habit to involve third parties in their fight,” says Milevsky. They need to learn how to communicate openly and establish boundaries, he advises. Time to book an appointment?

Loss of a great gay drama

While Brits were being bombarded with publicity for the hammy gay drama Cucumber, a more compelling story was unfolding across the pond. Bad news, then, that HBO has decided to cancel San Francisco-set Looking, which achieved a new standard for the layered portrayal of gay men’s lives, after only two seasons. For those of us who watched it, it felt like a well-kept secret. Too-well kept, maybe. Still, a select group of fans will be eagerly waiting to see what its English writer-director Andrew Haigh does next.

@D_Shariatmadari