You need to PM them to get them to change thread titles, I think.
The Great Civilisation Is Just Around The Corner
- Thread starter Parterre
- Start date
You need to PM them to get them to change thread titles, I think.
You might be better sending one of them a PM or putting a request in the Rules and Administration forum rather than waiting for one to notice the in-thread request.
Edit: Beaten to the punch by Workable Goblin.
Yes! Thank you mods! As a celebration, here's another (short) update...
Once upon a time, Haile Selassie had been feared and loathed by the Ethiopian nobility for his relentless reformism... much as the Shah had been by the old feudalists and clergy
Asadollah Alam, The Shah and I: the Confidential Diary of Iran's Royal Court (2001, Taurus and Co., London)
Friday, 13 September - The Emperor of Ethiopia has been deposed by a military coup… Poor Haile Selassie; over the past few years he’d lost control of his country and the inevitable was bound to happen. I remember his attendance at the monarchy celebrations, how he snatched his hand away when I tried to help him from his car, telling me he could manage well enough on his own, thank you very much. Likewise during the recent drought when thousands of his people were dying he refused all HIM’s offers of help, denying that anyone was suffering or even that there was a drought. He saw himself as a mighty ruler but now the truth has caught up with him. At the Shahvand Palace today I could think of nothing but Haile Selassie’s fate. Inevitably one is inclined to draw parallels… They are not reassuring… [1]
Saturday, 14 September – Audience…HIM seemed fretful and preoccupied, paying little attention to my report. Finally, after some while, he confided that he too had been unsettled by the news of Haile Selassie’s overthrow. “Amongst the various heads of state, only Haile Selassie had ruled longer than me,” he said. “He showed great patriotic energy in his resistance to Italy, he gave his country access to the sea, and look what has become of him!” He spoke strongly in favour of the Emperor… but he was not entirely un-critical. “It is because he did not did not pursue land reform… again and again, I told him that he should pursue land reform, but he was unwilling to stand up to the feudalists in his country and look what has become of them all!” The red hand certainly lurks behind this all… but I was disconcerted by HIM’s implication that such things could not happen in Iran because we had pursued the land reform… it is clear he too has been making comparisons.
Wednesday, 18 September – HIM proclaimed that he suspected that the British, as usual, were to blame for the events in Ethiopia. The BBC broadcast an incendiary programme [2] about the starvation in Ethiopia, humiliating Haile Selassie and leading, so HIM’s thinks, to the Emperor’s demise… I daresay I am inclined to agree, their hand is everywhere.
Sunday, 24 November – Hardly had I set foot outside the office when my telephone rang and [HIM] informed me that in Ethiopia a group of young officers has executed the Chairman of the so-called Revolutionary Council together with a whole host of others; at least two prime ministers and the Emperor’s grandson, previously Commander of the Navy, the same one whom we embarrassed ourselves in front of a few years ago. [3] HIM insisted I tell the US ambassador that communists are responsible for this outrage… In these circumstances the optimism of America, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt is utterly misguided. “Tell the ambassador,” he said, “that I wish to know whether his government intends standing up to these threats. If they will not, we ourselves shall.” Despite this, they are yet to abolish the monarchy in Ethiopia, and have proclaimed Haile Selassie’s son king, rather than Emperor. He has condemned the murder, but he is otherwise weak in both body and constitution… he was paralyzed by a stroke a year ago and has always been considered weak and submissive… nowhere near the man his father was.
Saturday, 30 November – Attended lunch held in honour of President Kaunda of Zambia, who condemned the events in Ethiopia. Saw the PM, who too was outraged by it, particularly at the killing of the former Prime Minister, Aklilu… they were quite similar men, both sharing a fondness for French culture and a sort of intellectual background; regardless they were decidedly in the background compared to their monarchs. HIM expressed a desire that we do something, perhaps “along the lines of what we have been doing in Oman”… clearly even if we are do anything, we will need help from its neighbours and the Americans or British; Somalia and Egypt however have been enemies with the country since time immemorial, regardless HIM has ordered a report to be written…
____________________________
1. This passage in its entirety is duplicated verbatim from Alam’s actual diaries.
2. Alam is referring to the 1974 Documentary The Hidden Famine, with Jonathan Dimbleby.
3. Alam is referring to an incident when said grandson, Rear Admiral Eskinder Desta, visited Iran. He was treated to a naval display, where the Shah requested that the ships make a display of their missile capability; the missiles malfunctioned.
Once upon a time, Haile Selassie had been feared and loathed by the Ethiopian nobility for his relentless reformism... much as the Shah had been by the old feudalists and clergy
Asadollah Alam, The Shah and I: the Confidential Diary of Iran's Royal Court (2001, Taurus and Co., London)
Friday, 13 September - The Emperor of Ethiopia has been deposed by a military coup… Poor Haile Selassie; over the past few years he’d lost control of his country and the inevitable was bound to happen. I remember his attendance at the monarchy celebrations, how he snatched his hand away when I tried to help him from his car, telling me he could manage well enough on his own, thank you very much. Likewise during the recent drought when thousands of his people were dying he refused all HIM’s offers of help, denying that anyone was suffering or even that there was a drought. He saw himself as a mighty ruler but now the truth has caught up with him. At the Shahvand Palace today I could think of nothing but Haile Selassie’s fate. Inevitably one is inclined to draw parallels… They are not reassuring… [1]
Saturday, 14 September – Audience…HIM seemed fretful and preoccupied, paying little attention to my report. Finally, after some while, he confided that he too had been unsettled by the news of Haile Selassie’s overthrow. “Amongst the various heads of state, only Haile Selassie had ruled longer than me,” he said. “He showed great patriotic energy in his resistance to Italy, he gave his country access to the sea, and look what has become of him!” He spoke strongly in favour of the Emperor… but he was not entirely un-critical. “It is because he did not did not pursue land reform… again and again, I told him that he should pursue land reform, but he was unwilling to stand up to the feudalists in his country and look what has become of them all!” The red hand certainly lurks behind this all… but I was disconcerted by HIM’s implication that such things could not happen in Iran because we had pursued the land reform… it is clear he too has been making comparisons.
Wednesday, 18 September – HIM proclaimed that he suspected that the British, as usual, were to blame for the events in Ethiopia. The BBC broadcast an incendiary programme [2] about the starvation in Ethiopia, humiliating Haile Selassie and leading, so HIM’s thinks, to the Emperor’s demise… I daresay I am inclined to agree, their hand is everywhere.
Sunday, 24 November – Hardly had I set foot outside the office when my telephone rang and [HIM] informed me that in Ethiopia a group of young officers has executed the Chairman of the so-called Revolutionary Council together with a whole host of others; at least two prime ministers and the Emperor’s grandson, previously Commander of the Navy, the same one whom we embarrassed ourselves in front of a few years ago. [3] HIM insisted I tell the US ambassador that communists are responsible for this outrage… In these circumstances the optimism of America, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt is utterly misguided. “Tell the ambassador,” he said, “that I wish to know whether his government intends standing up to these threats. If they will not, we ourselves shall.” Despite this, they are yet to abolish the monarchy in Ethiopia, and have proclaimed Haile Selassie’s son king, rather than Emperor. He has condemned the murder, but he is otherwise weak in both body and constitution… he was paralyzed by a stroke a year ago and has always been considered weak and submissive… nowhere near the man his father was.
Saturday, 30 November – Attended lunch held in honour of President Kaunda of Zambia, who condemned the events in Ethiopia. Saw the PM, who too was outraged by it, particularly at the killing of the former Prime Minister, Aklilu… they were quite similar men, both sharing a fondness for French culture and a sort of intellectual background; regardless they were decidedly in the background compared to their monarchs. HIM expressed a desire that we do something, perhaps “along the lines of what we have been doing in Oman”… clearly even if we are do anything, we will need help from its neighbours and the Americans or British; Somalia and Egypt however have been enemies with the country since time immemorial, regardless HIM has ordered a report to be written…
____________________________
1. This passage in its entirety is duplicated verbatim from Alam’s actual diaries.
2. Alam is referring to the 1974 Documentary The Hidden Famine, with Jonathan Dimbleby.
3. Alam is referring to an incident when said grandson, Rear Admiral Eskinder Desta, visited Iran. He was treated to a naval display, where the Shah requested that the ships make a display of their missile capability; the missiles malfunctioned.
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Ethiopia
I could see a lot of money and arms support opposition movements in Ethiopia.
I could see a lot of money and arms support opposition movements in Ethiopia.
If he's planning on carrying our land reform then he certainly should be worried about the local feudalists and the clergy in particular, as I understand it a lot of their operations were funded by land they owned in backcountry Bumfuck, Sistan type areas. Easiest way to get around that is to simply put them on the government payroll like Turkey did, figure out how much cash they made off of their land holdings and then offer them a yearly grant equal to 120% of that. Of course it comes with the implied understanding that they'll police themselves making sure the clergy stays mostly apolitical and that the Shah gets unofficial veto over who becomes a grand ayatollah.
A rather interesting quote from Empress Farah from a 2010 documentary, "As far as I'm concerned, what's important is what he did as a Shah for his country. So if [the Shah] had an affair on the side and it made him feel good, so much the better!"
Also, I have the leaders of ten countries/organisations mapped out, for those who are curious...
Also, I have the leaders of ten countries/organisations mapped out, for those who are curious...
Thank you!
As in there are 10 countries or institutions I have alternate leaderships mapped out for... some are quite alternate.