Surrounded by his bodyguards, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, wipes away a tear during a religious ceremony marking the death of the Shiite Saint Jaafar Sadeq in Tehran on Saturday Photo: AP In President Ahmadinejad's Hometown In Iran, Hope Goes Up In Opium Smoke -- The Telegraph
Few people in Iran nursed higher hopes for the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than the residents of Aradan, a village of 5,000 nestling under the Alborz mountains south-east of Tehran.
It was here in 1956 that Iran's future leader was born the son of a blacksmith, and here in 2005 that residents strung out bunting when he was elected - confident that the village's most famous son would put them foremost in his much-vaunted crusade for the poor.
But while a sign now hangs outside the village saying "Welcome to Aradan, the birthplace of the popular president," the only dreams being chased here today are through a pipe - as shown by the stench of Afghan opium smoke that lingers in the local taxi office.
Despite a triumphant visit last summer by the village's most famous son, locals say his pledges of jobs and a better standard of living have failed to materialise - with opium, heroin and other narcotics filling the gap between reality and aspiration.
"When Mr Ahmadinejad won the election we were very happy," said one of the crowd of drivers sitting idly outside the taxi office last week. "But he has not done well for us - he promised to tackle unemployment, but he hasn't. Instead, people are turning to drugs because there is nothing else for them."
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My Comment: When a society falls into despair, it is the escape of drugs and alcohol that people run to. In Iran's case, it is drugs. We are witnessing the social breakdown of one of the world's oldest cultures.