Tehran echoed to the boom of firecrackers and joyous revelry into the early hours yesterday as Iranians celebrated an ancient Zoroastrian fire festival that is a prelude to Nowruz, the Persian New Year.
Police and Basij militiamen were out in large numbers in case opposition supporters dared - despite official warnings - to use the occasion, known as Chaharshanbeh Souri, to stage anti-government protests.
There were unconfirmed reports of isolated skirmishes between youths and security forces, and unverified video footage percolated through the internet of youths in some locations chanting "death to the dictator."
The celebrations, however, appeared to have passed without a major incident.
"The mood was festive rather than political," said one Tehran resident. It was an unseasonably balmy night of cheerful pandemonium. Deafening firecrackers set car alarms blaring and enveloped the teeming Iranian capital in a pall of sulphurous smoke.
Underground Persian pop music competed with the clatter of police helicopters.
In secluded gardens and side-street alleyways, men, women and children leapt over bonfires. The act of purification symbolises a hope for happiness in the new year and an end to the suffering of the year gone by.
The ancient pagan ritual is held on the last Wednesday of the Persian calendar year and heralds the advent of spring. But even celebrations in Iran, as several analysts commented, can be a political statement.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Sunday urged people to shun the festival, declaring that it has "no basis in Sharia and creates a lot of harm and corruption".
His dour pronouncement seemingly had less to do with the festival's un-Islamic origins than his concern that it would give the opposition the chance to prove it was alive and kicking.
The opposition's main leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, already had urged his supporters not to use the festival as an excuse to mount anti-government rallies, and not to provoke hardliners.
He instead declared that the Persian New Year of 1389 - which starts on March 21 - would be one of "perseverance and patience" for the opposition green movement.
His message, effectively, was that his supporters should temper any expectations of swift results and pace themselves for a marathon, not a sprint.
His statement, released on Monday, was made in a private weekend meeting with leading members of the Islamic Participation Party, Iran's main reformist political organisation, which the government banned this week.
In a clear attempt to boost morale, Mr Mousavi suggested history was on the opposition's side. "My feeling for the future is that this movement is irreversible. We will never go back to the position we were in a year ago."
He urged his followers to counter regime propaganda that the green movement is supported only by the monied and educated elite and does not embrace the pious.
"We have to reach out to major groups in society, like teachers, workers and various classes of people to explain to them the message of the movement," he said. "We have to strengthen our bonds with the grand ayatollahs and the clergy."
Street protests were entirely legitimate, Mr Mousavi insisted, but ordinary people had suffered "extreme violence" by government forces. This, together with his call on supporters not to protest during the fire festival, was further evidence that the green movement is abandoning its earlier strategy of gatecrashing emotive dates in Iran's calendar to protest against the president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election last June.
That strategy had notable successes last year. But the regime belatedly learnt to counter it in time to snuff out with relative ease planned mass protests on last month's anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Taking draconian pre-emptive action, the authorities arrested scores of student and other activists, who would have organised the protests at a grass-roots level, and disrupted mobile phone, internet and text messaging services.
On the day itself, security forces flooded the streets.
Iranian opposition figures were said to be upset that analysts abroad had previewed the event as a climactic showdown that could tilt the stalemated balance of power in favour of the regime's opponents.
"People on the inside were left feeling the consequences of falsely raised expectations," said a senior Iranian commentator in Washington.
Mr Mousavi knows that no matter how resolved and resilient his supporters, they cannot be expected to keep taking to the streets, risking broken bones and jail terms, without seeing concrete political results.
The regime's overkill security measures for the fire festival, however, served mainly to betray its insecurity. One witness estimated that 40,000 to 50,000 police and militiamen were deployed in Tehran alone.
"They're out every year but their presence was particularly marked on Tuesday night."
A garage owner in east Tehran mused: "I don't know what they're scared of." As one of his mechanics jumped over a bonfire on his forecourt, he added: "This is what we've been doing since childhood."
mtheodoulou@thenational.ae
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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