Ali Akbar
Abdolrashidi
This is the website of an aging Iranian journalist who wishes to share his experience.
The Last British Ambassador to the Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's Court (1974-79), who later on assumed the position of the UK Ambassador to the UN, received me in his garden on the top of a green hill overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in Ashburton, UK, in 1985. He was very open to defend his career in his job in Iran and to explain details of the developments resuted in the final fall of the Shah. He declared that he was the grey man who secretly edited the last book of the toppled Shah of Iran before it was published. He was so fond of Iran in a way that his house was a museum of Iranian handicrafts. In his account "the Islamic Revolution of 1979 was inevitable".
Lord David Owen Lord Owen was the British Foreign Secretary until 1979 during the British Labour Government preceeded the rise of Mrs. Margaret Thatcher. He then worked out a new British political party (SDP) and became its leader in the 1980s. Lord Owen received me in his exquisite house overlooking the Thames River in London. We discussed his recollection out of the developments resulted in the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. He was clear to criticise Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his regime. However, he claimed that he tried his best to save the Shah as the pillar of the British interests in the region but failed.
Sir Denis Wright Sir Denis served as the British envoy to Iran for three times. The first time as the British Charge d'Affairs to reopen the British Embassy in Tehran just after the US-UK sponsored Coup against Mossadegh in 1953. He was then called by the Iranian press as the Coup Ambassador. He then came back to Iran as the full British Ambassador two more times in the critical period of 1953-1979 between the Coup and the Revolution in Iran. He then became the Assistant Secretary to the British Foreign Office. After retirement he assumed the Iran Society as a researcher until his death in 2004. Sir Denis received me in his house in Duck Bottom in a brilliant village near Oxford. Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys
The genius discoverer of DNA Finger Profiling and Printing who is also the professor of University of Leicester in the UK is certainly one of the best known and serious scientists of the 20th century. He is so young that he might repeat his success once again in the current century. Sir Alec is proud of his discovery because in his view it helped to remove a lot of pain and problems out of the life of mankind. He still is active and is waiting for something else to happen in the area of genetics and ticularly DNA region. I enjoyed talking to him and hope his life becomes a good pattern for the new generation.
Sir Bobby Charlton
We spent one full day with Sir Bobby at the Old Trafford, Manchester United Football Stadium. He does not seem selfish or self sufficient at all. Such a hero and legend is expected to be a little, at least, proud or selfish. But not at all. He is so friendly that you doubt whether you are talking to the real Sir Bobby or not. This seems to be the major difference between politicians and even artists and a sport hero. He showed us all around the Manchester United Stadium. People including young women came to him and asked his autograph. One mother asked Sir Bobby to put his autograph on the small hat of his six month baby. It shows that Sir Bobby is still a living hero.
George Galloway
The Leader of the British Respect Party and the very controversial politician in Westminster was very energetic. He talked as if he was playing in a theater. He was very careful t select the proper word. He is too ambitious to be able to cope with threats and conspiracies that are set on his way. A man who swims with Fidel Castro in the Caribbean Sea for four hours, a man who met Saddam Hussein and was a close friends of Saddam's Lieutenants and a rouge criticizer of the British ruling Labour party has put a shadow of doubt in the minds of those who wish to believe his sincerity.
Peter Avery
If you visit King's College at Cambridge, UK, around the square just behind the gate, o the southern corner, there is a small room adjacent to a small library in which Peter Avery is still reading and writing about Iran. He has just finished his translation of Hafez Book of Poems. He is undoubtedly one of the great living Persianist of the world. I is not because of his works, but because of the time he spent learning about Iran. He was one of the rare working staff of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company who joined the Iranian National Oil Company after the Nationalization of early 1950s. He remained in this Company until he received a small amount of money to publish a history of Iran. which was published in the late 1980s. This book is certainly a complete history of Iran from pre-history until 1979. I was present in Cambridge when it was launched. Ever since I meet Peter Aery as soon as I find a possibility.
Space Scientists
I have visited the Russian space centre in the Star City in 1989. I did not expect a space centre to be something similar to what I saw in the University of Leicester Space Research Centre in the, UK . It was different, but find a lot of innovations technology and sophistication in a smaller but more efficient place. The scientists were young but learned and confident. They are not ding the hardware a lot, but more software and particularly brainware.