A Conference for Displaying Unity
A Conference for Displaying Unity
I wish that among the researchers and professors who attended this conference, at least one of them had told Mr. Pezeshkian and other officials that truly the era of conferences is over. Such conferences, which are essentially gatherings and friendly meetings, are for those who have full bellies and can breathe the air of unity among like-minded friends on the hills of Abbasabad. They have nothing to do with the people and do not address any societal issues.
If someone from outside were to see the statistics of the conferences held in Iran and wanted to give us a title, surely our country would be called the ‘Country of Conferences’. For every event and issue, the first thing that comes to our mind is to hold a conference. The ease and at the same time the noisiness of it are among the reasons why a conference is chosen as the first and often the last action for any phenomenon and concept.
In this way, we convey to others who are supposed to know that we are busy with that issue or event, that look, we are really busy. It’s like the saying ‘actions speak louder than words’, which is easily done, while even a small deed is really exhausting.
With little effort, it creates a lot of noise. It’s enough for good media coverage to be done on that conference and for celebrity faces to be invited, then it becomes the top news of all official and unofficial media.
Part of the strange inclination towards conferences in Iran is a legacy from when the country’s institutions and departments did not know how to spend the overflowing oil money, and they quickly organized conferences so that, God forbid, their budget wouldn’t remain unspent by the end of the year, and they could also generate income for their friends. The abundance of conferences has made it such that if a conference is held properly, it is only a curiosity for the organizers themselves and cannot be impactful.
In its true sense, a conference either wants to answer an issue or raise a fundamental question. Over the past 20 years, from my student days and later my work in media, I have attended hundreds of conferences, and except for a handful, I neither remember what happened at those conferences nor even what their issue was. It is because of this background that I am not optimistic about the recent conference on unity and its function.
First of all, the fundamental question for holding such a conference is which issue it is supposed to address, and then to whom this answer is to be given. If the unity conference was supposed to be a theoretical explanation of unity, the question arises again, why now and for whom is this explanation supposed to happen? The government that has recently taken office means that people, at least some of them who still believe in elections, have trusted its discourse and wanted to realize its slogan. After taking office, exactly for whom is the explanation of the slogan if it is for more than 50% who did not vote, which is an absurd act.
They do not believe in Pezeshkian or anyone else in this structure to want to see the result of unity between this and that. The hopeless part of that 50% will only be hopeful with tangible change. If it is for that rigid and dialogue-resistant part of the political structure, they sent the message the same day by imposing an illegal ban on the former president that unity is worth nothing. If it is for those who voted for Pezeshkian’s government with a thousand doubts and hopelessness, they too break out in hives at the name of the conference, fearing that everything will remain superficial and just lip service.
Apart from what the issue is and for whom, the respectable speakers of the conference are also worth considering. All the speakers, most of whom are genuinely concerned about Iran and its future, share one thing in common: they are among the most platformed individuals in Iran. Search the name of any of these friends, and if their last words and speeches were not from the day before the conference, you will certainly find a speech, interview, note, or article from them from the week before. Incidentally, most of their speeches have been in support or explanation of unity.
I wish that among the researchers and professors who attended this conference, at least one of them had told Mr. Pezeshkian and other officials that truly the era of conferences is over. Such conferences, which are essentially gatherings and friendly meetings, are for those who have full bellies and can breathe the air of unity among like-minded friends on the hills of Abbasabad. They have nothing to do with the people and do not address any societal issues. Many people in the society are so anxious and worried that it seems everyone is waiting for something terrible to happen. If Mr. Pezeshkian’s slogans aim to improve the living conditions of these people, the path does not pass through these conferences and gatherings of scholars but through their tangible impact on their daily lives.
