IMPORTING THE INFERIOR CULTURE:

Iranians: They're Just Like Us!: A nation of millions under thirty loves the same things we do, but that doesn't mean traveling there is any easier (Trish Schuh, Esquire)

All this could have been smoothed over with a bit of a "baksheesh" (bribe) a colleague hinted. The big corporate news agencies pay around $60,000 dollars for a visa, not counting press agency fees, hotel commissions etc. (In a hotel, restaurant, or store the quoted price is often doubled when dealing with foreigners). "You should have brought some sort of a slush fund," he sniffed.

Such bureaucratic mismanagement and corruption is commonplace in the region. In Iran it is a far bigger obstacle to U.S. business people than any reputed anti-American sentiment.

In fact, Iran is the only genuinely pro-American country in the Middle East. OK, so one person in a taxi launched into an anti-American tirade, angrily castigating me for being an American. But it turned out he was from Canada.