Blackwashing of “Economist” about life in Tehran
Journal news: Regarding negative
report of the Economist Journal about life situation in Tehran, Tabatabaei, General
Director of the Quarterly Journal of Economics and Urban Management, at first
it should be mentioned that today cities are the place of living most of the
Earth’s residents and this trend of urbanization growth continues so that
currently 82% population of North America, 80% of Latin America, 73% of Europe,
71% of Oceania, 48% of Asia and 40% of Africa are urbanized. Emphasizing that global urbanization
has been caused that research about cities about different fields been set in
their agenda of organizations, institutions and international organizations and
they consider studies and comparison of cities in different dimensions, he
pointed out, “ one of the indicators that various institutions measure and rank
the world’s cities is urban security. Highlighting that the Economist
Journal ranks big cities of the world in different fields, he said, this
Journal ranked the world’s cities on the basis of security in 2015, according
to it Tokyo is selected as the safest cities and it is followed by Singapore,
Osaka, Stockholm, and Amsterdam. Adding that in this ranking is based
on indicators in domains such as digital security, health security, individual
security, and infrastructures, Tehran was among 50 secure cities of the world
and among 25 secure capitals of the world, he said, on the other hand on the
basis of this ranking Tehran regarding revenues is among average cities that
its citizens have between 10 to 30 thousand dollars income annually. Saying that also in terms of life
expectancy index, Tehran is located in a 77 years desirable situation among the
world’s cities, he said, fortunately, this index in Tehran is higher than
cities like Washington, Abu Dhabi, Jakarta, Istanbul, Moscow, Bangkok and Rio
de Janeiro. Emphasizing that in terms of cost of
living, where Singapore is considered as the most expensive city in the world,
Tehran is among 10 cheap cities beside Delhi and Damascus, he added, but about
urban democracy, a number between 1 to 167 is devoted to and rank 1 is the most
democratic city, the number of Tehran is 157 that is among the lowest ranks and
less democratic ones which it seems in this regard the Journal’s view is either
unknowingly or probably one-sidedly. Dr. Tabatabaei explained that
Tehran’s urban management model follows like many developed cities in the world
which it is council-mayor model about two decades and it is in such a way that
the mayor is selected by the votes of the members of city council and the
members of city council are selected in a completely competitive and democratic
atmosphere by the citizens, moreover, other institutions and organizations like
municipalities of areas and districts, council-helpers, council of townships
and generally municipality’s effort for participating citizens is an evidence
that shows a democratic mechanism of urban management in Tehran, therefore, it
should be said that this journal if this Journal considered without prejudice,
it would present a more realistic results of the developing process of Tehran. It is worth mentioning that Economist Journal
had mentioned Tehran among 10 worst cities of the world not a long ago.