By: Mandana Danesh

 Several years ago I was attending a course in Pasteur Institute of Paris. This class was comprised of 15-16 outstanding professors in the relevant field from various countries in the world who had been selected out of about 100 candidates. Most of the nominees were in their 40’s or older and had a several- year -background of scientific work in the relevant field in their countries. Each of them had at least headed one international project in the related field and was a name for all the organizations who worked over this field at the international level.

 But… but there showed off a 27- year- old  young man who was in concordance with others in no way. Not only for his young age, but also much more for his absolute poverty of literacy and knowledge. He was coming from an African country and after a few days we found out that he was the minister of health of his country! Yes you have read it right! An illiterate 27- year- old young man was the minister of health of this African country, and, yet that was not enough for him, and he had deliberately included himself among the most distinguished professors of that field. That was because he was just providing a resume for himself. He had come from Africa, so first he was the minister, and then he acquired a resume.

A third world country is a third world country. First you are titled psychoanalyst by the press, and even rise to the sublime position of “being the first to bring Freud in the game”. You become the president of the first congress of psychoanalysis of your country without having attended even one international congress before, or without having published even one article in one of the specialized psychoanalytic publications. If no one in the world or at the international level recognizes you as analyst and if you are not allowed in in any of their congresses or publications, you can instead profit from governmental budget to establish your own international congress and provide a resume for yourself in this way.

You know this is the country that its president announces regretfully that 600 billion dollars of oil revenue has been peculated, and it matters nothing, so devoting 60 million tomans to a certain person to help him provide a resume is nothing as well.

Isn’t it that the best friends of us at the international level are these African countries?

A bunch of people (I guess about 3000) [1] receive illegitimate scholarships, not for [studying in] African countries but for educating in those countries that no one doubts their scientific reputation. Isn’t it that this Mr. President of the first psychoanalytic congress [in Iran] accredits his psychiatric diploma to England and not to Zimbabwe?

I wish it was the end of story, but no, this is a third world country. That’s why a congress with these features is being admitted by the organization in charge with the continuous medical education and the points allocated to the attendees of this congress are mind-boggling. For example a psychiatrist can attain half of the points he needs in 5 years to renew his private practice license by attending this congress. And ultimately half of the governmental budget assigned to this congress is refunded by granting these very cheap points to psychiatrists and what psychiatrists do in their offices later, is no one’s business. And this is so while it is being declared that “the focus of medical sciences should be training qualified human resources who are able to be renowned at global level and be measurable by international indices”!!! [2].

Really, why doesn’t anybody in the world believe that our nuclear program is peaceful? If that African country with its 27- year-old illiterate minister conducts nuclear researches, do you and I in Iran believe that they really do these activities for the sake of scientific concerns? If science and knowledge and promoting the level of life and welfare of its citizens were important to them, they should have started from their Ministry of Health first, especially when it is being declared that the primary concern in nuclear researches of our country is radiopharmaceuticals.

Well, this is precisely the reasoning of Western countries on our nuclear program. Because we have also a deputy Minister of Health who does not know the difference between psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, and an associate professor at the most prestigious university of medical sciences in our country whose degree is untraceable. And we also are the one who has the honor to add a new word to the dictionary: Kordanize!

Most importantly that, it is in our own country that one of those who is supposed to be the chairperson of one of the sessions of this forged congress, declares in our own England  that the regime of Islamic Republic of Iran announced psychoanalysis as its number one enemy. Of course I myself did not find any evidence for her claim, but from the world view this claim itself is evidence, and from the world view the country in which psychoanalysis is a foe and nuclear power is a friend, is a dangerous one.

I think it was just a few days ago that the general policies of science and technology have been notified to the heads of three branches of the government and the head of Expediency Discernment Council.

I wonder how “the goal of attaining scientific and technological leadership in the world”[3] can be achieved under this circumstances?