"A trip to the Iranian Riviera"
"Below are pictures and videos that show Kish Island, Iran, which will be the location of the new Iranian Oil Bourse. (The Bourse will also have an office in Tehran.)
Text follows the pictures…
Iran is currently the world’s fourth largest oil exporter, and could move up to the third or even the second when engineers from China and other countries start developing Iran’s oil fields. On 8 Dec 07, Iran ceased accepting dollars for payment of oil. Ahmadinejad called the U.S. currency a "worthless piece of paper,” while oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari said the dollar is no longer a reliable currency.
The main goal of the Iranian Oil Bourse is to make Iran a major center for oil trade in the Middle East. The proposal for establishing the Bourse was first offered during the Third Economic Development Plan (1999-2004). Related studies began in 2004. An official plan was ratified on 11 July 2005
Iran hoped to have the bourse going by now, but there have been two delaying factors…
1. When setting up a bourse, one must have models for the proper pricing of oil, gas, etc. Such models are very complex in the first stages. Iran is working hard on the mathematics.
2. The Bourse will need a Secretary General, and Iran’s oil ministry and finance ministries have not yet agreed on who the Secretary person shall be. There is a power struggle, but most people want a bourse. Currently Iran’s oil market is sluggish and bureaucratic, with countless managers and employees that all have a say. The Bourse will change all that. Iranian Oil Minister Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari is holding talks with Iranian Finance Minister Davood Danesh Jafari on finalizing the oil bourse. They say it will be operating soon. (I predict everything will accelerate next year when the USA goes into a severe recession.)
The point is that Iran does not care about Western objections. Delays have been entirely domestic and technical in nature. An Iranian oil bourse will make a serious dent in U.S. oil hegemony.
Kish Island is an Iranian free trade zone (locals call it the “Kish free zone”). This makes it a consumer's paradise, with numerous malls, shopping centers, tourist attractions and resort hotels. About 20,000 people live on the island, mainly Christian and Muslim. The island is 91 sq km (35 sq mi) and is perhaps the third most visited spot in the Middle East, after Sharm El Sheik and Dubai.
In the 1970s the Shah turned Kish Island into a luxury resort for the international elite, complete with a Grand Casino (now known as the Shayan International Hotel) and an airport with a runway big enough to handle the supersonic Concorde. After the 1979 Revolution, Kish Island became a duty-free shopping center.
Since the mid-1990s the Iranian government has embarked on an aggressive promotional and developmental campaign to make Kish into a rival of luxurious Dubai, and especially of Doha, the swank capital of Qatar. About 1.5 million tourists visit each year, mostly from Iran, but international visitors are rapidly growing in number. The shopping malls are spotless and world-class. English is widely spoken on Kish Island.
Islamic laws on the island are far more relaxed than on the mainland, which attracts young people. However, alcohol is not sold (legally) on the island, just like the rest of Iran. Some outsiders (and some Iranians) think this cuts into tourism.
[Personal opinion: I think the absence of alcohol is a plus, because it forces hotels, restaurants, and so on to work harder to please tourists. It is like avoiding the use of profanity when writing a novel or screenplay. Such avoidance forces a writer to be more creative in getting ideas and emotions across.]
Israelis envy the beauty of Kish Island, just as they envy Beirut. If the Israelis ever attacked Iran, they would surely target Kish Island. The place has no strategic military value, but the Israelis would trash it for sheer spite, as they do whenever Lebanon becomes too attractive to tourists.
VIDEOS
The first video is a succession of still shots. Kish Island is a noted spot for scuba diving. However women aren't allowed to swim -- at least on the public beaches.
The next video shows one of the malls. Notice the signs in English...
The video below is another succession of still shots, some of Kish Island, some of other places in Iran. (Give it a miniute to play past the martial stuff.)
Many more videos are available at YouTube, LiveLeak, etc.
Just enter “Kish Island.”
