Islamic Republic’s management style in the last forty years resembles a naïve but arrogant driver who has been given a multi-billion-dollar luxury vehicle and he is driving it on a difficult mountain pass. He chose this road specifically to brag and show off. It would be possible to choose safer roads otherwise. The driver sees only right in front of the hood and tries to avoid potholes on the road; nonetheless, because of the lack of clear view (he does not see farther down the road), or high speed (ambitions and rush to build an empire), or even to drop those who warn him out of the car, he is heading directly towards the edge of a cliff.

With this analogy, I will enumerate six possible cliff faces for this vehicle (country) and its passengers (Iranian society) in this article. Needless to say, all these cliffs are already drawn on any scientific maps.

Natural disasters

Deputy director for the Crisis Management Organization in Iran says that more than 90 % of the country is in danger of big or average earthquakes and 80 percent of the populated centers are prone to flooding.

Executive organizations have always proven to appear disorganized and disoriented during crisis management, especially in the events of massive floods and earthquakes. Neither have the voluntary initiatives been able to coordinate the public to aid in time. What’s more, the reconstruction following the crisis has been extremely slow and lengthy. Due to the systemic corruption and priority of connection to expertise, there is no observation or control over the reconstruction projects. Two famous examples are the flood in Golestan province in 2001 (500 killed or disappeared) and also the flood in Darband and Tajrish in 1987 (with 300 killed and disappeared).

Destruction of the environment

In the forty years of age of the Islamic Republic, “lakes such as Bakhtegan, Tashk, Amol, Jazmoorian and Gav Khooni have dried out and turned to drifting dust flats” (Isa Kalantari, Head of Department of Environment, Fars news agency, September 30, 2018). Therefore, cities like Kerman, Zabol, Shiraz, Ahvaz, and Esfahan are in critical situations. Likewise, other water resources of the country are deteriorating. Aquifers – groundwater resources – are constantly in decline. Half of all rural areas in the country are suffering from the shortage of water and they have been abandoned by residents. The officials’ wrong decisions to build dams and massive irrigation are responsible for the alarming situation.

Crime surge

The crime rate in Iran has quadrupled between 2008 and 2018 (Chief of Iranian Police Criminal Investigation Department, Isna, October 3, 2018). According to the current justice minister “the number of committed crimes is higher than the number of the whole population” (Mehr News agency, October 11, 2013). Any increase or decrease in crimes reflects official decisions and policies at local, provincial and national levels. The Islamic Republic is responsible for the crime surge in Iran through its failed approaches, namely organizing gangs and thugs for its oppressive purposes, keeping open arms for corruption and misuse of power, wasting resources, influence peddling, and its expansionist agenda.

Wasting national wealth

After Trump withdrew from Iran deal, the Iranian government announced an official exchange rate for the US dollar versus Rial (42000 IRR) and then made the real but unofficial rates illegal. This had the exchange rate increased five times. Meanwhile, the government compensated their budget deficit with literally stealing people’s money as they created and spread economic insecurity and triggered public appetite for exchanging the national currency to foreign ones. When the treasury was filled with people’s hard-earned money, they made some arrests of some dealers of foreign currencies, a few owners of the websites for exchange rate updates, and minimally injected dollar to the market, manipulated the market so that they could keep the rates stable for a while. State-owned banks were the only buyers of foreign currencies while no one else was allowed to trade elsewhere. Despite the government’s claim that their saving is adequate, the exchange rate for dollar became steady at a price four times what it was before. The enemies’ conspiracy was blamed to be responsible for the chaos. This kind of management increased the price of daily goods two to three times higher.

Instability and capital flight are the consequences of these policies. Iran’s net capital account between March 2018 to May 2018 is -5.3 billion dollars. Provided the same trend goes on, and we rely only on what the government officially announces, it will have reached more than 21 billion dollars by the end of the year.

Incompetent management

Clerics and IRGC generals have been the main players in the Islamic Republic system in the last four decades given the fact that neither deserves nor qualifies for this privilege. They rule as they sell dreams and exercise brutal power. They never disappoint to prove that they lack the basic competence for their roles. These two groups of rulers have turned the country into a vehicle with no brake driving against the traffic flow. This madness also exists in their foreign interferences.

Massacres by alcoholic drinks

It is one of the main responsibilities of a state (at local and national levels) to control the safety of foods and beverages. The Islamic Republic has caused many people to die or get blind by banning alcoholic beverages and pushing the production and distribution of such drinks to the black market. These casualties are partially reported by the media.

350 people in Rafsanjan, a small town in central Iran, were poisoned after consumption of counterfeit alcoholic beverages which contained methanol. This incident took 7 lives and got 10 others blind. All the casualties were guests to two different parties, one a wedding and the other a birthday, who drank the counterfeit beverage.

The following numbers have been recorded by the coroner for the death toll of counterfeit beverages in Iran: 145 deaths in 2010, 93 in 2011, 136 in 2012, 135 in 2013, 81 in 2014.

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The drivers of the vehicle (Iran) tried to conceal the problems by convicting of a few dollar-dealers and sell it to the public as the battle with corruption. They also fired a few missiles towards Syria and Iraq, and threatened Israeli citizens to be thrown to the sea. They seem to believe that these gestures show their strength and power. In analogy once again, instead of concentrating on driving their own vehicle, they are distracted with swearing at other drivers on the road. They are just putting themselves and their passengers in danger. The only and principal cause to Iran’s current situation is the destructive conduct of its rulers. They waste Iran’s resources for the useless regional wars and then describe it as the ‘expansion of strategic influence’. What would you do with such a driver?