Half a Century years with Iran's nature | Mohammad Ali Inanlou | TEDxTehran

Mohammad Ali Inanlou, naturalist, journalist, and documentary producer, who made a 4 million kilometers road trip for 50 years through Iran, stands at the last talk of his productive life, and reveals a secret to protecting Iran's and world's ecosystem.
As a journalist and expert in nature documentaries, Inanlou has lived in and learnt from the nature, written valuable articles, and produced great documentary films.
Being chosen as the best director of Iranology documentary films by Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handcrafts and Tourism Organization, he has produced and directed over 32 documentary films such as "Iran, and Iranians" and "Iran, a World Within a Border" which was chosen four times as the most popular program in Jam-e-Jam TV channel, bringing him the title of the best producer of this channel.
He was the editor of different journals such as "circulation", "Silk Road", " Hunting and Nature", "Journal of Tourists", and "Nature ".
Inanlou also participated in different nature-related projects such as building the Art and Nature Club, producing documentary movies from the protected areas in Fars and Isfahan, producing documentaries of Gilan Nature, and Building the first environmental documentary cinema.
He was the CEO of the Educational and Research Institute of Environmental Issues, the CEO of Iran's Nature travel agency, the reporter and director of programs such as "Iran, a World Within a Border ", "A Brand New Day", "Circulation" and "Another Morning".
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

It is said that when you die -

I'm sorry to start with death -

Well, I've faced
lots of dangerous situations for my job,

two of which led to my death!

(Laughter)

Believe me, I'm not exaggerating.

I had read up on it

and had watched in movies
that in the last moment

your whole life is somehow reviewed.

This actually happens.

Around 20 years ago,

at night, I was driving to the place
where cameramen had gone earlier.

It was near Lar river,
at the foot of Mount Damavand

and I was all alone.

Don't remember if I went asleep,
but my car crashed into the river.

The car didn't turn off
and I was Carbon Monoxide poisoned.

They later found me, though.

I've got artificial front teeth.

This is because my jaw was locked

and they opened it with a screwdriver
to rescue my breath in CPR.

I was clinically dead.

And my whole life flashed before my eyes.

All happened maybe in just some seconds.

Even the memories
that I had completely forgotten.

Once again, it happened to me
2 or 3 months ago.

I mean I was dead somewhere else!

And in the hospital...

(Laughter)

I was in coma for a week.

So I sometimes need to pause,
and then continue speaking.

It's considered as a side effect
of my coma.

Again, I saw the same things.

This is part of my job -

part of what I do for a living -

to face various danger.

To overcome cold weather, hot weather,
the desert or mountains.

To face bears, panthers, snakes,
vipers, rattlesnakes...

And lots of the same stories.

Maybe I'm the only director in the world

to have camera repairing papers,

once stating broken camera circuits
because of too cold weather.

Which happened in Miquan basin, in Arak.

Also once stating broken camera circuits
because of too hot weather.

Which happened in Gandom-Berian
in Dasht-e Loot.

If you check my old camera's shader,

you'll find a panther claw mark.

(Laughter)

Also there's a mark of the two fangs
of a viper.

Each person has their own job.

One works as an archivist employee,

and one...

(Laughter)

And one like me,
well, he should be crazy to do all this.

I'm willing to share with you
the two aspects

of my life and my experiences
during all these years.

For both of which,

I believe to be one
of the record holders in Iran.

First,

producing documentary movies,

and producing radio and TV programs,

and producing cultural products.

Considering my radio
and television programs,

and also being the editor-in-chief
at five different magazines,

and my 50 years of activity,

and hundreds of articles published by me
as a journalist for half a century,

I'm probably one of the record holders
in the world.

(Applause)

Also,

for the last 40 years,

I've road-tripped across Iran
for over 4 million kilometers.

The number is exact, because I've counted.

Not considering my air travels,

and not considering my travels
to other countries -

North America, South America,

Africa, India,

National parks,

and other places -

I've done 4 million kilometers
of road-trip inside Iran.

It's even more than 4 million kilometers.

How did I count it?

Well, each car I buy

works for exactly 400,000 kilometers.

Then, if it's still working -

not flood-damaged or fallen down a hill,

or lost in an earthquake -

I've got the chance to groom it.

My cars are my buddies.

Then I park them aside,
and visit them sometimes.

Some months ago I bought my eleventh car.

This means 10 cars,
each worked 400,000 kilometers.

Most of my cars are still there,
so it's not about pissing on someone's leg

and saying it’s raining.

(Laughter)

Why did I go on these many trips?

Because of the reason I just told you -

I've done different cultural productions

especially documentary movies,

and also radio and television programs.

Whenever I went to a place like
Persepolis,

it made me feel very uncomfortable

to face the figure of a Persian soldier
being marked on the head

by a key or a knife or something.

The figure of the Parthian king

being marked as a memento.

The tall oak apple tree being cut.

Jungles being cut down.

Wetlands drying out.

Lakes drying out.

And I was thinking...

Why is this happening?

Why are the trees being cut?

You might have seen,

a lady in a village

sweeping up the yard,

gathering the dust,

and throwing it away across the wall,

to the street.

This matter is not at all related to being
educated or rich or your social class.

I'm pretty sure that most of you -

or some of you -

have witnessed this scene:

A 500 million-Toman car
or a 1-billion-Toman car

driving in front of you.

Then the window pulls down

and an elegant hand comes out
of the window -

wearing jewelry, glittering rings
and bracelets -

and throws away a plastic bag
of orange peel, banana peel and so on.

You might have witnessed the same.

Why does this hand

come out of the window

and throw away the waste to the street?

Why isn't the waste thrown inside the car?

Because the car belongs to the person.

There's a sense of ownership.

A sense of possession.

Why is that mark

drawn on the figure of a Persian soldier?

And not drawn on the walls
of their own house?

Because the house belongs to that person.

There's a sense of belonging.

I spent a lot of time thinking.

I was very upset, and angry.

Why don't we appreciate what we have?

Why are we destroying our own assets?

I was sitting in a chair.

Lit a cigarette, and thought...

Since cigarette is bad for your health,

you can omit this part.

I just started thinking.

(Laughter)

(Applause)

It was like our friend

who leapt out of bathtub shouting Eureka!

(Laughter)

I had found it too.

What leads to cutting the beeches?

What leads to marking ancient figures?

What leads to getting rid of our waste?

No sense of belonging,

and lack of ownership.

We must be reminded

that we are the children
of King Tahmuras -

the Legendary Great King.

When he was giving some advice to his son,

making him ready for the crown,

one part of his advice was:

"Talk to animals with compassion."

Please note the value of words.

Not only stop annoying them.

Not only stop animal exploitation,

but also talk to them with compassion.

What has changed

that we are hurting animals this much?

The poor hyena is trapped,

and we are hitting it with a stick.

What has changed that we
genocide thousands of geese?

Aren't we the children of King Tahmuras?

Assuming that we weren't switched at birth
in the hospital,

we were lost somewhere in the history...

We...

were lost somewhere in the history...

Otherwise there's no other reason
to treat our belongings this way.

This loss has happened because
of our forgotten social psychology.

The psychology taught to us
by historical determinism.

The historical determinism forced to us
by geographical determinism.

Our country is placed
in a very dangerous crossroad.

During the years in history anyone
who got bored

came to our country and somehow hurt us.

Once Alexander invaded.

Once Mongols invaded.

Once Arabs invaded.

All hurt us somehow...

All this led our people to lose

this sense of belonging to our country.

I'm not saying

that we lack patriotism.

We are patriots.

On each war, our people

have gone to the front with pleasure.

sacrificed,

were maimed,

were captivated,

and saved the country.

Otherwise we couldn't speak Persian
right now.

(Applause)

Consider Ariobarzanes of Persis,
exactly the opposite of the 300 movie...

Ariobarzanes and 300 soldiers
stood against Alexander.

Consider the 8 years of war with Iraq
which was forced on us.

We are a nation with a lot of paradox.

On the one side, we die for saving
our country.

on the other side,
we cause drying of Lake Urmia.

(Applause)

Anyway...

We were lost somewhere in history.

I, Mohammad Ali Inanlou contemplated

for a while.

Apart from what I mentioned before,

I was thinking, what is my role here?

As a journalist,

I have to do something

to bring back this sense of belonging,

and sense of possession in my people.

Which is recently

being felt by our people.

With the help of our youths...

Our young people,

are really wonderful.

Believe me, I truly trust them.

My son,

my youngest son, Alborz was studying
in a European country.

One day, at the sunset we were walking

and discussing this subject.

He said

the same thing as I just told you.

I told him, you talk like a racist!

It's not so.

Our young people ain't that good!

He asked me to go with him...

In that country, Hungary,

there were some kiosks in the street
selling sandwiches

named Gorosh or something.

The formula was very simple:

bread, lettuce, and meat,

and sauce...

This simple...

Alborz ordered two sandwiches.
I said, "We've just had...",

He said, "We are not going to eat!"

The young boy was preparing the sandwich.

Alborz asked him for directions.

Believe me, the sandwich was destroyed.

Pouring the sauce on his pants...

Missing lettuce and tomato pieces...

He neither gave directions,

nor made the sandwich properly.

You may go to the Argentina square,
Africa square in Tehran.

A Kurdish young boy used to sit there.

Fortunately now his business
has developed.

He owns a store in Vozara street,

named Yadi.

He has walking disability.

Unbelievable, but, simultaneously
he served ten customers

asking for tobacco, cigarette, and stuff.

And he served them pretty well.

He also held this bunch of money
in his hand

and everyone was satisfied with him.

Our young people are wonderful.

That's why, now,

we cannot start to dry Lake Urmia!

We no more can,

because our youngsters will stop us.

My generation was illiterate and inept.

(Applause)

(Applause) (Laughter)

(Laughter)

Bernard Shaw - Oh thank you!

(Laughter)

Bernard Shaw once said,

"I wasn't upset of not being applauded,

I was upset of your applause!"

(Laughter)

But it was great! Thank you!

(Applause)

I started my trips,

produced my films,

and fortunately it had some influence.

Thus, I am one of the men

who is satisfied
with his 68-year-old life.

And I had the idea of transferring

the sense of belonging to the people,

to the young people of my country

as much as I could.

Now when I visit my students,

one is a professor,

one is working at some company...

And they feel the very sense of belonging
to our country.

Then I'm happy.

I wish for a day,

when our country belongs to us in a way

that we are truly dependent on it,

and completely feel we belong to it.

And stop scattering

to every corner of the world

just like a tumbleweed in the desert,

big, but with no root,

tumbling away in the wind.

Iran is ours.

(Applause)