Iranian brain drain

If Iran is such a wonderful country to live in, as the BBC's Tehran reporter keeps saying, then do so many want to leave? And if the US is such the great Satan as Iran and the BBC make it out to be, how come so many want to live there?

So, just how bad are things in Iran?

A year ago, the International Monetary Fund said Iran had the highest rate of brain drain of 90 countries it measured.

And how are things since then?

The figures have increased two-and-a-half times this year over the same period last year, according to the Australian administrators of the test.

Clearly Iran is not the rosy place the BBC's reporter makes it out to be. But before you thinks that Frances Harrison has finally had a dose of reality, look what she blames the brain drain on.

"And the cost to Iran of not stemming this brain drain - one government estimate put it at nearly $40bn a year.

It is a terrible indictment of Iran's economic planning that it is educating millions of its youth, but cannot offer them a future worth staying for."

Sure Frances, it has absolutely nothing to do with Islam and the governments imposition of its strict brand of it. Or the crackdown on free speech, attacks on universitites, banning of satelite tv and a general crackdown on freedoms.

Well, at least this time she didn't blame the crash of a Russian plane on the US embargo of spare parts.