In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Rebuilding the destruction of the Shah's regime
Yes, they would repeatedly come to me in different batches, and tell me that in their area, there is a lot of unemployment; that they have nothing; that they have no water and electricity; that they have no schools; that they have no hospitals and so forth. Well, people come from every place they belong and tell me, mainly, that no place is as backward as their place is. We ask these people" well, has this happened recently?" Or was it present from before? Has the Revolution caused them? Or no, this was present from before and now we have come to a place where none of these was present. If you say that the Revolution has brought this poverty and misery upon you, well you yourself accept that it is not so. Therefore, this was present before the Revolution this unemployment was there; this poverty was there; and this absence of water and electricity and asphalted roads and so forth was there before. Now, we have come to a country where everything in it was in this manner. The Bakhtiyari tribes say that they were the most deprived people; the people of Sistan province say that they are more deprived than all; the people of Balouchistan province also say the same thing and so do the people of Kurdistan province- everybody. And, everybody is speaking the truth when they say that they were deprived. However, the deprivation that exists has existed from before; it has not come into existence now that you should come now and cling to the government and ask it to grant you assistance and facilities. Because, this has not happened at this time; it has not happened in the time of the Bazargan government that Mr. Bazargan should be its guarantor. This has happened in the time of the previous governments and during the time of the former regime. Now they have arrived and we have arrived in a country that was in chaos and must be set right. Therefore, workers, office staff, farmers, and the unemployed, all were the same in the past and were in a worse situation. Now at least you are free at that time this too was not there. Well, these people must be a little patient and reflect on what they must do. They should not be under the impression that now that they are unemployed, then they should be given assistance right now. I have not done this; this was done in the past. They deprived you. Now, we have arrived on the scene to bring out the deprived from their deprivation; but this is no miracle such that it can occur instantly. Well, this must be done gradually. We must tell those people that this is how it is; that you were living in a regime from which you got all these deprivations. All the destructions existed there; we have now arrived at the scene of the ruins; we want to rebuild them. The ruins that we want to rebuild needs time; needs a bit of patience. There must be time so that it is set right. An established government must be formed; there must be a budget allocated for the government so that the work is done; it cannot be set right on its own.
In any case, it is a revolution; a revolution necessitates the occurrence of such problems. What revolution better than this Revolution has happened until now? This is a" white revolution" and not the revolution of Mr. Aryamehr- Muhammad-Rida Pahlavi." The White Revolution", is that a revolution that has taken place and such a huge barrier has been broken. While at the same time that the losses have been minimal, what has been achieved has been a lot. Now, we again are in a revolution situation, as we have not come out of the Revolution; now is a condition of revolution. A condition of revolution is chaotic, after a revolution there is turmoil; everybody must bear with this turmoil. You should bear it in your own capacity; a worker should bear it according to his own limit; the university youth should bear it in their own capacity. Because now is not a situation of comfort and a time to relax. It is the time of the Revolution; at the time of a revolution and after a revolution, these problems and these troubles are there for all. It is there for the government; it is there for the nation; it is there for the youth. It is there for the peasants; it is there for all; but every one of us must join hands together and get the job done. May you all be successful, God willing.