Daguerreotypes, pages 61 to 78 Summary and Analysis

Photograph 11: A photograph of a Lufthansa airliner. Members of the Shah's retinue regularly take a plane to Munich just to have lunch. Higher-up members prefer not to travel but instead to have lunch flown in by Air France. Corruption and waste reign supreme in the Shah's "Great Civilization." Bribery in the area of hundreds of millions of dollars becomes just another part of doing business for corporations in Iran. This great wealth and corruption gives rise to a class of people Kapuscinski refers to as "petro-bourgeoisie," a class of freeloaders, created by oil wealth, who produce nothing but consume everything. They build grand million-dollar mansions next to shantytowns, flaunting their wealth. Naturally, this all contributes to the lower class's increasing hostility.

Photograph 12: This is a political cartoon which shows a Teheran street full of large American cars...