Iran’s Rich Eat Ice Cream Flecked With Gold--Inviting The Arab Spring?

Gold, it turns out, is also digestible. And that's good news for Sepp, because customers are developing a new appetite for gold -- literally. Over the last five years, his sales of edible gold leaf increased by 50 percent. The same stuff on the Met Life dome is now being put in martinis, chocolates, pastries. Last year, some of Sepp's gold was included in The World's Most Expensive Dessert -- an ice cream sundae that sold for $25,000. But ordinary mortals with a taste for gold can find it at the grocery store. Well, a really nice grocery store. American Public Media, Satisfying a taste for gold, June 13, 2008

A $25,000 ice cream sundae
decorated with gold leaf flakes.

Personally, I prefer Tofutti.

Remember, this is the Iran that praised the "Arab Spring":

Iran's Majlis speaker noted that the growing wave of Islamic Awakening has now spread all across the world, and US authorities cannot avert popular uprisings or dissuade people from pursuing their demands. Addressing White House officials and regional leaders, Larijani said, “Do not think that you can prevent Islamic Awakening through these measures.”

...while at the same time hypocritically made a point of crushing anything approaching protests at home:

Thousands of Iranian opposition activists rallied in support of popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia on Monday and a semi-official news agency said one person was shot dead and several wounded by protesters. An opposition website said dozens were arrested while taking part in the banned protests, which amounted to a test of strength for the reformist opposition in the Islamic state.

Of course, when the Arab Spring started--in Tunisia--the issue was not instituting a stricter form of Islam, the issue was jobs and food.

This fact has been lost on Ahmadinejad and the Iranian regime which, though doing well by the elite, is allowing a larger gap to grow between the haves and the have-nots.

I suppose based on past experience Ahmadinejad figures that shooting unarmed protesters will do the trick if  the poor decide to protest. But based on the experience of other countries--such as Syria--we have seen that massacres do not do the trick.

What, me worry?

UPDATE: Don't look now but one of Iranian ice creams main ingredients is getting more expensive:

Safe-haven buying sent gold soaring to a new record above $1,700 on Monday an ounce and the dollar weakened against a basket of major currencies.

Technorati Tag: Iran and Arab Spring.