He notices, and obsesses over, the polished furniture, the wine older than its consumer, the earrings that cost more than a house, the birdhouses and silver and ornamental trees and exotic slaves.
Mr Khatami this week criticised the arrests, though in his usual manner only mildly, and appealed to Iranians to eschew excess.On the issue that obsesses the country whether he will run for a second term Mr Khatami has remained silent.
Many of the most ethnically diverse places in the country are now suburbs.This is not to say that the suburbs have completely solved the problem that obsesses their critics: alienation.
Who gets this water, and why, obsesses the West.
That belief is rooted in pragmatism, not European faith.The pragmatism is partly domestic: Mr Cameron knows British voters are quite Eurosceptic, but dislike it when his party obsesses about the subject.
Britain's absence from the euro club has not stopped Mr Blair from being one of the most listened-to politicians in Europe.The question of whether or not Britain joins the euro still obsesses the political classes in London.
He bullies cabinet ministers, obsesses over headlines, leaks to and manipulates journalists, almost all of whom he viscerally loathes:Mr Blair: "God, the press will kill us for this".
He is physically unprepossessing, has a drink problem and an inability to love the women he obsesses over and, in three cases, marries.
The EC obsesses over the rare cases in which they catch candidates overspending.
Yet the law that obsesses them the "three-strikes" law, which mandates a sentence of 25 years or life in prison for anybody convicted of a third felony may be softening a little.
"It's in Asia, and that's that," said one local, amid fierce head-shaking from his neighbours.The subject that obsesses Brussels, the EU constitution, drew only shrugs.
