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The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. -- MLK
From Twitter: If an innocent girl gets shot halfway across the world, does she make a sound? Yes, and the whole world hears her. #iranelection #neda
Sorry for no updates and picture uploads yesterday.
I've been pretty much refreshing![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
ontd_political, Andrew Sullivan, and The Huffington Post to follow events in Iran.
And...it is hard to watch. The urge to do something is strong, even though there isn't a whole lot you can do but bear witness.
Like watching a 16 year-old girl named Neda die after being snipped by the basij in front of the horrified eyes of her family.
(Oh, fuck me. I'm crying again. Note that the video is graphic, so you might not want to watch. The comments inontd_political will make you cry alone.)
It's the YouTube seen 'round the world. As to what it ultimately means for Iranians in particular, and us in general I simply can't see from where I sit.
But I know that nothing is quite the same as it was.
Here is where the we at least see the power of the Internet. Blogs (Iran is the third largest blogging nation), YouTube, texting, Facebook, Gmail statuses, and...Twitter. All of them employed to deliver telegrams not just between protesters inside Iran, but to send them from inside the country to the world outside.
Who knew that in the end, the revolution would be Twittered? It's the perfect demonstration of The Cute Cat Theory of Digital Activism being done in real time.
And every picture uploaded to Photobcket and Flikr, every status statement made on Facebook and Gmail, every text messages sent to phones and Twitter, every video uploaded to YouTube says the same thing.
We are here, and maybe we're scared, but we're not going anywhere.
As Fred Clark over on the Slacktivist says: I find the courage and defiant determination of these people beautiful, humbling and inspiring.
But the most striking thing about the protests is the presence of women leading the fight. So many of them are young and beautiful. And as Jezebel points out, that's entirely the point, because these women are not just making a statement by getting involved, but also in the way they dress.
I can understand the neo-con call for us to do something even though I completely disagree with them and think it's probably the last thing we should do. The arc of history is against the U.S. in this, in it's for the best that we do our best to stay out of the clash between the protesters and the Iranian government. The U.S. coming in on the side of the protesters is exactly what the government wants, so they can blame the protests on "foreign influence" and discredit what the protesters are trying to accomplish.
And what they're trying to accomplish is justice, to force the government to live up to its promises and govern only by the consent of the governed. If the protesters succeed, will their democracy look like ours? Hell, no. It won't and it shouldn't. But it will be theirs and that's the point.
Who wouldn't want to do something after reading and seeing everything that's available online? Who wouldn't?
But in the end, I think President Obama struck the right tone here in reminding the Iranian government that world is watching, and that the rights of the Iranian people need to be respected.
It's hard sitting on the sidelines, but sometimes you have to because history needs witnesses.
Like watching the death of a 16 year-old girl named Neda half-way 'round the world, a girl you didn't know ever existed until just this moment, and understanding exactly what it means.
Sorry for no updates and picture uploads yesterday.
I've been pretty much refreshing
ontd_political, Andrew Sullivan, and The Huffington Post to follow events in Iran.And...it is hard to watch. The urge to do something is strong, even though there isn't a whole lot you can do but bear witness.
Like watching a 16 year-old girl named Neda die after being snipped by the basij in front of the horrified eyes of her family.
(Oh, fuck me. I'm crying again. Note that the video is graphic, so you might not want to watch. The comments in
ontd_political will make you cry alone.)It's the YouTube seen 'round the world. As to what it ultimately means for Iranians in particular, and us in general I simply can't see from where I sit.
But I know that nothing is quite the same as it was.
Here is where the we at least see the power of the Internet. Blogs (Iran is the third largest blogging nation), YouTube, texting, Facebook, Gmail statuses, and...Twitter. All of them employed to deliver telegrams not just between protesters inside Iran, but to send them from inside the country to the world outside.
Who knew that in the end, the revolution would be Twittered? It's the perfect demonstration of The Cute Cat Theory of Digital Activism being done in real time.
And every picture uploaded to Photobcket and Flikr, every status statement made on Facebook and Gmail, every text messages sent to phones and Twitter, every video uploaded to YouTube says the same thing.
We are here, and maybe we're scared, but we're not going anywhere.
As Fred Clark over on the Slacktivist says: I find the courage and defiant determination of these people beautiful, humbling and inspiring.
But the most striking thing about the protests is the presence of women leading the fight. So many of them are young and beautiful. And as Jezebel points out, that's entirely the point, because these women are not just making a statement by getting involved, but also in the way they dress.
I can understand the neo-con call for us to do something even though I completely disagree with them and think it's probably the last thing we should do. The arc of history is against the U.S. in this, in it's for the best that we do our best to stay out of the clash between the protesters and the Iranian government. The U.S. coming in on the side of the protesters is exactly what the government wants, so they can blame the protests on "foreign influence" and discredit what the protesters are trying to accomplish.
And what they're trying to accomplish is justice, to force the government to live up to its promises and govern only by the consent of the governed. If the protesters succeed, will their democracy look like ours? Hell, no. It won't and it shouldn't. But it will be theirs and that's the point.
Who wouldn't want to do something after reading and seeing everything that's available online? Who wouldn't?
But in the end, I think President Obama struck the right tone here in reminding the Iranian government that world is watching, and that the rights of the Iranian people need to be respected.
It's hard sitting on the sidelines, but sometimes you have to because history needs witnesses.
Like watching the death of a 16 year-old girl named Neda half-way 'round the world, a girl you didn't know ever existed until just this moment, and understanding exactly what it means.
no subject
The whole world is watching.
The whole world is watching.
The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will be Twittered.
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And it's amazing watching history being made.
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To think, before the Internet age this would all be taking place in shadow with very little word leaking out, and what did leak out would take time to make it outside the country. As it is, we're watching practically in real time.
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You hear so many Americans complaining about our government. If the Republicans are in office, the Democrats are up in arms. If the Democrats are in office, the Republicans are up in arms. it's become a morasse of the same complaints from different sides for me. I stopped listening. the litany grew tiring.
But at least we have that ability - that right, no that responsibility, and no one can take that away from us. Not legally.
But Neda. She didn't have that right. Yet she still stood up and protested and her government killed her for exercising her choice. Seeing this makes me so GLAD I'm here, and so mad at the places in the world that can not see that EVERY SINGLE HUMAN BEING deserves the right to speak out for their own interests.
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I tend to agree with them. We NEED to see this. I was a kid when Khomeiny took over Iran. Before that, under the Shah, yes, things weren't great but at least they were trying to be more modern. Iran turned from a Western-oriented country, into the vast, Islam-dominated country it is today, with megalomaniacs at the helm.
It is seeing things like this, that might get some people who think these kinds of regimes are the way to go, to maybe realize that having people like these around, isn't such a good idea. Maybe it will make them realize why religions (all of them, but Islam in particular) or political systems like Communism (like in North-Korea) aren't such great things.
Where I live, in the Netherlands, both Islam and offshoots of Christianity are gaining political power, the minority is dictating to the majority how we should live. The majority is sick of it and showed it in the last elections for the European Parliament.
Why am I hijacking this thread about what's happening in Iran? Because the people I'm talking about, they are major supporters of Iran. Dutch people, influential people here support the leadership of Iran, everytime they state that 'Israel should be destroyed'. They walk in front of demonstrations where slogans like 'All Jews on the gas' are chanted. They make excuses for these people, claiming they strike out because 'we don't respect them'.
Maybe seeing this video will tell them that what they've been doing isn't such a good idea. Maybe, but I doubt it. Not when their heroes are people like Stalin or Ahmedinejad.
As for the US sitting this one out, I can only applaud it. What has always struck me as ironic and unpalatable is the fact that whenever there is a crisis somewhere in the world, the whole world is outraged and calls for action, Europe specifically and slyly looks to the US to deal with it. When finally, the US does deal with it, without so much help from the rest of the world, those same countries decry the US's efforts as imperialis etc.
The US aren't the world's policeman. They have enough problems of their own they need to deal with. IF they deal with something, it would behoof us to be thankful yet watch carefully. But we all must remember, it's not their duty to do so. WE ALL should help, not throw the burden on ONE country because of their vastness of economy/wealth/power. Also, it's on the people living in the affected region to do something about it if they can. Like is happening now in Iran.
no subject
What I learned from your post was her age. That I had not realized or expected.