Thoughts on Iran, Neda Sultan, and President Obama
Do the protestors really know what they want or are we seeing years of frustration boiling over?
What percentage of the Iranian people has seen the Neda Sultan shooting video?
Are there Iranians thinking about a post-protest Iran? Perhaps writing an Iranian style Declaration of Independence from radical Islam or Iranian leadership?
Has Mir-Hossein Mousavi communicated through diplomatic or other channels to Obama asking the President to keep the U.S. out of the Iranian dispute? Not hard to imagine. He would not want Ahmadinejad to tie him to the U.S.
Will young Iranians be willing to settle for Mousavi after all they have gone through since the election? Keep in mind that Mousavi is not much different from Ahmadinejad.
Do Iranian protestors want a nuclear Iran? What about a militarily powerful Iran? A militaristic Iran?
Do the protestors want death to America? How about death to Israel?
Are there any North Korean Neda Sultans? How about in Myanmar? Syria? East Timor? Yemen? Cuba?
Could a rebellion like the one in Iran ever take place in Cuba where conditions are so harsh?
If Neda Sultan were alive today, what would she want for the future of Iran?
Dear readers: I want to know your answers, and your questions. Please comment below.
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You have very good questions that should make each one of us think. Do they really know what they want? I don’t think so, except they know they are tired of the repression. I would venture to say that these are people who are frustrated and tired of the tyranny who have seized the opportunity and having strength in numbers have taken advantage of this moment to protest repressive government. What we see is a group of people who yearn for freedom and have probably been silently hoping for an opportunity to voice it. Who have been emboldened and seek as a group to have their voice heard. Sick of government and others telling them how to think, act, dress and vote. We are blessed in America to have freedom to think without our government’s intervention. Lately, we have forgotten that the freedom we enjoy came at a cost. What are we doing? Allowing government to take control of our lives, the very thing these people are dying for. Let’s not be so quick to hate the America that allows us to voice our opinions. May Iran and Neda serve as a warning.
They all need freedom!
The Cuban people are no different from the people in Iran or North Korea, they need freedom. But the repression they have suffered for fifty years is worst than the one in Iran. And the internal destruction caused by the Castros is far greater than North Korea.
Answers from an Iranian (a would-be protester if I was in Iran):
- We want to win over the islamofascist regime and attain our freedom. In doing so, we have to play a long and complicated “game” against the government. Just like a chess player, our short-term goals will be affected by how our opponent plays. You cannot ask a chess player after his very first move: “Do you want to capture the Queen?”. Such action might or might not be in line with the main objective: to win the game. So we have just play our first move and are waiting to see what happens next.
- The video of Neda’s death is spreading across the nation and I would say a sizeable (my guess: >75%) proportion of Iranians will eventually see the video soon. An unusual way of communication is the BlueTooth technology. People pass by eachother and their cellphones exchange files, just like spies covertly passing secrent data! It takes sometime to disseminate but it will work.
- I am not uncertain about your question RE Mousavi and Obama.
- I think protesters want their vote be counted fairly. But with the recent events, settling on Mousavi is such a huge defeat for the government that people will be asking for more! Mousavi had not been much different from Ahmadinejad but their difference is irrelevant as it is people versus the government now,.
- Protesters encompass a shockingly heterogeneous groups. Not only western-looking people but veterans of Iran-Iraq wars and mullahs are frequently seen in the protests. So it is not obvious what these people want at this point as they have been focusing on their freedom.
- Protesters will not say death to America & Isreal. This rhetoric belong to the core fundamentalists in the regime to propel their ideological warfare machine.
- I skip the questions you asked about other countries as I have no expertise. I just wish every county under dictatorship rises and strives for liberty.
- I did not know Neda before but the more I read about her the more I realize that Neda was a typical middle-class Iranian young woman. She probably had a simple list of dreams that citizens of democratic countries take as granted: to dress freely, travel freely, be protected by the government not feel threatened by it, economic prosperity, equal rights for men and women etc.
Having written this, I feel a bit nervous that I have talked on behalf of an entire nation, and so confidently about Neda’s dreams, but after all that happened we Iranians are realizing how much united we are! Thanks for your post and do not spare Iran in your thoughts/prayers.
Ali, and everyone great comments! Postor1 thank you for going to Yoani Sanchez’s site. I am glad to see that I am sending readers her way. To read her blog is to protect her and other Cuban bloggers.
Yoani Sánchez
Graduate in Philology. Lives in Havana and combines her passion for information science with her work on the Portal Desde Cuba.
yoani.sanchez@gmail.com
Taking note
What is happening in Iran and its dissemination through the Internet is a lesson for Cuban bloggers. The authoritarians of the court also must be taking note of what great dangers result from—in these events—Twitter, Facebook, and mobile phones. Seeing those young Iranians use all the technology to denounce the injustice, I notice everything that we lack to support those who maintain blogs from the island. The acid test of our incipient virtual community has not yet arrived, but maybe it will surprise us tomorrow… with the aggravation of low connectivity.
In our blogger meetings, which we hold every week, we watched a small video about the Iranian cybernauts. I watched it again today in lieu of the images of the demonstrations that our official television refuses to show. I haven’t contemplated the faces painted green, nor heard any announcer speak of the seven dead, but with this brief animated short I can imagine everything. I visualize an entire generation weary of old structures that it wants to change, a people—like me—who has ceased to believe in enlightened leaders who lead us like cattle. In the midst of all this, to our satisfaction, are the bytes and screens modifying the form of protest.
On days like this I greatly regret not being able to be online; I feel like I’m choking having to wait to hear all the news. If there’s still time for me to extend my solidarity to the Iranian bloggers, then here is a post to tell them: “Today it’s you, tomorrow it could well be us.”
Yoani Sanchez’s site.
http://www.desdecuba.com/generaciony/