Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The Revolution will NOT be Twittered

Apparently something is going on in Iran. Somewhere along the lines of up to 500,000 people, many of them youth/university students, have taken to the streets to protest the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Similar to what happened in Moldova a view months ago (I will admit I had no idea what had happened in Moldova until I read about it today, in my defense I was getting ready for NTC), many of the young people are using technology to show the world what is going on. Utilizing the internet as well as an obsessive use of Twitter.

Some great pictures of the "Green Revolution" can be found on the Boston Globe's website. Pictures 28 and 29 were especially moving for me. A police officer has had the snot beaten out of him by the protestors and yet even though a few minutes ago he was most likely attacking the protestors, a few of them after he was injured moved him to safety. I doubt you would see that in the States. You look into the eyes of your enemy and sometimes you just see a man.

But anyway, my point is that despite some evidence of election fraud, I don't think Mir Hossein Mousavi won and I firmly believe that Ahmandinejad won fairly...despite all the mounting evidence to the contrary. Mousavi was not supposed to win and it was only a week before the election that his popularity suddenly shot up and he had a chance at winning. Ahmandinejad might be a little crazy, but he's pretty popular in Iran and I am not surprised that a majority of Iranians voted for him. I believe the problem is coming from the university students and others who feel that because all their friends voted for Mousavi then Mousavi was clearly the winner and all other scenarios clearly indicate a fix.

I noticed the same thing with the election of George Bush. "Well I didn't vote for him and no one I know voted for him so that means the election was stolen."

No, it means you need a more diverse group of friends. Hell, if we took this model then Senator McCain should have won the last election because where I was at I knew of only 1 or 2 people who voted for now President Obama.

As usual I have obligatory links to both Abu Muqawama and Wired/Danger Room both discussing the use of technology such as Twitter and how it affects our perception of current events. Just because we can see ourselves in the t-shirt and jean clad students making up the "Green Revolution" does not mean those protestors are part of a majority of Iranians who seek change. Although, I do admit I like the use of a color to show solidarity amongst your fellow protestors, much like Ukranians and their "Orange Revolution" (Why oh why did they use orange??? I hate orange. Clearly I need to be in on the discussion on color choices of revolutions).



To sum things up: there is no "Green Revolution". Even if Mousavi was elected it will change nothing in Iran that is controlled by the Ayatollahs. But I may be mistaken, 500,000 people in the streets can't all be wrong. One asshole blogging about it from thousands of miles away very well could be.

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