1. Tuesday’s Protest Footage: Here is some amazing footage from Tuesday’s march down Vali Asr St. The quality isn’t very good but the footage is incredible, especially with the silence. The marchers seem very disciplined. See the footage here.
2. Funny Slogan: Here’s a video of some anti-Ahmadinejad chants. I’m not going to lie, the slogan is a bit childish but I’m posting it anyway because I got a good laugh from it. See the video here.
3. Football? So a couple days ago Ahmadinejad brushed off the protests calling them passions similar to fans disgruntled after their favorite football team loses. The consequent anti-Ahmadinejad chant is worth noting here: “ahmadiye gusale – bazam begu futbale” (“Ahmadi[nejad] you son of a cow, keep saying it’s football”). This is significant because like many slogans, it is essentially recycled from the Islamic Revolution 30 years ago. When the military government then tried to suppress the demonstrations, protesters went to their rooftops at night and chanted “Allahu akbar” much like their doing at night now. Then, the military government headed by Azhari shrugged of the nightime chants as organized by a handful of people who recorded them and then just broadcasted them around the capital city through portable stereos to give off the allusion of popular support. The next day, the protestors chanted, “Azhariye gusale bazam migi navare, navare ke paa nadare!” (“Azhari you son of a cow, you keep saying it’s a cassette, a cassette doesn’t have legs!”)
4. Iran vs South Korea: Speaking of football, Iran plays S. Korea in 3 hours. Stay tuned for anti-regime agitation to unfold there as well.
5. Revolution, Then and Now: I was speaking to a friend who recently arrived to the US from Iran and she made a very very good point. She said that although many are heralding these events as the first stages of a new revolution, she thinks that the conditions are very dissimilar to 1979 and those differences may very well prevent such a revolution. She argued that in 1979, the entire country was more or less against the Shah and supportive of the revolution where Iran today is split into two groups, those with Ahmadinejad, Khamenei, and the system as a whole, and those with Mousavi and the idea of change. This is an important difference that should be noted by those who are rushing to call this a revolution.
6. Hizbullah: So anti-Arab propagandists and those hostile to Iran’s foreign policy objectives are spreading rumors that Iran is importing Hizbullah fighters to kill Iranian protesters. This is just silly mainly because there is no shortage of fanatical Iranians who are ready and willing to mow down fellow countrymen.
7. Wednesday Protests: It’s 1:10 am right now in southern California but it is 12:40 in the afternoon in Tehran and reports are coming out of another day of protests. See you in the morning.
you’ll find some funny slogans on this clip too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_1ft1hOz4Y&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fphoto.php%3Fpid%3D6250632%26id%3D643605437%26ref%3Dnf&feature=player_embedded
Good point about the country being united in 1979 and split today. However, I just want to point out, for whatever it’s worth, that the American colonies were split three ways in 1775: 1/3 loyal to Britain, 1/3 in favor of independence, and 1/3 indifferent.
BEST SLOGAN: NANEYE MEHDI FAHMIM IN KOOTOOLEH NAFAHMID! (Mehdi’s mom understood it, but this midget didn’t get it)
It is regarding the debate between Mehdi Kayroobi and Ahmadinejad where Ahmadinejad claimed that there is no inflation in Iran to which Mehdi responded: Even my 80 year old mom knows there is inflation in Iran.
Slogan from Isfahan: atal matal tootooleh, dictatoreh kootooleh!
wow, resorting to photoshop already? http://www.boingboing.net/2009/06/17/ahmadinijad-sucks-at.html
http://fardanews.com/fa/pages/?cid=84969
I think you shoud know that today I recieved several emails from monarchists and other opposition members sending around the “Albert Einstein Handbook” and requesting it be forwarded to those living inside Iran. Please read the wikipedia entry and at the end what it says about this handbook. Something is fishy here. I think foreign elements which were not initially involved are now getting involved.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_revolution
Soros foundation and U.S. influence
Opponents of the colour revolutions often accuse the Soros Foundation and/or the United States government of supporting and even planning the revolutions in order to serve western interests. It is noteworthy that after the Orange Revolution several Central Asian nations took action against the Open Society Institute of George Soros with various means — Uzbekistan, for example, forced the shutting down of the OSI regional offices, while Tajik state-controlled media have accused OSI-Tajikistan of corruption and nepotism. [10]
Evidence suggesting U.S. government involvement includes the USAID (and UNDP) supported Internet structures called Freenet, which are known to comprise a major part of the Internet structure in at least one of the countries – Kyrgyzstan – in which one of the colour revolutions occurred.
The Guardian[11] claimed that USAID, National Endowment for Democracy, the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and Freedom House are directly involved; the Washington Post and the New York Times also reported substantial Western involvement in some of these events.[2][3]
Activists from Otpor in Serbia and Pora in Ukraine have said that publications and training they received from the US based Albert Einstein Institution staff have been instrumental in the formation of their strategies.[4][5]
R you should forward that to the Huff Po live blog page. I think that if anyone can screw up any momentum for resolving the election, it’s monarchists.
nazanin , I have problem to get the sites that I used to, like IRNA , think they being blocked, do you have the same problem or my computer is acting up.
Yea I’m having the same problem. They’re sending DOS attacks to the sites from outside Iran. It could even be happening from within Iran. Iranians are good hackers and crackers.
mamnoon Nazanin,
How dare you JZ!? I don’t think you have any moral authority or credit in condemning others on moral grounds. Pouya doesn’t have anything to prove to you. Besides, do you read?! It’s not the same as skimming. He predicted that the regime would crack down on the protesters and will turn violent if needed. You know what? I applaud Pouya for having a neutral stance on this and observing it cautiously. More of us (i included myself in that) who don’t have our feet on Iranian soil, should be be rational.
I think the regime has a critical PR problem that they cannot fix without major concessions. What we see in Iran is the method by which people get results. I just hope history isn’t repeating itself. I also hope that people aren’t dying in vain or as a means of exploitation to cover Rafsanjani’s ass. Mousavi is NOT a Ghandi or Dr.King, but I think people have found someone within reach to cling to and it was a desperate time.
the name jz says a lot, this in not the first time, these are savages that hunt on incents (palistinians children) no body should expect more from these animals.
Nazanin, you don’t have your feet on Iran, and yet you think Pouya, you really must be high, however I think for the first time, Pouya has done a good job on talking about what is taking place in Iran. I didn’t read what JZ has written. Pouya never predicted this regime would crack, he was always silent. He never bothered writting about Iranian regime.
Nahid: ehterameh khodeto negah dar, be mardom va groohe az mardom toheen nakon, harkee bekhad harf bezani sub-human mesleh to ke migeh holocaust nabayad harf bezaneh. Lotfan ehterameh khodeto negah dar.
I admitted to lacking neutrality. Please read what I write. Please. Regardless of where my feet are planted, the fact is that these demonstrators are being guided/exploited (so is the US media, which is either the genius of Rafsanjani or his US backers/helpers) in order to provide a safety net for men with bloody records. Ahmadinejad might be embarrassing and a Tehran ego dampener, but Mousavi’s record doesn’t hold up next to his. This is a huge joke. It’s like appointing Madoff to be the chairman of the federal reserve! The situation might be fun to analyze and pick apart, but the consequences are not being reported, and I don’t believe Rafsanjani would be doing this if it didn’t guarantee a bailout for him and his sons.
From here on out, I will refer to Mousavi and his Pimp daddy Rafsanjani as MouRaf.
Civil disobedience is awesome. But Henry David Thoreau had standards, and I don’t think MouRaf qualifies. People have such short term memories about Iran. The reporting stinks and if this is supposed to reflect democracy, then the definition has changed. Only Mousavi = democracy and peace? I’m embarrassed that he calls himself the head of Arts and Humanities council in Iran. Anyone who studies humanities would align him with the evilest of characters literature.
Only those with twitter are giving the “real ground info?” What about the people who are super “javad” in the eyes of these middle/upper classes? Oh they’re just sub-human, illiterate scum I guess. That’s why they’d vote for Ahmadinejad in the first place, right?
JUST when the media was starting to open up to why Ahmadinejad defeated Rafansanji in the previous election, and why the reformist movement is worthless and corrupt, they take 100 steps back.
Thank goodness for scholarly blogs like this. You can’t trust the media on Iran.