So much stupid insanity
This situation in Iran is really trying my patience with the amount of nonsense circling around.
First we have Amehdinijad (or however it's spelled; can't be bothered to look up the spelling) and Mousavi competing to be, not the leader of Iran, but to essentially have the ear of Khameini. Basically it does not matter who won the election, Khameini is still Iran's head of state. To think that Mousavi with his western-friendly stance would somehow change Iran for the better is somewhat foolish. Having a western-friendly Ayatollah would have a far greater impact on Iran than Mousavi or his supporters could ever dream of.
The maddening thing is that while Mousavi appears to have good intentions at first glance, I don't think he really believes in them. If he really believes in real democracy for Iran, he should have accepted his defeat graciously, instead he panders to his supporters by saying the election was fraud despite the fact there was no real proof of it, other than the sheer disbelief of the election results. More than that, he actively wanted his supporters (mostly university students) to stage protest rallies without the approval of Khameini, who had warned that any illegal protests would be met with force. Essentially Mousavi deliberately put his supporters in harms way before he could guarantee their safety, and then "didn't have time to tell them he didn't have Khameini's approval". I do feel sorry for all those young Iranians caught in the crossfire, not because their "votes weren't counted", but because the man they support seems like a very shady character using their lives as political chips to aritificially inflate his influence far beyond what it actually is.
The interesting thing about this situation in Iran is that it appears to be centered around Tehran. Considering that more than half the population in Iran is made of young people, it becomes very easy to see why Mousavi believes why he was robbed. However, the vast majority of Iranians live in rural areas, where Amehdinijad gets most of his votes. Also it appears that Mousavi's supporters in Iran are all young, very well educated urbanites. Compare that to Amehdninjad's supporters being mainly old people and those who live outside of the urban centers with little education, that not all young educated urbanites would vote for Mousavi, and it becomes clear to me Mousavi does not want to admit he was targetting a very small segment of Iran's population. More to the point, since these protests are happening mostly in Tehran it makes it seem that Mousavi believes that the future for Iran lies with the educated elite. If anything, Mousavi's defiance is anything but democratic if he believes he should have the power vested in him by the educated elite alone. I can see why his defiance is met with such distate by the powers that be in Iran, it would be like the Green Party having an amazing surge of voters in polls prior but not nearly enough to win, and so they complain that there was election fraud because their calculations "proved" they should've won the election before it happened. Unfortunately such actions in itself is not in the spirit of democracy, and the vast majority of people along with those in power will step in to put a stop to their protest. The only difference is this is in Iran, not in the EU, Canada, or the US. The reaction is extreme, but I'm not really surprised or shocked by it at all.
As far as countries speaking out about this, I can only say: Please don't, you're embarrassing yourselves. Imagine people in the EU criticzing the US elections when Bush first got in and calling for Gore to be instated. Or more recently the US having stepped into the brief Canadian turmoil over the opposition's coaltion to topple the government and assume power for themselves, and siding with the ruling Conservatives. Iran is well within its rights to essentially tell other countries "to get stuffed." and kick us out of the country until the situation resolves itself.
Speaking of which, I'm also raging against the media's attitude toward the whole situation in general. They're complaining about being kicked out of the country as Journalists, in that it's somehow wrong that they're preventing them from covering the story. This sort of self-centered attitude they have really frustrates me. It's obvious to me that Iran is not doing it to prevent them from covering the story, since the outbound internet and national news services haven't been curtailed, it's mostly to prevent them from getting shot or killed, as Neda's story has proved. The last thing Iran needs right now is for one of their riot police to shoot and kill a Journalist in the middle of a rally. Besides that, once the situation is over, I'm sure they'll be allowed back and they can then talk to them people and gather resources to tell the story of what happened. There's no real need to report on a story that's unfolding at a very rapid pace. The population there will definitely remember this. I also hope that Iranians' resourceful use of the Internet will knock the media's self-important attitude towards self-publication on the Internet down a few notches. It doesn't take credentials to tell or report a story. More importantly if the media wants to be respectable in my eyes, they should not butcher the words and footage of those telling them the story to make it seem like they're the ones telling the story, instead of the actual people. One last thing, there will not be a Revolution in Iran, the number of people are too small and too narrow to cause one. The students have a lot of passion, but eventually the unrest will burn out, and things will go back to the status quo.
First we have Amehdinijad (or however it's spelled; can't be bothered to look up the spelling) and Mousavi competing to be, not the leader of Iran, but to essentially have the ear of Khameini. Basically it does not matter who won the election, Khameini is still Iran's head of state. To think that Mousavi with his western-friendly stance would somehow change Iran for the better is somewhat foolish. Having a western-friendly Ayatollah would have a far greater impact on Iran than Mousavi or his supporters could ever dream of.
The maddening thing is that while Mousavi appears to have good intentions at first glance, I don't think he really believes in them. If he really believes in real democracy for Iran, he should have accepted his defeat graciously, instead he panders to his supporters by saying the election was fraud despite the fact there was no real proof of it, other than the sheer disbelief of the election results. More than that, he actively wanted his supporters (mostly university students) to stage protest rallies without the approval of Khameini, who had warned that any illegal protests would be met with force. Essentially Mousavi deliberately put his supporters in harms way before he could guarantee their safety, and then "didn't have time to tell them he didn't have Khameini's approval". I do feel sorry for all those young Iranians caught in the crossfire, not because their "votes weren't counted", but because the man they support seems like a very shady character using their lives as political chips to aritificially inflate his influence far beyond what it actually is.
The interesting thing about this situation in Iran is that it appears to be centered around Tehran. Considering that more than half the population in Iran is made of young people, it becomes very easy to see why Mousavi believes why he was robbed. However, the vast majority of Iranians live in rural areas, where Amehdinijad gets most of his votes. Also it appears that Mousavi's supporters in Iran are all young, very well educated urbanites. Compare that to Amehdninjad's supporters being mainly old people and those who live outside of the urban centers with little education, that not all young educated urbanites would vote for Mousavi, and it becomes clear to me Mousavi does not want to admit he was targetting a very small segment of Iran's population. More to the point, since these protests are happening mostly in Tehran it makes it seem that Mousavi believes that the future for Iran lies with the educated elite. If anything, Mousavi's defiance is anything but democratic if he believes he should have the power vested in him by the educated elite alone. I can see why his defiance is met with such distate by the powers that be in Iran, it would be like the Green Party having an amazing surge of voters in polls prior but not nearly enough to win, and so they complain that there was election fraud because their calculations "proved" they should've won the election before it happened. Unfortunately such actions in itself is not in the spirit of democracy, and the vast majority of people along with those in power will step in to put a stop to their protest. The only difference is this is in Iran, not in the EU, Canada, or the US. The reaction is extreme, but I'm not really surprised or shocked by it at all.
As far as countries speaking out about this, I can only say: Please don't, you're embarrassing yourselves. Imagine people in the EU criticzing the US elections when Bush first got in and calling for Gore to be instated. Or more recently the US having stepped into the brief Canadian turmoil over the opposition's coaltion to topple the government and assume power for themselves, and siding with the ruling Conservatives. Iran is well within its rights to essentially tell other countries "to get stuffed." and kick us out of the country until the situation resolves itself.
Speaking of which, I'm also raging against the media's attitude toward the whole situation in general. They're complaining about being kicked out of the country as Journalists, in that it's somehow wrong that they're preventing them from covering the story. This sort of self-centered attitude they have really frustrates me. It's obvious to me that Iran is not doing it to prevent them from covering the story, since the outbound internet and national news services haven't been curtailed, it's mostly to prevent them from getting shot or killed, as Neda's story has proved. The last thing Iran needs right now is for one of their riot police to shoot and kill a Journalist in the middle of a rally. Besides that, once the situation is over, I'm sure they'll be allowed back and they can then talk to them people and gather resources to tell the story of what happened. There's no real need to report on a story that's unfolding at a very rapid pace. The population there will definitely remember this. I also hope that Iranians' resourceful use of the Internet will knock the media's self-important attitude towards self-publication on the Internet down a few notches. It doesn't take credentials to tell or report a story. More importantly if the media wants to be respectable in my eyes, they should not butcher the words and footage of those telling them the story to make it seem like they're the ones telling the story, instead of the actual people. One last thing, there will not be a Revolution in Iran, the number of people are too small and too narrow to cause one. The students have a lot of passion, but eventually the unrest will burn out, and things will go back to the status quo.