ندا آقا سلطان

Neda Agha-Soltan

Rift in Iran's top clergy

Widening Rift in the Clergy

It appears that the rift among the the top religious authorities in Iran continues to gain momentum, with the Ayatollah Khameini having to lean more and more in his enforement agencies and less in the rule of law, while his moral authority seems to be spiraling down in all but the most conservative Iranians.

According to Reuters the most senior opposition ayatollah, Hossein Ali Montazeri, distanced himself further from Iran’s supreme leader, saying that “Resisting people’s demand is religiously prohibited … I am calling for three days of national mourning from Wednesday.” and described the election results as something that “no wise person in their right mind can believe.”

Former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who leads the 86-member Assembly of Experts -a goverment body with legal authority to remove the Supreme Leader-, is supposed to be playing a quiet but critical role in organizing the opposition. His daughter Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani is a former member of Parliament who gained notoriety for opening sports to women and was seen at a rally for opposition candidate Mir Hussein Moussavi on June 17.

Mounting Evidence of Election Fraud

Read the analysis from Chatham House

Street Demonstrations Continue

Below is what is reported to be a demonstration in Shirazi street in Teheran from earlier today. It seems that demonstrations continue throughout Iran today, but with less violence than Yesterday in spite of the large number of police in the streets. Indeed, they are chanting "we are all together" -I wonder if we are beginning to see the turning of the enforcement agaencies -the only thing that seems to be keeping the government in place -to the reformist camp...



Here is a great blog from inside Iran, with great updates and photos

Marg Bar Dictator

With chants of "Allah-o-akbar!" ("God is great!") and ”Marg Bar dictator!” ("Death to the dictator!"), the people marched all over Iran today in defiance of Yesterday's threats of violence by the Ayatollah Khameini. Reports of massive use of tear gass, water cannons, and in some cases live bullets slowed slowed down the demonstrations, but did not manage to stop them completely.

It looks like the government of Iran has but two options: become a plain dictatorship in all but name, or veer towards freedom and reform.

Here is one of the many websites following the ongoing events

Videos, photographs, and blogspostes abound. The people are leaving no room for doubt about what they want, and their willingness to pay whatever cost is necessary:

>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBOBhguAjjY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t54KKSVl-c

Don't miss these revealing facts about the election results here.

Meanwhile, demonstrations by Iraninan citizens and their supporters took place all over the world.

A Note to Tomorrow's Children

A blog post in Persian, translated by the NIAC

"I will participate in the demonstrations tomorrow. Maybe they will turn violent. Maybe I will be one of the people who is going to get killed. I'm listening to all my favorite music. I even want to dance to a few songs. I always wanted to have very narrow eyebrows. Yes, maybe I will go to the salon before I go tomorrow! There are a few great movie scenes that I also have to see. I should drop by the library, too. It's worth to read the poems of Forough and Shamloo again. All family pictures have to be reviewed, too. I have to call my friends as well to say goodbye. All I have are two bookshelves which I told my family who should receive them. I'm two units away from getting my bachelors degree but who cares about that. My mind is very chaotic. I wrote these random sentences for the next generation so they know we were not just emotional and under peer pressure. So they know that we did everything we could to create a better future for them. So they know that our ancestors surrendered to Arabs and Mongols but did not surrender to despotism. This note is dedicated to tomorrow's children..."

It is incredible to see what is in the hearts an minds of so many Iranians right now. It is touching, it is moving, it is amazing. History tells us of armies of long dead people who put themselves in harm's way for the sake of freedom, but that can never compare to the reality of seeing it happening, right this moment, by people like you or I, who go to school, or have a job, who for all that matters could be our next door neighbors -placing freedom above all else. Moments like this make me fall in love with the people of Earth.

The Ayatollah made clear where he stands -and has given a clear warning to the people and opposition leaders -but the protests will go on in a few hours. I hope the cost to the people is not too high.

Iran wants change

In 1979, the people of Iran raised up to overthrow a goverment they did not approve of. That revolution was supposed to put in place an islamic goverment, empowered by the people. But the recent and highly contested election results triggered a series of protests in which the people of Iran made clear that they did not feel empowered by their government. "It's not about Mousavi, or any candidate, it's about democracy" explained a young protester in the streets of Teheran. It seems to me, from the multiple accounts, interviews, tweets, blogs, and cell-phone videos from the streets, that the people weren't particularly upset with the system of government -at least at the beginning- they just wanted to have a say in how things are run, and they want to be able to express themselves freely -the problem is that this is a classic example of what happens when one branch of government has power over the others: the people's sovereignty soon starts to fade.

So now, with the whole world paying close attention, Iran finds itself at a fork in the road. The Supreme Leader must be thinking about what happened to the last Shah during the revolution, armed forces or not. Using force to repress the protests would discredit whatever credibility it has left before its own people and abroad, and it might backfire, triggering another revolution. He even has strong opposition within the clerical branches of government, supporting the protests. The safest way out seems to be to call for a re-election, and this time making sure it is legitimate. This of course, may weaken his position in the eyes of his opponents, and probably his own; though it seems to me that with the right moves, he could easily turn the situation to his advantage and gain popular support.

Khamenei said he would address the people tomorrow, and in the meantime, the people continue to flood the streets to make sure no one forgets what they want.

The world watches, and holds its breath.

>Al Jazeera article

>The Economist article

>Iran Timeline

Government of Iran:

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

I find that knowing my own and other people's personality types can be helpful to understand behavior and motivation, and therefore help find the logic in apparently confusing or contradictory behavior. This tool can then help counteract the classical mistake of assuming that behavior in others is caused by the same motivations or understanding of the world as one's own.

Type selector >

Test >

This is what I got:

Your Type is INTJ

Strength of the preferences %

Introverted - 78
Intuitive - 75
Thinking - 38
Judging - 22

What did you get...?

Tiananmen Square

On June 4th, 20 years ago, many brave people died for demanding that their voices be heard. They wanted reform, freedom, and democracy. I think that when someone takes a stand for freedom at the risk of their own lives, they not only bring honor upon themselves, but elevate all of us, as a species, and we should all be proud of them, our brothers and sisters in the human family. As a small tribute to them, I spent some time reading about, and pondering the events that took place during the weeks that culminated that night on Tiananmen square.

Two quotes in particular caught my attention:

"Whether you like or not, the events ensured 20 years of fast economic growth"
Beijing Netizen, Beijing

"June 4th was a time when a group of people sacrificed their lives for democracy. We need to remember their efforts"
Steve Chan, Hong Kong

It cannot be denied that a peaceful demonstration for freedom is an honorable action and stems from basic human rights -on this belief we should not waver. We must also consider that freedom has many dimensions; political freedom does no good if people are starving, or can't educate themselves. These too are basic building blocks of freedom. History shows that lack of stability is detrimental of economic growth, and economic growth is necessary to elevate people from poverty, to provide education, and raise standards of living. Thus, it could be argued that the violent repression of June 4th was necessary for the long-term wellfare of the people.

So the question is this: was the benefit of crushing a potential revolution enough to justify the taking of so many lives?

I suggest that before answering, you take a deep breath, close your eyes, and imagine yourself in a room large enough to contain all the mothers, fathers, children, and friends of all those who were killed -a very, very large room.

Now imagine you have to ask that question to them.

Bada BING

After brief experimentation, I have found no great performance gap between Google and Bing -Microsoft's latest Search Engine re-launch. They are marketing it as a "Decision Engine"; it is supposed to help you sort through results better by selecting more "credible" sources (better-paying sources?) I can't wait for the conspiracy theories on that.

While Bing doesn't really have more to offer than Google, it does a better job of presenting and advertising its features. Even the simple, clean-looking Google interface, one of its best liked features, looks a bit too simple after Bing's nice interactive wallpapers. I am sure that if a proper comparisson is done, Google will come out on top performance-wise, at least initially, but for the first time, Microsoft appears to have come up with a credible adversary to Google, and in view of Microsoft's past history, even mighty Google should be losing some sleep. Or has Microsoft finally met its match?

Either way, the web landscape has become a bit more interesting...