Miss Kolka

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What's happening? | 18 juin 2009

"What'z the buzz, tell me what's happening..." like that song in Jesus Christ Superstar.

I want to write about Iran, but no matter how I put it in my head, I don't know what to say!
I feel I dont know anything about the situation there, or enough about the historic importance of that place and I actually bought a book to enlighten me long before I realised there would be elections there a few weeks ago. (I have found time to read again now that sitcoms are on a summerbreak, hence the bedside reading of "The Secret War with Iran").

Yes, I know that the "People" are questioning the results of the presidential election where sitting president Ahmadinejad is supposed to have won more than 62 percent of the vote. Yes, I know that in western media just before the election, all we heard about was how popular his main opponent Moussavi was, a former prime minister and apparently the saviour of all good for the West (when compared with Devil Ahmadinejad of course who wants to bomb us all up with the nuclear bomb they're not supposed to have and especially eradicate awful Israel). Except that this so called "reformist" is just as radical in these matters, he does not recognise Isreal and he also was part of the establishment when thousands of oppenents to the regime were executed in the 80-s and 90's I think. (thanks CNN's "101 Iran, understanding the unrest")

So probably the results are rigged - but it doesnt mean Ahmadinejad would not have won anyway. If he would have lost to Moussavi, it does not mean either that the relations with the west would have been better since Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is really the one in charge. And although I dont doubt Iranians are unhappy with how this has been handled, there is still something telling me that we don't know half the story behind these protests. There's always something bugging me with news stories from Iran - all since that infamous "axes-of-evil" speech by W. No matter how much I read on the subject, I just become more and more sceptical.
And if the protests go out of hand, could this not be used as an excuse to intervene by foreign powers? Some people seem to think so already.

In the words of the blog Enlightenment project:

...[Regarding] the Iranian elections, I'm reminded of own stolen election in 2000. As a thought-experiment imagine that after all the dirty tricks and the selection of George W. Bush by a Supreme Court packed with his supporters, some foreign power like the EU had intervened. Personally I'd have been delighted, but I suspect most Americans, obsessed with notions of national pride and the avoidance of stoogery, wouldn't have liked it one bit. I would love to be a colony of the EU because all I've ever wanted politically is a social democratic welfare state and I don't care who runs it: I couldn't care less about sovreignty, independence or national pride and being a colony wouldn't bother me in the least.

But most people don't feel that way, either in the US or in Iran. So I hope, and optimistically, expect that the US will bud out. This is their culture war, not ours, even if it is part of the larger global culture war between the educated upper middle class and the masses.

I dont know about the middle class and the masses, but we are certainly in some kind of global war, whether its cultural, religious or a mixture of both - somesort of clash of civilizations (like predicted by Samuel P Huntington). Where is this going to take us?

(Another question, to be answered or at least discussed at a later date is: why are so many young men ready to sacrifice themselves for a cause /identity? - I find the protesting movements in the Middle or Far East interesting in that they are almost only made of men between the ages of 14-35. But like I said, it' s a whole other debate.)

Publié par Kolka à 14:58:17 dans Miss Kolka | Commentaires (0) | Permaliens