That may be a strange statement given the banner that will fly on this page throughout September. In all honesty – I don’t particularly care about the politics of Iran, or any other country really, even though I am a political person.
I have a serious distrust of all politicians as I feel they are not in office because they care about us, the general population. They are there to push their own agendas and often, we, the general public, suffer for that agenda.
Reports from Iran suggest the election was rigged. Perhaps it was, perhaps it wasn’t but in a way, tell me any election that isn’t rigged. Here in Australia we have compulsory voting. I didn’t like any of the candidates standing at the last election, yet I had to vote for one of them. Is that not some form of electoral rigging?
One of the arguments used to prove the Iranian election was rigged was that government opponents even lost in their home towns. Referring again to Australian politics, former Prime Minister John Howard became Australia’s only Prime Minister to lose his seat in office at an election. It does happen.
So why this post and why the banner? It matters not the politics nor the country. Where I will stand up and have a say is when free speech is denied. China and Burma have been classic cases of restrictions in free speech particularly when it comes to the blogosphere. Free speech is the life blood of blogging and I will always stand up for our freedom. I was struck by two paragraphs of a post by Andrew Sullivan on the Daily Dish:
“The forces of democracy have marshalled in Iran for accountability, transparency and fairness. Wherever they marshall, we should stand with them, especially in the blogosphere, where our Iranian brothers and sisters built the foundation for this moment.”
Putting aside the philosophy of democracy. The point that stands out for me is the use of the blogosphere to form a movement because this leads into a second paragraph later in the post:
“Ever since I penned The Medium Is the Middleman: For a Revolution Against Media, I’ve been waiting for this moment, which I predicted, twelve years ago, would come: a great day when the corporate media got pushed out of the way by authentic media from below. What is occurring worldwide, with the Iranian crisis as catalyst, is the emergence of the very kind of media from below that the human race – particularly the working class and the poor – so desperately needs.”
The media that everyone has access to is blogging. Whether you’re a multi-millionaire or the poorest person around, if you can access a computer and the internet, even in a public library, you can voice your views. In fact you can do it almost completely anonymously. Of course I don’t support blogging that is anyway destructive on a person level or designed to malign innocent individuals, it can be an important weapon against injustice.
Add to the blogosphere the power of Twitter and other social media and you have the potential for a new political force around the world – at least – a huge voice.
I don’t care about the politics in Iran, or China, or anywhere else. I do care about the rights of individuals to have the freedom to voice their opinions – DO YOU?
I do care about the rights of individuals to have the freedom to voice their opinions too.
Hi,
Alternative to “Twitter” to Communicate to and from Iran
If you are in the USA or any other country and the Government of Iran is blocking your “Tweets” from Twitter…I have another solution, that works just like “Twitter”…but should be ‘under the radar’ of the Iranian Government (at least for now).
Its brand new…and is almost exactly like Twitter…but really better.
You can sign up for a FREE account…and contact your family and friends in Iran…to sign up for a free account also…this way you can communicate with them…just like you would do using Twitter.
I hope this helps…as I know many people in Iran and here in the USA and around the world do not support the current government of Iran,
Sign Up For Free..,.Just click the name posted above.
Peace To You All!
Dan
Unfortunately many politicians make people feel like you. But still we should strive for a more open way of governing. I think that would make people trust their politicians. I generally trust the ones in my country. But also I’m from Sweden that is top ranked as the country with less corruption. So there is also hope for other countries.