i met an artist under this statue in Habana Cuba in May of 2007..since then we’ve maintained contact, he’s put me in touch with various free speech artists throughout tehran.
The following is an update on whats been happening to the people of Iran over the past couple of days. This brief update is directly from the words of M. Ghadri, a Tehran resident and participant in the mass protests:
“The election was real abuse of our trust and vote/they lied. We were sure we all voted for the other person but they made another person to be president. they are real liars and obama congrats them!!!!!!
We are f*d up. They stopped my online access and reduced internet speed to 12 kb, also filtered facebook and youtube all these days as well as filtered satellite and imprisoned the other candidates in their home with soldiers there.
We are all going to streets and fight Lebanese & Iranian police and guards who throw tear-gas on us all time.
they are wilder than Hitler …they even hit mothers and children 
We were there just to cheer and shout.
Uneducated people are with police and say ahmadinejad is with the poors, but we are poor too. but we happen to be more educated and want democracy. ahamdinejad is not with poors. he is with liars
We were there just to cheer and shout.Uneducated people are with police and say ahmadinejad is with the poors, but we are poor too. but we happen to be more educated and want democracy. ahamdinejad is not with poors. he is with liars
he says that “liars are those who fear”
we ask, “if you are not a liar. then why do you fear and block youtube? how you block facebook?
how you block satellite? how you imprison other candidates? how you change the votes?”
Hope of change and peace.
truth will win”
Departing December 2, 2008
Arrival: January 20, 2009
on Aug 10th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
The most amazing part of the extensive but temporary coverage of the stolen election in Iran during the spring of 2009, was the fact that it created such an interest among the American people.
These are the same 300 million people unable or unwilling to organize and protest peacefully in their own nation, when the presidential elections of both 2000 and 2004 were successfully stolen in front of the entire world.
Perhaps Iran is supposed to serve as some kind of “teachable moment,” to quote the parlance of the modern bourgeoisie, a cleansing moment in which the unwashed American may be tutored in the fundamental processes necessary to secure a democratic state.
More realistically, it would appear much more likely to be designed as a stern example (like Tiananmen Square April, 1989), of what happens to those who would challenge authority in a totalitarian society.
This bittersweet moment of moral repugnance in the streets of Tehran, is intended to provide a highly visual and visceral example of why Americans should continue their well-advised habit of refraining from actions which might bring into question the legitimacy of their own government.
Considering the miniscule coverage afforded the much larger and more focused public protests conducted by the people of Mexico in response their own stolen presidential election in 2006, the stark contrast of nearly constant coverage of Iranian dissent has more to do with American media serving the interests of the Israeli state than with actually exposing corruption.
What hope is there that we can overcome the apathy of an indifferent electorate, when Michael Jackson’s death is the leading news story for a longer period of time than democratic action taken in the face of violent suppression, in order secure liberty and justice? The American Revolution would have made page 12.
“The price of democracy is eternal vigilance.”-Thomas Jefferson