Kamangir (Archer)

Fancy World of Blogging

Kamangir | July 14, 2006 | Category Iran

1- In her latest post, Lisa daydreams about a blog-based information highway to talk about the recent series of fights in the Palestine/Israel (see). 2- The Iranian famous political prisoner, Akbar Ganji (see), is arranging a world-wide hunger-strike to push for the release of three Iranian political prisoners. The webpage devoted to his cause has now gathered over a thousand signatures from over the world (see).

The very first thing that I do every morning is to check my emails. It is always a great pleasure to see that people have posted comments on my blog. Even forgetting those who try to show their extreme hatred toward the Iranian regime, I am not used to reading comments like “stop offending my dear president”. Many times I think everybody agrees with me; that the Iranian administration is naive and that the political atmosphere in Iran is so corrupt and inefficient. Sometimes when I find an interesting point about Iran I wonder if I should post it in my blog. I think, everybody knows this and everybody agrees with me. The problem is who this everybody is. I was looking at the pictures taken during president Ahmadinejad’s trip to Azarbaiejan province. I was trying to find out how the Iranian people really think about this man. Basically, I had a problem in my mind; do Iranians like him? Having done the same research during the last couple of months I was repeatedly finding signs that many Iranians really are interested in their president. Strangely enough, it seems that so many Iranians are taking his non-applicable strategies seriously. We laugh when he talks about his idea to sell oil with a lower price to poor countries and to punish world powers but it seems that at home people are not laughing that much. Or probably they don’t really care. As long as the oil is sold and the dollars are coming who really cares if Iran is always accused of sending ammunition to Iraq. It seems that the world is divided into two very distinct islands. In one island intellectual people read our blogs and post nice comments. Some even blame us for being too nice to the regime. On the other island there are people whom applause when Ahmadinejad talks about “defeating the nation’s enemies”. Obviously, this is nothing new. People have always been separated over many issues, one of them politics. But I am afraid there is no bridge between the two islands, even if we think there is one. Internet, blog, comment, to some of us these are the great sounds of change and democracy. Freelance reporters, transparency, question. I am sorry folks we are living in our closed circle. I have selected these two pictures from Iranian news agencies. Both of them are very recent, less than a month old. The first image shows a female member of the Iranian religious militia, Basij. From the experience of living in Iran I know the stereotype of her. She is a determined confident woman who knows the exact reason for which she is living. She is paid, directly and indirectly, for her contributions to the oppressive army. But, in her innocently cruel mind she knows that the money is an appreciation of her help to Allah’s state. She knows that the actual payment is due to afterlife. Her only connection to the “blog stuff” is probably when she reads in Kayhan, the ultra-right state-run newspaper, that bloggers are being paid by the Great Satan to infiltrate and destroy the Islamic values. I doubt if she ever reads my blog, or yours.

The second picture shows a very ordinary man hanging on the barriers placed to keep people under control during president’s speech in a small town. The man is desperately embracing the pipes, trying to be as close as possible to the source of hope. When the camera passes he stares at the lens. He needs money to make ends meet and I doubt if he cares if an atomic bomb destroys Israel and Palestinians together. He is not devil, but you know sometimes you can’t control everything. I have never had a comment from him. He is very busy to afford going from a blog to another one. I know that I am exaggerating. There definitely are blogs written and read by members of Basij (though, this also proves my theory of independent islands). What I am trying to show is that basically the power of blogs is limited because of obvious barriers. I should be very optimistic to assume that an Iranian teenager in a small town will quit the national television, the only source of entertainment, and look for my interpretation of the events. I am more and more convinced that the fancy world of blogging, and arranging hunger-strikes, has no meaningful connection to the real world. People are not willing to change their perspective because Lisa tries to show them a nice picture from a “cruel Zionist Israeli”. Nor they care if Mansour Osanlo is in prison because he has spoken out for a non-political demand; to have better working conditions. I am not blaming anyone. If I had to wake up seven at the morning to go to work everyday and then pass the last week of each month with virtually no money left I do not think I could afford writing in my good-looking blog. This is how I see all this. We are a community of internet freaks sharing a common positive sense for attractive words such as democracy and freedom. We talk to each other and have fun. This is fine. We are hanging out, blaming this government and that religious identity. This is all fine. But, folks, please do not make it bigger that it actually is. We are having fun. Unless a part of this fancy party is to think that we are representatives of a bigger community, like the world. I am sorry, we are not.