Pedestrian

This moment, I want to know NOTHING more than the actual results of this election. If not anything, with an 81% turnout rate, it would give me a good mirror into what Iran is like today.

That, we will never know.

But since I’ve been only been writing from my own perspective the last few days, I thought I should also put up some links about other views.

99 has many things to say about the current election. Especially keeping in mind Seymour Hersh who has been reporting about the JSOC hit squads sent in, and the funding of terrorist groups’ actions against Iran. Watch this video.

South/South gives a very interesting conversation with her grandmother.

Joshua Kucera, speaks out for many of us when he doubts the hype behind Twitter. (99 said it best! They’re Twittering our fucking brains out 24/7)

Djavad Salehi-Isfahani asks: Is the election pitting the poor vs. the middle class?

The Leverett’s declare (a tad arrogantly IMO): Ahamdinejad Won. Get over it.

I think that for many of us Iranians, it is extremely difficult not to get sucked into the vortex of either argument. We are either accused of being pro-West, pro-AIPAC or out of touch with the majority of Iranians. Here is a good rebuttal by Mansoor Moaddel to the latter argument in answer to Ballen and Doherty’s poll which they claim showed the accuracy of the election results.

One other thing I will say about the argument that claims: this election was not stolen, it just shows a deepening rift between the privileged minority who are unwilling to accept the results and the impoverished majority who voted overwhelmingly for Ahmainejad.

First of all, many of those arguments are coming from Western outlets to begin with – a source which isnt necessarily famous for understanding Iran.

Yes, Ahmadinejad did distribute goods among the poor. But there are a very limited number of poor people for whom $50 and a sack of potatoes was enough for them not to notice the disasterous toll the economy has taken.

One such example of this, which I can personally account, is the story of teachers.  They were given a $50 bonus promised them since the new year two weeks before the election. Now teachers are some of Iran’s most impoverished workers. Not dirt poor enough to be labeled for charities, but extremely poor nonetheless.

I know for a fact that in my hometown, not only did this not warm them to Ahmadinejad, but angered them.

So unless I get the real, uncontested result of this election, that argument too just doesn’t add up.

But here are some of the things I certainly DON’T LIKE about the recent unfolding of events:

• RUMORS

The baseless gossip twirling around on Twitter, facebook and the main stream media.

Of course, if the state-sponsored radio and television in Iran had an OUNCE of integrity, none of these outlets would have been at all relevant to begin with.

Last night, both Reza Aslan (on CNN) and NIAC (on their own blog) declared via their own VERY questionable “sources” that “Some of my sources in Iran have told me that Ayatollah Rafsanjani, who is the head of the Assembly of Experts — the eighty-six member clerical body that decides who will be the next Supreme Leader, and is, by the way, the only group that is empowered to remove the Supreme Leader from power — that they have issued an emergency meeting in Qom. ”

My cousins in Iran have told me the same thing, so I’m not sure what sort of sources Aslan is quoting here.

These extremely baseless rumors have been going around the internet for days now, but to have a self-proclaimed “scholar” on CNN regurgitate this bullshit is the last straw. Since he uttered those statements, that bit of rumor has not left the Huffintong Post headlines or my facebook newsfeed.

In my facebook, there are also numerous obscure and vague photos of blood and gore. I am not talking about the CONFIRMED atrocities! But just to give you an example, one photo album that was being spread around, I was able to identify as one I’d seen six years ago after the earthquake in Bam.

• English Banners, References to Color-Coded Revolutions

Why are people in Iran holding so many English banners? I know why! They do that all the time, even in annual pro-government demonstrations to mark the anniversary of the revolution. The same reason all stores, from Tehran to my hometown of Dezful, have English banners instead of Persian ones. But we’ve never noticed it. Now, it is just too reminiscent of other color-coded revolutions.

• We DON’T NEED the Love

Why are Westerners suddenly so worried for Iran?

Glenn Greenwald said it best.

Twitter and Youtube have eased their operations for us. The headline at the HuffingtonPost has been the Iran election for the past week. The dope from NBC, Brian Williams, who only six months ago, spoke of us with despicable mocking words, now shows us the love every single night.

And this is coming from all sides. Respected Middle-East correspondent Robert Fisk has officially become a deranged maniac. The mind numbing “letter” he writes at lengths about, is the same one that has been going around as a JOKE on facebook for the past few days.

Milne writes a very poorly-argued article for the Guardian. Just because he targets the” educated elite”, doesn’t mean he understands Iranian society (or the candidates) any better.

The Cover of the Economist doesn’t help much.

WE DON’T WANT THE LOVE! KEEP IT TO YOURSELVES! FOR EIGHT YEARS WE WERE BOMBED AND GASSED AND MASSACRED AND NOBODY EVER SAID A WORD! I DON’T REMEMBER THE ECONOMIST DEDICATING A COVER TO OUR HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DEAD BACK THEN! SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU HEINOUS, DESPICABLE SCOUNDRELS!