"Why are you here?" the Shaman asked. "To find the source of the music." I said." "I've been to that place." he said. "I'll take you there." 4 days ago
When mass arrests are reported in a despotic, theological, totalitarian state such as Iran, human rights abuses will assuredly follow as the veil of secrecy and fear slowly suffocates awareness of the dire situation for the individuals under detention.
As of this writing, no word could be found about Iranian/Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari who has reportedly been arrested by the Iranian government. Bahari – who works for Newsweek among others - holds both Iranian and Canadian citizenship and because of this Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon is meeting with the Iranian charge d’affaires:
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon called in the Iranian charge d’affaires to meet with Canadian officials “to express our grave concern about the arrest of a Canadian journalist and about the general situation,” said Foreign Affairs spokesman Andre Lemay.
For what it’s worth (which could be Bahari’s life), Canadians must – through their Members of Parliament - pressure Minister Cannon and Prime Minister Harper to intensify pressure and use any finance/ trade sanctions and diplomatic avenues available to free Bahari and other detainees.
Update : (12/07/09) - Via impolitical on Twitter – Canadian New Democrat Party leader Jack Layton does the right thing in agitating for a high level delegation to demand Iran release Iranian/Canadian citizen and journalist Maziar Bahar:
“It’s not just about a Canadian,” Layton said Sunday afternoon on CTV News Channel. “It’s about the whole issue of journalists around the world who are trying to report the truth being imprisoned and, in some cases, held for long periods of time and some of them have not survived.”
I’m not saying that the battle is won
But on Saturday night all those kids in the sun
Wrested technology’s sword from the hand of the war lords
Oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning
Oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning
The Tide Is Turning
Music and Lyrics by Roger Waters
I used to think the world was flat
Rarely threw my hat into the crowd
I felt I had used up my quota of yearning
Used to look in on the children at night
In the glow of their Donald Duck light
And frighten myself with the thought of my little ones burning
But, oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning
The tide is turning
Satellite buzzing through the endless night
Exclusive to moonshots and world title fights
Jesus Christ, imagine what it must be earning
Who is the strongest
Who is the best
Who holds the aces
The East
Or the West
This is the crap our children are learning
But oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning
Oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning
The tide is turning
Oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning
Now the satellite’s confused
‘Cause on Saturday night
The airwaves were full of compassion and light
And it’s silicon heart
Warmed to the sight of a billion candles burning
Oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning
Oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning
The tide is turning Billy
I’m not saying that the battle is won
But on Saturday night all those kids in the sun
Wrested technology’s sword from the hand of the war lords
Oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning
Oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning
The tide is turning Sylvester
Oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning
Oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning
Oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning
Bombs Falling/Nowhere To Go became international in sound and nature in a rapid and ineveitable way as it was being assembled and could not exist at all were it not for that fact.
The words – and to be honest, the entire emotional content - are from Gaza.
But I truly believe that same emotional content could be from anywhere.
The voice – though computer generated with an Indo/Asian accent – is meant to be anyone and indeed becomes the voice of a Universal Motherhood as well as fear, love and acceptance, anger and courage. That fear, love, acceptance, anger and courage all belong to Jawad Harb, his family and neighbours and all those who have lived and died these same ways.
The first sound is the the bass drum, representing the impossible anti-human violence of what can – but will not – be altered from it’s white hot, black hearted depths of despair, anger, hatred and destruction.
The guitar is the onlooker, watching on television, alternately relentless and hesitant, charging forward and pulling back but determined, for once, to stand witness to the truth.
The child’s cry is from a train station in North America and by its very sound represents something we all know in our hearts.
The air raid sirens are from Israel and are the voices of warning coming from all those who have experienced the history of terrible violence and oppression.
There is an unknown Turkish man reading poetry way back in the mix toward the end. He represents the voices of people that no longer have names and will never be heard.
Then the awful, terrible sound of explosions – lifted from a YouTube copy of CNN’s live coverage of the bombing of Baghdad - like murderous, demonic laughter ripping darkness into your soul, stealing fire from hearth and heart and blazing hatred and anger, hatred and anger, hatred and anger across the sky and the flesh and the bones of innocent children. Deafening, hideous, sickening thunder and lightning torn from humanity’s darkest recesses, dripping bloody venom and poison onto everything that means anything to anyone.
The droning low-mid synth is the spine and the spirit of human compassion, empathy and the horrified muted moaning, keening and crying pulled out from the center of the very soul of a Mother’s grief and yearning. Like history, it spans hope and human time in the past and present but ventures into pure unknown in the future and the final fade.
The bottom end of the piano is the rock of the earth, the heat of technology and science, mankind through our collective history, evolution and religion, and the hope and hopelessness of time moving on. The high end of the piano represents the tears of the witnesses, the sorrow, the sadness, the pain of knowing, the guilt and remorse and the anger at helplessness in the face of such an storm, such an onslaught.
And it’s when I go back and listen, when it’s late and I’m alone and my ability to resist is at its lowest, and the acceptance and the understanding that the wolf must tear at the throat of the deer stares back at me from the mirror, I ask myself ”how can such things as this come to be?”
And I fear that as I say those words out loud, someone else will say to me “How dare you presume to create such a thing, you who know nothing of this.”
So far, I can find no information – or even opinion – on when or if food and water supplies will become a major issue for the protesters Heroes of Democracy in Iran, especially in Tehran or other urban areas.
Surely such vital and vulnerable choke-points as food, water, electricity, transport and road or rail access would be a high priority for a repressive authoritarian government and presumably strategies for control would have been worked out long ago.
13. International law prohibits the use of food and water as weapons of war or as instruments of political or economic pressure, in order to safeguard the right to food of all people.
I’ll keep digging around and something should turn up on this subject soon.
Update: A Twitter message earlier today from from Iran:
all shops was closed – nowhere to go – they follow ppls with helicopters – smoke and fire is everywhere
Certainly not yer average rock song, Communicate (All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes 1982) has more in common with audio performance art, emotional reductionism or a sort of staccato, static laced lyrical abstractism emphasizing the randomness and the incompleteness of the lonely island of individual communications at the far end of modern technology that is yet forced to bend to the wheel of all original forms of human interaction. It also highlights the constant assault of information that WILL breakthrough in one form or another – comprehensible or not – wanted or not.
Opening with a fast paced, frantic yet irrepressible beat, the song has many of the usual Townshend sounds including high energy but smooth as silk acoustic strumming (best right arm in the guitar biz) basic song structure and a “pop art” solo section (intentional, controlled disaster by guitar) reminiscent of the Tommy plane crash sequence.
The somewhat abstract, poetic spoken word sections – reduced musically to a trademark repetitive synth line over a drone bass and bass drum - suggests a conflation point where truth, beauty, poetry, history, mis-information, image and technology collide.
There are obviously clues all over this piece but where they might lead is just as obviously open to interpretation and it’s quite possible that, for example, the opening lines are themselves purposeful misdirection. (Selbstdarstellung - Gay Talese - Euthanasia - I find nothing on Google about Ronald Rocking – maybe it’s Ronald Reagan)
In the video, Townshend is holding a phone yet he is not speaking into it. So perhaps it is a broadcast of a private conversation meant to be overheard, or an acknowledgement that in this modern time there is no such thing as private communication or private lives. The man in the suit doing sign language, the studio meters and screens showing flashes of info all add to our awareness yet also establish the theme of broken comprehension – of words and meanings that are beyond our control.
I post this song today in light of the vital but fractured universe of communication coming out of Iran (and everywhere else) involving Television, cell phones, the Internet, Google, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter etc.
Live the communication age, step right up, everyone’s a winner, you might as well, you have nothing to lose and more importantly - if you want to be in the loop – you may have no choice.
Use the words like flowing river touches
Embraces parting hard steel surfaces reveling pages
Beneath the water skin broken like ice flows
Smashed by iron bows on the back of a whale
Selbstarstellung
Open hearted
Soon forgotten – never parted
Com com communicate
Communicate communicate
Communicate communicate
Via satellite and solid state
Never never hesitate
Communicate communicate
Communicate communicate
Never never hesitate
Reaching leaning scratching vainly
Faces dancing locked lipped and between thigh secret
Briolette tears drip from frozen masks
As all those death row questions don’t get asked
Communicate communicate
Communicate communicate
Via satellite and solid state
Never never hesitate
Communicate communicate
Communicate communicate
Never never hesitate
Overall, I am reasonably satisfied with Loon Theory’s tenor and tone during the Embassy story fiasco. We moved with an important breaking story, made our first foray into Twitter, tried to glean real news from multiple sources and (hopefully) coined the term Twitter Burn.
But let’s face it, although Loon Theory was miles away from the hysterical foaming at the mouth we saw some places – and though we advocated caution with rumours, and restraint regarding government policy and the tactical Embassy situation on the ground – we nonetheless passed on erroneous information and in an honest attempt to both learn and inform we likely muddied the waters to some extent.
This comment from an earlier post still best represents my view during the weekend and it continues to be my view today:
Of course we can’t know the situation and logistics on the ground – or even the specific policy involved but if at all possible, I believe we should open our Embassy doors for injured people seeking help.
It’s not as if the current Iranian government has a deep love and respect for Canada as I understand it, so fallout from this is perhaps not such an issue.
Besides, from here in Toronto, and with the above considerations in mind, it looks like the right thing to do.
Perhaps Former Canadian Ambassador to Iran Ken Taylor, in his well documented heroics during the U.S./Iran Hostage crisis, inadvertently created an over romanticised view of what an Embassy can and should do.
So my position remains the same: if we are possibly able to help those in need of humanitarian assistance, then we should do our best to do that.
For some, the over-riding position seems to be fear of the reaction from a disputed and possibly completely dis-credited Iranian government leading to an “international dispute” caused by our actions.
When there is a crisis and people need medical assistance, a Canadian citizen does not ask “What does the rulebook say?” or “What are others doing?”
A Canadian offers any help they can reasonably and safely provide and though the safety of Embassy staff is a very serious concern, our own Ambassador Taylor has shown that sometimes we do the right thing regardless of perceived consequences.
Over the years I have very rarely agreed with former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney on anything, but during a so called “Boat People” situation that occurred on his watch, he went against policy and furious dissent and allowed those seeking refuge to come to our shores.
I believe he paid a political price within his own party and with many Canadians for this action, but he made this Canadian proud when he stated that:
“We don’t want people jumping to the head of the line . . . (but) if we err, we will always err on the side of justice and on the side of compassion“. (bold added)
When Mr. Mulroney said that, he had his hand directly on the pulse of our shared Canadian identity.
He did the right thing.
So too, with our Embassies in Iran and around the world.
Well, the Embassy story gets crazier by the hour and shows us that modern communication (maybe all communication) is a wild, perhaps ultimately uncontrollable beast at the best of times and worse than that in times of crisis and high traffic.
Throw in human nature – and what do you expect?
On Sunday morning, in the second last update on a previous post I wrote that:
Kameel Ahmady, a freelance journalist interviewed on CBC suggested that the Canadian Embassy in Iran is accepting a limited amount of demonstrators in need of medical assistance. He also posited that the Embassy’s refusal and/or inability to accept those seeking aid was on Saturday was simply based on policy in-place.
Mr. Ahmady, who I’m sure is a fine sort, spoke with such conviction in his report and I wanted too much to believe it, but I’m now of the rather uninformed opinion that our Embassy in Tehran is likely not taking in any who seek help and is, as noted several times, possibly not currently staffed or set up to be of any assistance.
Mr. Ignatieff has chimed in with his statement suggesting he believes we are able to – or should be able - to offer at least some assistance on the ground:
“Canada should join other countries in keeping our embassy open for the humanitarian needs of the people of Iran.”
Now a Sullivan post entitled “Twitter Fraud” points to an article by Steve Clemons (highly recommended) on Twitter’s role in the mis-information overflow that also mentions the Canadian Embassy issue and appears to be the final word (yeah, right) on whether or not the British Embassy was, as reported, taking in Iranian protesters. They were not. I’ll probably be correcting that in a few hours.
From the sublime to the ridiculous is just a starting point when it comes to communications of any description between crazy humans in a crazy world.
I know there are Foreign Affairs statements and other informed opinions out there but it’s late so I’ll update as needed tomorrow.
While surfing around, I came upon Iran Watch Canada and news of a public assembly in support of the Iranian Protesters at Queens Park (111 Wellesley St. W) in Toronto at 2:00pm Sunday June 21 2009.
I have had a Twitter account for approximately 12 hours and though I am blown away by the first hand info I see and the things I have learned, I am also already overwhelmed by the unconfirmed, the unsubstantiated and even the personally confirmed (but how do I really know) rumours, guesses and other forms of intentional and unintentional mis-information coming at me at a rate I have never experienced before.
I believe I have unwittingly passed on a few myself, though like many others I try to emphasize that they are indeed unconfirmed.
I have no doubt the the next ramp up by the embattled Iranian government – if it hasn’t already happened – would be to send the tanks into the city.
And of course, now the rumours of tanks in Tehran are everywhere.
I’m not putting anyone or any particular message down – I am too new to this and simply do not know enough about how Twitter works to make an informed judgement.
So I will sit back on this (unlike on the Embassy issue) and wait for confirmation.
(5:45 pm est) CNN just showed an unconfirmed Twitter message stating that the Canadian Embassy is attempting to locate Doctors so they can offer help to injured Iranian citizens.
Of course we can’t know the situation and logistics on the ground – or even the specific policy involved but if at all possible, I believe we should open our Embassy doors for injured people seeking help.
It’s not as if the current Iranian government has a deep love and respect for Canada as I understand it, so fallout from this is perhaps not such an issue.
Besides, from here in Toronto, and with the above considerations in mind, it looks like the right thing to do.
UPDATE: The embassy email address is returned undeliverable.
Canadians call or email your Member of Parliament.
UPDATE: Sunday June 21: Kameel Ahmady, a freelance journalist interviewed on CBC suggested that the Canadian Embassy in Iran is accepting a limited amount of demonstrators in need of medical assistance.
He also posited that the Embassy’s refusal and/or inability to accept those seeking aid was on Saturday was simply based on policy in-place.
There are lots of reports – some saying confirmed – that Embassies in Tehran including the British and Dutch are taking in wounded and injured protesters who are unable to access hospitals.
If this is true, I commend the decision makers in the Embassies and their home countries.
That is the right thing to do.
I’ve seen nothing of the Canadian Embassy – shown on the map above – but I hope to find out and update here later.
UPDATE: As noted in the next post Canadian Embassy In Tehran, several sources are suggesting that our Embassy is refusing injured protesters.
Twitter messages from Iran. I believe these are authentic but no one really knows.
PPL chanting ” Death to khamenai” “We don’t believe the goverment!” they beat everyone to death, ppl are angry and affarid ” #GR88about 1 hour ago from web
What the hell is this idiot saying on CNN , how many dollar has the islamic republic paid mr..ahmadi?about 1 hour ago from web
The Guardian: Khamenei talked about the threat of terrorism in his speech yesterday. =he layed down basis for inside job #iranelection about 1 hour ago from web
Very important: PDKI Spokesman ” Not us, not any kurdish party, not any iranian opposition responsible for blasts, this is inside job” #gr88about 1 hour ago from web
analist on CNN : ” Inside job, we expected this to happen, this is plan to crackdown on people” #iranelectionabout 2 hours ago from web
http://bit.ly/uScnR today new video please share with the world #iranelectionabout 2 hours ago from web
bombing is inside job i repeat “inside job” over and out #iranelection about 2 hours ago from web
PMOI leader marjam rajavi right now on live TV : “‘ This is clearly desperate GOV inside job to blame on opposition” #iranelectionabout 2 hours ago from web
timing of the bombing because PMOI leader was due to have her first important speech for the ppl of iran so gov tries to blame in PMOI!about 2 hours ago from web
two blasts hit Imam shrine. This is gov not Mousavi. Attempt to blacken name of Mousavi etc as anti Islam. #iranelection #GR88 #Mousaviabout 2 hours ago from web
They try to make us look as criminals and terrorists they were the ppl behind the blasts #iranelectionabout 2 hours ago from web
this was not work of any oposition or country we saw only state agents and basiji, not reasons why opposition will kill own ppl, only gov!about 2 hours ago from web
from what i saw at least 3 people on the ground death..basiji are beating a man who is already on the ground death in gods name stop this…about 2 hours ago from web
we just heard a huge explosion sound minutes ago, still smoke can’t see anything in window we try the rooftops…#iranabout 2 hours ago from web
lot of smoke water over ppl , chaos everywhere, we need to get this to the world, women scream, heavy gun fire very much noise #iranelectionabout 2 hours ago from web
now at my friends house, street was full of blood we wear islamic namaz clothing not to be beaten, bu they have my arm is liitle cut bloodabout 2 hours ago from web
Heavy clashes on azadi street, chants of death to khameni! The street is full of rocks and fire. #IranElectionabout 2 hours ago from web
don’t belive cnn or other TV all get info from gov or fake mousavi protesters,i saw thousends of ppl hour ago now in the millions #gr88about 2 hours ago from web
Ayatolla Khamenai just on radio about mousavi: “Given order to stop or be arrested” #iranelectionabout 2 hours ago from web
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – who appears poised to confirm his totalitarian credentials as a lying, murderous thug – has thrown down the challenge to the brave citizens of Iran in a speech given Friday in Tehran. Distancing himself from the will of the people and from any form of reality that might be recognizable to the mostly sane among us, the deeply deluded, heavenly entitled and egocentric crazy man posing as a world leader has decided the best route for saving his repressive regime of lunacy from the angry hordes of dust and debris in the streets of Iran is to turn to the favourite weapons of brutal, cowardly, frightened men throughout history – The Big Lie and The Big Threat.
Khamenei’s beautifully loony, nut-bar logic holds that the sheer size of the election fraud proves that there has been no fraud and Ahmadinejad is the President because that is the peoples choice; the peoples victory.
As is always the case with the authoritarians of any so called political stripe, hot is cold, black is white, up is down and The Big Lie is one of the few things they have left to protect themselves and most importantly, their privileged position of power.
The will and the best interests of the Iranian people simply do not enter into such equations.
The Big Lie is then followed by The Big Threat. This supposedly religious man (I don’t think that term actually applies to this power mad political despot) has threatened direct bodily harm and death to those thousands of Iranian citizens who have the nerve to disagree with his ugly, benighted rule. And if violence, bloodshed and death are visited upon the innocent, this then is the fault of the people and the will of God.
Because of men like Khamenei, the pages of history are stained and bloody from the tortured bodies and souls of millions of innocent people.
There’s very little out there regarding Ahmadinejad’s status though I expect that will change shortly.
A Google search result leading to a Captaindemocracy.wordpress.com blog (though it’s titled Architecture & Environmental Design) includes the words “C.I.A. confirms the escape to exile by President Ahmadinejad to Russia” from June 16/09 but the link leads to a page not found notice.
I tried digging around the blog a bit but could not find anything of further interest. I didn’t spend much time there and I vouch for nothing found on the site in question or Captain Democracy himself who I’m sure is a fine sort and appears to be an architect working out of California.
A dead end, I’m sure, but an interesting one nonetheless.
Update :This Guardian article (via Nico Pitney) says that the Iranian press has reported that Ahmadinejad is back in Iran but there is speculation on his location.
Speculation is intensifying about the whereabouts of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who claimed victory in the Iranian presidential election but has not been seen in public since Monday, when he was in Russia for a conference.
Iranian media have reported only that the president was greeted by a number of senior government officials when he arrived home late on Tuesday.
Update : CNN has just shown recent footage of Ahmadinejad apparently giving an interview in Iran.
So, to answer my title question, no, Ahmadinejad is not in exile.
My guess is that the protesters in Iran have indeed passed the point of no return as I suggested in response to a comment by a Loon Theory visitor :
Well, if things begin to calm down a little I would then likely agree with your assessment, BraveJ.
Looks to me like the people on the ground are seeking to push this past the point of no return. We’ll soon know because this can’t continue indefinitely and something will break one way or another.
We know these folks are intelligent, brave and determined. I believe they are fully aware of the concept of the point of no return in this regard and are doing their level best to get there before this chance slips through their hands.
They may have reached that point already.
I also find it totally bizarre that Ahmadinajad is out of the country right now.
Totally. Bizarre.
I try to be aware that hope and wishful thinking is colouring my views green right now.
Still, I see the situation as too unstable for any obvious route back to a sort of a pre-election status-quo with penalties as you suggest.
Amazing times.
I find myself wondering about three things this morning: How long can the urban demonstrators hold out if the government blocks food delivery, why does there appear to be a News blackout on the subject of Ahmadinajad’s absence from Iran and when is he due to return?
I’ve done a quick search around and can find little to no information on these issues.
I will continue to urge Loon Theory visitors to check in with Andrew Sullivan for a clearinghouse source and quality analysis on the Iran uprisings.
Today Loon Theory proclaims solidarity with the good people of Iran.
Depending on which of many inscrutable lines the situation in Iran will follow, Ahmadinejad’s arrest – or flight - may be a real possibility.
Loon Theory’s foolish prognostication is Ahmadinejad in exile or under house arrest this time next week.
UPDATE: June 29/09
Yes, well, I was completely wrong on not only Ahmadinejad but also wrong on how things seem to be generally trending.
So I ammend my prognostication (big word for guessing wrong) to Ahmadinejad’s eventual ouster and the eventual collapse of a badly weakened and discredited government.
I believe Nostradamus was smart enough not to place specific dates and time frames on his predictions.
Very smart and lesson learned. ( Til the next time)
The more I watch the videos of events in Iran, the more I read the Twitter messages and hear the cries and the voices of freedom rising up from a beleaguered populace, the more the Iranian people appear to me as brothers and sisters.
What I really mean is: They are us, we are them.
Not much difference at all.
For Iranians, it is a very visible extremist theocratic government. For Westerners it is the very slippery and often well hidden Corporate/Military/Industrial interests who clearly control our politicians and bend and warp our minds via the most effective propaganda dissemination system ever devised.
In the west we have more in common with the protesters on the streets of Tehran than we have ever had with politicians, lobbyists and the damned “Captains of Finance and Industry” who infest Washington, Ottawa, Paris or London.
My heart swells with pride at the courage and passions of our Iranian brothers and sisters.
As thousands of Iranian people take to the streets in pursuit of justice and democracy, I am once again stunned by the courage and passion of those who must take such risks as they seek to attain that which we in the West seem to have forgotten we possess.
Loon Theory humbly supports the students and people of Iran as they strive to take their rightful place in this world.
Imagine how the entire world would benefit if one of history’s greatest cultures were able to free themselves from the parasitic and dangerous yoke of religious and totalitarian oppression.
