What has the Iran elections gotta do with us far away in Singapore? Neither the fervor of voters nor the structure of democracy is something the majority of us will understand.
Plenty still. Through Twitter. I don't know about you. But I was on Twitter following the going-ons, auto-updates set to every 5 minutes. Then, I greened my avatar in a show of online support. Not really necessary- but it creates awareness. And that's the widest and furthest reach of Twitter.
Twitter is not a thing to laugh at. Try catching up on tweets if you've missed them for anything more than 56 hours. You'll feel fairly breathless at the end of it.
And the US administration agrees, to the consternation of half of Iran and the delight of the world. The administration intervened in the Iranian elections in the most diplomatic of ways possible. Quite a brilliant PR coup if you may. They asked Twitter to postpone a schedule maintenance that coincided with the peak of the voting and announcement of results in Iran.
The Spectator's Toby Young sums it up perfectly in his article which hails Twitter as the technological Scarlet Pimpernel.
Have you read Shahriar Mandanipour’s novel 'Censoring an Iranian Love Story'? It's painful, poignant and stilted, epitomizing the extent of censorship in the country. (Click here for details of content of the book.) I finished it in 2 1-hour train rides and felt almost constrained by it. I could taste the resentment and resignation all at once.
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2 comments:
book recommendation noted! *jots down in anticipation of reading over long holiday in three weeks time*
lesickle: be-warned, it's a sorta love story though.
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