Day: June 24, 2009

Iranians……Do It For Neda!

To My Iranian Friends:

The young woman who last weekend emerged as a powerful symbol of opposition to the Iranian government embraced life in many ways, but there was little about her that would have led her friends to predict she would become a martyr.

Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, rose to prominence within hours after a crudely shot video documenting her final moments was uploaded to the Web shortly after she died Saturday from a single gunshot wound to the chest.

Much about her remains unclear, but here is what CNN has learned from at least one source.

The second of three children, Neda lived with her parents in a middle-class neighborhood east of Tehran.

She was a happy, positive person. Though she studied philosophy and religion at the Azad Islamic University, she was more spiritual than religious. She also loved music. She once studied violin but had given it up and was planning to take up piano next. She had just bought a piano, but it had not yet been delivered.

Her demeanor was typically calm, even serene, but she had a quirky, playful sense of humor.

Neda, wearing a baseball cap over a black scarf, a black shirt, blue jeans and tennis shoes, does not appear to be chanting and seems to be observing the demonstration.

Suddenly, Neda is on the ground — felled by a single gunshot wound to the chest. Several men kneel at her side and place pressure on her chest in an attempt to stop the bleeding. “She has been shot! Someone, come and take her!” shouts one man.

By now, Neda’s eyes have rolled to her right; her body is limp.

Blood streams from her mouth, then from her nose. For a second, her face is hidden from view as the phone camera goes behind one of the men. When Neda’s face comes back into view, it is covered with blood.

Since her death, public displays of mourning for Neda have been prohibited, the friend said.

A gathering of about 60 people at a mosque was broken up by members of the Basij, the pro-government vigilantes blamed for much of the violence against demonstrators, according to New York Times columnist Roger Cohen, who observed the incident.

Neda’s family has not been allowed to post a black banner of mourning outside the family’s house, the friend said.

This young woman was an innocent by-stander and should no way be dead.  I say if a symbol is needed then Neda is the perfect symbol of the protests now taking place.  She did not deserve to die, but she deserves to be avenged.  Her family needs closure and Iran needs a change.  And the world needs to know of the brutality taking place that in some ways is reminiscent of the days of the Shah.

I say to Iranians…we are with you and do not give up….get it done for yourselves. your country and especially for Neda.

DO IT FOR NEDA!

Understanding Iran–Part 2

From Professor’s Classroom:

Th analysis of the recent Iranian elects bring home the fact that there are two Irans.  One is the old farts of the 1979 Revolution and the fundamentalists and two, the young…students, intelllectuals, middle class and the tech savvy.

Two Irans?  Yes….we have the old farts from the days of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the young, the students, middle class, etc.  But what of the “middle age” Iranians?

Middle aged Iranians…..well there is a sticking point…why?….there are NOT many in Iran that are middle aged.  How can that be preofessor, you may ask?

That is a story unto itself……about the time that the ayatollah was coming to power in Iran in 1979…there was another despot coming to power…..one Saddam in Iraq.  In the year 1980 there were intrigues on both sides of the border between Iran and Iraq….Iraq fired one of the first shots of a coming war.  Saddam was afraid that the Shia in Iraq would rise up with Iran’s help and Saddam was after the oil fields in western Iran.  And thus began a bloody and costly war that lasted from 1980 to 1988.  The war could have been named “the battle of the despots”.

Now back to the middle aged Iranians.  The lack of a substantial group of Iranians know as “middle aged” is a direct result of a tactic employed during the war with Iraq, it was know as the Basji or the “human wave”.

The “human wave” was children in white burial garments that were tied together and sent into battle, unarmed, they would lead the Revolutionary Guard…they were used to clear mine fields and act as canon fodder against the Iraqis.  Thousands upon thousands of Iranian children died.

So yes, there are two Irans…the old and the young…….the old revolutionaries from the 1979 gig and the young who are the students, intellectuals, the middle class….the young, who want a more modern western existence.  These the ones that are fighting in the streets now…just as their old fart predecessors did some 30 years ago.  A full circle.

It Is All About The Health Care Debate

And the debate rages on….the Right offers a plan (?),  the Pres offers a plan, thjje Congress dances around all issues and tries to find common ground…..a near impossible feat at best.

The AP is reporting:

Democrats got a sobering glimpse of what it would look like if their ambitious health care overhaul ran into a wall — and they quickly pulled back to regroup and get moving again.

Trying to regain the initiative, House Democrats on Friday unveiled draft legislation they said would cover virtually all of the nation’s nearly 50 million uninsured as President Barack Obama has promised. However, they offered few details on how to pay for it.

Sounds alot like the Republican plan that was offered last week.

Then there was a break through…sort of…..

The pharmaceutical industry agreed Saturday to spend $80 billion over the next decade improving drug benefits for seniors on Medicare and defraying the cost of President Barack Obama‘s health care legislation, capping secretive negotiations involving key lawmakers and the White House.”This new coverage means affordable prices on prescription drugs when Medicare benefits don’t cover the cost of prescriptions,” Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement announcing the accord.

“The agreement by pharmaceutical companies to contribute to the health reform effort comes on the heels of the landmark pledge many health industry leaders made to me last month, when they offered to do their part to reduce health spending $2 trillion over the next decade,” Obama said. “We are at a turning point in America’s journey toward health care reform.”

Baucus’ announcement said drug companies would pay half of the cost of brand-name drugs for seniors in the so-called doughnut hole — a gap in coverage that is a feature of many of the plans providing prescription coverage under Medicare. Other officials said wealthier Medicare beneficiaries would not receive the same break, but there was no mention of that in the statement.

All this sounds good but if it sounds too good to be true…it usually is.