Adventures of Mr.Behi

Lunatics of New York

Iran and Libya made funny scenes in this years UN general assembly. As an Iranian who happened to live in Libya for a short while, it was even more amusing -I shall call it amusing for the only reason that my rage has gone so far and the instances so frequent.

Ahmadinejad repeated his story of denial but this time also added fraud in his election, crack down on protesters, shooting at people, rape and murders in prisons to his list of denials. I am curious to see how the world wants to deal with this guy who feels no liability towards what happens to his electorate whom he claims to represent.

Ghadafi took my sorrow and pity to the next level. Not for him certainly but for the people of Libya. This guy has managed to rule this oil rich country for forty years. For such small population, the infrastructure of the country is a disgrace. You see the rich, who ride their expensive cars and fill them with cheap gas, living in large houses who fly outside of the country for slight need for medical care while the rest of the people are deprived of a decent hospital in the capital.

I have heard stories from my friends in Libya on how any voice of opposition is silenced and how overwhelming is the iron shadow of the regime. Ghadafi is the guy whose own home was attacked by US forces and was one of the most hated figures around. Now since he paid compensation for the bombings he sponsored, all human rights loving countries are flocking in there to suck up more oil and gas and make him and his system more indisputable.

Imagine Ahmadinejad relinquishing the nuclear program and shaking hand with the west. Imagine oil companies surging to Iran to restate exploration rights. Will any one of them would still ask "Who killed Neda?"

In search of a new great satan

The struggle in Iran is far from over and it is about to unleash yet another unpredictable chapter in the country's history. The Islamic system has already failed to contain the movement and is discovering an ever widening rift in its own trusted hierarchy.

What started as a demand for a fair election is growing into a call for "anything but this" by lots of people. The same trap which threw us from the hole of a dictatorial monarch into an unending well of religious totalitarianism in our last revolution.

The Islamic system is continuing its grave mishandling of the situation and is repeating its bizarre idea that anything goes in Iran is a plot by westerners. A contradicting idea among many in the country is that the Islamic republic is acting like a cowards towards Russia and China just to kill its ideological pain of "west is bad in all cost". Unfortunately, people in Iran are also receptive of the idea of foreign influence. Last Friday, demonstrators chanted "Death to Russia" and "Death to China". Seems that the new revolutionists have found their own great Satan. 

You won't get away with this

We have seen so much brutality and deception from Iranian leadership since the election. Today the Guardian's council officially approved the results...yeah right! as if it could denounce what the supreme leader already ordered. The huge rage they have created followed by a massive crackdown which may give them a temporary feeling of success but we tell them...you are not going to get away with this. You may burn us to our ashes but the flame stays alive inside us. Freedom is our right and you, the dictator, the supreme leader who inflated yourself with this much agony and false merits...will not be able to cage it forever.

Bloodshed in Tehran

Shocked to my core by watching videos from Tehran today, several people shot dead...with an eye full of tears, we watch and hope for a stop to this bloodshed...

The Red Line

After what happened yesterday with the speech of the supreme leader, the situation now is very volatile. The plans for the gatherings today are still going ahead. We are holding our breath as we read our friends posting very emotional messages of goodbyes and farewells in Facebook as they head out to the streets. Iran is changing.... as the mighty command of the supreme leader is ignored and his charisma shatters....Please come home safe dear friends!

P.S: Back in Feb 2007, I posted an article about the leader "The Health Function in Dictatorship equation". It is still so relevant. Read it again here

His excellency, The big pink elephant

The defining moment has come with Iranian supreme leader coming out of the closet today, showing the naked truth about what is believed as  "The very problem with his system". One man on top, one man in charge, unquestionable, unchangeable and indisputable who labels everyone "The enemy".

Rings any bells? This is exactly why people revolted against the Shah of Iran thirty years ago and now after thirty years with the Islamic republic, ten years of trying to reform it, eight years of bloody war, four years of Ahmadinejad and few months of presidential campaigns....here we are facing the truth as the big elephant in the room emerges from behind the curtain. Iranian supreme leader has been exploiting his position for twenty years, cooking a dish of dictatorship for Iran using the recipes of the late Shah and adding Islamic spices. Believe us dear leader, your soup tastes just like what we threw out of the window thirty years ago.

The Loudest Silence

Whoever came up with this remarkable idea of silent demonstration should be awarded a golden medal of political strategy. People are raising the bar not only in creating intelligent ways of showing their opinion, but also diffusing the plan by the hardliners to use these demonstration to isolate and crush the opposition.

Today, those silent individuals in Iranian demonstrations are shouting against the oppression in a loudest voice ever. Who can silent by force, this loudest of silences.

The Nervous and The Brave

There is an old saying "Don't be afraid of the thief. He is more nervous attacking you than you are defending yourself". As the situation in Iran unfolds into a new chapter with unprecedented outcomes, silent demonstrations and brave persistence of the opposition scratch the nerves of the Islamic republic. With brutal crackdown, direct shooting at people and blocking information, the so called Islamic theocracy is shedding its thin democratic skin and shows its true character of intolerance.

Facebook and balatarin.com are exploding with videos, pictures and reports from demonstrations. Despite heavy filtering of the internet, people are still making their way through proxy servers and anti filtering technologies. I have not seen Iran this united since long time ago and even if the movement fails to get the voting revoked, Iran has discovered a new spirit that will make the government to think again before messing with us again.

We are all green...shouting "where is my vote"

Mousavi! Get my vote back for me...

This is the main slogan in the streets of Tehran from what we hear from youtube uploads captured by mobile phones. With cell phones and sms messaging system disrupted and disconnected by Iranian telecoms together with closing (again) of social networking and reformist campaign websites, it is incredible how much information is shared. Iran spent the second day in street protests and we just hope for the safety of our friends who -like ourselves- are still in shock and disbelief of the "game of numbers" they are played into.

Mousavi must be in a very hard position. He in one hand, feels the obligation to denounce violence. Not only to protect his supporters from government forces but also to make sure that the conservatives wouldn't be able to tag him with their typical mark of "aligned with enemies of nation". On the other hand, he feels the obligation to fight for those who voted for him.

The election results look so fabricated. They could as well be compared to balance sheets of a bankrupt corporate if were in the business world. On the night of the election, someone was smart enough to plot incremental votes counts of Ahmadinejad and Mousavi as they were being reported. If you plot them in a simple XY graph, you can easily fit a line to the points! This is completely impossible considering the demographics of the country. Rival candidates lost to Ahmadinejad even in their home towns and one of the candidates got a ridiculous number of votes that is less than a number of people working for his campaign organization.

I was working this weekend and could not go to the protests in front of the Iranian embassy in The Hague. The embassy now reported the vote count in The Netherlands and Mousavi was the winner here with a clear margin. Around the world, Iranians are protesting in front of Iranian political offices. Tomorrow, Mousavi has called for a demonstration in one of the major streets of Tehran. Hope they remain safe.

We had rough days and after a weekend without a free mind, I really feel like a bag of broken China!

Watching Election Results

12:50 GMT, Saturday: The leader just sent a congratulation massage to the winning candidate, stating his number of votes and thanking the management of the election. He just closed the discussion! and called all those protesting, agents of enemies!! This is exactly against the constitution. The final vote is not yet announced and there are three days for clarification of disputes. This is just outrageous!  

02:50 GMT, Saturday: I am in ultimate shock

Would have felt better after falling from an airplane into a pile of elephant shit!!

12:23 GMT, Saturday: Things are getting very ugly. Ahmadinejad has got beyond 14 million votes, more than two times of Mousavi, the closest rival. Hard to believe...still waiting

22:00 GMT, Friday: Back to back and conflicting press conferences about election results. The election center says that from 19% of the votes, Ahmadinejad is leading. This happened just after Mousavi  announced preliminary victory. I don't know which to believe yet it is very nerve wrecking. It is well possible that the election center did a selective count from places where they knew Ahmadinejad had th edge. This become even more questionable as we see Mehdi Karubi (the other reformist) got less than a percent in the reported votes....waiting for more.

Voting in The Hague

The Iranian embassy in The Hague is located in a very pleasant neighborhood. Within bike range from our home, we cycled with our ultimate enthusiasm to vote today. We joined other eager Iranians who were there with the hope to end what they don't like. We were there with the hope for a change. The time limit for voting was already extended by the embassy to cope with an even larger number of voters gradually arriving as the working day was coming to its end.

"Is this the end of the line?", a man asked us and continued cheerfully that he was looking forward to a celebration this weekend.The news from Iran confirms that the turnout has been wonderful. We will wait with all others. Iran will not sleep tonight.

We Will Vote!