Right after the Iranian uprisings in 2009 I was reading in Washinton Post where Arab activists were envious of Iranian protesters saying things like:
“I am extremely jealous,” said Nayra El Sheikh, 28, a blogger and Sharkawy’s wife. “I can’t help but think: Why not us? What do they have that we don’t have? Do they have more guts?”
“I was very happy about what was happening. But I was also very sad. I know I can never do this here,” the thin, 22-year-old activist said. “You need a far greater movement than in Iran to achieve any change in Egypt.”
Ahmed Abd el-Fatah wrote on his blog, “We Egyptians are like youth watching pornography because they can’t practice sex. Congratulations to Iran for its democracy.”
Funny comparing the Green Movement to pornography! Or was he comparing the Iranian “democracy” to porn?! Either way they were jealous and thought they could never achieve what we have already achieved in Iran. They were also complaining about “crisis of leadership” and not having political groups or leaders to lead them.
There doesn’t appear to be a leader in Egypt’s movement but there are plenty of leaders. El Baradaei one of them. By the way is El Baradaei half Hispanic?! Like El Taco or El Presidente! What they’re talking about now is having a “coalition government” having various groups participate in elections and also representation.
So back to our own Iran as we all know many activists shoot Mousavi and Karoubi’s shadows so let’s leave them out. Although, many in Iran don’t want to leave them out and are in prison for having followed them and if we’re talking “coalition government” you don’t want to leave people out. But still let’s leave them out so as not to offend anyone here who would throw a hissy fit!
The point is Iranian protests were inspiration to these Arab activists and for all we know we were instrumental in Tunis and now Egypt. The cry for democracy and justice is all the same. Opportunities are limited and the new generation of Iranians and Arabs are fed up and since their futures look bleak they’re ready to explode. With the economic meltdown that is always looming having a dictatorship on top of them is the fuel that will start the fire when there is a spark.
So we should look for Iran’s future uprising perhaps in another 2 years like Egypt followed Iran as it is now deja vu with that Washington Post article. Iran and Egypt are full of stupid dictators and those who photo shop everything just prove the culture of corruption. The editor who photoshopped this blog’s photo was fired but only because he was stupid enough thinking no one would notice! No such photoshop problems for editors in Iran yet!
What we’re witnessing in the Arab world is a tsunami compared to Iran’s green movement. Tunis, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and now Yemen. Iran could very well be next. Think coalitions and coalition governments. That seems to be the way out of this whole Middle East mess and dictatorships.
