Monday, June 22, 2009




Going Green


This posting has nothing to do with whether or not you bring your own bags to the supermarket or WalMart. Nor does it have anything to do with the Green Party of Canada or the Global Greens.

It has to do with the reaction to the recent Iranian Presidential elections. When the results were first announced, it appeared that the incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won reelection. However, if you have been following the news, a great number of Iranians, especially the younger adults have disagreed. They have taken to the streets in great number to protest what they consider is the 'stealing' of the election.



The young people are using the green color to demonstrate their solidarity with the man they consider to have fairly won the election, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, and to show their reaction against the election results.

It might be easy to dismiss the young people as simply sour losers, after all, 'their' candidate didn't win, it's called democracy, get over it. However, there seems to be a great deal of questions as to the validity of the results.

It would take too much time to get into the nuance, you can read about the election here.

Now for the color of this blog:

people are being asked to show their solidarity with the Iranian protesters by using the colour green as part of their blog or avatar. People are turning their avatar green on Twitter to show solidarity and support for the students who are blogging, tweeting and posting videos to show the world what is happening in Iran.

A website has been established that will turn your avatar green.

Of course there are those who will ask, how does this help? After all its a relatively safe thing to do, changing the colour of one's avatar, no one is getting shot here.

What are we doing? We are letting the young people know, there are many outside of Iran who are showing they do care what is going on in that wonderful nation. They are not alone and people are doing their best to get the message out. While they are asking for intervention, this should be recognized as not possible. Iran is a sovereign nation and outside interference would only compromise the Revolution as those in power use the news of outsiders getting involved as a means of cheapening the stand of the reformers as nothing more then agents of foreign interests.

So what else? Show the green colour.

Write to the Iranian embassy and let them know you are standing with the reformers. In Canada, the website is here.

Watch the videos, remember these people are standing against the State for something they believe in, something we do share with them and that is freedom.


1 comment:

On a limb with Claudia said...

This is such a painful thing for such a wonderful country. They have really suffered so much. I hope they will be able to resolve this is some way.