Monday, September 21, 2009

Black and White And Green

clipped from pajamasmedia.com
Marx would have delighted in the events of the 18th, all over Iran.  Groucho, that is, for on the 18th the supreme leader and all his co-conspirators were transformed from figures of awe to objects of ridicule.
His words were like so much spittle in a storm;  Among the many chants in the streets that day, you could hear “rape, murder and torture will not silence us.”
Late Friday afternoon, after millions (yes, millions–this according to Le Monde, France 2, and L’Express, with the BBC saying that the demonstrations were bigger than those at the time of the Revolution) of Greens mobbed the streets and squares of more than thirty towns and cities to call for the end of the regime, there was a soccer game in Azadi Stadium in Tehran.  It holds about a hundred thousand fans, and it was full of men wearing green and carrying green balloons.  When state-run tv saw what was happening, the color was drained from the broadcast, and viewers saw the game in black and white.