With reports filtering in, from the likes of The Atlantic and the Associated Press, about mass brutal attacks on civilians by plain clothes enforcers, stray bullets and protests everyday – I wonder if Iran is the new China.
Is Baharestan the NEW Tiananmen Square?
The “Tiananmen Square Protests” (aka the “Tiananmen Square Massacre”/”June Fourth Incident”) started in the form of pro-democratic protests in 1989 that culminated in mass confusion, the murder and wounding of thousands of Chinese people by the Chinese army. Tanks rolled through the streets, where the army randomly fired upon protesters.
The injured were rushed to hospitals, embassies and other locations seeking medicine attention. Mostly, the protests were peaceful with a few rowdy marchers here and there.
Demonstrators, mostly younger, students and intellectuals rallied for weeks, refusing to move and take ‘no’ for answer until their needs were meet and listened too.
It was the call for the end of corruption, and the call for democracy.
Does any of this sound familiar?
Déjà vu and a little “et tu Brute?”
Social media has become the new “social chaos.”
From the steps of the United Nations (in the) and the United States to Canada to Europe and Australia, the international response condemning the civil war (is there any other way to describe it?) in Iran has made human rights violations become a hot topic.
But what does this mean for the nation of Iran on the world stage?
Does this push them upwards into the same class of supreme wonderment that is China? Notorious for human rights violations that supposedly rival Vlad III – where does reality blur into fiction, where does citizen journalism take a stand and what are we really looking at?
Obviously, a situation looks different after the fact – the Rwandan Genocide of 1994 is a perfect example – but in all fairness, should the world super powers step in, or turn a convenient blind eye?
LaraABCNewsfrom trusted source, eyewitness at #iranelection protests: the acid attacks were real, dumped on protesters from above.
United Nations
It’s frowned upon to go into any nation, no matter what the cause, without the blessing of the United Nations and the Security Council. But what happens, when they take too long to debate and a stalemate occurs?
Rwanda 1994.
United States Economy
While, some are calling for President Barack Obama to go into Iran and attempt to aid and fix – where will the money come from? President Obama walked into a presidency previously fueled by two needless wars (in this blogger’s humble opinion, but that’s obviously not what we are debating here), a recession, a multi-trillion dollar deficit, a near stock-market crash and unemployment in the United States predicted to hit the double-digits.
Depression.
International Law
If the United States were to go into Iran, with the Brits, Canadians, Japanese, Germans, Swiss, French and Italians – say even the Chinese – and the blessing of the United Nations and the European Union, for good measure, where does this put International Law?
International law prescribes just that: it is law – rules, regulations and enforcements put into place by the political powers-that-be-before-us in order to create a harmonious balance between nations. There are a lot of unsaid rules that are just known: do unto others.
Basically, don’t go into another leader’s country if your aid wasn’t requested by said other leader – otherwise that’s an invasion. They have the right to do the same thing to you. Simple.
Don’t put your two-cents into another nations affairs by telling them what to do. It gives said other nation the right to do it to you.
And no matter what anyone thinks, at the end of the day, there are no such thing as the police of the world. Not even the CIA or Interpol. It doesn’t exist.
But should it?
Furthermore, who would govern it and ensure that it was so fair and balanced that it appealed to all and ensured all basic human rights?
So true, and so sure, that it’s another United Nations?
Peacekeepers, in targeted blue hats…who, incidentally, carry no weapons?
Pessimistic? Probably.
Realistic? Surely.
So then what? I’d like to know.
For more information:
Who is Who in the #IranElection Controversy
The Twitter Effect: Watching #IranElection
How Twitter Shamed CNN with #IranElection and #CNNFail
Google to launch Farsi-English translator
PRoactive: Raw Social Media ‘Neda,’ #IranElection & #CNNwin
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Sasha Muradali runs the ‘Little Pink Book’ . She holds a B.S. in Public Relations from the University of Florida (‘07) and an M.A. in International Administration from the University of Miami (‘08). She loves Twitter and all things social media, so you should find her @SashaHalima.
Copyright © 2009 Sasha H. Muradali. All Rights Reserved.
