On Johnnie Moore’s Weblog today, there is a link to The Observer, where it was discussed that bus drivers in Teheran were denied permission to form their own union. They proceeded anyway. The government’s reaction:

The company's managers and Islamic council called in the paramilitary police who arrested the union's six officers and beat workers until they agreed to renounce the strike. Bravely, the majority refused. The state's thugs then targeted their wives and children.

   These same thugs belong to the same group who added three extra drawings of Mohammed—blasphemous by their own standards—to get Muslims annoyed by accusing the west of creating them.
   In Red China, the abuse of workers there is likely to result in some form of uprising, if their interests are not seen to. Paying 20¢ an hour in sweat shops is hardly the sign of a fair nation. It was through years of abuse of the poor by the Ching Dynasty that saw to the overthrow of empire in China in favour of a democratic republic in 1911. In Iran, there appears to be a gulf between government and citizenry, if some of the few reports making it out of the country, and through blogs, are accurate. And if these abuses of everyday citizens continue, then things on the inside are boiling more than the west has been reporting—never mind what its foreign policy is.
   Brooding Persian looks at everyday life in Iran and alludes to the corruption of some government officials and the spin emerging from Teheran; Iranian Prospect, in a slightly guarded style (given who might be watching) believes that some governments were behind the Mohammed cartoon protests. We need to take heed of what is emerging from citizen media, because some of these writers are putting a great deal at risk: some 20-something bloggers have even been arrested, according to the BBC.
   Once again, dialogue can help us. If we find out the truth, we can make up our minds about what people are going through within the country. We don’t have to rely as much on mass media to paint an accurate picture, when we have virtual neighbours who are willing to share—and, in some cases, risking their security and safety to share.

Del.icio.us tags: Iran | corruption | union | bloggers | citizen media | blogging | Mohammed cartoons Posted by Jack Yan, 10:44  permalink

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