Iran: headed for meltdown or can technology save the day?

Watching the daily events unfold in Iran is rather like that slow-motion scene in a movie of a horrible car crash. It drags you along to the final chilling and inescapable conclusion. Or is the conclusion inescapable?

I keep remembering the words from a dear Persian friend over in Salt Lake City a few weeks ago. Massey had talked to his brother in Tehran just a couple nights before the election, and the word was that the young, educated - mostly women - of Iran were not going to put up with the business as usual regime any more. Here it is, playing itself out pretty much by that scenario.

Mr. Maven noted yesterday, that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seems to be noticeable by his absence, preferring to let the high cleric do his talking for him. Can you say: ‘religious state’? True to form, the Islamic ‘high hodad’ is happy to threaten and bully the people on behalf of a dictator. Ain’t religion grand? (Note: the scarlet A over on the right column says it all)

I’ve checked out Mir Houssein Mousavi’s Facebook page and am fascinated with the role technology is playing in this drama. It’s obvious that the establishment doesn’t quite get it that every time they manage to turn off one cell phone tower or shut down an internet link, that another will pop up. The BBC is even acquiring additional satellites to continue to beam world coverage of events in Farsi into Iran.

I hope that in the end, this will turn Iran back toward a more peaceful direction that is more in keeping with the rest of the modern world, and can become an asset rather than a scary hindrence in the Middle East. I know quite a few Persians. They’re smart, classy and extremely talented people with a wonderful heritage and lots to offer, when they don’t let fanatical religion get in the way of doing the right thing.

As I was listening to a report on NPR this morning about the misery in Myanmar ( formerly Burma) and the horrible repression, I thought “if this works in Iran, there might be some way for technology to help the people in places like Myanmar.”

Probably unrealistic, but I can still hope.

This is the great thing about the internet, as much as I hate it at time. You’re instantly connected to the world stage, and can actually have a small role in events. How cool is that?

So, on with the general strike. We’ll see if it, indeed, does shut the country down. I hope Mousavi finally throws his support behind the protestors. At the end of the day, the story will come down to who the army decides to support - they’re probably watching dueling mullahs very closely.