" And Revolution in the air..."

Dropped by my blog, now shamefully out of date...; Iran is revolting and for the first time ever I have been able to follow the minute by minute updates on Social media; Twitter. Vietnam was the first war to be televised, Somalia on CNN and so was Iraq/Afghanistan, but also on the Internet/ YouTube... So now we have Twitter with the hashtag # IranElection and hurray for this incl all the faults!

What's happening right now in Iran, where the just held election was "Bogarded" by the sitting Pres. Ahmadinejad with the support of the spiritual leader of Iran; Khameni is Real and Live and on the Net; The Paramilitary gangs (Basij) shooting students armed with rocks, doors being kicked down in the night and whole families taken away to torture, fake courts and then a very real sentence of public hangings....

Today I saw a young girl die in the streets of Tehran and this made me tremble... (It's very graphic -It's here)

I'm 51 years old and I remember seeing the famous clip from Hanoi(?) on TV, where a man is shot point blank on the street, seen horrendous photos from Burma, Rwanda and all the other places where war, sudden and violent death has been reported with live footage and stills, I've worked with the "displaced children" in Bosnia during the war in '93, and I've worked for more than 10 years in Refugee camps in Denmark and seen what Shiite Vs Sunni can do in a "Peoples Court" during the Lebanese civil war, but still; The open eyes of Neda dying in her fathers arms of a gunshot wound in the stomach- "hit" it home for me and left me shivering in the summer sun; This is for real, this is how "I'll die for what I believe in - I'll die for Freedom " looks like......

The youth of Iran is now ready for the 30 year long oppression to end, not that the Shah was much better, the plight and suffering for the Iranians, once a mighty Persian empire is a long potholed and very rocky road!

But the girls wants to feel the wind ruffle their hair and boys wants to be able to hold the hands with their loved ones (being straight or Gay) without being hanged by the Moral Police - Who can blame them, these are things we take for granted. And while we in the West has made our selves comfy in our "Lazy Boys" while leaving it all up to "our savior Obama" to change our worlds for us - Though we're very, very, very quick to complain, when things don't happen as fast or exactly how we want it to..... We're very hard to please, you know! We live under our noble motto; Success is a fine thing, but other peoples failures is okay too!

Now the Iranians will have to muster all their courage and be prepared to give their lives for a "Change; Yes We Can" - In our neck of the woods, we just have to shuffle down to our local ballot box and exercise, what we now consider our birthright; Namely to vote in a democratically held election without the votes being tampered with in any way or form......!

What a difference, eh? Suddenly (or not so suddenly, really...!) how our spoilt and sheltered existence is pointed out to us ...... again!

"Do something! Do More!"

Please tell me; How can hurting and killing children be a viewed as a solution ? To anything at all?

 How can Israel really lie so blatantly? And still insist that such a well organised military operation is plotted down on a map, all soldiers and those in the reserves called in, strategies agreed upon, weaponry hurdled together, the mere logistics of food and supplies in place and all this in three weeks and because Hamas didn't renew the truce deal Dec.17.? This gigantic army wiping out the Palestinian population in Gaza, for the most part only armed with old weapons, stones if at all. Civilians being attacked by the most sophisticated army in the world, is this the only solution/answer Israel can come up with? Remember! This invasion was preceded by months of Gaza being closed for all import of food, fuel medicine and aid. Israel is kicking at a people already at it's knees.... 

A major military operation that would have taken months to plan and set up for execution.... 

This is a link to 59 very disturbing pictures on Facebook, it's a private "family album" and all persons, dead, half-dead or barely living are tagged with their names... This is from the inside of Gaza, where no foreign reporters are allowed in by Israel

 Tonight on the Danish TV2; (Really not my favorite news programme!!)  An interview with a Norwegian Doctor, with such unbelievable sorrow and horror in his eyes, telling about how they operate in the hallways, wading in blood, people dyeing before they can be attended to, most of the wounds are in the head, abdomen and amputations of limbs; 40% of the victims are children.... This poor man, looked like he couldn't do this much longer, at his breaking point... No wonder, this is getting unbearable and well beyond my threshold of pain, and I am sitting here in Scandinavia;-  safe, warm, with electricity, water and food... - on my couch after having my loved ones for dinner!

And two days ago this text message ticked in on my cellphone from yet another Norwegian doctor; Mads Gilbert; (Translated from Norwegian)

"Thank you, for all your support. They have bombed the local market in Gaza city two hours ago. 80 wounded and 20 dead. They all arrived here in Shifa. Hades!!(Hell) We are wading through death, blood and amputated limbs. Loads of children, a pregnant woman. I've never experienced anything as horrible. Now we hear tanks. Pass it on. DO SOMETHING! DO MORE! We're now all living in the history-books..."

Mads. G.

0301 2009 - Gaza, Palestine