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Marzieh Vafamehr |
I don't often stray from the poetry mandate of this blog but the egregious stupidity of the masses sometimes makes it impossible for me to keep silent.
To those who are about to protest the evils of global capitalism in Canada I'd like to make a suggestion. Take your tents, pickets, bikes and masks and make your way to the Iranian embassy in Ottawa. Your rants, tactics and misplaced energies ought to be directed at real oppression. Iranian actress Marzieh Vafamehr is about to be condemned to a one-year jail sentence and 90 lashes for her role in a movie ("My Tehran for Sale") exploring the topic of artistic freedom in Iran.
Protest the violence against women there, my misguided leftists, and the systematic murder of gays/lesbians and the anti-Israel venom and the persecution of Christians and the almost daily flogging of young people who dare to dissent from the Ahmadinejad regime. Look abroad for the terror under which millions continue to live today in the Middle East. Link arms with your Syrian, Tunisian, Egyptian brothers & sisters who oftentimes die for their beliefs.
I tire of your self-serving talk and dusty demonstrations. You have nothing to complain about here! For once tether action to real social justice & speak for the exploited, brutalized and marginalized, like Marzieh Vafamehr.
4 comments:
Hear, hear!
This is a really important post. Thank you for writing it.
Hi Clarissa
It's nice to hear from you again. Thank you for your support.
Conrad:
We live in a world of nations. Each nation takes responsibility for its own people.
We don't have the right and privilege of taking on the causes of every other nationality, outside our own borders.
We fight the battles on our home turf.
Right now, globalization has shown that capital is more important than jobs, than people. "Real" unemployment in America is approaching 20%. If Canadians are satisfied with their lot, fine and dandy. But here, capital has been sending jobs overseas, and our government has done nothing to address the trade inequities which have been dragging our domestic economy down. Unionization is at its lowest point in nearly a hundred years.
The protesters have every right to demonstrate against the greed and mischief of Wall Street.
The fact that Iran is being run by a dictator who rules with an iron fist, has little relevance to these economic issues. Only rich nations can afford to police the world. If we become truly a debtor nation, who will have the prerogative to undertake such causes?
Curtis,
I agree with everything except that we "live in a world of nations". The world's become entirely globalized: nothing that happens anywhere in the world goes unnoticed/undetected here. An Iranian actress who's flogged and imprisoned for taking part in a movie exploring the limits of artistic freedom is felt everywhere in the civilized world.
In fact, capital's become so globalized that even "protests" have been commoditized. Don't you think corporations stand to profit (and they do!) by advertising "cool" trendy images of young activists: especially the even cooler,bare-chested tattooed hooligans sporting Hollister jeans. It's pure theatre, and participants are mostly disaffected (unemployed) Fine Arts students.
Again, I sympathize with the American protesters; Americans got screwed by Wall Street and then again by the government pimps who bailed them out. I don't have cause, however, to join forces with Canadian wannabes. We can support the cause by crossing the border & joining American activists in New York.
The Canadian situation is a little different. I agree, Curtis: We ought "to fight the battles on our home turf." And our problems compared to yours are rather small.
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