The Persian Phoenix

Today marks the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran.  The whole world was prepared for massive demonstrations by Iran's Green movement.  The result of today's protests, however, were underwhelming.

What happened?

Despite what Ahmadinejad or his puppeteer Khamenei might like you to think, today's seemingly lax amount of protests were not at all the result of apathy on the part of the Iranian people.  Rather, today's events were the result of the sheer fear Iran's government has of its own people.

A CNN article chronicling the protests showed that, by around noon, reports were already circulating that Mehdi Karroubi, an opposition leader, was attacked while on his way to meet with protestors.  Similar attacks occurred around the same time, with many opposition leaders being the victims of tear gas attacks and other violence.  A witness in Iran said that he had "never seen so many Basij militia in the area."

My friend Maryam confirmed these reports.  Maryam's contact in Iran said that she felt like a prisoner in her own country and stated that "the streets were lined with tanks, Basij, and anti-riot vehicles." 

This is just one example of the great lengths Iran's leadership is willing to go to silence Iranian citizens.  The CNN report also documents loud speakers being set throughout Tehran to drown out any potential protests and to attempt to indoctrinate the masses of the supposed legitimacy and benevolence of the Government.  All this just days after two men were hanged for "waging war against God."

All this overcompensation is a key sign of something huge going on in Iran.  It is a sign of the cracks which are slowly breaking down Iran's theocracy.  The Green movement is far from dead.  Like the Persian phoenix, the protestors will once again rise from the ashes of defeat and prove their indefatigable spirits to the world.

STAND Spread the Love Sponsorship in Full Swing, We're Talkin' Babe Ruth Status

Alright, so for the first month of STAND meetings we have been preparing things for an event called "STAND's Spread the Love Sponsorship" which is based on an idea I had after talking to Nicholas Kristof.  Kristof told me (and described quite well in his book, "Half the Sky") that the best way to get people involved is to get things down to a very, very specific and personal level.  So, instead of having an event where we say "this money will go to help Kenyan children" we instead have an event where we say "this money will go to this Kenyan child."  This, of course, is a lot more work than saying everything in third person, but Kristof believed quite strongly it would make a difference.

Fortunately, with Cameron and Gina's trip to Kenya this December we were able to have pictures of specific children, complete with a list of facts about them and their dreams.  For the event, we have been showing people specific children they could sponsor and have been asking them for 20 dollar donations, which is just about enough money to send a Kenyan child to school for a year. 

I am happy to say that Kristof has thus far been very, very right!


We have just finished our first day of the sponsorship and we have already earned 300 dollars!  This is enough to send 15 kids to school for a year- which is pretty freakin' glorious for a 3 hour period!  Simple math tells me that we made 100 dollars an hour, which is about 93 dollars more an hour than I'll ever get paid. 

Jest aside, this has been a very successful day, and I hope the rest of the week yields similar results!