The Power of Taste

This was meant as a photography blog. The events in Tehran made me write again and made me change the topic. I will come back to the images soon. Today one more thought on the struggle against a system. Our fight, our protest, is often fuelled by the sense of taste. Dictatorships are unacceptable because of their plain offensiveness. Slogans are ugly. Faces disfigured by infallibility. The poem below is by a Polish poet and a dissident Zbigniew Herbert. Translated by John and Bogdana Carpenter (used without permission). Photo by UPI.

It didn’t require great character at all
our refusal disagreement and resistance
we had a shred of necessary courage
but fundamentally it was a matter of taste
Yes taste
in which there are fibers of soul the cartilage of conscience

Who knows if we had been better and more attractively tempted sent
rose-skinned women thin as a wafer
or fantastic creatures from the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch
but what kind of hell was there at this time
a wet pit the murderers’ alley the barrack
called a palace of justice
a home-brewed Mephisto in a Lenin jacket
sent Aurora’s grandchildren out into the field
boys with potato faces
very ugly girls with red hands

Verily their rhetoric was made of cheap sacking
(Marcus Tullius kept turning in his grave)
chains of tautologies a couple of concepts like flails
the dialectics of slaughterers no distinctions in reasoning
syntax deprived of beauty of the subjunctive

So aesthetics can be helpful in life
one should not neglect the study of beauty

Before we declare our consent we must carefully examine
the shape of the architecture the rhythm of the drums and pipes
official colors the despicable ritual of funerals

Our eyes and ears refused obedience
the princes of our senses proudly chose exile

It did not require great character at all
we had a shred of necessary courage
but fundamentally it was a matter of taste
Yes taste
that commands us to get out to make a wry face draw out a sneer
even if for this the precious capital of the body the head
must fall

The West Inspires Ahmedinejad

Iranian president-elect Mahnoud Ahmedinejad has ordered an investigation into the death of Neda Agha Soltan. Among the accusations of the western media and – since yesterday – western embassies employees of stirring the street protest, you can easily expect what is the outcome he is seeking. But wait – has he come to this idea by himself? He hasn’t proven to be exactly the embodiment of a brilliant leader, so where does his inspiration come from? Well of course – the despised western intellectuals come with easy answers. The abstract of this text’s logic can be summarized as follows: Hugo Chavez has oil and is an enemy of the US. Ahmedinejad has oil and is an enemy of the US (among other countries). In 2002 CIA put together an anti Chavez coup that ultimately failed. So in 2009 CIA is putting together an anti Ahmedinejad coup that is going to fail. A part of the plot is to stir Iranian masses. Neda Agha Soltan was thus shot by a covert CIA agent to heat up the protest.

I agree that western mainstream media are biased and ill-informed. I crave for second, third, fourth opinions. I know that nothing is as black-white as in High Noon. But please you anti imperialist guys – drink a glass of water before writing such an utter bullshit. I know bytes are cheap, but apparently intelligence has got expensive lately. Your text not only lacks any factual evidence (do you care?), but also doesn’t even pretend to be anything else than a cheap propaganda. Does it sell?

The Product vs. The Truth

(Vahid Salemi/AP Photo)

So the western media want us to see Iranian protesters shouting “We want freedom” and “Death to the Dictator”. We are to believe in an uprising analogous to those seen in Central Europe during the late 80s and early 90s. The Islamic Republic is all but a corrupt and bankrupt façade for a dictatorship and the people are craving for western-style democracy and Dunkin’ Donuts.

On the other hand, Iranian media (called “propaganda” by the savvy westerners) want to sell the events as a US/UK-driven plot to overthrow the righteous Iranian government fully supported by its people. The offensive bolted this morning with detaining eight employees of the British embassy in Tehran.

And thus, an innocent truth seeker is faced with two products most information stores want to sell him. It takes reading between the lines and cross-checking different sources to find out that none of them is true. You can find it out if you read carefully and read to the end. As the expelled BBC’s journalist, John Simpson points out in a third sentence from the text’s end:

Both sides in this struggle are strong believers in the Islamic Republic.

This very fact is usually overlooked in the western blabber about spreading the democracy to Iran. Being no insider, I’d rather think that what is going on is a struggle for power within the existing system, while the demand for overthrowing the Islamic Republic remains marginal. What is difficult to understand though, is the hard line approach by the Guardian Council and Khamenei himself. Wouldn’t it win him numberless supporters if, instead of labelling them as mobs, he listened to the people’s voice?

Don’t You Skip Your Logic Class

As major media pull out of the Iran news concentrating on the Jackson hype, one has to look for the news elsewhere. In the end, it’s healthy – you get more opinion, less bias, and the news that you are able to find usually come from Middle East experts. Unfortunately, what arrives doesn’t carry much hope for stabilization and a peaceful resolution of the Iranian crisis.

Mr. Reza Aslani suspected that the Assembly of Experts, a body with a power to dismiss the Supreme Leader, was negotiating a deal in which a run-off election between Ahmedinejad and Mousavi would be announced. Mr. Aslani suggested that in such case there would be a softening of tone during the yesterday’s Khamenei’s sermon. Al-Jazeera points out that in fact the opposite happened. Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami was quoted saying:

We ask that the judiciary confront the leaders of the protests, leaders of the violations, and those who are supported by the United States and Israel strongly, and without mercy to provide a lesson for all.

The same text quotes the Guardian Council again defending the cleanness of the elections. The funny part though is:

We have had no fraud in any presidential election and this one was the cleanest election we have had.

If this is the cleanest election, it implies that there were dirtier ones, contradicting the first part of the sentence. This is a generic example of the government language: even if one was inclined to believe it, it carries an inherent contradiction making it impossible to be true. Why not admit to the fraud and let the people decide in a run-off? If the Guardian Council is so confident that Ahmedinejad won, why not let him repeat it? The more they negate the fraud the more it becomes doubtful that the result was not rigged. Interestingly, they oppose to Mousavi so vehemently that it really seems that he is some sort of a contra revolutionist and not a close ally of Imam Khomeini.

(Photo by The Guardian)

Media Go Jacko-Wacky

Nothing new. As soon as one story burns out and stop generating profit (clicks, visits, …), media start up a new mania. Even The Guardian stopped updating its Iran Crisis blog and concentrated on celebrity tribute to MJ. Sells better? Strangely enough, Iran articles keep receiving more clicks, so maybe the product managers will revert back to Tehran.

As to the late Michael himself – check out this text by Guardian’s Hadley Freeman. I totally support her point of view. All the manias media are selling us speak a lot about ourselves, too.

[MJ] led an unquestionably sad and damaged life. But his death shows up, even more clearly than [performer Jade] Goody’s did, that the desire for collective emotion leads only to false emotion.

Play It Low, Barack

As usual all the media bring you the same viewpoint to the story: the fraud, hard-liners cracking down on the people, Mousavi the reformist, Islamic-Republic-The-Axis-Of-Evil on the decline. It is thus refreshing to read an article linked by the Guardian Iran Crisis blog. The authors point out that there’s no proof to the fraud and moreover no proof that the supposedly rigged votes would have made a difference. They defy the myth that the Islamic Republic is on the decline and demonstrate the similarity of US media reaction to Iran and Iraq before the invasion era. Their point is that during the second round of the last elections four years ago Ahmedinejad got 61.7% of the votes. That’s essentially the same – 62.6 – he’s given this year, so there’s nothing strange. They’re skipping the fact that this year the turnout was 84% compared to 60% four years ago, so the same percentage of votes would mean millions of ballots more. The Islamic Republic may be doing well, especially with the fuel prices soaring, but other texts point out that despite high incomes from oil, the country’s economy is weak, forcing young and talented to seek their future abroad. As to the third point, the authors are unfortunately right. US media and politicians again take the stance of moral superiority. If there’s one thing that can ruin the chances of the Green Wave movement is the US involvement.

The Calling

Images can be very disturbing. During the Viet-Nam war, when newly arrived television showed what the boys were doing abroad, people took to the streets and voiced a firm statement. Forty years later the US government was not repeating the past mistakes – it went feeding the people with cheap credits and infra red, supposed high tech, blurred images of a glorious victory. It banned all the violent footages coming from Iraq, Afghanistan, and other recent ventures. However, today you don’t need a government to approve a video. Death goes prime time, everywhere. You can be a witness sipping a coffee in a Greenwich Village joint. You can see a woman dying while you’re finishing your pasta. The Calling is heard less and less, The Calling is fading.

Is It About the Fraud?

Ayatollah Khamenei announced that the elections were just. Well, maybe not exactly just, but the unjust incidents wouldn’t had changed the outcome. The question I ask myself is: where does he know it from? Had The Prophet told him during their morning coffee together? Those of you doubting whether there has been an electroral fraud, please check out the Chatham House report. It’s a 19 page analysis of the data made available by Iran’s ministry of interior. In there, we read

In two conservative provinces, Mazandaran and Yazd, a turnout of
more than 100% was recorded…

…In a third of all provinces, the official results would require that
Ahmadinejad took not only all former conservative voters, all former
centrist voters, and all new voters, but also up to 44% of former
reformist voters, despite a decade of conflict between these two
groups.

But is it really about the fraud now? At this point, after dozens killed, many injured, and millions intimidated, it’s about self expression. Watching the news from thousands of miles away, I see people who discovered a need to articulate their opinion. Illuminated leaders hate them as they hate all those who don’t follow their illuminated opinions. Daring to have one’s own opinion is like to level with the illuminated leader thus contradicting his own designation.

(Photo by UPI)

A Crackdown on the Empire

This history unfolds in front of our eyes. The seconds tick out of the ayatollahs’ era. But drops of blood tick down along.

Don’t let them divide you. Don’t believe them. Believe in what you feel. We here in Poland watch and second you with admiration. Welcome to the world of free people.

All of you information hungry westerners and easterners alike – follow the (maybe at times erratic) peoples voice here

A Little Silhouette of a Man

In his blog, Dave Beckerman posted a brilliant text on persistence. It resonated with an interesting discussion on what is necessary to be successful in art. It seems to me that the guidelines presented there may as well apply to obtaining a success in whatever field. Today, during lunch, I talked to a friend who might personify persistence: when he worked as a photographer, each day he drove to NYC, parked the car somewhere where he’d not pay, and wandered around the streets for 10-12 hours, taking pictures. 10 rolls a day. Then, at night he’d develop them, print, enlarge, etc. Then, after he had started getting assignments from Stern and recognition from art galleries, he realised that what he needed was a complete control over the image, photography was too coincidental. He enrolled into an art school to study painting and worked for the whole of the first year on the drawing technique, then the second on color, etc. Now, he’s a biophysicist, obsessed with an idea of using zinc oxide as a sensor for the Alzheimer disease.

I envy those who are capable of staying so focused on a task. I envy those so possessed with a goal. I find myself driving home and singing along the radio:

Nothing really matters,
As anyone can see,
Nothing really matters,
nothing really matters to me…