World of peacecraft.

What would have happened if last November the result of the US election had been announced after only a couple of hours of counting – and the news wasn’t good for Obama?

What if everyone who had voted for him took to the streets to ask where their vote had gone?

And the government denied such a rally took place. 

Locked all foreign journalists in their hotels.

And created their own mass rallies (in photoshop of course):

Over the last week many of us have actively been taking part in a resistance that the majority of the population are almost completely unaware of.

The sea of green.

An like everything on twitter  these days it appears to have started with Ashton Kutcher.

When he had his battle with CNN it was to prove that people are more powerful than main stream media channels.

People laughed when he said it was a historic day.

Yet his point has been proved by the people of Iran. The CNN journalists are locked in their hotel rooms sending out reports sourced from twitter, blogs and the courage of citizen journalists.

Hackers around the world have been opening proxy servers to allow people their voice, twitter rescheduled maintenance to allow the information to come through, Google made sure Fasi could be translated and got working on their sattelites to prove how many people are on the streets. People all around the world changed their profiles to say they are in Tehran to help shield the brave geeks who are risking their lives to help their country and their loved ones.

And the help is coming, when tear gas is used there are posts on how to combat its effect. When the injured are arrested at hospitals, maps spring up to foreign embassies that will help (Canada’s was closed, the cry from the north was overwhelming, it was open in a few hours – staffed with doctors). When water filled with irritants is thrown from helicopters, posts pop up with how to remove it. There are guides on how to treat a gunshot wound and first aid guides and well written articles on how to demonstrate safely.

There are messages of hope and love. Like “The world were Americans on 9/11 – today we are all Iranian’s” “I thought it was Americans who hated us – now I know it was your media”.

Alas, with all this freedom of information there is a price, uncensored news means you see everything and the truth is hard to bear. I have watched three young beautiful Iranians die infront of my eyes on youtube, I wish I hadn’t.

This morning the brief newsflash on the SMH site gave Obama’s words “The world is watching you.”

We are.In real time, unfiltered, from space, from mobile phones and from our armchairs.

Yey it can be a solitary human that makes the difference. Among the four thousand tweets every minute, two women’s voices have softly risen  above the anger.

A poem from the rooftops of Tehran

The second was a 16 year old girl who died in front of a camera, she didn’t say a word, she didn’t have to, her name said it all.

Rest in peace Neda (voice).