Sherry Chandler

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 Good news on the revolution/coup front

Honduras:

The scoreboard in the battle for Honduras shows the coup losing badly. It has not gained a single point in the international diplomatic arena, it has no serious legal points, and the Honduran people are mobilizing against it. As the military and coup leaders resort to brute force, they rack up even more points against them in human rights and common decency.

Only one factor brought the coup to power and only one factor has enabled it to hold on for these few days–control of the armed forces. Now even that seems to be eroding.

Iran:

What is new today is not that cracks have opened inside a monolithic system, or even that particularly powerful figures, like Rafsanjani, have broken onto the side of the reformers. What is new is the fierce mass movement from below, which is not confined to students and intellectuals but seems to span demographics and age groups. Even while exercising legal rights, nonviolent methods, and issuing constant appeals to Islam and to the ideals of the revolution, this movement has openly defied Khamenei, the Basij, and the Revolutionary Guards, by ignoring the threats of bloodshed and mayhem. Nothing like that has happened in thirty years.

Thanks to Dave.

Also Borges on Iran, thanks to the Poetry Hut Blog.

And this via The Sideshow:

Not such good news on our own human rights accountability:

In anticipation of the release of that report [the full version of the 2004 CIA Inspector General’s Report}, there is an important effort underway — as part of the ACLU Accountability Project — to correct a critically important deficiency in the public debate over torture and accountability.  So often, the premise of media discussions of torture is that “torture” is something that was confined to a single tactic (waterboarding) and used only on three “high-value” detainees accused of being high-level Al Qaeda operatives.  The reality is completely different. 

The interrogation and detention regime implemented by the U.S. resulted in the deaths of over 100 detainees in U.S. custody — at least.  While some of those deaths were the result of ”rogue” interrogators and agents, many were caused by the methods authorized at the highest levels of the Bush White House, including extreme stress positions, hypothermia

Sad news for bird lovers:

The nightingale has effectively vanished from woodlands across the UK.

A 30-year survey of British woodland birds has found that its population has fallen by more than 95%.

Seventeen other bird species have also declined significantly, many of which overwinter in tropical west Africa where their habitat is being destroyed.

Nightingales have a special significance for lovers of English poetry. I’ve never heard one but I grieve to think they may be gone from the English countryside.

Via

Poetry vs ideology

@stoney pointed me in the direction of an article in the Washington Post, Reading Twitter in Tehran, Why the real revolution is on the streets — and offline. Make of the article what you will. What struck @stoney and me was this here little passage here:

Online chatter has enormous value when it offers a window into an otherwise closed society, but much of the cyber conversation in Iran has absolutely nothing to do with politics or revolution. Religion is a major topic for bloggers — and not necessarily the politics of religion, but rather its historical, theological and personal aspects. And the most frequently discussed topic on Iranian blogs? Poetry.

Nope, absolutely nothing to do with politics or revolution. Just harmless old poetry. Which is why poets are being jailed by repressive governments the world around.

A similar observation prompted @morningporch to remember this quote:

“Poetry is a cure for ideology.” Yves Bonnefoy

And @stoney reminds me that @morningporch, aka Dave Bonta, has posted several videos of Iranian poetry at Moving Poems, including Tomorrow by Abbas Saffari, video and translation by Niloufar Talebi for The Translation Project DVD, Midnight Approaches. Be sure to watch the accompanying video of Ms. Talebi explaining her translation process for this poem.

Also Red Rose 1 & 2 by A. H. Afrasiabi and I Hang Myself by Saghi Ghahraman (text here). All translated by Niloufar Talebi.

I haven’t said much about what’s going on in Iran. I can’t pretend to have any real understanding of what has been happening there, but I fear there may have been some projection in our reaction. Though I have to admire the leadership and bravery of the women involved, I’m not sure anyone could describe Mr Mousavi as liberal in our understanding of the term. For that matter, I wouldn’t describe Mr. Obama as a lilberal either. And people do change, as do governments. Unfortunately, in my lifetime, it has been a rare thing for a government to change for the better.