I have always been proud to be an American for a number of reasons including the fact that our great country has almost always pushed for human rights and democracy around the world. Like any country, we are not perfect but at the end of the day there is a reason some of the best and brightest flock to the United States to live.
I am prouder still that technology which was primarily developed in the US, the internet, social networking and more recently twitter have allowed people around the world to communicate more effectively.
Most recently twitter has been responsible for communications in Iran at a time when the government there has been trying to clamp down on communications.
My family comes from Iran but I was born in the US. The country claims to have the best of both worlds - a democracy which is intertwined with religion. In many respects this solution is much better than a dictatorship but if elections are not free, the country becomes ever-closer to dictatorship than a republic.
So news of twitter aiding in communications during political protests is very exciting to me. At the end of the day every country must comply with the wishes of its people. Repressive regimes know this and censor various websites and technologies to keep democracy from taking root but in the end, the free flow of information via the web and new technologies becomes more and more difficult to stop.
And as this information flows, so does the hope for more people to gain human rights and freedom.
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Great article, I too think it is fantastic how much technogical advances our helping with world communication in this Iranian crisis. I think that these new methods of communication will also have a greater influence in the long run as well - see https://www.mindreign.com/en/mindshare/Political-Science/They-e2-80-99ve-Gone-Too-Far/sl4358144bp290cpp10pn1.html for what i mean.
I don't belive twitter should get involved in some that is made up by US and British. The election in Iran was free and with out any rigging. The US (CIA), Mossad and MI5 were working hard to convence people of Iran that there were cheating in election and they suceeded to a degree. All that because of Iran influence in Middle east is growing exponentialy and they wanted to slow it down.
I don't belive there was an uprising in Iran. I think there were other countries that tried to create anti goverment to make it look like an uprising in Iran. These were designed to reduce the Iranian influence in Middle east and Asia.
I am not from Iran, but what I saw on TV was very upsetting. I can see why US or British want to create uprising in Iran, but Iranian goverment needs to be more open to its people. Giver more freedom to do what they want. Freedom brings liberty and wealth.
Noureen, thank you. Very well said. I agree with you 100% percent. We need the big powers to leave the area, but that won't happen any time soon in middle east.