Sky of Blue, and Sea of Green – The New Normal #iranelection

In the first days of a crisis, everything is new. People scurry around, not sure how to react; what the right thing to do is. Yet slowly, the crisis becomes routine. People learn to cope. The visit to the hospital becomes a regular, normal occurrence. The expectation of things changing soon remains, but you recognize that you will probably do the same thing tomorrow that you did yesterday.

It seems as if this applies not only when a loved one fights some horrible illness, but can also apply to a nation fighting a horrible illness. Today, on twitter, a person tweeted, “The Sea of Green will continue tomorrow and every day until election is declared void”. The sea of green has become the new normal.

My scanning of the #iranelection tweets has become more routine. I recognize things to look for. Themes recur. The picture of the day is
Iran / today / Krimkhan St / protest NOW #iranelection on Twitpic

The discussion started off talking about the Iranian Soccer team wearing green wristbands. There were talks about which cleric was saying what, which generals or military forces are planning what. This is supplemented by rumors about Montazeri withdrawing his support of Khamenei and possible meeting of the Assembly of Experts.

Others are settling into their patterns as well. The Guardian has its live coverage of the Iranian Uprising, and people on Twitter are asking, “Are CNN and the networks just reading twitter, facebook, and youtube for me? They're going the way of the newspaper.”

Personally, I think the Guardian, CNN, and the networks are doing more than just reading Twitter. They are gathering out the most important points and putting them into context. For people that have time to read Twitter constantly and investigate what is being said, the traditional news outlets aren’t adding much. But most people don’t have that sort of time or inclination, and the news outlets are reaching beyond the most engaged.

I remember what was called the Iranian Hostage Crisis in the United States. The television stations would run their nightly reports of Day 49, or whichever day it was. Interestingly enough, this was tied to the freezing of all Iranian Assets held in the United States, something a friend of mine at the State Department is still dealing with thirty years later.

MediaBistro has provided a great profile of the ‘kid’ at the State Department who contacted Twitter. Clay Shirky shares his thoughts about the use of Twitter over on the TEDBlog.

People talk about the role of the United States and President Obama’s remarks. We can argue about whether or not one Iranian leader is really substantially different from another. One person on Twitter commented, “People of Iran, most of us here in America are supporting you so your government will be more pro-iranian, not pro-american”

Perhaps this takes us to where the real difference is. The underlying issue is whether or not a leader will respect the will and freedom of the people being governed. Will the leader order troops to shoot people who disagree with him? Will he round up dissidents? Will he try to shut down access to the media?

There is also some good levity on Twitter and the joke du jour is this item on eBay.

With the rhythm Iranian uprising taking shape, I need to re-evaluate how it fits into the rest of the rhythm of my blog. I like to write about a large array of topics but the Iranian uprising has been taking up a lot of my writing focus. Do you find these posts interesting? Helpful? Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.