Monday, June 22, 2009

#IranElection #Neda

"In Iran, One Woman's Death May Have Many Consequences"

That is the title of an article published on Sunday the 21st of June on Time.Com which for us in NZ is like sometime during our Sunday night, Monday morning. It has already had 1,975 diggs at time of writing this blog. I picked up on this video this morning as I was reading through Mashable, the video footage of this young woman dying on the street is incredibly distressing, and unless you are watching through an rss feed, YouTube require sign in to view the video to try to contain it to an R18 audience. I am not honestly comfortable about embedding the video on my blog, but the footage certainly made me stop and reassess my day, so if you would like to see it, it is here. It is graphic so this is your warning.

Barely up for 2 days and has had more than 200,000 views. A little over 14 hours ago they had to disable comments. This footage has rocketed through Twitter and Facebook. For some time now Iran and #IranElection have been at the top of 'Trending Topics' but I have a feeling that #Neda is going to go straight to the top of that list. For so many of us who have a freedom to live our lives how we decide, what is happening in Iran is so far removed from what we know, that it is just another story on the news. This video (and I am amazed they have not taken it down from YouTube) has had the power to really confront people about what is actually happening. Social media has been the key driving factor in the development in this story, and whether you think it is a good thing or not, I think the more people having the conversation about what is happening, the better. We should care. We should be concerned. We should do something to help, if we can.

I really do hope that somehow Neda's death can change something.
Neda is the same age as me.

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