#{uprising}

Iranian Revolution, 1979.

Anonymous. A student hurling rocks at the police in Paris during the May 1968 student uprising.

We interrupt the current #shitshow's broadcast, for an all-important reminder that there is a real world, out there. And in that real world dramatic, heroic and unsettling things do tend to happen on the regular.

As this post is being written, the fate of the current civilian uprising in Tehran (and elsewhere) is yet to be determined. For having covered this topic with some consistance -a topic I have a deep, direct and affectionate understanding of - I cannot help but notice the obvious new development. Unlike so many other tragic and morally revolting times, the bazaaris are now at the very core of the massive protests. I have met some of them during my travels in Persia and I have to say I was not expecting this to happen during my own lifetime. For unlike the long suffering intellectuals or the formidable women of Persia, the bazaar merchants were not exactly expected to ever rise, en masse, against the gray, sad and often brutal mullahs. If anybody, aside the radical clergy fringe and the corrupted military or weaponized militants of the Basij ever took more profit from the Islamic Revolution, that would be them.

A seemingly endless chain of petty complicity with The Powers That Be made the bazaaris very rich. But the crumbling world economy, the protracted conflicts in the region and of course, the COVID pandemic eventually dented that social contract, apparently to a point of no return. Inflation is rampant, the social fabric is tearing apart and deep frustration flared into deep political distrust.

But as always, don't trust me. Here are two very different POVs on what is going on right now in Persia, that may bring less clarity and even more questions, at the end of the day. Because revolutions - and this is, after all, a revolutionary outburst - are about action, not analysis.

The first is Omid Djalili's view on the current developments, as expressed on Matt Frei's podcast The Fourcast, on UK's Channel 4, today (30 minutes):

You may remember Omid Djalili as Mohsen, the avuncular owner of that bar frequented by Mira and her sister in the hopelessly terrible Love Again. I prefer this vocal, slightly controversial version, by far.

The second is Christiane Amanpour's latest podcast on her Ex Files You Tube channel. It deals with Persia, but it also extensively deals with the much fabled female gaze of those brave women journalists who are also war correspondents (30 minutes):

I also found all the comments on the rise of AI in the media and elsewhere very interesting. If anything, they confirmed my deep suspicion and contempt of AI, as a vehicle for cruelly questionable media circus. And as we see on the regular, this fandom is no stranger to all sorts of cheap and bizarre AI generated content. No, the "I like to dream' argument is puerile, immoral and irresponsible. And yes, AI is the new best friend of all sorts of trolls and other unsavory types.

All of this reminded me of this 📸 taken by yours truly on my first dizzy and wakeful morning in Tabriz, after three days of train travel crossing Anatolia on the Transasia Express, now a ghost of its former self. The moment I realized I had to change into the modest attire I had bought in Istanbul, after a tentative stroll wearing just my safari jacket -and feeling completely naked - at 8 a.m:

That was Northern Persia in 2010, in the wake of the huge protest wave that saw Neda Agha-Soltan's death land on our screens. Modesty police was everywhere but in the richest neighborhoods on the Northern fringe of Tehran. And they meant business, as I was soon about to discover and experience myself.

Tomorrow, or in a week, or in a month from now this may change for good. The local context is still very volatile. But when it does, returning to Esfahan is first on my travel list. One of the most extraordinary places that exist on this planet and an absolute, undeserved and unexpected joy.

Tron: Uprising (2012)

"Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, Everglades, FL – According to reporting by Noticias 23/Univision, an uprising took place on or around Thursday, August 28 at the notorious immigrant detention center called ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ by some and the ‘Everglades Concentration Camp’ by others. The site has drawn widespread condemnation due to severe human rights and environmental violations and is in the process of closing.

Noticias 23/Univison reports that three detainees contacted them by phone and that alarms could be heard in the background of calls from the facility. At least four people detained at the rapidly-constructed detention camp, ordered shut down by a federal judge on Wednesday, have been reportedly injured in the uprising. The number of guards injured is currently unknown.