Mana

Suffolk county

Iran 1979

In 78 and 79, in the middle of it, literally. Formative event of my life.

I think in a sense, the Egyptians and the American Government have learnt a lot of lessons from that revolution. It has become a cautionary tale (sadly for us). There is no dogma in this revolution, no raw emotional zenophobia. There are no god-like leaders, with powers of fiat. US government is no Carter, with his 'Island of Stability' comments that fanned flames. Iranisn rev turned out very violent, before and after. Egyptians should avoid that at the expense of speed. They have already achieved in 17 days what it took us eighteen months to accomplish. BBC back then is horse carriage compared to AlJazeera and CNN streaming over the internet. This is a populace that has overgrown its archaic governing structures, change is inevitable. In Iran, it was the culmination of years of humiliating neocolonial dominance. Egyptians got over that, in a sense, by Nasser and Nasserism. Iranians were finishing a job, in a sense, started by Mossadeq's anti-British movement. This is a start of something new in Egypt. So very different settings, although the arc of events feels very familiar (on fast-forward).