Neda Soltan and the Iranian Protests - A Simple Rant

My deepest sorrow for Neda Agha-Soltan's absurd death.

On April 11, 2002, I was one of millions of witnesses to attend, through TV's screen, a very similiar, perhaps identical situation, in my country Venezuela, when a crowd was pushed, not led, to a sure death, absurdly "marching democratically in search for democracy, protesting freely in the search for freedom". The Ones who prepared the protesting march fled to safer retreats as soon as it was approaching "the point of no return".

And I'm going to ask the world now the same questions I asked myself on that date: "Who is to win in putting into practice such a terrible, inhuman, crazy action?" Why to kill a young woman that is expressing her opinion in a peaceful way, and not to kill any of the disguised men that are setting the city on fire, attacking the police forces, threatening everyone. What can a Government's people get out of all of this that can help them in the process, or at the end of it? All of us know it: violence brings more violence in turn, and this, for a Government, is the worst of all the possible ideas. Isn't it possible for any interested individual or group to prepare that kind of situation, pretending it is someone else's action? How difficult can it be?

Please, don't misinterpret my words. I don't intend to take any particular political side. I'm for true Democracy, I'm for true Freedom, I'm for LIFE above all. But it seems these three concepts have evolved and twisted since WWII, to become something blurred, something amorphus, that may be taken and manipulated to anyone's desire for any - usually non-legal - purpose.

I'm not going to express political opinions, especially in this case, for I don't have any meaningful, trustful data about Iran's reality that could be of help for me to make an honest opinion. And the last thing I would dare to do - if I ever lost my sense of honesty and reality - would be to listen to, and follow with the eyes closed (taking it as a truth), whatever the mass media, especially the USA mass media and its subordinates around the world, may say.

I'm totally sure, without any doubt at all, that the real Ones who prepared everything so that it could develop in the way it did in Teheran to end with the deaths of innocent civilians, are the same kind of "people" who did the same kind of thing in my country. The real Ones who have decided that the death of innocent civilians is a cheap price worth the effort to pay - as far as it is not the death of any of them, the Ones - if it gives them the chance to continue, and even to increase, the power they have exerted on the rest of the people so far. The Ones are the only to win and gain if let loose, if all the innocent people don't open their eyes and start doing whatever it may be necessary to stop this craziness that has spread all around the globe.

The way things are now, the Ones have already made the decision to exterminate all and any human obstacles in their way to domination. My point is: Is it going to make any difference in our lives the fact that we start standing up to confront the Ones? We can lose our lives in the process, but that is factor that is already taking place. These are the facts: being passive we get nothing and lose everything, being killed one way or another on the way; standing against the Ones we can get all the good things we deserve as human beings and get rid of them forever.

Just to finish, let me ask you: Who do you trust most: someone who doesn't look good because he/she is dressed poorly, not neatly, doesn't know how to speak correctly, or doesn't have a "perfect set of teeth and smile"? Or someone who just looks totally the opposite? We, as humans, tend to make the mistake to trust the One who has an appealing look and pronounces appealing words. Don't let someOne's look and words fool you. It's been happening until now. Don't let it happen any more. Stop, think, make a real and honest analysis of the real FACTS, and then, only then, make a decision on what and how must be done.

Now I'm looking at Neda's face, both alive and at the moment of her death, and I simultaneously feel a deep pain and a hatred that hurts.

To Neda Agha-Soltan's parents and relatives, my condolences. Her spirit will always stay with them and with all the good people of this world.