Yesterday's government organised rally at the Azadi stadium in Tehran turned out to be a huge disappointment on all fronts. The expected one hundred thousand crowd that was talked about never materialised, footage and pictures suggest a maximum of fifty to sixty thousand struggling to fill parts of the stadium.
The crowd that turned up were either government employees, who either had to go, or people who were there for some fun and freebies. Even so the organisers were unable to use them for their propaganda purposes. People chanted "Where is our lunch?" just when Ahmadinejad was being introduced as the next speaker and when he did start making his speech, some started booing him and leaving the stadium or chatting amongst themselves. There were hardly anyone who was paying any attention to his usual rhetoric of "global justice" and the need for "collective management of the world".
Ahmadinejad's deputy, Mashaei, who was expected to announce his candidacy didn't even turn up.
Perhaps all that was worthy of the event was that for the first time since the 1979 revolution, men and women sat next to each other in the stadium and danced and cheered together as various musical bands performed for them. Yet as much as Iranians crave for some rejoicing and happiness without consequences, the whole event with all its expenditure; was a total flop.
People rushing for their freebie sandwiches:
The crowd that turned up were either government employees, who either had to go, or people who were there for some fun and freebies. Even so the organisers were unable to use them for their propaganda purposes. People chanted "Where is our lunch?" just when Ahmadinejad was being introduced as the next speaker and when he did start making his speech, some started booing him and leaving the stadium or chatting amongst themselves. There were hardly anyone who was paying any attention to his usual rhetoric of "global justice" and the need for "collective management of the world".
Ahmadinejad's deputy, Mashaei, who was expected to announce his candidacy didn't even turn up.
Perhaps all that was worthy of the event was that for the first time since the 1979 revolution, men and women sat next to each other in the stadium and danced and cheered together as various musical bands performed for them. Yet as much as Iranians crave for some rejoicing and happiness without consequences, the whole event with all its expenditure; was a total flop.
People rushing for their freebie sandwiches:
1 comment:
Even for comical effect, the Western media and Aljazeera could jump all over this. At least give Iranian protestor's a ray of hope that the outside world is at last re-paying them some attention! But nah - all we'll get is still the usual pious hypocrisy and self-inflated ego of the IRI being given the main platform. Just goes to prove - A free lunch to give Khamenei's Gestapo an easy ride, obviously extends beyond the Iranian border.
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