Iran Has a Makeover

I think that the most overlooked aspect of the current election crisis in Iran is the fact that the western world has finally had a human portrait of Iranian men and women painted for them.

Time recently ran a photo-essay titled “The Faces of Iran” which can be viewed here. Do you see what I see? Young people attending university. Thriving art and business communities. Modern cityscapes.

This photo collection single-handedly shatters misconceptions held about Iran, its people and its culture.

Where was this humanity from the mainstream media when the President of the United States deemed Iran a member of “The Axis of Evil?” Where were the photo-essays during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to New York City in the September of 2007?

This is not a political post. I’m simply pointing out that our perception of Iran and its people until recently has been defined by photos of Ahmadinejad and that has been unacceptable.

After all, George W. Bush certainly did not win the 2000 United States presidential election with 99% of the popular vote.

Twitter's Biggest Flaw is Finally Exposed

I am not surprised that Twitter has become the medium of choice among Iranians protesting their country’s recent presidential election. It seems though that during its finest hour, the social networking site’s biggest flaw is  finally being highlighted on a global scale.

Twitter is an amazing service. But it also has an extremely low barrier of entry, which in turn dilutes its effectiveness.

The amount of mindless re-tweeting that has occurred in recent days is astonishing. I understand that the average user is not going to subscribe to a rigorous vetting process when it comes to verifying information, but this no excuse to blindly spread the same message about YouTube removing videos highlighting the violence in Tehran when they are doing the exact opposite.

Issues like this emphasize my concerns about Twitter’s sustainability.  In many ways, it is the epitome of the high school rumor gone nuclear.

Don’t get me wrong though. I’ll be micro-blogging until my fingers fall off.

Sometimes you just have to take the good with the bad.