Dear Neda, I'm Sorry

If you find online the video of the murder of Neda, "The Angel of Iran", you will see death; worse, you will see dying; worse still, you will see and hear humans witnessing one of their young dying. There is a moment when those around her understand, from a sign unseen, that the motionless figure beneath them has ceased being a living human being. From them a keening rises, a sound unique to the witnessing of dying becoming death, which will haunt me for weeks.

I am naïve about politics, and I am completely ignorant about politics in Iran. I don't know if Mousavi will be as bat shit crazy as the last guy. For all I know he will continue to squander a young nation's greatest resource, it's people.

However, I know tyranny when I see it. It's easy to spot. It's predictable and unimaginative. It's men with power and hunger but no vision. Power and hunger, no better than a beast. Ahmadinejad and the Supreme Leader (the hint is in the name) have little more than that, never mind the ideology they drape over themselves.

So for that reason alone, let us pray that these disturbing videos like the one of Neda's murder will become artefacts of a historical moment in time.

Let the tyrants fall and come what may.

Beautiful London Moment #472

The lead-coloured skies over Victoria Station whispered rain. Waiting for the "green man" light, a drift¹ of suits stood in their blacks, greys and dark business-blues. At the centre of the monochrome massing on the pavement, a beaming gentleman stood: a shining-white grin, grass green fuzzy Kanga cap, matching Adidas track suit and shoes. -Beautiful London Moment #472

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¹Yes, 'drift' is the correct collective noun for a group of business men.