Friday, June 26, 2009

Iranians turn to their own personal "Man in the Mirror"

The shocking impact left on Iran by the death of Pop King Michael Jackson has now caused the nation struggling with rigged elections and a failing democracy to turn the spotlight inside, and focus on their own "Man in the Mirror."

Recently Iran has been in the national spotlight via their twitter account, telling outsiders about the protests and reporting and organizing global protests and demonstrations. But suddenly it has stopped, leading me to believe that Iranians are taking a more personal look, taking some time for self reflection. Their silent tweets demonstrate their settling democracy.

When queried one man said: "Why isn't twitter working?! Everytime I try to tweet to organize a protest to save our democracy it says Twitter is overloaded but all I see are tweets about... oh my god... Michael Jackson died? Well... that's about it for our news coverage..."

More and more shocking news of how Iran is dealing with Michael Jackson's death.

Breaking: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hates Michael Jackson!

There have been many many protests throughout this country as I walk around. Many of them are claiming that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a fraud and a civil rights abuser. The Iranians are upset, violently angry, and protesting this man. He has seemingly destroyed democracy. But that's only on the surface. My research points to something new... this man, Ahmadenijad despises Michael Jackson.

I discovered this earlier as a protester's boombox blared Thriller and the protester was ordered to be held in custody by the Iranian President.

This does not sit too well with the people of Iran, a nation known for their love and support of the King of Pop. But apparently Mahmoud has declared himself the king of pop. Now I've reported on some biased and unfair elections, but his declaration of pop royalty may be the breaking point for these unresting soldiers of democracy and pop music.

To further my evidence, I asked a resident protester if Mahmoud's hatred of MJ was fueling their rage, and he replied affirmatively:

"Honestly, if me saying yes will make the national spotlight turn back to Iran and our civil rights and crumbling government, then yes, Mahmoud hates Michael Jackson, and we can't stand it. Now can we get some more aid?"

Simply incredible.

Twitter turns green for Michael Jackson

A request from this reporter:

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR THE KING OF POP BY TURNING YOUR TWITTER AVATAR GREEN! It's easy to do, you've seen plenty of your friends do it, now show your support for the man who changed pop music forever.

A green avatar means a remembered Jack-o.

At least that's what this reporter has deduced.

Now back to the field reports on Iran. Their voices and laments about Michael Jackson must be heard.

A Nation in Anguish

When I walked down the streets of Iran this morning I witnessed a country in agony. The King of Pop was dead. You could read it in all of their faces. They were obviously mourning... heads hung low... in the distance you could hear a protest, and if you listened hard enough you could barely discern the beats from the song Dangerous... blasting loudly. It sounded like gun fire, an odd metaphor for how they were dealing with the death of Michael Jackson.

My first interview was with a young man, 26 years old, just the right age, growing up with the sounds of Michael Jackson consistently in his ears. This is what he told me:

"Michael Jackson? Yeah, I love Michael Jackson. Bad, that album was just incredible, I mean I remember when I first saw the video for the song, that Scorsese piece, just blew my mind when I watched the full thing. I would point to that album and say that it really shaped my youth."

A nice man, I asked if there was anything else he wished to say:

"Yeah, Iran's democracy is in shambles and while I really do enjoy the music of Michael Jackson, I really hope that some people out there remember what we are..."

At this point I turned off the recorder. The ramblings of a young man dealing with the death of a pop icon.