Thursday, Tir 18. Did we take to the streets? Yes we did, and I was surprised at the turnout. The days where hundreds of thousands or millions gather to demonstrate are over, at least for now, but still, given the circumstances – the sudden declaration of a long weekend holiday to drive people out of the city, along with all the arrests, killings, beatings, and general terror tactics – I was surprised. This demonstration had a different feel to it though. It is hard to say how many people were there since they had flooded many areas at the same time and there were many who had come to the zones in their cars and never left them. Their motto: if it’s not safe to walk through, we’ll drive. There were others who were riding the buses on Enghelab Avenue, going back and forth, squeezed against the windows and waving signs or shouting. So if one considers those, along with the marching demonstrators, the districts around Enghelab were jammed.
We walked south from Felestine Square, got to Enghelab Avenue and turned toward Tehran University. Like the olden days, there was a surge of people going in the same direction and the streets were jam-packed with cars, once again honking and honking. The sidewalk was quite crowded, but the heavy presence of Neanderthals at every intersection, every corner, ensured that people could not form large crowds. Here’s a picture I took of one of them that day:
We got to the east end of Tehran University and faced a large blockade, preventing us from getting to the university gates. All routes to the university were probably blocked. No matter. We turned north, went around the block, and came back to the blockade once again. This was in fact the demonstration; going around the blocked blocks. We stopped somewhere for a little while and joined a group on the sidewalk that was booing the passing armored cars. This went on until we were swarmed by baton-wielding, bike-riding types. We ran inside one of the streets, stopped mid way, shouted some more, and realizing that some Neanderthals would now go around and come from the other end, effectively trapping everyone in the street, we decided to get out and move on to another location. Along the way, those coming from other parts would report on the situation: tear gas on this side, beatings on that side, arrests on another. We bumped into a friend and decided to get back to the car and drive around a bit.
We covered about a square kilometer on the north and north-west of Tehran University and the entire area was a mess. People were playing a cat-and-mouse game with the Neanderthals. We got into an area with many humans, and no Neanderthals. Having taken over a strip, people were burning trash, the bins, and anything else they could find on the streets, gathering in groups at intersections and shouting slogans. We’d honk and zigzag among the fire and rubble and then drive a few blocks west where fires were burning, there was lots of smoke, and you could smell tear gas, but there were no humans, and many Neanderthals, who’s role was reduced to directing traffic and putting out the fires. We’d then turn East and drive a few blocks back to the old place. This time no humans, many Neanderthals, collecting garbage, enjoying the smoke. Go back west. Many humans, no Neanderthals. Ad infinitum.
As we widened the circle, the same was happening all over. Although the Neanderthals were deployed in large numbers, because the unrest had spread, and because there were too many cars in the streets blocking their mobility – some cars would deliberately block intersections when they saw the bikers coming – they were having a hard time containing the humans, (of course, their small brains contributed to this failure too). For the first time they were visibly very frustrated. In one corner, where about twenty of them were standing, a rock came down from one of the rooftops and hit one in the head. Lucky him for wearing a helmet. They all scattered in fear and when they realized there were no more rocks, they came back, selected a building and started to taunt it: “come out here and show yourself if you’re a man”. Naturally, the perpetrator’s not showing up must have been because he was a woman, otherwise he would have come out to have a civilized discourse with them. Infuriated, the Neanderthals suddenly broke into a chanting of their own: “Hezbollah…Hezbollah…”
As you know, there is a variety of Neanderthal breeds present in these gatherings. Aside from the armed brutes in the frontlines, there are those who play with their cameras, some talk into their walkie-talkies, others look inside people’s bags, or delete files from their cell phones. There are those who just stand and stare into the void, occasionally scratching their heads or picking their noses. This time we spotted a team of two walking up the street and jotting down license plates. When we asked them why, one of them said they are reporting everyone who is honking. Good luck to both of you. These Neanderthals are being paid between fifty and two hundred dollars a day, depending on their level of primitiveness. Word on the street is that the plan is to keep a weekly schedule of small, short, and scattered demonstrations, just to force their government to keep all of them on the payroll indefinitely.
Tags: democracy, demonstration, elections