Iran

I am constantly amazed by how much control foreign governments wield over the freedom of speech and freedom to protest of their citizens.  So many political prisoners are detained unfairly for years, lifetimes even, with families having nowhere to turn and no information. For instance, I just read of Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma who has been under house arrest beginning in 1989; however, she is a high profile case and there are so many who are taken from their families without warning and never heard of again. 

In Iran, the crackdown on political protest and the media is shocking.  Since foreign media and even Iranian media have been banned and thrown out the country, we are relying on citizens emailing foreign media and recording events on their cellular phones.  One woman who had been a correspondent with BBC news recently sent an email stating she had been fired from her job because they had searched her computer and found the emails she had been sending so she could no longer provide information.  Apparently the government is now showing commercials advertising a hotline for people to call when they suspect someone of bad political activity.  One commercial features a young women who fears her brother is keeping "bad company" she calls the hotline and her brother is followed and arrested.  The 1984 parallel is a little freaky.  I am inspired by the citizens' resilience, both in Iran and in China where people are fighting to get around the internet blockades.  It reminds me that people, even young people, can do something when they work together and work with passion.  It also reminds me that revolutions are still very alive and real today.