Counting
Over 13,000 signatures — mine included — have thus far protested the incarceration of Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. HE readers are requested to join the band. Do it.
Over 13,000 signatures — mine included — have thus far protested the incarceration of Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. HE readers are requested to join the band. Do it.
Done and shared.
It’s well known that nothing puts the fear in the Iranian government and makes them back down quite like a petition.
I agree C.C. While a appreciate the “artists in solidarity” thing, this is useless. Pointless. I mean my God, these people were fighting for serious political justice this year and it got them where?
I don’t know, not to naysay or anything, but I wouldn’t sign my NAME to ANYTHING remotely critical of anything middle eastern in today’s climate, at least nothing north of a Times Square falafel cart or griping about Return of the Pink Panther…
Done.
I totally understand, Lex… which is why I did sign but under my mother’s name who is in a nursing home.
So…..who is this petition for exactly? Does anyone think that the leaders of Iran are going to pay any attention whatsoever to an internet petition that informs them that a prisoner of the state “Must be allowed to gather his family and lam it to Paris”?
This is a joke, right? If there’s any reaction at all, it would be them putting him AND his family to death. Iran is NOT America, people. They could give two flying fucks about what a bunch of yahoos on the internet say about what they can and cannot do to one of their own. Jesus, you’re all living in a fantasy land.
Lex, Iran is not really the middle east. I wouldn’t sweat terrorist blowback.
@Michael: Really? Wow, well i’m astonished. And there was me thinking that Ahmadinejad would release Panahi as soon as he saw the petition. Thanks for clearing that up for us all.
Done. Even if it does about as much good as me strumming my guitar and singing I’m “standing up 2 cancer.”
Wells to LexG: I’m not persuaded that the Iranian Stasi monitoring this site, what with language issues and all, will fully understand the difference between those who posted supportive coments vs. those who said “I don’t want to risk any blowback by signing.” I’m guessing there’s a better than 50-50 chance you’re already lumped into the supporters’ file, so if they’re planning on sending agents to Los Angeles to bring wrath into the lives of Panahi supporters, odds suggest that you’re already a marked man. If I were you I’d take a drive out to Palm Desert to see about apartment rentals.
Done.
To all the doubters above, nobody believes this will sway in any way the Iranian policy towards Panahi or any other political prisoner. But it might, just might, get some attention paid to the issue.
How much time has the media spent on this issue? In the broadsheet press and online film blogs, a little bit. Everywhere else? Zero. If petitions like this manage to drag even a small amount of a press spotlight on the issue, is that not all to the good?
Please explain the downside to signing this, Lex’s amusing paranoia aside?
@markj: Your sarcasm is always welcome but that’s what the people signing this petition seem to think is going to happen. It doesn’t matter if ten million people sign it, the result is tha same. Everyone feels better…like they did something to effect change, but in reality, nothing is accomplished at all. The more the free world protests, the harder the Iranian goverment will dig in their heels on general principle. Sean Penn and Harvey Weinstein can bitch and moan all they like, but Iran gives less than two shits about them, me or you and they give even less of a shit about something at ephemeral as an on-line petition. Sorry to harsh everyones buzz, but that’s the truth and I think everyone kows it. This is just about us making ourselves feel better. Making us feel like we did something.
“Please explain the downside to signing this, Lex’s amusing paranoia aside?”
The downside is people sign it, and then exhale as if they’ve done something for the cause – and then they’re less likely to do something else later that might have actually made a difference. Online petitions are drivel made only to help people feel better about themselves.
Done.
It seems to me that in the time it took for some HE readers to piss all over the shoes of this petition, they could have just signed the damn thing and done something as opposed to nothing. Well, other than bitch that it is.
@sump-pop: as a matter of fact, I DID sign the petition before I bitched and pissed all over the shoes of this petition. so…..take it back! Take it back!
(by the way…..i’m just funnin’. I did sign it, but i’m funnin’ about the take it back part.)
@Michael: Really? Wow, well i’m astonished. And there was me thinking that Ahmadinejad would release Panahi as soon as he saw the petition. Thanks for clearing that up for us all.
Josh Massey is correct. Remember how a quarter century ago “Hands Across America” was going to eradicate hunger, or homelessness, or something? – signing e-petitions is a “feel good” gesture that will not accomplish anything, but by all means, do it if it feels good.
Alright, Michael. I take it back…mostly.
you know guys, every time I get one of those E-mails about how Microsoft is going to give a dollar to a cancer kid for every person the E-mail gets forwarded to… well, gosh, I mean, maybe they’re not *all* true, but some of them might be and, anyway, what does it hurt?
“If petitions like this manage to drag even a small amount of a press spotlight on the issue, is that not all to the good?”
Not only do I not agree that this will have any sort of media impact, I don’t even agree that it *should* have any sort of media impact.
I just did a quick google for “obama birth certificate petition”, and the very first one I clicked on had been signed by 500,000 people. I don’t think that means it should be discussed seriously on the news.
Astonishingly, I did a search for “Free west memphis 3 petition”, and the top one had just under 4000 signatures.
So, yeah, I don’t think that “e-petition signatures” is a valid way of measuring a subject’s worth. Further, I think the media does enough reports that can be summarized as “arab governments limit freedoms on individual citizens”. Those are stories that we can’t do anything about which are presented to make Americans feel better about their own country. There are unjustly locked up people in our own country that surely deserve that attention more than an Iranian filmmaker who voluntarily chose to go to jail for reasons that nobody here fully understands anyway.
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