THE VERY PROMISING BEGINNING: An On Scene Report

David A. Yazdan

Ladies and Gentleman to say that I was surprised in September, in front of the United Nations, to see the demonstrations against Ahmadinejad, would be an understatement. The area was so crowded it was so hard to get from the sidewalk to the area that we were supposed to make speeches and chant various slogans. However, when I arrived it was very early and we were not due up to the microphone until at least 11 o’clock. I saw a hugh picture of Kadofi and the police and security people were all over. Fortunately all that finished by 12:00. Then we had another group right at the beginning of the entrance at First Avenue. This group, the green group who were against Ahmadinejad but in favor of Moosavi, was trying to keep the Islamic Republic in place. This was hard for me to believe, I did not understand how anyone who calls himself Iranian would go half way to rescue our Nation. But anyway, after a while all that finished. but then we had a huge group which was pretty organized which replaced them. These were the MKA or the so-called Mujahedins. This group was more organized and they were well dressed. Their platform was elevated and there was strict discipline in them that very frankly impressed me and several of my friends, unlike what we did in front of them closer to First Avenue. I was very happy to see so many enthusiastic people from all over the world joining us to support of our bereaved nation.
The problem was that each group wanted to have its own microphone and its own time to speak and this was not exactly what we had planned. We had a meeting about this at least a week prior to the event, which in retrospect was not enough time at all. At that meeting we managed to raise some money for our group directed by Mr. Javid to pay for the loud speakers and other equipment, at the same time we had a list of the speakers, about 10. Each were to have four minutes in a 1 1/2 hour time period. Of course, this plan never materialized. There was a lack of discipline all over the place and it was very difficult to hear the speakers because there were simultaneous speaking going on both on our left, right and behind us. As if this was not bad enough, our own people had their own loud speakers and were chanting different slogans. I was appointed as one of the speakers to speak about four minutes, but a few people snuck in before me.
By the time it was my turn I could not get a word in because if was so noisy. There were a couple of other incidences that were quite undesirable and unexpected to see from this very educated group of people. Mr. Javid, who we put in charge of the speech making, had a very unenviable job because our platform was low. He could not keep the people with their signs and posters away from the platform when he went to the left and asks the guy to please step down the other guy from the right goes up and then when he went to the right the guy from the back would come up and it was really a very distressing situation, which is so regrettable.
I believe part of the problem was our fault because the whole thing was not planned according to the magnitude of the event. That platform actually should have been elevated and we should have had at least 8 marshals around it to prevent different people from interfering with the speakers. As if that were not bad enough there were two cameras in front recording the speakers that were being blocked by posters.
Despite the chaos and mistakes I am proud that we had a good showing. We let the people and the world know how we feel about Ahmadinejad and Ali Khamenei. One of the chants and slogans that I liked the most was as follows:

NO MORE AYATOLLAH!! NO MORE HOJJATOLLAH!!
NO MORE AYATOLLAH!! NO MORE HOJJATOLLAH!!

MARG BAR AYATOLLAH!! MARG BAR HOJOTOLLAH!!
MARG BAR AYATOLLAH!! MARG BAR HOJOTOLLAH!!