A Shot Heard Round the World
Most media coverage of the protests that greeted Iran’s widely disparaged presidential election results were already being captured and transmitted by cameraphone and text message, so it’s perhaps only fitting that the last moments of 26-year-old Neda Agha-Soltan’s life were captured on a grainy cellphone video. The 40-second clip, which has become an internet sensation, is a graphic testament to the protests’ brutal suppression: Neda, searching the camera with helpless eyes, struggles for life after being shot in the chest during a Tehran street demonstration, as bystanders crowd around desperately trying to help. Her name, which is Farsi for “voice” or “calling” has become a rallying cry for the growing opposition movement and a symbol of their resistance.
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The Ultimate Sacrifice
Sometimes an image has the power to change the world. On June 11, 1963, Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc sat down crosslegged in the middle of a busy street in Saigon, his robes soaked in fuel, and set fire to himself; his body was quickly engulfed in flames. The haunting and horrifying protest against the persecution of Buddhists by the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese regime got results: as more monks began to emulate Thich Quang Duc’s example, President Ngo Dinh Diem fell from favor. In November 1963 he was removed from power by a coup d’etat and executed.
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The Fall of Saddam
While the advisability of the U.S. invasion of Iraq will long be a matter of debate, the overthrow of one of the world’s most notorious dictators was inarguably a moment of jubilation for many Iraqis. On April 9, 2003, as U.S. troops moved into Baghdad, Iraqi citizens slipped a noose around the neck of a statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square and dragged it from its plinth, with the assistance of a detachment of U.S. Marines and their armored vehicle. The towering statue subsequently beheaded and dragged through the streets. The effusive demonstration was a stunning symbol of the nation’s liberation from Saddam’s brutal regime.
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Four Dead in Ohio
On May 4, 1970, a Vietnam War protest at Kent State University turned ugly. As students were dispersing, Ohio National Guardsmen fired into the crowd, killing four students and wounding nine. The dark day set off a nationwide student strike that shut down hundreds of colleges and universities and came to symbolize the sharp political and social divisions of the age. Among the most potent images to emerge from the incident is this photo of 14-year-old runaway Mary Vecchio wailing over the body of Jeffrey Miller, one of the slain students. Snapped by John Filo, an undergraduate photojournalism major, the shot appeared on the front pages of newspapers around the country and won a Pulitzer Prize.
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A Concert on the Mall
Marian Anderson had a three-octave range and a voice that conductor Arturo Toscanini reportedly said was “such as one hears once in a hundred years.” Yet in the 1920s U.S.— where African-Americans were as unwelcome in famous concert halls as they were at the front of buses — she was an unlikely star. Her remarkable voice propelled her past barriers: in 1936 she became the first African-American to sing at the White House, and she regularly sold out her her shows. Anderson’s most lasting legacy, however, came out of a concert she didn’t give: in 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution denied her request to perform in their Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. Amid a public outcry during which First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the D.A.R. in protest, the federal government gave Anderson permission to sing at the Lincoln Memorial instead. On Easter Sunday, 75,000 Americans gathered in person and millions more tuned in on the radio to hear Anderson perform. Her first song was “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.” She became a civil rights icon overnight.
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Tear down this wall
Ever since the wall separating East and West Berlin was constructed in 1961, it was a symbol of the postwar rift between East and West Germany and the great power struggle of the Cold War. Yet on Nov. 9, 1989, a moment came that shaped Europe’s history: East Germany announced it would open borders with the West. In the celebration that ensued, tens of thousands poured across the boundary and began to dance and chisel away the wall — tearing down 28 years of deadly separation and ushering in a new era. The change would later come to represent the end of the Cold War and the eventual fall of the Soviet Union. The following October, Germany officially became one nation.
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Standing up by sitting down
Even though African Americans constituted some 70% of total bus ridership in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks still had trouble keeping her seat on December 1, 1955. It was against the law for her to refuse to give up her seat to a white man, and her subsequent arrest incited the Montgomery Bus Boycott. One year later, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision that made segregated seating unconstitutional. Parks was known thereafter as the “mother of the Civil Rights movement.”
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Fists in the Air
African-American track athletes Tommie Smith (first place) and John Carlos (third place) used their wins in Mexico City’s 1968 Olympic Games to show their opposition to the continued oppression of blacks in the U.S. They stood in black socks to represent black poverty; Carlos wore beads to symbolize black lynchings; together they raised their black-gloved fists in a cry for black unity. The second place winner on the podium, Australian Peter Norman, wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge on his track suit in solidarity. It cost him a hero’s welcome upon his return home. Both Smith and Carlos were removed from the Games and none of the three men ever recanted their stances.
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The Unknown Rebel
After the death of pro-democracy leader Hu Yaobang in mid-1989, students began gathering in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to mourn his passing. Over the course of seven weeks, people from all walks of life joined the group to protest for greater freedom. The Chinese government deployed military tanks on June 4 to squelch the growing demonstration and randomly shot into the crowds, killing more than 200 people. One lone, defiant man walked onto the road and stood directly in front of the line of tanks, weaving from side to side to block the tanks and even climbing on top of the first tank at one point in an attempt to get inside. The man’s identity remains a mystery. Some say he was killed and others believe him to be in hiding in Taiwan.
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Ethiopian Review Editor’s Note : The Western media may not want to remember, but Ethiopia has its own symbol of protest, Shibre Desalegn, who was gunned down by the U.S.-financed tribal junta in 2005. Here is her story:
A young heroine pays the ultimate sacrifice
Addis Ababa — Her name is ShiBire Desalegn. She is the first person to be killed when Meles Zenawi unleashed his forces following a peaceful protest by Addis Ababa University (AAU) students on June 6, 2005. She was shot and killed by EPRDF troops as she and her friends tried to block the road in Kotebe that leads to the Sendafa torture camp. She helped escape several AAU students from torture by helping them jump from the trucks that were taking them to Sendafa. She didn’t have any weapon. But that didn’t stop the EPRDF troops from shooting her to death.
A high caliber bullet pierced through her neck.
Because of ShiBire’s actions, some AAU students escaped torture. But because of the action and inaction of others, thousands went through unspeakable brutality in the hands of the EPRDF security forces under the direct orders of Meles Zenawi. Thirty days later, Meles Zenawi was standing next to President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair at the G8 meeting in Scotland, looking proud of his barbaric actions.
Ethiopian Review spoke with ShiBire’s mother, Wzr. Ayelech Birkneh. She is devastated by her daughter’s sudden death. As the bread winner of the family, the 21-year old ShiBire was supporting her mother and six teenage siblings. The father passed away, leaving only a 50 birr monthly pension.
ShiBire could not continue her education, because there was nobody else to support the family. Her income was not enough to support the whole family even though she worked hard. The only choice she had to generate enough income was to go to a foreign country looking for a job.
People in ShiBire’s neighborhood appreciate what she did and died for. They think she is a heroine and a role model. They talk about her with a great deal of pride. She stood up for the students who only demanded respect for the people’s vote. She paid the ultimate sacrifice trying to save others.