Khaab Khayaal Saraab

Wednesday, April 30, 2003

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/29/opinion/29GERE.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/30/international/worldspecial/30RUMS.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/30/international/worldspecial/30ASSE.html

And then I found the following today:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54502-2003Apr29.html

which was a mine of information--for better or for worse. For example, the writer points out that Khomeini was not just riding in on a spontaneous wave; he had spent 15 years--*FIFTEEN* years, people--of grassroots organizing. And that the Left and Khomeini cooperated a *lot* in the 70s.

This last, particularly, is something that resonates very loudly with me right now; having hung around with a lot of Indian leftists lately. Having grown up on the other side of the intellectual spectrum, it's been a long and grudging road to realizing that these guys really know how to organize--and they achieve results. Have you seen http://www.stopfundinghate.org? 4/7 of the people listed in the acknowledgements to the report (http://stopfundinghate.org/sacw/index.html) are local to the Bay Area and I got to meet all 7 over the last week. (You might have heard the name of Biju Mathew--google him if you haven't.) These guys know how to organize and they have a well-reasoned world view.