IRAN: Ahmadinejad the blogger

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has something in common with bloggers around the world: being overwhelmed by the demand for fresh content.

The president started a blog in 2006, vowing to spend 15 minutes a day communicating directly with people around the world. He has had 12 posts since then, starting with descriptions of his childhood as the son of a blacksmith who placed 132 out of 400,000 on the university admissions test despite a mid-exam nosebleed.

His protests against the shah did not distract from his studies, he said, and he rose to become a civil engineer, mayor, and in 2005, was elected president. He writes of the nature of bureaucracy, condemns the indignity of the United States' fingerprinting of foreigners, and prints the transcript of the 2006 meeting at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York when a Holocaust survivor presented himself as a living witness to the fact the Holocaust occurred.

The comments section is uncensored and erratic as any blog: "I think you are an evil leader," wrote Xochitl from the US.

"I think we need more leaders like you," wrote Ishu Shujau from the Maldives.

"Keep fighting bro," said Yuli Rani from Indonesia.

"Nice blog. You should be writing more often," said John Walker from Germany.

In an apparent response to Walker's comment, the president made his first post in eight months on Nov. 18th, apologizing for not writing.

"This doesn't mean that I have not been keeping my promise of spending fifteen minutes per week on it," he wrote. "As a matter of fact, I have spent more than the allocated time on the blog."

He had so many messages that he felt like he must personally respond to, he wrote, that only now does he feel caught up. He will continue to post and answer messages.

But he has one request for his loyal correspondents: "Make it as brief as you can."

— Maggie Farley at the United Nations

Comments

[Nikolaos Mottas]

Well, I think that many politicians around the world tend to be involved in new communication methods, like blogs. Most of them - if not all of them - believe that through posting texts in a blog they come 'closer' to the masses, they become part of the 'many' - mostly young - internet users. This is a good practice and a nice initiative towards the use of new technologies. Nevertheless, we should see the real meaning of politicians' actions, not only their will to expose themselves as 'bloggers' or new technology promoters. Because, if Mr.Ahmadinejad or Mr.Bush have personal blogs, thats interesting news indeed; but, does it make any actual difference in real politics? Does it have any impact on diplomacy? I don't think so. Blogging isn't politics and will never be. Therefore, blogs from political leaders have only 'symbolic' importance without any true sign of actual participation in a broad dialogue. Its just words.