30 years on from the ’79 Revolution comes an awakening in Iran. And it bears similarities to Tiananmen, some 20 years ago, in the wave of uprising, despair, hope…a faint whiff of momentary freedom to express, dissent and simply let out some long building frustration.

As with all decent revolutions students are to the forefront and are certainly bearing the brunt of reprisals. And those reprisals will come thick and fast, hard and long, brutal and deadly. That’s just the way it is.

The Iranian authorities are somewhat stunned looking like they have been slapped by a wet fish.

“Where is my vote” people ask. Down the back of the sofa in Ahmadinejad’s office probably but the reality is that we don’t know that answer. But certainly the polling in advance of the election suggests the actual result might be rather different to the official one.

This is a big story and like Tiananmen it has captured the interest and hearts of many around the world. The connected generation has been pounding keyboards collating and disseminating information through social media with Twitter, especially, providing an outlet for up to the minute street reports.

Journalism schools will be setting 140 word max reports as part of their testing soon.

@persiankiwi has been a star with 24,000 hasitly assembled followers. Streaming news just took on new meaning. Instead of having the same story respooled and playing non-stop for 24 hours, we are getting a blow by blow account of what’s happening on the ground. It will be interesting to see how traditional media outlets can respond to this.

Given that most of them have been expelled they may not be much help. It suggests that any concerned citizen in any given country on any given day can provide a source of news. You just need a phone and away you go.

Imagine if we’d had mobile phones and Twitter in Tiananmen Sqaure. I wonder what difference it would have made to how China handled the situation.

What interests me most about this is that its an internal action. No regime change here…no hordes of US soldiers and targeted bombs..no neo-con fantasy of parachuted democracy. It’s the Iranian people trying to have their say. That is such a difference to its poor neighbours to the east and west who are mired in US inspired conflict.

In a way the outcome in Iran right now isn’t that important. It could end up really ugly or not. It’s hard to tell but the wheels have been set in motion. The world is watching and supportive of the process of peaceful demonstration.

There may be punishment, deaths, torture but realistically the authorities have limits in that area given the widespread dissent.

As Gandhi once said of British authorities trying to crack down on peaceful protest:

“But how many can be given such punishment? Try and calculate how much time it will take of Britishers to hang 300 million of persons”

I always remember this day and this event. Mainly because it screwed up my plans to cross China and get the Trans Siberian railway home after 20 months backpacking. As it was my girfriend and I were in Sust the last village before the Khunjerab Pass that links Pakistan with China and is the highest order crossing the world. It was a glorious spot with the towering Karakorams in the distance. Anyway the plan was set until we met this English bloke walking down the road to us. He’d just crossed over the border which had been shut and told us what had happened.

Remember this was BG (before google!) and before email even. News came via GPO Poste Restante and the travellers grapevine. So that was the end of that idea. It’s actually the closest I’ve ever been to China which is still on my list on places to visit.

But a lot has changed since that fateful day in Tiananmen Square and yet much has remained the same. The Chinese authorities began their media clampdown many months ago by suspending YouTube and more recently by blocking Twitter (what a compliment!) and Bing (Crosby??). As well as the usual quiet word in the ear of any one thinking about protesting or even acknowledging the anniversary.

So fear still rules. But fear of what exactly? Many Chinese are pretty happy with the way their economy has grown and how the modern world has been welcomed in. Sure not everyone has benefitted but there is a certain pride within the nation that much has been accomplished in recent times. Times like this are a real test for an authoritarian society. Dissent cannot be tolerated at any level.

But truth is a slippery ball and when one looks across to Hong Kong, where over 100,00 people gathered to mark the occasion, one can see that the attempt to censor and punish any kind of inquiry or examination is really a waste of time. People know.

China is a unique country with a long history and strong culture. Change comes slowly but hopefully those in charge will come to see the futility of repressing protest completely and censoring mass media. One thing though is for sure:

Tank Man is an enduring image of the 20th Century and no amount of propaganda or control can ever change that.