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Video Offers Glimpses of Tehran Protests

By ROBERT MACKEY
Video, said to have been recorded on Wednesday, shows protesters marching past the Bank Melli building across from Tehran's Grand Bazaar.

As my colleague Thomas Erdbrink reports, shopkeepers in Tehran's Grand Bazaar closed their doors on Wednesday, after a protest by foreign-currency traders nearby was attacked by the security forces. The protests came as pressure from international sanctions caused a sudden plunge in the value of Iran's currency, the rial, which has in turn played havoc with the buying and selling of foreign currency, angering merchants and the capital's black-market money-changers, who work along Ferdowsi Avenue in central Tehran.

Iranian journalists working from outside the country shared video and photographs posted online by people who said they witnessed Wednesday's protests in Tehran's commercial center.

A reporter for the BBC's Persian-languag e service, Rana Rahimpour, pointed to video uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday morning, showing protesters marching into the bazaar, chanting: “Dignified merchants, support us, support us.”

Video posted on an Iranian opposition YouTube channel, said to show protesters at the Grand Bazaar in Tehran on Wednesday.

Ms. Rahimpour also directed her Twitter followers to a second video clip, uploaded to an Iranian opposition YouTube channel that collected images of protests in 2009. That video, apparently shot after the protesters entered the bazaar, showed them repeating their call for the merchants to join them by closing their shops.

Video said to show protesters inside Tehran's Grand Bazaar on Wednesday.

Video uploaded later to the same opposition YouTube channel of showed the shutters pulled down on many of the stalls in the bazaar.

Video, said to have been recorded on Wednesday as merchants in Tehran's Grand Bazaar closed their shops in protest.

Saeed Valadbaygi, a journalist and blogger now based in Toronto, posted a link to video of people milling about outside the entrance the bazaar, said to have been recorded after the shopkeepers closed down.

Video showing people milling about outside the Grand Bazaar in Tehran, said to have been recorded on Wednesday.

Mr. Valadbaygi also drew attention to dramatic video (embedded at the very top of this post) showing a large crowd of protesters marching past the distinctive facade of the Bank Melli building in front of the bazaar.

As the Iranian-American sociologist Kevan Harris explains in The Iran Primer, “Iranian bazaars, especially Tehran's Grand Bazaar, have played central roles in the economic and political history of the country.” During the last years of the Shah's rule, Mr. Harris notes, “Bazaaris participated in and supported protests and demonstrations in the spring of 1977, well before most social groups-including the clergy-had joined the revolutionary surge.”

Noting that the merchant class failed to join the wave of protests that followed the disputed presidential election in 2009, Mr. Harris observes:

The absence of bazaari activity during the Green Movement demonstrations of June and July 2009 indicates that broader links between the bazaar as a social entity and democratic social movements in Iran have not developed. This is perhaps because bazaars today seldom exhibit the collective identity and public solidarity that occurred in past moments of Iranian political history. This stems partially from the new cleavages in bazaar networks that resulted from the Islamic Republic's management of the economy and the picking of politically subservient economic winners. However, it also derives from s ignificant changes in relations between the bazaar and the global economy.

Although Iranian opposition bloggers have occasionally misidentified images in the past, pointing to video or photographs shot in the past as if they were new, the images uploaded on Wednesday seemed genuine to journalists who follow Iran closely. One reason is that photographs showed protests and clashes in parts of the capital where even the official media reported demonstrations; another is that some of the video clips included chants against the government's support for Syria, which was not an issue in 2009, when street protests were common.

Golnaz Esfandiari, who edits the blog Persian Letters from Washington, drew attention to video of the protesters chanting “Leave Syria, Think About Us,” a reference to the government's support for the Syrian government despite economic difficulties at home.

Video said to have been recorded in Tehran on Wednesday as protesters chanted: “Let go of Syria, think of us!”

What appears to be more video of that same scene, recorded at about the same time, but from the reverse angle, indicates that the protesters were marching out of Imam Khomeini Square, north of the bazaar, along Ferdowsi Avenue. The large telecommunications building located at the southern end of that square can be seen in the background of both clips, but more clearly in the second one.

Video of protesters marching out of Imam Khomeini Square.

As Reuters reports, the opposition news site Kaleme said the protests began around the bazaar and then spread north to Imam Khomeini Square and Ferdowsi Avenue. The semiofficial Mehr News Agency reports that the security forces dispersed protests on Ferdowsi Avenue and in Imam Khomeini Square.


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Earlier in the day, Bahman Kalbasi, who r eports for the BBC from New York, drew attention to a photograph of protesters posted on Twitter by a blogger named Ali Soltani that appeared to show a march along Manoucheri Street, off Ferdowsi, where the black-market trade in foreign currency proliferates and clashes were reported on Wednesday.

In response to a question from another Twitter user, about a second image he posted online of burning debris behind the marchers, Mr. Soltani wrote that “our house located adjacent to Manouchehri Street, and this photo has been taken by my friend.”



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    • Video: TV Anchor Takes on Viewer Who Complains About Her Weight

    By JENNIFER PRESTON
    A local television anchor from Wisconsin rebuffs a viewer who had written to her about her weight.

    Jennifer Livingston, a local morning anchor in Wisconsin, responded on air directly to a viewer who sent her an e-mail telling her she was an unsuitable role model for young people, especially young girls, because she is overweight.

    Ms. Livingston's response, which has gone viral on the Internet with almost 2 million views on YouTube alone, said she had initially dismissed the criticism but then decided to speak up to raise awareness about bullying behavior.

    “The truth is I am overweight,” said Ms. Livingston, 37, during the morning broadcast on WKBT-TV, a CBS affiliate in Lacrosse. “You could call me fat and yes, even obese on a doctor's chart. But to the person who wrote me that letter, do you think I don't know that? That your cruel words are pointing out so mething that I don't see?”

    “You don't know me,” she continued to say during the next four minutes in what was billed as a broadcast editorial. “You are not a friend of mine. You are not a part of my family, and you have admitted that you don't watch this show so you know nothing about me but what you see on the outside - and I am much more than a number on a scale.”

    Ms. Livingston, a mother of three, then used her experience to remind viewers that October is “National Anti- Bullying Month,” and that bullying is rampant on the Internet and growing every day in schools and must be stopped.

    She said she tried to laugh off the hurtful attack on her appearance but that her colleagues, especially, her husband, Mike Thompson, an evening anchor for the station, could not do the same.

    Last Friday, Mr. Thompson posted the contents of the e-mail on his Facebook page, adding that he was infuriated by the attack on his w ife and it had made him “sick to his stomach.”

    The e-mail, written by Kenneth W. Krause, a lawyer, who did not answer multiple telephone calls made to his home in LaCrosse, said:

    Hi Jennifer,
    It's unusual that I see your morning show, but I did so for a very short time today. I was surprised indeed to witness that your physical condition hasn't improved for many years. Surely you don't consider yourself a suitable example for this community's young people, girls in particular. Obesity is one of the worst choices a person can make and one of the most dangerous habits to maintain. I leave you this note hoping that you'll reconsider your responsibility as a local public personality to present and promote a healthy lifestyle.

    The Facebook post prompted hundreds of comments over the weekend from people around the world, with many offering support and others sharing their pain over having been bullied because of their weight.

    Ms. Livingston, the sister of Golden-Globe nominated actor, Ron Livingston, said during her broadcast on Tuesday that the outpouring on Facebook inspired her to take a public stand against bullying.

    As a grown woman, she said that she was able to dismiss this man's remarks. But she worried that children targeted with similar messages were not able to do so. She said she was also concerned about what children were learning about bullying at home.

    “If you are at home and you are talking about the fat news lady, guess what? Your children are probably going to go to school and call someone fat,” Ms. Livingston said.

    In closing, she thanked her friends, family, colleague and the many people offered their words of support. “We are better than the bullies that would try to take us down.”:

    Then, looking directly into the camera, she said:

    “I leave you with this: To all of the children out there who feel lost, who are struggling with your we ight, with the color of your skin, your sexual preference, your disability, even the acne on your face, listen to me right now: Do not let your self-worth be defined by bullies. Learn from my experience - that the cruel words of one are nothing compared to the shouts of many.”

    During an interview with NBC's Today Show, Ms. Livingston said that she is not opposed to talking about obesity but she does not think that personal attacks should be part of the conversation.

    Mr. Krause was invited to be interviewed on WKBT-TV, a programming director said. Instead, he issued a statement, which was shared on the air. The statement concluded with Mr. Krause saying: “Considering Jennifer Livingston's fortuitous position in the community, I hope she will finally take advantage of a rare and golden opportunity to influence the health and psychological well-being of Coulee region children by transforming herself for all of her viewers to see over the next year.”

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    T-Mobile to Buy MetroPCS

    The parent company of T-Mobile USA agreed to buy MetroPCS on Wednesday, as the cellphone providers looked to compete with bigger rivals.

    The merger is aimed at making T-Mobile a more robust competitor to Sprint Nextel, particularly in low-cost cellphone service. The deal will also help T-Mobile gain more customers and resources to build out a next-generation data network.

    Under the terms of the complex transaction, MetroPCS will conduct a 1-for-2 reverse stock split and pay out $1.5 billion in cash to its existing shareholders, or about $4.09 a share. It will then issue new stock worth about 74 percent to T-Mobile's parent, Deutsche Telekom, leaving existing MetroPCS investors with a 26 percent stake.

    “The T-Mobile and MetroPCS brands are a great strategic fit â€" both operationally and culturally,” René Obermann, the chief executive of Deutsche Telekom, said in a statement. “The new company will be the value leader in wireless with the scale, spe ctrum and financial and other resources to expand its geographic coverage, broaden choice among all types of customers and continue to innovate.”

    The cellphone carrier is bulking up in the face of increased competition. The combined company, which will be named T-Mobile, will have nearly $25 billion in revenue and $6.3 billion in profit. T-Mobile expects to wring out $6 billion to $7 billion in cost savings.

    More important, T-Mobile will add to its customer base. With 42.5 million users, the combined company will close the gap significantly with Sprint, the No. 3 player with 56.4 million customers.

    Morgan Stanley advised Deutsche Telekom's board, while Lazard advised its management team. Legal advice was provided by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton; K&L Gates; and Wiley Rein.

    MetroPCS was advised by JPMorgan Chase, Credit Suisse and the law firms Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Paul Hastings; and Telecommunications Law Profe ssionals. A special committee of its board was advised by Evercore Partners and the law firms Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and Fulbright & Jaworski.



    New Tech Start-Ups Defy the Odds in Japan

    TOKYO - Every Wednesday, a bar in central Tokyo hosts an unusual speed-dating event. There are drinks and plenty of coy looks. But the young people at the bar aren't here for romance.

    “I want to meet like-minded people - basically, people who get the Internet,” said Shingo Hiranuma, 29, a former smartphone engineer at Toshiba who recently introduced a new map application, Sanpo. “And I won't settle for just anyone.”

    As 's aging tech giants like Sony and Panasonic continue to falter, a new generation of Japanese technology entrepreneurs is stepping up. While their numbers are small compared to those in the United States, they are turning to a bevy of start-up incubators and even to financing from Silicon Valley. And so-called start-up dating salons, like the bar in central Tokyo, are helping to match would-be collaborators.

    “There's a lot of uncertainty in Japan right now, and that's actually made younger Japanese more willing to take risks and try out new ideas,” said Hiro Maeda, 26, Mr. Maeda went to college at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania and worked on several start-ups in the United States before returning to Japan to create Open Network Lab, a Tokyo-based incubator.

    Open Network Lab has financed five rounds of start-ups since its start in 2010. Mr. Maeda said it received close to 100 applications during its latest round this year - more than twice the number from the previous year. The lab provides early funds, office space and mentoring.

    Japan badly needs an infusion of entrepreneurial blood. With its economy sluggish and its population graying, the country slipped to No. 25 in the most recent ranking of global innovation by the United Nations, falling out of the top 20 for the first time since the survey began in 2007.

    And it has become increasingly clear that the country's big electronics firms cannot be counted on to drive innovation. Japan's top tech giants in products from televisions to smartphones - their competitiveness sapped by a strong yen - are racking up huge losses and being overtaken by nimbler, cheaper overseas rivals.

    More than ever, many innovations seem incremental or just plain odd. A $4,500 “networked” washing machine released by Panasonic in August that can be operated remotely via smartphone was greeted with derision in the Japanese blogosphere. “Has Panasonic lost its way?” one blogger asked.

    Still, Japan's tech entrepreneurs have much to overcome if they hope to succeed where the mainline giants have not.

    Japanese society continues to venerate lifetime company loyalty, while penalizing risk-taking and failure. The government has created a cumbersome web of regulations that hampers new entrants. And risk-taking is absent not just among would-be entrepreneurs, but also among investors, who still favor propping up old companies rather than fostering new ones.

    “Whether you're talking about driving innovation or creating new jobs, it's clear that Japan needs to try something new,” said Taizo Son, who helped start Yahoo Japan with his brother, Masayoshi Son, in 1996, and now runs the venture capital fund Movida Japan. “But the odds are still stacked against people who dare to try.”

    According to the Tokyo-based Venture Enterprise Center, the value of investments by its 50 or so venture capital fund members increased to 24.6 billion yen ($316 million) in 2011, 35 percent higher than the previous year. But that was a small fraction of the $12.6 billion in venture funding raised by Silicon Valley companies that year, according to Ernst & Young.

    The proportion of the working population involved in entrepreneurship in Japan - as measured by a start-up portal, InternationalEntrepreneurship.com - stood at 3.3 percent in 2010, one of the lowest rates in the industrialized world. In the United States, the equivalent number was 7.6 percent.

    Satoshi Sugie, Junpei Naito, Muneaki Fukuoka and Hiroshi Kurita are among those who are trying. All left cushy jobs - at Nissan, Sony, Olympus and Japan's largest advertising agency, Dentsu - to work on Whill, a device that clamps onto wheelchairs to turn them into .

    It is a big bet for the founders. Because they were unable to secure large investors, the 6 million yen put toward developing a prototype came from their savings. After being invited to display the prototype at the Tokyo Motor Show last year, the start-up has been inundated with inquiries from Japan, Europe and the United States, the company says. The start-up is getting set to announce a brand-new model next week.

    “At Whill, we move at such a different speed from Sony,” said Mr. Naito, who came up with the idea for Whill before leaving his job this year as a Sony product engineer. “We move things along much faster, and I enjoy that.”

    Makoto Fukuyama, 27, and Kota Uemura, 25, ex-Google employees who started Social Lunch in October, have also seen interest surge among users.

    Social Lunch's Facebook-based app helps young professionals set up casual business lunches to expand their social networks. The start-up now has 60,000 users and is adding 10,000 more a month. It won 32 million yen of seed money earlier this year from a new start-up fund started by KDDI, Japan's second-largest telecommunications firm, but has found that few investors in Japan are willing to offer larger amounts.



    Ikea Apologizes for Removing Women From Saudi Catalog

    October 2, 2012, 10:14 pm
    By JENNIFER PRESTON

    Ikea, the furniture retail giant, has issued an apology after a Swedish newspaper reported Monday that the company had removed women from some photographs for its catalog in Saudi Arabia.

    Images of women that appear in versions of the catalog, published in 27 languages in 37 other countries, were erased in the edition for customers in Saudi Arabia. This prompted an outcry over the company's approach to gender inequality that began in Sweden and then spread around the world on social media platforms with thousands of mentions on Twitter alone in the last day.

    Birgitta Ohlsson, the Swedish Minister for European Union Affairs who describes herself as a feminist in her Twitter profile, tweeted in Swe dish the move was “medieval.”

    Conversations about whether Ikea was bowing to pressure from the conservative Islamic state or adapting to the country's cultural sensibilities took place around the world on social media platforms, including this exchange on Twitter between a journalist and a teenager in Canada.

    In Saudi Arabia, women are not currently allowed to vote, hold high political office or drive. The country's treatment of women is widely criticized, which is why supporters of women's rights were troubled by Ikea's move.

    In its statement, a company spokesman said that it regretted the decision. And it noted that the decision to edit the women out of the images was not made by the local franchise owner in Saudi Arabia, where there are three Ikea stores.

    “It is not the local franchisee that has requested the retouch of the discussed pictures,” according to the statement issued by Inter Ikea Group. “We will naturally review our routines and working process to ensure that this will not happen again.”

    On Tumblr, the incident inspired a meme of photos with women airbrushed out, including a n image of Disney's Seven Dwarfs without Snow White.



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