Online voices

Following are excerpts from Iranian blogs, belonging to everyone from ordinary people to the president.

Nargess Musabi, 27, on the blog "Shut Up" (translated from Farsi):

How can I be relaxed and happy when I cannot find any trustworthy news? I just go Web-surfing for information. On one hand, they say, 'We have nothing to hide.' On the other, they are censoring. Why on earth are they so self-censoring and fearful? I'm worried for the future of the children of this country. Even behind my computer screen I am scared. Of course, I take solace in the thought that I am pregnant and due in two weeks' time, so the authorities don't bother to punish me. I keep on writing because I am among those who still think, but the truth is that these writings emerge from the bottom of my heart.

Unidentified writer on a blog called "Talking About Everything," among the 10 most active Iranian blogs (translated from Farsi):

Comparing the average prices of staple groceries in shops with last year's prices in Tehran, the Central Bank's statistics show that average prices have increased over 30 percent. . . . But the Central Bank has said publicly that the overall inflation rate is only 11.5 percent. The basket of goods used to calculate inflation by the bank shows that, after groceries, house prices had the highest increase, up 27 percent.

From the official blog of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran:

In a gathering at Amir Kabir University, when a small number of individuals in the presence of the absolute majority of the university students and associates and the president of the country -- with an absolute total freedom -- insulted the elected president of the people, I had a feeling of joy. Unintentionally, it reminded me [of] the circumstances of those days and years that I was a university student; the days before revolution, such as Dec. 7, 1953. The black years of 1977 and 1978, that one could not breathe politically and criticize the secular government, which was supported and protected by the West. The cost of criticizing the government was a death penalty or prison and torture. And now -- in contrast -- the situation is somehow that a small limited minority would disturb the peace [and the majority] would tolerate it with dignity and benevolence.