Closure of MEI

[GibRaHAY]

Hi ppl im just making this post to wake up all the armenians world wide to open our eyes. Ppl they are trying to Close a school that its history is unforgetable pls notice this post !!!! And make sure you find out more about it ! A.G.B.U are trying to close down Melkonian! lets all prevent this post some posts at the side giving ur opinion.
Usefull sites: www.savemelkonian.org
thanx!

[Darorinag]

I had many, many friends who graduated from Melkonian. I've lost touch with them, alas.

Glad to see you folks are doing something about it. I am disappointed at the decision to close it down. It is disgusting if not worse.

There are many Melkoniantsis here in Toronto as well. I hope they'd be doing something about it. I'd be more than glad to do my share to help out with anything.

If you folks need anything, you can PM me, etc.

Good luck!! I hope shutting it down would be prevented.

[dusken]

Should they shut it down? Hell if I know. There is obviously a reason for it and it is probably not to piss people off. However, AGBU has so much goddamn money, I cannot imagine it being a financial issue.

[Darorinag]

Oh don't even get me started ranting about AGBU. Besides, I know Baron Dants won't like that.

[xBaron Dants]

Oh come on Dan. Say what you want. I've done my fair share of ranting about other agoomps, and my main reason for that was that these agoomps refuse to admit their faults. It would be hypocritical of me to the same about AGBU. And God knows that I am not happy about many many things at AGBU either. And I can say that I am already bringing at least a few changes.

About Melkonian...it's a complicated subject. AGBU has still not given ANY reason as to why they closed it. As Dusken says, it is very probably not financial. From what I've been told (by people who would know the reasons better than any of us here), Melkonian was being run very poorly, and had lost all sense of discipline. It basically wasn't living up to its name, and wasn't performing the role it was supposed to. Also, they had already sold part of the campus, and on the sold land, villas with swimming pools had been built, right under the students' nose. That already is not a very strong scenery for a school, as it offers too many distractions.

Now, is mismanagement enough reason to shut down a school like Melkonian? Probably not. I personally think not anyways. The situation could have been fixed, with the right people in charge. Or was the situation really THAT bad that the Central Board had no choice BUT to shut it down? I don't know. Only the Central Board does, I guess....and we do deserve an explanation.

What will happen next? AGBU says it has a lot of plans, both in Armenia and in the Diaspora. I don't doubt it. Will there be a new Melkonian that pops up somewhere? Many hope that they will open such a boarding school in Armenia. It does sound like the perfect solution, as there would be total immersion. HOWEVER, and let's hope this is not seen as controversial or taboo, boarding schools like Melkonian are there to serve the diaspora. As much as Armenia needs help and support, so does the diaspora. We need strong institutions like Melkonian (was), where arevmdahay (western Armenian) culture will also be kept alive. And do not interpret this as a knock against unity, yevayln. It is simply unfair, in the name of unity, to wipe out one huuuuuuuge chunk of Armenian culture and history, which is the arevmdahay culture.

I guess we'll have to follow closely to finally be able to get an answer on this whole thing.

[dusken]

Yep.

[Darorinag]

Oh come on Dan. Say what you want.

Oh.. hmm, well, my apologies for making that assumption then.

Anyway, I attended an AGBU school for 3 years, and the anti-"non-AGBU-Armenian"ism was terrible. I am aware that this is not only an AGBU problem, but being a neutral observer of both, I have come to the conclusion that it is more so in the case of AGBU. Again, you might not agree, but that's what I think, and this is in no way to spark arguments. I am just stating my observations.

Having said that, I do go to agoump from time to time (less so lately - huge disappointments from Toronto Armenians), but I am not a politically motivated agoump-goer. Just a social one. So my sympathies do not lie with any specific agoump.

I could go on for pages about the motivations behind the Melkonian affair, but that would be rather time consuming both for me and the readers.

[xBaron Dants]

Originally posted by Darorinag Oh.. hmm, well, my apologies for making that assumption then.

Anyway, I attended an AGBU school for 3 years, and the anti-"non-AGBU-Armenian"ism was terrible. I am aware that this is not only an AGBU problem, but being a neutral observer of both, I have come to the conclusion that it is more so in the case of AGBU. Again, you might not agree, but that's what I think, and this is in no way to spark arguments. I am just stating my observations.

Having said that, I do go to agoump from time to time (less so lately - huge disappointments from Toronto Armenians), but I am not a politically motivated agoump-goer. Just a social one. So my sympathies do not lie with any specific agoump.

I could go on for pages about the motivations behind the Melkonian affair, but that would be rather time consuming both for me and the readers.

Well, that does come as somewhat of a surprise. I have personally witnessed less anti-non-agoomper (beautiful little word, isn't it?) attitude in AGBU than in the other agoomps I've been to. I guess it varies with each community and city.

I'm not a politically motivated agoomp goer either, and the reason why my family has always been members of AGBU is that it is not politically motivated. There can be quite some debate about that (especially in Canada), as many Ramgavars are AGBU members. I believe that the Central Board of AGBU and all other high ranking people should have no political affiliations. That's something else I'll try to fix later on.

And yes, Toronto Armenians suck.

[Darorinag]

I was specifically talking about Lebanon.... ALL AGBU-ers in Lebanon are radical Ramgavars. Heck, I used to attend their school, and they even sent home one guy in my class who had come to school on saturday (saturday = free to wear whatever you want) for extra math classes (baccalaureate level), wearing a H.M.E.M. daraz... That's right.... they sent him home. Sorry, but - how dumb is that? And yes, I have attended a very tashnagtsagan school as well, and there were constant battles between the ramgavars and tashnagtsagans in that school, but not once did it interfere in school matters, and it never came down to sending anyone home (and yes, there were people wearing H.M.M daraz's), despite the administration's obvious sympathies for tashnags.

And yes, Toronto Armenians suck.

Sad but true.

[Ducati]

well, i went to ur dumb site, and all i found funny was this...now you tell me, does the guy look like he forgot evething he was gunna say?