notes and comments

[arabaliozian]

born again

ON BEING BORN AGAIN
************************************
As a man I was born again on the day
I gave up all hope of fame and fortune
and decided to be an honest witness.
*
Do you know of any country
whose rate of emigration is over 50%?
*
To those who accuse me of being anti-Armenian
I ask: Is the Bible anti-Armenian when it says
“A house divided against itself cannot stand”
or “If the blind lead the blind…”
*
We are told we need solutions
provided we don’t state the problem.
Figure that one out if you can.
*
One reason most of our writers
emphasize the positive and
cover up the negative is that
they are afraid to lose
a fraction of their brainwashed readers.
*
There are no good guys and bad guys
among the 1% -- only bad crooks and worse crooks.
#

[Haykakan]

Re: born again

No Ara you are wrong. I don't like you because you are like another poster here who does nothing but point out the bad without ever acknowledging the good. Hell he even likes to make up bad things that do not even exist. I can't speak for others but I do not hate you for pointing out the problems but I do hate the fact that you color everything Armenian bad. I have a problem with that because there are good things going on to and being Armenian has a wonderful side to it but by dwelling on the bad people like you make your reader want to stay as far away from anything Armenian as possible. You misrepresent reality by dwelling on the bad and create a untrue image which needlessly hurts your people.

[arabaliozian]

vandals

VANDALS
*****************************
Whenever we read about classic works
of Greek literature we are told most of them
have been lost. What we are not told is that
they were destroyed by Christians.
What a book one could write
on Christian vandalism!
*
If our ruling classes support
education, literature, and choral singing
it’s because even under the most brutal regimes
liars and entertainers have been amply rewarded.
*
To those who promote
a wait-and-hope-for-the-best attitude,
I ask: Isn’t that what we have been doing
for more than a thousand years?
*
The fewer the words
the greater the number of implications.
#

[arabaliozian]

armenian types

ARMENIAN TYPES
******************************
There is a type of Armenian
who avoids his fellow Armenians like the plague.
Until very recently I found such Armenians
incomprehensible. Not any more. And worse!
I may not be one of them yet
but I am getting there.
*
As a writer, the worst mistake you can make
is to assume that your readers are
fundamentally decent, reasonable beings
who will understand what you say
provided you explain yourself
without resorting to the use
of incomprehensible academic theories.
I was wrong.
Dead wrong!
*
Once upon a time public executions
were popular spectacles.
Things change, people change.
But not always for the better.
*
Once upon a time an Armenian writer
in America and the Middle East
was paid enough money to support himself
and his family. Not anymore.
I remember the first two checks I received
from Armenian sourced bounced.
*
Did I say Armenian sources?
I should have said Armenians
from the Levant, who happen to belong
not so much
to a different nation, tribe or race
but an entirely different species.
#

[arabaliozian]

comments

COMMENTS
********************************
If I don’t speak of the afterlife
it’s because I leave that particular branch of ignorance
to those who survive by deceiving themselves.
*
What could be more weightless
than the body of a woman you love?
What could be heavier…?
*
Knowing or understanding oneself
is a long and painful operation
that is destined to remain unfinished.
*
My life has been unbearable.
If I have survived so far it’s because
I have taught myself to say
“I never had it so good.”
*
Dutch saying:
“Money lost, nothing lost;
courage lost, much lost;
honor lost, more lost;
soul lost, all lost.”
#

[MrHyeSev]

Re: born again

What do these posts have to do with the thread

[arabaliozian]

dissent

ON DISSENT
*****************************
Homer, we are told,
was kicked out from seven villages.
You want to be a writer?
Prepare yourself to swim in deep xxxx.
*
“Be positive!” I am told.
My answer: “No! If it means
covering up the negative.”
*
There is no such thing as a good divider.
All dividers are grave-diggers.
*
To be a member of the Party
means to make a contribution
towards the purchase of shovels.
*
A patriotic divider is an oxymoron –
with emphasis on the last two syllables.
*
Once recently when I asked a friend
to name a dissident who was also
a member of the Party,
he named two cadavers.
#

[arabaliozian]

brothers

BROTHERS
*****************************
Nothing changes in our environment
because no one dares to argue against God and Country,
and it follows, anyone who speaks in their name.
*
If we start jailing people
who dare to speak in the name of God,
the first man to be found guilty
would be the Pope of Rome.
Which is why in a recent public statement
the Pope opposed free speech.
*
Dissent becomes irrelevant
when it opposes the Almighty and,
in our case, Mt. Ararat.
*
The Pope may doubt his faith
seven times a day
(according to an Italian saying)
but when he speaks ex cathedra (publicly)
he must appear as dogmatic as Stalin and Hitler.
If he were to introduce even the shadow of a doubt
in his pronouncements,
the Vatican would begin
to tremble and crumble like Pompei.
*
At all times and everywhere
he must project an unshakable image
even if it means supporting imams and terror
at the expense of human rights.
*
Under the skin, all bishops, rabbis and imams
are brothers.
#

[arabaliozian]

change

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE…
*********************************************
Under Stalin our Stalinists were on top of the world.
Under Putin history repeats itself, with one difference.
Stalinism collapsed.
*
That which remains unsaid can also be unforgettable.
*
History repeats itself because human nature stays the same.
Greed for power, the ruthless cunning of the few
and the cowardly subservience of the many never change.
*
To our oligarchs the most important issue
that defines all others is their money.
Human rights, democracy, justice, love of God and Country:
they might as well be irrelevant abstractions
devoid of all cash value.
*
At one point in his posthumously published diary
Jean Guehenno describes his fellow Frenchmen
as “a nation of morons.”
#

[arabaliozian]

on understanding

ON UNDERSTANDING
**************************************
“Turks are worse than animals!”
an angry reader writes.
Why should that surprise me?
What surprises me is the fact that
it took us 600 years,
a series of massacres, and genocide
for us to reach that obvious conclusion.
One may be justified in suggesting that
in the understanding department
we cannot be said to be in the same league
with Speedy Gonzalez.
*
After the collapse of the USSR,
Sylva Kaputikian declared:
“I am proud to have been
a member of the Communist party!”
The very same party, be it noted,
that in successive waves of purges
systematically exterminated our ablest writers.
*
Why was she proud?
She never explained.
I can only guess.
She was proud because
she was awarded the Stalin Prize –
not exactly the Nobel Prize
but, in her warped mind, damn close.
*
She was proud because
when she met Gorbachev in the Kremlin,
he recited lines from her poetic works.
*
She was proud because
all her works were translated into Russian,
among other Soviet languages,
and she amassed a fortune
in Moscow banks from royalties.
*
On the positive, when the USSR went bankrupt,
her millions of rubles vanished into thin air
and she was forced to beg
from our corrupt and degenerate capitalist benefactors
in the West.
*
Vauvenargues: “Servitude debases men so much
they begin to love it.”
*
After quoting Renan (“Young man, young man,
France is dying: do not disturb its death-throes.”)
Guehenno writes in his wartime diary:
“I can find neither pleasure nor honor
in thinking of France,
nothing but an immense sadness.”
#