notes and comments

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

ON CORRUPTION
*********************************
Whenever the subject of corruption comes up,
someone is sure to pipe in:
“There is corruption everywhere.”
The implication being,
to speak of corruption in Armenia
is to tarnish our image in the eyes of the world.
*
Nothing pleases the corrupt more than to be told
there is nothing wrong or remotely questionable
in what you are doing.
*
If someone you love is raped or murdered
would you even consider saying,
rape and murder are as old as mankind?
*
Who justifies criminal conduct?
Only criminals.
*
To say there is corruption everywhere
is to imply to speak of honesty and justice
might as well be anti-Armenian and unpatriotic .
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

redraw the map after 600 years? it can't be done. nothing -- nothing! -- like that has ever been done. a territoy won in war cannot be returned by negotiation. i don't justify the turk. i try to understand reality.

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

PROFILES IN COURAGE
**************************************************
Readers who know little or nothing about Armenian literature
call me brave for writing as I do.
I am nothing of the kind.
*
Raffi (1835-1888) was brave
when he said, “There is more profit
in defending the interests of wolves against sheep
than the other way around,” and,
“The fiercest enemies of critics are those
who serve tyrants.”
A notorious Kurdish assassin was hired
to have him silenced permanently.
*
Zarian (1885-1969) was brave
for exposing the moral bankruptcy of the Soviet regime
long before Solzhenitsyn did,
returned to Yerevan, where, some say,
he was murdered.
*
Bakounts (1899-1937) was brave
when he described the Soviet regime
as a “disease,” was arrested, jailed, tortured, and shot.
*
Shahnour (1904-1974) was brave
when he said, “An Armenian's indifference
for the collective good of the people
is a thick, impenetrable shield
which dulls and neutralizes his soul.
What insufferable rottenness,
especially when he is educated.”
*
Aramais Sahakian (b. 1936) was brave
when he said “Let us learn to be human
by observing animals.”
And I could go on and on...
*
Compared to them I am no better than a scarecrow
whose words carry as much weight as an ant's fart.
As for those who insult me on the Internet,
they are no better than faceless, gutless, anonymous scum.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
***********************************
Speaking the truth to an audience
of compulsive and habitual liars
can be a risky business.
I owe my survival to my insignificance.
*
In a supermarket,
if you want your line to move faster,
move to the other line.
*
To brag about the past
is the surest symptom of present disintegration.
*
Saint-Simon: “My self-esteem
has always increased
in direct proportion to the damage
I was doing to my reputation.”
*
Werner Sombart: “Where sex is denied expression,
wealth begins to be hoarded.”
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

NOTES / COMMENTS
***************************
Kings will never be against monarchy,
popes against papal infallibility,
and our bosses, bishops and benefactors against divisions.
*
When asked about his political affiliation,
a friend of mine replies: “I am with the good guys.”
*
Eliminate the 1% and the 99% will become
a band of brothers.
*
The human brain is a complex maze.
Even the unbelievable and the absurd
will find justification there.
*
Something to look forward to:
I may have better luck with my readers
after I drop dead.
*
Next time you read a textbook on our history,
make note of the number of times
the word consensus is used.
*
By the way, consensus means less agreement
and more moving in the same direction.
#

[Artashes]

Re: elegy

historic lands? whose historic land is america?

Sorry Ara but that is standard turc diversion, (and) has --- NO --- merit.
To equate that because America took lands belonging to the original native population, and therefore the turc/kurd theft is "ok" is a --- FALSE --- depiction of both events.
It wasn't "ok" for America to do what it did. However poorly (at times) America has addressed their shameful acts in this regard, they have in fact repeatedly addressed this issue. They have set aside SOVERIEGN native lands (and) paid billions $ in reparations. To mention (only) two of numerous recognitions/acts of understanding and rectification.
turcs continue to lie & fabricate.
The American actions of yesteryear in no way justify the turc actions of yesteryear or this year.

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

HISTORY
**********************
Who trusts Armenians?
Not even Armenians?
*
Do you trust our leadership?
And they are supposed to be our betters.
La crème de la crème.
*
No one has ever said to me
“I trust your judgment.”
Do I trust myself?
I have more doubts than certainties –
make it: no certainties, only doubts.
*
“I think therefore I am?”
Who and what am I?
What else but an unemployed and
unemployable misfit?
*
The other day a reader demanded to know:
“What have Armenians done to you?”
“To me, nothing.
But if you want to know more on the subject,
read a history of Armenian literature…”
*
I consider myself the luckiest man on earth:
I have been allowed to survive – so far anyway!
*
Did I say “la crème de la crème?
Make it, la crème de la scum!
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

REFLECTIONS
******************************
No one can be as poor as the man
whose values are defined by his source of income.
*
We are a case of arrested extermination.
*
We are unteachable because we think
we know everything.
*
Even if I were to learn ten thousand things every day
I will die an ignoramus.
*
There is nothing new under the sun.
Far better men than myself have said
what I have been saying.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

IF…
***************
A gentle reader once said to me
“If you write more like Mark Twain…”
I know now, even if I were to write
with the combined wisdom
of Socrates, Confucius, and Jesus,
nothing would change.
Nothing!
*
Why do I write?
To entertain.
*
My writings are dangerous?
What about the revolution of our revolutionaries
at the turn of the last century
that resulted in the death
of countless of innocent lives?
*
When we speak of terrorism,
we ignore the policies that contributed to it.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

It’s easy to apologize after you step on someone’s foot. But how do you apologize for leading a million and a half innocent human beings to the slaughterhouse? That’s why neither their leadership nor ours will ever apologize to the people.