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  • Re: elegy

    Monday, September 7, 2009
    ***********************************************
    BRAIN DRAIN
    ********************************************
    A headline in NEWSWEEK reads: “Venezuela's brain drain.” Who speaks of Armenia's brain drain? Not even Armenians, probably because every Armenian believes he has a surplus of that particular commodity and would gladly share it if asked.
    *
    It is easy for two fools to convince each other that they are not just smart but much smarter than others. On this point, Armenians have no trouble reaching a consensus.
    *
    Teach yourself to say, “I am a fool,” for that is the beginning of all wisdom.
    *
    A good Armenian is one who loves those have brainwashed him and hates those who speak of reality, as if reality were anti-Armenian and pro-Turkish.
    *
    I learn something from everyone I meet, except my critics. All my critics succeed in doing is expose the Turk in themselves and, in doing so, they remind me of the Turk in me.
    *
    We learn from our mistakes only in the sense that we learn ways to avoid getting caught red-handed – until making mistakes becomes a habit, and that's when we get caught.
    *
    The right to be wrong is also a human right. Be aware of the man who is never wrong.
    *
    There is a type of reader who is disposed to agree with me only if I were to say Armenians are the first people to convert to Christianity and the first nation to be targeted for extermination in the 20th century. Beyond that, no matter what I say, their first impulse will be to contradict me.
    *
    Most Armenians will never take me seriously as a writer simply because I say things they have known all along without taking the trouble to verbalize them because doing so would amount to adding insult to injury, which may suggest that they view criticism as massacre by other means.
    #

    Comment


    • Re: elegy

      Originally posted by arabaliozian View Post
      Monday, September 7, 2009
      ***********************************************

      Teach yourself to say, “I am a fool,” for that is the beginning of all wisdom.
      *
      #
      Lol,

      “I am a fool,”
      “I am a fool,”
      “I am a fool,”
      "All truth passes through three stages:
      First, it is ridiculed;
      Second, it is violently opposed; and
      Third, it is accepted as self-evident."

      Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

      Comment


      • Re: elegy

        Tuesday, September 8, 2009
        ***********************************************
        FROM HEROES TO ZEROS
        ********************************************
        Don't be afraid of those who exercise
        their human right of free speech.
        Be afraid instead of those who violate that right.
        Because if they can violate one right today,
        they can violate others tomorrow.
        And if they can violate my right today,
        what makes you think they will not violate yours tomorrow?
        Unless of course you think you are
        -- unlike czars, kings, and heads of state – invulnerable.
        *
        All crimes against humanity begin with censorship.
        *
        Nothing could be more absurd than to think,
        If God is on my side, I have nothing to fear.
        God does not like braggarts and
        He seems to take a malicious pleasure in disappointing those
        who believe He is on their side.
        *
        A hundred years ago
        we challenged the might of an empire.
        We are now afraid of words.
        This to me is as real a development
        as the Genocide -- and as tragic.
        If Naregatsi were alive today
        he would write a much longer lamentation.
        *
        The cowardice of some of my critics is such
        that they insult me anonymously,
        and they are too slow to see the connection.
        *
        We are not a nation of heroes.
        We are a nation of victims.
        And worse!
        We are a nation at the mercy of cowards
        who love to speechify about our heroic past
        to cover up their own cowardice.
        They brag about our heroes
        to cover up their status as zeros.
        #

        Comment


        • Re: elegy

          Abris Ara
          "All truth passes through three stages:
          First, it is ridiculed;
          Second, it is violently opposed; and
          Third, it is accepted as self-evident."

          Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

          Comment


          • Re: elegy

            Wednesday, September 9, 2009
            ***********************************************
            PANCHOONIE IS DEAD,
            LONG LIVE JACK S. AVANAKIAN!
            ********************************************
            Comrade Panchoonie is a bundle of contradictions
            and he doesn't know it.
            In his attempt to expose bourgeois prejudices,
            he exposes his own.
            He pretends to be an idealist
            but he concludes every one of his reports
            to the central committee
            with the words: “Send us a little money.”
            He chastises his adversaries
            for their lack of understanding
            of what he is attempting to do
            even as he unmasks his own
            much greater limitations and fanaticism.
            His Truth is a Big Lie.
            His promised Land is our Hell on earth.
            I suspect it never even occurred to Odian
            that some day his Comrade Panchoonie would rise again
            as Jack S. Avanakian and become
            our most popular role model.
            Consider the case of our Turcocentric ghazetajis
            who expect us to believe their only concern is justice.
            To that end they heap an endless stream of accusations
            on our enemies but they refuse to utter a single word
            about our own abuses of power,
            violations of human rights, corruption, double-talk,
            incompetence, intolerance, divisions,
            worship of the Almighty Dollar, and contempt for ideas.
            *
            There are two kinds of society
            that don't feel the need of a free press:
            (one)primitive, and
            (two) fascist.
            #

            Comment


            • Re: elegy

              There is a inherent problem with free press which you do not adress. Free press often is used by foreign powers and other powerfull people to influence society in a detrimental manner. Free press in reality is hardly ever realy free of objectivity, bias and flat out lies.
              Hayastan or Bust.

              Comment


              • Re: elegy

                Originally posted by Haykakan View Post
                There is a inherent problem with free press which you do not adress. Free press often is used by foreign powers and other powerfull people to influence society in a detrimental manner. Free press in reality is hardly ever realy free of objectivity, bias and flat out lies.
                the positives of a free press far outweigh the negatives.

                Comment


                • Re: elegy

                  Thursday, September 10, 2009
                  ***********************************************
                  MEGALOMANIACS
                  ********************************************
                  The only way to understand a country is to work there for a living. Likewise, the best way to understand a man is to work for him. With occasional and brief interruptions I have worked for Armenians all my life, mostly at minimum wage, and more often than not, at less than minimum-wage jobs. I have even worked for an Oriental carpet dealer, who was so patriotic that he couldn't stand anyone using a Turkish word in his presence.
                  If you think I have a low opinion of my fellow countrymen, you should meet a member of our self-appointed elite, which translated into dollars and cents means the scum of the earth. I had the misfortune of meeting some of them after I translated Zarian into English. Almost every other Armenian I met after that wanted to be translated, edited, or reviewed by me. No one ever asked me to translate Abovian, Raffi, or Naregatsi, only me, me, me!
                  At first I tried to be nice to all of them and was overly generous in my reviews, until one of our distinguished academics said to me: “Why do you waste your time on mediocrities?” When I said something to the effect that I was trying to be positive to survivors who had been through hell, or words to that effect, he said: “If you praise nobodies, what will you say if you ever run into an authentic genius?” It took me several years to realize that this gentleman considered himself one of them.
                  Once, when a third-rate loud-mouth vodanavorji, the flunky of a national benefactor, proposed that I translate a collection of his verse -- “a minimum of no less than 600 pages,” were his specifications, I gave him to understand that I might not be able to handle the job. Whereupon he retorted: “You translate a phony like Zarian and you dare to turn me down?”
                  It goes without saying that whenever you say no to an Armenian, you make an enemy for life.
                  Years later I met Naregatsi's translator, the late Mischa Kudian, a dental surgeon by profession. We had a long talk -- about two hours --during which he recounted some of his experiences as translator. Had he written about them, it would have been a longer lamentation.
                  #

                  Comment


                  • Re: elegy

                    Friday, September 11, 2009
                    ***********************************************
                    ANSWERS
                    ********************************************
                    Everything I write is an answer to a specific question.
                    I have answered a thousand questions
                    and I expect I will go on answering a thousand more.
                    But there will always be those who say
                    I refuse to answer questions.
                    If they can't xxxxx about real things,
                    they invent them.
                    They find it difficult to reconcile the fact that
                    throughout our millennial history we,
                    the smartest people on earth,
                    have failed to solve our problems.
                    Hence the mantra:
                    “We don't need critics. We need solutions.”
                    Do we really need solutions?
                    I doubt it.
                    What we need however, is a treatment for a terminal condition
                    whose nature we pretend not to know.
                    At the end of each year,
                    our bosses, bishops, and benefactors
                    should deliver a speech or sermon
                    that begins with the words,
                    “This year too we have failed to enhance our solidarity.
                    As a result we remain as divided and tribalized as ever.”
                    If so far they have not uttered these words
                    it's because they know they are guilty as charged
                    and they refuse to admit it.
                    If they did, they run the risk of turning the people against them.
                    Which means no more fund-raising
                    in the name of God and Country.
                    Besides, admitting failure is not good public relations.
                    We prefer to brag.
                    We brag about our survival
                    even as we die the death of a thousand self-inflicted cuts.
                    We brag about the number of schools we have built,
                    not what it is that's being taught in them.
                    Next time you get a letter from a fund raiser,
                    you may notice that it ends with a boast
                    that goes something like this:
                    “If so far we have succeeded in realizing our goals
                    it is because we have had your generous support.
                    We need more of your support now
                    in order to succeed in the future.”
                    (Translation: “Mi kich pogh oughargetsek.”)
                    Comrade Panchoonie is dead.
                    Long live Jack S. Avanakian!
                    Have I said this before?
                    Probably.
                    Do I repeat myself?
                    Certainly.
                    When dealing with a recalcitrant child,
                    you have two options:
                    to resort to physical punishment
                    or to repeat yourself.
                    I repeat myself because the physical option is out.
                    #

                    Comment


                    • Re: elegy

                      Saturday, September 12, 2009
                      ***********************************************
                      CHAOS
                      ********************************************
                      If you want to have a more objective idea
                      of our real situation in the Diaspora,
                      consider a United States during the last four decades
                      without an Attorney General and a Justice Department.
                      Nixon would have served his full term in the White House
                      and members of his administration would have taught
                      all their dirty tricks to the next Republican contender.
                      To survive as a viable alternative,
                      the Democrats would have had no choice
                      but to resort to dirtier tricks.
                      The trouble with crooks is that
                      as soon as they realize they can get away with something,
                      the come back to get away with more.
                      And when crooks are in charge,
                      honest men live in fear.
                      And worse: they go underground
                      or join the silent and passive majority.
                      In a lawless land it is not the best that survive
                      but the most ruthless.
                      Deep Throat, himself a high-ranking agent of the FBI,
                      was afraid to identify himself and to speak up.
                      Ben Bagdikian lived in fear of his life
                      when he had possession of the Pentagon Papers.
                      And now, consider the number of honest journalists
                      who have been assassinated recently in Russia.
                      As for our beloved homeland:
                      Does anyone know the name of our Attorney General there
                      or for that matter whether he even exists?
                      Speaking for myself,
                      I am in no position to answer that question.
                      I can only say “Der Voghormia!”
                      #

                      Comment

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