notes / comments

[Armenian]

Re: notes / comments

Here, in the U.S., I can tell you that my impression having lived here in the community is that Armenians hold their priests and wedding singers in high regard and they are considered our 'celebrities'.

Stop your BS, freaky. And who do the "Americans" hold in high regard? Micheal Jackson? Puff Daddy? Madonna? Sean Penn? Britney Spears? Howard Stern?

Besides, the Armenian diaspora is hardly a litmus test for "Armenian" culture. I suggest you bring examples from the Armenian Republic instead. Of all the many-many-many famous Armenians that get celebrated in Armenia only a few are clergy - Khrimian Hayrik, Gomidas and Vazgen Catoghikos. And non of ethnocentric literature there has anything to do with Turks or the Armenian Genocide.

I suggest you learn something about Armenians before opening your mouth...

Do you think these congressional members were really impressed by the Archbishop??

Yeah, why not? They seem to be impressed by bible pounding Bible Belt Rednecks, Buddhist Gurus and Rabbis - why not be impressed by real Christan Archbishops?

Who is this guy and how is he the representative for thousands of Armenians in the Western U.S?

How can a "Ballet Dancer" be our representative? The Armenian-American representatives in the United States reflect the character of the Armenian-American community. You also obviously have some serious emotional issues regarding your identity. However, you are in the right place, perhaps the resident "writer/intellectual" Ara can help you.

[freakyfreaky]

Re: notes / comments

I don't see Shimon Peres meeting with any Armenian archbishops. But, Madonna... that's another matter.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/15/africa/ME-GEN-Israel-Madonna.php

http://www.showbuzz.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/15/people/main3263983.shtml?source=RSSattr=Entertainment_3263983

As for Khrimian Hayrig, there is a book published and written in Armenian that states that he sought counsel with my maternal-great grandfather.

Do you really think Armenians in Armenia know about contemporary Armenian figures in our diaspora communities?

That's why you a proud Armenian are unable to identify Armenian male ballet dancers.

Heck, you probably didn't know the concept existed or that Armenians could excel in such an artistic discipline.

My position was and is that we Armenians are unable to impress upon others of our identity because we are unable to relay it as our base of knowledge of ourselves is fragmented with geographical and chronological gaps.

Do you dispute that?

We, Armenian, as a group, do not know about ourselves and the whole of our accomplishments within the last century.

As for my identity, save the psychoanalysis for yourself.

As for Ara, if he is the same person who is mentioned at http://www.molorakfilms.com/web/inde...d=50&Itemid=30

Then, apparently he runs with some pretty prominent colleagues. For instance, Mr. Guzelian, Ms. Armani, Mr. Gasparyan, etc.

[Lucin]

Re: notes / comments

Lucin,

I am Armenian.

I'm sorry freaky but in a different thread you said that you are an Ethiopian who speaks makur Hayeren.

You are from Iran correct, Lucin? Please identify the most accomplished Armenian male ballet dancer. No, Baryshnikov is not Armenian.

So what? If someone born after the Revolution cannot identify a ballet male dancer, what does that make her?
Besides, Armenian culture is not represented by one single individual.

Do you really think Armenians in Armenia know about contemporary Armenian figures in our diaspora communities?

If the famous Diasporan Armenian figure you are talking about, be it a ballet dancer, a footballer or an actor- has not contributed in one way or another to Armenia, if he is representing another country in the international arena and bringing fame and pride to the country where he lives and not Armenia, then why the hell Armenians in Armenia should know him or care?

We, Armenian, as a group, do not know about ourselves and the whole of our accomplishments within the last century.

You are being an ara baliozian here, freaky. It's not that we Armenians do not know but our world is like that; it applies to all people and specifically to the hasarak khav which constitutes the majority everywhere.

But again, it's not the case in Armenia yet. So let's seperate Hayastantsis living in Armenia from Diasporan Armenians living in foreign lands. An average Armenian from Armenia is much more literate, intelligent and cultured than an average Diasporan Armenian. And it's them who are representing our culture neither Arab Armenians nor American Armenians... And I assure you that their celebrities are not wedding singers...

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Monday, November 19, 2007
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SCENARIO
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The recognition of the Armenian genocide by Congress may well be against the interests of Armenia, writes Norman Stone in the SPECTATOR (Oct. 20, 2007, page 22). “Armenia is a poor and landlocked place,” he explains, “dependent for energy on all places Iran, and without disaspora money she would be in an even worse state. She regularly loses people to emigration – 60,000 of them incidentally to Istanbul – and she badly needs good relations with Turkey. Perhaps such countries, once they are independent, should make a second declaration of independence from their diaspora.”
Now, suppose there is another crisis in Armenia – say, an Azeri counterattack, another earthquake, a pre-emptive strike on Iran by the U.S. – and the exodus continues unabated. Result, our enemies don’t even have to fight us; all they have to do is just walk in and claim Armenia as their own. There is an old Greek saying: “He who wants much more loses even the little that he has.” As for our mafias in Yerevan: what do they care? They can survive on their Swiss bank accounts for the rest of their lives on Rio or in Monaco. Some may even get busy working on their memoirs, except that, by the time the books are published they may have run out of readers.
*
Speaking of Iran: on the Op-Ed page of our paper, I read two commentaries titled “Venezuela with Iran could trigger world oil crisis,” and “Iranian people still among the most oppressed in the world.” I quote two random passages: “Ahmadinejad can use world chaos to gain hegemonic strength in the Middle East,” and “The Iranian regime is invoking the threat of a U.S. military attack – which is very real – and using that as an excuse for a major crackdown on dissidents.” The Iranians are ahead of us: they have dissidents. We have been so successful in silencing ours that they are not even mentioned in the commentaries and editorials by our ghazetajis.
*
Murphy’s Law says, “If something can go wrong, it will go wrong at the worst possible time.”
*
After 9/11 Americans realized there had been many warning signals that had been ignored or swept under the carpet by several agencies. If there is one thing in which we excel is ignoring warning signals.
*
Let others sing “Mer hairenik, azad angakh,” I will continue to think “tshvar ander.”
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Tuesday, November 20, 2007
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DISSENTERS
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As a teenager I loved to contradict my elders, to cut them down to size as it were. I am not surprised therefore when I am now given the same treatment by my teenage readers. It’s a phase we all go through. It can’t last. Unless of course we have on our hands a case of arrested development.
*
Speaking of arrested development: If, like David Barsamian, you are one of those who think Noam Chomsky is a brilliant thinker and one of the most popular American dissenters, two recent books expose him as an even more brilliant charlatan and hypocrite: THE ANTI-CHOMSKY READER, edited by Peter Collier and David Horowitz (San Francisco, 2004, 260 pages), and DO AS I SAY: PROFILES IN LIBERAL HYPOCRISY, by Peter Schweizer (New York, 2005, 257 pages). We learn here that Chomsky calls the Pentagon “one of the most evil institutions in world history.” And yet, he has himself made millions working for the American military.
At one time or another I too have been accused by some of my teenage readers of working for the CIA, the KGB, the Mossad, and the Gray Wolves.
*
There is a type of “critic” who believes if he “thinks” he is right, he must be right. To such a one I say, not so fast, friend. To think you are right is only half of the story. You must also appear to be right. That’s when reasonable argument or evidence comes in. Verbal abuse is less a reasonable or convincing argument and more an expression of prejudice, venom, and bad manners, or Ottomanism parading as Armenianism.
*
You may have noticed that charlatans are better at delivering patriotic speeches than honest men. Hitler comes to mind, the prototype of all superpatriotic charlatans.
*
There is something fundamentally wrong in an argument that convinced only one (namely yourself) and no one else.
*
If you don’t know how to read, it is advisable that you refrain from reading between the lines.
*
Iris Murdoch: “Everything I write is probably Hamlet in disguise.” I too could say that in everything I write, I say, “There is something rotten in the State of Denmark.”
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Wednesday, November 21, 2007
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HATRED IS AN ENEMY OF UNDERSTANDING
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There are those who would like to see me silenced because they don’t agree with what I say. Nothing unusual in that. Since time immemorial Armenians have disagreed with one another. It is said where there are two Armenians there will be three churches and the churches will be used not as places of worship but as reminders of their irreconcilable differences.
*
Take any random group of one hundred people regardless of race, color, and creed and in those one hundred people you will invariably find a minimum of one fool, one fanatic, one dupe, and one phony. What they think or say matters only if the silent majority (96% of the group) allows them to assume leadership positions – which, by the way, happens to be a routine occurrence in world history.
*
In everything I write I attempt to replace hatred with understanding. In the eyes of the above-mentioned 4%, this is seen as an unmistakable symptom of anti-Armenianism.
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Nothing comes easier to some Armenians than to preach Armenianism and practice Ottomanism.
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To understand the past is not the same as understanding the present. The world is no longer what it was a hundred years ago. Conditions have changed and continue to change even as I write. We have no choice but to run if we want to stand still. But pillars of salt are incapable of advancing even a fraction of an inch.
*
To equate anti-Turkism with pro-Armenianism amounts to saying hatred of Turks is the same as love of fellow Armenians.
*
Hatred closes the mind and prevents us from understanding not only others but also ourselves. That is why even religions that practice hatred preach love. Who after all has ever dared to declare to be against understanding?
*
It is said that when the Buddha ignored an insult by a passerby, one of his disciples wanted to retaliate. The Master stopped him with the words: “When someone offers me a bowl of rice and I am not hungry, I don’t eat it.”
#

[crusader1492]

Re: notes / comments

Have you ever thought of starting your own website where you can post your "notes", instead of posting them here (among other Armenian forums).

I say this because first of all, this is a forum (i.e. it requires dialogue which you haughtily seem to not engage in). Secondly, I do not believe your posts engender much interest among the vast majority of members here. Why not create your own space on the web where people who are interested can go directly to your site instead of wasting precious bandwidth here?
Cut out the middle man, Ara.

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Thursday, November 22, 2007
************ ********* ********* ********* ******
A LONG HISTORY IN BRIEF
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Of all fears, fear of free speech is the most cowardly.
*
Where there is deception there will also be fear of free speech.
*
A deceiver’s greatest fear is being exposed as a deceiver.
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You may manipulate reality up to a point, after which reality will manipulate you. It happened to Napoleon. It happened to Hitler. It happened to our revolutionaries. And it’s happening today to Bush, the leader of the mightiest empire in the world.
*
Sooner or later we have no choice but to come to terms with reality as with death and taxes. How do we do that is up to each one of us. What I have been recounting in brief notes and essays so far is an outline of my own way, which may not be yours. In which case you must devise your own. To place your hopes on others is to forfeit your freedom and ultimately to be disappointed.
*
When Europe entered its Dark Age, Armenia experienced a Golden Age. But when Europe experienced a Renaissance, we entered a Dark Age, which was to last 600 years that culminated in a series of massacres and dispersion; and in the Homeland, a civil war, and another Dark Age under a series of ruthless tyrants. As for freedom from the Soviet yoke, independence, and victory over the Azeris: I am told there are Armenians today who miss the good old days under Stalin.
*
Our Dark Age is not yet over because we are at the mercy of leaders who masquerade as shepherds and are fearful of free speech because they run the risk of being exposed as swindlers on their way to the slaughterhouse.
#




"Our political parties have been of no political use to us.
Their greatest enemy is free speech"
Gostan Zarian

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Have you ever thought of starting your own website where you can post your "notes", instead of posting them here (among other Armenian forums).

I say this because first of all, this is a forum (i.e. it requires dialogue which you haughtily seem to not engage in). Secondly, I do not believe your posts engender much interest among the vast majority of members here. Why not create your own space on the web where people who are interested can go directly to your site instead of wasting precious bandwidth here?
Cut out the middle man, Ara.

if you are the moderator, i shall accept your advice.
if you are not, i shall advise you not to waste your valuable time reading me.
if, on the other hand, you have been reading me, i thank you for your interest.
as you can see, i reply to questions. it is insults that i ignore. / ara

[zourna]

Re: notes / comments

Well if that is really the case, I'm still eager to know your reflections on life after death.
Any thoughts?