Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

ASBAREZ Online [08-05-2005]

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • ASBAREZ Online [08-05-2005]

    ASBAREZ ONLINE
    TOP STORIES
    08/05/2005
    TO ACCESS PREVIOUS ASBAREZ ONLINE EDITIONS PLEASE VISIT OUR
    WEBSITE AT <http://www.asbarez.com/>HTTP://WWW.ASBAREZ.COM

    1) EU Warns Turkey on Religious Freedom
    2) Ankara Postpones Deiss Visit to Turkey
    3) Armenia Rejects Azeri Charge of Anti-government Plot
    4) US Congressman Submits Resolution Urging Turkey to Recognize Cyprus
    5) Critics~R Forum
    6) A Successful Connection
    7) A RECYCLED RANT FROM AN ANGRY ARMENIAN BOURGEOIS

    1) EU Warns Turkey on Religious Freedom

    BRUSSELS (Reuters)--The European Commission said on Thursday it had written to
    Turkey complaining about legislation on religious foundations that did not
    meet
    EU standards for the rights of non-Muslim communities.
    But the European Union's executive stressed that the mid-June complaint,
    which
    it said Turkey had promised to address in October, did not threaten a planned
    October 3 start for entry talks.
    "Today, Turkey is far from fulfilling all the criteria to be a member of the
    European Union. Freedom of religion is the highest priority for us and it
    would
    be an essential point in the negotiations," Commission spokesman Amadeu
    Altafaj
    Tardio told a news briefing.
    Turkey is working on a new law meant to ease property restrictions on its
    non-Muslim minorities, including Orthodox Christians, though EU diplomats have
    said the current draft does not go far enough.
    Istanbul-based Patriarch Bartholomew, ecumenical head of the Orthodox Church,
    has long complained that his church suffers from numerous petty bureaucratic
    regulations that prevent it from freely using property it owns.
    His calls for the reopening of the church's Halki seminary on an island near
    Istanbul have not brought results, and he is worried there will be no
    home-grown clergy left to minister to the declining Greek Orthodox faithful in
    a few years' time.
    The EU spokesman said Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn had contacted chief
    Turkish negotiator Ali Babacan on Wednesday.
    Ankara had already revised the draft bill once, but had not made sufficient
    changes in the Commission's view.
    "The Turkish authorities are well aware of the importance of this issue,
    which
    will be addressed once Turkish parliament resumes its activities in October,"
    the spokesman said.
    He did not detail the objections, but a partial text of the letter seen by
    Reuters spoke of "serious problems in relation to the management of the
    religious communities' foundations, their property rights and the legal
    personality of communities."
    In a Reuters interview last year, the Orthodox Patriarch said: "We have the
    freedom to perform all our religious services but we have no right to
    administer our ecclesiastical foundations--churches, monasteries, cemeteries,
    schools etc."
    The German daily Handelsblatt was first to report the recent Commission
    letter
    amid growing pressure on Turkey to recognize Cyprus before the start of the EU
    talks, something Ankara refuses to do.


    2) Ankara Postpones Deiss Visit to Turkey

    (Swissinfo)--The Turkish authorities have postponed a visit to Turkey next
    month by Swiss Economics Minister Joseph Deiss.
    They have cited agenda problems of his Turkish counterpart, although it is
    widely considered in Switzerland that the real cause for the postponement is
    the Armenian genocide issue.
    It is the second time that Ankara has made such a delaying move. In September
    2003, Turkish authorities cancelled a visit by the Swiss foreign minister,
    Micheline Calmy-Rey. She eventually visited the country in March.
    The Swiss authorities confirmed reports in Friday's edition of the Zurich
    newspaper Tages Anzeiger and Geneva's Le Temps that Switzerland's
    ambassador to
    Turkey had received an official note canceling Deiss's trip.
    It said that the Turkish economics minister, Kursad Tuzmen, was
    unavailable on
    the dates that had been scheduled. As a result, the planned trip could not
    take
    place in September.
    The Turkish embassy in Bern, however, said the visit had only been postponed
    and denied any link to a criminal investigation into a Turkish party leader in
    Switzerland.
    "Mr. Deiss's visit is to be worked out through mutual contacts on both sides
    in the period ahead," said Sibel Gal, press secretary at the Turkish embassy.
    The snub is the latest episode in tensions between Ankara and Bern, provoked
    indirectly by the commemoration two weeks ago of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne,
    which defined the borders of modern Turkey.
    Ankara has criticized Swiss authorities for opening an investigation into
    Dogu
    Perincek, head of the Turkish Workers' Party, who denied the Armenian genocide
    at a news conference in canton Zurich.
    Under Swiss law, any act of denying, belittling or justifying genocide is a
    violation of the country's anti-racism laws.
    Perincek, who appeared before the public prosecutor of Winterhur, is also the
    subject of investigation for the same reason in canton Vaud.
    A similar investigation in Winterthur has been opened in the case of Turkish
    historian Yusuf Halacoglu.
    The Turkish government, which has strongly condemned the Swiss action,
    considers that the investigations are contrary to international law and has
    demanded they be stopped.

    Diplomatic spat

    In a diplomatic spat, the ambassador of Switzerland in Turkey was last week
    summoned to explain Switzerland's position, while Turkey's envoy in Bern
    visited the Swiss foreign ministry a day later.
    The Swiss economics ministry has expressed regret at Ankara's decision,
    hoping
    that the visit could take place at a later date.
    The trip was a working visit with a delegation of Swiss business leaders.
    Such
    trips take place about once every four years with countries that represent an
    important market for Switzerland.
    The ministry commented that if the real reason for the postponement were due
    to the investigations, it would regret that because Switzerland practiced "the
    separation of powers which is an essential value of its democracy".
    It said the House of Representatives was the only federal institution that
    has
    officially recognized genocide against the Armenians.


    3) Armenia Rejects Azeri Charge of Anti-government Plot

    YEREVAN (AFP)--Armenia rejected Friday accusations from Azerbaijan that its
    secret police were involved in an alleged plot to overthrow the government in
    Baku.
    Azeri prosecutors said Thursday that a youth opposition leader had been
    arrested for planning to overthrow the government in a plot allegedly hatched
    by a prominent US non-governmental organization, Armenia's secret police and
    local opposition groups.
    "It is funny and bears no relation to reality," said Lieutenant-General Gorik
    Akopyan, director of Armenia's national security service.
    He said the charge looked like an effort by security officials in Baku to
    solve domestic political problems "with long-forgotten methods used in the
    Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s."
    The arrest of Ruslan Bashirli came after a member of the Yeni Fikir youth
    movement that he leads informed authorities that Bashirli had received 2,000
    dollars (1,600 euros) in a secret meeting with Armenian agents.
    The arrest was denounced by opposition leaders as an attempt by Azeri
    authorities to smear their groups.
    An Azeri youth movement denounced the arrest of its leader as a government
    smear campaign ahead of elections.
    "The authorities are trying to link the youth movement to Armenian operatives
    in order to crush it," said Fikret Farmazogly, the deputy leader of Yeni
    Fikir.
    "This is slander."
    The arrest came amid increasing government pressure on opposition political
    parties ahead of parliamentary elections in November.
    "This is an attempt by the authorities to discredit the youth movement," said
    Ali Kerimli, who leads the National Front party. "They are trying to prevent
    the youth from fighting for democratic freedoms."
    Azerbaijan recently relaxed a crackdown on the opposition after heavy Western
    pressure, allowing anti-government groups to openly demonstrate this summer
    for
    the first time since 2003.
    The new arrest raises concerns that the oil-rich state will clamp down on
    opposition activity again ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for
    November.


    4) US Congressman Submits Resolution Urging Turkey to Recognize Cyprus

    Nicosia (CNA)--New Jersey Democratic Congressman Robert Menendez has submitted
    a resolution to the US Congress calling on Turkey to fully recognize all
    European Union members, including Cyprus.
    The resolution, supported by ten members of Congress both from the Democratic
    and the Republican Party, calls for the removal of Turkish occupation forces
    from the northern third of Cyprus in accordance with UN Security Council
    Resolution 353 and says that Turkey should recognize the fundamental rights of
    all Cypriots with respect to the right to own property, the right of free
    movement, the right of free settlement and the right of return for refugees.
    The resolution expresses the view that the Republic of Turkey should continue
    to demonstrate that it was meeting the criteria set forth in the Copenhagen
    European Council for accession to the EU and should do so prior to the
    start of
    accession negotiations.
    It calls on Turkey to continue to adhere to all criteria for accession to the
    EU and to extend its customs union to all EU members and to fully recognize
    all
    EU members, including Cyprus.
    Furthermore, it calls on Turkey to respect EU laws and demonstrate that it
    was
    willing to abide by such laws and urged Ankara, in accordance with the UN
    Security Council Resolution 353, to abandon all insistence of the right to
    intervene in or invade Cyprus.
    It urges Turkey to work and cooperate with the UN and Cyprus toward the
    discovery of the fate of every missing person and to pledge to uphold and
    safeguard human rights without compromise.
    The resolution encourages Turkey to continue the advancement of processes and
    programs to modernize and democratize its own society.
    The resolution was referred to the Committee on International Relations,
    which
    will decide if it will forward it to the plenary for final adoption.


    5) Critics' Forum

    Visual Arts

    Good Art, Bad Art: Where Is the Armenian Avant-Garde?

    By Adriana Tchalian

    Question: What do a pickled shark, a cow's head, and a golden statue of
    Michael Jackson have in common?
    Answer: They are all sensationalist examples of the avant-garde.
    Take the famous pickled tiger shark in a tank of formaldehyde by contemporary
    British artist, Damien Hirst. Entitled "The Physical Impossibility of Death in
    the Mind of Someone Living" (1991), the piece is an attempt to bring the
    viewer
    face to face with the concept of death by allowing him to get up close and
    personal with a dead shark.
    Another of Hirst's works, "Rotting Cow Head and Flies in a Pool of Blood"
    (1990), said to be worth upwards of a million dollars, has become a classic in
    contemporary art parlors.
    Jeff Koons, a former Wall Street commodities broker turned artist, is also
    known for garnering millions for his shocking renditions. One of his more
    infamous contributions to Postmodernism is a porcelain statue of Michael
    Jackson and Bubbles, his beloved pet monkey, from his 1988 Banality series.
    Koons depicts both ape and the artist in the same flashy attire and gives them
    both the same skin tone, as a wry commentary on celebrity life.
    But for many Armenian visual artists, Postmodernism constitutes nothing more
    than bad art. It seems that for them, Postmodern art offers little more than
    pickled sharks and statues of troubled celebrities. Perhaps for this reason,
    many Armenian visual artists, particularly in the Diaspora, choose to work
    under the rubric of Modernism, in the vein of, say, Arshile Gorky.
    So the question begs to be asked: Where is the Armenian avant-garde? Why
    is it
    that most Armenian visual artists have yet to venture beyond Modernism, a
    movement that began in the late nineteenth century?
    In attempting to answer this question, we should look briefly at how
    Postmodernism challenges certain fundamental assumptions in Modernism.
    Postmodernism was born in the counter-culture of the 1960s, as part of larger
    challenges to traditional authority, such as the civil rights movement, the
    women's movement, and the gay rights movements.
    It is possible to push the beginnings of Postmodernism even further back, to
    the work of Marcel Duchamp. Duchamp, a French-American artist, began as early
    as 1910 to confront Modernist values by challenging earlier assumptions about
    the value and validity of art. His famous "Fountain" (1917) and "Bottle Rack"
    (1914), both found objects, shift the emphasis away form the work of art
    itself
    to the concept it conveys and question the very possibility of creating art.
    The "Fountain," interestingly, is nothing more than a urinal, which brings us
    full circle to the work of Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons. This is perhaps why
    Koons actually hires people to produce works of art in his name, preferring to
    be the "idea man" behind them.
    But why should Armenians care about Postmodernism? Is it not enough that
    Armenian art and culture is undergoing a rebirth of sortswith countless art
    exhibits, theater productions, and poetry readings? According to Caroline
    Lais-Tufenkian, Armenian diasporan artists possess a "hybrid" identity--an
    amalgam of cultures, customs, and practices. I would add that understanding
    and
    managing this so-called "hybrid" identity is in itself a Postmodern
    phenomenon.
    Therefore, Armenian artists do not have to look hard to find Postmodernism,
    because they are already living it.
    There is a catch, however. The Armenian artist, and particularly the male
    Armenian artist, will now have to directly confront the difficult issues at
    the
    heart of Postmodernismcivil rights, feminism, gay-lesbian rights. These topics
    have to be addressed in the arts if Armenians are to contribute in the greater
    dialogue taking place around them. Otherwise, the arts will become no more
    than
    another ghetto in the midst of a changing world.
    And where are the Armenian diasporan artists? If they do not step forward,
    then the next great rebirth in Armenian art will be ushered in by (mostly
    female) Armenian college studentsthe only ones who, at the moment, seem
    interested in creating postmodern art. These include Nina Katchadourian, Tina
    Bastajian, Seta Injeyan, Joanne Julian, Ani Kupelian, Seta Manoukian, Eileen
    Shahbazian, among others.
    Of course, embracing Postmodernism does not mean embracing profane or
    absurdist art, though some artists may choose to express themselves in that
    way. It is more important to be inspired by the ideas behind Postmodern
    art, as
    the movement itself tries to instill in its audiences.
    We as Armenians have so much to offer the world by way of avant-garde art. We
    would do well to answer the call of our own identity.

    Adriana Tchalian holds a Masters in Art History and has managed several art
    galleries in Los Angeles. You can reach her or any of the other
    contributors to
    Critics' Forum at [email protected].


    6) A Successful Connection

    By Alidz Oshagan

    "It's a great way to meet people, whether it's friends or something else."
    Garo Bargamian is talking about ArmenianDatingService.com (ADS), an online
    dating service through which Armenians, or anyone interested in getting to
    know
    Armenians, can post a profile describing him or herself and be able to access
    anyone else's profile. If the profile seems interesting, the user can send a
    message to the other person's profile. Users can then send messages to each
    other and a friendship or, as Bargamian put it, "something else," can form.
    All
    this, but at no cost to the user.
    For him, the "something else" formed with Larissa Balakdjian, whom he met
    through ADS. Bargamian says he was attracted to Balakdjian because she had
    written that "being Armenian is an honor and staying Armenian is a
    responsibility" as a part of her profile. Before long, the two were sending
    messages to one another and talking online. The relationship advanced when the
    pair began visiting each other--internationally. Larissa is originally from
    Sao
    Paolo, Brazil, while Bargamian has lived in North Providence, RI, his entire
    life. Bargamian and Balakdjian were married in a civil service on February 27,
    2004, and held their church ceremony on June 27, 2004. They are now happily
    married and live in North Providence, RI.
    The profiles that are on ADS can show a lot about a user. At the top of the
    profile there is a space for pictures, which can be of the user or whatever
    the
    user desires to include. In the middle, a general information section
    describes
    the user's height, hair color, and level of education, among others. Near the
    bottom of the profile exists a section for habits, indicating whether or not
    the user smokes or drinks. A favorites section is near the bottom, which lists
    the user's favorite books, movies, and foods. At the very bottom is a comment
    box, with which the user can describe oneself in 200 words or less.
    When someone reads an interesting ADS profile, he or she can send either a
    comment or a message to the other person.
    If a person is having trouble surfing the site or is a first-time user
    uncomfortable about using the dating site, he or she can go to the "advice"
    page. On this page, different tips are included, such as not to give out your
    telephone number in an early message and to relax on the first date.
    People use dating sites for different reasons. In Bargamian's case, he
    said he
    logged on to ADS because it allowed him to meet many different people from
    around the country and the world. Bargamian, 36, said that it was difficult to
    meet people at Armenian events, where the sea of teenagers and young adults
    can
    make it difficult for older adults to get to know each other and interact.
    Using the ADS made it easier to meet people, he said.
    But, unlike meeting someone at church or at events, talking to someone
    through
    an online dating service site poses the risk of embarrassment--what might
    other
    people think? Not so for Bargamian. "It's a little embarrassing telling people
    because online dating isn't very wide-spread," said Bargamian. "But I knew in
    my heart I wanted to meet an Armenian and, for me, this was the best way to do
    that."
    Sometimes, after sending messages by computer, Bargamian would meet with
    people around the country in person, only to find out that they were not
    compatible. Other times, he would be interested in someone who lived across
    the country, but they were not willing to make the journey to see him. "With
    the Internet, you have to be an optimist, or else it won't work," he said.
    Bargamian did not lose hope. "I took the opportunity and forgot about distance
    for Larissa," he said.
    With an estimated one million Armenians living in the United States, and more
    than seven million in the diaspora, the sheer size of the communities is
    fueling much of the rapid response to online dating service sites.
    "These services allow people restrained by religious or familial
    responsibilities to find more people with their backgrounds," said Judith
    Meskill, editorial director of Weblogs Inc., the largest online publisher of
    weblogs, or blogs, which are online journals.
    Julie Albright, a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the
    University of
    Southern California (USC), said the sites also help those facing the same
    issues as larger society--including busy schedules and few places to
    gather--to
    meet in an easy and relatively inexpensive way.
    "It opens a wide pool of availables to you while dating. You can walk to the
    local Armenian cafe and meet one person, but online you can meet 30. It
    increases your odds for a love match," said Albright, who researched
    attraction
    online and is studying attraction and deception on the Internet.
    "What's beautiful about the Internet for these ethnic communities is it
    enables people to sort through a lot of people and focus in on those types of
    qualities they desire," she said.
    That's the philosophy of Said Amin, CEO and founder of World Singles, the
    leading online dating company for ethnic communities that runs
    IranianPersonals.com, HyeSingles.com, and ArabLounge.com.
    Since its founding four years ago, the company has expanded to include 14
    niche sites. And membership is growing.
    IranianPersonals now has more than 120,000 members, nearly a quarter of them
    from the Los Angeles area; HyeSingles has 16,000 members, nearly two-thirds of
    them from the Los Angeles area.
    "Birds of a feather flock together. As the database grows, it will draw more
    people," said the 32-year-old Amin.
    One 24-year-old Armenian woman who used HyeSingles.com said that the site
    appealed to her because she was able to discern more specific traits about a
    potential match. She said the site's open-ended questions like "When raising a
    family, how important is it that your kids learn how to speak Armenian?" gave
    her a glimpse into her potential partner's character and outlook on life.
    HyeSingles.com, unlike ADS, incorporates a paid membership. Those using the
    site's free service can build a profile and send pre-fabricated messages
    called
    "flirts," but only paid members can send original messages, see who has viewed
    their profile, and send video, voice and text messages. Unpaid members are
    able
    to send one reply to each message they receive, and can use the chatting
    services if they are contacted by a paid member. The initial price of a 30-day
    membership is $29.95, and 24.95 per month thereafter; a 90-day membership is
    $59.95, and 14.95 per month thereafter. The site touts the 360-day membership
    as the "best value," for an initial cost of $119.95, and 7.95 thereafter.
    Using ADS or HyeSingles.com may not be for everyone, but Bargamian insists
    it's worth a try. "I encourage any Armenian who is single to use ADS. It's
    worth trying the system. I'm living proof, here I am, married to Larissa, it's
    not like it can't happen," he says. "Whoever invented that Web site is a
    godsend for all Armenians. I have a lot of gratitude towards them, whoever
    they
    may be."
    Apparently, the couple should direct their thank you letters to Arthur
    Chaparyan and Ara Mahdessian of BlueMediaSolutions.com, who wrote the program
    for the original version of ADS, according to information on the Web site.
    Most
    of the revisions were completed by Chaparyan who, the website says, left
    ADS in
    March 2004.
    Naush Boghossian contributed to this report.


    7) A RECYCLED RANT FROM AN ANGRY ARMENIAN BOURGEOIS

    BY SKEPTIK SINIKIAN

    Note: This column was supposed to appear last week but was delayed for
    reasons
    that were out of the Skepster's control. Next week, I'll be addressing this
    Atomic Bomb of a story that appeared in Vanity Fair this month. If you haven't
    read about it yet, do so right now. Put my column down, go get the September
    Vanity Fair and read it. I won't be mad at you. And like a clingy emotionally
    depraved ex-girlfriend or boyfriend, I'll still be here when you get back.
    We'll talk about Vanity Fair next week children. Now on to the show!

    I don't know if there's a Heaven or a Hell. But I do know that if Hell is any
    hotter than LA has been all week, then that's enough of a reason for me to
    lead
    a better life and renounce my sinful ways. We've had record heat,
    hurricanes up
    the wazoo, and apparently the glaciers in the far north are melting away
    faster
    Paris Hilton's 15 minutes of fame and no one seems to care or worry. Global
    warming? What's that? In fact, during the course of writing this paragraph, I
    witnessed no less than nine Sports Utility Vehicles drive by the coffee shop,
    at least three of them driven by Armenian fake-blonde trophy wives on their
    way, no doubt, to the Galleria. Last month, Americans spent 4 billion dollars
    more on gas than they normally do. FOUR BILLION!! This all goes to show you
    that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
    Our economy is suffering but you'd never believe me because the White House
    and its spin doctors keep telling the public that everything is "OK." The
    price
    of gas keeps rising in spite of the fact that we have successfully
    invaded/liberated and occupied the most oil rich nation in the world (hint
    hint
    for the slow readers, it rhymes with Chirac). Yet folks are still driving
    around in SUVs, spending money on unnecessary material possessions and seeking
    new ways to impress their friends, neighbors, relatives and coworkers. God
    forbid they don't sport the latest fashion or trend, and then what will other
    people think? (If you missed my article from a few weeks back on the "What
    will other people think" mentality of Armenians, then I suggest you go back
    and
    read it in the Asbarez archives). We have become a generation of obese,
    gluttonous, wasteful wastes of space. Why are our lives driven by what we
    watch
    on TV while eating mass quantities of processed junk food. In contrast, I look
    at my grandmother who is the last person in the world who would litter or
    waste
    food, or take an elevator instead of the stairs and wonder where the
    subsequent
    generations of Armenian Americans lost their way?
    My grandparents are the most frugal people you'll ever meet. They're also the
    most unintentionally environmentally conscious folks I know. They aren't cheap
    or stingy but they know how to survive on just the basics, as well as know the
    appropriate time or occasion to splurge. When I was younger, I always found it
    embarrassing when my grandmother would bring over a jar of her famous homemade
    eggplant dip (ikrah) stored in an old Jiffy peanut butter jar. I feel guilty
    when I remember my disappointment at opening the colorful jars of mass
    produced
    crap food only to find a mysterious odd colored paste wafting with the smells
    of spices and ingredients from a land forgotten that reminded me of grandma's
    house. As I've grown older and my tastes are more refined, I can't wait until
    the next delivery of Armenian delicacies to be delivered. Will it be roasted
    red peppers or ikrah or will it be something sweet like pumpkin preserves? Now
    my disappointment is greater when I hastily open the jar of Jiffy peanut paste
    in the fridge only to find that it is actually peanut paste. Yuck! I don't
    know if it's age as much as it's maturity that has changed my perceptions.
    Today, I find even her recycling habits very endearing and admirable.
    If either of my grandparents ever saw me throw even a scrap of paper or a
    sunflower seed shell on the ground outdoors, they would give me a long lecture
    about the merits of being civilized and not "vayreni" (wild like an animal).
    On the same note, if they ever saw me waste food, it would be followed by a
    similar lecture about how I shouldn't waste food and be grateful for what I do
    have. Theirs was a different generation. A generation whose parents had
    witnessed unspeakable horrors during the Genocide, World War II, Stalinism,
    the
    Great Depression, and they had learned a few things along the way.
    Last week, I went over to my grandma's and slumped into the couch as I bit
    into a fresh summer peach from the bowl on the coffee table. As the juices
    dribbled down my chin, she looked at me with a motherly admiration and
    asked me
    about my day. I automatically went into my rehearsed rant as I told her that
    the weather was unbearable and how tired I was from work. Grandma sighed and
    nodded her head in agreement. She then went on to tell me about how when she
    was younger, the family had lost everything to the Turks after the Genocide,
    she went to work in the fields picking everything from eggplants to
    tomatoes in
    scorching heat. She smiled as she told me about the days when they would
    search
    the field workers on their way home to make sure nobody was stealing a tomato
    or two to take to their hungry families. She spoke of waiting in line for
    hours
    for bread that had the consistency of mud. She told the story not to make me
    feel like a lazy bum in comparison to her but in order to empathize with my
    "fatigue." As she continued to describe the blisters and scars her hands and
    arms would receive for hours on hours of work in a scorching hot field, I
    began
    to realize that here was a woman who represented a generation like which we
    will never see again in our lifetime.
    Today's parents teach their children that if someone is cheating to get
    ahead,
    you better cheat also just to keep up. I've heard it with my own ears and seen
    it with my own eyes.
    They teach their children that it's ok to throw trash out of the window of
    their SUV while speeding down Glenoaks Blvd. (I saw that last one with my own
    eyes as well).
    They don't teach their children an ounce of respect towards adults and they
    spoil their children with ridiculous amounts of jewelry, plastic surgery, SUV,
    or whatever car of luxury.
    Then we sit back and wonder why the next generation is so spoiled and so
    uneducated. Our organizations wonder how they will survive when their average
    membership is comprised of silver and white haired dadigs and babigs. On any
    given Sunday, drive to church and look at who is filling the pews and then
    drive down the street to the Glendale Galleria and count how many young
    Armenians are just walking around aimlessly and spending their parents'
    hard-earned money.
    The bottom line is that our youth is delusional, lost, misguided, spoiled and
    if we rely on them to keep alive the essence of our culture and heritage, then
    we're all pretty much up the creek without a paddle.
    Maybe it's all this unbearable heat that's getting to me. Maybe my readers
    are
    right and I'm just at total jerk with no compassion left in my heart or the
    ability to understand today's modern Armenian. Maybe I'm just hungry and need
    some more ikrah. I'm going to see if there's any left in the Cool Whip
    container in the refrigerator and after I'm done eating, I'll stick my head in
    the freezer to cool off.

    Skeptik Sinikian is the founding president of the Anti-Modern Armenian
    Society
    (a.k.a. AMAN Society) which meets once a week at Maple Park in Glendale,
    California to play backgammon, sort various plastic grocery bags into color
    coded piles, and wash out jars of jam and peanut butter for reuse. You can
    join
    by emailing him at [email protected] or visit his ridiculously outdated
    blog at www.Sinikian.blogspot.com.


    All subscription inquiries and changes must be made through the proper carrier
    and not Asbarez Online. ASBAREZ ONLINE does not transmit address changes and
    subscription requests.
    (c) 2005 ASBAREZ ONLINE. All Rights Reserved.

    ASBAREZ provides this news service to ARMENIAN NEWS NETWORK members for
    academic research or personal use only and may not be reproduced in or through
    mass media outlets.
Working...
X