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  • The Armenian Weekly; Feb. 9, 2008; Features

    The Armenian Weekly On-Line
    80 Bigelow Avenue
    Watertown MA 02472 USA
    (617) 926-3974
    [email protected]

    http://www.a rmenianweekly.com

    The Armenian Weekly; Volume 74, No. 5; Feb. 9, 2008

    Features:

    1. Of Grasshoppers and Men
    An Interview with Arundhati Roy
    By Khatchig Mouradian

    2. Four Poems by Esther Heboyan

    3. Essay Contest Pays Tribute to Martin Luther King

    ***

    1. Of Grasshoppers and Men
    An Interview with Arundhati Roy
    By Khatchig Mouradian

    Arundhati Roy was born in 1959 in Shillong, India. She studied architecture
    in New Delhi, where she now lives, and has worked as a film designer, actor,
    and screenplay writer in India. Roy is the author of the novel The God of
    Small Things, (Random House/HarperPerennial) for which she received the 1997
    Booker Prize. The novel has been translated into dozens of languages
    worldwide. She has written several non-fiction books: The Cost of Living
    (Random House/Modern Library), Power Politics (South End Press), War Talk
    (South End Press), and An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire (South End
    Press) and Public Power in the Age of Empire (Seven Stories/Open Media).

    Roy was featured in the BBC television documentary, "Dam/age," which
    chronicles her work in support of the struggle against big dams in India and
    the contempt of court case that led to a prolonged legal case against her
    and eventually a one-day jail sentence in spring 2002. A collection of
    interviews with Arundhati Roy by David Barsamian was published as The
    Checkbook and the Cruise Missile (South End Press). Roy is the recipient of
    the 2002 Lannan Foundation Cultural Freedom Prize.

    On Jan. 18, 2008, Roy delivered the Hrant Dink memorial lecture at Bosphorus
    University in Istanbul. In her lecture, titled "Listening to Grasshoppers:
    Genocide, Denial and Celebration," Roy reflected on the legacy of Hrant Dink
    and dealt with the history of the "genocidal impulse," the Armenian genocide
    of 1915 and the killing of Muslims in Gujarat, India in 2002.

    Speaking about the slain editor of the Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos, Roy
    said, "I never met Hrant Dink, a misfortune that will be mine for time to
    come. From what I know of him, of what he wrote, what he said and did, how
    he lived his life, I know that had I been here in Istanbul a year ago I
    would have been among the one hundred thousand people who walked with his
    coffin in dead silence through the wintry streets of this city, with banners
    saying, 'We are all Armenians,' 'We are all Hrant Dink.' Perhaps I'd have
    carried the one that said, 'One and a half million plus one.'"

    "I wonder what thoughts would have gone through my head as I walked beside
    his coffin," she added. "Maybe I would have heard a reprise of the voice of
    Araxie Barsamian, mother of my friend David Barsamian, telling the story of
    what happened to her and her family. She was ten years old in 1915. She
    remembered the swarms of grasshoppers that arrived in her village, Dubne,
    which was north of the historic city Dikranagert, now Diyarbakir. The
    village elders were alarmed, she said, because they knew in their bones that
    the grasshoppers were a bad omen. They were right; the end came in a few
    months, when the wheat in the fields was ready for harvesting."

    In this interview, conducted by phone on Feb. 2, we talk about some of the
    issues she raised in her lecture and reflect on genocide and resistance.

    ***


    Khatchig Mouradian-What was going through your head when you were writing
    the speech for the commemoration in Istanbul of Hrant Dink's assassination?

    Arundhati Roy-These days, we are going through a kind of psychotic
    convulsion in India. Genocide and its celebration are in the air. And it's
    terrifying for me to watch people celebrating genocide every day. It was at
    a time when I was very struck by this celebration in India and the denial in
    Turkey that they asked me to go to Istanbul.

    When I landed in Istanbul, I realized that there's a very big difference
    between what Armenians, Turks and others could say outside Turkey-where
    everybody could be very direct about the Armenian genocide-and inside
    Turkey-where, Hrant Dink, for example, was trying to find a way of saying
    things in order to continue living. His idea was to speak out, but not to
    die.

    In Istanbul, I spoke with people and I was very concerned not to give the
    impression that I flew in, made a speech, and flew out leaving everybody
    else in trouble. I was interested in helping to create an atmosphere where
    people could begin to talk about the Armenian genocide to each other. After
    all, that's the project of the Armenians who are living in Turkey and trying
    to survive there.

    At the same time, I was somebody who is involved quite deeply in issues in
    India and I didn't want to be some global intellectual who flies in, makes
    some superficial statements and then flies out. I wanted to relate the issue
    to what I knew and what I fought for, and tried to push a little bit more
    and a little bit more. And this is not a simple thing to do.



    K.M.-The story that weaves your lecture together is that of your friend,
    David Barsamian's mother, Araxie Barsamian. In an interview, you say, "I
    think that a story is like the surface of water, and you can take whatever
    you want from it." What did you take from the story of Araxie Barsamian?

    A.R.-In fact, David happened to be in India just before I went to Turkey and
    we talked about the issue. It mattered to me that I knew him. I'm not saying
    that if I didn't know him I wouldn't have spoken, but it suddenly became
    something that was more personal. I was having the discussion with a friend
    that there are people who talk about politics that is informative and
    politics that is transformative. These are such silly separations because in
    Turkey, for example, everybody knows what happened. It's just that there's a
    silence around it and you're not allowed to say what happened. And when you
    say it, it becomes transformative in itself. I made my point through the
    words of David's mother instead of going and saying, "Look, that bullet that
    was meant to silence Hrant Dink actually made someone like myself take the
    trouble to go and read history. Whether I say it or I don't say it, you and
    I know what happened, and if you want to maintain the silence, then people
    here will have to fight with that, as I will have to fight with the
    celebration around genocide in India."

    This is something that a novel writer does. How you say what you want to say
    is as important as what you want to say. By telling Araxie Barsamian's
    story, the history comes alive. You could say that 1.5 million people were
    killed or you could say that the grasshoppers arrived in Araxie Barsamian's
    village.



    K.M.-You spoke about the difference between speaking about the Armenian
    genocide outside and inside Turkey. But in your speech, you are quite bold:
    You do not come off as trying to imply things rather than stating them
    outright. You are not trying to avoid using the term genocide.

    A.R.-When I started speaking about the term "genocide," defining it, then
    talking about the history of genocide and what's happening in India
    today-how Indian fascists killed Muslim-I wanted to make it clear that that
    the genocidal impulse has cut across religions and that the same ugly,
    fascist rhetoric that the Turks used against the Armenians has been used by
    the Christians against the Indians, has been used by the Nazis against the
    Jews, and today, it is being used by Hindus against Muslims. Genocide is
    such a complex process. The genocidal impulse has never been related to just
    one culture or just one religion. I spoke about the Armenian genocide and
    its denial openly to the extent that I could without shutting down the
    audience.

    I would like to note that in my readings, one problem I realized is that
    many scholars who have studied the Armenian genocide in detail-almost all of
    them-keep on insisting that it was the first genocide of the 20th century
    and, in asserting that, they deny the other genocides that took place-for
    example, the genocide against the Herrero people in 1904. So I was also
    trying to talk about the Armenian genocide without giving the impression
    that some victims are more worthy than others.



    K.M.-How was your lecture received?

    A.R.-The important thing was that it was received. It wasn't blocked out. It
    wasn't denied. People didn't say, "Oh, here's a person who has come here to
    tell us about our own past." That's because I wasn't just talking about the
    past of Turkey. For me, that was the way of guaranteeing that my talk was
    received.

    The biggest thing is that it was received. It was taken in and it was
    thought about. I saw many people in tears in the hall. And I hope that in
    some tiny, little way, it will change the way this subject is spoken of. I
    might be presuming too much.



    K.M.-As you point out in your lecture, genocide and gross human rights
    violations have plagued us for centuries and they continue to do so. What
    has changed?

    A.R.-I don't think that there's been that much change in the genocidal
    impulse. Technology and industrialization have only enabled human beings to
    kill each other in larger numbers. I talked about the slaughter of 2,000
    Muslims in the state of Gujarat in India. It was all on TV.

    About three months ago, the killers were caught on camera talking about how
    they decided how to target the Muslim community, how it was all planned, how
    the police was involved, how the chief ministers were involved, how they
    murdered, how they raped. It was actually broadcast on TV and it worked in
    the favor of that party. The people who voted for them said, "This is what
    they deserve." So I actually feel that this notion of the liberal
    conscience, of human conscience, is a fake notion. Today in India we are on
    the verge of something terrible. Like I say in the article, the grasshoppers
    have landed, and there is a kind of shutting down and cutting off of the
    poor from their resources, herding them off their land and rivers. And
    people are just watching. Their eyes are open but they are looking the other
    way. And again and again we think of the fact that in Germany when Jews were
    being exterminated, people must have been taking their children to piano
    lessons, violin lessons, worrying about their children's homework. That kind
    of absolute lack of conscience is still present today. No amount of appeal
    to conscience can make any change. The only way disaster can be averted is
    if the people who are on the receiving end of that can resist.
    ------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------

    2. Four Poems by Esther Heboyan

    If

    If
    To prolong the receding hour
    I must
    Sort out your fermented mood
    I'd better be unbiddable
    Yet how utterable
    Your closeness
    When somehow cognac and cigarettes
    >From across the kitchen table
    Uncheck yester-years' panic
    Toward a disappearance
    You call a beginning
    Next time
    Be a pal
    And bring me a thesaurus
    Will you

    ***

    Conviviality

    As you
    Prepared food
    Picturesque and good
    Poured wine
    Purling and fine
    The cat pilfered the pté
    The rabbit acted blasé
    And snow trickled - unknowingly
    To oriental songs claiming eternity
    But night perchance
    Cast its peremptory silence
    Over love's pinnacle
    Where lovers meant not to be fickle
    Or did they

    ***


    Living

    The art of seeing?
    Proceed from the supine to the unseen
    And take in the manifold etchings of the wondrous mind.

    The art of hearing?
    Add desultory items to lozenges of bare palaver
    And listen to the biddings of the unfettered heart.

    The art of touching?
    Reach out for a pulsating Jackson Pollock surface
    And make it a Sunday morning embrace
    As neighbors trot off to the marketplace.

    ***

    Love's Labor

    Say: S-U-C-R-E, my Love,
    And I'll make you a cup of coffee.
    - Anytime.

    Say: A-R-B-R-E, my Love,
    And I'll draw you a road to Van Gogh's house.
    - Anywhere.

    Say: F-I-A-C-R-E, my Love,
    And I'll dream of a summer night in Manhattan.
    - Anywise.

    Say: N-A-C-R-E, my Love,
    And I'll take you to the Mediterranean shores.
    - Anyhow.

    Say: S-A-C-R-E, my Love,
    And we'll drink bourbon and make love.
    - Till you depart anyway.

    ***

    Esther Heboyan was born in Istanbul in 1955. She studied English at the
    University of Paris X-Nanterre and Journalism at the University of Iowa. Her
    doctoral thesis is on Grace Paley's short fiction. She is currently
    associate professor of American literature at the University of Artois.


    Her short stories, articles and translations have appeared in "Ararat" and
    "Marmara."

    --------------------------- -------------------------------------------------- ------

    3. Essay Contest Pays Tribute to Martin Luther King

    The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Essay Contest is one of the most celebrated
    essay competitions supported by Watertown High School. Students there were
    recently prompted to "describe someone you know who represents the
    principles of tolerance, freedom and equality that Dr. King so actively
    promoted and explain how these principles have influenced your own beliefs
    and actions." Below are the winning essays.

    Angel Tai, Satenik Karapetyan and Ester Tokatlyan are all seniors at
    Watertown High School and the pronounced winners of the Essay Contest.
    Angel, in her essay, wrote eloquently about the Armenian genocide. "Satenik
    is an inspiring example of someone who immigrated to America and
    continuously strives for success. And Ester, as the president of the Class
    of 2008, is equally impressive," said social studies coordinator David
    Sheehan.

    Essay by Angel Tai, Grade 12

    One day I was asked to prepare oranges after dinner. As I cut the oranges,
    the ones that looked perfect on the surface were rotten inside. However, the
    ones that had marks on the outside turned out to be delicious. I thought to
    myself, if we only judge other people by their cover, like the rotten
    oranges, how can we consider ourselves to be the most enlightened of all
    species?

    Unfortunately, discrimination still exists in society and in school. In the
    school hallway, you can still hear the negative remarks regarding race,
    gender and age. In fact, when I was in middle school, I witnessed a fight
    between two students because one of them accused the other of being a
    terrorist since he was from the Middle East. How do we continue the legacy
    that our fathers have left us, that "we hold these truths to be
    self-evident, that all men are created equal" if some people are treated
    with less respect? Is there a way to help others to understand how serious
    discrimination is?

    During my sophomore year on Diversity Day, I met Becket Rhodes, the Peer
    Leadership Advisor of Watertown Youth Coalition. What captured my attention
    was the diversity quilt that she, along with the students of the school,
    made to promote cultural differences and peace in the world. It is made out
    of flags that the students painted and put together in the shape of a heart.
    For my flag, I painted two hands shaking with a heart in the background to
    represent world peace. Becket then told me about her works at Watertown
    Youth Coalition. The mission of the Watertown Youth Coalition is to make
    Watertown a safer and better community for everybody, a place where youths
    would feel comfortable in their own skins. Becket was very determined about
    her ideas, ideas that have inspired me because I have finally figured out a
    way to make my own ideas heard.

    I became a Peer Leader of the Watertown Youth Coalition during junior year.
    We have done a lot of projects to improve the Watertown community. Over the
    year, in order to show our respect for cultures around the world, we have
    held our annual Diversity Day in March, where we serve food from different
    cultures and have students decorate our map, named "Around the Globe, Around
    the Town." We also collaborate with the World In Watertown organization to
    promote diversity. At the same time, we joined the Armenian community in
    Watertown and hosted an event recognizing the Armenian Genocide, a program
    called "Understanding Genocide and Its Impact," in order to prevent this
    tragedy from ever happening again. We also campaigned to stop the genocide
    in Darfur. From Becket, members of the Watertown Youth Coalition and my
    fellow peer leaders, I have gained not only leadership skills but I also
    gained confidence in taking a stand for something that I believe in.

    Becket and I, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., have a dream that one day we
    will live to see people of different colors, different genders, different
    ages, different values, and different status in the society "sit down
    together at the table of brotherhood."

    Becket puts Dr. King's philosophy into practice because not only does she
    live by these ideas in her life, she also spreads these ideas to the
    community, to the state, and to the nation. I am very lucky to know Becket
    and the Watertown Youth Coalition and now, as an active peer leader, I have
    learned how to stand up for others. If I hear people make any disrespectful
    remarks about another person's background, I stand up and tell them that
    they are wrong. Becket has inspired me to continue my work when I go to
    college, working to make the world a better place for everybody.

    ***


    Essay by Ester Tokatlyan, Grade 12

    Martin Luther King was a great man who represented every aspect of a good
    person from tolerance to equality. King was the youngest person to receive
    the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end segregation and racial
    discrimination through civil disobedience and other nonviolent means. There
    are many people in the world with similar principles and goals as Dr. King's.
    One person who shares Dr. King's vision is Kim Foley. Kimberly Cotter Foley
    is a seventeen year-old student at Watertown High School. She has been my
    best friend since grade school and I hope she always will be.


    Even as a young girl, Kim believed that everybody should be equal. Back when
    we were in fourth grade, and most girls were extremely "catty" and rude, Kim
    was always the class peace maker. She would never pick sides even if it
    meant she could not be part of the "popular group," and she would always try
    to get everyone involved, no matter what we were doing. We would spend our
    recess time digging ant holes and Kim would include others. A fourth grader's
    ability to recognize that nobody should be excluded says a lot about who
    they are and who they will become. Also, she has never made a racist
    comment. She is not one of those people who claims not to be racist and then
    proceeds to say she would never date someone of a different race. If Kim
    fell in love with an African-American or an Asian person, she would have no
    problem with it because she is a strong believer in equality.


    Along with her insistence for equality, she also feels extremely strongly
    about freedom. When she would study slavery in our history classes, she
    would always get upset and shocked by how some people treated others. In Kim's
    mind, everybody is born equal to all other human beings, and there is no
    difference among any of us that should cause the loss of freedom. Of course,
    she does not live in a world where it is necessary to fight for basic
    freedoms like Dr. King did; however, if Kim had to deal with those
    circumstances, she would surely take a stand and fight for people who had
    been denied their freedom.


    Tolerance means accepting a fair, objective, and permissive attitude,
    towards those whose opinions, practices, race and religion differ from your
    own. Kim personifies tolerance, as did Martin Luther King. Kim does not have
    anything against the people who do not agree with her principles. She is
    willing to hear their views and consider them even if they are opposite of
    her own. Since she is such a strong believer in freedom, she knows that each
    person has the right to have different objectives, attitudes, and
    principles.


    Over the course of our many years of friendship Kim has influenced me in
    many ways. Her strong beliefs in equality, freedom, and tolerance have
    helped me become a better person with an open mind. Dr. Martin Luther King,
    Jr. made great changes for the entire nation, even the world. Although Kim's
    gestures reach only a small community it does not mean that they go
    unnoticed. Kim is a great person, the type of person that we need more of in
    this world.

    ***

    Essay by Satenik Karapetyan, Grade 12

    Before I emigrated from Armenia to the United States, I had never seen
    someone of a different color or race. I did not even know there were people
    of other ethnicities. At six years old, I was to start first grade at the
    Hosmer School. My guidance counselor, Mrs. Lillian Jingozian, who just
    happened to be Armenian as well, had a few meetings with me where she
    described what it would be like to attend school here in America. She
    explained that it was very different from Armenia, that I would be in a
    class with students of all different backgrounds, and that I would be likely
    to meet students that had come here from other countries, just as I had.

    I was taught about the "melting pot" which represents America, and how
    although we are all different from one another, we must all be accepting of
    others and try to establish friendships based on our differences. Her goal
    as a guidance counselor, she believed, was to help students meet each other
    and to grow in a world based on cultural and ethnic diversity. She also
    explained to me that I would be accepted in my classroom although I did not
    yet know how to speak English. I would get the help I needed to learn.
    However, this would not set me apart from the whole class. I would continue
    to be with my peers each day.

    After that first meeting with her, I went home and explained to my family
    the exciting new journey that I was about to embark on. My mother then
    proceeded to tell me a story about a close friend of hers from Armenia. She
    explained that her friend had gotten married to a man from Cuba while
    studying in Russia, and had returned to Armenia to raise her daughter there.
    However, her daughter was born dark-skinned like her father, and her friend
    felt that her daughter's appearance would set her apart from everyone else.
    It was very rare to see people from different backgrounds and such unique
    marriages in Armenia, where over 90% of the population was white and
    Armenian. It was not even hatred but the different skin color that caused
    excessive curiosity, and still the family felt uncomfortable living there.
    They moved and established their home in Canada.

    At the time, it was very shocking to me as to why a baby would be looked
    upon differently just because of her skin color. My mother told me that it
    was wonderful that I would meet students from different ethnicities and that
    she wanted me to be well-rounded.

    Ever since the first grade, my mother's story has stuck with me and Mrs.
    Jingozian's principles have become my own. I made it a goal of mine to
    gather a multicultural group of friends once I learned the language, which I
    believe I have succeeded in doing. Today, I have created friendships with
    Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Pakistani students as well as numerous others,
    all who have opened my eyes to recognize and marvel at their various
    cultures. I have also been able to proudly pass on a bit of my own Armenian
    heritage to them.

    There is never a barrier that sets me apart from anyone, nor any ideas that
    taint my mind towards those who have different customs or beliefs. My boss
    is from the country of Jordan, and I work within an extremely multicultural
    environment among a group of employees from Brazil, Egypt and Mexico.
    Working in such an environment has even motivated me to learn the Arabic
    language.

    I feel that living in this country, the "melting pot" of the world, I have
    been given an amazing opportunity to broaden my way of thinking about the
    people who surround me and the differences that define us all. Since my
    move, I have returned to Armenia, and was very pleased to see that more
    people from other nations have established homes there and are attending the
    universities there to study. I was extremely proud to see that the
    population there today has been growing on a very different scale, and has
    been establishing its own diversity.

    I believe that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s ideas about equality and
    tolerance have proven to be the most important factor in understanding the
    rest of the world in which we live. Dr. King said, "Darkness cannot drive
    out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love
    can do that. The chain reaction of evil-hate begetting hate, wars producing
    more wars- must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of
    annihilation." I believe it's time to open our eyes, and realize that each
    of us live among more than 6 billion others on this earth. If we cannot
    accept and try to understand one another, and embrace our differences, then
    there is no way we can go forward and try to establish world peace or
    diplomacy.
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