Aremian News

Posted By shirley on October 12, 2012

Malala Yousafzai

I haven’t written on here for a few months.  Life seems to have taken me down a few notches. Then the other day my daughter posted this story on her Facebook page.  It infuriated me so much that I have to post this on this blog and hope that it is noticed.  This young girl has true courage and has tried to make a difference in her world.  My problems now seem so petty.

That a group of men would try and assassinate a 14 year old girl because she is promoting education for girls in her part of the world is an atrocity.  These men can only be described as evil.  They are not ignorant, they are not cultural, they are simply evil.  I have no other words to describe such people.  Please join in on protests and abhorrence for such evil deeds.

This is not a “Western” thing to want to have an education, this is an inalienable right.

 A spokesman for the TTP told Pakistani newspaper The Express Tribune that Malala was shot because she was a ’secular-minded lady’ and that this should serve as a warning for other young people like her.

via Pakistani girl Malala Yousafzai shot by Taliban for promoting Western values is moved to secure military hospital as authorities offer 10million rupee reward for her attacker | Mail Online.

Category: Tolerance | No Comments »
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Posted By shirley on August 7, 2012

Satwant Kaleka – President of the temple, died a hero.

The quote below about Sikhs’ belief system is eye opening as well as tragic.  Here we have a religion that was one of the first to advocate tolerance of others’ religions and yet they are targeted by hate crime.

I urge all Americans to become informed.  This semester my son is enrolled in a religion class in college.  I’m glad because I want my children to know what all religions are about so they can make informed decisions and understand the culture of others.

Maybe I should take a class about white supremacy because I’m baffled!

It is a particularly sad incident because Sikhs are pledged to defend all religious faiths; they are committed to religious tolerance.Long before Enlightenment thinkers wrote about it, Sikhs were willing to die for the right of all communities to freely practice their faiths.

via Much can be learned from Sikhs’ beliefs | The Journal News | LoHud.com | LoHud.com.

Category: Tolerance | No Comments »
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Posted By shirley on July 20, 2012

Taner Akcam writes on the New York Time’s Op Ed page a very interesting article about Syria, Turkey and Syrian Christians.  Someone told me if I read it, it would make me cry.  It does make me sad.  I know a similar thing happened in Iraq.  Saddam Hussein, for all his evilness, was a buffer for Christians in that country.  As soon as he was gone, all the relatives I had living there had to leave.  I’m of the opinion if you took a count, most of the Armenian-Christians (and other Christian minorities) have left that country.  Mr. Akcam makes some interesting points in his article.  Please read it.

It isn’t a coincidence that many Christians and other minorities in Syria support Bashar al-Assad’s Baath Party; they are willing to sacrifice freedom for security. While Turkish rhetoric appeals to the Sunni Muslim majority’s demand for freedom in Syria, it does not relieve Syrian Christians’ anxiety about their future. On the contrary, Syrian Christians listening to Mr. Erdogan and his denialist rhetoric are reminded of 1915, and that makes Turkey look very much like a security threat to them.

via Turkey’s Human Rights Hypocrisy – NYTimes.com.

Category: Christianity vs. Islam, The "G" Word | No Comments »
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Posted By shirley on July 19, 2012

California Coast

When you’re growing up, you think your neighborhood, your world, looks as much the same as anywhere else in the world.  Our summers were hot, very hot.  We had a swamp cooler and it did what it promised, turned our living room into a swamp.  Wet, damp, hot air – that is what our only source of air conditioning gave us.  At night, the sheets felt like a wool blanket.  Certainly, everyone else in the world experienced and lived the through the same things, I thought.

Then, the relatives from the coast came.  Fanning themselves with Chinese paper fans, they exclaimed, “Oh, it is so hot here” and, “How do you live here?”  It was then that I started to wonder the same thing, “Yes, it is hot here and yes, how do I live here?”  I realized just how hot it was and that I definitely did not like it.

I longed to live on the coast where Chinese paper fans were merely a decoration and not a required necessity of life.  How and why did we end up in this hot place anyway?  Why couldn’t we live “on the coast” where the cool ocean breeze flows in daily and keeps the temperature at a comfortable level, just right and absolutely perfect.

If we lived on the coast, we might just live next to those Hollywood stars who ALL lived on the coast, blocking out large sections of Malibu real estate with million dollar views.  Where summers mean you can walk around in shorts and flip flops without sweat dripping down your legs; where your hair doesn’t frizz up because of the sweat building up on your hot head; where a dip in the ocean brings cooling relief.

But, no, here I sit, a fan whirling like crazy in the background blowing my bangs into my eyes and papers off my desk.  I still have a “swamp” cooler – it sits on top of the house and chugs along, wondering why we keep running it when it’s virtually useless over a temperature of 90 degrees.

In this hot valley, everyone desires to go to “the coast” during summer vacations.  Every summer huge masses of humanity scramble to their coast destinations.  This Western seaboard might just groan and heave by the sheer weight of vehicles, campers, RVs and human bodies driving the coastal highways with tongues out and hair blowing out the window much like our canine friends in an attempt to savor every bit of cooling fog and gorgeous views.

Since my childhood days I have lived many other places, even hotter ones, such as the tropics.  I have lived in colder places, such as the North West Territories in Canada.

I fail to understand why the whole earth cannot be granted coastal weather.

Why can’t we have perfect weather anyway?  Someone once answered, “Because you wouldn’t appreciate it.”  What kind of answer is that?  We could have a bad day once in awhile and that would be enough to keep the appreciation going if need be.

Never mind – I will resume mopping my brow and fanning with a paper Chinese fan and wait for the November rains.

Category: Growing up Armenian-American | 3 Comments »
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Posted By shirley on May 4, 2012

Kim Kardashian is making a move into politics.  Interestingly, her platform seems to be the 1915 Armenian Genocide.  I can’t say I understand her, but I hope her voice does in deed bring more awareness to this cause.

Kim Kardashian –- who recently made headlines after she said she wanted to run for mayor of Glendale –- has also taped a public service announcement for the city’s official commemoration of the Armenian genocide.

In the video, unveiled Tuesday at the Glendale City Council meeting and uploaded to YouTube ON Wednesday, Kardashian asks the public to join in commemorating “the loss of those innocent lives of millions of people worldwide.”

Sitting on a couch with her hair pulled back into a ponytail, Kardashian also refers to the Armenian genocide of 1915, in which roughly 1.5 million Armenians were killed at the hands of Ottoman Turks, as “the modern genocide.”

via Kim Kardashian tapes Armenian genocide PSA for Glendale – latimes.com.

Category: April 24th, Armenians around the world, Growing up Armenian-American | No Comments »
Tags: Armenian Genocide, Glendale, Kim Kardashian, politics

Posted By shirley on April 18, 2012

Serj Tankian

I wish I could win the lottery and go to this event.  I would love to hear the two of them speak.

LOS ANGELES—Two days before the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide of 1915, two artists of Armenian descent will come together to discuss its lasting impact. The Hammer Museum will present filmmaker Atom Egoyan and musician Serj Tankian in conversation, on Sunday, April 22, at 3 p.m. Admission is free.

via Tankian, Egoyan to Speak at Hammer Museum on April 22 | Asbarez Armenian News.

Category: April 24th | 1 Comment »
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Posted By shirley on April 14, 2012

Pacific Ocean, California Coast

Once, a long time ago, I was fortunate enough to visit a friend who lived in a house that was built overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  The sun was setting and a big picture window captured the unfolding seascape like a big movie screen.  The gold and red hues swept into the crisp blue of the ocean.   I stood there mesmerized for a long time.  How was it possible that anything could be any more beautiful, I pondered.

It was unfathomable to me how someone would be able to afford such a home.  The cost of the view alone would be enormous, let alone the Southern California location.  Malibu, I think it was.

Memories are funny things.  How is it that I can still see the sun setting through that picture window but I can’t remember for the life of me whose house it was, when I was there and/or why?

Is this how it is with the previous generations of my ancestors?  Memories are swept into what is most dramatic and therefore, most memorable.  The rest is forgotten.  We remember they were lost, they were stolen, they were killed, but we do not remember the how or the why.

April is Armenian Genocide Remembrance month (or more specifically April 24th).  April marks the beginning of the end of a civilization that once straddled the Mediterranean Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the Black Sea, but today is a tiny country bordered and landlocked by Turkey, Azerbaijan and Kurdistan.

This month there will be memorial upon memorial, speakers and more speakers joining voices loudly declaring they will never forget.

Many Armenians who survived the purging and the killing and made it to American shores strove, however, to forget what they left behind.  Who would not want to forget a life of hazard, atrocity, killing fields and nightmarish visions after arriving in the land where streets are made of gold?  Many chose, instead, not to speak of what they had come from and what they had escaped.

My grandparents never forgot and they would not let me forget. They nearly kissed the ground and worshiped the land of freedom called America, which was now their home.  My grandmother would quietly weep and mutter things in Turkish.  Whenever I asked what she was crying about, the answer was always the same.  “She is remembering the genocide.”

Category: April 24th | No Comments »
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Posted By shirley on March 27, 2012

A Tribute to Arpi Vanian

Translated from Armenian by Gaytzag Palandjian

‘ TIS THE HOUR OF RETURN

SPRING HAS COME DOWN TO MY

GRANDPA’S FOOTPRINTS

‘TIS THE HOUR OF RETURN

I FEEL THE GENTLENESS OF HIS CRACKED FINGERS

UPON MY HAIR

I OPEN MY EYES TO TASTE THE MORNING DEW-COVERED TAMARISK

PICKED BY MY GRANDPA FROM AGHALOR VALLEY

Tamarisk

TAMARISKS PICKED ONE BY ONE

WITH MY GRANDPA’S FINGERS

I MISS SO THOSE FINGERS….

THE SMELL OF CHILDHOOD REACHED MY NOSTRILS

FROM BEHIND THE HILL, UPFRONT, I HEAR

GRANDPA’S VOICE, MELODIOUS…

I GIVE THE GOOD TIDINGS TO MY GRANDMA

“HE IS COMING FROM HARVESTING”

UNTIL NOW, ALL ARE SURPRISED HOW WAS I ABLE TO FEEL HIS COMING

FROM BEHIND THE HILL?

MY GRANDPA, DECREPIT AFFABILITY

HAVING STORED MY CHILDHOOD IN HIS KNOWLEDGEABLE OLD AGE.

I GREW UP AT ONCE WHEN I LEARNED THAT HIS IS NO MORE

NOT ANY MORE

NOW THE WALLS OF MY CHILDHOOD HAVE CRACKED

MISSING HIS HOT BREATH

THE TREES DO NOT HISS

NO ONE IS THERE TO WATER MY GRANDPA’S GARLIC AND ONIONS,

THE MULBERRY TREES HEAVE UNDER THE WEIGHT

OF UNPICKED BERRIES

THE SPADE LEANING AGAINST THE APRICOT TREE

IMPRINTED BY OXIDATION

THE NARROW PATH LEADING TO HIS HOUSE WILL SOON FORGET

HIS FOOTPRINTS TOO

AT START, I AM BRAVE, THEN SURE, THEN SHAMEFUL, THEN TREMBLING…

THEY WILL NOT LET ME SHED TEARS

“HE WAS OLD, ALSO WAY OF LIFE IS SO….”

THEY SAY….IF LIFE IS SO, THEN I AM ETERNALLY ITS OPPONENT

I AM ANNOYED FROM YOU, LIFE

YOU DID NOT ASK ME

ONE NIGHT YOU TOOK WITHOUT RETURN

MY GRANDPA

STEALING CHILDHOOD AWAY FROM ME

I MISS YOU GRANDPA, COME VISIT ME, IN MY DREAMS

CARESS MY HAIR, THERE IS SO MUCH TO TELL YOU

NOW THAT I AM ALONE IN THE ROOM

AT LEAST I CAN SHED TEARS

A LOT

Category: Shirley's Poetry Corner | 2 Comments »
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Posted By shirley on March 26, 2012

Author Peter Balakian

My favorite author wins another award.  It is a slow, painstakingly slow, process to bring awareness to the world of injustices, evils, cruelties and the like.  Kudos to Mr. Balakian for continuing on.  Our world history is incomplete without the full story of the Armenian Genocide: Sherrie Spendlove is quoted as saying.

Peter Balakian, an award-winning author and a leading voice of Armenian Genocide recognition, has been named the 2012 recipient of the Alice and Clifford Spendlove Prize in Social Justice, Diplomacy and Tolerance.

The University of California, Merced, will award the prize to Balakian during an evening ceremony April 12. The following day at 10 a.m. in the Classroom and Office Building, Room 105, Balakian will give a talk that’s open to the public. No RSVP is required.

via Leading Voice of the Armenian Genocide to Receive Spendlove Prize | University of California, Merced.

Category: Growing up Armenian-American, Hay Tad - the Armenian Question, The "G" Word | No Comments »
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Posted By shirley on March 16, 2012

George Clooney Arrested

What startling news.  Maybe George Clooney has some Armenian in his roots, he has the looks for it.  I don’t know, but this is another member of the elite, rich, entertainment industry I avoid like the plague.  I know, I know, he’s so handsome and seems like such a great activist.  I don’t agree with his politics in the slightest, nevertheless, I have agreed with him on some of his causes.  This one in particular gets a big A plus from me.  Way to go, George – and not to mention the other members of Congress willing to stand up for their constituents.  Certainly, isn’t this what we are paying them for anyway?

WASHINGTON—Actor George Clooney, his father, as well as four members of Congress were among those arrested Friday at a protest in front of the Sudanese Embassy organized by United to End Genocide and co-sponsored by the Armenian National Committee of America, among others.

Also arrested for civil disobedience were representatives Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), James Moran (D-Va.), John Olver (D-Mass.) and Al Green (D-Texas), as well as Tom Andrews, President of United to End Genocide and John Prendergast of the Enough Project and the president of the NAACP, Ben Jealous. Also participating in the protest was Martin Luther King III.

via George Clooney, Members of Congress Arrested at ANCA Co-Sponsored Protest | Asbarez Armenian News.

Category: Hay Tad - the Armenian Question, The "G" Word | 2 Comments »
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