RAG Eugene Papazian Agoumpi Tsernarg
REPORT BY HAGOP NAZARIAN
LOS ANGELES, U.S.A.
ԳՐՈՒԹԻՒՆ ՅԱԿՈԲ ՆԱԶԱՐԵԱՆԷՆ
ԼՈՍ ԱՆՃԵԼԸՍ, ՄԻԱՑԵԱԼ ՆԱՀԱՆԳՆԵՐ
Monday, 25 January 2010
Hayreni Khachkar Mue Yevues Arjantini Mech
| From: | RAG Mamoul (ragmamoul1@gmail.com) | ||||
| Sent: | Thu 1/21/10 3:57 PM | ||||
| |
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT IN
BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
ՊՈՒԷՆՈՍ ԱՅՐԷՍԻ (ԱՐԺԱՆԹԻՆ)
ՄԵՐ ԹՂԹԱԿԻՑԷՆ
A personal video message: The Path Forward.
| From: | Aram Hamparian, ANCA (ancaupdate@anca.org) |
| Sent: | Thu 1/21/10 2:23 PM |
|
|
|
| Dear Reader Our community's ability to take advantage of these opportunities will depend on you - and Armenian Americans like you around the country. TAKE ACTION NOW: Watch my video update outlining where we stand, where we are headed in terms of our advocacy agenda, and how you can be a part of our community's united effort. Visit www.anca.org to learn where your Representative and Senators stand on the Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.Res.252 / S.Res.316) Email and Call your Representative to cosponsor and vote for the Armenian Genocide Resolution Call, email, Facebook, Tweet your family, friends and community colleagues to join you in helping end U.S. complicity in Turkey's Genocide denial. In the next weeks, you will be receiving follow-up emails and calls from our ANCA regional and local leaders keeping you updated on the latest developments on the Armenian Genocide Resolution and how you can take action to ensure the passage of this long overdue human rights legislation. We need you to move our Cause forward at this vital moment. Please, take action now. Sincerely,
P.S. As always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on how we can best expand our grassroots efforts and more effectively advance our community's views and values. Please send me an email or call me at (202) 775-1918. 1711 N Street NW, Washington, DC 20036
| ||||||
Father Frank’s Rants - Obama of Arabia
Rant Number 381 18 January 2010
Lawrence of Arabia and Barack Obama – are they by any chance related? I think we should be told.
Physically and professionally, there does not seem to be any resemblance at all. Lawrence was short, fair, a fine leader of warriors and sexually ambiguous. Obama is tall, half-African, straight and probably hasn’t fired a shot in his life. Besides, Lawrence was unmarried and ascetical. Neither drank not smoked, while Obama engages in both. And he rejoices in beautiful Michelle. So, what might they have in common? But being good at conning Arabs & Muslims, of course.
During WWI Lawrence led the daring and bloody Arab revolt against the Turks. He liked the Arabs and wished them to have some kind of independence. He promised Mecca’s Amir Faisal that much. When he learnt of the infamous Sykes-Picot Agreement, by which France and Britain had decided to gobble up the Middle East and swindle the Arabs, Lawrence confessed: ‘I was bitterly ashamed’. Yet, he went to assure Faisal that England would keep her word. So in the end the legendary hero showed himself like any diplomat of the old school - a man sent abroad to lie for his country.
Obama’s Cairo speech was a masterpiece of rhetoric. The President embarked on a fulsome praise of all things Islamic. He greeted his audience with a resounding ‘Assalamu alaykum’. ‘Islam is part of America’, he proclaimed. Then he went on to quote or refer to the Qur’an five times. He boasted of his personal & family Islamic connections. Reminded his audience that the US government had gone to court ‘to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab, and punish those who would deny it’. (Should have a chat with hijabophobic President Sarkozy, methinks.) Islam ‘paved the way for Europe’s Renaissance and Enlightenment’, he enthused. And listed a whole catalogue of historical Muslim achievements, from science to religion, sport, architecture, politics, poetry, music, medicine, technology, tolerance, justice, equality... Al hamdulillah! Why not also adding the invention of sliced bread and the zip?
Naturally, Muslims have lapped all that up. Yet my friend Ahmed looked deeply discontented. ‘What’s wrong?’ I inquired. ‘Surely you agree?’ ‘I do, Frank. But I don’t get this guy. If he really likes Islam, if he admires my religion as much as he pretends, he should become a Muslim. Otherwise he is a phoney.’ Quite. A sensible remark. Obama should embrace Islam. Yes, bit funny the priest should say that but what bloody good is this President as a nominal Christian? Has he gone court to save unborn babies from abortion? Or upheld the sanctity of marriage and the family? And punished those who don’t? None of them. So, maybe Islam would put hair on his chest. Force him to be more serious about his faith. Besides, Saudi King Abdullah would be pleased. Send the high convert a few baubles – oil wells, gold, trinkets like that. Well, just a thought.
Lawrence was a bit more straightforward about religion. To better bamboozle the Arabs, he could have faked being a Muslim, like Sir Richard F. Burton did before him. Instead, he did not garble his Christianity. He focussed on the job. Exploited racial rivalries. If Christians like English and Germans fight each other, why can’t Arabs and Turks? Moreover, despite his inadequate Arabic, Lawrence really did understand Arabs and Muslims. Hussein Obama, I fear, does not.
Obama’s position on Palestine reminds me, mutatis mutandis, of the old chestnut about God and the problem of evil. God exists. He is omnipotent and wholly good. But evil exists, too. So, is God unwilling to abolish evil from his creation? Then he is not all-good. Is he incapable of doing so? Then he is not omnipotent. Either way, such a flawed deity is unworthy of worship.
Obama is a little like that. In Cairo, he backed a Palestinian state. As well as renewing his country’s unstinted support for Israel. The bond between America and Israel is ‘unbreakable’, he stated. Fine, if that means defending Israel’s right to exist, but what else does it mean? Is this President unwilling to compel Israel to make real concessions, like removing the illegal settlements in Jerusalem and the West Bank? Then he is cheating the Arabs, like Lawrence did. Is he powerless to challenge ‘the Lobby’? To force Israel to do his bidding? Then he is a useless, ineffectual leader, a sort of pathetic King Log. Either way, he cops out.
Tertium datur. Logically, there is of course a third possibility. The President does not really mean it. He does not want a Palestinian state, anymore than Netanyahu does. Unlike Lawrence, with his penchant for Arab youths, Obama does not like the sons of the desert. Not at all impossible...
The Arabs evince a regular tendency to be taken for a ride by the West, swallowing its fashionable ruling ideas and trends. In the past, many intellectuals fell into the arms of Marxist-Leninist ideology. It is hard to imagine a doctrine less compatible with Islam but Western secularism and its idols have always exercised a strong lure. Hence the rise of Baath parties and radical movements like that led by the defunct George Habash. Marxism now is dead, too, but there are new, irresistible fleshpots. Like the ideologies of democracy, human rights and consumerism. Check out the absurd Gulf States, with their soaring, glittering skyscrapers, trendy shopping malls, financial razzmatazz and slave labourers. Sheer monstrosities, freaks projected into Arabia by the West, what else?
Lawrence and Obama. In the sad tale of Western duplicity and obfuscation, the Englishman at least showed a certain moral consistency, even dignity. After the war he refused to accept all British honours and decorations. According to Robert Graves, Colonel Lawrence personally told King George V that the role he had played in Arab revolt was ‘dishonourable to himself and to his country and government. He had, by order, fed Arabs with false hopes’. He also respectfully told his monarch that he was determined to fight on, even militarily, until the Arabs achieved a fair settlement of their claims.
Admirable, is it not? The fruit of an Oxford classical education. I love that. Lawrence spoke like a Roman, a character in Plutarch. And he really meant it.
I now look forward to Obama returning his Nobel Peace Prize to the Norwegian Committee. It would be honourable thing to do. Of course, he won’t, but he should.
Revd Frank Gelli
Watch Video: ANCA on Clinton Invitation; Haiti Tragedy
January 18, 2010 Clinton issues Watch Video: Special Report: Haiti & You Armenians, Awareness, & Activism. Watch LIVE Monday night, 8:30pm PDT / 11:30pm EDT on Horizon Armenian Television www.horizonarmeniantv.com Is your Representative a ANCA CALLS ON ARMENIAN AMERICANS TO HELP HAITI EARTHQUAKE RESCUE AND RELIEF -- Special Report to air on Monday night, January 18th, 8:30pm PDT / 11:30pm EDT WASHINGTON, DC - The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) has welcomed the Armenian government's decision to rapidly deploy a 52-member rescue team to Haiti, and has called upon Armenian Americans to help augment the work of this highly trained team by sending donations - either through Armenian charities or directly to the American Red Cross and other relief organizations - to support the unfolding effort to aide the survivors of the devastating earthquake that hit the Haitian capitol of Port-au-Prince last Tuesday. The Armenian rescue team, created in the aftermath of the 1988 earthquake that killed tens of thousands of Armenians and destroyed large portions of northeastern Armenia, will include specialists, search dogs, and advanced equipment. Tens of thousands are feared dead as a result of the Haitian earthquake, which measured 7.0 on the Richter Scale. The Armenian team has a track record of rapidly deploying to disaster sites around the world. On Monday, January 18th, 8:30 PM Pacific / 11:30 PM Eastern, Horizon Armenian TV's Paul Chaderjian will be speaking with ANC activist Alina Dorian, PhD, Assistant Director at the UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters, in a special segment titled: Haiti & You - Armenians, Awareness, & Activism. Dorian will survey the Haiti crisis, talk about how she and her colleagues are responding, how community members can help, and what we all need to know about emergency preparedness. Dr. Dorian will also talk about about her first-hand experiences during emergencies like the 1988 Spitak Earthquake, the health care crisis after the Liberation War in Artsakh, and her efforts around the world including in Kosovo and Turkey. The special report can be viewed live on Horizon Armenian Television, online at www.horizonarmeniantv.com, with excerpts posted on the ANCA YouTube Channel - www.youtube.com/ancagrassroots . A number of options are available for donors, including on-line contributions to the Armenian Relief Society and even a texting option, set up by the Red Cross, that allows individuals to give $10 by sending the message "Haiti" to 90999 on their cell phone. To date, this mobile giving effort has raised more than $3 million for the Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti.
lopsided invite
to Armenian
American Groups
ANCA Exec. Dir.
Aram Hamparian Speaks out
or on the ANCA YouTube channel
Co-Sponsor of the Armenian Genocide Resolution?
Take Action NOW!
53-Member Rescue Team
Horizon Armenian Television
Justice for the Armenian Genocide---a New Era
| From: | Dikran Abrahamian (dikran@keghart.com) |
| : |
|
| : |
|
Content:
- A Predictable Fait Accompli in Yerevan Team Keghart Editorial http://www.keghart.com/Editorial_Constitution
- Call fo Dialogue - Hrant Dink Tradition Voices in Dialogue http://www.keghart.com/Dink_Dialogue
- Google, China and a Wake-up Call to Protect the Net Ron Deibert and Rafal Rohozinski http://www.keghart.com/Global_Google
- Court of Public Opinion Turns on Tories Chantal Hébert http://www.keghart.com/Hebert_Tories
- Justice for the Armenian Genocide---a New Era Remarks by Prof. Ann M. Lousin http://www.keghart.com/Lousin_NewEra
- Երևան–Անկարա Հարաբերությունները Հայ – Թուրքական Հարաբերություններ Չեն Կարեն Միքայելյան http://www.keghart.com/Mikaelyan_Relations
- Poetic Justice in Honduran Graffito Dr. Pablo R. Bedrossian http://www.keghart.com/Pablo_Turkocracy
- Արեւմտահայերէնը՝ Պետական Լեզու Վրէժ-Արմէն http://www.keghart.com/Vrej_Armen_Mesrobian
- The Wasted Decade Harut Der-Tavitian http://www.keghart.com/DerTavitian_Decade
- Հարցազրույց տնտեսագետ, Ազգային եւ քաղաքական գործիչ Մկրտիչ Պուլտուքյանի հետ Համո Մոսկոֆյան http://www.keghart.com/Moskofian_Bouldoukian
You might find other articles at www.keghart.com that interest you. Please visit the poll question located at the right upper corner of the Homepage. If you would like your name to be deleted from the mailing list please respond by writing "remove" in the subject line.
Thank you for your attention!
Save the Date - Hye Tad Evening - March 6, 2010
| From: | S.F. Bay Area ANC (emaillist@ancsf.org) |
Hye Tad Evening
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Saroyan Hall, 825 Brotherhood Way, San Francisco
Special Guest
Raffi Hovannisian
Armenia's First Minister of Foreign Affairs
Founder and President, The Armenian Center for National and International Studies
Founder, Heritage Party
Invitations will be sent soon. If your home address isn't on our mailing list and you'd like to receive an invitation in the mail, please send an e-mail to mail@ancsf.org, including your full name and mailing address.
Sincerely,
Bay Area Armenian National Committee
---
Armenian National Committee
San Francisco - Bay Area
51 Commonwealth Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94118
Tel: 415-387-3433
Fax: 415-751-0617
mail@ancsf.org
www.ancsf.org
Anvijelin` Miayn Orinaganoutioun-ue
ARTICLE BY OHAN BODROUMIAN
BEIRUT, LEBANON
ՅՕԴՈՒԱԾ ՕՀԱՆ ՊՈՏՐՈՒՄԵԱՆԷՆ
ՊԷՅՐՈՒԹ, ԼԻԲԱՆԱՆ
Merjenk Hayasdan-Tourkia Artsanakroutiounneroun Sahmanatraganoutioun-ue
RAG Mamoul (ragmamoul1@gmail.com)
ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE ADLP
BY DR. VAZKEN JAMGOTCHIAN
ԵԼՈՅԹ ՅԱՆՈՒՆ Ռ. Ա. Կ.-Ի
ԸՆԿ. ՏՈՔԹ. ՎԱԶԳԷՆ ԺԱՄԿՈՉԵԱՆԻ ԿՈՂՄԷ
--
Saturday, 23 January 2010
Holocaust Memorial Day & Petition
On 27 January 2010, National Holocaust Memorial Day will be commemorated in London.
We expect that yet again the Armenian Genocide will not feature in the program or be mentioned.
Yet this event aims to ensure that all the lessons from the past are learnt and that the past is not
repeated in the future.
How can this be achieved if the first genocide of the 20th century is not remembered or recognised?
There are a number of developments in the UK to address this.
A Bill has been introduced in the House of Commons as well as an Early Day Motion.
A Hrant Dink commemoration took place there on 19 January in the House of Commons, the third
anniversary of his murder for mentioning the events of 1915.
A legal opinion by an eminent jurist, “Was there an Armenian Genocide?” has been circulated to
MPs, MEPs, peers, political organisations, and NGOs.
It is the British government that shapes this country's policy and the approach to Holocaust
Memorial Day.
Could you please help to change this by signing the following electronic petition that goes straight
to10 Downing Street.
“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to officially and publicly condemn the Armenian Genocide as such.”
Click on http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/genocide2010/
Then perhaps you would be kind enough to ask your friends and colleagues to do the same.
To quote:
"Times change, but as other civilised nations recognise, the universal crimes of genocide and torture
have no statute of limitations. Judge Balthazar Garzon, in opening his investigation of the crimes of the
Franco era, declared that their perpetrators should have no posthumous impunity: the same might be
said of the authors of the Armenian Genocide."
Geoffrey Robertson QC, Legal opinion on the Armenian Genocide, October 2009.
Saturday, 16 January 2010
ARMENIAN INSTITUTE - HRANT DINK
HRANT DINK
Annual Commemoration Evening
Tuesday, 19 January 2010 at 7:30
Armenian House, 25
(Tube: High Street Kensington)
Three years after the assassination of
The programme will include music and snacks, intended to bring us together in remembering and thinking about the future.
The Armenian Institute is a London-based registered charity dedicated to making Armenian culture and history a living experience, through innovative programmes, educational resources, workshops, exhibits and performances. Its work is supported by friends, patrons and voluntary donations. For more information about the Armenian Institute or to find out about supporting the important work of the Institute, please visit our website at www.armenianinstitute.org.uk, contact us at info@armenianinstitute.org.uk or call 020 7978 9104. If you would like your email address to be removed from the list, please send an email with "remove" in the subject heading to info@armenianinstitute.org.uk.
ARMENIAN INSTITUTE
LECTURE
SUBVERSIVE TOURISM?
ARMENIAN PILGRIMAGE TO HISTORIC
By Dr. Anny Bakalian
Thursday, 28 January 2010 at 7:30
Armenian House, 25
(Tube: High Street Kensington)
Admission: £5; £3 for Friends of Armenian Institute
Many Armenians have grandparents and great-grandparents who were born in areas of Historic Armenia in present-day
The names of the villages and towns of their ancestors are vivid in the memories and personal history of the descendants of Genocide survivors. Yet few have ventured to trace their roots there. This presentation documents the pilgrimage in May-June 2009 of 22 Diaspora Armenians to
Dr. Bakalian's presentation documents photographically this experience of "Subversive Tourism"– including many of the reactions the locals had to this group of Armenian tourists returning to the lost lands of their heritage – which for its participants was socially, spiritually, intellectually, and emotionally transformative.
Wine and snacks to follow the lecture.
Dr. Bakalian is Associate Director of
LANGUAGE TUITION AT THE ARMENIAN INSTITUTE
East Armenian (Beginner)
Tuesday, 19 January 2010, 6:30 pm
Venue: Armenian House
Teacher: Dr Gagik Stepan-Sarkissian.
East Armenian (Advanced Beginner)
Monday, 18 January 2010, 8:00 pm
Venue: Armenian Institute Library
Teacher: Dr Gagik Stepan-Sarkissian.
East Armenian (Advanced Intermediate)
Monday, 18 January 2010, 6:30 pm
Venue: Armenian Institute Library
Teacher: Ms Shogher Margossian
West Armenian (Beginner)
Wednesday, 20 January 2010, 6:30 pm
Venue: Armenian Institute Library
Teacher: Ms Shogher Margossian
West Armenian (Intermediate)
Tuesday, 19 January 2010, 6:30 pm
Venue: Armenian House
Teacher: Ms Shogher Margossian
West Armenian (Advanced Intermediate)
Tuesday, 19 January 2010, 8:15 pm
Venue: Armenian House
Teacher: Ms Shogher Margossian
All courses run for ten weeks and will emphasise conversational skills alongside reading/writing simple texts. Weekly tuition sessions last 1.5 hours. Each course will be offered subject to a minimum of 4 students registering per term.
Fee: £150 per 10 week term.
For more information, please contact info@armenianinstitute.org.uk
Armenian Institute Library
Lower Ground Floor
N. Gulbenkian Hall
Armenian House
25
(Tube: High Street Kensington)
(Tube: High Street Kensington)
Bdi, Bdi, Bdi Chga, Ayl Kordz
ARTICLE BY BAROUYR AGHBASHIAN
BEIRUT, LEBANON
ՅՕԴՈՒԱԾ ՊԱՐՈՅՐ ԱՂՊԱՇԵԱՆԷՆ
ՊԷՅՐՈՒԹ, ԼԻԲԱՆԱՆ
A Predictable Fait Accompli in Yerevan
Dikran Abrahamian
A Predictable Fait Accompli in Yerevan Team Keghart Editorial, 12 January 2010
Court's Verdict Anti Constitution By Ara Papian
Nor Or-i Ashkhadagitsnerou Knahadanki Yerego
RAG Mamoul (ragmamoul1@gmail.com) (ArmenianNewspapers@gmail.com) CORRESPONDENT IN
LOS ANGELES, U.S.A.
ԼՈՍ ԱՆՃԵԼԸՍԻ (Մ. ՆԱՀԱՆԳՆԵՐ)
ՄԵՐ ԹՂԹԱԿԻՑԷՆ
Hayrabedagan Knahadank Yev Orhnoutian Kirer
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT IN
BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
ՊՈՒԷՆՈՍ ԱՅՐԷՍԻ (ԱՐԺԱՆԹԻՆ)
ՄԵՐ ԹՂԹԱԿԻՑԷՆ
Keghart Exclusive Interview with Activist Just Released from Jail in Armenia
Dikran Abrahamian
Content:
Keghart Exclusive Interview with Activist Just Released from Jail in Armenia http://www.keghart.com/Dikran_Kalayjian
«Եկեղեցին Հայկական Ծննդավայրն Է Հոգւոյս» Հայկ Նագգաշեան http://www.keghart.com/Naccashian_Yegeghetsin
West Needs New Strategy on Terror Thomas Walkom http://www.keghart.com/Walkom_Strategy
From Holocaust to Genocide Prof. Katchatur I. Pilikian http://www.keghart.com/Pilikian_Holocaust_to_Genocide
Խորէն Պալեանի Ժառանգը՝ Մաքսիմիլիանա Աբրահամեան Համօ Մոսկոֆեան http://www.keghart.com/Moskofian_Balian
Family-tree Uprooted by a 60-Year-Old Secret Dan Bilefsky http://www.keghart.com/Fethiye_Cetin
Armenian Migrants Queue for Food Outside Paris Cemetery Seda Grigorian http://www.keghart.com/Hetq_Migrants
Armenian PM's 1919 Letter Describes Country as Destitute, Yet Full of Hope Harut Sassounian http://www.keghart.com/Sassounian_Katchaznouni
Armenians Oppose Genocide "Historical Commission" Prof. Tuna Baskoy http://www.keghart.com/oppose_commission
Ինչու «ՄԻԱՑՈՒՄ» և ոչ թե «ինքնորոշում» Կարեն Միքայելյան http://www.keghart.com/Mikaelyan_Miyatsum
New Poll Question: Should the Constitutional Court of Armenia approve the protocols on Jan. 12th?
You might find other articles at www.keghart.com that interest you. Please visit the poll question located at the right upper corner of the Homepage. If you would like your name to be deleted from the mailing list please respond by writing "remove" in the subject line.
Thank you for your attention!
FATHER FRANK’S RANTS - Avatar
Rant Number 380 12 January 2010
Avatar – a many-splendored, luscious word. Its very sound thrills the priest. So portentous. Because it means the incarnation, the manifestation of a deity. As when the Hindu god Vishnu descends to earth in a series of successive, vertiginous forms. As a divine child, a man-lion, a giant reclining on the ocean, a conqueror of serpents, a rain cloud, a cosmic destroyer.... A divine repertory of tremendous transformations. Director James Cameron’ acclaimed film, Avatar, cribs the concept and seeks to emulate its dizzying effects. The 3-D phantasmagoria flying out of the screen at you looks fantastic, sure, but – alas, originality, fantasy, imagination is exactly what the movie devastatingly lacks. Ultimately, this botched-up Avatar is at once a manifestation of inordinate visual diarrhoea and severe mental constipation.
First, the earthlings. It is AD 2154, we are on Pandora, near star Alpha Centauri (hence the speed of light barrier to space travel has been overcome) and technology can accomplish mind transfers. A wondrous world. Yet at the same time Hollywood seems intellectually incapable of picturing a future humanity which is not a microcosm, a replica of cinematic America’s tired clichés’ – cast implacably multiracial, strict gender equality, moronic military, amoral scientists and greedy corporations. Maybe it will be like that but why not make an effort? Be a more creative? Perhaps in 144 years the human race will be like a global Brazil, a big, happy, miscegenated lot and racial distinctions will be meaningless. And maybe matriarchy will rule society. Top generals will be all females. And corporations will be either non-existent or benevolent bodies, like the Quakers. Improbable? Perhaps, but showing something like that would be at least a tad less boring than the ad nauseam reiteration of the customary PC formulas.
Second, the natives. The Pandorians are a graceful race of cobalt-blue, 3-metre tall, lissom aboriginals, the Na’vi. They are wise, strong, peace-loving and live in harmony with nature. (Though they do fall short of the moral perfection of vegetarianism.) In stark contrast to the wicked, scheming, murderous earthlings. Pandora, as the name suggests - pan-doron: all the gifts – is really a kind of Paradise. Jean Jacques Rousseau must be smiling down (or up) from where he is now. Natural humanoid is as implausibly pure as civilised man is out-and-out rotten in Avatar. Good job Pandorians don’t indulge in human sacrifices, like the Aztecs. Or engage in cannibalism or head hunting, like the Borneo Dayaks and certain Amazonian tribes. Or horribly torture prisoners, like the Hurons and Iroquois. Naturally. To have portrayed them so would have spoilt the moral Manichaeism of the silly script.
Of course, science fiction often tends to mirror the obsessions of the Zeitgeist. Cold war movies of the 50’s generally showed aliens as hideous, hostile monsters, the unsubtle projections of the lurking Communist, Russian and Chinese threats. (Clifford D. Simak’s classic novel, City, postulates a future Earth dominated by intelligent dogs and ants, while most human beings have committed collective species-suicide on Jupiter.) A later, sunnier Hollywood, plus the genius of Steven Spielberg produced the optimistic E.T and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Now Cameron’s movie predictably panders to the environmentalist, neo-pagan fads and fashions of the beginning of the third millennium. Plus ca change...
Third, religion. Pandorians seem shamanistic. Superstitious, you might hazard, but that would be ethnocentric. Actually, they worship Eywa, a green Great Mother which manifests herself in the shape of airy, gentle floating medusae. When evil Colonel Quaritch’s big bad juggernauts blast Aywa’s sacred tree – that’s the pits, folks! But it got the priest thinking. About a man called Boniface. Saint Boniface, to be precise. A goodly Englishman from Crediton, in Devon. (I worshiped at Crediton Church once. Wonderful rose-coloured stone building. Uplifting place.) Zealous for the True God and his unique, saving avatar, Jesus Christ, Boniface set about converting the barbarous German tribes to Christianity. So in 723 he challenged the pagans near Geismar. ‘Christ is greater than Wotan’, he preached. And so Boniface took an axe and boldly chopped down Wotan’s sacred oak, using the timber to build a church. He is rightly revered as the Apostle of Germany but I guess the man of God would horrify the tail-wagging, tree-hugging people of Pandora. Ah, dear Boniface, where are you today when your degenerate Anglo-Saxons so much need you?
It grieves me to say so but I have to disagree with one of my favourite Israelis. The worthy jazz artist & controversialist Gilad Atzmon. Avatar for him is ‘the biggest anti War film of all time’. It stands against ‘colonialism and imperialism’. Really? Dear Gilad, how can a sharp guy like you buy that? Have you seen All Quiet on the Western Front? Or Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory? Those were profoundly humanistic denunciations of the evils of war. Gilad, Avatar may masquerade as a serious movie but it is a joke, a laughable, reactionary utopia. At best pabulum for the tree-huggers, shallow entertainment for remedial, mind-challenged folks or solace for sad lefties left behind by the collapse of communism. And your analogy between the plight of the wild Pandorians and Muslims oppressed by Western military intervention is curious, truly bizarre. I never knew that Muslims were keen on tree-worship.
No, Gilad, Avatar isn’t a progressive film at all, but a regressive dream into some infantile stages of human development. A solid English intellectual like Dr Johnson would have seen through its ‘back to nature’ nonsense. When Boswell expatiated on the wild life of an Englishman taken by the Red Skins (‘happy in nature with plenty of food and a native woman by his side’), the great Doctor scorned him: “Don’t believe that, dear sir. It is stupid. It is brutal. It is inhuman. If a bull could think he too might say: ‘I am here with plenty of grass and with this cow by my side. Who’s happier than me?’ Dear Sir, human life is more than that.” Precisely. Three cheers for Dr Johnson!
Finally, an aside. Pandorians physically are a hippogriff-riding, quasi-master race, endowed with an extraordinary agility and suppleness which would make old Tarzan look like a cripple. But I am puzzled. And, as a clergyman, also a bit embarrassed, but I have to say this. When Jake, the man technologically engineered into the body of a Na’vi, eventually gets down to make love to pretty Neytiri, the affair looks like, I am sorry to say, rather a damp squib. Surely a vigorous, super-human lot like the Na’vi could do better than that? Huh! Maybe Jake should have swallowed some tablets prior to doing it. An inexplicable lapse of the director’s Dionysian imagination, alas.
Revd Frank Julian Gelli
Forthcoming Events/activities at Hayashen
| From: | CAIA (info@caia.org.uk) |
| Sent: | Tue 1/12/10 4:59 PM |
| To: | Armenians_UK_3 (info@caia.org.uk) |
ARMENIAN SENIOR CITIZENS/CARERS CLUB
Every Monday & Friday 1-4pm
Friday 15th January at 1.30pm - presentation and film screening about by the British Armenian Kashatagh Campaign in support of this project.
SILVER SURFERS
If you are over 50 and want to know how to get on line, surf the internet, send and receive emails, do not have access to a computer or just want to find out more find out more – you can now.
Thanks to “Generations Together – Acton Together” project, the CAIA in partnership with Acton High School have organised silver surfers sessions at Hayashen. Trained volunteers will provide personalised practical support how to use the Internet on the following dates.
Monday 18th January, 12-1pm
Monday 26th January, 12-1pm
Monday 1st February, 12-1pm
Monday 8th February, 12-1pm
Monday 22nd February.12-1pm
Further sessions are planned later in the year.
BENEFITS ADVICE SURGERIES
Benefits Advice Surgeries organised in partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) at Hayashen.
Wednesday 27th January 2010, 10.30 am - 1.00 pm
Wednesday 24th February 2010, 10.30 am - 1.00 pm
Wednesday 24th March 2010, 10.30 am - 1.00 pm
Wednesday 21st April 2010, 10.30 am - 1.00 pm
By Appointment In Advance
Contact CAIA Office On 020 8992 4621
Armenian interpreter available.
TRAINING IN JOB SEARCH SKILLS
Travel expenses for students up to £6 per day will be paid and
Lunch/refreshments provided during the 3-day course.
Course delivered by professional trainer and career coach
Ms Alison Shuttle
Registration in advance only – Limited places
(Priority for Armenians living in Borough of Hounslow)
Contact Misak or Rudolf at CAIA on 020 8992 4621
COURSE OUTLINE
Day 1 – Tuesday 9th February 10am-3.30pm
am: Assessing your skills (exercise)
Self-assessment and values (exercise)
Short and long term goal planning
pm: The job market (visible and hidden) - where to access jobs
Marketing yourself
Managing a job search campaign
Day 2 – Wednesday 10th February 10am-3.30pm
am: Applying for jobs
Types of CV
Planning, preparing and completing a CV
pm: Completing application forms
Applying online (using computer)
Writing covering letters
Day 3 – Thursday 11th February 10am-3.30pm
am: Developing your confidence at interviews
Interview role plays/types of interview/interview techniques
pm: Action Planning
Further support (ongoing advice and guidance/job brokerage)
TASTES OF ARMENIA
At the heart of all Armenian cooking lies the natural produce of Armenia which has given Armenians a richly varied cuisine, that in addition to help preserving its national heritage and identity , has skilfully assimilate foods of other culture that left their imprint on Armenian lands over the centuries. Conversely, as Armenians settled throughout the Middle East, large number of their recipes became part of the cuisine of other countries in the region. This short “taste of Armenia” is an attempt to introduce a representative collection of well known Armenian dishes and deserts to a new generation and people living locally.
The workshops will be lead by Mrs A Ohanian and Mrs C Koundarjian.
Limited places by advance registration - Free
Sunday 14th FEBRUARY – 11.00am-1.00pm
Monday 15th FEBRUARY– 11.00am-1.00pm
Tuesday 16th FEBRUARY– 11.00am-1.00pm
Wednesday 17th FEBRUARY- 11.00am-1.00pm
Thursday 18th FEBRUARY- 11.00am-1.00pm
Friday 19th FEBRUARY- 11.00am-1.00pm
Monday 22nd FEBRUARY- 11.00am-1.00pm
Introduction to Armenian History, Culture, Identity
& Dispersion
This is a free course in English for anyone. However you must register and be committed to attend all 5 days of the course including induction. Place are limited. Refreshments and light lunch provided
- Registration date & Induction: Sunday 14 February 2010
- Venue: Hayashen, 105a Mill Hill Road, Acton, London W3 8JF
- Course dates:
Sunday 28 February, 2010, The consequences of denial; the Armenian Genocide Dr. Aida Alayarian (Director of Refugee Therapy Centre) & The land beneath our feet - Tigran Asatrjan (Photographer)
Sunday 7 March, 2010, The Formation of the Modern Armenian Nation Ara Iskenderian
Sunday 14 March, 2010, Armenian Architecture & Armenian Paintings Dr. Peter Shahbenderian
Sunday 21 March, 2010, The origins of the Armenian Church and its place in the family of Christian Churches Dr. Vrej Nersessian (British Library)
Sunday 28 March, 2010, Drama during Holy week & Art and Theology Dr. Vrej Nersessian (British Library)
- Time: 11.00am-1.30pm (apart from final two sessions which will be 2.00-4.00pm)
Centre for Armenian Information & Advice (CAIA)
Hayashen
105a Mill Hill Road
Acton, London W3 8JF
Tel: 020 8992 4621
Fax: 020 8993 8953
E-mail: info@caia.org.uk
website: www.caia.org.uk
Registered Charity No.1088534
Limited Company by Guarantee. Registered in England No.4195084. Registered office as above.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
