this and that

[Guest arabaliozian]

FROM THE MEMOIRS OF A RACIST********************************************After I published my first book, in which I haddevoted several chapters to the Genocide, a Canadiancritic with a Germanic name accused me of racism forbeing unkind towards the Turks.        I was outraged!        How can I, an Armenian and a victim of Turkishracism, be a racist? I wanted to scream.        This was 25 years ago.        I know better now.        I know now that nothing comes easier to a slave thanto emulate his master. Likewise, nothing seems moreself-righteous to a victim than to adopt the values ofhis tormentors.        This insight has not made me a better man. I am stilla racist with a visceral hatred of Turks, all Turks,with one difference however: I no longer consider itan asset but a liability, and I refuse to deludemyself into thinking I am better than anyone else,including Turks.*The "I am right / You are wrong" mindset is not conducive to dialogue. The "I may be right / You may be wrong" is better. But the best is "We may both be wrong." The best as well as more objective because none of us is in a position to assert to be infallible or to know everything about anything or to speak in the name of God.*The "I am right" mindset leads inevitably to "You are dead wrong" and "You are an ignoramus!" which leads not to dialogue or an exchange of views but an exchange of insults and a dead end.*Not to be aware of these distinctions means to confuse Armenianism with Ottomanism or Sovietism.*In the review of a recent biography of Cicero I read: "The politics of vilification eliminates rivals but produces little that is helpful." And I can't help thinking: when Armenians get together their aim appears to be not being helpful but eliminating the opposition, and what could be more Ottoman or Soviet or,for that matter, anti-Armenian?*Conventional wisdom: If I am smart, what I say can't be stupid. And if I am good, I am incapable of endorsing a bad idea. What about Stalinists, Nazis and our own partisans? Did they say -- were they remotely tempted to admit they were stupid or bad? Perhaps assessing oneself is at the root of all evil because it is incompatible with honesty and objectivity. An honest man is, as a rule, too busy defending his integrity in a crooked world to have any time for self-flattery.=The surest symptom of inferiority: assessing oneself as superior.=A familiar type among Armenians is the baloney artist who, after assessing himself a genius, feels fully qualified to be rude.=If the overwhelming majority of diasporan Armeniansrefuse to identify themselves as Armenian, it may be because they have had enough of Armenian ugliness, the kind of ugliness that is exhibited every day here on this forum. Armenians who say: If you have a Turkish surname, or if you are A Tashnak or Ramgavar or chezok, or Anteliassagan or Etchmiadznakan orpro-Israel or anti-Palestinian and so on, you cannot be my friend (that takes care of 50% of the Diaspora); Armenians who, after assessing themselves as better Armenians, look down at the rest of us as lesser men (and that takes care of the other 50%).To which I can only say:What the #### is the matter with you people?How can you utter such nonsense and consider yourselves better than anyone else, including the lowest of the low?Tuesday, July 09, 2002***************************Wisdom consists in (a) understanding reality and (b) in coming to terms with it. It is not enough to say all men are fallible or all politicians are corrupt. We must also accept the fact that we too are fallible and our own political leadership may well be corrupt. But how many times have you heard an Armenian say "I was wrong" or a member of the ARF admit that his political bosses are corrupt or, for that matter, fallible?*There is nothing wrong in emphasizing the positive provided we don't cover up the negative. But whereas we are past masters in the first endeavor, we are in our infancy in the second – I say this based on the manner in which we have treated our critics.*On our Genocide and everything connected with it: Somehow I can't get rid of the suspicion that there are those among us willing to use someone else’s crucifixion to make a comfortable living.Wednesday, July 10, 2002++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Institutions are not in the habit of reforming themselves. Reforms are invariably introduced as a result of outside pressure, such as bad press or withdrawal of support from the public. But since most of our institutions don't depend on public support (because they rely on the support of a handful of non-representative wealthy merchants) they can afford to be inflexible, authoritarian, and anti-democratic.+I don't make an effort to be a good Armenian. I don't even know what that means; and I doubt if there are two Armenians who agree on what constitutes Armenianism. Trying to be an honest human being keeps me so busy that I have no time for any other enterprise.+Who could be more useless than an Armenian writer writing about Armenian affairs? No one is really interested in what he has to say; and the handful who read him are convinced they know better.+A few years ago, a friend introduced me to one of our bishops and identified me as a writer. After giving me a compassionate look, the good bishop informed me that Armenians don't read, as if I didn't already know.Shortly thereafter this same bishop published several collections of sermons, essays on medieval Armenian theology, and derivative verse about the stars, the moon, autumn leaves, and the eternal snows of Mount Ararat.Erasmus may have had a point when he said: "Every man likes the smell of his own excrement."+Nothing is what it seems. There are entire philosophical systems that expose this fundamental fact of life. There are also entire bureaucracies and enterprises (powerful bureaucracies and profitable enterprises) that exploit it: from state propaganda to public relations and advertising firms.Life may be said to be an endless struggle between those who expose and those who exploit. Deceivers and bloodsuckers who grow fat, on the one hand, and on the other, honest men who can't make ends meet, and sometimes even end up on the gallows.

[Argayl]

О, опять явился на свет заслуженный "ахпар" Балиозян. Ну, никакого избавления от маразматиков нет!Чтож, народ, почитайте повнимательнее и вдумайтесь в антиармянский бред, который он несет. По-моему, ему приплачивают из Турции за всю ту грязь, которую он с таким остервенением изливает на армянский народ.

[Sench]

Yes ira gracic ban chhaskaca... Inqy vonc vor iskapes hakahaykakan propagandaya anum. Arabalozian, du yete hay es hayeren gri mardik ban haskanan. Te vsetaki hay ches?Arabalozian are you an armenian, ha?    :sneaky2:  

[Argayl]

Sench,He is not just a regular Armenian. He thinks he is the most Armenian in world  

[Sench]

Sench,He is not just a regular Armenian. He thinks he is the most Armenian in world  

Ooooooooo... The most armenian person might new armenian better than the others So bro baliozian, do you know armenian better than my 2,5 years old brother?  

[Argayl]

Sench, ari menq iren "bro" asenq

[Sench]

Jamanaky kga "sys" el kasenq...

[Argayl]

Yeghbayr, yes sra gratznery urih teghum el em kardacel... Ahavor en! Mi aynpisi hakahay baner e grum, el du sus!Chem uzum naxoroq vat baner asel sra masin: thogh derr inqy ir tekstery aystegh nerkayacni... Bayc the kardas, mazerd biz-biz k'kangnen. Voncvor thurqi gratzner linen... :hmmm:

[Atos]

Tgerq inq@ GONE IRA SLOVESNI PONOSITS BAN JOKUMA te prosto zhamanaka spanum.......Arabaliozyan i dont know who are you but you would better find some other things to do zdes tebe ne mesto.  

[Argayl]

:: "I don't make an effort to be a good Armenian." ArabaliozianOh, that's pretty much self-evident. But you surely make lots of efforts to be a good anti-Armenian... :hmmm:

[Sench]

Yeghbayr, yes sra gratznery urih teghum el em kardacel... Ahavor en! Mi aynpisi hakahay baner e grum, el du sus!Chem uzum naxoroq vat baner asel sra masin: thogh derr inqy ir tekstery aystegh nerkayacni... Bayc the kardas, mazerd biz-biz k'kangnen. Voncvor thurqi gratzner linen... :hmmm:

Karogh es asel te urish el vortegh e na artahaytvel?

[Argayl]

Sench,Iharke. Miayn hamozvatz chem, the dra gratznery aynteghic chen hanel. Bayc phorcir:armenianhouse.org     kam    armenianhouse.comAyntegh nair forumum Литературный раздел или начинающие писатели... Inchvor aydpisi bajinner ein. Yethe ch'gtnes, uremn jnjel en arden. Aynteghic sran crecin. Inchvor esh-esh Diary-ner er grum, vortegh hayerin meghadrum er, the ibr rasist en, fashist en, hakathurq en... Inch keght ases, vor ch'lcrec hayeri vra.Misht asel em, vor hayer kan, vor amenakeghtot thurqic el keghtot en...

[Guest arabaliozian]

JUSTICE, ETHICS AND HISTORY*************************************There is no merit in convincing your lawyer of your innocence. The trick is convincing the judge.*It is the easiest thing in the world to establish moral superiority by one’s own code of ethics.*We lost not because we did the wrong thing but because we were divided and we failed to develop a consensus. This has been said before, many times, but our chauvinists and partisans continue pretending to be deaf, dumb and stupid.*If only history and our enemies played by the same rules and preferably our own riles!*Conflicting interests may be reconciled and often are. Conflicting principles of morality, never! That’s one way to explain why winners prefer the company of winners as opposed to that of losers who are more interested in justifying yesterday’s blunders than in deciding what must be done today.*History is a movement that does not recognize anyone’s rules of traffic or etiquette. What must be done may have nothing to do with anyone’s code of ethics.CRITICISM**************************Two typical Armenian schools of criticism: Criticism as revenge by other means and Criticism as a means to eliminate or silence the opposition. Literature as cooperation (as Henry James visualized it) might as well be quintessentially un-Armenian. Or as Arpiar Arpiarian put it once (I am now quoting from memory): "Friendship among Armenian intellectuals? An absurd notion. When they get together they may exchange false smiles but as soon as they are separate, they tear one another to shreds." *I don't believe in inspiration. I believe in stimulation, and nothing stimulates me more than unfair criticism.*The best way to serve one’s fellow men, Mahatma Gandhi believed, was by reducing oneself to zero. Those who knew him say he was successful in that particular endeavor; but, alas, not successful enough to satisfy the fanatics in his own camp, one of whom thought by silencing him permanently he would also silence the principles he (Gandhi) espoused.Before I react to unfair criticism I try to follow Gandhi’s example: I subtract (not always successfully, granted) my ego from what I am about to say. I do this for another reason however: I happen to know that it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to think with one’s ego. The ego is not our thinking organ. If anything, it is the organ with which we make asses of ourselves. Hence the first law of egodynamics: "The bigger the ego the more blubbery the baloney."Thursday, July 11, 2002~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Toronto’s trash collectors have been on strike now for two weeks. Result: filthy city streets, unbearable stench, vermin, rats, health risks, and with the Pope’s impending visits at the end of the month, the specter of a colossal public relations disaster. Writing for Armenians sometimes I feel like a trash collector who is willing to work for nothing but whose contribution to the city’s welfare is not only ignored but sometimes also vilified. I write for readers in love with their own garbage who even as they wallow in their own filth pretend to be better than anyone else.~In a book of travel impressions by an English writer (may have been Lynch) I remember to have read something to the effect that one should not confuse Armenian peasants (honest, hard-working blokes) with their Levantine counterparts (cunning operators).One of our drawbacks is that very few people have come into contact with our peasants, but the whole world has dealt with our merchants and Oriental carpet dealers at one time or another. And I doubt very much if you will find a single honest peasant among our bosses, bishops, and benefactors.According to Puzant Granian in an interview: "The country of our adoption invariably places its stamp on us. That is one of our tragedies. Whenever an Armenian abandons his native land and establishes himself in the Middle East, he acquires Levantine traits. He goes into business, acquires a love of money, amasses a fortune, and begins to enjoy the pleasures and luxuries of life. Even as a boy I could observe this transformation in my own relatives and developed a fierce hatred for money and wealth."So much for those who think all our problems can be solved with money. Consider our situation in the Diaspora: money has compounded rather than solved our problems, which range from alienation and assimilation to the proliferation of verbal garbage and weasel words in our media. We survived in a brutal Ottoman Empire for 600 years but we have done nothing but decline, disintegrate, and degenerate in the Diaspora./LATER//////////////////I am not difficult to understand because I refuse to muddy my waters to appear deep. On the contrary, I am so easy that some readers are fooled into thinking they are much smarter than I am (and they may well be). It never even occurs to them that what I say may have nothing to do with smarts and everything to do with objectivity./I write with the objectivity of an odar because I have been exposed to so much chauvinist crap that I can't imagine anyone with the minimum degree of intelligence and self-respect taking it seriously.I write short essays because I am myself easily bored with long ones. If I can say what’s on my mind in a single paragraph, I don't see why I should inflict ten pages on my reader.I write about our own problems as opposed to Turkish, Kurdish, Israeli, Balkan, and internationalproblems because if I cannot influence our bosses and bishops, or, for that matter, our partisans and priests, what chance do I have with the President of the United States, the Pope of Rome, and the Emperor of China?I write not because I hope to change things but because writing is my business. It may not be a profitable business but it is a rewarding one. Because, if you think about it, what could be more rewarding than exposing self-satisfied swine?Friday, July 12, 2002*****************************One of the functions of criticism is to remind us that some of our most fundamental assumptions may be based not on fact but fiction.*When an established friend of mine proposed to introduce me to his literary agent, I found myself saying: "No, thanks. I prefer to remain an angry failure than to be a self-satisfied success."*The greatest boast a writer can make is to say: "Even my enemies read me!"*In an Armenian context, the light at the end of the tunnel is bound to be the headlight of an oncoming train carrying explosives.*If the historian is a militarist, he will portray Napoleon as a genius. If he is a pacifist, he will treat him as a criminal more dangerous than a thousand serial killers. All historians come with a set of fundamental assumptions and prejudices which they do their utmost to camouflage in order to enhance their objectivity. As for facts being indisputable: consider our genocide and revisionist historians. If a million and a half facts can be buried by a single stroke of the pen, then I say, there are no facts in history, only verbal units that are as ethereal as the shadow of an illusion.AS I SEE IT*********************Victims and victimizers; deceivers and dupes: that’s how I see the world; and I write as a victim in defense of other victims; and I write against deceivers because as a child I was taken in by their lies. I was told writing was a noble profession. It is not. It is more like an obstacle course that stretches to infinity. The average reader wants to be flattered; the partisan who believes in his party’s propaganda line as if it were holy writ demands subservience; bishops and benefactors are convinced they represent two of the most powerful entities known to man: God and capital (make it, Capital and god). In such an environment literature (or for that matter, truth and honesty) have as much chance to survive as a sardine in a pool of hungry sharks.THE MEDITATIONS OF AN IDIOT************************************Only idiots declare wars in order to lose them.*To speak of moral victory is to imply: "If I win, I win. If I lose, I win too!"*To speak of moral victory is also to imply: "How can I learn from my blunders if I have committed none?"*A bad military victory is better than a good moral victory.*A genocide is a tragedy (for the victims)a crime against humanity (for the perpetrators) and a colossal blunder (for the leadership).*We emphasize the tragedy and the crime but cover up the blunder.*What could be more idiotic than placing a nation at the mercy of bloodthirsty criminals?*If we are smart, why is it that we have idiots as leaders?*Idiots as leaders: hence the myth of "smart" Armenians.*To cover up a big lie, invent a bigger lie. Or, as Hitler once put it: "The bigger the lie the better!"*If massacres are crimes against humanity, what about assimilation and exodus? (also known as "white massacres")*To paraphrase the Bible: "If any man among you seems to be smart in this world, let him become an idiot that he may be smart."

[Guest arabaliozian]

Ara BaliozianBiography & WorksCompiled By Shant Norashkharian Ara Baliozian is one of the greatest Armenian contemporary writers, but unfortunately most Armenians do not know about him or his works. He has published close to 20 books over the last 20 years and is acclaimed highly by the foreign media, like Gosdan Zarian and Shahan Shahnour before him, which goes to prove that our anti-establishment writers are not rejected because of the literary quality of their works, but only because of their ideas and their criticism of the Armenian establishment. Armenian papers used to publish his commentaries/book reviews, but lately he has been ignored by most of them (Armenian Life Weekly and New Life [Nor Gyank] which had been publishing his writings for years, among other papers, have been turning down his works lately). He is sixty years old, and lives in seclusion and poverty in Ontario, Canada. Baliozian's last book, PAGES FROM MY DIARY (1986-1995), distributed by Armenian Reference Books Co., PO Box 231, Glendale, Ca 91209, Tel. (818) 504-2550, is only 96 pages long but speaks volumes. Here is the summary of his biography from the back cover of this book: "Armenian by ancestry, Canadian writer Ara Baliozian was born in Athens, Greece, and educated in Venice, Italy. Widely published in English and Armenian, he has been awarded many prizes and grants for his literary work. He is a regular to many publications in the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Middle East. His books include THE GREEK POETESS AND OTHER WRITINGS, ARMENIA OBSERVED: AN ANTHOLOGY, FRAGMENTED DREAMS: ARMENIANS IN DIASPORA, and the best-selling study THE ARMENIANS: THEIR HISTORY AND CULTURE. His translations of such Armenian classics as Krikor Zohrab, Zabel Yessayan, and Gosdan Zarian have been described as "valuable", "eloquent", "brilliant" contributions to world literature. He has himself been translated into French, German, Greek, Spanish, and Armenian."Shant Norashkharian has full authorization from Ara Baliozian to reprint any of his works/writings on the Internet/World Wide Web.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------A Short BibliographyWritings by Ara Baliozian:Baliozian, Ara. Book Reviews/Interviews (Los Angeles, CA: G Printing, 1982)._. Fragmented Dreams: Armenians in Diaspora (Kitchener, Ont.: Impressions, Publishers, 1987)._. Intimate Talk (Kitchener, Ont.: Impressions, Publishers, 1992)._. Portrait of a Genius and Other Essays (Los Angeles, CA: A/G Press, 1980)._. The Armenians: Their History and Culture (Toronto, Ont.: Kar Publishing House, 1975)._. The Armenian Genocide and the West (Jerusalem: Armenian Case Committee, 1984)._. The Greek Poetess and Other Writings (Kitchener, Ont.: Impressions, Publishers, 1988)._. Undiplomatic Observations (Kitchener, Ont.: Impressions, Publishers, 1995)._. "Larousse and the Genocide," Armenian Life Weekly (March 28, 1986)._. Armenian Wisdom: A Treasury of Quotations and Proverbs (Glendale, CA: Armenian Reference Books Co., 1992)._. The Island and the Man, trans. Ara Baliozian (Toronto: Kar Publishing House, 1983).___. The Traveller and His Road, trans. Ara Baliozian (New York: Ashod Press, 1981).Yessayan, Zabel. The Gardens of Silihdar and Other Writings, trans. Ara Baliozian (New York: Ashod Press, 1982).Zohrab, Krikor. Zohrab: An Introduction, trans. Ara Baliozian (Cambridge, MA: National Association for Armenian Studies and Research, 1985).Writings about him:Terzian, Lawrence. Preserverance: Ara Baliozian and the Armenian Cause (Kitchener, Ont.: Impressions, Publishers, 1990). Return to Armenian Literature

[Sench]

::Ara BaliozianBiography & WorksCompiled By Shant Norashkharian Ara Baliozian is one of the greatest Armenian contemporary writers, but unfortunately most Armenians do not know about him or his works.::Yes, I don't know and I don't want to know about such an "armenian"...  

[Argayl]

 Sench,Ays arabalioziany inqnasiraharvatz yerevuyth e. Сплошной ходячий нарциссизм   ::Ara Baliozian is one of the greatest Armenian contemporary writers, but unfortunately most Armenians do not know about him or his works. Arabaliozian,I wonder how Shant Norashkharian measures you being "one of the greatest Armenian writers"? Since he admits that most Armenians do not know about you, then what is it that makes you "the greatest" one? Do the non-Armenians read your crap? I doubt so... Then what are Shant Norashkharian's words based on? His own opinion about you? Is the private opinion of some Shant Norashkharian enough to claim that you are "the greatest Armenian writer"?