Monday, November 21, 2005
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THE MASSACRE CONTINUES…
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The purpose of the 9/11 Commission was to document and expose American incompetence and intelligence failures, rather than Al Qaida’s barbarism and crimes. If so far we haven’t had a 4/24 Commission it may be because the blame-game happens to be our favorite national sport.
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There are those who believe by covering up our failures, we will have a better chance to enhance our prestige and emphasize our infallibility. We should not be surprise if this tactic works only with the very naive and inexperienced.
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The majority of Americans believe today Bush invaded Iraq on bad intelligence. One could also say that we challenged the might of the Ottoman Empire on the false promises of the West.
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In politics, as in life, mistakes happen all the time. What doesn’t happen with the same frequency is the readiness to admit them. And as Bush hesitates, the massacre continues.
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Tuesday, November 22, 2005
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First time he cried wolf they rushed to his aid. Second time he cried wolf they said bon appetit to the wolf and good riddance to the little prick who got a kick out of pulling their dicks.
From Yeghishe (5th century) to Charents (20th century) our writers have been crying wolf by echoing the Biblical warning “a house divided against itself cannot stand,” and they have been ignored.
When on the eve of the Genocide Zohrab said the sky is about to fall, they said, “Zohrab effendi is exaggerating.”
Long before Zohrab, when Raffi said the Ottoman Empire was no place for Armenians because Turks had no respect for human life, he too was ignored.
Some people collect stamps. We collect defeats, disasters, and tragedies. We even brag about them. “First nation to suffer a genocide in the 20th century,” we declare at every opportunity as if that were something to crow about. We go further and brag about how smart we are, all the while ignoring, sometimes even silencing our writers.
Sartre is right: literature is a useless passion. It saves no one.
To friends who tell me not to give up, I say I haven’t so far, but I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. This no doubt will be read with pleasure by readers who think of me as a prick who gets a kick out of pulling their dicks.
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Wednesday, November 23, 2005
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WRITERS
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Treat them like welfare cases in need of handouts. If they don’t get the message, reduce them to the status of beggars, then starve and silence them. As a tactic adopted by our bosses in their treatment of writers who refuse to recycle the party line, this may be slow but it is as effective as the tactic adopted by the likes of Talaat and Stalin. That’s because power is power regardless of nationality, faith and ideology.
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Whenever I am asked why is it that so far I have done nothing to encourage a future generation of writers, I say, “More than writers, the nation is in need of readers.”
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In the mail today, a short poem and letter that says: “Do you think my son has talent? Should I encourage him to be a writer?” “Only if you hate him,” I am tempted to reply. Instead I say: “No need to encourage him. If he really wants to be a writer he will be one even if you discourage him.”
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One can also understand oneself by first understanding the unspoken assumptions of the community within which one lives.
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The problem with solutions is not finding them (I could name four solutions in a single line: honesty, transparency, objectivity, mutual tolerance) but implementing them. Never say therefore “we need solutions,” but “we need leaders who behave not as bosses but as public servants.”
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