Author: Tadevosian Garnik

DEPT. OF STYLE
WORD PROBLEM
by Gary Bass

The New Yorker
Issue of May 3, 2004

Among the many peculiarities of the Times house style–such as the
tradition, in the Book Review, that the word “odyssey” refer only to
a journey that begins and ends in the same place –one of the more
nettlesome has been the long-standing practice that writers are not
supposed to call the Armenian genocide of 1915 a genocide. Reporters
at the paper have used considerable ingenuity to avoid the word
(“Turkish massacres of Armenians in 1915,” “the tragedy”) and have
sometimes added evenhanded explanations that pleased many Turks but
drove Armenian readers to distraction: “Armenians say vast numbers
of their countrymen were massacred. The

The quirk was not strictly policed, and a small number of writers,
intentionally or otherwise, managed to get the phrase into the
paper. Ben Ratliff wrote, in 2001, that the Armenian-American metal
band System of a Down “wrote an enraged song about the Armenian
genocide of 1915.” Another writer who slipped it in was Bill Keller,
in a 1988 piece from Yerevan, during his time at the paper’s Moscow
bureau: “Like the Israelis, the Armenians are united by a vivid sense
of victimization, stemming from the 1915 Turkish massacre of 1.5
million Armenians. Armenians are brought up on this story of genocide.”

Keller, who became the paper’s executive editor last July, finally
changed the policy earlier this month. During a telephone conversation
the other day, he said that his reporting in Armenia and Azerbaijan
“made me wary of reciting the word ‘genocide’ as a casual accusation,
because in the various ethnic conflicts that
arose as the Soviet Union came apart everyone was screaming
genocide at everyone else.” He said, “You could portray a fair bit
of the horror of 1915 without using the word ‘genocide.’ It’s one
of those heavy-artillery words that can get diminished if you use
them too much.”

Most scholars use the United Nations definition of genocide, from the
1948 Genocide Convention: killing or harming people “with intent to
destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious
group.” But, Keller says, “we were using a dictionary definition that
was the purist definition–to eliminate all of a race of people from
the face of the earth.” The Times’ position was based on the notion
that the systematic killing that began in 1915 applied mainly to
Armenians inside the Ottoman Empire.

Last July, the Boston Globe started using the term, which, Keller says,
“made me think, this seems like a relic we could dispense with.” In
January, the Times ran a story about the release in Turkey of “Ararat,”
Atom Egoyan’s 2002 movie about the events of 1915. The piece, which
referred to “widely differing” Turkish and Armenian positions,
prompted Peter Balakian, a professor of humanities at Colgate,
and Samantha Power, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book
“A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide,” to write a
stinging letter to the editor. Balakian also got in touch with Daniel
Okrent, the paper’s new public editor, asking if he and Power could
come in and talk to the Times about the genocide style problem.

Okrent found the issue “intellectually interesting and provocative
enough that I thought Keller and Siegal”–Allan M. Siegal, the
paper’s standards editor–“might be interested.” Balakian and Power,
joined by Robert Melson, a Holocaust survivor and Purdue professor,
met Keller in his office on March 16th. Before the meeting started,
Keller told the group that he was going to make the change. “A lot
of reputable scholarship has expanded that definition to include
a broader range of crimes,” Keller said later. “I don’t feel I’m
particularly qualified to judge exactly what a precise functional
definition of genocide is, but it seemed a no-brainer that killing
a million people because they were Armenians fit the definition.”

Siegal drew up new guidelines. “It was a nerdy decision on the merits,”
he said. Writers can now use the word “genocide,” but they don’t have
to. As the guidelines say, “While we may of course report Turkish
denials on those occasions where they
are relevant, we should not couple them with the historians’
findings, as if they had equal weight.” Okrent pointed out that “the
pursuit of balance can create imbalance, because sometimes something
is true.”

Although the word “genocide” was not coined until 1944, a
Times reporter in Washington in 1915 described State Department
reports showing that “the Turk has undertaken a war of extermination
on Armenians.”

You might say it has been a kind of odyssey

Russian, Armenian leaders note progress in economic cooperation

Channel One TV, Moscow
14 May 04

[Presenter] A Russian-Armenian summit has taken place in the
Novo-Ogarevo residence outside Moscow. [Russian President] Vladimir
Putin met Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, who is in Moscow on
a three-day working visit.

The Russian president said he was satisfied with economic cooperation
between the two countries. But he said he thought there was room
for improvement.

[Putin, sitting next to Kocharyan] It is necessary to note that this
work is not just intensive but also fruitful. It is reflected mainly
in the pace of our economic cooperation. The trade turnover between
Russia and Armenia last year rose by more than 34 per cent. This is
a record. In my view, this is the best kind of evidence that we are
moving in the right direction.

[Kocharyan, in Russian] I think the impetus was the major
debt-for-property deal. Prior to that, we had only been discussing
the military technology factor in cooperation and had been saying
that the economic factor was lagging behind. I can now say with total
confidence that we have caught up and are now progressing together
in every field at a synchronized rate.

Cyprus’ Maronite community in crisis
Once-thriving presence began decline after turkish invasion

By Iason Athanasiadis

Special to The Daily Star
Saturday, May 15, 2004

KORMAKITIS, Northern Cyprus: Aside from the occasional front door
propped open, there are few traces of life among the shuttered windows,
sun-bleached buildings and silent footpaths of Kormakitis.

This spread-out village – most of whose residents are in their 70s
– is buffeted by the sea on one side and enclosed by a verdant,
yellow-green plain on the other. Once the bustling heart of the
Maronite community, Kormakitis today has been stripped to a ghost
town of less than 900 souls by a generation of emigrants to the more
prosperous Greek Cypriot South.

“The policy, originally, was to get rid of (the Maronites),” said
Marios Mavrides, a Maronite historian of the community who lives and
works in Nicosia but who every week makes the 20-minute car journey
to the land where he was born.

“Now that they (the Turkish Cypriot government) realize that eventually
they will die off, they leave them in peace.”

In 1974, thousands of Maronites streamed across the Green Line leaving
their homeland for an uncertain future in the Greek Christian south
after Turkish troops invaded northern Cyprus. The intervention followed
a decade of ethnic strife between the Greek and Turkish communities
and a coup aimed at bringing about unification with Greece.

“1974 turned the whole community into refugees,” said Antonis Hajji
Roussos, the Maronite parliamentary representative. “Gradually,
everyone left and only the old people remained.”

The Maronites left behind them ancestral villages such as Agia Marina,
Asomatos, Carpasia and Kormakitis. The latter is the only remaining
place on Cyprus where Cypriot Maronite Arabic – a dialect infused
with a melange of Turkish, Italian and Greek words – is still spoken.

The dialect’s long isolation from the main currents of the Arab
world has caused it to develop on a track of its own, to such an
extent that it is practically unintelligible to native speakers of
Arabic. Linguists are puzzled by the characteristics it shares with
the medieval Arabic dialect spoken in Baghdad by the Muslims and Jews,
even as they point to evidence that it has reached an advanced stage
of language death.

Today, the drive to the Maronite heartland resembles a plunge into
dereliction. Abandoned villages are fenced off by coils of rusty barbed
wire and watchtowers – embedded at regular intervals – delineate
out-of-bounds military zones. Military vehicles parked in rows in
village squares and derelict church spires peeping above buildings
subjected to 30 years of neglect complete the surreal panorama of a
militarized rural idyll. Of the remaining Maronite villages, two are
closed military zones whose residents need a pass to enter and exit.

“Those who had land stayed behind while the others left,” said
Mavrides. “But as it became clear there would not be a quick solution
and the Turkish sector held few jobs, everyone went.”

The enclaved community of mostly elderly Maronites left behind depended
for many years on supplies of food and medicine from the Red Cross
and the United Nations. Although the biweekly deliveries continue to
this day, they are increasingly seen as being a propaganda tool for
the Greek Cypriot government.

At a time when supplies are no longer really needed, Maronites in
the South say the aid has become a political tool used to point an
accusatory finger at the internationally unrecognized Turkish Republic
of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) for its neglect of the community.

Last year’s surprise opening of the Green Line that divides Turkish
and Greek Cypriots has punctuated a tiny revival in the trend toward
decline. On the weekends, visitors come up from the prosperous Greek
south, patronize the cafes and tavernas that remain shut during the
week, and inject some cash into the wilting local economy.

“The biggest shock for us was when the border reopened after 30 years,”
said Mavrides. “We hadn’t just left behind us a house but a whole
way of life.”

For Maronites trekking back to their childhood idylls for the first
time in 30 years, facing the Turkish Cypriot families now inhabiting
their houses was a potentially traumatic experience. But despite the
language barrier and mutual distrust, most Maronites had positive
experiences of meeting those who now inhabit their houses.

But opening the border, even as a settlement of the Cyprus imbroglio
remains elusive, could just spell the end for the Maronite heartland
of the North. Already, the Maronites’ mountain settlements and
monasteries are devoid of inhabitants, the last of which cluster in
villages on the plain.

While the community of Kormakitis has somewhat revived and some
middle-aged couples have moved back in the wake of the Green Line
opening, it is a far cry from the 2,000 Maronites who lived there on
the eve of the invasion. Meanwhile, the trend toward leaving the
economically-strapped North is set to continue following the entry
of Cyprus into the EU.

Once in the South, Maronites are in danger of losing their identity
as many marry Greek Cypriots and assimilate, swapping their unique
dialect and customs for the Greek Orthodox majority’s.

“There was always a suspicion of us by the Greek Orthodox but now
they’ve got over this because of mixed marriages and the growing
assimilation,” said Mavrides, who has written a paper on the Maronite
community titled, “A Community in Crisis.”

“Being Maronite can actually be negative. If you apply for a position,
you might not get it. If you run for Parliament, there’s no reason
to be different from the people who might vote for you.”

Today, the dusty lanes of Kormakitis are a steadily ossifying cultural
repository of an ancient, perhaps doomed, community. A new generation
of Maronites in the South prefer the hip cafes of Greek Nicosia over
the church and see no need to hang on to a religious identity that
sets them apart from the mainstream.

Ties with Lebanon are weak and mostly confined to cultural and
religious activities. While Maronite communities thrive in Brazil and
the United States, the last members of one of the most historical of
diasporas appear to have entered the final straight.

“Unfortunately, Cyprus was a closed shop to the Lebanese,” said Hajji
Roussos in a reference to the exchange control restrictions imposed by
the Greek Cypriot government in the 1970s that discouraged foreigners
from buying land or doing business on the island.

Aside from a handful of mixed marriages, the Christian and Muslim
Lebanese who moved to Cyprus during the civil war years had little
interaction with the indigenous Maronites.

“Many of the Maronite exiles attended churches on Cyprus and met local
Maronites,” said Mavrides. “But political relations with Lebanon are
low and there were only ever 15 to 20 cases of Maronites from Cyprus
marrying Lebanese Maronites.”

A short history of Cyprus’ Maronites

Originally from Syria, today’s Maronite community in Cyprus was shaped
by four successive waves of emigration that started in the 8th century
and lasted over six centuries.

With the Islamic conquests radiating outward from the Arab
Peninsula, the Maronites abandoned Syria’s lush coastal plains for
the inaccessible mountains of contemporary Lebanon.Some went further
afield settling on Cyprus.

In 938, the destruction of St Maron’s Monastery on the Orontes River
prompted a second wave of refugees. Another three centuries passed
and Crusader king Guy de Lusignan purchased Cyprus from Richard the
Lionheart, leading the former to import hardy Maronite warriors to
the island to protect its coastlines.

The last wave of emigration came 100 years later when Acre, last
outpost of the Crusader edifice, collapsed and the traditionally
pro-Crusader Maronites fled Muslim reprisals.

The martial Maronites – fierce mountaineers whose tradition recounts
how they forced two Umayyad caliphs to pay them tribute in the first
decades of Islam’s expansion – have maintained an awkward coexistence
with their Muslim neighbors. Often, they allied themselves with
outside, non-Muslim powers like the Crusaders; France during the
Mandate period; and Israel during the Lebanese civil war. On Cyprus,
the Maronites were promoted by the British whose policy was to
support minorities.

The influx of Maronites who arrived on the island in the 12th century
were initially privileged as they based themselves in the mountains and
guarded the coastal areas of the Crusader kingdom against invasion. Up
to 32,000 Maronites were killed during the Ottoman conquest of Cyprus
in 1570. At the battle of Famagusta alone, 8,000 died in a bid to
stop the Turks from breaching the city walls. Only 812 remained on
the island.

The Ottomans punished them for their insubordination by appointing the
Greek Orthodox religious majority the main Christian representatives
on the island and banning Catholicism. This fomented conflict, for
the indigenous Orthodox community resented the Maronites, thinking
them deviants.

Guita Hourani, chairwoman of the Maronite Research Institute, writes
that in Cyprus “the Maronites faced ‘Latinization,’ Greek schismatic
abuse, and ‘Islamization.’ … Their life on the island was filled
with sorrow and pain.

“However, they maintained a presence and persisted in their faith,
although some succumbed due to persecution. They had their own clergy
and bishops, but effectively they were under the ecclesiastical
domination of either the Greeks or the Latins.”

Ottoman rule was harsh for the Maronites. They were victimized both
by the Muslim Turks for their opposition to the Ottoman invasion and
by their Orthodox coreligionists. Fourteen Maronite villages became
extinct during the three centuries of Ottoman domination as waves of
Maronites escaped back to the Sham region or moved westward to Malta.

Hourani writes that the Ottomans imposed increasingly high taxation
on the Maronites, accused them of treason, ravaged their harvests and
abducted their wives and children into slavery. As a consequence,
the Maronite clergy relocated to present-day Lebanon, where they
remain to this day.

After the British replaced the Ottomans on Cyprus, they promoted
the Maronite community, as well as other minorities such as the
Armenians and Turkish Cypriots. But independence for Cyprus in 1960
was followed by ethnic clashes between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots
The Turkish invasion of 1974 effectively dealt a death blow to the
Maronite community and dispersed it.

While persecution is no longer a threat, Maronites today face their
greatest threat in the form of assimilation into the homogeneous,
Greek Orthodox Christian majority in the south.

AUTHORITIES KEEP ON IGNORING PACE RESOLUTION

A1 Plus | 20:40:50 | 11-05-2004 | Politics |

Justice, a 16-party opposition alliance, issued a statement on Tuesday,
pointing out the authorities’ steps taken in a clear breach of the
PACE 1374 resolution.

1. The authorities didn’t abandon their practice of arresting people
as so called administrative punishment.

2. Those arrested for participation in unauthorized rallies haven’t
been released immediately. 14 citizens have been taken in police
custody for political reasons. One of them, Martin Ghazaryan, is
already convicted and sentenced to one year in jail.

3. Those responsible for violence against people and human rights
violations have not been prosecuted.

4. Legislation on administrative offenders hasn’t been amended.

Hurriyet, Turkey
May 9 2004

WHITE PAGE AGREEMENT

The step, which provided ”white page agreement”, was taken with the
meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Greek
counterpart Costas Caramanlis.

Erdogan conveyed the uneasiness felt over a meeting which took place
in Athens by Armenians and in which some Greek ministers and
administrations joined.

Caramanlis said ”this is a free country” and gave the message that
they could not intervene in such meetings.

ArmenPress
May 6 2004

PACE RESOLUTION ON ARMENIA CAN BE APPLIED TO ANY COE MEMBER, SENIOR
REPUBLICAN PARTY MEMBER SAYS

YEREVAN, MAY 6, ARMENPRESS: A senior member of the governing
Republican party has called on the opposition today to give up its
“destructive” policy and sit around a table with the authorities to
seek ways out of the political crisis.
“The Republican party (the senior member in the ruling coalition)
will not allow any action that would jeopardize Armenia’s
independence,” Galust Sahakian, the head of Republican parliamentary
faction told reporters. He was participating in public debates
organized by the National Civic Initiative on the reasons behind the
standoff between the authorities and the opposition.
Sahakian said that the opposition must stop all its
anti-government actions and engage in dialogue with the authorities
to seek for a formula that would enable to improve the election code
and amend the Constitution.
He also reverted to April 13 crackdown of the law-enforcement
bodies on the opposition rally, accusing the opposition leaders of
making people “the target of the law.” “All existing problems are
solved either by the authorities or within the political field in a
civilized manner,” he noted.
In a reference to the PACE resolution on Armenia that denounced
the government crackdown on the opposition, demanding an end to the
mass `administrative detentions’ of participants of protests marches
and the immediate release of those of them who remain in custody,
Sahakian argued that the resolution, which he claimed “was based on
theoretical information, not backed up by a thorough investigation”
could be applied to any Council of Europe member.
He then downplayed opposition’s allegations that its arrested
activists are political prisons. “A man arrested for attacking a
policeman cannot be called political prisoner,” he said.
Also a recurrent call for dialogue was made on Wednesday by
parliament speaker Arthur Baghdasarian, who invited in a statement
all parliamentary factions to attend `political consultations’ today,
which he said is also necessitated by the Council of Europe’s calls
for a `dialogue without preconditions’ between the authorities and
the opposition.

Armenian National Committee of America
888 17th St., NW, Suite 904
Washington, DC 20006
Tel: (202) 775-1918
Fax: (202) 775-5648
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet:

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 6, 2004
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Tel: (202) 775-1918

ARMENIA ELIGIBLE FOR MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE ACCOUNT FUNDING

— Secretary Powell Announces List of 16 Countries Invited to
Submit Proposals for Multi-Billion Dollar Aid Program

WASHINGTON, DC – The State Department announced today that Armenia
has been chosen to be among a select group of 16 countries eligible
for Millennium Challenge Account funding, a new multi-billion
dollar U.S. program designed to provide assistance to low-income
countries that demonstrate a strong commitment toward good
governance and economic growth and reform, reported the Armenian
National Committee of America (ANCA.)

“We welcome the State Department’s decision to include Armenia in
the first tier of countries to participate in the MCA,” said ANCA
Chairman Ken Hachikian. “The funds will create important
opportunities for strengthening the Armenian economy and helping
the Armenian people overcome the ongoing, multi-billion dollar
impact of the dual Turkish and Azerbaijani blockades. We look
forward to working with Armenian Government officials and the
Millennium Challenge Corporation to assist in the funding process
ahead.”

The complete list of 16 countries eligible to apply for MCA funds
includes: Armenia, Benin, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Georgia, Ghana,
Honduras, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Mongolia, Mozambique,
Nicaragua, Senegal, Sri Lanka, and Vanuatu.

President Bush first announced his intent to create the MCA in
March, 2002. The program is based on the premise that economic
development succeeds best where it is linked to free market
economic and democratic principles and policies. Eligibility under
this program, which is only open to selected low-income countries,
is conditioned upon sound policy performance and accountability by
recipient nations. This performance in measured by sixteen
quantifiable criteria in the areas of 1) ruling justly, 2)
investing in people, and 3) economic freedom.

Overall funding for MCA is will be $1 billion for Fiscal Year 2004,
and is expected to rise to $5 billion by Fiscal Year 2006. Although
there are no guaranties that its grant proposals will be funded,
Armenia’s annual share from this new foreign aid program could be
as much as $75 million a year.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, who serves as chairman of the
Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), developed to oversee the
implementation of the Millenium Challenge Account funds, stated,
“This is a historic day for the Millennium Challenge Corporation.
The President’s vision has come to pass, and today’s decision by
the Board of Directors is a major step in implementing the vision
of the MCC.”

An ANCA study prepared in September of 2003 showed that Armenia was
well-positioned to receive MCA funding based on the 16 criteria set
out by the MCC. The study was distributed widely to Members of
Congress and the Administration as well as to representatives of
the Armenian Government. In the months that followed, the ANCA
tracked Congressional hearings dealing with MCA, where Members of
Congress including Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Brad Sherman (D-CA) and
Joseph Crowley (D-NY), spoke in support of Armenia’s participation
in the program and questioned early assertions that Armenia may not
receive first tier funding.

Upon learning of the MCC announcement earlier today, Rep. Schiff
stated, “I am delighted to see that Armenia is included in the
first group of nations eligible to receive funding under the
Millennium Challenge Account. As a struggling democracy that is
economically isolated by an injurious blockade, Armenia is a prime
candidate for MCA assistance. This is welcome news for Armenia and
a good judgment by the MCA Board and State Department.”

MCA eligibility was among a series of topics brought up in high
level meetings between Armenian Government officials and an ANCA
delegation including Chairman Ken Hachikian, held in conjunction
with an Armenian Foreign Ministry Armenian Advocacy conference,
held in Yerevan on May 3rd and 4th. The ANCA provided specific
recommendations about the development of grant submissions to the
MCA to ensure that Armenia, if selected, would receive a
significant share of the first year MCA awards.

According to the MCA Website (), eligible countries will
work with the MCC to develop a compact proposal for “achieving
sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction.” Succesful
proposals would be designed to:

a) Engage a broad array of its society in coming up with its
development priorities;
b) Identify the measurable objectives that it wants to achieve;
c) Include a plan for achieving those objectives with targets to
assess progress;
d) Develop transparent mechanisms to measure and evaluate whether
targets are being met and to ensure financial accountability; and
e) Provide a plan for sustaining progress after the MCA compact
ends.

The extent to which a country’s proposal meets the above
requirements will help determine whether and how much the MCC will
invest in the country.

#####

Pravda.RU:World:

US does not intend placing permanent military bases in South Caucasus

18:09 2004-04-27

The United States will not be placing military bases either in Azerbaidjan
or in the South Caucasus region in general, according to deputy commander of
US European forces, Charles Wald.

As reported by a Rosbalt correspondent, Wald told a press conference in
Yerevan that ‘we will, together with Russia, Armenia and Azerbaidjan, fight
terrorism, and are ready for ongoing cooperation. At the same time, we do
not want to have permanent military bases here.’

© RosBalt

Los Angeles Times (subscription), CA
April 28 2004

Steve Lopez:
Points West
Progress Overtakes Movie, or Does It?

“On May 14th,” said the billboard above a Sav-on Drugs in Hollywood,
“there will be no Mexicans in California.”

It sounded like maybe Pete Wilson was plotting a return to politics.
But in fact, the ad was a promo for an upcoming movie that’s
pro-immigrant.

As you might have read last week, someone missed the point and lodged
a complaint, so the billboard above the Sav-on came down. But since
then, more ads are popping up around town, including one in Spanish.

“En Catorce de Mayo, Los Gringos Van a Llorar.”

On May 14, the Gringos Are Going to Cry.

OK, I thought. I’ll bite. And so I called for an advance copy of “A
Day Without a Mexican,” a 97-minute film by director/writer Sergio
Arau and his wife, actress/writer Yareli Arizmendi. Both were born in
Mexico and now live in Hollywood.

The movie opens with a blond woman named Mary Jo Quintana waking up
alone in bed and wondering where her husband has disappeared to.

“And then I heard on the news that all the Mexicans were gone,” she
says in great distress. “And my husband is a Mexican.”

All across California, everyone of Latino descent is disappearing
without a trace in the over-the-top mockumentary. This creates one
crisis after another in the home of state Sen. Stephen Abercrombie
III, who looks strikingly like former California Gov. Pete Wilson.

Abercrombie was elected to office by whipping up anti-immigrant
fervor. Now the senator’s Latina maid doesn’t show up for work, and
he is completely unprepared for the tragic consequences.

“There’s no fresh orange juice,” the suffering senator informs his
wife.

“There’s no clean clothes,” she whines, practically in tears.
“There’s no lunch.”

This is a senator who in one scene scolds his Stepford wife for
hiring illegal immigrants for odd jobs.

“If we use regular Mexicans,” his wife snaps, “it’s going to cost a
lot more.”

But alas, there are no more Mexicans or Guatemalans or Hondurans
available for hire, regular or otherwise. A state of emergency is
declared and the U.S. military is called in to figure out how nearly
half of California’s residents could suddenly vanish into thin air.

Meanwhile, state commerce grinds to a halt, streets are trash-strewn
because there’s no one to sweep them, leaf blowers lie abandoned,
fruit goes unpicked, carwash customers riot.

“This is a real disaster,” says a university policy wag named Abdul
Hassan. “Forget about parking your cars and valets. Forget about
getting a glass of water at restaurants. Forget about restaurants.”

Later, pounding a point that is by then quite obvious, Hassan says:

“I’m really afraid for this state, because the more we start figuring
out how dependent we are on Latinos, the more desperate people are
going to get.”

OK, I get it.

But wouldn’t the film have been more appropriate in the days of
Wilson and Proposition 187? A 187 redux just failed to qualify for
the November ballot because backers couldn’t get enough signatures.

Arau and Arizmendi said Prop. 187 was in fact the inspiration for the
movie, which appeared several years ago as a short. The infamous
proposition, approved by voters and shot down by courts, is history,
Arizmendi agreed. But she got nervous when Wilson reappeared as one
of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s advisors.

“It’s not a law this film is addressing, it’s an attitude,” she said.
“Turn on talk radio and you hear that the problem in the U.S., and
California in particular, is these illegal aliens who are coming and
taking our jobs.”

Reality, unfortunately, is always more complicated than what you get
from talk radio or the movies.

Southern California is fast approaching A Day Without Breathable Air,
A Day Without a Swimmable Ocean, and A Day Without a Chance Any New
Resident Can Afford a House.

All of those would make good movies, too, and people should be able
to talk about those subjects without being called bigots.

But then again, we do have a few bigots on the loose, including those
who regularly encourage me to return to Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba,
Uruguay, etc. So it’s a kick to see a satire in which the Dodgers
have to cancel games because without Latinos they can’t field a team.

Meanwhile, as Border Patrol agents wonder what to do with their days,
Sen. Abercrombie makes a quivering appeal to the missing Mexicans.

“More than ever, we need to be the great California familia and bring
back our Hispanic brothers and sisters,” he says in a statewide TV
address.

Arizmendi, who was in the film “Like Water For Chocolate,” plays the
one remaining Mexican in California. She courageously donates her
body so scientists can solve the mystery. At the last minute,
however, she finds out she’s actually an Armenian who was raised by
Mexicans.

Don’t miss the sequel.

A Day Without Armenians.

*

Steve Lopez writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday.

CENN – APRIL 29, 2004 DAILY DIGEST
Table of Contents:
1. Series of Public Debates with the Representative of NGOs, Government
and Business Sector
2. Azerbaijan Hopes to Include Kazakhstan in BTC in 2004
3. Russia Against Creation of National Fishing Zones in Caspian Sea
4. Green `Slaughter” in Yerevan
5. Retail Prices of Potato, Cabbage and Grape are Down
6. Working Group on Water and Health
7. Invest Now, Save Later
8. 10 Personal Actions that Can Make a Difference for the Environment

1. SERIES OF PUBLIC DEBATES WITH THE REPRESENTATIVE OF NGOS, GOVERNMENT
AND BUSINESS SECTOR

Horizonti Foundation is starting with as new initiative to conduct a
series of public debates with the representative of NGOs, government and
business taking part.

The first of the series will be held on Friday, April 30, at 2:00 – 3:30
PM at the premises of Horizonti Foundation (see the address below).

The topic of the discussion is: Who Sets Priorities In Georgia?
Contact person: Manana Dumbadze
[email protected]
Contact Information
6th floor, 2 Dolidze Street, Tbilisi
+995 (32) 332816/17/18
+995 (32) 987504 (fax)
[email protected]

2. AZERBAIJAN HOPES TO INCLUDE KAZAKHSTAN IN BTC IN 2004

Source: Interfax, April 28, 2004

Azerbaijan hopes that Kazakhstan will become a participant in the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan project in 2004, Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister
Khalaf Khalafov said at the forum Caspian: Politics, Economics, Business
in Astana on April 28, 2004.

“At the moment 34 companies from 16 countries are participating in
transport projects in the Caspian region. Azerbaijan considers the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline projects to be the
main ones,” he said.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum projects are “necessary
conditions” for the economic development of the Caspian region and will
strengthen its energy security,” he said.

He said that Azerbaijan shares the position of Kazakhstan regarding the
laying of pipelines along the Caspian seabed.

Kazakh First Deputy Foreign Minister Kairat Abuseitov said at the forum
that Kazakhstan is against having to agree laying underwater
communications and pipeline in the Caspian with all of the littoral
states. These issues should be agreed with the Caspian states through
whose sectors they pass, and not with all states in the region, he said.

Mr. Khalafov also said that the implementation of oil and gas transport
projects in the region might be hindered by the unresolved
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict and the unstable political situation in
Georgia.

Kazakhstan hopes to transport 10 million – 20 million tones of oil per
year through the pipeline. The republic produced over 51.3 million tones
of oil and condensate in 2003.

Construction of the 690-km Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline should begin in
the third quarter 2004. The pipeline will transport gas from the
Shah-Deniz field, which has reserves of 625 billion cubic meters of gas
and 101 million tones of condensate.

3. RUSSIA AGAINST CREATION OF NATIONAL FISHING ZONES IN CASPIAN SEA

Source: Interfax, April 28, 2004

Russia is against creating so-called fishing zones in the Caspian Sea,
Russian presidential envoy for Caspian Sea issues Viktor Kalyuzhny said.

The creation of fishing zones will undermine the effectiveness of the
collective regulation of fishing activities and will hinder the
replenishment of biological resources, Kalyuzhny told an international
conference on Caspian Sea issues in Astana on Wednesday. “If we can’t
deal with poachers together, different zones will not help us,” he said.

Fishing zones “will not give us anything except problems connected with
the development of additional conditions to resolve discrepancies
between the internal legislation of both countries,” he said.

Russia has already made considerable changes to its initial position,
suggesting that 15-mile coastal areas be organized in the Caspian Sea,
in which the littoral states will have exclusive rights to fish, he
said.

`But we can’t go any further,” Kalyuzhny said. “Believe me, we’re not
concerned about the water, we feel sorry for the fish,” he added.

4. GREEN `SLAUGHTER” IN YEREVAN

Source: A1 Plus- news agency, April 28, 2004

This morning the residents of N 143 building of South-Western block have
held a protest action demanding to preserve the park they have
themselves planted nearby their houses. It has been given to someone to
build a shop there.

The residents are more concerned about the fact that Municipality has
rejected their application on improving and protecting the territory.
People say the park where the Monument for War Fighters is located was
sold at an auction. Trees were already cut for constructing the shop.

The dwellers are even willing to buy the territory to protect the green
zone.

5. RETAIL PRICES OF POTATO, CABBAGE AND GRAPE ARE DOWN

Source: ArmenPress, April 27 2004

According to Agri-Business Development Center, retail prices of cabbage,
potatoes, grape, tomatoes are down, prices of flour, barley, wheat,
onion, beef and pork are up and prices of butter, sugar did not change
as compared to the same period last month.

The market price for one kg of pork a year ago was 1200-1300 drams while
its present average price is 1860 drams. Beef is sold at 1400 (2003 –
1200 drams). The present price of poultry is 1200 drams against 1000
drams in 2003. Egg was sold at 44 drams a year ago, while in January it
increased to 55 and at present is sold at 58 drams.

Potatoes were sold in 2003, April at 200 drams per kilogram while in
January it reduced to 140 and its present price is 80-100 drams. Last
year cucumber was sold at 800 drams while this year it is 500 drams.
Average price for apple is 400 drams. It increased by 100 drams as
compared to the same period last year.

The highest prices can be observed at Mashtotc avenue market number 1
and the lowest prices at Malatia market number 4 and in the markets of
Gyumri and Spitak.

6. WORKING GROUP ON WATER AND HEALTH

Source: European ECO-Forum News Digest, N 81, April 2004

On March 11-12 2004 the third meeting of the Working Group on Water and
Health (WGWH), established under the Convention on the Protection and
Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Helsinki
Water Convention) and its Protocol on Water and Health, took place in
Budapest, Hungary. The Protocol was adopted at the Third Ministerial
Conference on Environment and Health in 1999 in London.

The WGWH examined the following items:
– Progress in the ratification process,
– Legal and administrative aspects of the Protocol’s implementation,
– Coordination of resource mobilization,
– Technical meetings, methodological aspects and guidelines under the
Protocol,
– Activities of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development on water
and sanitation, Fourth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health,

– Further preparations for the first meeting of the Parties to the
Protocol.

By now, the following 11 countries have ratified the Protocol: Albania,
Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Luxembourg, Norway,
Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia and Ukraine. The Protocol will
enter into force with 16 ratifications.

Based on the information received during WGWH meeting, the secretariat
expects that the Protocol may come into force in the end of 2004 or
beginning of 2005. The First Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol is
planned for end of spring 2005.

The WGWH discussed the Draft Compliance Review Mechanism under the
Protocol, Draft Rules of Procedure, and the Draft Modalities for
Participation of non-Parties. The WGWH supported that 1-2 NGO
representatives should be observers in the Legal Board. It also
supported participation of NGO representatives in various meetings,
events and bodies under the Protocol. The main requirement for selecting
NGOs to participate in the events under Helsinki Water Convention or the
Protocol is actual activity on the issue, and competency in water issues
and in particular water and health.

The WGWH discussed the following events:

– Workshop on water management and health in the framework of
– ECWATECH-2004, Moscow, 1-2 June
– Round table in Oslo, 1-2 June, organized by Norwegian Government and
the WHO. The Round table is an initiative to increase efficiency in
non-infrastructure cooperation in the area of water and health, aimed at
the implementation of the Protocol on Water and Health. The round table
provides an opportunity for countries to drive priority setting, and for
donors to examine their current cooperation programmes in the light of
these national health priorities. There will be a trust fund established
under the Water Convention for supporting implementation of the
Convention.
– Preparatory activities to CSD-12 in April 2004,
– Preparatory activities to the First Meeting of the Parties to the
Protocol.

The following technical and methodological items were discussed:
à) Preparation of the Conference on Enclosed Recreational Waters in
Budapest in May 2005 b) Development of distance learning programmes for
public health professionals;
c) Portugal suggested organizing a conference on man-made water bodies;
d) Several presentations were made concerning antibacteriological
resistance spreading through drinking-water systems.

The WGWH discussed preparatory issues for the Fourth Ministerial
Conference on Environment and Health (Budapest-2004). Before the opening
of the Conference, on 22 June, the WGWH will meet in Budapest for final
arrangements concerning participation in the Conference. The main
suggestion of the WGWH relates to the Children’s Environment and Health
Action Plan for Europe (CEHAPE). This suggestion was made by WHO
Collaborating Centers at Rome meeting in February 2004. It is about
giving mandate to the network of WHO Collaborating Centers to act as a
technical board to CEHAPE.

Documentation of WGWH:

For more information contact:
Anna Tsvetkova,
Coordinator of Water Issue Group of European ECO-Forum,
Mama-86,
E-mail: [email protected]

7. INVEST NOW, SAVE LATER

Source: UICN, April 28, 2004

The conservation of ecosystems is the basis for development, rather than
an obstacle to it. At the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD)
meeting underway in New York, Switzerland and Japan presented how the
application of the ecosystem approach can prevent huge costs, especially
with regard to water resources management. `We have drawn lessons from
the mistakes we have made in the past. In Switzerland, our waters still
suffer from the pollution of old landfills, which we have to clean at
huge costs. One such site alone cost us US$ 600 million,’ said
Ambassador Mr. Beat Nobs of the Swiss Agency of Environment, Forests and
Landscape.

8. 10 PERSONAL ACTIONS THAT CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

Source: Earth Day Network, April 22, 2004

1. Get a home energy audit and follow the recommendations.

Energy audits are a great way to see where the energy and energy
expenditures in your house are going. Your local power company may have
an energy-audit program, or you can do one yourself with the Home Energy
Checkup Guide from the Alliance to Save Energy.

2. Insulate and caulk your home.

Insulation keeps warm air warm and cool air cool. Caulking and weather
stripping are a good start. Insulating your attic, walls, and crawl
spaces will also make a huge difference. Window-mounted air conditioning
units may also be leaking out of poorly insulated windows. Check for
drafts by wetting your finger and running it around the window edges.

3. Set your water heater to a lower temperature and insulate it and
replace wasteful showerheads.

Insulating your water heater decreases the energy needed to heat it up.
Jackets are available at hardware stores and sometimes given away free
with a new water heater. Also, you should keep the heater on low, or at
no more 120 degrees Fahrenheit, which is adequate to meet all home
needs. And replace your showerheads with energy-efficient models. A
recent study showed that making the switch could save 27 cents a day on
water and 51 cents on electricity. They’ll pay for themselves in just
two months.

4. Turn off lights, replace your incandescent bulbs with compact
fluorescents, and use timers.

It’s elementary to say, turn off lights and appliances when you leave a
room. Indeed, lighting accounts for 25 percent of home energy use.
Another no-brainer way to cut lighting use and costs is to use compact
fluorescent light bulbs in place of traditional incandescent bulbs. Not
to be mistaken for the harsh white lights still found in many offices,
compact fluorescents emit pleasing warm light. And although they are
more expensive than incandescent bulbs, they will last ages longer and
slash your energy bill. Also, invest in timers or motion-sensitive
switches for both inside and outside lights. You’ll never walk into a
dark house and your power bills will drop.

5. Wash bigger loads in the clothes washer and turn the refrigerator
down.

To save energy in the laundry, wash only full loads in short cycles. And
use the air-dry setting or turn the dishwasher off after the final rinse
and open the door.

Your refrigerator also uses a great deal of energy, as much as 25
percent of a home energy bill in some cities. The temperature should be
38 to 42 degrees Fahrenheit, and the freezer should be between zero and
five degrees. Check the seals for cracks, and keep the condenser coils
clean. If you’re in the market for a new one, consider whether a smaller
fridge might suit your needs.

In shopping for any major appliance, look for the Energy Star label,
awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department
of Energy to products that are ahead of the curve on energy efficiency.

6. Close blinds and drapes in warm weather and turn off the AC.

A little air conditioning can go a long way during the day if you close
the blinds or drapes so that the sun can’t get in and warm up the house.
If you’re going to be gone for a while, turn the AC off. Do the same as
soon as the temperature cools down outside, and then open the windows so
you get a cross breeze. Also air conditioners work better when they are
cool themselves, so if your air conditioner is outside under any direct
sun, build a screen. While you’re at it, check the filter. An air
conditioner with a clogged filter will use5 percent more energy than one
with a clean filter.

7. Curb your car, carpool, and take public transit.

Take public or mass transit as much as you can. When you do, your energy
use is 25 times less than if you had used your car. If you absolutely
need your car, see if you can give someone else a lift too. Think of
ways you can cut down on the use of your car: Make fewer trips, carpool,
or bus it once a week. Try riding your bike to the grocery store or to
work if it’s not too far. Every little bit counts.

8. Tune up your car … and do you really need a Hummer?

A tune-up on your car will improve its fuel economy by 6 to 9 percent
and save you repair costs in the long run. And don’t be a speed demon:
For every mile per hour slower you drive than 65, you improve your car’s
fuel efficiency by about 2%. And keep your tires filled to capacity:
Soft tires make the engine work harder, making your car more wasteful.

When shopping for a new car, don’t forget to factor in fuel efficiency.
You’ll reduce your gasoline costs, reduce our dependence on foreign oil,
and reduce the damage being done to the atmosphere. If everyone in the
United States bought the most efficient vehicle in the class they’d
ordinarily buy, the total savings would be 1.47 billion gallons of
gasoline every year.

9. Work at home

Employers are becoming more flexible about what defines a workday. By
working four 10-hour days or working from home one day a week, you
commute less and become part of the pollution solution. Over a year,
that’s 50 fewer days you waste in traffic.

10. At the office …

Computer monitors use the same amount of electricity as a 60-watt light
bulb. So rest your screen when you rest your eyes. Don’t wait for your
screen saver to kick in; if you are going to be away from your computer
for more than 10 minutes, turn the monitor off. You can also reduce the
energy consumption of your copier: Look for a stand-by button or mode,
and make sure that it gets used. Copiers consume a lot of energy sitting
there running during times of non-use.

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CENN INFO
Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN)

Tel: ++995 32 92 39 46
Fax: ++995 32 92 39 47
E-mail: [email protected]
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