1 reply to this topic

[ara baliozian]

FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
*********************************
-Your greatest mistake?
-Being born an Armenian.
-Your second greatest mistake?
-Writing for Armenians.
-Why is that a mistake?
-It’s like writing for an army of Napoleons?
-Why Napoleons?
-Make it, lunatics who think they are Napoleons.

Speak the truth or just be honest and all the liars and crooks of the world will unite and say: "How dare you, sir, to utter such nonsense?"

Vast distances are conveyed to my mind less by astronomical calculations in light years than by the distance that exists between what an Armenian thinks he is and what he really is.

It has been said that it is not a writer’s job to write prescriptions but to give headaches. But for those of my readers who hunger for solutions, as if solutions were magical verbal formulas that if once found or invented will usher in a new golden age, here is one proposed by a Canadian career diplomat with his share of involvement in Armenian affairs:
"We Armenians could begin by introducing the rules of common courtesy in our dealings with one another."
Elementary, my dear Watson!
But how does one go about teaching manners to individuals who are convinced they are members of a morally privileged minority? -- individuals, moreover, who are so secure in their sense of superiority that they think they are qualified to teach manners the rest of the world?
In the words of the immortal bard: "That [indeed!] is the question!

[Anahid Takouhi]

My greatest mistake is that I couldn't understand you. Do I have to understand you?