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LET THERE BE LIGHT ********************************** None of us created the world and none of us can claim to have sufficient power to re-create it. All we can do is try to understand it. The same applies to our problems. We did not create them and so far we have failed to solve them. All we can do is try to understand them. Which is what I have been trying to do: to understand and explain our problems so that we can come up with solutions. If you don’t agree with my explanations, improve on them or point out where exactly I’ve gone wrong. Calling me a fool, a jerk, or the son of a whore may improve someone’s understanding of me as a person but it leaves our problems intact, and, in a sense, it amounts to saying, "Let there be darkness!"

Ara jan, While you pointing the problems, it means you are trying to find solutions, right? You are in half of the way already, but the other half is what we need more. You are now a mounedik, we want you to become a symphony

Ara, may be you don't have the power to re-create life on earth, but life is to be lived not understood. As far as your understanding of problems is concerned, think of it in terms of writing. Thinking without writing is understanding problems without acting upon them to fix them.

MORE REFLECTIONS *********************************** A charlatan will never say, "I deceive and mislead because I am a charlatan"; and a fanatic will never say, "I speak or think or feel as I do because I happen to be a member of the lunatic fringe." What they will say instead is: "I speak the honest truth because I am a man of honor. I love my people. Everything I say and do is motivated by selfless dedication to God and Country." And strange as it may seem, there will be those who will believe them. Even if you are as wise as Socrates and as compassionate as Christ, you will provoke hatred. Did I say "even?" make it "especially!" How to make an Armenian enemy for life? Catch him in a contradiction or lie. Be objective. Do not recycle chauvinist or partisan crap. Be honest. Question his evidence or source of information. Doubt his integrity. So what if we are survivors? That means nothing to me. So what if a thousand years from now there will be Armenians on the planet? That means nothing to me either, in the same way that the survival of Kurds and Gypsies means nothing to the world. There is an idiot in all of us, including the most wise. Likewise, there is a killer in all of us, compliments of our reptilian ancestors. This may explain why sometimes intelligent men are deceived by fools, and decent men are misled by criminal psychopaths; and here, I could make a long list of illustrious names who supported Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin. When the eminent French poet Paul Valéry was once asked by a friend, " Why do you allow critics to upset you? Most of them are fools who don’t even make an effort to understand what you are saying." He replied: "When a mad dog bites, it hurts."

MORE SEMANTIC REFLECTIONS ***************************************** God: A supreme being who stands for truth, love, compassion and mercy but who appears to inspire His followers with intolerance, dogmatism, hatred, torture, war, and massacre. Massacre: To the fanatic it’s the will of Allah, to civilized nations it’s "C’est la guerre," to Americans it’s "collateral damage," to many others it’s "ethnic cleansing." Very much like beauty, massacre too appears to be in the eye of the beholder. Good old Moses was a windbag. Any editor could have told him his ten commandments were nine too many. All he needed to carve was a single brief positive statement: "Be kind," or "Behave decently." A kind person does not go around lying, thieving, killing and coveting asses. It wouldn’t even occur to a decent man to massacre defenseless women and children, unless of course he is ordered to do so by his religious leaders. Man is a reasonable being and armed with that conviction he feels fully qualified to behave in an unreasonable manner. An Armenian writer writing for Armenians will say Turks are bloodthirsty savages. A Turkish writer writing for Turks will say Armenians are lying giaours. I consider it a waste of time reading both. I’d much prefer to read a writer who writes as a human being as opposed to a member of a club, tribe, nation or race. As a human being I know that some Turks risked their lives to save Armenians, others were against it (genocide) and still others had nothing to do with it. I am suspicious of all talk of patriotism or love of country that masks a specific political agenda or partisan platform. Such love always implies hatred not only of the enemy (some of whom may well be friends) but also friends who don’t share the same agenda or platform. Partisan patriotism is an oxymoron with the emphasis on the last two syllables.

THE O/Z CONTROVERSY *********************************** How right were Oshagan pere et fils in asserting that Zarian was just another East-Armenian windbag without a single original idea in his head? Let me begin with a digression. About thirty years ago I remember to have read a book by an American academic named Stern (I forget his first name) in which every single one of Sartre’s ideas was traced back to Plato, Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger and a few other lesser-known precursors. The purpose of the book was to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Sartre was a derivative writer. Thirty years later Sartre has lost none of his prestige and professor Stern none of his status as a marginal figure, and marginal to the point of irrelevance. Poetry, it has been said, happens when two words meet for the first time. One could also say that originality happens when two ideas are brought together for the first time. It follows that, even if Sartre’s and Zarian’s originality consisted in combining ideas, they both deserve a place in world literature and a hundred Sterns and a thousand Oshagans are powerless to alter that fact. Questions: Why is it that the Oshagans and their students find it necessary to denigrate Zarian? Why is it that this anti-Zarian faction is associated with the ARF (Tashnagtsoutiun)? Is their hostility towards Zarian an expression of their own convictions or is it an extension of their loyalty to the Party? To be noted: Zarian’s contempt for the Party was well known: "Our political parties have been of no political use to us," he once said. "Their greatest enemy is free speech."

GUNGO-HO ARMENIANS ********************************** It happens all the time. Gung-ho Armenians come to me and say: "Let’s do this, that and the other! After all, we are Armenians and we should do whatever we can for our nation," or words to that effect. What happens next? They are seldom heard from again, alas! And why? I have no idea, but I can guess. After a minor setback, a harsh exchange of words, or a silly misunderstanding, they forget all about their beloved nation and busy themselves with more important things, such as making a living, raising a family, collecting stamps, or surfing on the internet. Not that I blame them. I don’t mind admitting that I too am tempted to quit every day. If I go on, it’s because I like doing what comes easy. If tomorrow I find a better-paying job, I will quit before anyone can say Jack S. Avanakian. I reject the mantle of hero and I have nothing but contempt for readers who demand martyrdom from me. I am an ordinary joe whose sole aim in life is to live in peace and make himself useful to people who are civilized enough not to spit in his face. I admire the Don but Sancho Panza is my man. -------------------- ara baliozian

OF MICE AND MEN ***************************** There are people out there -- and I mean highly trained professionals – whose main job consists in introducing complexities where none exists. One could say that they are trained to take a simple straight line and to make of it a maze so intricate that even a mouse of genius could not extricate himself from it even if he tried for a thousand years. Which is where we come in. We might as well be that mouse at the mercy of professional charlatans who have created such a complex and serpentine maze around us that we have failed again and again to emerge from our tribal stage and establish our place in the sun as a nation. The enigma of our destiny? What nonsense! Understand this and consider the enigma (which was never there to begin with) solved. -------------------- ara baliozian

MUMBO JUMBO **************************** When I analyze and diagnose our ills, I refuse to behave like a jungle medicine man, the kind who prepares a concoction made of elephant dung, crocodile tears and cobra venom (or so he says to give his backyard manure more class), mutters incantations, emits grunts, chants, dances, after which he tells you to go home and you have nothing to worry about. In the West, things are done differently. The doctor comes right out and says you have cancer and your chances are 50/50 (that’s what happened to my mother 28 years ago); and if your death wish is stronger than your urge to live, you succumb and die of fear. My mother is now 87 and she lives! -------------------- ara baliozian

AN ANECDOTE ************************* "Why do you complain so much?" one of our high-ranking bureaucrats once demanded to know. "Do you think you are the only writer who has been treated badly?" "No, of course not!" I replied. "That is why I speak with the strength of many." He said nothing, but I could sense that he would have preferred if I had kept my mouth shut, dug a hole in the ground, crawled into it, and buried myself alive. Moral: No one likes to be told "You are wrong!" If you are right, you get angry. If you are wrong and didn’t know it, you get angrier. And if you were wrong and knew it, you want to kill the bastard who dared to expose you. -------------------- ara baliozian

PRESENT COMPANY SUSPECTED ************************************* Nothing comes more naturally to an Armenian than to look down at a fellow Armenian and to give him unsolicited advice; and if you were to ask, "Isn’t that what you do too?" I will say, that’s what all writers do; and if you were to ask, "Who authorized you to be a writer?" I will say, that’s the very same question that a Soviet judge once asked Joseph Brodsky, and that’s not a question but an insult ("Who the hell do you think you are?") and a threat ("If you don’t shut up we will make you!"). And sure enough, after spending a number of years in the Gulag, Brodsky was thrown out of the country and was later awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Moral: To say or imply that the social order we have created is so perfect that it has no use for critics or dissidents is a statement worthy of a philistine, a fascist, and an idiot…but I repeat myself. -------------------- ara baliozian

Asbarez.com Argentina’s Tucuman Province Recognizes Armenian GenocideLatest News Top Stories10 hours agohttp://asbarez.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Legislatura-de-Tucum%C3%A1n-Prensa-Armenia.jpgThe legislature of the Tucaman Province of Argentina BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Agencia Prensa Armenia)—The legislature of the Tucuman Province in Argentina on Thursday passed a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide, keeping in line with Argentina’s national law to declare every April 24 as the “Day of Action for Tolerance and Respect between Peoples” in commemoration of the Armenian Genocide. “In Argentina, the agenda for the defense of human rights has a point dedicated to the Armenian Genocide, which is why the adhesion of the provinces is not only an act of accompaniment to the community, but the ratification of the commitment to this chapter of the human tragedies of the early twentieth century, which is closely linked to those that occurred later. This significant step of Tucuman, a province with little community presence, goes in that direction,” said Nicolas Sabuncuyan, director of the Armenian National Committee of Argentina. Lawmakers Osvaldo Morelli, Irene Medina, Sandra Mendoza and Sara Assan presented the resolution, which in the past was introduced by Silvia Rojkes. With this resolution, Tucuman will become the Argentina’s 21st province to recognize the Armenian Genocide. On June 28, the University of San Pablo de Tucuman hosted the series of lectures entitled “Denialism as a form of discrimination” organized by the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI), the Delegation of Argentine Jewish Associations (DAIA) and the Armenian National Committee of Argentina. This event helped to propel the provincial legislator to formally recognize the Genocide. On January 11, 2007, the Argentine State declared National Law 26,199, which establishes that on April 24 of each year it will be remembered as the “Day of Action for Tolerance and Respect between Peoples” in memory of the Armenian Genocide, with an article that invites the provinces to adhere to it. The provinces that already joined the National Law are Buenos Aires, Catamarca, Chaco, Chubut, Córdoba, Corrientes, Entre Rios, Jujuy, La Pampa, La Rioja, Mendoza, Misiones, Neuquen, Rio Negro , Salta, San Luis, San Juan, Santa Cruz, Santa Fe, Tucuman and Tierra del Fuego, along with the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. The provinces of Santiago del Estero and Formosa still did not adhere to national recognition. http://asbarez.com/175464/argentinas-tucuman-province-recognizes-armenian-genocide/

NOTES & COMMENTS *************************************** To Armenians who demand solutions from me and choose to ignore the solutions advanced by our historians and writers from Khorenatsi and Yeghishe in the 5th century AD to our own days, I can only say: As long as there are Armenians like you, our problems will remain insoluble. If I know my Armenians, they will never come to terms with their enemies: too much blood. Hell, they will never even come to terms with their fellow Armenians: too much bad blood! Whenever I express an anti-ARF or an anti-Anteliassagan opinion, I am thought of as a Ramgavar or an Etchmiadznagan, and vice versa, even though I have openly declared myself to be an anti-partisan atheist whose motto happens to be: "If you can loathe both sides for the same money, why settle for one?" I don’t believe in inspiration. I believe in stimulation, and nothing stimulates me more than unfair criticism. A note on capitalism and fascism: both are expressions of greed, of money and power respectively; and of the two, greed for power has proven to be far more dangerous. Only fools brag. Decent men are, as a rule, too busy trying to maintain their decency in a crooked world to have time to brag. I don’t remember to have met a single decent Armenian who bragged about his Armenianism. But I have met quite a few windbags with single-digit IQs who bragged about their moral and intellectual superiority. The very same people who raise the same phony questions again and again also accuse me of repeating myself whenever I take the trouble to answer them. Great nations need big lies; small nations need bigger lies. Fool: anyone who is easily seduced by the strength of his own arguments. People who ignore good advice have no right to say "What was bound to happen, happened!" or "It was written!" or "It was God’s will!" It is an unfortunate fact that some people tend to confuse kindness and civility with weakness. I hate rude people and I hate being rude. But what I hate even more is being intimidated or shouted down by garbage-mouth bullies. Patriotic poetry has as much appeal to me as patriotic music, patriotic art, and patriotic science. Frankly, I’d rather watch a TV commercial than read our patriotic poets: at least TV commercials seldom last more than a few seconds. There is money in flattering idiots, especially wealthy idiots. There is no money in calling them idiots. I wish I were a good actor so that I could drive my enemies nuts by pretending to love them. To be brief is an art. To be long-winded is a collection of vices ranging from arrogance and laziness to narcissism and contempt for others. To express a political view does not make one a pundit in the same way that to take an aspirin does not make one a doctor. There is common sense and there is common humbug and of the two the second is much more universally distributed. He who brags will insult and threaten. The secret ambition of every windbag is to be a fire-breathing dragon. Why is it that whenever one of our eminent authors writes an honest book he is eager to inform everyone that it will be published only posthumously? -------------------- ara baliozian P.S. Ara's original text has not been altered. Just some formatting has been performed. -MJ [ April 04, 2001: Message edited by: MJ ]