TimeForChange

Hi everyone - I'm going to move to Miami soon (from Canada), and I wanted to know if there are any young Armenians (20 to 30) in the Miami - Fort Lauderdale area. Hot and intelligent girls would be a plus hahaha.

Hey Armin, First of all, if you are going to live in Lebanon, chances are that you will need to speak Western Armenian (not Eastern), so start with Western before learning Eastern... I guess the best place for you to learn would be in Lebanon, because you will have more people to talk with. I might be able to help you. I rarely speak Armenian (unfortunately) , but I can teach you whatever I know, because I understand what you're going through...Let me know if you're interested...

To read one of the letters, just click on one of them (fill in the bubble). If you can't see the first one, try the second one, and then go back to the first one to see it.

Dear Armenian, In these coming weeks the Canadian Parliament is going to vote on Bill M-380(the vote will most probably take place on April 28th). As most of you know by now, Bill M-380 deals with the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. As Canadian-Armenians, we are at the closet point of seeing the country we live in recognize the tragedy that struck our forefathers nearly 90 years ago. Every Armenian has the opportunity and the duty to contribute to this recognition. The ANC-Canada has set up a website in order to send emails to Members of Parliament. Please visit the website and send a message to the MPs in order to get their support on Bill M-380. Be advised that the Turkish community has been organizing massive anti-recognition campaigns; therefore it is crucial for Armenians to send these emails to the MPs. The Parliament will resume on the 19th of April, after its Easter break. Please send your email before April 19th, after that deadline, anything sent is meaningless. Furthermore, since the vote will be held a couple of days after April 24, it is essential that Armenians show up in great numbers in Ottawa on April 24th and hopefully influence the vote. These coming days can be historical for the Armenian community of Canada and for all Armenians around the world. Please visit the website below to send your email. http://hdtshop.com/hay/send.asp Thank you for your support,

Mr. Worden, You really are a smart man. I'm glad to see that other people are as worried as I am about the fate of the economy. I am also convinced that the Mother of all Depressions is coming up, probably around 2008. The question is: is it going to happen sooner, now that more and more people become aware of this threat? By the way, I am not familiar with your writings. Do you have a website or a list of them? I am currently reading a book "Conquer the Crash'' by Robert R Prechter Jr. He basically convinces the reader that a major depression is coming up. Regards.

Nice indeed, except for the fact that it's all written in Turkish.

Have you guys considered the power that the Jewish lobby has in Washington? I've heard several times that the USA is Israel's puppet. Why can't Diaspora and Armenia work together, as the Jews have successfully done? You guys seem to think that it can only be one or the other. Sasun, I think what you are referring to is a quote from Horace: "Many shall be restored that are now fallen, and many shall fall that now are in honor". The same can be said about the stock market, by the way (off topic, I know).

Vava, I don't get it, I'm wrong about what? You guys can go ahead and start a new thread - why should I care? You're all grow-ups (though I'm starting to doubt that).

I reiterate what I said above: you guys are weird, really. Let's just hope that few people will read this thread, or people will think we're all weirdos like you.

I forgot to say that the guy who complained was what we call a ''Quebecer", or a local French-Canadian. I think our reputation is largely thanks to Charles Aznavour who goes around saying good things about us in the francophone world. I heard one of his friends say that Armenians, like all other people who have faced "extermination", are hardworkers and good entrepreneurs. They tend to be first in class, having very good grades in school. By the way, the story about IBM is true. You'd be surprised, but when the problem becomes so complex (the guys who make the bank's website can't solve it), the problem is handed over to IBM. IBM is also responsible for coding every banking transaction that a client makes as a transaction that generates fees or not for the customer. They screwed up once, so customers were paying fees for some types of banking transactions when they shouldn't have.

You guys are weird. I think you're just reinforcing Vava's argument that we shouldn't take our reputation for granted. Vava, I agree with you. I told this story to one of my relatives who lives in Germany. She told me that Armenians there are renowned as being corrupted, and that they smuggle Russians illegally into Germany.

I just want to share an interesting (I think) event that happened to me the other day. I am a manager in the mutual funds department of a Canadian bank. An employee transferred me a call of a customer who was furious because he couldn't see his account on the internet. He basically wanted to complain, and it's part of my job to handle complaints. He was so mad, that he didn't even let me speak. He kept interrupting me. At the end, I told him that I would see with IBM what they could do and then call him back. He then asked for my name. When he heard it, he suddenly calmed himself. ''Ah", he said, "you're Armenian!". "Yes", I said "not a lot of people know that names that end in IAN are Armenian". To which he replied: "That reassures me, because I know that you people work hard". "Yes", I replied, "we are renowned for that".

Thanks MJ, I understand. I'm not going to pretend that I am an expert on the matter, because I'm not. I do not have the time to read more about it. I have other priorities right now, and it's certainly not me who's going to solve Armenia's problems, although I'd really like to. For the record, my grandparents did speak Armenian, not Turkish (unless you call the Armenian that is spoken in Montreal Turkish, in which case you have serious issues). And they were certainly not a minority.

I agree somewhat with Thoth and Domino. What is a supposedly Worldwide Armenian Organization based in Moscow (of all places) going to do for Diasporans? I want an Armenia where I can speak and listen to the Armenian that my grandparents spoke: Western Armenian. I don't see why I should forget it and do as if it never existed and adapt to Eastern Armenian, as some have strongly suggested in this forum. So far, I am not convinced that either this Moscow-based organization or the Republic of Armenia wants Western Armenian to survive. It is up to them to do what's necessary to earn my trust. MY greatgrandparents got slaughtered in the genocide, not theirs! Their greatgrandparents or grandparents were probably on the Russian side of the border. They haven't suffered as much (which explains why Armenians in Armenia don't realize as much as I do the importance of marrying an Armenian). Ironically, my greatgrandparents suffered, and now I'm considered by some in Armenia as an "odar" because my parents don't come from Soviet Armenia. Sure, I could get the Armenian passport, thanks largely to my last name, but no right to vote, because deep down I'm not really considered an Armenian by the Republic. One way to earn my trust would be to put this organization in a country where Western Armenians are a majority (e.g. France). Another would be to give more importance to the concerns of Western Armenians (e.g. language), instead of just accusing them of not giving enough money to Armenia. When the Armenian government will have understood that, only then would I agree that they negotiate for land claims.

For those of you living in Canada, there will be a theater play about the life of an Armenian who has survived the genocide. Wanting to prolong his Armenian heritage, he plans to establish a strong Armenian family to ensure the survival of the Armenians. But, to his surprise, he finds out that his wife can't have kids... Where: on ARTV When: Mon Nov 10 @ 8PM Thu Nov 13 @ 1PM Fri Nov 14 @ 1 AM Sun Nov 16 @ 2:30 AM For more info: www.artv.ca Title: "Une Bete sur la lune'' (A beast on the moon), by Simon Abkarian and Corinne Jaber. I have never seen it myself, so don't start complaining if it's not good.