Anoushik

hahaha... of course not! ... we know that...

Then, in this case maybe it's Gasparian's management team's fault.

It shouldn't be tolerated! The concert organizers should have been more aware about the Armenians and our music. If none of the concert administration was Armenian than Gasparian's managers should have taken care of it from the beginning. Like Armat said it was ignorance, and we can't just assume that all Europeans are educated.

skittles, don't you think that it's a bit unfair to the male population that you state men are cruel and women suffer because of them?... you're making it a bit too general... you're talking about criminals yet your first post made it sound like you were talking about most men...

Yes, sev-mard, you're right. But how to make it a reality for an entire people?... that's the question...

Piggy, don't even dare comparing the United States with the Soviet. I know that the U.S. is not perfect but making such irresponsible comments without much thought is inexcusable.

accel, please... The USSR was in fact a total failure. The posts above you've put are very ridiculous. The whole system of USSR was made up corruption and bribary wherever you went. You're talking about healthcare being free when in fact you had to bribe the doctors, nurses, and the whole health clinic to get some kind of care. And you'd just wish that the doctor treating you had some kind of education, because his medical diploma might have been bought. Comparing the housing in USSR to Europe's housing is likely a mistake. The reason so many people died in the 1988 earthquake was of faulty housing. The houses weren't adequately built. Everything was rushed and cheated out of. My grandma's 5 story apartment building (built in the 1960's) just sank during the earthquake while the apartment building in which we were staying didn't suffer any damage because it'd been built in the 1920's. Both of my parents are professionals. My mom worked as a piano teacher in the music school, and my dad worked as an editor for three newspapers. Yet because they were honest people and didn't have it in them to cheat the system like everybody else was doing our family barely could live normally. The pay was very little and our family had to rely on the support of my grandparents. (An example of how my mom could have cheated the system: give the students passing grades at exams in exchange of gifts or money, or refuse to accept new students into the music school by first claiming that it was full and then hinting at wanting money.)

Thanks very much Arpa... Very interesting. I didn't know about the Armenian last names before. Can you please tell me which websites you'd recommend for studying the Armenian history and culture?

I know!...

"When everything else fails, follow directions." I love that. It was posted in my high school government class. I didn't care much for it then but the more I grow the more I realize how wise and correct that statement was!

Great posts, nakharar and phantom! Only another point I'd like to add has to do with what you said at the end about the Genocide and Armenians wanting to make up for their losses. While I agree with you partly, nakharar, I also think that the Genocide isn't such a big factor for us wanting to succeed. I think it's in our blood in general, the drive to succeed has always been there from generations long before the Genocide. Because of our very tragic history, having always been under foreign rule, Armenians learned to be hardworking and try their best in order to keep their existance and survival - which today translates into our existance and survival.

That's our greatest tragedy. On one hand we are this group of unique, highly intelligent people (we are truly intelligent and gifted, I am not exagerating) and on the other hand we posses this need to constantly criticize each other (as I am doing right now) and find fault in everything that's Armenian. Maybe because we can see that with other cultures we are very compatible but since every Armenian is gifted in one way or another we can't stand that. Two weeks ago the Armenian National Chamber Orchestra gave a concert in Glendale. They were just excellent! Very professional. But despite that people had to criticize. Since so many musicians were there and realized that the Orchestra really was excellent musically they picked on the instruments, stating that had the Armenian government provided more funding towads the better care of the instruments the orchestra would have sounded so much better. There really wasn't any need for such comments. They sounded fine on international level. But this jealously is just eating us up. What should we do to stop it from destroying our culture?

My family, that is.

It was mostly arevmtahays. The Armenian culture here in LA is really "rotten". Armenians from Armenia. Every Armenian talkshow is directed towards inflicting hatred about the current government in Armenia. And sadly to say, it has worked. From our surroundings, my family was the only one who sent money to the fundraiser - everybody else just laughed at us for being so "idealistic" and "naive". Oh, for the record, we are Armenians from Armenia.

But back to topic. Anileve I agree with you about the difference of culture and gererations but what is it that you don't agree about my statement?

anileve i almost sent you a pm asking you what happened to the thread.

PiggyWiggy, you're in high school. It's just a small four years of your entire life. While it may seem that it's the real world, it's not. Trust me. That's how I used to think too, but there is a whole different world beyond high school, (and even beyond college, I'm sure, since I'm in college now)... An entirely different world where you can say "I am Armenian" and it's not going to hurt your reputation.

And the same thing is happening now too. It's so frightening to see the lack of faith Armenians have for the future of Armenia and Artsach. Well... I know that my comment here doesn't apply to most Armenians but it does apply to the majority of Armenians from Armenia who are now living in LA. A recent example is the Armeniafund. It's a shame how those Armenians behaved in those days and how they didn't wish to make any contributions for their country, because their intuition tells not to trust fellow Armenians.

I'm sorry for your loss, angel. I was also there, in Leninakan (now Gyumri). I was 5 years old. We didn't suffer losses in our relatives, but a lot of my parents' friends and collegues died.

Why is it that most Armenians from Armenia end their last name with YAN but Armenians from diaspora have IAN endings? I am from Armenia and my family's last name ends with IAN. I know that Armenians from Armenia had to translate their last names from Soviet passports - which means from Russian. But my dad specifically asked that our name be spelled IAN in English. He said that it's the correct way to spell. Almost every barskahye has IAN ending. Is it really the correct way to spell the Armenian last name?

sorry to change the topic but same happens to me... I accessed through google.com what's going on?

Domino, I do understand the concept of the Universe being of infinit size but how do you achieve to the conclusion of it being the same as a with the infinit number of Universes? So you just assume that there is "no restriction of my existance?" How did you come to that? Actually, it seems by assuming that there are no restrictions of our existance and there are multiple Universes in which we exist then you are "restricting" the possibilities of existing to what we know in this world. Do I make sense? Maybe I misunderstand you? (I love to discuss topics like this and have read some of your posts on this matter. Unfortunately I haven't had the time to read all of them. But it's always interesting to see what you have to say. )

skittles, my parents always told me that it's not that they don't trust me but it's that they don't trust the environment. <_< It's like I was so naive I wouldn't know what was best for me when I wasn't with my parents. I suspect most parents give this excuse to their teenage kids, but I believe there's some honesty in that excuse.

I am all for privacy. But you have definitely provided the "extreme" in both cases. However, Shiner, do you really believe that in the first extreme it's possible to feel loved (or appreciate that love) when "you have no room to breathe and everybody is constantly in you business?" ... I personally think that it's impossible and so I think that the second extreme is the lesser of two evils.

I know we could've done much better today if more Armenians participated in the fund, but just to see some improvement from last year is so encouraging! And I am sure next year will be better!!!