ara baliozian Posted August 21, 2003 Report Share Posted August 21, 2003 READERS************************As long as I have only one reader and even if that reader insults and curses me, I will continue to write. It has happened more than once that after insulting me for years some readers have apologized. If one brainwashed dupe can be deprogrammed two may follow. To those who accuse me of entertaining messianic ambitions, I say: A messiah promises a kingdom in heaven. I promise nothing but the recovery of one’s powers of independent thought. A messiah speaks of Truth with a capital t. I speak only of common sense in lower case. As for those eager to dismiss my sentiments as unpatriotic, I say: Patriotism also consists in being loyal to a set of principles that recognize no tribal or national or cultural barriers. A patriotism that is based on propaganda and lies is bound to collapse in a confrontation with, if not the enemy than, with reality.*WHAT IS DEMOCRACY?****************************Democracy could also be defined as ceaseless resistance to fascism. Because fascism, in addition to being a constant temptation, is also easy. What’s hard is recognizing its signs and symptoms, such as: censorship in the name of some noble-sounding abstraction; ascribing one’s failures on foreign powers (xenophobia); exaggerating one’s tribal or national uniqueness or superiority by re-writing history. *MEMOIRS********************The ghetto in Athens were I was born and raised has been torn down and paved over. The school in Venice where I was educated has been converted to a hotel. Even so, they continue to live in my memory and dreams. Canada, where I have spent most of my life, has so far failed to enter my dream world. From my days in Venice I remember Garo Basmajian, a pale sickly boy of fifteen from Marseilles who knew the PETIT LAROUSSE by heart and could identify a Rossini overture as surely as a Mozart symphony and a Beethoven sonata. What happened to him? I have made several attempts to reestablish contact without any results. I remember Padre Elia Pechikian, (Elia the Good), a Mekhitarist monk and headmaster of the Moorat-Raphael who loved to reminisce about his childhood in a tiny village in some forgotten corner of the Ottoman Empire. "When I asked my dad about the size of the moon," he once said, "he replied: ‘Same as our backyard.’ The poor fellow – he was just an uneducated farmer." I remember Padre Elia (the Bad) another Mekhitarist headmaster and a notorious sadist who believed and practiced corporal punishment. He ended his career by defrocking himself and running away to Argentina with a young mistress from Beirut. * Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
America-Hye Posted August 21, 2003 Report Share Posted August 21, 2003 Ara, Could a sickly boy have gone into pharmacy and medicine? Is this YOUR Garo? http://www.oupharmacy.com/academics/depart...ultyID=gbasmadj Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sip Posted August 21, 2003 Report Share Posted August 21, 2003 Could a sickly boy have gone into pharmacy and medicine? "Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Nuclear Pharmacy" ... wow, Nuclear Pharmacy?!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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