There’s so much to say about the past weeks.
I’ll be honest, the April 24 hype was not happening in Montreal. There seems to be a lack of motivation on the part of the organisers. I must admit that I have been out of the loop for the past months and haven’t been going to the “SRAH” as often as I used too. But there are thousands of people like me or even worst, they have never been to any Armenian community centre. So what do we do with these peoeple (me included for this year)? How does the community reach them?
Most of the commemoration in Montreal happens internally. The only public event we hold is the annual march that takes place on capital hill in Ottawa ( the capital of Canada) which is about 2 hrs away. Bus loads of Armenians arrive from Toronto, Ste-Catherines and Montreal. I decided not to go this year as I don’t think the march is effective! It has become part of a routine, and as most of us know, routine is BOOOORING!
However, there is one person who has dared defy this ritual. Her name is Lusnak. She is a multi-talented artist who has emmigrated from Lebanon about 20 years ago. She has a world-beat band and sings popular Armenian songs for a non-Armenian crowd. The show was held on the evening of April 24 in one of the hip cabaret type concert halls and was dedicated to the Genocide. She invited non-Armenian performers to sing, read poems and play musical pieces. It was a 2 hour show that attracted about 200. About 150 of them were non-Armenians and loved the show! So did I!
What about the Youth you say? Well, they are as unmotivated as their parents! There are great people with great ideas who seem to be limited or discouraged from actually putting their ideas into motion.
One of the ASA’s is more concerned to hold a “barahantess” then to actually get its members mobilised or involved in activisme activities… never mind that they don’t organise any, they don’t even advertise through their e-mail distibution other events held in the community in fear of sending too much information and turning off the members… REALLY!
What else, oh yes… I went to Charles Aznavour’s concert on April 10th. Let me tell you ladies and gents, at 77, this guy can still give a kick ass show! Althoug I was a little dissapointed that he didn’t even mention a thing about his Armenianness, I enjoyed the show so very very much! If you weren’t aware, he will be one of the main characters in Atom Egoyan’s soon to be released ARARAD.
By the way, I met Vincent Lima, editor of the Armenian Forum… what a great guy. So young and so full of inpiration! The Armenian Forum is a quarterly journal that publishes mostly academic articles of current issues pertaining to Armenia and the Diaspora. There are great controversial articles dealing from HIV in Armenia to domestic violence with a range of other topics such as genocide recognition and retribution and get this… dual nationality in the Armenian context!
During our discussion, Vincent told me that there are about one thousand subscribers… In my opinion, this is a shame. If there are about 7 million Armenians around the world of which, lets be conservative, 4 million read English of which 2 million are well off of which 1 million are used to reading scientific-type articles… let’s devide that into a nice family figure of 4 = 250 000. According to my rough calculations, the Armenian Forum should at least have 10 000 subscribers with a greater potential. So why aren’t they there yet? Is it a question of marketing? Or is it a lack of interest on the part of the population?
AIM magazine is also facing this dilema… where are the middle class Armenians and why are they not encouraging these publications? WOW… I had a lot to say. I’ll try and write more often so my thoughts are shared with you by through shorter logs.
I’ll be honest, the April 24 hype was not happening in Montreal. There seems to be a lack of motivation on the part of the organisers. I must admit that I have been out of the loop for the past months and haven’t been going to the “SRAH” as often as I used too. But there are thousands of people like me or even worst, they have never been to any Armenian community centre. So what do we do with these peoeple (me included for this year)? How does the community reach them?
Most of the commemoration in Montreal happens internally. The only public event we hold is the annual march that takes place on capital hill in Ottawa ( the capital of Canada) which is about 2 hrs away. Bus loads of Armenians arrive from Toronto, Ste-Catherines and Montreal. I decided not to go this year as I don’t think the march is effective! It has become part of a routine, and as most of us know, routine is BOOOORING!
However, there is one person who has dared defy this ritual. Her name is Lusnak. She is a multi-talented artist who has emmigrated from Lebanon about 20 years ago. She has a world-beat band and sings popular Armenian songs for a non-Armenian crowd. The show was held on the evening of April 24 in one of the hip cabaret type concert halls and was dedicated to the Genocide. She invited non-Armenian performers to sing, read poems and play musical pieces. It was a 2 hour show that attracted about 200. About 150 of them were non-Armenians and loved the show! So did I!
What about the Youth you say? Well, they are as unmotivated as their parents! There are great people with great ideas who seem to be limited or discouraged from actually putting their ideas into motion.
One of the ASA’s is more concerned to hold a “barahantess” then to actually get its members mobilised or involved in activisme activities… never mind that they don’t organise any, they don’t even advertise through their e-mail distibution other events held in the community in fear of sending too much information and turning off the members… REALLY!
What else, oh yes… I went to Charles Aznavour’s concert on April 10th. Let me tell you ladies and gents, at 77, this guy can still give a kick ass show! Althoug I was a little dissapointed that he didn’t even mention a thing about his Armenianness, I enjoyed the show so very very much! If you weren’t aware, he will be one of the main characters in Atom Egoyan’s soon to be released ARARAD.
By the way, I met Vincent Lima, editor of the Armenian Forum… what a great guy. So young and so full of inpiration! The Armenian Forum is a quarterly journal that publishes mostly academic articles of current issues pertaining to Armenia and the Diaspora. There are great controversial articles dealing from HIV in Armenia to domestic violence with a range of other topics such as genocide recognition and retribution and get this… dual nationality in the Armenian context!
During our discussion, Vincent told me that there are about one thousand subscribers… In my opinion, this is a shame. If there are about 7 million Armenians around the world of which, lets be conservative, 4 million read English of which 2 million are well off of which 1 million are used to reading scientific-type articles… let’s devide that into a nice family figure of 4 = 250 000. According to my rough calculations, the Armenian Forum should at least have 10 000 subscribers with a greater potential. So why aren’t they there yet? Is it a question of marketing? Or is it a lack of interest on the part of the population?
AIM magazine is also facing this dilema… where are the middle class Armenians and why are they not encouraging these publications? WOW… I had a lot to say. I’ll try and write more often so my thoughts are shared with you by through shorter logs.
posted by Raffi N at 1:42 AM
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