Ya, I wasn't able to get System tickets for the 24th. But last I checked someone was selling great tickets on ebay... just a bit over my budget. The heat is still on in LA... what's really going on? I'm missing Hayasdan already... so I know what you're talkin about Arsineh. I'm must itching to go somewhere... haven't traveled in a while.
I just got back from AYF Seminar earlier this afternoon. The weekend went rather well. As a surprise, the director of the weekend was Karnig Sarkissian, which was cool cause the youth never really gets a chance to interact with him. (For those who don't know, Karnig is a singer who sings revolutionary songs.) This year seminar had some really great educationals. Raffi Hamparian was there on Saturday and gave us an interactive educational. The camp was split up into 5 groups, with 3 of them as political parties, one media group and a group of informed citizens. The point of the two hour long activity was for each political party to create their platform and campaign to have their president elected, and participate in a presidential candidate press conference sort of thing, where the media would ask them questions. It was quite interesting to see the different kinds of groups that were formed and the different issues people wanted to hear about... for example genocide recognition, crimes against humanity, the war in iraq, the role of the UN, etc. In the end, there was a merger of two parties, which caused them both to lose. Nice try though.
We also got to hear from one of our members who participated in the Socialist International (for youth) in Budapest. Something interesting he said, was that the conference took place a week after the killing of the Armenian soldier there and no one at the conference knew anything about it. So as part of their presentation, the Armenian participants brought about awareness of the tragic event. How could they not know what's happening in their own country? There was also a discussion about the ARF's World Congress meeting, and some of the decisions that pertain to the youth.
There was also a discussion about what is a "revolutionary" today... whether it is a person, idea, event, etc. The consensus was that today's revolutionary is, for example, someone who has a vision, no matter how outrageous it may seem, and works to the best of her/his abilities towards those goals. Sometimes these goals seem soooo farfetched, a lot of us give up, because we're really not seeing the fruits of our labor... but other times we able to make a difference... and that's what matters. Revolutionary is passing out flyers to people attending a high-class celebration of Turkish culture in Downtown LA. Revolutionary is having a hunger strike in front of the Museum of Tolerance in order to bring attention to the fact that a museum built to teach about ALL crimes against humanity, doesn't include the Armenian Genocide. In my opinion, every logger on the Repat section of this site is a revolutionary. They have packed up their stuff and done something that 99.9% of Armenians only speak of doing. They are out there everyday, living a life that's a BIT more challenging than if they stayed where they were. They're far from their families and friends, and everything that's "norm" in their lives. They have a vision of a BETTER Armenia, and they are working - against all odds, in their small/big ways, towards that vision. Major props! Bravo dghak!
There's really so much more to say about the discussion, but I think that is a good way to sum it all up. If only more Armenians were, in their own personal way, a bit more revolutionary.
TSUH! :)~
I just got back from AYF Seminar earlier this afternoon. The weekend went rather well. As a surprise, the director of the weekend was Karnig Sarkissian, which was cool cause the youth never really gets a chance to interact with him. (For those who don't know, Karnig is a singer who sings revolutionary songs.) This year seminar had some really great educationals. Raffi Hamparian was there on Saturday and gave us an interactive educational. The camp was split up into 5 groups, with 3 of them as political parties, one media group and a group of informed citizens. The point of the two hour long activity was for each political party to create their platform and campaign to have their president elected, and participate in a presidential candidate press conference sort of thing, where the media would ask them questions. It was quite interesting to see the different kinds of groups that were formed and the different issues people wanted to hear about... for example genocide recognition, crimes against humanity, the war in iraq, the role of the UN, etc. In the end, there was a merger of two parties, which caused them both to lose. Nice try though.
We also got to hear from one of our members who participated in the Socialist International (for youth) in Budapest. Something interesting he said, was that the conference took place a week after the killing of the Armenian soldier there and no one at the conference knew anything about it. So as part of their presentation, the Armenian participants brought about awareness of the tragic event. How could they not know what's happening in their own country? There was also a discussion about the ARF's World Congress meeting, and some of the decisions that pertain to the youth.
There was also a discussion about what is a "revolutionary" today... whether it is a person, idea, event, etc. The consensus was that today's revolutionary is, for example, someone who has a vision, no matter how outrageous it may seem, and works to the best of her/his abilities towards those goals. Sometimes these goals seem soooo farfetched, a lot of us give up, because we're really not seeing the fruits of our labor... but other times we able to make a difference... and that's what matters. Revolutionary is passing out flyers to people attending a high-class celebration of Turkish culture in Downtown LA. Revolutionary is having a hunger strike in front of the Museum of Tolerance in order to bring attention to the fact that a museum built to teach about ALL crimes against humanity, doesn't include the Armenian Genocide. In my opinion, every logger on the Repat section of this site is a revolutionary. They have packed up their stuff and done something that 99.9% of Armenians only speak of doing. They are out there everyday, living a life that's a BIT more challenging than if they stayed where they were. They're far from their families and friends, and everything that's "norm" in their lives. They have a vision of a BETTER Armenia, and they are working - against all odds, in their small/big ways, towards that vision. Major props! Bravo dghak!
There's really so much more to say about the discussion, but I think that is a good way to sum it all up. If only more Armenians were, in their own personal way, a bit more revolutionary.
TSUH! :)~
posted by shooosh at 11:36 AM
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