Month: May 2008

Arpine Konyalian Grenier
Part, Part Euphrates
reviewed by Celia Lisset Alvarez
38pp. NeO Pepper Press. US$10. 0978840755 paper

A New Syntax

Arpine Konyalian Grenier’s Part, Part Euphrates collapses both landscape
and time in a collection of poetry that challenges the reader to
reconstruct both narrative and place from language that defies logic and
tradition. Grenier creates her own evocative grammar of soul, self, and
society in these five interrelated poems that together make up a mosaic
narrative perhaps best referred to as political ecofeminism, but that
really escape easy categorizations. Although heavily imbued with
bittersweet glimpses of a deconstructed Lebanon traceable to Grenier’s
Armenian identity, Part, Part Euphrates is intensely personal and
passionate rather than simply driven by sociopolitical concerns.

The brief collection opens with `Lebanon regardless) would you
rather . . . ,’ a wistful look at the mysterious relationship with `G’
that anchors the personal narrative thread of the book. The speaker is
perturbed by the fractured realtionship to G and the presence of a woman
from his past:

he was her borrowed once a bruise on top each limb
her totem pole detailing a flower near original
shadow re-examined for rainmaking

Combining free verse with prose poetry, Grenier crafts a broken
narrative of loss and doubt in this poem, interspersing personal
questions (`Why do I feel her spirit interfering with my realtionship
with G’) and fractured memories with a decidedly urban and postmodern
sensibility best captured into the lines `the world is / my lover is.’
The speaker asserts that `nothing is new in Lebanon since you and I
cracked,’ and this collapse of self and city sets the stage for the rest
of the collection.

Subsequent poems play off of this classic feminist tension between the
personal and the political. `The Enthusiast’ bemoans the relationship
between Beirut’s past and present in language that attempts to
illuminate a neglected women’s history: `So the deal is – poor ugly
motherless Beirut suffering anonymity.’ Grenier examines how `the theme
of man’ has excluded its female counterpart (`I’m not a daughter they
say / I did not see it happen mama’) in a gesture she compares to
`backing against a one way street’ and provocatively calls `syntax
blackened.’ She ends this poem both hopefully and forcefully, implying
that women’s struggle for voice, and, obliquely, for economic freedom
(`today is the first day you’re a pay-stub mother / beaming at a new
syntax’), will bring about a new vision for Beirut:

these are not ours these streets we fight in
banal for some reason and emptied star
the watch in reverse
a new syntax
prepared
-ness

out there
street signals

turnpike
lane

Though difficult to unravel, the images in `The Enthusiast’ suggest the
overall raison d’etre of Grenier’s poetry in this collection, the
creation of a `new syntax’ driven by a woman-centered multiplicity of
voice that takes Audre Lorde’s imperative to dismantle the master’s
house to a multicultural level.

Very much the anchor poem of the group, `The Enthusiast’ also introduces
the concept of male versus female theming or viewing that unites all
five poems. `Gatekeeper, we unthemed’ brings together the languages of
science, gender, and politics to question the ways in which we relate to
one another:

there is no consensus or dissent they say
within the urge to connect
un-themed

is the neutral such?
how do where and how enter theme?
how does how many enter zero?
I had a dad and father and daddy
is that too synoptic for you?

Unlike in `The Enthusiast,’ in `Gatekeeper’ there is no sense of a
gendered optimism. This poem is nightmarish and urgent. Grenier speaks
of being `afraid of water and air and everything green or living’
because `what is free or living must be commoditized and digitized.’
There is a strong sense of disaster in this poem, where being `unthemed’
also means being `unaccounted for.’ The individual is powerless vis à
vis a machinery of destruction that threatens both the natural world and
its `private corners.’ Although sure to find resonance with many
readers, the poem lacks the unity of vision of `The Enthusiast,’ leaving
one with more questions than answers.

Ultimately, however, Grenier presents a beautifully braided collection
of poems that culminate in the final `Public at The Pergola,’ in which
all the themes of Part, Part Euphrates come together in a moving,
postmodern collage of poetry and prose. Finally `unthemed,’ the speaker
of `Pergola’ asks

what to do with the scissors you gave me (Ottoman)
what to do with the embroidered cross on one side
the linguist and research analyst positions at United Technologies
on the other the Biblical whole limbic

The speaker’s indecision and desperation is tenderly confessed in a
letter to G and a job application that recalls the `enthusiasm / work
ethic’ of `The Enthusiast.’ Grenier offers no easy resolutions. Like the
river, the collection is `recurring . . . / breeding its underside.’
What is remarkable about it is Grenier’s ability to engage with language
on its most primal, semiotic level. Words, images, and space collide and
explode into each other, and meaning is accumulated rather than created.
Such stylistic freshness sets this collection apart from other
treatments of these (post)modern themes of individualism, gender, and
ecology. Moreover, Grenier’s ability to navigate the uncharted with
grace and beauty also sets her writing apart from poetry that is
unconventional merely to shock or transgress. She creates her own syntax
and her own myth. She writes in the epigraph: `With an eternal lack of
selfhood and longing for ancestry I am creeping along the sidelines of
rhetoric and process hoping for an outcome that transcends my ability to
determine the good in it.’

Celia Lisset Alvarez is a writer and educator from Miami, Florida. Her
poetry includes The Stones (Finishing Line Press, 2006) and
Shapeshifting (Spire Press, 2006), winner of the 2005 Spire Press Poetry
Award. Poems from these collections are also in the anthologies White
Ink: Poems on Mothers and Motherhood (Demeter Press, 2007) and Letters
to the World (Red Hen Press, 2008). Other stories and poems have
appeared in the Iodine Poetry Journal, the Powhatan Review, Tar Wolf
Review, Poui: The Cave Hill Literary Annual, zingmagazine, and Mangrove,
and in the anthology Women Moving Forward: Narratives of Identity,
Migration, Resilience, and Hope, Vol. 1. (Cambridge Scholars Press,
2006). Her review of Christine Stewart-Nuñez’s Unbound & Branded is
forthcoming from Prairie Schooner. She currently teaches composition,
literature, scientific and creative writing at St. Thomas University in
Miami Gardens, Florida.

ml
This review is about 4 printed pages long. It is copyright © Celia
Lisset Alvarez and Jacket magazine 2008.

PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Linda Yepoyan
May 21, 2008
Phone: 610-642-6633

info@birthr ightarmenia.org

BIRTHRIGHT ARMENIA STIRS UP YOUTH IN SOUTH AMERICA

In its on-going quest to inspire diasporan youth around the world, record
turnouts of youth in South America during Birthright Armenia´s outreach tour
are nothing but uplifting. Beginning in Buenos Aires, Argentina and
winding down in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the April 17 – 27 sweep, including dozens
of meetings, interviews and presentations also held in Cordoba, Rosario,
Neuquén and Montevideo, targeted young adults interested in learning more
about volunteering in Armenia. Some were so moved by what they were hearing
for the first time, and realizing they were the first chosen generation to
be given such opportunities, completed applications on the spot to serve.

Of the 300 alumni who have passed through Birthright Armenia’s doors to
date, only one has been from South America. This is due primarily to the
number one deterrent for the youth in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and
Venezuela – namely, its distance from Armenia. In addition, many have
found it difficult to afford the airfare, and therefore, parked the idea of
having the experience until their financial circumstances changed.

Making the South American youth unique in terms of becoming potential
participants is the time of year that college students are available to
serve. South American summer vacations take place during what are the
winter months in Armenia, so many of the youth signing on will be doing so
during the snowy months of January, February and March. Volunteering in the
Homeland at this time of year will only add to the uniqueness of their
life-changing experiences.

Seventeen South American-Armenian youth have already put ink on paper for
doing their part in Armenia – ten applicants will comprise the first wave of
volunteers in 2008 and another seven have already applied for 2009, with
many more inquiries to finalize over the coming weeks and months.

One applicant, Agostina Ramirez Schirinian wrote in her application, -I
never thought that I would have the opportunity to have an experience like
this. Each one of us has something to give to one another, something that
will help us find our identity, something that helps us be who we are
(Armenian).- She continues, -It is going to be a very productive and
positive experience, as much for my personal growth as well as for the
people I am going to meet and build friendships with while I’m there. A
reunion of youth, from different countries, cultures and traditions on
Armenian soil will have many long term positive affects.-

Leading the outreach events were Linda Yepoyan and Seta Iskandarian,
Birthright Armenia and Armenian Volunteer Corps directors, respectively, who
found there to be very strong cooperation amongst the youth groups in South
America. -AGBU and AYF youth in Cordoba, Rosario and Sao Paolo frequently
work together on issues of Armenian concern, and hosting Birthright Armenia
in their cities proved to be no exception,- stated Yepoyan. -The youth from
both organizations met us at the airport and jointly hosted well-attended
presentations, followed by social get-togethers that helped solidify our
relationship with hundreds of youth there. -We also met with many leaders
of the Armenian community and have already secured a number of commitments
to help fund the cost of Birthright Armenia’s expansion into South America.
The high level of enthusiasm we felt everywhere we traveled was truly
inspirational,- she adds.

The Armenian population of Cordoba is estimated to be 5,000 people, who
pride themselves on having the first Armenian Church of South America in
their town. There was said to be 40 Armenian families in the city of
Neuquen, who settled there just three generations ago. And Rosario has what
can be described as a newly formed community as well. The youth from these
Argentinian cities will all converge in Armenia in the coming months and
years to say they are part of the movement that makes volunteering in
Armenia a rite of passage.

Birthright Armenia’s mission is to strengthen ties between the homeland and
diasporan youth by affording them an opportunity to be a part of Armenia’s
daily life and to contribute to Armenia’s development through work, study
and volunteer experiences, while developing a renewed sense of Armenian
identity. For more information, or to make an online donation, please visit
our web site at

PRESS RELEASE
"Ararat Foundation"
"Ararat " Center for Strategic Research, Yerevan
3115 Foothill Blvd., M-173
La Crescenta, CA 91214
Tel: 818-303-5566
e-mail: [email protected]

Armen Ayvazyan to speak on -The Cornerstones of Armenian Identity or
Who Is An Armenian" – Lecture & Public Discussion.

You are cordially invited to a lecture and a public discussion on "
The Cornerstones of Armenian Identity or Who Is An Armenian " by Armen
Ayvazyan, doctor of political science and history, senior researcher
in the Matenadaran, adjunct assistant professor of political science
at the American University of Armenia and director of " Ararat "
Center for Strategic Research in Yerevan.

-In the current most complex period of development of Armenia and the
Armenians, the problem of the Armenian identity represents not only an
academic interest but has a serious practical significance. There are
some irrefutable realities which we must see and accept exactly as
they stand. A strong national identity is a strategic asset in the
process of building and strengthening a nation-state. The dilution of
national identity hinders the consolidation of individual and society
around national goals and objectives. -Armen Ayvazyan

This very special event will take place on Sunday, June 1, 2008 at
6:00 p.m. at Glendale Central Library, 222 E. Harvard St., Glendale,
CA. The event is open to the public and admission is free.

* – The Cornerstones of Armenian Identity or Who Is An Armenian -, a
newly 29-page publication in Armenian, English and Russian will be
presented to the public.

RA DEFENSE MINISTER S. OHANYAN MET WITH STAFF OF CENTRAL APPARATUS OF DEFENSE MINISTRY

mp;p=0&id=486&y=2008&m=05&d=21
19. 05.08

On May 19th, 2008, continuing his familiarization meetings with the
personnel of RA Ministry of Defense, RA Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan
met with the staffs of the Information Department, the Department
of Work with the Personnel, the Operational Readiness Department and
the Physical Training Department.

Turning to the activity of the above-mentioned departments, Seyran
Ohanyan stressed the importance of the military, physical and
moral-psychological preparedness of the servicemen, as well as the
essence of the reforms in the Armed Forces.

At the end of the meeting the Minister wished success to the staff
in their future service.

Later the Minister visited the Military Police Department of the
Ministry of Defense, where the Head of the Department, Major-General
Vladimir Gasparyan reported on the cases and accidents registered in
the troops.

Turning to the further activity of the Military Police Department,
the Minister stressed the importance of maintenance of the latter’s
principles of impartiality and gave instructions on raising the
discipline in the Armed Forces, the serviceman-citizen interrelations,
and adherence to the rules of wearing military uniform.

At the end of the meeting Minister Ohanyan wished success to the staff.

BEYOND LAW
G. Petrosyan

KarabakhOpen
21-05-2008 11:41:00

Over the past few years the government has focused on the renovation of
schools and hospitals. The society naturally approves this. There is no
need to explain to an Armenian the importance of a school. Sometimes,
however, it becomes a good business and a screen for misappropriation.

The activities of Armenia Fund in Martakert, compared with the program
for which the telethon was held, underwent considerable change. We have
learned that disagreement to the change was the reason of resignation
of the ex-head of the regional administration of Martakert Smbat
Santuryan who worked out the program.

A new program was worked out, the priority of which can be considered
with reservations. Naturally, there was not enough money for the
original program. One of the reasons was the depreciation of the
dollar. The losses of the foundation in 2004 when the rate of exchange
of the dollar dropped from 590 to 500 drams are understood but in
the next three years the foundation in fact made the same mistake.

Thoughts on misconduct by some officials occur in this context, or
at best the incompetency of the staff of the foundation who could
have kept the sum in drams.

Besides, all the projects must be approved by the ministry of building
but in case of Armenia Foundation this is ignored, which leads to
heavy consequences.

For instance, during the renovation of the hospital of Martakert
building regulations were ignored, and openings were made in the main
walls which eventually ruined the building (although the official
version is problems with the ground).

As a result of the reconstruction of the hospital part of the money
raised for the region of Hadrut was spent, and an organization close to
Prime Minister Ara Harutiunyan started to renovate the hospital. Money
ended, and now the prime minister reaches for the money of Karabakh
Telecom which pledged it for charity in 2008.

During the telethon in the region of Hadrut money was raised for
the schools of the village of Hakaku, and the repair of the school
of the village of Togh half of which was repaired in 2001, and the
other half was in ruins since the war. In the old part of the school
there is a music school for which several rooms were somehow fixed.

The ruined part was expected to be repaired, which would accommodate
the school, while the part of the school which was repaired in
2001 by CRS would accommodate the music school and the nursery
school. Especially that the heating of the nursery school would not
be a problem since a boiler house is being built.

For whatever reason, the project involved the renovation of the
renovated part of the school building, whereas the ruined part was
left as it was.

Apparently, the local government interfered for which second-hand
building materials are highly important. In this case, there were
windows and floor which could be used once again. The project value
was 100 million drams.

However, the most interesting thing happened when the building
company lobbied by Prime Minister Ara Harutiunyan took interest
in this project. The value of the project was raised by 40 million
drams. Perhaps the money was "raised" at the expense of the school of
Hakaku, and the construction of the school of Hakaku was financed from
the state budget 2008, as part of the program of investments in Hadrut.

Here is a paradox: the Diaspora raises money for the people of NKR
and it is the money of people till some point. As soon as the money
is raised, they are controlled by some officials.

Karabakh-Open.com hailed the improvement of relations between the NKR
government and Armenia Foundation, hoping that it would improve the
quality of work and effectiveness of spending. Apparently, however,
it would be better for the cause if these relations are tense.

PER MINUTE PAY FOR TELEPHONE

KarabakhOpen
21-05-2008 11:44:44

>From June 1 there will be new tariffs of telephone. The only telephone
operator Karabakh Telecom proposed to introduce per minute pay. This
and other issues relating to communication services were affirmed in
the meeting of the Public Services and Economic Competition Regulatory
Commission.

The subscribers will have 500 minutes, about 16 minutes a day, for
free. The pay per minute will be 5 drams in case of 1000 minutes a
month, 7 drams for up to 1500 drams and 9 drams for more than 1500
minutes.

The representative of Karabakh Telecom says 500 minutes a month is
enough for an average citizen of Karabakh. The company conducted
monitoring for several months and found out that the average length
of telephone conversations a month is 450 minute per subscriber. In
Armenia the limit of free telephone usage is 360 minutes.

The monthly fee is the same 840 drams, although the representative
of Karabakh Telecom said earlier the subscription fee was 3000 drams.

After the introduction of the new tariffs call waiting and call
diverting will be free. Voice mail to mobile telephones will also
be free.

The monthly fee for internet will be 500 hundred drams and the fee
per minute will be 1 dram.

During the meeting of the Regulatory Commission the connection speed
was also discussed which is 24.4 – 33.6 Kbps now. The spokesman of
Karabakh Telecom said: "Soon the company will provide high-speed
internet but over the past few months the number of users has increased
by 700, which has caused some problems. Investments are needed for
their solution."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

GAZPROM WILL RAISE TARIFFS ON THE SUPPLY OF GAS TO ARMENIA STAGE BY STAGE

ITAR-TASS
May 20 2008
Russia

YEREVAN, May 20 (Itar-Tass) – Gazprom will raise tariffs on the
supply of gas to Armenia stage by stage, coordinating its steps with
the government of the republic. Such an arrangement was made here on
Monday during a meeting between President Serge Sarkisyan and Alexei
Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Board.

In the process, it was taken into consideration that Gazprom owns
72 percent of the shares of the monopoly supplier of Russian gas to
Armenia — the joint Russo-Armenian company ArmRosgazprom. Besides,
such an approach is intended to ensure predictability and accessibility
of deliveries to the economic entities and all gas users of the
republic, a government press service official has told Itar-Tass.

Gazprom is planning to achieve equal profitability of the supply of
gas both inside and outside Russia by 2011, Miller said.

During Monday’s meeting, the sides also touched upon negotiations
concerning the construction of an oil processing plant in Armenia,
and other investment projects that Gazprom implements in the republic’s
energy sector.

Sarkisyan said, "To Armenia, Gazprorm is a stable and promising
partner". He is confident that interaction will be fleshed out with
new substance. The interlocutors cited a substantial increase in
the scope of the use of gas by the population of Armenia in recent
years as an important achievement. The President said Armenia is one
of the world’s most widely gas-supplied countries, which is due to
large-scale installation of gas service.

The interlocutors stated that in recent years the ArmRosgazprom had
been working quite effectively, manifesting impressive results and
the fact that gas consumption has substantially gained in scope in
Armenia is indicative of steady development not only of the Company
but that of the entire economy of the republic, they emphasized.

At present Armenia gets Russian gas at a price of $110 per 1,000
cubic metres of gas. Effective from May 1, the republican government
discontinued subsidising the tariffs on natural gas for users. The
abrogation of those subsidies will entail an increase in tariffs on
gas by 42 percent for the population and still more for industrial
enterprises.

TALKING STYLE – PATRICIA FIELD

New Zealand Herald
fm?c_id=6&objectid=10511355
May 20 2008

You certainly couldn’t lose her in a crowd. Strutting through the
lobby of the Ritz Carlton hotel in New York, Academy Award-nominated
designer to the stars, Patricia Field’s hair is fuschia-hued, her
petite frame engulfed by a large fur coat.

She wears black and grey striped pants, a black sweater and large
black Dior heels. She speaks in a raspy voice, the kind that sounds
like she’s smoked two packets of unfiltered Camels all her life.

Of Greek and Armenian descent, Field’s relationship with Sarah Jessica
Parker began when the actor starred in Miami Rhapsody in 1995 and
Field was employed as the costume designer.

Parker demanded that Field design the clothes for her character Carrie
Bradshaw in Sex and the City, and her work has since been nominated for
five Emmys (with one win). She is also costume designer for Ugly Betty.

You seem to predict trends a long time before they hit …

People say I do that. But there’s no plan or strategy or consciousness
on my part to predict trends. I just put out original work and it’s
prolific, and so somewhere along the line there’ll be things that
people take to in a big way and they become a trend. But I don’t
predict it. The one thing I’ve learned is that for something to become
a trend, it helps if it’s something that has universal appeal. For
example, a flower, or a name necklace as opposed to a bustier. You
know, something that’s easy for people.

Who is the easiest or most difficult cast member to dress?

Well, originally I would say that Cynthia [Nixon] was a little
difficult to dress because of her body shape and her lack of
interest. But she fixed her shape and she became interested, so I
think she’s gonna run away with the movie.

You shot the movie in September and the movie’s coming out next
month. How did you manage to pick up the clothes and accessories so
that they’d be fashionable?

I never do that. If I tried to do that, I would fail. I just tried
to have little stories for each girl, and then I just tried to dress
them to look good. Of course I pick things from this season, but then
I pick things from 10 years ago. Or whatever. And you mix it all up
and you make a new look that will not get old because it’s original,
and it pertains strictly to this character. I’m not selling clothes.

What’s the one thing you would never wear?

Itchy wool. I read that you said Sarah Jessica Parker has a perfect
body. No one has a better body, of all the people, actresses that I
have ever met. Her muscles are toned, her shoulders are broad, her
ass is high, she’s like a perfect body. It’s little, but it’s perfect.

Do people ever stop you in the street and ask you for fashion advice?

Yeah. Or if I’m shopping, they’ll come over and say, ‘What do you
think I should buy?’

Do you get free Manolos for life?

No, I buy my Manolos. I do get a discount, in all fairness, and once in
a while, you know, [they] will send me a pair of shoes or whatever. But
in general, I’m not in it to get [free things]. I can afford to buy
whatever I want. And I don’t have very expensive taste. In general,
I have good taste, but my taste has not evolved around buying diamonds
and furs – that’s not really how I like to spend my money. It doesn’t
mean I don’t appreciate a nice coat like this, and work it.

What’s your most important piece of style advice?

In order to say somebody has style, it really means somebody has
originality that catches your eye. So, based on the definition of
what I think of as style, my advice would be to tap into yourself,
who you are, how you feel, learn to find your assets, recognise them,
and work them.

Do you have a favourite designer?

I don’t have a favorite designer. I love John Galliano because he
is keeping the flame of fashion burning. He’s the biggest one that
does that. I like him [because he sees] fashion as an art, not only
as an industry.

Who do you think is the kind of quintessential style icon of all time?

Cleopatra. Two thousand years and there’s still an image out there.

Which actress needs your advice badly right now?

I’m not going to answer that!

DISABLED SAN FRANCISCAN TO COLLECT 1 MILLION SIGNATURES BEFORE OLYMPICS
By Perple Lu

The Epoch Times Ireland
8204536
May 20 2008
Ireland

SAN FRANCISCO–"I am asking students, civilians across the United
States and globally to join with us in a town meeting," said Tatiana
A. Kostanian, a disabled San Franciscan, who has taken it as a
personal mission to collect one million signatures, including from
the disabled and the severely disabled, to end organ harvesting in
China. "Our voices, lives are the least and last invited in on both
local and global issues."

At 65, wheelchair bound, and on life support, Kostanian, who spends
her time visiting physicians and the Mayor’s Disability Council
in San Francisco, nevertheless, took up a new mission to help
save the myriads of lives that are in danger of involuntary organ
harvesting. According a Canadian human rights lawyer and coauthor of
an independent organ-harvesting investigation, David Matas, transplant
tourism banking on the organs of Falun Gong practitioners has become
a billion-dollar industry.

Thirty-five years ago, Kostanian started her work with a support
group for survivors of violent trauma. "I have had in my life, every
conceivable issue thrown my way…from toddler-hood to my late age of
65," said the founder of MHONA International, a nonprofit group for
the disabled. Having faced multiple challenges in getting around,
of not being heard, and not being included, Kostanian finally took
up the issue of universal human rights.

Together, four sides of Kostanian’s family experienced the Armenian
genocide, the Ukrainian genocide, and the Holocaust. "As a family,
we’ve faced communist tyranny, treachery, traitors, torturers,"
Kostanian recalled. "I have faced extremes of rape, torture and
starvation, abuses as a child into adulthood from a father who was
tortured by the communists in Russia."

After attending the Human Rights Torch Relay in San Francisco in
early April, she soon came up with the idea for a million-signature
Internet petition. "What I want to do is to gather signatures from
around the globe of both people who are disabled/profoundly disabled
as well as friends and families," wrote Kostanian on April 13, to stop
"the extremes of abuses, torture and killing actions of the Chinese
Communists, as well to stop the selling and harvesting of organs,
tissues, of the Falun Gong and other prisoners incarcerated in the
Chinese communist’s Gulag Prisons and Slave Labor Camps."

Tatiana A. Kostanian collects signatures at Union Square, in the heart
of San Francisco’s shopping district. (Perple Lu/The Epoch Times)On
May 1 Kostanian set up her own petition website. "Yes, I’m on life
support, but I can’t sit back ready to die, without giving something
of definite purpose," she said. "I believe it is time for our lives
to step forward and show the world what we feel, think about these
crimes against humanity as individuals and as disabled communities."

Her mission to collect a million signatures was only the beginning,
however. Kostanian showed up in her wheelchair in San Francisco’s
Union Square again on May 10 to collect signatures. She recalled
many people who passed by the table, shocked to see a picture of
a woman terribly charred from electric shock tortures, started to
talk and to ask questions, but then suddenly looked away and said,
"This has nothing to do with me."

"In that moment of their statement, it is I who look shocked,
not quite believing that any human being can walk away and deny
a simple signature that just might be the key to stopping the
continuum of genocide in operation in Mainland communist China,"
she later recounted.

"We may have less of finances, or every day needs met, but our hearts,
our very conscience is not empty in wanting our message to reach every
available heart," she said, referring to the community of disabled.

But some people have also been particularly quick to offer their
signatures. They include tourists, locals and young children.

"Organs from the poorest of the poor to give to the
rich. Disgusting!" Sherri O’Connor of Canada left her signature and
commented on Kostanian’s petition website on May 15.

Another signer, Kathleen A. H. of Arizona wrote, "It is barbaric,
and we, as human beings should be held accountable for such savage
acts against other humans!"

Isabella Hillmayr from Greece wrote of the prisoners of conscience
on the website, "Your thoughts and mind is free, while your body is
imprisoned–my spirit is with you."

With only three months to go and less than 200 signatures so far,
Kostanian is not daunted. "I will not sit back … and let my voice,
or the voices of my sisters and brothers … who gave up the ultimate,
their life, and their organs and tissues, to say we can’t gain a
million or more signatures," she wrote on May 10.

"I want to see if we might be able to reach out to some people of
leadership in San Jose as well," she said on May 13, referring to a
global town meeting of disabled and non-disabled people alike. "It
has to be done and pulled together by the people, not by leaders of
governments, or nations, but by the heart of everyday human beings."

WHEN THE KREMLIN TRIED A LITTLE OPENNESS
By Philip Taubman

St. Petersburg Times
May 20 2008
Russia

A dash of openness can be a dangerous thing in an autocratic
state. Mikhail Gorbachev discovered this two decades ago when his
campaign to inject some daylight into Soviet society doubled back on
him like a heat-seeking missile.

Now China’s leaders are playing with the same volatile political
chemistry as they give their own citizens and the world an unexpectedly
vivid look at the earthquake devastation in the nation’s southwest
regions. The rulers of cyclone-battered Myanmar, by contrast, are
sticking with the authoritarian playbook, limiting access and even
aid to the stricken delta region where tens of thousands of people
were killed by the storm.

While China’s response to its natural catastrophe is certainly more
humane, and is only a small step toward openness, it could set in
motion political forces that might, over time, be unsettling. That’s
especially true in an age of instant communications, even in a nation
like China, which tries to control Internet access.

"When you start opening up and loosen controls, it becomes a slippery
slope," Jack Matlock, the U.S. ambassador to Moscow during much of
the Gorbachev period, said last week as he watched the events in
China. "You quickly become a target for everyone with a grievance,
and before long people go after the whole system."

Chinese leaders are well aware of the Soviet experience. The bloody
crackdown against the democracy movement in Tiananmen Square in 1989
seemed motivated in part by fears that a relaxation of repression would
lead to a replay of Soviet turbulence in China. It was no accident
that China was the first country to translate and reprint Matlock’s
1995 account of the demise of the Soviet Union, "Autopsy on an Empire."

And China has taken a different reform path, in effect offering its
people robust economic growth, with a degree of responsiveness when
problems can be blamed on local officials, in exchange for continued
one-party rule. Playing up the response to the earthquake, even as
China restricts coverage of repression in Tibet, could prove a shrewd
move, rather than one that cascades into instability.

Still, it is worth recalling a time when a little openness flew out
of control.

As a correspondent and bureau chief for The New York Times in
Moscow in the late 1980s, I had a ringside seat to observe the slow
disintegration of the Soviet Union under Gorbachev. The collapse of
the Soviet empire and dissolution of the Communist Party were not
exactly what he had in mind when he took power in 1985 and launched
his twin policies of glasnost and perestroika.

As events unfolded, it was like watching a scientist start a nuclear
chain reaction that races out of control, eventually consuming him
and all those around him.

Gorbachev realized that his country was rotting from within, paralyzed
by repression and ideological rigidity, a backward economy and a
deep cynicism among Russians about their government. "We can’t go
on living like this," he told his wife, Raisa, hours before he was
named Soviet leader, he recalled in his 1995 memoirs.

But he clearly had no inkling of where his initiatives were headed
when, shortly after taking office, he broke new ground for a Kremlin
leader by mingling with citizens in Leningrad and giving unscripted
interviews.

As glasnost gathered force in the years that followed, it ripped away
the layers of deceit that were the foundation of the Soviet state. Each
step undermined the authority of the party and the government.

The explosion of a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in April 1986
shattered the Kremlin’s credibility — and gave a powerful impetus to
glasnost. The Kremlin, like the Burmese leaders after the cyclone,
seemed paralyzed by the accident. The first government announcement
— an innocuous 44 words — came more than a day after the reactor
meltdown, and hours after Sweden detected alarming levels of radiation
in its air.

The glacial flow of information imperiled thousands of people living
in the accident area. Gorbachev, embarrassed by the debacle, redoubled
his efforts to make the government and party more transparent.

The truth about Stalin’s brutality, and even Lenin’s, was exposed
as a bright floodlight illuminated the hidden recesses of Soviet
history. Newspapers and journals wrote honestly for the first time
about government corruption and mismanagement. Artists, playwrights,
filmmakers and writers looked unsparingly at the abuses of the
Soviet system.

Last week, Svetlana Savranskaya recalled the electrifying days in 1987
and 1988 when the truth about Soviet history trumped the distortions
that had long been taught at Moscow State University, where she was
a student.

But resistance to the accelerating change grew as the rivets that held
together Soviet society started to snap. Savranskaya, now an analyst
at the National Security Archive, a research institution at George
Washington University, challenged the traditional history textbooks
used at the Moscow high school where she taught history. She was soon
forced to teach English instead.

"Gorbachev thought he could control glasnost, and use it, but in the
end, even he turned against it," she said.

The scale of opposition became clear in March 1988, when an obscure
chemistry teacher named Nina Andreyeva attacked Gorbachev’s reform
agenda in Sovietskaya Rossia, a prominent newspaper. The attack,
which filled a full page, and its timing — while Gorbachev was
traveling in Yugoslavia — had the hallmarks of a Kremlin mugging.

That was all but confirmed when several members of the ruling Politburo
defended the article at a meeting convened when Gorbachev returned
to Moscow.

"A split was inevitable," Gorbachev wrote in his memoirs about the
Politburo gathering. "The question was, when?"

A striking moment of glasnost came with the killer earthquake in
Armenia in December 1988. Faced with the deaths of tens of thousands
of Soviet citizens, and desperate for outside aid, the Kremlin lifted
restrictions on travel to Armenia. Western reporters in Moscow were
stunned to discover that they could just go to the airport and catch a
flight to Yerevan, the Armenian capital, no advance government approval
required. Foreign relief flights, including U.S. military planes
carrying food, water and medical supplies, were welcomed in Yerevan.

Sounds a lot like China today.

As the old regime frayed, Gorbachev wasn’t prepared for the assault
of long-repressed political forces let loose by his reforms. The most
potent was nationalism, the fierce pride in nationhood that Stalin
and his successors had tried to suffocate in places like Lithuania,
Latvia and Estonia; Armenia and Georgia; and throughout Eastern Europe.

Once uncorked, nationalism essentially overwhelmed Gorbachev, who,
to his credit, choose not to try to hold together the Soviet empire
by force.

Russia today, despite the restoration of authoritarian rule by Vladimir
Putin, enjoys a degree of freedom that was inconceivable at the height
of Communist rule. Glasnost helped make it that way.

China’s leaders may not take comfort in that thought.

As Matlock said last week, "If you remove the power of repressive
state organs while stirring up a nation with many problems, you will
get a process you can’t control."

Philip Taubman is deputy opinion page editor at The New York Times,
where this comment first appeared.