Author: Andres-Papazian

mediabistro.com
Nov 10 2010

Armenian Cab Drivers Get No Help from Yelp!
By Richard Horgan on November 10, 2010 3:30 PM

Liana Aghajanian, Editor-in-Chief of LA-based online magazine Ianyan,
has a long and rather interesting look at an ordinance passed this
week in Santa Monica. It is very bad news for the city’s Armenian
community, because among the eight taxi cab firms prevented from doing
further business within city limits starting January, 2011 are a
half-dozen owned and-or operated by Amernian-American families. In
fact, not one such firm made it past a five-member committee’s
criteria.

There was a protest rally last night, and suspicions of racism have
been articulated very delicately by an attorney associated with the
barred taxicab companies. Aghajanian also hints at the contextual role
that may have been played by poor customer reviews posted to websites
such as Yelp!

Writes Aghajanian:

`If you like your life and your money, never ever ride with this cab
company!’ wrote a user named Mark Q. on Yelp! about V.I.P Yellow Cab.
The commenter alleges that the driver overcharged him, refused to
listen when told he was going the wrong way and illegally drove them
to the LA Colosseum, as he wasn’t permitted to operate in the Los
Angeles area.

In response this spring to charges that the removal of poor reviews on
Yelp! was being brokered for money, the site instituted a second tier
of `Filtered’ reviews, rather than simply deleting them.

From: A. Papazian

Anania Shirakatsi Lyceum to Partake in `Innovative Schools’
International Program

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS: The Anania Shirakatsi Lyceum will be
among the 56 schools of the world to partake in the Microsoft
Innovative Schools International Program.

An official from the lyceum told Armenpress more than 114 schools of
the world presented applications for participation; however only 56 of
them were selected. The Anania Shirakatsi Lyceum was among those
educational establishments.

The annual `Innovative Schools’ program, organized within the
framework of Microsoft’s `Partners in Learning’ program, is aimed at
creating flexible and reliable models of innovative schools, which can
have strong influence in the sphere of education and in the future
exchange their experience with other schools.

According to Kristine Gyonjyan, head of Microsoft educational projects
in Armenia, within the framework of the Microsoft `Partners in
Learning’ program it is intended to ensure IT accessibility in the
Armenian schools, support the professional improvement of teachers and
supply them with corresponding knowledge. She also added that in order
to achieve these goals the program operates in 3 directions –
innovative schools, teachers and pupils.

From: A. Papazian

Employees of `Nairit’ conduct protest rally

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS: Employees of the `Nairit’ factory
conducted today a protest rally in front of the building of the
Armenian government. They say they have not received salaries for
already 3 months.

Energy and Natural Resources Minister Armen Movsisyan invited the
participants of the protest to the government building, listened to
their complaints and promised to receive seven of them November 16.
`You will come to me and we will try to answer to your questions,’ the
minister said.

From: A. Papazian

news.am, Armenia
Nov 11 2010

Jan Garbarek and the Hilliards play music by Komitas (video)

November 11, 2010 | 03:34

The Norwegian saxophone player, Jan Garbarek, who had an early
breakthrough into the elite of modern jazz in the 60’s, due to his
extensive cooperation with Keith Jarrett, continues his success with a
collection of Armenian music. Garbarek and the Hilliards, a vocal
band from England, together recorded the Officium Novum album. Four
tracks on Officium Novum feature music by Komitas a priest and
composer considered the father of Armenian classical music. The
Hilliard Ensemble was invited to record some of Armenia’s traditional
church music, the chant which goes back to the fourth or fifth
centuries.

From: A. Papazian

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
Nov 11 2010

Turkey wants problem between Azerbaijan and Armenia to be solved peacefully – FM

11.11.2010 04:08 Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said
Wednesday that Turkey wants problem between Azerbaijan and Armenia to
be solved peacefully and with mutual respect, Anadolu Agency reported.

Davutoglu held a press conference in Strasbourg to mark Turkey’s
taking over the Chair of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of
Europe (CoE) from Macedonia. Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio
Milososki and CoE’s Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland also attended
the press conference.

A conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when
Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed
forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including
the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994.

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France, and the U.S. –
are currently holding negotiations to resolve the dispute.

Armenia has failed to implement UN Security Council resolutions
stipulating the liberation of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding
regions.

From: A. Papazian

`Shirak’s Historic-Cultural Monuments’ scientific work to be published soon

GYUMRI, NOVEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS: `Shirak’s Historic-Cultural
Monuments’ scientific work will soon be published prepared by Shirak
provincial service of Armenia’s Protection of Historic-Cultural
Reserve-Museums and Historic Sites. Author of the work, head of the
Shirak service Avetik Melik-Sargsyan told Armenpress that the book
will include archive documents and photos of today’s Shirak as well as
historic Shirak – information about Ani, Khtskonk, Horomos, Tekor,
Bagaran, Kars, Argina, territories, and monuments.

`The book will also draw parallels with the monuments built by Trdat
architect in Shirak and the biggest Christian Hagia Sophia temple
built in Istanbul during Byzantine Empire and later renovated by
Trdat,’ the author said. The book will be published next year.

From: A. Papazian

Sixty children adopted in Armenia in 2010

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS: About 54 beneficiaries made use of
state social assistance package in 2010. Twenty of them were provided
50 000 AMD one-time allowance, 15 received specially established
pensions, 14 – received narrow specialized education, 5 made use of
medical services.

Lena Hayrapetyan, head of the children affairs department of the Labor
and Social Affairs Ministry, said that children of children’s house
may make use of this assistance package until they are 23 years old.
This package also includes provision of apartments by the state.

During the running year 151 children have been registered for
adoption, 60 of which have been adopted, including 37 by foreigners.

From: A. Papazian

America’s News Online
Nov 11 2010

Obama And Pelosi’s Delusions Of Grandeur – Minority Leader

By Audrey Howard on November 10, 2010, 6:40 pm

The leadership contest between Hoyer, a lawmaker from Maryland, and
Clyburn, who is the highest-ranking black member of Congress, was
sparked by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to gain the House
minority leader position in the new Congress. Due to the fact her
party will no longer be in the majority in January, she’ll lose her
speaker’s position.

Possible Phantom Jobs
It has been lauded that President Obama and the old Congress were job
creators from day one. It has been said that they saved the country
from the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. The
Recovery Act created or rescued more than 3 million jobs, and America
is moving forward. October marks the 10th straight month of private
sector job growth. But it was revealed recently that the jobs the
Labor Department could be only a ruse using the numbers, in order to
make the administration look a little better in the public eye.

Administration Failed Us
In reality though, the victory of Republicans was not a failure of
Obama, but that of the Democratic-majority House and Nancy Pelosi
(Democrat-California.) Pelosi, who was its speaker from January 2007,
was elected on false promises to stop the war in Iraq or oust the
then-President George W. Bush, the outgoing Democratic-majority
Congress and its speaker has not given up much. Except, as famous HBO
talk-show host Bill Maher taunted in October 2007 (when the House
Committee on Foreign Affairs voted to pass Resolution HR106 on the
Armenian Genocide. This is why the voters gave control over to the
Democrats, to send a stiff message to the Ottoman Empire. It was quite
an accurate description of Nancy Pelosi’s legislature with Howard
Berman (Democrat-California) leading its failed foreign policy.

Pelois’s Delusions Of Grandeur
In every Democrat Pelosi saw a mini-me. What was good for Frisco was
surely good for down South or the Rustbelt. From his perch on high, as
White House chief of staff, Emanuel was a lonely voice surrounded by
liberal purists (including the Purist in Chief). His calls to phase in
the Democrats agenda in smaller increments, his arguments that the
public wasn’t ready for a radical far-reaching liberal agenda, were
set aside by the purists. The Republicans should be happy Emanuel was
overruled as often as he was. Bad economy or not, the Democrats
wouldn’t have suffered the beating they did without their votes on
health care.

From: A. Papazian

Seventy maternity schools operating in Armenia

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS: Seventeen maternity schools have
been founded in Armenia since 2008, four of them have been established
in 2010. Two of them are functioning in Shirak, two in Lori
established within the framework of the USAID’s `Mother and Child
Health Improvement’ program.

Marina Vardanyan, public relations officer of the program, told
Armenpress that the maternity schools contribute to the increase of
the level of awareness about women’s physical and psychological health
in pre-birth and post-birth periods. Within the framework of the
program doctor-obstetricians were trained who later conducted special
classes with future mothers.

`Mother and Child Health Improvement’ program is being carried out
with the support of the RA Health Ministry, involving all the
provinces of the republic. The program will be wrapped up in late 2010
but the maternity schools established till that time will continue
functioning.

From: A. Papazian

Presentation of Armenian-Azerbaijani Joint Films in Chldran Village

STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS: Within the framework of the
`Dialogue through Films’ program, the press club of Stepanakert
presented today `My Enemy, My Friend’ and `In the Style of Ego’ films
of Armenian-Azerbaijani joint production at the school of the village
of Chldran, Martakert Region. An official from the press club told
Armenpress that the presentation of the films was open to public. The
`Dialogue through Films’ program kicked off 2006.

`Internews’ offices in Armenia and Azerbaijan partake in the program.
`We presented the films in over 10 towns and villages of Artsakh. We
tend to show them not only in the centers of Arsakh’s regions, but
also in big and small villages,’ the organizers of the presentation
said.

From: A. Papazian