Author: Ekmekjian Janet

Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
Jan 5 2005
Home for the holiday
In an unprecedented move, Glendale Unified School District gives
students the day off for Armenian Christmas.
By Darleene Barrientos, News-Press and Leader
GLENDALE – For the first time, Glendale’s public schools will be
closed Jan. 6 to observe Armenian Christmas.
Glendale Unified School District’s board members unanimously approved
the change in the holiday calendar last March.
Many Armenians observe Dec. 25 and Jan. 6 as crucial parts of the
Christmas season. Thursday, the Day of Epiphany, is a holiday
observed by various Christian faiths for several reasons, including
the revealing of Jesus Christ as the messiah and his baptism. It is
more colloquially referred to as Armenian Christmas.
“There were three reasons why it was done,” Glendale Supt. Michael
Escalante said. “The first one was the kids weren’t at school, so
they were losing a day of instruction. Second, as a result of the
students not being in school, there was a financial impact on the
district. Third, it was to recognize a holiday that traditionally
hadn’t been recognized.”
District officials originally discussed extending the winter break
another week to include the holiday. But after a backlash from
parents upset with the prospect of losing time for family vacations
by ending the school year a week later or earlier, the district
instead made Jan. 6 a day off for all students.
“In previous years when we didn’t have it off, a lot of teachers
would get frustrated just because they knew other students weren’t
coming to school,” Glendale High School student Harra Yoon, 17, said.
“The students didn’t mind – in classes, they could get off easy and
the teachers didn’t give out so much work. It is better that it’s off
because, that way, not so many students get off the work.”
The absence of nearly one-third of the student population – more than
10,000 of the district’s 29,000 students are of Armenian descent –
made it a financial problem. The district earns about $25 per student
per day in state Average Daily Attendance funds. Past years have cost
the district about $250,000 because many Armenian students don’t
attend school that day.
“I think it’s common sense,” Rosemont Middle School PTA President
Jane Stockly said. “It saves money. Our school district always needs
to look to the changing times and changing population by observing
their holidays.”
Other school districts observe Chinese New Year, Rosh Hashanah and
Yom Kippur for the same reasons, she said.
“It makes complete sense to me,” Stockly said. “It’s a way for the
district to be smart with its money.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MIRADAS Revista del Audiovisual-Cuba ()
Número 7, Deciembre,2004  
Especial  >  Serguei Paradzhanov: El rey en su laberinto 
Serguei Paradzhanov: El rey en su laberinto
Redacción de Miradas
Los primeros filmes de Serguei Paradzhanov no evidenciaron la vena
surrealista, difusa y sofisticadamente folclórica que luego lo hiciera tan famoso. Eran,
en cambio, pelà – culas pertenecientes al llamado neorrealismo soviético de
finales de los años cincuenta y principios de los sesenta, época en la cual se
impuso una variante representacional algo más flexible e inclusiva que el
realismo socialista de los tiempos de Stalin.
Los estudios de las repúblicas soviéticas, más cercanos a las tradiciones
vernaculares y menos vulnerables a las polà – ticas oficiales del Goskinó moscovita,
produjeron algunas pelà – culas realmente oblicuas, vanguardistas y poéticas,
entre las cuales destacó la filmografà – a de Serguei Paradzhanov, quien creció en
Georgia, se graduó de cineasta en 1951 y realizó buena parte de sus filmes en
Ucrania.
En similar posición `marginal’, y por tanto favorecedora de la
experimentación y la novedad, se encontraban cineastas soviéticos como los georgianos
Georgy Shenguelaya, Tenguiz Abuladze y Otar Iosseliani o el ucraniano Yuri Ilienko,
todos fuertemente influidos al menos por uno de los cuatro grandes
vanguardistas soviéticos: Alexander Dovzhenko, cuya impronta panteà – sta y poética se
percibe en otros cineasta de esa generación, como Andrei Tarkovski y Larisa
Shepitkó.
Las cuatro obras maestras a que nos referiremos a continuación constituyeron
en su momento, e incluso mucho después, verdaderas revelaciones artà – sticas que
cambiaron el estilo de representación del cine, pues cada escena o secuencia
de estas pelà – culas se transforma en imagen plástica, que actualiza los valores
culturales del pasado y los introduce en el contexto de la conciencia actual.
Los mitos y leyendas, las costumbres y gestos que descienden de nuestros
ancestros, objetos como las alfombras, las cerámicas, las joyas y las armas rompen
su naturaleza icónica para evidenciar su naturaleza recónditamente simbólica.
La primera pelà – cula célebre, y auténticamente vanguardista de Paradzhanov,
serà – a su quinta obra: Sombra de los antepasados olvidados (1965), que cuenta la
historia de un hombre perseguido por la obsesión de la muerte de su amada. La
peculiaridad consistà – a en la cantidad de técnicas modernistas empleadas: el
uso incesante de la cámara en mano, los larguà – simos planos en movimiento a lo
largo de los paisajes, las tomas estático-rituales, primorosamente compuestas,
alternando con imágenes fuertemente subjetivas, incluso surrealistas. Rapsodia
carpática sobre aldeanos del siglo XIX, cuyas historias son reforzadas con
baladas de la época No obstante, el conjunto ofrece una impresión de caos
artificioso, formalizado y tremendamente imaginativo.
Después de trabajar en Ucrania, Paradzhanov fue transferido a los estudios de
Armenia, donde filmó El color de la granada (1969), cuyo guión se inspira en
la biografà – a del poeta Sayat Nova. En este filme jamás se atiene a la
secuencialidad lineal ni a las moralejas de los biopics tradicionales. La pelà – cula
más bien se construye a partir de larguà – simas tomas de los personajes, los
animales y los objetos en rà – gidos retablos frontales, mientras la edición solo
vincula estas tomas o intercala eventos totalmente onà – ricos, asà – como sà – mbolos
paganos y cristianos, fotografiados con la más hierática de las cámaras. Fue
este el filme más experimental realizado en la URSS desde los años veinte, de
acuerdo con el criterio del historiador del cine David Bordwell.
Después de un perà – odo de inactividad forzosa, pudo volver a la realización en
los años ochenta. Entonces Paradzhanov ensaya nuevamente los métodos
constructivos y poéticos de El color de la granada en La leyenda de la fortaleza de
Suram (1983), que igual destaca por su riqueza compositiva, su estilizada
simplicidad y su textura brillantemente surrealista. Solo que ahora la historia
relatada es casi inexistente, inescrutable al menos, y las referencias
culturales georgianas son presentadas del modo más esotérico que fue posible.
Antes de su muerte, en 1990, realizó Ashib Kerib (1989), una adaptación
literaria transformada por su tratamiento ritual de las leyendas georgianas y de
costumbres étnicas. El relato folclórico se subdivide en viñetas o episodios,
resueltos a la manera tà – pica de tableaux vivants colmados de imágenes
suntuosas y simbólicas que se acompañan de canciones y poemas. A partir un relato de
Lermontov, muy libremente adaptado, se compone un mundo étnico, el del
Azerbaizhán musulmán, de manera libre, sensual y personal, sin dejar de incluirse un
código sumergido sobre las tribulaciones del artista siempre vapuleado por el
poder.
En 1995, Ron y Dorotea Holloway publicaron una larga entrevista con Serguei
Paradzhanov, que sirvió de base para el documental Réquiem , dirigido por ellos
mismos y que es uno entre la docena de obras dedicadas a la memoria del
malogrado director armenio-georgiano. La entrevista tuvo lugar en 1988, en un hotel
de Alemania, mientras se preparaban para la premiere mundial de Ashik Kerib
en el Festival de Munich. Publicamos a continuación algunos fragmentos de las
respuestas ofrecidas por el cineasta:
`Mi filme de graduación fue un corto para niños titulado Cuento de hadas
moldavo (1951), y luego de que mi maestro Alexander Dovzhenko lo vio, reclamó
verlo por segunda vez, lo cual ocurrà – a por primera vez en la historia de la
Escuela de Cine de Moscú. Rostoslav Yurenev, que luego serà – a un importante crà – tico
de arte, señaló que yo habà – a copiado la épica monumental de Dovzhenko en
Zvenigorá , pero después pudieron comprobar que yo no habà – a visto esa pelà – cula de
Dovzhenko, simplemente me estaba preparando para lo que serà – a mi estilo de
expresión en el cine.
`Creo que el cineasta nace, no se estudia para ser cineasta. Hay que nacer
con eso y tenerlo desde el vientre de tu madre, y por ello casi siempre resulta
que los cineastas provienen de padres con sensibilidad artà – stica. Dirigir cine
es como una aventura de niños: uno toma la iniciativa entre los demás y se
transforma en el là – der, en el creador de misterios, en alguien capaz de crear
cosas y de moldearlas a su gusto. Para mà – dirigir una pelà – cula significa la vida
real, el sueño y el misterio cuando deciden juntarse. Pero más que todo, es
la verdad que yo concibo en imágenes, no siempre realistas, aptas para expresar
la tristeza, la esperanza, el amor y la belleza. Cuando les cuento a mis
amigos la historia de mis filmes, antes de rodarlos, siempre les pregunto si estoy
contando la verdad o estoy imaginando cosas, y siempre me contestan que estoy
mintiendo e imaginando cosas en mi guión. Pero para mà – es la pura verdad,
como yo la percibo.
`Realicé ocho filmes en Ucrania y en el noveno, Sombra de los antepasados
olvidados , fue donde encontré definitivamente mi tema y mi área de interés: los
problemas de las personas enfrentadas con el pasado, con su idea de
pertenencia a una raza y nación, con sus conceptos sobre Dios, sobre el amor y la
tragedia. Me gusta mucho El color de la granada porque no ganó ni un solo premio en
ninguna parte, y además, por las difà – ciles condiciones técnicas en que tuve
que realizarlo. Y como no tenà – a nada de nada, resultó que en pantalla apareció
el entorno primitivo y realista de una aldea esteparia promedio. Resultó como
un cuento de hadas modelado desde una situación realista, y el resultado fue
hiperrealista. El filme resulta como un joyero persa, cuya belleza exterior
deslumbra y, cuando lo abres, descubres una belleza incluso superior a la del
exterior.
`La naturaleza nos guà – a, y también nos regresa a su seno. Hay que adorar la
naturaleza, su verdad, su ideal. Mis filmes tienen entre sà – un solo factor
común: una cierta similitud en el estilo. Nunca quise sentar cátedra ni
convertirme en maestro de nada, pero quien trata de imitar mi cine se pierde. Yo sà – he
seguido las maneras que otros determinaron. Por ejemplo, Pasolini es como un
dios para mà – , un dios de la estética, un maestro del estilo, alguien que supo
recrear la patologà – a de toda una época y se superó a sà – mismo en los filmes de
época. La magia de Fellini siempre me cautivó, sobre todo su don para poner en
escena lo fantástico en filmes como E la nave va o Casanova ‘.
 
Algunas pelà – culas como director:
Parajanov: The Last Spring (Armenia, 1992) (segmento de La confesión )
La confesión (1990)
Ashugi Qaribi (URSS, 1988)
Arabeskebi Pirosmanis temaze (URSS; 1985)
Ambavi Suramis tsikhitsa (URSS, 1984)
Sayat Nova (URSS, 1968)
Hakob Hovnatanyan (URSS, 1967)
Tini zabutykh predkiv (1964)
Tsvetok na kamne (URSS, 1962)
Ukrainskaya rapsodiya (URSS, 1961)
Pervyj paren (1959)
Dumka (1957)
Natalya Ushvij (1957)
Zolotye ruki (1957)
Andriyesh (1954)
Moldovskaya skazka (1951)

Baku Today
Dec 29 2004
Azeri Refugees to Get IDB Assistance
Sponsored Links

by Habib Shaikh, Arab News 29/12/2004 06:34
The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) is to assist Azerbaijan government
in meeting some of the social needs of the country’s refugees,
particularly in education, health, water supply and sanitation, in
the territory occupied by Armenia.
Bank President Dr. Ahmad Muhammad Ali, who visited Azerbaijan, has
promised that the IDB would `very soon’ send a mission to identify
priority areas to help the refugees.
Previously, the bank had allocated $1.5 million as grant to provide
emergency assistance to these displaced people. It had also provided
a loan of $10 million to finance schools, water supply, irrigation
infrastructure and agriculture equipment for the benefit of the
refugees.
Dr. Ali, who visited one of the refugee camps, also promised that the
IDB would do its best to sensitize the international community on the
tragedy of these displaced people.
Earlier, during a meeting with President Ilham Aliev in the capital
Baku, the two focused on ways to enhance the `already excellent’
cooperation between Azerbaijan and the IDB.
Azerbaijan authorities and the IDB president agreed to redouble
efforts to promote intra-trade and intra-investment among member
countries and also enhance their capacity to export to other
countries. IDB expressed its readiness to assist in organizing
exhibitions in the UAE and Germany to present their products and
project their potentialities to investors in various sectors of
Azerbaijan economy.
Since Azerbaijan joined the bank in 1992, IDB has provided it
financing amounting to $130 million. The bank has also participated
in the financing of several roads connecting Azerbaijan to the
European markets. Currently, it is considering the possibility of
participating in the construction of another section of the road
linking the country to Europe (Yavlakh-Ganja), as well as the
North-South corridor linking Azerbaijan to Iran.
The bank is giving special attention to the energy sector in the
country, and is considering the possibility of participating in the
connection of the energy grid of Azerbaijan and the grid of Russia
and Iran, facilitating the export and import of energy from
Azerbaijan to the two countries.

The joy of Christmas (alone): So what did you do for Christmas? Pretend to
like your stepmum’s present? Eat too much rich food? Humour your drunken uncle?
Or watch appalling TV? Julian Baggini decided to skip all that this year –
and, like the millions of
The Guardian – United Kingdom
Dec 28, 2004

At 7.45am on Christmas morning I awoke at the Ibis Heathrow Airport
hotel. I could look forward to a continental-style breakfast buffet, a
few hours in my room, many more hanging around Heathrow terminal three
and, finally, an eight-hour flight to New York, arriving just in time
to go to sleep for the final few minutes of my 29-hour day. And all of
this I would do alone.
Spending Christmas alone is usually assumed to be a bad thing. Mine
may sound to you desperately sad, all too reminiscent of that
tragicomic icon of modern male inadequacy, Alan Partridge. But when
the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service reported that nearly half a
million older people would spend Christmas by themselves, no one asked
how large a minority were relieved not to have to bother with it any
more. My experience of this ultimate anti-Christmas, and those of the
other festive refuseniks I met along the way, suggests that any pity
or mockery is displaced. Envy might be more appropriate.
The cabbie who took me to the hotel on Christmas Eve was certainly
more than happy to be working the next day. Apart from the large
number of “wheelchair jobs” resulting from non-emergency ambulance
crews taking their holidays, there were lots of people who by early
evening were “desperate to get out”, he said, making the West End and
Knightsbridge in particular surprisingly busy. After all, what else
would he be doing, with no wife or kids to be with? “I’d be down the
pub talking a load of old rubbish with my mates,” he said.
I got to the hotel to find it about two-thirds empty. I checked in and
headed for the bar, where I was served by Vazken. He wasn’t over the
moon to have another shift the next day, but as an Armenian Orthodox
Christian, his Christmas is on January 6 anyway, so it was no big
deal. According to the last census, 28% of the UK population – among
them 1.5 million Muslims – is not Christian at all. With more than
one-quarter of the population with no reason to see the 25th as
special, why should it be strange not to celebrate it?
Indeed, I was to meet many more non-Christians, including the Muslim
cashier at the Travelex foreign exchange counter, who thought it was
“brilliant” to be working on Christmas day because of the extra pay;
and Mohamed, the waiter who served me my Christmas lunch, which we
will come to later. It was as though, for one day only, the sizeable
non-Christian minority got to run the country.
Another of Vazken’s customers on Christmas Eve was Margaret. Like me,
her official reason for spending the night alone at the Ibis was that
she would save money by flying out to America on the afternoon of the
25th, when the fares were half the price. This wasn’t the whole story,
however, since Margaret had made a habit of organising her trips to
avoid the traditional Christmas trappings. I asked her why.
Margaret did have some family hassles she wanted to get away from. But
her choice was more positive than simply being one of simple
avoidance. She was refusing to either go along with something that
would make her miserable, or to sit on the sidelines and get
depressed. She had taken charge and organised a trip that would make
her happy. This wasn’t bluff or bravado. In the bar on Christmas Eve
she was gregarious good company, enjoying a drink with other
seasonally spirited guests with no trace of the desperate race to
alcoholic oblivion typical of many so-called Yuletide
celebrations. Margaret was making her Christmas a success – more of a
success, I daresay, than many more traditional family gatherings.
Indeed, it is telling how her friends and family reacted when she told
them what she would be doing. “They say it’s great,” she told me. “The
word that best describes their reaction is envy.”
That was just what I found when I told people that I had extended a
conference trip so that I would have some spare time in New York at
the expense of Christmas Day with family. The idea of getting away
from the cooking, the excessive drinking, crap TV and inevitable
family tension is one that almost everyone found beguiling.
Those I left behind, even if they had managed to plan a day they would
be happy with, had more often than not been forced to negotiate all
sorts of family politics, usually hurting or disappointing at least
someone in the process.
That is what I think explained the curiously good-natured atmosphere
in the hotel bar, which to a casual observer would have looked
soulless, about as festive as a curry made from three-day-old
turkey. We could enjoy Christmas more than ever precisely because, by
choosing to skip it, we had freed ourselves from the burdens of
expectation that stand in the way of relaxed pleasure.
I checked out of the hotel at 11.30am on Christmas Day and made my way
to Heathrow, where I had six hours to kill. For many of the airport’s
70,000 staff, like the nearly one million people the TUC estimates
work on Christmas Day, it was business as usual. Although only around
a third of the 180,000 passengers a day who pass through the airport
over the holiday period do so on the 25th itself, staffing levels are
more or less the same.
This very normality is what makes an airport the ideal place for the
Christmas escapee. In homes and streets across Britain, the things
that make Christmas different – from the special TV shows to the
closed shops and the eerily quiet streets – all serve as constant
reminders of what everyone else is doing that day. At Heathrow,
however, you soon forget what it is you’re not doing. Christmas
really does disappear.
I decided to get check-in and security out of the way and spend my
time in the hermetically sealed world beyond passport control. As I
really wasn’t trying to be a total humbug, I then sought out the best
meal Heathrow had to offer, only to find that nowhere was serving a
Christmas lunch. Surprisingly, however, it wasn’t then a toss-up
between McDonalds, Garfunkels and an absurdly priced seafood and
champagne bar. I sat down to a perfectly decent lunch at Chez Gerard,
part of a mid-market brasserie chain.
Any attempt to inject a bit of class was somewhat diminished by the
sign on the table informing me that “due to security reasons, we can
only provide plastic cutlery with your meal”. Still, the tuna nicoise
went down well, and despite the unseasonal advice I had seen posted
all over Boots to avoid alcohol and caffeine before a flight, I
figured that a festive glass of wine and Irish coffee had plenty of
time to work their way through my system. It may not have been the
best Christmas lunch I had ever had, but nor was it the worst. And
being able to walk afterwards was a real bonus.
Lunch consumed, I renewed my efforts to track down tragic sole
travellers. David from New York had managed to arrange a day even
more humbuggish than mine: he had left the US on Christmas Eve and
would not be arriving at his final destination, Bombay, until 8.30am
on Boxing Day. He was travelling “to one member of my family and away
from a lot more. I am missing out on some things, but I’m gaining so
much more.”
Another solo traveller, Martin, was going to New York to be with his
girlfriend, a flight attendant with Virgin who was working on
Christmas Day. He too thought his friends were “quite envious,
actually” and said: “I’d rather be away from it, to be
honest. Christmas is overhyped.”
On the plane, I found myself sitting next to yet another lone
traveller. “Christmas has lost its meaning,” she said. “It’s become
too commercial.” But it transpired she had a more personal reason for
taking her trip on this of all days. Over Christmas last year, her
husband left her for one of her friends, and her young son would be
spending the holidays with him. “It hasn’t been a good year,” she said
with understatement. She was happy to get away and spend some time
with friends in New York.
Yet even this woman deserves more respect than pity. Running away from
problems has a bad name, but as any expert in self-defence will tell
you, sometimes running away is precisely the right thing to do. What
this woman was doing was defiant and positive. “I feel I’m one step
ahead,” she said, somewhat cryptically.
Perhaps what she meant was that by refusing to have a miserable
Christmas alone or accepting an invitation to share someone else’s,
which would never really be hers, she had defied the expectations of
those who think there is only one right way to celebrate, one they may
not enjoy, but feel obliged to enact.
There’s nothing wrong with a good family gathering at Christmas for
those who have a family arrangement that allows it, an opportunity to
make it happen and a cultural background that makes Christmas mean
something. But if we’re honest, there are many people who don’t fit
this mould. They should not be made to feel like like social pariahs
for opting out of the traditional Christmas, or any other widely
observed celebration. It is much sadder to attempt to cobble together
a traditional Christmas from pieces that don’t fit than to throw them
all away and do something completely different instead.
On New Year’s Eve, another trial of enforced jollity, I will be
raising a glass to my fellow Christmas refuseniks who dealt with their
situations with honesty and defiance. And I’ll be doing it at
35,000ft, on my way back from New York, avoiding yet another
celebration that some see as unmissable. If you feel pity, there’s no
need. And if you feel envy, there’s still time to do something about
it.
Julian Baggini is the editor and co-publisher of the Philosophers’
Magazine, and the author of What’s It All About? Philosophy and the
Meaning of Life, published by Granta.
Loneliness of the long-distance traveller . . . Baggini whiles away
the time in the lobby of the Ibis Hotel, Heathrow Airport
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Washington Times, DC
Dec 27 2004
America enjoys view from the top
By David R. Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
“A country that makes a film like ‘Star Wars’ deserves to rule the
world.”
– Philip Adams, former chairman of the Australian Film Commission

Love it, hate it, embrace it, deny it, American power, American
influence and American values are the defining features of today’s
interconnected world.
Questions of an American “empire” – whether we have one, whether
we want one, whether we can afford or keep one – aren’t just the
white-hot topic of the day among statesmen and political scientists.

The world really is becoming more “American.”
The pervasive pull of American ideals, popular culture and media,
and economic opportunity works in mysterious counterpoint, and not
always harmoniously, with overwhelming U.S. military might and
diplomatic clout.
This pull is felt in every corner of the globe in the age of
Google, Michael Jordan, Eminem and SpongeBob SquarePants.
Last month’s re-election of President Bush – who opinion surveys
show would have difficulty even getting on the ballot in many
countries – is just the latest illustration of America’s unique role.
“You cannot imagine the impact of the American election in
Europe,” Italian religious philosopher and politician Rocco
Buttiglione says during a recent Washington visit.
“America is modernity, and what takes place in America today will
take place in Europe in 10, 15 or 20 years,” he says. “The Europeans,
all of a sudden, had to discover that America is religious, that
ethical issues are relevant to politics.”
Lorne Craner, president of the International Republican
Institute, served as the State Department’s human rights chief for
most of President Bush’s first term.
“I was obviously concerned that issues like Abu Ghraib could hurt
our standing and our ability to support our values abroad,” says Mr.
Craner, whose tenure was marked by international criticism of U.S.
actions on everything from the Kyoto global-warming pact to the Abu
Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq.
“But I found that the American experience and American ideals
still were very powerful almost everywhere I went,” Mr. Craner says.
“People realized we are not perfect, but it did not undermine our
credibility.”
This series examines aspects of America’s pervasive influence and
some of the consequences, from democratic ideals and entrepreneurial
ingenuity to language, sports and popular culture.
Some of America’s most skeptical critics seem to be most aware of
the nation’s provocative pull.
Hubert Vedrine, the former French foreign minister who coined the
term “hyperpower” to describe the post-Cold War United States, writes
that America’s power rests on its ability to “inspire the dreams and
desires of others, thanks to the mastery of global images through
film and television.”
“For these same reasons, large numbers of students from other
countries come to the United States to finish their studies,” he
adds.
Dartmouth College political scientists Stephen G. Brooks and
William C. Wohlforth observe in a Foreign Affairs article: “Today,
the United States has no rival in any critical dimension of power.
There has never been a system of sovereign states that contained one
state with this degree of dominance.”

Strength in ‘soft power’
Aspects of U.S. “hard power” are well-known:
Although defense spending takes up a little more than 4 percent
of gross domestic output, for instance, the United States still
spends more on defense – $348.5 billion in 2002 – than the next 12
countries combined.
With 6 percent of the world’s population and 6 percent of its
land mass, the United States generates a third of the gross domestic
product (GDP), attracts a third of the foreign direct investment and
spends more on research and development than the next seven countries
combined.
But Harvard analyst Joseph S. Nye Jr. argues that America’s “soft
power” secures the country’s dominant place in the world, confounding
critics who consistently predicted that U.S. power and influence were
bound to fade as rivals emerged.
“Soft power arises in large part from our values,” Mr. Nye says.
“These values are expressed in our culture, in the policies we follow
inside our country, and in the way we handle ourselves
internationally.”
German commentator Josef Joffe says the attraction of American
culture “looms even larger than its economic and military assets.”
“U.S. culture – low-brow or high – radiates outward with an
intensity last seen in the days of the Roman Empire – but with a
novel twist. Rome’s and Soviet Russia’s cultural sway stopped exactly
at their military borders. America’s soft power, though, rules over
an empire on which the sun never sets.”
On Armenian television, a young man wearing a Charles Barkley
basketball jersey and a stocking cap raps about society’s injustices
in fluent Armenian. Hollywood blockbusters dominate theater marquees
from Brussels to Beijing to Buenos Aires. Muhammad Ali, Michael
Jordan and Tiger Woods are among the most recognized people on the
planet.
“We so-called ‘imperialists’ don’t wear pith helmets, but rather,
baggy jeans and backward baseball caps,” says conservative columnist
and Hoover Institute fellow Victor Davis Hanson.
“Thus far, the rest of the globe – whether Islamic
fundamentalists, European socialists or Chinese communists – has not
yet formulated an ideology antithetical to the kinetic strain of
Western culture.”

Head of the class
It is a dominance built on a series of paradoxes.
In education, for example, the poor state of America’s public
schools is a staple of the U.S. political debate. U.S. eighth-graders
ranked 12th in a new survey of fourth- and eighth-grade science and
math skills, trailing such countries as Russia, Cyprus and Latvia.
But U.S. universities and public and private research foundations
remain the envy of the world. “Brain drain” has become a shorthand
term around the world for top scholars, researchers and managers
pulling up stakes and moving to America.
American citizens and U.S.-based researchers won or shared the
Nobel Prize in medicine in 17 of the past 20 years and took home at
least a share of the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 18 of the past 20
years.
The Internet’s early partisans saw it as a global leveler, giving
equal access and voice to users in the most remote corners of the
globe.
But the Web became yet another expression of U.S. dominance,
cementing the status of English as the globe’s universal language.
Although Americans aren’t the most numerous users of the Internet, a
recent survey found that the estimated 115 million U.S.-based Web
sites dwarfs that of second-place Japan, home to 13 million sites.

Built on beliefs
In matters of faith, the United States remains distinct from
other industrial powers.
America has more churches, synagogues, temples and mosques per
capita than any other country on earth, U.S. News & World Report
recently noted. That’s about one house of religion for every 865
persons.
More than four in five Americans tell pollsters that they believe
in God, and more than 40 percent of American Christians say they
attend a religious service at least once a week.
By contrast, weekly religious attendance hovers at about 15
percent in Italy and 5 percent in France. Just 21 percent of
Europeans rate religion as “very important” in their lives.
“In Western Europe, we are hanging on by our fingernails,” the
Rev. David Cornick, general secretary of the United Reform Church in
Britain, told Christian Today magazine earlier this year. “Europe is
no longer Christian.”
Many scholars say faith continues to thrive in America because
government took a hands-off approach, in contrast to the
state-sanctioned faiths of other countries.
“Monopolies damage religion,” says Massimo Introvigne of the
Center for Studies on New Religions in Turin, Italy. “In a free
market, people get more interested in the product. It is true for
religion just as it is true for cars.”
That faith inspires thousands of American Christians to leave
comfortable lives behind to spread the Gospel and do good works in
often-hostile foreign mission fields, such as Malaysia and Vietnam.

Culture across borders
The global impact of the decidedly worldly U.S. pop culture –
notably movies, television and music – also reflects a triumph of the
marketplace and free competition, argues George Mason University
economist Tyler Cowen, who has written extensively on culture and
globalization.
Hollywood’s global clout and ability to shape attitudes come not
from government support (there isn’t any) or from some native
superiority of American actors, directors and producers.
Unlike many of European and Asian rivals, Hollywood never relied
on government subsidies or bureaucratic guidelines in deciding which
projects to bankroll and which stars to promote.
American cinema and television, Mr. Cowen says, is the ultimate
meritocracy, where an Austrian bodybuilder (Arnold Schwarzenegger)
and a movie buff from New Zealand (“Lord of the Rings” director Peter
Jackson) become the faces of “American” filmmaking.
Mr. Cowen notes that the two national movie industries enjoying
the most export success after Hollywood – Hong Kong’s action movies
and India’s Bollywood extravaganzas – “are run on an explicitly
commercial basis.”

Spirit of giving
The same reliance on private forces and individual initiative is
evident in American patterns of giving, which also deviate markedly
from the rest of the world.
The U.S. government ranked 22nd among the world’s developed
nations in 2003 in foreign aid on a per-capita basis, according to
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, offering
one-sixth the amount of aid per citizen offered by Norway.
But private philanthropy in America is one of the most powerful
and effective aid programs on earth, concludes a new study by
researchers at the Institute for Jewish and Community Research.
American private charities are set to spend more than $200
billion this year, and more than half of U.S. adults will work on
volunteer projects, putting in an estimated 20 billion hours in
donated time.
One study by the Washington-based Philanthropy Roundtable found
that the average American household contributes seven times as much
to charity as its German counterpart, and Americans are six times
more likely than Germans to do volunteer work.
“In short,” researchers Alexander Karp, Gary A. Tobin and Aryeh
Weinberg write in the journal Philanthropy, “American philanthropy is
extraordinary by any world standard and the reason is that America
herself is exceptional.”

Armenian parliament adopts 2005 state budget
Arminfo
25 Dec 04
YEREVAN
The Armenian National Assembly yesterday adopted the Armenian state
budget for 2005 with a vote of 103 in favour and seven against.
Armenian Deputy Finance and Economy Minister Pavel Safaryan who
presented the country’s main financial document thinks that certain
changes have been made to the state budget of 2005. The overwhelming
majority of the 315 proposals and amendments put forward by the
deputies are reflected in the document.
Additional expenses to the tune of 22.3bn drams [46.074m dollars] are
envisaged, including 9.2bn [19m dollars] on the resolution of
social-cultural issues, 2.7bn [5.57m dollars] on the education sphere
and 3.6bn [7.43m dollars] on the social sphere. In comparison with the
original amount of the draft project, the budget expenses have
increased by 19.2bn [39.6m dollars] and total 394bn drams [814m
dollars].
The revenues of the Armenian state budget have also increased and
totalled 345.7bn [714.25m dollars].
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Putin Gives Positive Assessment of Russia’s 2004
MOSNEWS, Russia
Dec 23 2004
MosNews
Speaking at an annual press conference in the Kremlin Russian president
Vladimir Putin gave the political results of 2004 a “plus sign,
on the whole.”
He said the world was not free from areas of tension, “and they are
not only in the Middle East and Iraq”. Putin also mentioned the Beslan
tragedy that pushed everyone to strengthen antiterrorist and other
measures. The Russian leader stressed that proposals to cancel the
popular vote of governors and to form the Russian parliament according
to party lists were part of those counterterrorist measures.
“It is necessary to work out all the mechanisms that will create a
situation whereby a regional leader feels responsible for the country
and the region’s problems,” Putin said.
Also at the press conference in the Kremlin, broadcast live by Russian
television channels, Putin said the positive trade balance of Russia
in 2004 was $80 billion, while the rise in the gross domestic product
would reach 6.8 percent which corresponds with the rise of the last
five years, and the gross revenue per head is about $4,000 which is
twice as high as in 2000. The state debt of Russia has been reduced by
one third since 1999, Putin said. Gold and exchange currency reserves
have increased by up to 70 percent and are close to $120 billion.
“It is a record figure not only in the history of the Russian
Federation but also for the Soviet Union,” the Russian president
said. “It is important to point out that for the first time the bulk
of gold and exchange currency reserves has exceeded the bulk of the
state external debt.”
The minimum salary for budget workers will rise by a third in 2005,
Putin promised. Inflation will be 8.5 percent. The number of those
unemployed has decreased to 7.4 percent of the workforce, which means
about 5.5 million people, the Russian head of state said.
Putin also touched on Yukos subsidiary Yuganskneftegaz. He said that
the Rosneft oil company had bought it using legal market methods.
Speaking on energy resources, he said that according to the results
of an evaluation, Russia will have enough resources for 45-50 years.
All energy companies in Russia are working successfully, with oil
companies increasing output by five percent, and gas companies by
three percent.
“Our country developed as a superbureaucracy for a long time,
and it has consolidated in the minds of officials and the people,”
Putin said. “The administrative reform is not a fast process. What
the government has done is not enough, but we are heading in the
right direction.”
Speaking on Chechnya, Putin said that there would be no Russian
conscripts in the region from Jan. 1, 2005. It is also necessary to
raise the professionalism of the Russian army. “We are not setting
the task of creating a fully professional army, but professionals
will serve in the units of permanent combat readiness,” Putin said.
“Russian interests in the Caucasus must be harmoniously combined with
those of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia,” Putin said adding that
Russia was ready to mediate in a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Addressing the journalists, Putin described them as his “team”
alongside the government. He added, however, that it was not very
effective to always hold open government meetings. “I hope that
government will hold part of their meetings behind closed doors to
have far more acute discussions.”

VARTAN OSKANIAN: RATIFY THE RIGHTS OF KARABAKH PEOPLE FOR SELF-DETERMINATION
AND ACHIEVE ITS INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION
Azg/arm
24 Dec 04
Armenia Unlikely to Be against Step-by-Stage Settlement
RA foreign minister is sure that today the Armenian side can get
more in Nagorno Karabakh issue than in 1997. “Today, I see that we
have a serious opportunity to ratify the right of NKR people for
self-determination and achieve its international recognition,” he said.
“Today, the Prague process is on, I know what is in the agenda and I
see an opportunity to get more, than we could get in 1997. You can ask
whether we will get or not. I don’t know. Five year may pass and we
will again begin this dialogue and say that we should have accepted
that version in 1997. But, today, there are such issues are on the
agenda that directly prompt us that we can definitely get more than in
1997. I wish I could talk about all this openly without making harm to
the negotiations,” Oskanian said to a press conference on December 22.
Oskanian stated that Ilham Aliyev is merely unable to meet the
Key West agreements, on the other hand he said that unless a new
key suggestion is made the Key West achievements are still on the
agenda. “But one can in some way modify the approaches, preserving
the principles. I would describe the current situation at the Prague
process in the following way: the Key West principles remain the same,
but they have underwent some modification that would help the Azeri
side be involved in the process,” Oskanian said.
“Principally, Armenia’s position is not changed: we believe that we
should achieve full settlement of the issue, certainly, preserving the
opportunity for maneuvering. There is one obvious fact, i.e. it will
be difficult for us to achieve the same results with the current Azeri
authorities as we did with the former ones. We realize it,” he said.
Oskanian advices to pay attention to the article published in the
French Le Figaro where “today’s general prospects over NKR issue” were
touched on. Pierre Lelouch, chairman of NATO Parliamentary Assembly,
and Anna Palacio, former Spanish foreign minister, expressed opinion
in the abovementioned article that “Armenia should temporally control
Nagorno Karabakh, while its further status will be adopted 5 or 10
years after through referendum.”
Oskanian believes that Nagorno Karabakh’s right for self-determination
can be indirect in the aspect of the time. In response to the question
put by Azg Daily “if the Prague process yields positive results
and no obstacles occur, will Armenia agree to discuss the issue of
NKR’s status in 10 or 15 years”, Oskanian said: “We try to ratify the
right of NKR people for self-determination and we can apply flexible
deadlines for that. But the right for NKR peoples self-determination
should be ratified, we will struggle till the end and we will not
sign any agreement without ratifying that fact.”
If we really can be flexible in the issue of the deadlines for the
adoption of NKR’s status, as we could understand from the comments of
Oskanian, we shouldn’t exclude that Yerevan can consider it acceptable
the step-by-step solution, when the key issues of the conflict are
solved (returning of the territories, the refugees, etc.), while the
issue of NKR’s status is left to be solved in 5 or 10 years.
Generally, Oskanian has no complexes about the fact that in the times
of Levon Ter-Petrosian, former Armenian president, he was for the
step-by-step solution: “Of course, I can strictly refuse to begin a
dialogue (around that issue), I do it having one special goal: to break
the taboo on speaking freely in the issue of possible settlements of
Nagorno Karabakh conflict. We need reasonable discussions and analysis
connected with the settlement of the issue,” RA foreign minister said.
Oskanian accepts that the Karabakh side is not included in the current
negotiation process: “The only reason that NKR doesn’t participate
in the negotiations is Azerbaijan’s refusal. Today, Armenia faces
the following alternative, i.e. to insist on NKR’s participation
and refuse negotiating, or agree to negotiate for the sake of their
continuation. RA president decided to approach the issue in the
following way, it is not really so important who from the Armenians
is negotiating, the core of the negotiations is more important.
Armenia conducts the negotiations, but a certain period is sure to come
when NKR’s participation will be unavoidable in the process,” he said.
RA foreign minister also touched upon the statement made by Boris
Grizlov in Yerevan, according to which Armenia is Russia’s outpost in
the Caucasus. “This word doesn’t correctly reflect the essence of our
relations. I am sure that Grizlov meant really good Armenian-Russian
relations. I think that he used the wrong word,” he said.
Moreover, Oskanian thinks Armenia is the only South Caucasian
republic that conducts a more independent foreign policy. “The policy
of complementarism gives us more opportunities for maneuvering. Our
neighbors are more deeply dependent and their opportunities to maneuver
are more limited.”
By Tatoul Hakobian

Turquie : débat sans passion au Parlement
Le Figaro
mardi 21 décembre 2004
Députés et sénateurs ont débattu aujourd’hui de l’ouverture des
négociations d’adhésion de la Turquie à l’Union européenne décidée
vendredi à Bruxelles, dans une atmosphère relativement atone dans les
deux chambres, faute de vote sur cette question et donc d’enjeu.
(Avec AFP.)
Les députés ont été avertis au dernier moment de cette séance
spéciale, comme le 14 octobre dernier lors du premier débat sans vote
sur les relations avec Ankara. (Photo Mustafa Ozer/AFP.)
Tour à tour, Jean-Pierre Raffarin a expliqué aux députés puis aux
sénateurs que «négociation n’était pas adhésion», dans le souci de
rassurer les parlementaires UMP opposés à une entrée d’Ankara dans
l’UE, conformément à la position du Conseil national de leur parti de
mai dernier.
«Il n’y a pas, je le dis clairement, automaticité de la négociation à
l’adhésion. Le processus va être long et durer au minimum dix ans
(…). Pour une raison simple: ni l’Europe ni la Turquie ne sont
prêtes aujourd’hui à une adhésion», a insisté le Premier ministre. Il
a en outre rappelé qu’en tout état de cause, les Français auraient
«le dernier mot» sur une éventuelle entrée d’Ankara dans l’Union, par
la voie d’un référendum promis par le président Jacques Chirac.
Exercice délicat pour M. Raffarin, contraint à un discours à la fois
audible par les parlementaires de l’UMP et compatible avec la
position du chef de l’Etat en faveur d’une adhésion de la Turquie.
Se faisant, il s’est attiré les critiques des socialistes mais aussi
celles des centristes dont le président François Bayrou s’est montré
particulièrement virulent vis-à-vis de Jacques Chirac et du
gouvernement.
«Décalage abyssal» entre le chef de l’Etat et le président de l’UMP
Nicolas Sarkozy, «grand concert de la discorde»: le président du
groupe socialiste à l’Assemblée Jean-Marc Ayrault a étrillé la
droite, avant de qualifier l’accord de Bruxelles «d’acte majeur».
Il a regretté néanmoins que le Conseil européen n’ait pas «clairement
signifié» au gouvernement turc que «la reconnaissance mutuelle entre
ses Etats-membres n’est pas négociable» face au refus de la Turquie
de reconnaître Chypre. Il a également déploré «l’interférence» des
Etats-Unis dans la négociation.
Très en verve, François Bayrou, qui réclame, en vain, depuis des mois
un vote des parlementaires sur une éventuelle adhésion de la Turquie
à l’UE, a dénoncé une «démocratie française concentrée, verrouillée,
et sans contre pouvoir».
«Les représentants du peuple sont écartés des sujets essentiels» et
«les 577 députés et 340 sénateurs» sont en fait «interdits
d’expression et d’engagement sur les sujets lourds, interdits
d’histoire», a-t-il lancé.
Il a rappelé qu’en cas de vote, les parlementaires auraient été
majoritairement contre une entrée de la Turquie dans l’Union. Manière
de signifier l’isolement du gouvernement face à sa majorité.
Pour les communistes, le président du groupe Alain Bocquet a accusé
la droite de «vouloir parasiter la question essentielle» du
référendum sur la Constitution européenne avec celle de la Turquie.
Alors qu’à l’Assemblée, le débat a duré une heure, le temps de la
séance des questions au gouvernement, au Sénat, les orateurs se sont
succédé à la tribune durant trois heures. Il est vrai que les
sénateurs n’avaient pas eu droit à une longue discussion sur le
sujet, comme cela avait été le cas pour le députés le 14 octobre.
Le débat n’y a pas été plus animé qu’à l’Assemblée. Seule l’annonce
par Jean-Pierre Raffarin de la libération des deux otages français en
Irak a déclenché des applaudissements sur tous les bancs.
–Boundary_(ID_SSZk9yE6RRXoOSNOyDvf+w)–

The Australian, Australia
Dec 18 2004
Fenech’s man champion
By Petr Kogoy
A FIREWORKS display interrupted yesterday’s flyweight world title
fight in Florida, but when the smoke cleared Australia had a new
world champion.
The Jeff Fenech-trained Vic Darchinyan claimed the IBF flyweight
title with an 11th-round knockout win over Colombian Irene Pacheco.
The contest was even after nine rounds before officials took the
unusual step of stopping the bout after the fireworks display.
Following a 10-minute delay, Darchinyan came out in the 10th round
and dropped Pacheco for the first time in the fight with a left hand.
Pacheco, 33, took a mandatory eight count, got up and made it to the
end of the round. He was dropped again in the 11th round with another
pile-driving left hand. Then Pacheco’s corner called a halt.
Darchinyan’s win took his record to 23-0, with 18 knockouts.
Darchinyan became Fenech’s first boxer to win a world title.
“I’ve finally got the monkey off my back,” Fenech told The Weekend
Australian.
“I went into the fight with a plan for Vic and it worked. The
Colombian took a lot of punishment before he hit the canvas the first
time in the 10th.
“The straight left Vic threw at him in the 11th that finally ended
the fight was a piledriver. The punch would have stopped a raging
bull in its tracks.”
Born and raised in Vanaezor, Armenia, Darchinyan was spotted by
Fenech at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
“I’ve waited for this chance a long time,” Darchinyan said.
“While I’m proud of my Armenian heritage, I am also proud to be a
naturalised Australian.
“I’m so happy, having my girlfriend Olga Stovvoun in my corner
tonight.
“This is a dream come true for me. I’ve been a fighter for 20 years.
But I knew if I wanted to win, to beat Pacheco, I needed to throw
more punches. He proved to be a tough and very strong opponent.”
Meanwhile, Kostya Tszyu’s manager Matt Watt yesterday questioned the
professionalism of promoters Frank Warren and Vlad Warton after
continuing conjecture about a fight between the IBF super-lightweight
champion and mandatory contender Ricky Hatton.
Watt and Tszyu have spent two weeks denying the Australian-based
fighter has signed to defend his title against Hatton in Manchester
next year.
However, Warren insists he has a deal with American pay television
network Showtime for a fight between Tszyu and Hatton in April or
May.
Bombarded by calls from Australian journalists seeking confirmation
of the fight, Watt has repeatedly said Tszyu has yet to sign a deal.
English promoter Warren has been dealing with Tszyu’s American-based
promoter and former manager Warton, but neither has had any recent
contact with Watt.
Watt said he had not held any discussions with Warren and it had been
at least three weeks since his last conversation with Warton,
although in that time there had been “written correspondence of a
very generic, non-specific nature” between them.
Watt said he was waiting for Warren or Warton to explain why it made
sense for Tszyu to fight in the challenger’s backyard at a proposed
local time of 4am to accommodate American and Australian television
schedules.