Category: News

Staunton News Leader, VA
May 30 2004
Family, God play starring roles in Grace graduation
Ex-Navy Seal prepares Warriors for battle
By Chris Lassiter/staff
[email protected]
STAUNTON — Albert Mirzoyan literally had a long journey to graduation
day at Grace Christian High School.
It wasn’t that long ago that Mirzoyan’s family fled their home country
of Armenia and were struggling to find the necessities in life: food,
water and electricity.
Through a series of events, the family relocated to Staunton.
Events that Mirzoyan said were no accident.
“It’s so awesome how God works,” said the senior, his face partly
covered by his cap tassel. “I never thought I’d be a student here.
This is the best thing ever. I’m leaving one stage of life and moving
to the next.”
The administration at Grace Christian made sure that Mirzoyan and the
other 24 students gathered at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church went
out in style.
The graduation’s two tear-jerking events — the flower exchange and
the candle-lighting ceremony — were preceded by a couple of hymns
and Katherine Archer, Mary Helen Clemmer and Kathryn Rawley’s humorous
trip down memory lane.
Bill Renton, a Navy Seal and two-time Olympian, gave the graduation
speech. Renton, who teaches and coaches soccer at Grace, charged the
students to commit to the Christian life in the same way a Navy Seal
commits to defending America.
Afterwards, tears flowed freely as students embraced their mothers
and presented them with red roses.
“I almost cried,” senior Cameron Culbertson said. “My mom was bawling.”
The fathers also got involved in the ceremony, lighting a candle
for their children as a sign of passing the Christian heritage on to
another generation.
“It’s very touching,” graduate Nathaniel Knopp said. “It makes
you realize the influence he’s had in your life by setting a Godly
example.”
The ceremony had its light moments, too. Renton ripped off his white
dress shirt to reveal his “salmon” polo knit shirt.
“Everyone knows men don’t wear pink,” he said, laughing at the inside
joke between him and the students. “It’s salmon.”
The seniors recounted their April 1 prank on the teachers and staff,
when they arrived at school one hour early and claimed the staff
parking for themselves.
John Morrison, the head administrator at Grace Christian, reciprocated
by giving the kids fake diplomas as they crossed the stage.
It was the type of ceremony that made Jennifer Card, Holly Mancini
and Philip Silling glad they attended Grace Christian.
“I’m going to miss everyone,” Mancini said. “This is a good school,
and I’m thankful to come out of it.”
From: Baghdasarian

The Observer /Guardian (UK)
May 30 2004
Kings and criminals
Dan Neill and Jane Perry on Gilgamesh | Stump | The Good Doctor
Gilgamesh
by Joan London
Atlantic Books £7.99, pp256
The Epic of Gilgamesh is the world’s oldest known work of poetry. It
tells the story of King Gilgamesh of Uruk and his heroic travels
through Mesopotamia around 3,000 BC. Joan London’s award-winning
novel Gilgamesh is, in its own understated way, no less epic or
heroic. It tells the story of Edith Clark, a young Western Australian
farm girl, and her journey from Australia to Armenia via England in
search of Aram Sinanien, the father of her son, at the outbreak of
the Second World War. London’s prose is measured but tender,
capturing the essence of the novel’s diffident, romantic heroine. Her
polished narrative fragments offer sharp and fleeting glimpses of a
past that often seems to span millenniums rather than decades, as if
she had retrieved and lovingly restored the ancient clay tablets on
which the original epic was inscribed.
Stump
by Niall Griffiths
Vintage £6.99, pp228
It would be unfair on Niall Griffiths’s considerable talents to brand
Stump Welsh noir. It is so much more than that. But the story invites
the label. A one-armed alcoholic Liverpudlian goes about his daily
business in a small Welsh seaside town – shopping, gardening and
visiting friends. Meanwhile, two inept criminals travel south from
Liverpool to wreak violent revenge on their quarry – a one-armed man
living by the sea in Wales. Things often have a habit of colliding in
Griffiths’s novels: the ancient and the modern, the mythic and the
real, the magical and the mundane, the poetic and the prosaic. In
Stump, the craggy peaks and urban squalor of north-west Wales form
the backdrop to an elemental battle being played out within the mind
of the sometime narrator, as he struggles to come to terms with his
dismembered body, his alcoholism and his murky past.
The Good Doctor
by Damon Galgut
Atlantic Books £7.99, pp215
For the majority of its citizens, post-apartheid South Africa is not
the utopia that was once promised. Lawlessness, disease and
corruption have poisoned the democratic dream. But for Laurence
Waters, a young white doctor posted to a decaying rural hospital, the
chance to change society for the better is still a reality. His
disillusioned older colleague, Frank, finds Laurence’s optimism
chafing, but Galgut’s beautifully understated and moving novel,
shortlisted for both the Booker and the Commonwealth Writers Prize,
shows how these states of belief and despair, both personal and
political, slowly come to achieve a kind of equilibrium and mutual
comprehension.

The Moscow Times
May 28 – June 3, 2004
Tug of War
Tracking the Caspian’s history from different perspectives, two books draw a
common picture of foreign imperialism.
By Kim Iskyan
Before I left Moscow for the Caucasus a few years ago with plans
to dabble in journalism, a friend with experience throughout the
Caspian field begged of me: “Please promise me you’ll never use
the words ‘Great Game’ in a Caspian story.” The term had become a
geopolitical cliche, he said, thanks to journalists who spent one
week in the region spouting off the usual blather about how ironic
it is that the 19th-century battles between Russia and Great Britain
for control over Central Asia are being replayed — before buying a
carpet or two and going home.
Clearly, Lutz Kleveman, author of “The New Great Game: Blood and Oil
in Central Asia,” is in flagrant violation of my friend’s rule. But
Kleveman, a journalist, should arguably receive a pass, as he moves
well beyond the tired formulas that plague coverage of Central Asia
and the Caucasus (or the entire former Soviet Union, for that matter)
to effectively assess the contradictory and nuanced forces that shape
the region.
Foremost among these forces for Kleveman is oil, the “devil’s
tears.” Taking the reader through a wide swath of the Caspian area,
Kleveman creates context with easily digestible historical overviews
(mercifully light on the Great Game analogies); discussions with local
oligarchs, power players and politicians; and dusty, dangerous treks
to the Caspian to kick its soft underbelly of oil. Along the way,
Kleveman underscores the many compromises that the developed world —
and the United States, in particular — has made in the name of oil
or one of its auxiliary ends: cozying up to the strong-arm antics
of Uzbekistan’s Islam Karimov, ignoring the catastrophe of Chechnya,
and looking the other way as Nursultan Nazarbayev rewrites the book on
corruption in cahoots with American oil companies, to name just a few.
Meanwhile, Kleveman suggests that the answer could be found in Iran, if
only handled the right way. A Persian pipeline would be a significant
improvement on the current options — Russia, the South Caucasus,
Afghanistan, all of which have been the subject of endless political
machinations — as it would be shorter, cheaper and safer. But these
are pipe dreams, he admits, given present perceptions of the United
States. “The Americans and their double standards: We Iranians have
a more open democracy than any of the Arab sheikhdoms with whom the
Americans are aligned!” complains a newspaper editor in Tehran whom
Kleveman interviews.
Itar-Tass
And all for what? According to the U.S. Energy Department, the Caspian
Sea region has roughly 3 percent of the proven global oil reserves
and 4 percent of natural gas reserves. Kleveman estimates that the
Caspian could provide between 5 percent and 8 percent of total global
oil production by 2015. That might sound like small beer, but it’s not:
Fresh, marginal oil supplies can have a disproportionate influence,
in part by cutting into the ability of oil cartel OPEC, which controls
the majority of global oil production, to affect prices. With stability
still elusive in the Middle East, energy resource diversification
— even if it’s only a few percent here and there — has become a
geopolitical mantra for oil and gas importers. And China’s voracious,
ever-escalating demand for energy exerts an unrelenting upward pressure
on prices, leading to stiff competition for oil assets.
The timing of Kleveman’s travels was in some ways highly fortuitous, as
he was on the front lines of the post-Sept. 11, 2001, surge of interest
in Central Asia and the Caspian — parts of the world that, just
five years earlier, had barely registered on the global geopolitical
radar screen. But as the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003,
elevating the fight for access to fossil fuels to a whole new level
by coupling it with the struggle against terrorism, Kleveman was just
dotting the i’s of his final draft; consequently, Iraq is accorded only
a hastily written epilogue. But Kleveman’s insistence on the primacy
of oil politics was, if anything, further strengthened by subsequent
events — particularly the emerging bankruptcy of claims that the war
had been predicated on uncovering Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.
Indeed, fossil fuels are important. But, at the end of the day,
the war on terror is about more than energy imperialism. Kleveman’s
suggestion that oil politics dictate every last dimension of economic,
geopolitical and human endeavor in the region is, perhaps, a bit of
an exaggeration, even with Big Oil in the White House.
Thomas Dunne Books
Land Beyond the River: The Untold Story of Central Asia By Monica
Whitlock Thomas Dunne Books 304 Pages. $27.95
In “Land Beyond the River: The Untold Story of Central Asia,” Monica
Whitlock, who has reported from the region for the BBC for much of
the past 12 years, takes a very different approach to describing the
forces that shaped Central Asia. While Kleveman’s book is equal parts
travelogue, contemporary history and political analysis, Whitlock
builds from the ground up, tracing the “Zelig”-like progression of
a few generations of two colorful Central Asian families through
the turmoil and travails of 20th-century Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and
Afghanistan to show the impact of the region’s various struggles on
the individual. Later, shifting into reportorial territory that seems
more stylistically familiar to her, Whitlock describes the Russian
involvement in Afghanistan and the post-Soviet evolution of the region,
particularly of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
Also in contrast to Kleveman, neither oil nor the Great Game figures
much into Whitlock’s vision. Her primary interest is in the history
of Russian involvement in the region, rather than on the global
geopolitical tug of war that currently characterizes the area. The
region she portrays is one that has always been at the periphery, with
change evolving very slowly — and, even then, only at the (frequently
extraordinarily brutal) whim of the Soviet Union. Arguably, the Soviet
Union’s role as key agent of external change is now being assumed
by the United States and friends, in view of the recent invasion of
Afghanistan and the close relationship that has developed between
the United States and Uzbekistan.
The enduring irony of all this is that, for much of Russia (and for
Moscow in particular), Central Asia and the Caucasus remain on the far
fringes of relevance. Much as U.S. policy toward Mexico is far more
important to Mexico than it is to the United States, the relationship
between Russia and the Caspian area remains highly unequal to this day.
Whitlock helps explain how the Caspian area became such a mess,
while Kleveman takes confusion and borderline anarchy as his point
of departure. But both books share an underlying message: that the
United States is the latest on the laundry list of countries with
imperial designs, albeit of different stripes, on the region — and
that, if history is any guide, the odds are heavily stacked against
sustainable success.
Kim Iskyan is a freelance journalist based in Armenia.

Newsday (New York)
May 30, 2004 Sunday
CITY EDITION
QUEENS DIARY;
His is really a pressing business;
LIC’s Madame Paulette turns dry-cleaning into a celebrity-attracting
art form
BY MERLE ENGLISH. STAFF WRITER
Marcie Goodman Gottlieb lives on Manhattan’s Upper West Side but
doesn’t mind traveling to the East Side just to drop off her dry
cleaning. She’s been doing so for more than 10 years.
Her mother, who lives in Baltimore, uses the same dry cleaner,
sending in special items or bringing them with her on visits to New
York.
“They are the best at what they do,” Gottlieb said. “Their customer
service is incredible. They are so accommodating with everything you
take in. If you need it back immediately, they’ll get it back
immediately, and they’ll always get your stains out.”
The reason for the extra effort is Madame Paulette, a one-of-a-kind
dry cleaning business in Long Island City.
Basic black
The building out of which the business operates would be nondescript
except for its all-black exterior.
Classic black, a color often associated with haute couture, is a
signature for Madame Paulette’s president, John Mahdessian, 38.
Fresh out of Villanova University in 1987, Mahdessian took over from
his father what is now a 50-year-old family-owned business with a
reputation – Mahdessian states unequivocally – as “simply the finest
custom couture cleaner in the world.”
In keeping with that characterization, the building’s black exterior,
the company’s promotional materials and several products reflect the
image of the business as a service catering mostly to the world’s
high-end fashion houses and bridal salons.
A press kit is in velvety black stock, embossed with the name “Madame
Paulette” in golden script. A stain removal kit for upscale travelers
is encased in shiny black packaging.
Black is also the color of a custom-designed garment bag, a solid oak
hanger and a VIP gift box. And all carry Madame Paulette’s gold and
black logo showing a stylishly dressed woman and the company’s
initials.
But the elegant apparel that comes into Madame Paulette’s Long Island
City plant and headquarters from bridal salons at Barneys, Bergdorf
Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue and such couture houses as Christian Dior,
Fendi, Givenchy, Gucci, Hermès, Prada, Versace and Yves St. Laurent,
is of all colors, textures and intricacies of design.
Mahdessian said his staff of artisans, tailors and craftspeople,
recruited from around the globe, are entrusted with “the finest
garments in the world.” Many are worn by runway models and
celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, David Letterman, Madonna, Janet
Jackson, Steven Spielberg, Sting and Barbara Walters, whom he lists
among his clientele.
A visitor on a recent tour of the plant at 42-20 12th St. found the
place a beehive of activity as employees meticulously inspected,
dry-cleaned and hand-pressed clothing.
Already cleaned on hangers around them were Chanel suits, shirts,
dresses and gowns swathed in white garment bags with such labels as
Vera Wang and Angel Sanchez.
A pink, strapless seersucker gown belonging to Christie Brinkley was
ready for delivery to her home in the Hamptons. It was on one of the
paper mannequins Mahdessian uses to keep cleaned clothing
wrinkle-free. Also ready to go was Vogue fashion editor Andre Leon
Talley’s blue and yellow robe.
Madame Paulette developed techniques to keep fine clothes – many
adorned with appliques, embroidery, sequins, feathers and other
handwork – in their original splendor. Perspiration, blood and other
stains are removed according to the type of stain, its color and
chemistry.
“Even if you spill a whole bottle of red wine, it’s no problem,” said
Mahdessian, who refers to himself as “Johnny on the spot.”
Faded fabric colors are restored, and even vintage items considered
damaged beyond repair are salvaged, he said.
Madame’s touch
Unusual combinations of materials in garments are taken apart for the
special cleaning each material requires and are put back together by
couture tailors.
“The steps we take are painstaking and unconventional,” the company
states on its Website.
“We are pioneers in what we do,” Mahdessian said. “Fifty percent of
what we do here is by hand. We even use Q-tips because of the
intricacy of the work.”
Hand-finishing by Jahfrey Juvon, 22, of Maspeth, hired two months ago
in quality control, left an inexpensive woolen vest looking like
cashmere.
“Every single person that touches the garment is a quality-control
expert,” Mahdessian said. “Even business and casual attire deserve
the same expert attention to detail. Improper maintenance of the
garment wears the garment out. We can increase the garment’s life
expectancy and preserve its value.”
Treasured bridal gowns are cleaned and stored in museum-quality,
acid-free archival chamber boxes. Such attention costs more than
regular cleaning – $18 for a shirt or pair of pants, for example.
The business operates 24 hours a day to respond to emergencies, such
as a gown that is stained or stepped on during a wedding or similar
damage done to a vintage piece a celebrity is wearing at the Oscars.
Tailors, spotters and pressers are on hand “for any needs that come
up,” Mahdessian said. “We save the day all the time.”
Madame Paulette was founded by an uncle of Mahdessian’s father,
Noubar. The uncle, whose name Mahdessian couldn’t recall, was an
Armenian who came to the United States in 1957. The company was named
for the uncle’s wife.
All in the family
Noubar Mahdessian and his wife, Ann, a teacher and interior
decorator, ran the business until they retired and turned it over to
their son.
John Mahdessian, who grew up in Little Neck, lives in Long Island
City. Being a businessman wasn’t his first career choice. He had
graduated with a degree in marketing and planned to go into
investment banking.
He soon realized, however, that he loved the business. He expanded
the staff from 10 to 75 at the Long Island City headquarters and his
flagship 1255 Second Ave. site in Manhattan.
He was committed, he said, to making the business “the finest, most
advanced, state-of-the-art dry cleaning establishment in New York,
the U.S., and the world.”
Now the woman behind the name “is my mom,” Mahdessian said. “We
consider her Madame Paulette,” until he marries, he said.
Custom couture cleaning is only one reason that Gottlieb is willing
to travel across town.
“They’re friendly and smiley, and they’re all happy,” Gottlieb said.
“People say they’re expensive, but if they are, they’re worthy every
penny.”
GRAPHIC: Photo by Daniel Avila – John Mahdessian, president of Madame
Paulette, poses inside a robe owned by Vogue fashion editor Andre
Leon Talley in the cleaner’s headquarters in Long Island City.

Aeroflot Wants to Buy Georgian Flag Carrier
By Lyuba Pronina, Staff Writer
Moscow Times
Monday, May 31, 2004. Page 5.
Flagship carrier Aeroflot is in talks to buy Georgia’s national
carrier, Air Zena, in an effort to expand into the CIS market,
a company official said Sunday.
“We confirm that we are in talks, but this is a very preliminary
stage and it is too early to talk about results,” Lev Koshlyakov,
deputy general director of Aeroflot, said by telephone Sunday.
“We have an interest in the CIS market and we are building up contacts
and relations as this could be our trump card in the SkyTeam alliance,”
Koshlyakov said.
Aeroflot last week signed a preliminary agreement to join the Air
France-led SkyTeam airline alliance, a deal that could take a year to
be finalized. Koshlyakov added that there have been no negotiations
with other CIS airlines on possible purchases.
Air Zena was not available for comment over the weekend, but company
spokesman Tea Kakabadze confirmed to RIA Novosti that talks with
Aeroflot were under way.
Air Zena became Georgia’s national carrier after gobbling up bankrupt
Georgian Airlines in 1999.
The company itself started off in 1994 as a charter carrier and is
completely private. It operates three Boeing 737-500 and two Antonov
2 aircraft on routes connecting Tbilisi with Moscow, Prague, Paris,
Athens, Tel Aviv, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Vienna and Kiev.
Details of the airline’s financial situation were not immediately
available, and it was not clear how much Aeroflot was prepared to pay
for the airline. A source in Aeroflot said Sunday that “the market
volume of the company is not very big. From the point of view of
consolidation, Air Zena is not the most interesting asset, but at
the same time not the most harmful.”
If Aeroflot buys up Air Zena, it will follow in the footsteps of
No. 2 carrier Sibir, which in 2002 acquired Armenia’s Armavia airline.
Sibir has used Armavia not only to expand its network, but also to
import Airbus 320 planes duty-free and to gain experience operating
them on the CIS market.
Sibir has already imported four such craft and is only required to
pay a small registration fee in Armenia. However, the aircraft cannot
be used on the routes of Sibir proper.
“Sibir’s experience with importing jets through Armavia could be
interesting to Aeroflot,” the source said.
He lamented government restrictions on using imported craft —
Aeroflot is allowed to operate only 27 foreign jets in its fleet
of 78 — but added that flying planes under another flag “is still
better than nothing.”
News of the talks broke Friday during a visit to Tbilisi by Economic
Development and Trade Minister German Gref.
He was attending a two-day bilateral business forum accompanied by
some 100 Russian businessmen, including executives like Aeroflot’s
Valery Okulov, Access Industries-Renova’s Viktor Vekselberg, AFK
Sistema’s Vladimir Yevtushenkov, Itera’s Valery Otchertsov and United
Heavy Machinery’s Kakha Bendukidze. Gref told the gathering, which
was also attended by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, that
“Russia considers Georgia a close political partner and a priority
country for developing cooperation.”

Paper: Impossible for Armenia to demand lands, indemnity from Turkey
Cumhuriyet, Istanbul
30 May 04
Text of unattributed report, “Relations with Yerevan have been
suspended”, published by Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet (Ankara edition)
on 30 May
Ankara: The expected “process of normalization” in the Ankara-Yerevan
relations cannot be started due to the fact that Armenia has not taken
positive steps in the Nagorno Karabakh problem and its relations with
Turkey. Ankara states that in the present conditions, establishing
diplomatic relations and opening the border gate would not come onto
the agenda.
Due to the fact that there has not been progress made in the relations,
the Armenian President Robert Kocharian will not come to Istanbul
to attend the NATO summit and the statements of the Armenian Prime
Minister Andranik Magarian related to the land indemnities they demand,
are not considered to be “friendly” in Ankara.
The fact that Yerevan has not responded positively to the proposals
made for the solution of the Nagorno Karabakh problem, which is the
greatest obstacle preventing stability, and that it has not withdrawn
from the lands it occupied, are some of the elements of concern in
Ankara. The fact that Armenia’s approach has not changed, indicates
that normalization in the relations will not be experienced in the
short-term.
President Kocharian is not included in the Ternary talks
Two important developments were experienced in this process. The
first is the fact that President Kocharian will not attend the NATO
summit on 28-29 June. Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan were planning
to get together during or prior to the NATO summit and to discuss the
Nagorno Karabakh problem and the “proposal for withdrawal in stages”
brought onto the agenda by the Baku administration. Thus, President
Kocharian showed that he would not discuss this subject.
The second development was the statement made last week by Prime
Minister Magarian. Prime Minister Magarian spoke in the following
manner: “Problems, such as the Nagorno Karabakh problem, recognition
of genocide and demanding land indemnity from Ankara can be solved
with the formation of a powerful Armenian state. If we want to receive
land indemnity from Ankara, then we should not talk about it loudly
everywhere.”
Taking back some of the provinces in Turkey’s Eastern Anatolia
region is in the Armenian constitution and Agri Mountain is used as
a symbol. Although Turkey recognized Armenia, it does not establish
diplomatic relations with Yerevan, which does not change its demands
and policy, and Turkey does not open its borders. The Turkish and
Armenian foreign ministers spoke at international meetings last year,
but could not make any progress.
“The demand is impossible”
The ASAM [Eurasian Strategic Research Centre] Chairman Gunduz Aktan
said that it is impossible for the Armenians to demand lands or
indemnities from Turkey in accordance with the Lausanne Treaty. Mr
Aktan, who spoke at the Second Armenian Studies International Congress
organized jointly by the ATO [Ankara Chamber of Commerce], the ASAM
and the Armenian Studies Institute, stated that the Lausanne Treaty
eliminated the land problem and said: “It is legally impossible for
them to claim either land or indemnity for land.”

Armenian opposition set to continue protests, leader says
A1+ web site
30 May 04
An interview with the head of the Justice bloc, MP Stepan Demirchyan.
[Correspondent] Do you intend to continue your protest?
[Demirchyan] Our position and principles are well known and we will
be consistent. Peaceful demonstrations are an integral part of the
opposition’s activities. At the same time, we will not confine our
actions to rallies alone. Our actions will be diverse.
[Correspondent] [Defence Minister] Serzh Sarkisyan said that it is
impossible to seize power through rallies, given that there is a
proper power.
[Demirchyan] It is the people who should provide power. There is
no need to seize it as the current leadership did. But no-one can
maintain power through violence and illegality.
[Passage omitted: minor details]
[Correspondent] Do you think that our society will be able to protect
their rights and to achieve legal power?
[Demirchyan] Yes, our country will see positive changes.
[Correspondent] The authorities do not rush to meet PACE’s
[Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe] requirements. If
there are no positive changes before the autumn session, would the
opposition take more “dirt” to the session from home?
[Demirchyan] You should not forget that representatives of the
Council of Europe and other international bodies are following the
situation in the country and are well-informed about it. Moreover,
the authorities should draw conclusions from the PACE resolution but
not blame the opposition.
[Correspondent] Do you think that dialogue could be held with the
authorities?
[Demirchyan] Dialogue is possible if the authorities act within the
law. The constitution’s and PACE’s demands must not be disputed but
immediately met. Dialogue is possible if we see practical steps
in this direction. However, the authorities are continuing to take
illegal steps.

Wordsmiths rage aginst censorship
By Jane Ganahl
San Francisco Chronicle
May 29 2004
Writers sure have gotten uppity lately. Whatever happened to the
stereotype of the agoraphobic attic-dweller who only emerges to check
the mailbox for rejection letters or residuals?
These days, you’re more likely to see them on stage for a cause
that has nothing to do with their own fame. Earlier this month, it
was City Lights’ “Manifesto,” with 30 authors shouting three-minute
diatribes against complacency. Just last week, writers organized
by socio-political bulldog scribe Stephen Elliott did a benefit for
the liberal group MoveOn.org at the Makeout Room. The readings will
continue monthly until the election.
On this midweek night, it’s another chance for wordsmiths to rage
against the machine. It is hot and uncomfortable, standing-room only,
in the tiny stage area of Bruno’s. But it feels appropriate somehow,
because the subject matter of the evening is torrid and difficult:
violence, albeit literarily- depicted violence, in writings chosen
by 14 authors.
It’s not a randomly chosen subject. Passages from “Macbeth” to
“The Odyssey” to “Charlotte’s Web” are on tap, to both entertain and
solicit audience reflection on the issue of violence in writing. And
our First Amendment right to both read and write it, and feel inspired
or repelled.
“Fighting Words,” sponsored by the First Amendment Project, has
billed itself as “a protest against youth censorship that celebrates
the vital role violence has played in our literary heritage.” But
there is precious little rhetoric tonight; the written words —
some thousands of years old — speak for themselves.
“Frankly, this is not pacifist lit,” says Tamim Ansary, Afghani
writer of adult and children’s books, before he dips into a section of
“The Odyssey” devoted to Odysseus returning home to find his friends
have taken over his house. Chaos and violence ensue — poetically,
of course.
Ansary has done enough in one lifetime to forestall violence that he
need not ever apologize for exalting it. As the writer of the famed
e-mail defending his homeland that circulated after Sept. 11 —
sent to 20 friends and quickly circulated to millions — Ansary’s
plea for peace granted him international notoriety.
Swedish-born poet Agneta Falk has chosen a soliloquy by Lady Macbeth
about swords, although in the dimly lit room she has trouble following
the words on the page.
Tony Swofford, author of “Jarhead,” reads a harrowing passage from
Mario Vargas Llosa’s “The Feast of the Goat,” which involves electric
chairs and testicles. After his reading, an elderly woman in the
audience has had enough, and quietly makes her way to the exit.
Michael Chabon, dark hair dangling to his goateed chin, plays door
monitor, standing alone by the swinging glass door that separates
Bruno’s dining room from its entertainment venue. When the door
opens, exposing the room to outside noise, he quietly closes it
again. Brilliant words require silence.
Novelist/lawyer Ayelet Waldman peels off her fashionable long plaid
coat in the heat, and gives Chabon, her husband, a furtive kiss in the
dark. Daniel Handler, best known to the world as young adult fiction
writer Lemony Snicket, stands back by the bar with literary “it” boy,
Andrew Sean Greer, and fidgets when writers read past their suggested
eight-minute time frame, which is often.
Asked what he plans to read, the willowy-tall Greer whispers,
“something short!” In fact, Greer reads a selection from a metaphysical
mystery by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, “Chronicle of a Death Foretold.” And
he does keep it short, leaving the audience thirsting for more of
the beautiful words.
Standing up for First Amendment rights is tough duty in a hot,
packed bar, but all 14 writers volunteered to do so. Some have even
put themselves physically on the line for the cause, joining in
protests of student expulsions at the Academy of Art College and
writing letters denouncing what they see as censorship.
And sometimes, as in the case of Micheline Aharonian Marcom, East
Bay author of the recently released “The Daydreaming Boy,” testifying
in court.
“A student included a violent dream sequence in a story,” she whispers
in the back of the room. “But because he used a classmate’s name,
that was it. He was expelled.”
She reads a heartbreaking passage from her own book, a flashback
sequence about the rape of an Armenian woman that is both horrifying
and hypnotic.
Later, she admits that it’s not easy to read such things aloud,
but adds, “I feel strongly that these stories be told.”
Ergo, the point of the evening.
Chabon reads Chapter 66 of “Moby Dick,” his youthful voice evoking
strong visual images of fish carcasses, sharks and the terrors of
the sea. Waldman soon follows with a peppery reading of the gorgeous
prose of Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian,” considered a landmark
of violence in fiction.
But Handler, ever the comedian wrestling with alter-ego Snicket,
gets the most applause for his reading of the first chapter of the
children’s classic, “Charlotte’s Web.”
“It certainly has the threat of violence,” he says, suggesting that
perhaps it might get author E.B. White in trouble today. “I think
I’d be speaking to the choir if I expressed my outrage over all this.”
So instead, he leads off with “the greatest opening line of all time:
‘Where’s Papa going with that ax?’ ”
The audience roars with relieved laughter, happy for a relative breath
of fresh air.
E-mail Jane Ganahl at [email protected]

Islam, Christianity Have Common View on Martyrdom: Archbishop
Mehr News Agency, Iran
May 29 2004
TEHRAN, May 29 (MNA) — Sebu Sarkissian, Armenian prelacy archbishop
in Tehran said on Friday that according to Christianity, martyrs and
martyrdom are to be defined based on the Bible; they are here to be
witnesses for God.
Speaking at the first commemorative ceremony of Armenian ground forces
martyrs, Sebu Sarkissian stated that the martyr is also a witness for
his country and is devoted for the sake of it, adding such a person
will reach eternity.
The archbishop offered as evidence the Apostles and the Fathers of
churches who preached their faith.
Islam and Christianity have the same view on martyrdom, believing
faith and homeland are the most sacred objects, Sarkissian told the
Mehr News Agency, stressing that martyrdom is working and dedicating
oneself to these high objectives.
He went on to say that in Iran, religious minorities are free to
observe their religious ceremonies and live without any conflict with
Iranian clerics, adding this is always the first question asked by
foreign reporters who come to Iran.
“Iranians and Armenians live together, having the same objectives
and problems. We try hard to solve the problems of the country”,
Sarkissian said in conclusion.
FK/IS

“Ecclesiastical Clothes and Objects” Exhibition Opens in Isfahan
Mehr News Agency, Iran
May 29 2004
TEHRAN May 29 (MNA) — An exhibition of “Ecclesiastical Clothes
and Objects” opened at Vank Church, Isfahan, concurrent with the
quarter centenary of Armenian settlement in the region of Jolfa,
Isfahan Province.
Over one hundred pieces of ecclesiastical clothes and objects will
be on display during the ten-day exhibition.
A reliquary of sacred oil, capes, belts, embroidered and inlaid
clothes, old coverings, a folio of the Holy Bible, and special silver
pots are among the exhibits.
Sponsored by Vartan Davudian, the exhibition intends to introduce
the precious works of Armenians to visitors.