RUSSIAN COMPANY’S FINAL DECISION ON ACQUISITION OF PROMETEY-CHIMPROM TO BECOME KNOWN WITHIN NEXT FEW DAYS
Noyan Tapan
Aug 14 2006
VANADZOR, AUGUST 14, NOYAN TAPAN. It is expected that the big
specialized Russian company (its name was not indicated) that has been
conducting negotiations with the Armenian side on the purchase of the
Prometey-Chimprom chemical plant for four months, will make its final
decision about the plant’s purchase on August 14-15. The Armenian
President Robert Kocharian stated this at a press conference to
summarize his working visit to Lori marz on August 11. In his opinion,
the plant’s acquisition by the Russian company opens serious prospects
for the enterprise. “I am speaking about it with caution, as I saw
several unsuccessul attempts to sell Prometey-Chimprom. Nevertheless,
we also have excellent results of selling some other enterprises by
making several attempts,” R. Kocharian noted. He underlined that
Prometey-Chimprom has a great potential in terms of job creation
and becoming a source of extra revenues for Vanadzor’s budget in
an indirect way. The Armenian President exprssed his perplexity
in connection with the fact that Prometey-Chimprom’s operation was
discontinued during the negotiations. The regional governor of Lori
marz Nenrik Kochinian explained at the press conference that it was
the Russian side’s request to stop the operation of the corundum
and carbide sections during the negotiation process so as not to
cause chganges in the balance. However, it resulted in an enforced
idleness, and 600 employees of the plant did not receive their
salaries. H. Kochinain informed those present that representatives
of the Russian company intending to buy Prometey-Chimprom recently
studied the technical state of the plant’s melamine section and
came to a positive conclusion. It is noteworthy that the Vanadzor
Chemical Complex, which also includes the Chemichal Fibre Plant,
can employ 3-3.5 thousand people. To recap, the complex, which
was standing idle since 1989, was bought from the RA government by
Zakneftegazstroy-Prometey company (headed by Senik Gevorgain), one
of Russia’ leading companies in construction of gas and oil pipelines.
ZNGS-Prometey also purchased the Vanadzor Thermal Power Planr
by concluding a 1.5 mln-dollar trnsaction. The Vanadzor chemical
complex was renamed Prometey-Chimprom, and started operating in 2001,
with 20 mln out of the 60 mln dollar investments envisaged by ZGNS
being made in it. In the summer of 2002, 50% of Prometey-Chimprom’s
shares and its management passed (according to some information,
for 6 mln USD) to Ransat company (UK) that is engaged in trade
of ceramics and chemical products and is run by Indians. At the
same time, Ransat became the owner of Nairit-1 (Yerevan) company
producing chloroprene rubber. In early 2003, Ransat left Armenia
due to differences with the RA government regarding gas, water and
electricity supply. In 2004-2005, the Slovakian-Swedish company SLZ
was conducting negoatiations on Prometey-Chimprom’s purchase but it
did not eventually buy the complex. The complex can produce up to
10 thousand tons of milamine a year, 15 thousand tons of carbide,
500 tons of melem, 200 tons of corundum, and the Vanadzor TPP can
generate 25 megawatts of electricity.

ROADWORKS STARTED ON DRMBON-MARTAKERT
Armenpress
Azat Artsakh, Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
10 Aug 2006
Armenia Foundation’s tenders for public contracts took place in Armenia
and Artsakh. Namely, the repair of the hospital of the city of Sissian
will be carried out by the company Surham. The work is to finish by the
beginning of 2007. This project, which was funded by the affiliate of
the foundation in France, will create appropriate conditions for about
40 thousand people of Sissian and the adjacent villages. The price
bids of five companies, which passed the pre-qualification test for
the public contract for the hospital of Artik, will be studied on the
upcoming days. This hospital provides medical services to 60 thousand
people from the city of Artik and the adjacent villages. The project
is funded by the affiliate of the foundation in Great Britain. The
Armenpress has learned from the department of public relations
of Armenia Foundation that in the framework of the project of
reconstruction of Martakert, construction of water pipelines started
in the town of Martakert, and the adjacent villages of Mets Shen and
Maghavuz. Roadworks started on the Drmbon-Martakert 4.865 km section
of the North-South highway. In August Armenia Foundation put out the
project of gasification of the villages of Cheldran and Arajadzor to
tender. There will be other tenders, namely for the schools of the
villages of Nerkin Horatagh and Kochoghut, as well as the bridge on
the Kichan-Drmbon section of the North-South highway.

ARA PULUZIAN WINNER OF INTERNATIONAL YOUTH BOXING CHAMPIONSHIP
Armenpress
Aug 14 2006
YEREVAN, AUGUST 14, ARMENPRESS: Armenian boxer Ara Puluzian (60
kg.) became the winner of the International Youth Boxing Championship
held in the Ukrainian town of Berdichev. Another three Armenian boxers
Arthur Grigorian, Azat Hovhannissian and Samvel Barseghian won silver
and Robert Petrosian and Tsolak Ananikian won bronze medals.
Overall 8 Armenian boxers were participating in the championship. Chief
coach of the Armenian youth boxing team Derenik Voskanian said that
the championship was a good experience for the Armenian boxers.

SENATE DEMOCRATIC LEADER HARRY REID SAYS HE IS EXTREMELY CONCERNED WITH RELUCTANCE OF RICHARD HOAGLAND TO ACKNOWLEDGE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Armenpress
Aug 14 2006
WASHINGTON, AUGUST 14, ARMENPRESS: Senate Democratic Leader Harry
Reid (D-NV), in a letter to the Armenian National Committee of Nevada
(ANC-NV), reported that he is “extremely concerned” by the reluctance
of Richard Hoagland, the Administration’s nominee to serve as the
next ambassador to Armenia, to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.
Senator Reid’s public stand follows the August 2nd announcement by
Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) that he will vote against the Hoagland
nomination because of the nominee’s refusal to properly recognize
the Armenian Genocide as a “genocide.”
Responding to grassroots concerns raised by Nevada’s growing and
increasingly active Armenian American community, Senator Reid noted
that this refusal is “particularly troubling in light of the State
Department’s dismissal of the last ambassador to Armenia, John
Evans following comments he made during a February 2005 tour of
Armenian-American communities in which he recognized the Armenian
Genocide. As you may know, the State Department has offered no
explanation for Evans’ dismissal.”
On August 1st, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee delayed
consideration of ambassador Hoagland’s nomination, following a
request by the Committee’s Ranking Democrat Joseph Biden (D-DE) and
Senator John Kerry (D-MA). Also voicing support for the delay were
Senators George Allen (R-VA) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA). The Committee
is set to consider the matter during its regular business meeting on
September 7th.

NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL A MINISTER
Cyprus Mail, Cyprus
Aug. 14, 2006
THE ONE MAN who stands head and shoulders above all the
recently-appointed ministers, despite being short and shunning high
heeled shoes, is the former mayor of Lefkara and EDEK vice-president
Sophocles Sophocleous, who was given the Justice and Public Order
Ministry portfolio.
In just a couple of months, Soph has become a household name thanks to
his insatiable appetite for publicity. You rarely turn the radio on,
during the morning, current affair zone shows, without hearing him
expressing an opinion about some news topic.
His five-minute monologues, which feature many fancy words and
important-sounding phrases, are delivered with such self-belief and
pomposity you would never have thought his previous job was as modest
village mukhtar. But now he has arrived on the bigger stage, enjoying
the exposure that his truly, dazzling political oratory deserves.
In this respect, he is another upholder of that fine EDEK tradition,
started by the party’s founder and former leader, Dr Faustus Lyssarides
and kept alive by the latter’s successor Yiannakis Omirou – using the
maximum amount of words to convey a minimum amount of thought. Being
a true socialist windbag, Soph will almost certainly succeed Omirou
when he steps down as leader in 2026.
Soph is from the same village as Dr Faustus which would support the
theory that his gift for rhetorical wizardry is not in his genes.
There must be something in the water of Lefkara, because, by the law
of probability, it is impossible for such a relatively small village
to produce two world class, natural-born, socialist, windbags within
40 years of each other.
PUBLICITY-MAD Soph has inaugurated a new way of doing things at the
ministry that ensures maximum media coverage for him. He has been
inviting journalists to sit in on meetings with different groups,
because he is a great believer in transparency, which leads to greater
personal publicity.
Ten days ago he invited hacks to attend his meeting with a delegation
of cabaret owners, who wanted to discuss the problems faced by the
pimping sector. What minister with any sense would have ever invited
a bunch of lowlifes who live off prostitution to his office?
Even if he felt obliged to see them, surely he should have kept the
meeting a carefully-guarded secret. But not Soph – he invited hacks
to the meeting so they could tell the world that our Minister of
Justice and Public Order is so open-minded he would even grant an
audience to owners of vice dens.
It gets better. The street-wise minister told the sleaze-merchants that
he knew what went on in cabarets and had given the cops instructions
to clamp down on the sexual exploitation of women. And if police
found that a cabaret was pushing women into prostitution it would be
closed down, “through the strict enforcement of the law”, relating
to inadequate fire safety measures and lack of licences.
But if the cabarets did not engage in prostitution, the minister
would not insist on the strict enforcement of the law. It’s a weird
kind of message he’s sending out. If this ingenious plan works, next
month he should invite the Pancyprian Association of Drug Dealers to
his office and tell them that if they stopped selling drugs the cops
would not give them speeding tickets or arrest them for possession
of guns. And if the dealers behave, the cops could waive the strict
enforcement of the law for the odd murder or bomb attack as well.
BUT WHY had the cabaret owners asked for a meeting with the Justice
Minister? Apparently, there was too much competition from freelance
hookers and cabaret earnings were falling so they wanted the state
to help the freelancers find alternative employment.
As the lawyer representing the cabaret owners said, his clients
were concerned because the government was pushing foreign students
(Chinese in their majority) and asylum seekers into prostitution by
denying them work permits. It would not even allow them to work in
restaurants washing plates, said the lawyer, thus making prostitution
the only way for them to earn a living.
Yes, it’s official – cabaret owners not only have a social conscience
but high morals as well. Unfortunately Soph, could do nothing as
work permits came under the authority of the interior ministry and
he could not help the cabaret owners’ noble campaign to save asylum
seekers and students from the indignity of prostitution, even though
it pays much better than washing plates.
SUPER-SMART Soph Soph appears not to have understood what the meeting
was about. The cabaret owners were openly demanding help from the state
to reduce competition and protect their revenue from prostitution and
Soph was telling them that he would close them down if they continued
the sexual exploitation of women.
As he said: “I know what goes on in cabarets. I am not an Amerikanaki
(a naive American).”
THE EDUCATION Ministry has at long last issued an official statement
confirming that it would not give the remainder of the money owed to
director Panicos Chrysanthou for the completion of his film Akamas,
because he was in breach of his contract. According to the statement,
Chrysanthou had included a scene in the film that the ministry’s Film
Advisory Council, a body safeguarding artistic freedom, had asked
him to leave out.
Chrysanthou, I am informed, is now trying to raise the cash (about
30,000 euros), needed for making copies of the film, from private
individuals, so that he can show it at the Venice Film Festival.
Incidentally, the ministry’s announcement did not mention the fact
that the Advisory Council had written to Chrysanthou, instructing
him to withdraw Akamas from the Festival.
The decision not to give any more money for the film was taken by
education minister Pefkios Georgiades.
People who know him found it hard to believe that he could have taken
such a hard-line on the film as he is quite an arty and open-minded
chap that, normally, would not dream of behaving in such an illiberal
fashion.
A ministerial committee consisting of the Finance, Interior and
Education ministers had seen the film. Michalis Sarris and Andreas
Christou found nothing wrong with it and neither did Pefkios, in
private at least. However, Pefkios decided to raise the issue of the
contract and insist on the contentious scene being cut, because he
was afraid Akamas would provoke an outcry by nationalists, something
that was certain to have angered his friend the Ethnarch.
And rather than face the Ethnarch’s righteous wrath he chose the
lesser of two evils – to be seen as a Stalinist bully who supports
censorship and clamps down on artistic freedom.
EARLIER this week, our establishment was contacted by a member of
the Cyprus State Orchestra who informed us that last week’s item,
saying that the orchestra’s director Spyros Pisinos did not want to
use the refurbished and revamped Nicosia Municipal Theatre because
of the poor acoustics was not correct.
While it was true that Pisinos had decided to use the Strovolos
Municipal Theatre instead, it was not because of the bad acoustics.
It was because the Cyprus Theatre Organisation (THOK) had priority
on booking dates for using the Nicosia theatre and the Orchestra had
to take the days left. The highly-strung Pisinos could never accept
playing second violin to THOK, as he is an orchestra conductor.
This does not mean that the acoustics of the revamped theatre are
satisfactory, especially for piano recitals and string quartets. When
the theatre was being refurbished, a well-connected music enthusiast
had arranged for a foreign expert on acoustics to visit Cyprus and
offer advice on what should be done.
A meeting was arranged with Mayor Zampelas, but it was cancelled at
the last minute, after the project’s architect raised a fuss, because
she knew more about theatre acoustics than a man who had worked for
some of the best-known concert halls in the world.
THE CAMPAIGN for the election of a new Archbishop moved to war-ravaged
Lebanon this week as some of the candidates for the throne decided
to become international relief agencies. Paphos Bishop Chrysostomos
was taken to the Lebanon by a French military helicopter and took
with him 60,000 bucks which he distributed to representatives of
the different faiths (Latins, Orthodox, Shi’ite, Sunni). He had four
meetings in three hours and then boarded the chopper and returned to
the plantation.
Moneybags Kykkos Bishop Nikiforos, the front-runner of the
campaign after spending millions of the Kykkos monastery moullah on
purchasing support, did not go to the Lebanon himself, but he sent
his representative, Archimandrite Isaias Kykkotis, who also arrived
on Wednesday. He went to take delivery of the 100 tons of food,
medicine and water – collected by the Department for the Provision
of Humanitarian Help of Kykkos monastery and the Armenian Church –
that arrived on a Greek ship the following day.
There had been some squabbling over the sending of help to the
Lebanon. Chrysostomos said he had initially proposed that the Holy
Synod sent humanitarian but his fellow bishops decided that this
should be done at a later stage. Could their reticence have anything
to do with the fact that as head of the Synod Chrysostomos would have
taken most of the credit for this electoral Christian charity? He
was left with no choice but to undertake a personal initiative. It
had nothing to do with the elections, he assured us.
Meanwhile the fabulously wealthy Nikiforos Monastery had a special
department for offering international aid, which had been in operation
for 10 years. According to Kykkotis, Chrysostomos was informed, from
the first day of the war that the department was at the disposal of
the Synod if the bishops wanted to send aid.
Chrysostomos, who chairs the Synod, never got back to him, presumably
not wanting rival candidate, Nikiforos to take the credit for leading
the relief effort. So we had the ludicrous situation of two separate
Church relief missions to the Lebanon in two days.
IS DIKO seriously considering backing walrus lookalike, Ouranios
Ioannides as its candidate for Nicosia mayor? Is the party so short of
adequate members that it has to resort to backing a horribly mediocre,
over-the-hill, superannuated, political opportunist who has served
as a DISY deputy and Clerides minister?
This refusal of our politicians to retire is really irritating.
Ouranios had his stint as a deputy and several years as a monumentally
ineffective education minister. Despite earning a good living –
and now a generous pension – from the taxpayer for all those years,
he also stood in last May’s parliamentary elections as DISY candidate.
He failed to get elected, so now he has gone to DIKO in the hope that
it would back him as a mayoral candidate for Nicosia. And the idiots
at DIKO are trying to persuade their alliance partners to accept
this political drifter, who could not organise an orgy in a brothel,
as a credible candidate. Why? It must be because of his good looks.
A WORD of sympathy for former Minister of Agriculture Timis Efthymiou
who spoke of his deep hurt, in an interview with Simerini, after
he was unceremoniously dumped by the Ethnarch in the last cabinet
reshuffle. Timis, spoke with the bitterness of a spurned lover,
about his treatment by Tassos, whom he accused of “ingratitude and
arrogance”.
But if anyone is ungrateful it is Timis. He came from nowhere and
served as a minister for three years after fooling the Ethnarch about
the number of votes his joke of a party – Movement of Free Citizens –
would bring him. But after May’s parliamentary elections, when the
Free Citizens failed to win a seat, the Ethnarch realised that he
had no need for Timis and sent him home.
Timis must be a complete Amerikanaki, if he thought Tassos would
sacrifice a ministry on someone who commanded an electoral strength
of one per cent because he was generously handing out state subsidies
to Paphos farmers.
THE PLANTATION’S airports were put on high alert after the news about
the possible terrorist plot against planes leaving Heathrow. However
one customer who flew out of Laranca yesterday morning informed us
that there was a little confusion among cops and ground staff over
what should be done about lab-tops.
On arriving at the gate for boarding, the man was told by a young,
zealous cop with a shaved head, in charge of the baggage scanner,
that he could not take the laptop onto the plane and had to give to
the ground staff.
This was strange, because the passenger had been told at the
checking-in desk that he could take the laptop with him. Others,
who had arrived earlier were queuing up to hand in their laptops to
a diminutive Cyprus Airways ground stewardess.
At that moment a high-ranking police officer (in a white shirt)
arrived and overheard the exchange. “Nobody had to check in their
laptop,” he told his subordinates. “But the airline security told us
that they should,” responded the young cop with the shaved head.
“We don’t take security orders from the airline staff,” said the senior
cop. “Yes, but the newspapers say that laptops should be checked in,”
insisted the young cop.
“What do we care what the newspapers say?” the officer replied. “We
take orders from Police HQ and those orders say that as long as laptops
are removed from their bags and inspected, they could be taken on to
the plane.
“So stop inconveniencing people and let them take the laptops on to
the plane.”
The young cop obeyed the orders, but a feisty CY stewardess, on gate
duty, had heard the exchange started shouting at the cops.
“You can’t do that. We have already forced half the passengers to hand
over their laptops and it would be unfair if the others are allowed
to take them onto the plane. That’s just not right” The officer,
who was a true hero, stuck to his guns, saying “why should everyone
be inconvenienced?”
After he got a two minute tirade by the feisty stewardess about
treating all passengers in the same way, he gave in. Everyone had to
check in their laptops, not for security reasons, but for the sake
of equal treatment.

ANNIVERSARY IS A TIME OF REFLECTION FOR THE FAMILIES
By John Leonidou
Cyprus Mail, Cyprus
Aug. 14, 2006
IT WAS meant to be day of excitement for most of the passengers on
board Helios Airways flight ZU 522 as families boarded for their
summer holidays.
It ended a day of national tragedy, shock and mourning as their plane
crashed into the hills of Grammatikos near Athens, killing all 121
passengers and crew on board.
On the eve of the first anniversary of the disaster – the worst
in Cypriot aviation history – the Head of the Helios Crash Victims
Relatives Committee Nicolas Yiasoumis told the Sunday Mail, “This is
a very sad time for us as the anniversary approaches.
“Memories of that fateful day come back to us, in which we said
goodbye, or rather au revoir, to our relatives who were going on
holiday only to be told some hours later that we were not to see them
again… ever.”
Around 190 relatives of the victims will fly to Grammatikos to attend
a memorial service tomorrow, August 14, he said, “and then pray at
the site of the disaster”.
Twelve entire Cypriot families, including a family of four Armenian
Cypriots, were wiped out in last August’s horrific crash.
The youngest victim was four years old.
In all, 17 children under the age of 16 died in the crash. Three of
the children, aged 16, 14 and five died along with their parents.
The oldest passengers were a couple aged 63 and 65.
Few people in Cyprus did not know one of the victims, but places like
Paralimni and Dhali lost more than most.
Sixteen resident of Paralimni died, half of them children.
Three entire families from the town were wiped out, including Christos
Pyrillis 40, his wife Antonia, 36 and their three children Eva 12,
Xenios 10 and Marcos six, who had gone on a week-long holiday Another
Cypriot family in Paralimni, who were visiting from Australia, left
their 20-month old baby at home with its grandparents because it had
a fever.
The boy, George Xiourouppa, is now an orphan.
His father Demos, 39, his mother Margarita, 34, and sisters Sophia,
10, and Joanna, nine, died in the crash.
It has been a daunting time for the relatives, who have had to go
on with their lives thinking of what might have been had their loved
ones just not had chosen that day or that plane to fly.
The relatives’ committee was formed in the aftermath of the crash
“to protect the orphans who have been left behind by this horrible
event,” said Yiasoumis.
Maintaining those rights has not been without its problems.
The relatives have more than once come into confrontation with
the Communications Ministry, mainly over what they believe is the
Ministry’s loose handling of some of Helios Airways’ activities after
the accident.
But as the eve of the anniversary approaches, Yiasoumis believes that
it is a time of reflection and a time to remind ourselves that those
responsible must not escape unpunished.
“I call on the authorities also to reflect on what happened and get to
find out once and for all what happened aboard Helios Airways flight
ZU 522,” said Yiasoumis.
He added: “However, right now we are just waiting for the comments
of Boeing and Helios to be reviewed so Mr Kallis’ investigating team
in Cyprus can get to work and bring those responsible to justice.”

ABRAHAM BODURGIL LIBRARY OF …
The Washington Post
August 13, 2006 Sunday
Final Edition
Abraham Bodurgil, 94, a retired Turkish area specialist at the Library
of Congress, died Aug. 7 of pneumonia at his home in Bethesda.
Mr. Bodurgil, of Armenian descent, was born Abraham Bodurian in
Istanbul. (Turkish authorities changed his Armenian surname to make
it sound more Turkish.)
He grew up in the village of Rumeli Hisar, near Istanbul, at a time of
great difficulty for the Armenian minority in Turkey. During World War
I, several hundred thousand Armenians perished in what most historians
consider state-sponsored genocide. With his father serving in the
Turkish army, Mr. Bodurgil and his mother survived with help from a
Turkish family that took them in and sheltered them.
After the war, his father became a gardener at Robert College in
Istanbul, a private American college founded in 1863. Mr. Bodurgil
was admitted, despite being a poor villager, and distinguished himself
as a champion javelin and discus thrower. He received his bachelor’s
degree in economics, with honors, in 1935.
He served with the Turkish army during World War II and then worked
for 20 years at the American Consulate in Istanbul as a press attache.
In 1959, he immigrated to the United States and joined the Library
of Congress, where he was responsible for the Armenian Collection
in the Near East Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division
of the library. He made two acquisition survey trips to Turkey and
built up the collection substantially.
Mr. Bodurgil produced several bibliographic guides to material on
modern Turkey, including “Turkey: Politics and Government, 1938-1975”
and “Kemal Ataturk: A Centennial Bibliography, 1881-1981.” He also
served as an occasional Turkish interpreter for the White House and
federal agencies. He retired in 1984.
He was a senior member of St. Mary’s Armenian Apostolic Church in
the District, and he served as parish council chairman and diocesan
delegate. He also was a member of the Knights of Vartan Brotherhood.
Survivors include his wife of 60 years, Eliza Bodurgil of Bethesda;
a son, Edward Bodurian of Bethesda; and three grandsons.

BOOKS: CAIRO PLAYS HOST TO SCHEMES AND SECRETS
By John Freeman For The Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
August 13, 2006 Sunday
Main Edition
FICTION
The Yacoubian Building. By Alaa Al Aswany, translated by Humphrey
Davies. HarperPerennial. $13.95 paperback. 253 pages.
Verdict: An Egyptian Dickens.
All novels contain imaginary places, even those set in actual cities.
“Ulysses” does not unfold in the Republic of Ireland but in James
Joyce’s mind. The same goes for the sprawling, heaving Cairo depicted
in Egyptian author Alaa Al Aswany’s tremendously likable new novel,
“The Yacoubian Building.”
At the heart of the novel is a once-glamorous apartment complex built
by an Armenian millionaire. Unlike most American cities, where higher
floors come at a premium, the opposite is true in this building. The
Yacoubian rooftop bows under the weight of makeshift shanties that
house the poor.
“The children run around all over the roof barefoot and half naked,”
Al Aswany writes, “and the women spend the day cooking, holding gossip
sessions in the sun, and, frequently, quarreling.”
The men return home from work “exhausted and in a hurry to partake of
their small pleasures — tasty hot food and a few pipes of tobacco
(or hashish if they have the money).”
The third pleasure, of course, is sex, and the vibrations from it
rattle through the rafters to the floorboards, from the poor down
to the rich. There is Zaki Bey, a 65-year-old cosmopolitan playboy,
and Taha el Shazli, an ambitious businessman who takes on a second
wife to slake his lust. The women get by, too, if only by using men’s
weakness for sex against them.
Everyone is scheming in “The Yacoubian Building,” giving this novel
the shape and feel of a soap opera set to an Arabic beat. Zaki’s
sister tries to get him declared incompetent so that she will have
their large apartment all to herself. Malak, a partially crippled
shirt tailor, uses his customers’ pity against them. Hatim Rasheed,
the desiccated aristocrat editor of a French Cairo weekly, goes to
the gay bar downstairs and lures men to his room with promises of
riches. When one of his lovers leaves him, he shouts: “You’re just a
barefoot, ignorant Sa’idi. I picked you up from the street, cleaned
you up, and I made you a human being.”
This struggle to be human is constant in “The Yacoubian Building.”
Ranging widely around his Cairo, Al Aswany describes the many ways
that his characters scrabble against one another in this fight. Some
renounce the living world, like a young man who is tortured for
participating in a political protest. The experience drives him into
the hands of radical Islamic sheiks, whose Wahhabi interpretation of
Islam is especially unkind to urges of the flesh.
If the book makes any political point, it is that the restrictions
such religious and cultural police put on residents are just one
more slight against their humanity. For all the compromises some of
them make, Al Aswany argues that — for poor women, especially —
sex gives them a chance to be alive.
“They do not love it simply as a way of quenching lust,” Al Aswany
writes, “but because sex, and their husbands’ greed for it, makes them
feel that despite all the misery they suffer they are still women,
beautiful and desired by their menfolk.”
Occasionally it feels like a very indiscreet superintendent, jangling
keys and all, is taking us around the Yacoubian Building, whispering
about secrets long hushed over. This vision of life connects high and
low, rich with poor, through shared vices and needs. The clandestine
bars of Cairo attract the powerful and the downtrodden alike, for
both desire the available women who serve the drinks.
Cairo — at least the one imagined by Al Aswany — has a choice:
to pay homage to its cosmopolitan roots and respect its diversity,
or close down, and become restrictive of its already suffering
populations.
Happily, this book does not attempt to fix these odds by closing
neatly. Some plotlines end abruptly, in tragedy, while others simply
vanish into the noise of the street. As in so many Jane Austen novels,
there is a wedding and a funeral, which bring with them an appropriate
mix of hope and despair. The difference here is, this book has shown
us everything that has led up to the wedding night.
John Freeman is president of the National Book Critics Circle.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

COMMENTARY: WE SHOULD CELEBRATE THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
by Judge Kaye Tertzag
St. Louis Daily Record/St. Louis Countian (St. Louis, MO)
August 12, 2006 Saturday
When doctors talk to patients, we should be able to understand them.
When college instructors give lectures to students, we should be able
to understand them.
When computer support-staff speak to computer-users, we should be
able to understand them.
Unfortunately, that is not always the case.
I have heard about far too many instances where patients, students and
computer-users cannot understand the very people who are attempting
to service them. More importantly, resentment is developing in our
country because more and more doctors, college instructors and computer
support-staff are unable to be understood when they talk.
If this was an isolated matter, I probably would not be alarmed.
However, I have heard the same complaint from all sorts of people
from every part of the country. I assure you, this is not an isolated
matter!
People are becoming frustrated, even angry, about the condition in
which they find themselves – where doctors, college instructors and
computer support-staff are unable to speak English sufficiently well
to be understood.
This is not good for our country.
Competency is not the issue. Being understood is. The doctor may very
well be an excellent physician or surgeon. The college instructor
may very well be highly knowledgeable with outstanding academic
credentials. The computer support-staff may very well be highly
trained with outstanding skills. But, if they have trouble speaking
English clearly and coherently, and we have trouble understanding them,
we have a problem.
Medical care is dangerously compromised because of a lack of
communication between patient and the doctor. Students are academically
shortchanged when they do not understand what their teacher is saying.
Computer support service becomes highly inefficient if we have
to keep asking the staff to repeat themselves because we do not
understand them.
I am satisfied that my observations and conclusions are accurate.
Check it out for yourself if you are doubtful. Ask your family members,
friends or neighbors whether they have had similar experiences. I am
confident you will hear the same thing from them.
We cannot afford to hold our heads in the sand and pretend that we
do not have a problem. A problem definitely exists. Not addressing
the problem will lead to the festering of an unhealthy, anti-foreign
attitude in our country – something we neither need nor want.
I write this because I want us to come together … as a people …
as a country.
My parents were immigrants to our country from Armenia. As a child,
I spoke Armenian at home even before learning English. People who
speak multiple languages should be proud of that fact. I certainly
am. It is wonderful that we have a diversity of backgrounds in the
United States. We can and should be proud of our respective heritages,
languages and cultures.
After all, people having foreign roots helped make America the great
country that it is today.
Much more, however, is at stake here.
We have so much pulling us apart in our country. We have different
religions. We have different races. We have different ethnic
backgrounds. We have different second-languages. We have different
political viewpoints. One of the few things – maybe the only thing –
we have in common in the United States is our language.
English is the single, common denominator in America. We should
not be apologetic about it. We should not be wary of it. Rather,
we should celebrate it. We should emphasize it. Above all else, we
should recognize that our common language should be a major unifying
force around which all Americans, including newcomers, can coalesce.
Unless we emphasize the importance of the English language as a
unifying force, I fear that we will drift further and further apart
as a society – where emphasis is placed on our differences rather
than on our similarities. As I indicated, we already have enough in
society which pulls us apart as a people. We should not add “language”
to the list. Look at our neighbors in Canada as an example of how
language can become a polarizing force in society.
I am able to raise this matter of the English language without any
concern about being politically correct. My background as a political
liberal has been long established. My years as a political activist
has been long recognized. My commitment to justice in the court system
has long been documented. Hence, I am not as interested in being
“politically correct” as I am in being “correct. ”
If progressive individuals do not voice these concerns about the
English language, a vacuum most assuredly will be created to be
filled by others who will want to demagogue the issue. That is why
it is important for liberals and progressives to take the lead in
doing something constructive about this subject. Better we do it.
Otherwise, the malcontent leeches who want to divide Americans along
ethnic, racial or religious lines will do it for their own negative
political motives.
This is an honest effort to have us start working together to deal
forthrightly with a problem that bothers most people. Recognizing
that a problem exists is the first step towards its solution.
We can and must improve.
Servicing the public is vital, meritorious work. So, we should laud
those who want to help their fellow human beings by becoming doctors,
teachers or computer technicians. Having said this, though, we should
also expect that they are able to speak English in a clear, coherent
manner so to be understood by the rest of us.
This may mean those individuals would have to take and pass some kind
of English proficiency course as part of their credentialing process.
Also, the Human Resources Departments of the hospitals, colleges and
computer companies would be well served if they would require speaking
English clearly and coherently as a prerequisite for those employees
who deal with the public on a daily basis.
This would certainly help patients. It would surely assist students.
And, it would definitely benefit computer users. As important, though,
it would help alleviate the antagonism which has been slowly developing
in our country towards immigrants. Hopefully, it will become a small
step towards making ours a better society.
Kaye Tertzag is a retired Wayne County Circuit Court judge from
Brownstown, Mich. Tertzag said these views “were formed, in part,
by my experience with jurors who had difficulty understanding certain
expert witnesses. ”
This article was originally published in Michigan Lawyers Weekly,
a sister publication.

A THIRD OF AZERIS SMOKE, WHO SAYS
AssA-Irada, Azerbaijan
August 7, 2006 Monday
Azerbaijan was rated 85th among world countries for the number
of smokers, with 32% of adults using tobacco, the World Health
Organization (WHO) said. Mongolia topped the list, with 67.8% of the
population, followed by China (66.9%), Kenya (66.8%), Cambodia (66%),
and Namibia (65%), according to the WHO report based on statistical
data for 2002-2003. Among former Soviet republics, Armenia ranked
sixth, followed by Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, with 60% of smokers,
while Belarus was rated 23rd, with 54.9%. The indicator was 51.1%
in Ukraine and Lithuania, while 49% in Latvia and Uzbekistan. Estonia
and Turkmenistan ranked 47th and 95th, with 44% and 27% respectively.
WHO said citizens of Greece smoke the most cigarettes a day – 8.6 on
average. Bulgaria, Japan, Bosnia and Slovenia were also in the list
of top five countries. Tobacco is the second major cause of death
in the world. It is currently responsible for the death of one in
ten adults worldwide (about 5 million deaths each year). If current
smoking patterns continue, it will cause some 10 million deaths each
year by 2020. Half the people that smoke today -that is about 650
million people- will eventually be killed by tobacco, according to WHO.