DESTINATIONS: BIRD ON A WIRE: MISSIN’ MY ROTISSERIE
By Johnny Angel
LA Weekly, CA
Oct 6 2005
L.A.’s many immigrants may well have been lured here by our
Mediterranean-like climes, and, if so, one of their greatest gifts
to us has to be the proliferation of that underlooked SoCal staple,
the rotisserie chicken. Lebanese, Armenians and Greeks scarf down much
of the slow-turning fowl on a spit, and that specialty now forms as
big a part of the local (and protein-heavy) diet as the more visible
enchilada.
>>From the sturdy if unspectacular birds of California Chicken and
KooKooRoo, to the exotic mom-and-pops extolled below, rotisserie
chicken truly is a local phenom. Residencies and trips to San Fran,
Boston and other points inland have reminded me how their local
variations lack the crispiness and flavor found in our homegrown
restaurants. My last sojourn to New England revealed that their
version was more like dry wall than white meat. Sure, there are
gyro joints and shawarma places and kebab palaces everywhere there
are immigrants from lower Europe and Asia Minor, but somehow, these
greasy and gloomy joints seem to belong to the rainy parts of the
map. The L.A. chicken shack is clean and lean and not too mean –
just as we’d like to imagine ourselves.
There are too many to name, so I have to stick with those that are
at the top of my list – that is, the ones currently draining my
wallet/slaking my palate.
First and foremost is Al Wazir (6051 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood,
323-856-0660), a pit stop midway between my home and workplace,
lauded by me many years ago as the dopest of falafel joints extant.
Forget the chickpeas (for the time being) and grab a whole bird
plus extra garlic sauce, pink turnip pickles and brain-frying green
peppers. Because of the foot traffic from the Gower/Paramount studios,
these birds don’t sit long enough on their vertical perch to dry
out. Simply unbeatable for goodness, convenience and price. (A whole
chick plus a tub of hummus as dip or side dish is under 13 bucks.)
My second favorite, TiGeorges Chicken (309 N. Glendale Blvd.,
Filipinotown, 213-353-9994), is an anomaly. Not Middle Eastern but of
Haiti born, this chicken is marinade-laden, deeply smoky from wood-chip
smoke and an avocado-lime brining process, and fall-off-the-bone
amazing. Not of the crisp variety, but served in their own sauce
plus ti malis (a particularly brutal Caribbean hot sauce), the birds
of this unassuming joint have a positively Pavlovian effect as you
approach Glendale Boulevard.
This being L.A., one must bow to the O.G., the little old Zankou chain,
the first most famously at the corner of Sunset and Normandie.
The old L.A. Weekly, ensconced in deep Silver Lake, might never have
made a printing deadline without its staff chowing down on the fast
‘n’ potent bird and garlic-sauce combo. Now there are at least five
of these in L.A., with a sixth in the O.C. The place’s chicken is so
deeply embedded in the Angeleno consciousness that an anguished fellow
traveler, having spotted me wearing Zankou’s trademark yellow T-shirt
outside Boston’s Copley Square, told me he’d been craving it all day,
thanks a lot! 5065 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, (323) 665-7842.
Call for other locations.
Forget the taco ‘n’ burrito stand – rotisserie chicken is the real
mish-mosh nosh, the true definer. Chicken removed from its metal
stick and served with exotica – that’s the taste of L.A. I always
come back to, whenever I’m gone too long. And only we know this,
so let’s keep it that way, okay?

ENCOUNTERS: FINDING COMMUNITY IN A STARBUCKS
By Ellen Slezak
LA Weekly, CA
Oct 6 2005
East of Western, North of Hollywood
I do most of my errands on my bike. Just last week, I rode to the
Laundromat with three loads of laundry bungee-corded to its basket.
More often, I travel lighter and with less purpose. I’ll pedal
somewhere and stop for a cup of coffee.
I like coffee. The stronger, the better. No foam or sugar or half this
or that. Just black and hot. I’m a stereotypical liberal (and proud
of it), who often moans and groans about the loss of the mom-and-pop
storefront, the standardization of towns and cities and suburbs. I’ve
never been in a Wal-Mart – on principle. I’ve never crossed a picket
line – that’s an even bigger principle. But Starbucks – so big,
so corporate, so the same the same the same everywhere? I count on
it. Its coffee and service and pervasiveness have been very good to
me. I have different favorite locations for different times of day,
days of the week.
For the past year or so, this has been my Sunday-morning routine. Get
up at 6. Drink a couple of inches of coffee – enough to jolt me out
the door. Ride my bike three miles to Fern Dell. Hike up to Mount
Hollywood. Hike back down. Get back on bike. Stop at the Armenian
Starbucks at the northeast corner of Hollywood and Western for a
proper cup.
This is a good Starbucks. It has a lot of character, though you might
not think so, driving by. (It’s in a development with a Ralphs and a
Blockbuster and a Ross Dress for Less.) The staff at this Starbucks is
unexcitable, steady. They don’t give the bum’s rush to the old lady who
comes in only to use the bathroom and talk loudly to herself. They
don’t give the bums the bum’s rush. The men, dressed in black,
who sit at the outside tables, smoke with focus. The mentally ill
homeless guy who drinks leftover coffee cadges cigarettes from them;
so does the 50-something-crapped-out-in-Hollywood groupie who talks
loud and fast to a tall, expressionless black guy who nods, but says
nothing in response to her stories about Jack Nicholson, Mick Jagger
and various security guards who let her sneak into these superstars’
orbit. Her voice is wrinkled, and the skin around her eyes is, too. I
quit smoking 20 years ago, but I love the smell of a cigarette,
so I sit outside with them all. The open-air eavesdropping is bracing.
A few weeks ago, when a middle-aged Latino guy, pushing a Ralphs cart
filled with three 12-packs of Miller and three bags of chicken thighs
and legs, stopped near our Starbucks tables and began to unload his
cart, we all assumed he was going to load it into the minivan nearby.
It took us a beat before we realized we had it wrong. He was on foot.
The loudmouthed groupie, the black guy, one Armenian smoker and I
stood up and offered to help him. I pointed at my bike and basket and
pulled a bungee out of my backpack. He shook his head no. The groupie
persisted, loudly, but he still refused, waving her off. We watched,
disbelieving and admiring, as he hoisted and adjusted his bounty and
walked off, a perfect balance of grace and strength.
It’s another Sunday morning at the Armenian Starbucks, and when I
leave L.A., as I imagine I one day will, I’m going to miss it.

LIBERATION OF OCCUPIED LAND POSSIBLE ONLY WITH POWERFUL MILITARY – ALIYEV
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Oct 6 2005
Baku, October 5, AssA-Irada
Azerbaijan is seeking a peaceful settlement of the Upper Garabagh
conflict but no results have been achieved in this area yet,
which prompts the country to continue strengthening its military
power, President Ilham Aliyev said at the ceremony of opening a
new administrative building of the Special State Guard Service on
Wednesday.
Aliyev pointed out the need for establishing a strong military
potential. “Only powerful Azerbaijan army will achieve liberation
of the country’s territories. If the peace talks turn out fruitless,
the occupied lands will be freed through military action,” he said.
President Aliyev said the government is increasing military spending
every year. Whereas military expenses made up $175 million in 2004, the
figure is $300 million this year and will reach $600 million in 2006.
The President also praised the activity of the State Guard Service.
“The employees of the Service ensure my security. This means that the
stability and security of Azerbaijan is reliably protected,” he said.
Aliyev said the national guard plays an important role in ensuring the
security of oil and gas pipelines, including the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
main export pipeline to take Azeri oil to world markets.
In conclusion of the ceremony, President Aliyev awarded several
military men, presenting them with keys to new apartments.*
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MOSCOW DELEGATION TO ARRIVE IN YEREVAN
Pan Armenian
05.10.2005 14:08
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Prefect of the Moscow Central Administrative
Okrug Sergey Baydarkov, who serves on the delegation of the Moscow
government, will take part in festivities dedicated to the Days of
Moscow and the Day of Yerevan to be held in the Armenian capital
October 7-9, 2005. During the visit the delegation members will
lay a wreath to the memorial to the Armenian Genocide victims, take
part in the ceremony of laying a capsule to the foundation of the
House of Moscow in Yerevan, meet with the Mayor of Yerevan. Sergey
Baydarkov will grant office equipment and 1200 books on History and
Philosophy. To note, in December 2005 the executive bodies of Yerevan
and Moscow signed an agreement on cooperation for 2005-2007. The
program provides for CAO-Yerevan wide cooperation in trade and economy,
architecture and town planning, culture, education and health, IA
Regnum reported.

ARMENIA-NATO JOINT SEMINAR ON THE THEME “THE SECURITY IN SOUTH CAUCASUS”
National Assembly of RA, Armenia
Oct 6 2005
On October 6-8 in Yerevan at “Tigran Mets” hall of the
“Armenia-Marriott” hotel with the cooperation of NA and NATO PA the
“Rose Roth” seminar “The Security in Soth Caucasus” will be held.
On October 6 the seminar will be opened by the welcome speech RA NA
President Artur Baghdasaryan, then – Mher Shageldyan, The Chairman of
the NA Standing Committee on Defense, National Security and Internal
Affairs, Vardan Oskanyan, Minister of RA Foreign Affairs, Simon Lunn,
NATO PA General Secretary and Brian Fall, UK Special Representative
on South Caucasus will deliver speeches.
The first working day will be finished with the theme “The Nagorno
Karabakh Conflict and the Role of the World Community.”
On October 7 the themes “Armenia and South Caucasus: International
Viewpoints,” The Reforms of the Defense Sphere in South Caucasus,”
“Armenia: Inner Situation” will be discussed.
On October 8 the themes “Regional Cooperation in South Caucasus”
and “The Role of Russia in South Caucasus” will be discussed and the
seminar will finish its works.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AN OUD OL’ TIME
By Jessica Freiman
Jerusalem Post
Oct 6 2005
Armenian-American oud player and composer Ara Dinkjian, founder
of instrumental quartet Night Ark, will perform at the Jerusalem
International Oud Festival’s closing show this year. Performing along
with Dinkjian at the concert will be Israeli musicians Zohar Parasko
on percussion and Adi Renrat on piano.
The 2005 Jerusalem International Oud Festival, produced and managed by
Confederation House in the Yemin Moshe neighborhood, will be held this
year between November 14th and 26th. The joint performance is based on
Dinkjian’s own compositions as well as traditional Armenian folksongs.
Dinkjian, 45, is an American-born Armenian who grew up listening to
traditional Armenian music alongside American pop and jazz. His big
break came in 1986 when RCA Records offered him a recording contract,
prompting him to found Night Ark, which achieved great success in
the music world and remains a symbol of original instrumental music
combining Mediterranean melodies with jazz, pop, and classical music.
Israelis will recognize Dinkjian’s work from Yoav Izhak’s song “Ze
HaZman Lisloach”; Dinkjian composed the melody.
Dinkjian, considered one of the world’s best oud players, will perform
at the International Oud Festival’s final show on Saturday November
26, 2005 in Jerusalem.

ARTIST FINDS REBIRTH IN NEW WESTON LIBRARY EXHIBIT
By Cheryl Balian Scaparrotta/ correspondent
Weston Town Crier, MA
Oct 6 2005
The Weston Public Library has earned a reputation among Boston-area
artists as a supportive outlet for public exhibits, and this month
is no different. A unique series of prints are on display this month
that combine the methods of printmaking, painting and drawing.
“These works were made when I returned to art again after a long
hiatus,” said John Avakian, an artist from Sharon whose monoprints and
monotypes are on display through Oct. 28. “My work is about playing
with color and texture.”
Avakian explains that a monotype is created by putting a paint image
on Plexiglas or aluminum. While the paint is still wet, it is covered
with paper and put on a press.
“You adjust the pressure with rollers, and the image becomes
transferred to paper,” he said.
The most basic type of monoprint is a handprint or footprint. No two
prints are ever alike, and the appeal of the monotype is a translucency
that creates a quality of light different from a painting on paper.
This brand of creativity is a slight departure from what is normally
found in the library’s exhibit space.
“We receive work from painters, sculptors and photographers most of
the time, so we enjoyed seeing another medium,” said Rebekah Lord
Gardiner, chair of the arts and exhibitions committee at the library.
“One of the purposes of the committee is to exhibit work that people
may not be familiar with. And being a printmaker myself, I’m very
excited for library patrons to be exposed to such prints.”
Avakian calls the collection of 18 works at the library “the rebirth
of celebration series.” While his compositions are mostly abstract,
a few contain literal images.
“One is titled ‘Cupid Enters the Ruins,’ and it’s a metaphor for
several things,” he explained. “One of those is the falling apart
of my own life, which is why I took a hiatus from art, and another
alludes to the Armenian Genocide, which my parents survived while
their families were wiped out.”
But, he is quick to add, “It’s a celebration series because I came
back into art.”
Avakian, who originally hails from Worcester, will be at the Weston
Public Library on Sunday, Oct. 9 from 2 to 4:30 p.m. to meet the
public.

HOW THE DREADED SUPERSTATE BECAME A COMMONWEALTH
Timothy Garton Ash
The Guardian, UK
Oct 6 2005
The question to ask is not what Europe will do for Turkey, but what
Turkey has done for Europe
This week, the European Union did something remarkable. It chose
to become an all-European commonwealth, not the part-European
superstate of Tory nightmares. You see, the main effect of the
bitterly contested opening of membership negotiations with Turkey
is not to ensure that Turkey becomes a member of the European Union,
which it may or may not do 10 or 15 years hence. The main effect is
to set the front line of enlargement so far to the south-east that it
ensures the rest of south-eastern Europe will come into the EU – and
probably before Turkey. There’s a nice historical irony here. Turkey,
which in its earlier, Ottoman, form occupied much of the Balkans,
and therefore cut them off from what was then the Christian club of
Europe, is now the European door-opener for its former colonies.
Article continues
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Bulgaria and Romania are joining the EU in 2007 anyway. What was
Austria’s price for finally agreeing to the opening of negotiations
with Turkey? A similar promise for Croatia! One thing leads to
another. When those Balkan countries are in, they will immediately
start agitating for their neighbours to join them, just as Poland
is now agitating for a promise to Ukraine. No matter that those
neighbours are former enemies, with bitter memories of recent wars
and ethnic cleansing. The mysterious alchemy of enlargement is that it
turns former enemies into advocates. Germany was the great promoter of
Polish membership, and Greece remains one of the strongest supporters
of Turkish membership.
When Serbia and Macedonia come knocking at Brussels’ door, they
will exclaim: “What, you have said yes to Turkey, but you say
no to us, who are closer to you and obviously more European than
Turkey?” Since these countries are mainly small, and since the EU
already takes responsibility for much of south-east Europe’s security
and reconstruction, as a quasi colonial post-conflict power, the
reluctant older members of the EU will sigh: “Oh, what the hell, one
or two more small countries won’t make that much difference anyway –
our big headaches are Turkey and Ukraine.” So they’ll slip in.
The result is that, whether or not Turkey achieves membership over the
next decade, by 2015 the European Union will cover most of what has
historically been considered to constitute the territory of Europe. And
it will have some 32 to 37 member states -for Switzerland, Norway and
Iceland may eventually choose to come in, too. The frontline cases
will then be Turkey and Ukraine, while Russia will have a special
relationship with this new European Union.
Now only someone possessed of the deliberate obtuseness of a Daily
Mail leader writer could suppose that such a broad, diverse European
Union will ever be a Napoleonic, federal (in the Eurosceptic sense of
the F-word), centralised, bureaucratic superstate. That’s why those
who do still want something like a United States of Europe think
Monday was a terrible day for Europe.
Valery Giscard d’Estaing, the main author of the EU’s stillborn
constitutional treaty, was in despair, while Britain’s Jack Straw
was grinning ear to ear. Roughly speaking, the British hated the
constitution because they thought it would create a French Europe,
while the French hate enlargement because they think it will create a
British Europe. Thus Giscard laments that these further enlargements
“are obviously going to transform Europe into a large free-trade
zone”. That is what continental Europeans classically charge the
British with wanting.
Indeed, that is what some Brits do want Europe to be. That’s one reason
Margaret Thatcher loved enlargement. I recently heard a leading member
of the Conservative shadow cabinet say explicitly that he likes the
prospect of further widening because it will make the EU what it
should be, a large free-trade area. But they do not represent the
thinking of the British government; and anyway they are wrong.
This larger Europe will be much more than a free-trade area, or
it will be nothing. It already is much more. And most of these new
members care passionately that it should be. To be just a free-trade
zone, the EU would have to take a large step backwards even as it
takes a large step forwards, and that it will not do. The prospect,
rather, is of an entity that is as far beyond a free-trade zone as
it is short of a centralised superstate. For want of a better term,
I describe this unprecedented continent-wide political community as a
commonwealth – but I have in mind something more like the early modern
Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth than today’s British commonwealth.
Meanwhile, I don’t want you to think I’m ducking the question of
Turkish membership. If we were starting from scratch, I would say
that the European Union should have a special partnership (Angela
Merkel’s term) with Turkey, as also with Russia. Why? Because at its
eastern and south-eastern borders Europe does not end, it merely
fades away. It fades away across the great expanses of Turkey and
Russia. Somewhere between Moscow and Vladivostok, somewhere between
Istanbul and Hakkari, you find yourself more in Asia than in Europe.
This only partly European character of the two countries’ geography
and history suggests a special partnership, for the sense of belonging
to a geographical and historical unity is important for any political
community of Europe.
However, we are not starting from scratch. We have promises to keep.
For more than 40 years we have assured Turkey that it will belong
to our European community. We have repeated, strengthened, made
concrete these promises over the past decade. The example of Turkey,
reconciling a mainly Islamic society with a secular state, is vital
for the rest of the Islamic world – and not insignificant for the 15
to 20 million Muslims already living in Europe. When I was recently
in Iran, a dissident mullah, who had been imprisoned for 18 months
for criticising his country’s Islamic regime, told me: “There are
two models, Turkey and Iran.” Which should we support? The answer
is what Americans call a “no-brainer”. And so the European Union,
although it has no brain – that is, does not take decisions like
a nation-state – has made the right choice. Turkey is an exception:
not a precedent for Morocco or Algeria. For good reasons, the European
Union has just decided to include a chunk of Asia.
Before that happens, however, we have to ensure two things. First,
that Turkey really does meet the EU’s famous Copenhagen criteria,
having a stable liberal democracy, the rule of law (with full
equality for men and women), a free market economy, free speech
(also for intellectuals who say there was a Turkish genocide against
the Armenians), and respect for minority rights (notably those of
the Kurds). Turkey still has a long way to go. Second, and quite as
demanding, public opinion in existing member states, such as France
and Austria, must be prepared to accept Turkish membership. Between
those two, you have at least 10 years’ work ahead.
So, characteristically, the European Union has done something very
important this week, without itself really understanding what it has
done. It has not decided to make Turkey a member. It has decided that
Europe will be a commonwealth and not a superstate.

ARMENIA: MY SON, MIKHAIL
By Onnik Krikorian
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
Oct 5 2005
TAVOUSH, Armenia, 5 October 2005 – When Mikhail Simonyan’s mother,
Rouzana, noticed that her son was having trouble walking, she thought
the three-year-old had simply taken a bit of fall, and thought nothing
more of it. But a trip to the doctor proved her wrong: it seemed that
Mikhail had contracted measles and the infection had spread to his
inner ear. The infection caused by his bout of measles had spread to
the muscles that keep his spinal cord straight.
His mother was devastated by the news. “It wasn’t until I approached
various non-governmental organizations and public organizations [to
ask for advice and help] that I began to come to terms with Mikhail’s
condition,” she says.
“I met many children who were able to live with their disabilities,
some of whom were in a worse situation than my son. This somehow
filled me with hope that there was a way for Mikhail to live with his
disability as well. I gave this hope to my child and told him there
would be a day when he would be able to walk normally. Together,
we’re still living with this hope.”
Mikhail, now seven, is getting help and remains full of hope that
someday he will walk again. He attends a UNICEF-supported centre
called the ‘Bridge of Hope’, which operates also with a community
administrative centre, Vulnerable Families in Ijevan. These centres
play a critical role in bridging the gaps in services for children
with disabilities and their families.
To date over 300 children with disabilities have been assisted by
the centres.
“The establishment of alternative services offered by community
centres is a way forward for these children to become fully-fledged
members of their communities,” says Naira Avetisyan, UNICEF’s Child
Protection Officer in Armenia.
“This is why these community centres are perceived by the government
as a strategic model for the integration of children with disabilities
into society and into mainstream education. They are acknowledged as
the alternative to institutionalization,” she adds.
A day in the life
Mikhail’s daily routine is far from easy, but thanks to Bridge of
Hope, he has managed to attain a certain degree of control over his
own life. In the morning he washes and dresses himself before eating
breakfast and then sets off for school.
Ijevan is one of the most scenic towns in Armenia, but it is also
the most difficult for those with disabilities to live in.
“Ijevan was not designed for disabled people,” says his mother.
“There are no ramps, and public transport is a problem. If it’s
raining, it’s almost impossible to take him to school and in the
winter when there’s a lot of snow, it takes much longer. A journey
that should take 30 minutes instead takes fifty.”
After school Mikhail goes to the Bridge of Hope Centre to receive
rehabilitative therapy, learn computer skills, to play – he likes
art classes where he can draw – and interact with both children with
disabilities and those without.
Mikhail says that he likes mathematics and wants to become an
astronaut.
He wants to go to university when he gets older, and while most
children in Armenia might draw pictures of their homes or the biblical
Mount Ararat, Mikhail has won prizes for his chalk drawings of the
solar system.
Centres like those established by Bridge of Hope and can help make
lives of those with disabilities better, but unfortunately, prejudice
still exists in society.
“The community is very helpful,” says Mikhail’s mother. “In school
they care about him, although, of course, there are some children who
still don’t understand. He explains to these children that he was sick,
that he is now going to a rehabilitation centre, and that very soon,
he will be walking just like them. And because he’s still young,
he doesn’t go out alone and so he’s spared a lot of problems.”

REPORT: MANY DISABLED CHILDREN ABANDONED
By Bradley S. Klapper
The Associated Press
10/05/05 15:20 EDT
GENEVA (AP) – Many disabled children in the former communist countries
of eastern Europe and Central Asia are being put in institutions,
perpetuating the old Soviet practice of “child abandonment,” according
to a UNICEF report released Wednesday.
Instead of integrating the children into general schools, these
countries still employ a policy of “defectology,” a leftover Soviet
discipline in which disabled children are put in institutions that
separate them from society and their families, said the study by U.N.
Children’s Fund’s Innocenti Research Center in Florence, Italy.
“These children want to be given a chance to grow up in a family,”
said Maria Calivis, UNICEF’s regional director.
Attitudes toward disabled young people are getting better in these
formerly communist regions, but improvements in state support are
lagging behind, the 64-page study said.
As of 2002, some 317,000 children in these countries lived in such
separated institutions, a number largely unchanged since the fall
of the Iron Curtain, the report found. By contrast, the rate of
institutionalization in Western countries is up to three times lower.
“The prospect for these children is to graduate to an institution
for adults and to face a pattern of denial of human rights,” the
study said.
The countries studied included eight former communist states that
have since become members of the European Union – Czech Republic,
Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia –
and two others scheduled to join soon – Bulgaria and Romania.
The study also included Balkan states Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia and Montenegro, as well as former
Soviet republics Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and
Uzbekistan.
“Although children with disabilities have become more visible since
the beginning of (the post-communist) transition and attitudes towards
them and their families are changing, many of them are simply ‘written
off’ from society,” said Innocenti director Marta Santos Pais.
Santos Pais said the “high rates of child abandonment” could be
explained by these countries’ outdated medical approaches and lack
of alternative methods for dealing with disabilities.
UNICEF is calling for an end to the segregation of disabled children,
suggesting instead an increase in social benefits to affected families
and greater participation of parents in decisions affecting their
children.
“The reality is many parents feel they have no choice but to give
up their children,” Santos Pais said. “What these families need is
strong social and economic support.”
Some 1.5 million children in these 27 countries were registered as
disabled in 2000, triple the number in 1990, the report said.
However, the surge was largely the result of better recognition and
registration of disabilities, rather than any actual increase in the
number of children disabled.
There may be another 1 million disabled children in the region,
but authorities often lump them together with the chronically ill or
ignore them if they are from ethnic minorities, Santos Pais said.