PRESS RELEASE

UN Department of Public Information, Yerevan Office
2 Petros Adamyan str., First Floor
Yerevan 375010, Armenia
Contact: Armine Halajyan, UN DPI Information Assistant
Tel.: (374 1) 560 212
Fax/Tel.: (374 1) 561 406

Millennium Development Goals-an Agenda for Human Development

Interview with Professor Jerzy Osiatynski, MDGs Advocate for
East and Central Europe and CIS Countries

UN DPI’s Information Assistant, Armine Halajyan, met Professor Osiatynski on
his second visit to Armenia, during which he was calling for a better
understanding of MDGs and how they mesh with the Poverty Reduction Strategy
Paper (PRSP) and other Government policies. An economist by profession and
a professor of economics at the Institute of Economics in the Polish Academy
of Sciences, he has also enjoyed something of a political career as Minister
of Finance (1991-1992) and a member of Polish Parliament (1989-2001).

* Could you define the MDGs? What are they? Are they merely theoretical
guidelines or can they be employed in everyday life?

When the Millennium Declaration was signed by 190 nations in 2000, it was
billed at first as a concept or framework to help create national strategies
to deal with the basic challenges facing humanity in the UN member
countries. The 8 goals address the most critical issues: poverty, education,
health, gender, environment. Goal 8 differs slightly in that it recommends
public and private partnership, and global partnership towards achieving
those goals. Partnership at the global level calls for the rich to assist
the poor to meet those MDGs, while at the national level it challenges the
corporate sector to find ways to feel and be responsible in guiding public
goals, private business, private sector partners, and local and central
government towards achieving the other MDGs.
This means that the MDGs had to be formulated in broad terms so that all 190
countries could sign the declaration. However, it was and still is believed
that the goals need to be localized or domesticated by every country in
order to address specific issues; there is an effort in the Regional Bureau
for European Countries to take the broad theory of MDGs and work it into
more specific targets for each local area, taking into account the most
pressing needs of each.
Moreover, MDGs touch everyday life since the various strategies of social
development that are driven by them require the participation of all kinds
of stakeholders.

* Since this is your second visit to Armenia, you have some idea of how the
MDGs are being approached here. Armenia committed itself to these Goals when
it signed the declaration but parallel to this there is the PRSP process and
the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) in which Armenia is included. How do
these various strategies and activities currently underway relate to each
other?

I think there has been great progress in Armenia towards developing a
poverty reduction strategy that goes far beyond a mere emphasis on economic
growth. Of course, it is true that as an economy grows, the average wage
increases and thus, as a rule, poverty is reduced. However, there is no
guarantee that this will occur-we have seen many cases in countries
transitioning from communism to democracy and market economy where national
economic growth has not led to a reduction in poverty. When the difference
between household incomes rapidly increases, you may have economic growth
but an increase in poverty. Moreover, we know that poverty is often a rural
phenomenon, especially where land is infertile and in mountainous regions;
economic growth is mainly concentrated in large urban areas. So, economic
growth alone cannot produce holistic development. That is why we have
recently seen a shift in thinking about development from emphasizing
economic growth towards stressing the need for human development and access
to education, health and other public services. Indeed, in many countries in
the region we see that respective poverty reduction strategies are
increasingly MDG-driven because the MDGs form an agenda for human
development-they include economic development but are not confined to it. So
in a sense you may say that there is huge overlap between the PRSP and MDGs
in Armenia. With time we will see more and more of this overlap.

* What is the current connection between these two? And what about the link
with the MCA, which is addressed to only 16 countries?

Estimates carried out under the Millennium project showed that poor
countries could only meet their respective localized Millennium Goals if
they received an annual transfer of around 50 billion dollars.

* Does that mean there are only 16 ‘poor’ countries?

No-there are many more. And, of course, there is poverty in rich states
too-in the US or EU countries, for example. Nevertheless, some months ago
the US Government decided to donate 2 billion dollars to help countries that
would otherwise struggle to meet the MDGs. We could say that we are now only
48 billion short! The US Government named 16 countries that would benefit
from this 2 billion. Quotas granted will not be uniform, but approximately
140-150 million dollars will be donated each year-a large sum, especially
for relatively small countries. The MCA exists to allocate the money to
projects that are mainly ensuring sustainable growth-you could say that
money will be given to eligible poor countries in order to promote economic
development. The money can be spent on projects proposed by Government,
local government or NGOs-the only condition is that the stakeholder must be
able to show that the money will be used to advance the MDGs. This is the
link. The MCA is not an alternative to the MDGs. In fact, those involved
need to show progress towards achieving MDGs if financial assistance is to
continue.
When the money was offered as a grant, all the governments of the 16
eligible countries immediately turned towards proposing projects that would
be oriented towards economic growth-not always MDG-oriented. This was a
mistake. And I suspect that this is one of the reasons why there are some
difficulties with grant allocations to Armenia. I believe that the projects
that will be accepted and approved will be those alleviating poverty in poor
localities and serving the wider achievement of all MDGs.

* Since you are the advocate for Eastern Europe and CIS countries, I wonder
what you can tell us about how our immediate neighbours, Georgia and
Azerbaijan, are doing in achieving the MDGs?

That is a difficult question to answer. I haven’t been to either of those
two countries and all I know about their progress is second-hand from
reading their documents. Obviously, I wouldn’t like to make any judgments
based on that sort of information. However, I would like to make a different
point in this context: the whole philosophy of the MDGs requires that the
political commitment of countries that signed the Millennium Declaration is
clearly visible. It is vital that there is evidence of progress in achieving
MDGs. In a sense, whether all targets and goals are reached is of secondary
importance. I am not saying reaching goals does not matter, but perhaps more
important is political commitment that brings progress significant enough to
be felt by the general public. We certainly do not want to put any emphasis
on cross-country comparisons. It is a national agenda for every country’s
government. It is an agenda for the whole nation or local government, or
NGOs. This is not a beauty contest! We want to see every country progressing
towards the goals according to their own specific needs with their own
specific agenda and their own policy instruments to address all these
issues. That is the essence of localizing the MDGs.

* How are MDGs prioritized? For Armenia, Goal 1 is the priority, as we had
mentioned earlier. But which goal comes next in your opinion?

Prioritization means that many countries have several strategies but there
are limited resources. All Government projects are subject to hard budget
constraints and thus they need to fit into the medium term budget
expenditure. In this context you need to decide how much you are willing to
spend on specific concerns. This is how I understand prioritization.

* Is there any advice you’d like to add-for the government or general
public?

I think Armenia still has a fair way to go before genuine participation is
ensured-and the same could be said for government and financial
decentralization. Responsibilities for delivering some public goods should
not be delegated without first decentralizing finances. It is absolutely
vital to do that.
Also, we are in a process that clearly takes a long time to bear
fruit-change is required within a whole generation. It is crucial that the
corporate culture of governance is revised. Good governance and elimination
of corruption might become a separate and a rather important additional goal
in Armenia, just as Albania decided to make it. This agenda as a separate
goal has its own policy instruments, own targets and own indicators. I think
it could make sense if the Albanian experience is carefully studied here and
taken into consideration.

The interview is published in issue #22 of the UN Armenia Office Bulletin to
be posted soon at

* * *

President Kocharian Condoles The Killing Of Former Lebanese Prime Minister

ArmenPress
Feb 15 2005

Yerevan, February 15, Armenpress: Armenian president Robert Kocharian
has sent a letter of condolences to president of Lebanon, Emile
Lahoud, in connection with the Monday killing of Lebanon’s former
prime minister Rafik Hariri.

“It was with a great sadness that I learned about the killing of
the former prime minister Rafik Hariri, a prominent politician,
whose contribution to strengthening of Lebanon and development of
Lebanese-Armenian relations is invaluable. The terrorist action that
took Hariri’s life is a challenge not only to Lebanon, but also
to the entire region. By strongly condemning any manifestation of
terrorism I convey my personal and all Armenians’ condolences to
you, the people of the friendly Lebanon and Hariri’s beloved ones,”
Kocharian’s message reads.

President Kocharian also sent a letter of condolences to Mrs. Nazik
Hariri.

Hariri was killed Monday in a massive car bomb explosion in Beirut.
At least 13 others, some of them his bodyguards, also died.

Hariri, a billionaire businessman, resigned from government last
October but remained politically influential. He recently joined calls
by the opposition for Syrian troops to quit Lebanon in the run-up to
a general election in May.

All American Patriots (press release), Sweden
Feb 15 2005

U.S. Sponsors Programs for Women in Europe and Eurasia
Fact sheet cites economic, sports, anti-trafficking, health care
programs
14 February 2005

Following is a U.S. State Department fact sheet issued February 14
providing an outline of U.S. programs for women in Europe and
Eurasia:

(begin fact sheet)

U.S. Department of State

Office of the Senior Coordinator for International Women’s Issues

Washington, DC

February 14, 2005

FACT SHEET

U.S. COMMITMENT TO WOMEN IN EUROPE AND EURASIA

“I believe with all my power, when I go back to Kosovo, I will make a
change in my government.”

— Kosovar woman working in the municipal government after completing
a U.S.-supported Hope Fellowship training program on government.

The United States carries out and/or sponsors programs for women in
the region’s new and emerging democracies in the following key areas:
political participation and leadership training; promoting economic
opportunity through entrepreneurial training, microenterprise
development and access to credit; reducing domestic violence and
human trafficking by educating law enforcement officials, teachers,
social workers and the general public; and supporting healthcare with
training of healthcare workers and increasing women’s access to
health education and athletics. Some of the projects the U.S. has
implemented for women in the region include:

Political Participation and Civil Society Leadership Training. The
Hope Fellowship Program, funded by USAID, fosters leadership skills
for qualified women from Kosovo and offers women internships in the
United States. In November-December 2004, eight Hope Fellows
participated in a two-month program at U.S. governmental
organizations to gain leadership, technical and practical skills to
apply to their own work in rebuilding Kosovo. To date, a total of 70
women from Kosovo have graduated from the Hope Fellowship program. In
Georgia, women participated in a women’s leadership program funded by
the Freedom Support Act. In 2004, the Bureau of Educational and
Cultural Affairs (ECA) awarded a grant to Kent State University to
conduct a women’s leadership exchange program between the United
States and Southeastern Turkey. The project includes seminars in Ohio
and Turkey on leadership skill-building, decision-making and conflict
resolution.

Legal Reform. With U.S. support, the Women’s Consortium of
Non-Governmental Associations (made up of more than 110 organizations
from 42 regions of Russia) worked in close collaboration with the
State Duma Committees to develop the draft law “On State Guarantees
of Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities for Women and Men in the
Russian Federation,” which had its first reading in the Duma in April
2003.

Women in Politics. Three women parliamentarians from Turkey
participated in a three week International Visitor Leadership Program
on “Women in U.S. Politics,” September 2004. The program was designed
to broaden their understanding of 1) how women can enter politics
from the business sector, education, grassroots organizations, and
volunteerism; and 2) the role of women’s organizations in shaping
political dialogue and developing and electing candidates.

Networking. In 2003, with help from the United States, more than 100
women in the Radusa community of The Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia organized their own first-ever meeting to voice their
concerns and identify priorities for their community. Their efforts
resulted in an agreement to reconstruct a pedestrian bridge leading
to the village’s only elementary school.

Economic Opportunity

Public-Private Partnerships. Fifty women business owners from small-
and medium-sized enterprises from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia,
Finland, Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus joined 50 U.S. women business
leaders at the Riga Women Business Leaders Summit in Riga, Latvia
September 2004. The Summit’s aim was to help build economic
relationships between the Baltic States, their neighbors, and the
United States. The U.S. Embassy in Riga and the Latvian President
Vaira Vike-Freiberga hosted the Summit, a successor to the 2002
Helsinki Women Business Leaders Summit that former U.S. Ambassador to
Finland Bonnie McElveen-Hunter and U.S. businesswoman founded
( /PageServer?Page=hwbls/hwbls.html).
For the second portion of the Riga Summit, the women traveled to the
United States in December 2004 to attend a conference at Georgetown
University to continue their partnerships, exchange business best
practices and build management skills.

Entrepreneurial Training. With U.S. funding, the Public Organization
on Support of Entrepreneurship, Women of Vision, and the
Non-Commercial Partnership Siberian Educational Consulting Center are
building a network of women across the Russian Far East to advocate
for women’s rights. The project will create awareness of women’s
issues, develop leadership skills, and foster regional,
inter-cultural, and international exchanges. In October 2003, the
United States made it possible for eight women from the Women’s
Training Center in Estonia to attend an international conference in
St. Petersburg that helped women formulate strategies for achieving
equality in practice. In Bulgaria, the United States funded 8 courses
in shoe-making and sewing for 80 socially disadvantaged Roma women
from the town of Dupnitsa and the suburb of Krainitsi. Each graduate
will receive job placement in local factories.

Microenterprise Development. For several decades, the United States
has been helping the poor — who depend on microenterprises for their
survival — to gain access to capital, information, inputs,
technologies, and markets. Women are major beneficiaries of
microloans. In Azerbaijan, Mercy Corps is raising the incomes of
rural women microentrepreneurs by making available high quality and
reasonably priced veterinary and animal husbandry services for
livestock and poultry. Such programs also help veterinarians expand
their client base and improve their ability to diagnose and treat.

Credit Access. Sponsored by ECA, Elmir Ismayilov of Azerbaijan is a
“Contemporary Issues Fellow” at the University of Michigan. In
Azerbaijan, he helped develop local credit mechanisms for women.
Today, in his work as a community development officer with a
nonprofit agency, Ismayilov has helped financial institutions to
revise lending methodologies, conduct outreach to women, and
implement post loan trainings to minimize delinquency and business
failure among women. The establishment of creditworthiness among
women has laid a foundation for future access to funding and services
from commercial financial institutions.

Business Development. Eight women business leaders and entrepreneurs
from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Latvia, Norway, Romania, and
Switzerland participated in a 3-week European Regional International
Visitor Leadership Program on “Business Development Issues for Women
Business Leaders” in June 2004. Their program provided practical
insights into initiatives that promote the development of women
business owners; introduced federal, state, and local policies
designed to advance women’s prominence in business leadership; and
provided opportunities for visitors to meet with women business
leaders and owners in a variety of contexts throughout the United
States, and who shared personal success stories and challenges.

Combating Domestic Violence

Training and Crisis Centers. A United States-sponsored program for
2003-04 trained between roughly 150 civil servants, medical workers,
educators, and law-enforcement officers on how to combat domestic
violence in Russia. The project promotes cooperation among NGOs and
Russian state agencies on the prevention of family violence. The
United States also is assisting one of Russia’s oldest crisis centers
to update and improve its statistical database on domestic violence.
Access to this resource by lawyers and legal aid clinics will improve
legal services for victims of domestic violence. Twelve women’s
organizations and crisis centers will receive a user’s manual with a
description of typical cases and recommended courses of action. Four
centers will be trained directly on how to use and update the
information.

Anti-Trafficking Efforts

Raising Awareness of Trafficking. In Estonia, the United States has
provided resources to the public library at the Estonian Women’s
Studies and Resource Center to educate police and border guard
officials, youth workers, social workers, teachers, and vocational
counselors about the causes and consequences of prostitution and
trafficking in women. In Albania, the U.S. Embassy Tirana’s Democracy
Commission Small Grants Program supported the production of a short
drama by high school students depicting the tragedy of human
trafficking. Written by a prominent Albanian author, the play
addressed a range of issues associated with trafficking in persons.

Trafficking Prevention Centers. In Ukraine, the United States funded
seven women’s trafficking prevention centers (TPC). The TPCs have
hotlines and offer referral services for health, legal, and
psychological counseling. The Trafficking Prevention Program works
with Ukrainian women’s NGOs to provide job skills training, legal
consulting services, and a public education campaign. Since 1998,
44,850 women have received consultations or job skills training;
5,040 women have found work or received a promotion due to the
training program; 176 businesses have been created; and 26,149 women
completed trafficking prevention or domestic violence awareness
training.

Law Enforcement/Training. With U.S. support, the Women’s Rights
Center in Yerevan, Armenia, conducted 16 training sessions on
domestic violence and 14 sessions on trafficking in women for 225
professionals from law-enforcement, government, NGOs, teachers,
doctors, journalists, and psychologists between October 2002 and June
2003. The Center publishes a newsletter on women’s issues and
broadcasts TV and radio programs on the prevention of trafficking in
persons and domestic violence against women. Two members of the
Armenian Government’s Interagency Group To Combat Trafficking visited
the United States for further training; they had an opportunity to
develop concrete approaches to combating trafficking. In Romania, the
Regional Anti-Trafficking Best Practice Manual is the culmination of
an intensive 2-year cooperation among the U.S., the UN Development
Program (UNDP), and Romania’s Ministry of Administration and the
Interior. Written for border police officers, specialized police
units, and prosecutors, the manual was officially adopted by the UN
Office on Drugs and Crime at the regional law enforcement senior
officials meeting in Vienna in December 2003.

Legal Reform. In July 2004, five representatives from the Finnish
Parliament, Ministries, and NGO’s participated in a 1-week Voluntary
Visitor Program in Washington, DC, and Atlanta, Georgia, focusing on
U.S. Governmental and non-governmental efforts in combating
trafficking and assisting victims. The program gave the participants
the opportunity to learn about U.S. legislation and strategies and
NGOs’ efforts in victim identification and assistance. It prepared
them with models and ideas to help implement Finland’s new
anti-trafficking program. ECA also awarded grants in FY 2003 for
anti-trafficking programs in Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Romania, and Serbia and Montenegro. These
exchanges targeted representatives from NGOs and government agencies
and their efforts to draft new laws and legislation to address
anti-trafficking efforts in their countries.

Healthcare

New Medical Equipment. The U.S. Government donated $500,000 in
equipment and supplies to Uzbekistan to help continue to improve
healthcare for women and children. New medical equipment will help
twelve central hospitals, two maternity houses and selected rural
medical points in the regions of Kashkadarya and Surkhandarya to
Training programs on the new equipment will ensure that maternity
wards and pediatric departments provide better care for their
patients.

Training. In 2003, the United States brought maternal and child
healthcare experts from Russia to demonstrate how the U.S. healthcare
system in works to assure a healthy pregnancies, deliveries, and
early childhoods. Participants became familiar with models of healthy
lifestyles, childbirth education, and family-centered maternity care.
The United States also helped train volunteers from the blind female
community in Vladivostok, so they could provide psychological support
to other visually impaired women and programs aimed at integrating
blind women into community life. In addition, the project worked to
create networks between organizations serving the blind and other
women’s NGOs in Vladivostok.

Education and Information. As part of a series of events on breast
cancer, Kathy Pardew, wife of the U.S. Ambassador, hosted a book
launch at the U.S. Embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria, in October 2003. The
book, “Ask the Doctor: Breast Cancer” by Dr. V. Friedewald and Dr.
A.U. Buzdar, was translated into Bulgarian by the embassy. Several
dozen Bulgarian physicians, breast cancer survivors, and breast
cancer activists attended the event, which was covered by the
Bulgarian press. Speakers highlighted the changing public attitudes
toward cancer and the importance of building networks among patient
groups, women leaders, journalists, and doctors.

Athletics/Sports

Management Training. In April 2003, a delegation from the Ministry of
Youth and Sports of Kosovo undertook a week-long Voluntary Visitor
program in New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. on how to
organize, recruit, fund, and manage girls/women’s sports teams —
specifically soccer — and the role that government, business, and
private citizens play in managing and funding sports leagues. With
very few organized sports teams for youth and none for girls, the
officials hope to promote sports as a beneficial activity for girls.
The development of sports programs for women and girls can have a
positive effect on women’s lives.

(end fact sheet)

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs,
U.S. Department of State. Web site: )

TheOG.net, CA
Feb 15 2005

A Short Conversation with Saul Williams

TheOG: How’s it going Saul, how are you man?

SW: Chillin’ man, how are you?

TheOG: Can’t complain about a damn thing. So I have some questions
for you, if you got some time to answer them.

SW: Yeah definitely.

TheOG: I’m sure you’ve been getting this question a lot, but I was
wondering if you could talk about some of the differences between
producing your own record, with Saul Williams, compared to working
with Rick Rubin, on Amethyst Rock Star?

SW: Okay, cool. So, umm, well, first of all, we should be clear,
like, the majority of the music for the Amethyst Rock Star album, I
wrote that stuff as well. Rick Rubin is a producer in the rock sense
of the word – a rock producer doesn’t write the music for the band,
the rock producer sits back and says “yo you should pull up the
guitars”, or “make the drums heavier”. That’s how Rick worked with me
on the first album, and part of the confusion with that first album
stemmed from that, because I came from the hip-hop world and I was
expecting, you know, if I paid Timbaland to produce an album for me,
he’s coming with beats, right? You know, and so it was a bit
different… because I, you know, the power of Rick, and the beauty
of him, is that he sits back and pretty much trusts that the artist
he works with can bring what they have to the table. He just helps
them perfect that. So that’s how it is with that, but with this, the
Saul Williams album, the big difference was that I went into it not
expecting any body else to make anything for me…

TheOG: You knew you were going to do it all yourself.

SW: Yeah, I was clear on that. And I knew that I couldn’t really look
to anyone to make anything close to what I wanted to hear. So I had
to do it myself, because I had this music that I’m hearing in my
head, and these cats are coming to me with tracks that sound like
other people’s tracks, other people’s sounds, I was like nah I want
to hear something else. So I had to do it, in order to get those
voices and songs out of my head. It was a very fun process, it was
also dope because, at the time, I mean, I say it was dope but… I
wasn’t attached to any label, I had gotten off Rick Rubin’s label
before I created this album. And so, I created it in an environment
of pure freedom, at home. The only thing that wasn’t free was, like,
the rent, you know? I got to do it without anybody looking over my
shoulder.

TheOG: Do you feel, since the onus was on you, does that have
something to do with why you ended up making your album self-titled?

SW: Uhh, part of it, also because, I mean the real reason why the
album is self-titled is because when me and my peeps sat back trying
to think of the strongest title for an album, we realized that, like,
there’s nothing more powerful than putting your name on that shit.
Like put yourself out there, and back the fuck up, you know?

TheOG: Like, this is me, here I am?

SW: Yup.

TheOG: That’s dope. But you know, as an artist you’ve never been
confined to one medium. You broke out in ’98 with Slam, you’ve worked
with film, written and spoken words, music production, but, what
medium do you really feel the closest to?

SW: Well, I’d have to say, the true line through all of my shit is
hip-hop. So instead of saying what art form I feel closest to, I
could say that I feel closest to hip-hop culture. Whether it’s
expressing itself through film, through music, through dance, what
have you, that’s what I feel connected to. That’s the defining
element of my voice, and of our generation – it’s hip-hop, you know?
So that, growing up, there were lots of kids who were graff writers
that could also MC, that could also break, you know? That’s what I
come from. The fact that I write a little, and act a little, and do
all these things, that’s just a representation of hip-hop culture.

TheOG: In terms of people you’ve been working with and artists you’ve
been collaborating with, I know you worked with KRS-One in the past,
and on Saul Williams you worked with Serj Tankian from System of a
Down and Zach de la Rocha from Rage Against the Machine? How did you
end up working with those cats?

SW: Well both of those cats – I live in LA, and both of those cats
are friends of mine. So, I came about working with them just because
they were around and because I really respect their work. You know
it’s funny, there’s a lot of ghetto cats that love System of a Down,
just because they can feel how hard that music is. And that’s
partially because the Armenian cause is closely aligned with the
African-American cause, the cause of oppressed people across the
world, and that when they sing from the roots of their oppression,
people relate to that. That’s why their music is so hard. I just
always feel System of a Down’s work, and Zach’s work with Rage
Against the Machine also. You know Zach is Puerto Rican, and Tom
Morello is the nephew of Jomo Kenyatta. Umm, these cats are all very
closely related to the cause and what have you, and so I’ve just
always felt what they’ve done, and for the opportunity to work with
them… and also, I wanted to do something a little different, you
know I didn’t want to go the regular route of, you know, I got Busta
Rhymes on this song [laughter], I wanted to do something different.

TheOG: Yeah true. Now didn’t Serj write, didn’t he compose “Talk To
Strangers”, the opening track?

SW: Yeah the music for it. That’s him on the piano.

TheOG: Damn, I have to say that….

SW: And the crazy thing was that he just did that for me out of the
blue. One day he was like “Saul I wrote a song for you on piano, I
don’t know how you’re going to feel about it but I just wrote this
for you, and you know it’s for you to do whatever you want with it.”
Isn’t that crazy?

TheOG: Man, that’s got to be a flattering feeling, to have someone
straight up write a song for you.

SW: Yeah, like wow!

TheOG: You know, I gotta say that that song is probably the most
powerful fusion of music and spoken words that I’ve ever heard. When
I first put the album on, and that track came on, I was just… I
couldn’t get past it! It ended, and I was like “rewind, rewind”.

SW: I have the same thing for it, because I was really looking for an
opening track, you know, and I wanted an opening that would put
everything into context. People would see that this is where I’m
from, but I don’t think like this, and yeah I was raised in these
sorts of surroundings but I don’t surround myself with this. I just
really wanted it to touch on so many truths, and I felt blessed
because the lyrics came the way they did. And that was of course
inspired by the music, so it was just really wonderful.

TheOG: Yeah man, I’m with you. In terms of, like, you know, critics
and people in this world, like me, that end up writing about music
and about the things that other people create, you know, the word
fusion has come up a lot in trying to describe your work and the
music you create. I just wanted to know, how do you feel about that?
If you had to describe your music, is that what you see yourself
trying to do? Do you see yourself trying to bring together different
genres and different forms?

SW: Well, if I were to really look at my work then I would say I’m
trying to bring together different people, you know? That’s the goal
of the book, the goal of the book is not to fuse a genre, but if I
can get two people who would think that they would not like each
other, to nod their heads to the same song, and for that song to make
them think, and grow, and encourage them. Let’s say those two people
are a Palestinian and an Israeli, you know, or a ghetto kid and a
suburban kid, and to get those kids, not just nodding their heads
because the beat is tight, but nodding their heads because they agree
with what’s being said and they realize that the underlying theme of
humanity is love. You know, that’s the point of my music, the idea is
to breed consciousness. That’s the point of what I do. It has little
to do with like, yo I’m a make this so that punk rock kids and
hip-hop kids can both feel it, you know like that’s there, that’s in
the music, but that’s just me, you know? That’s how I was raised. I
was raised in an all-black, you know a very black community, but was
picked on because I spoke what they said was proper, you know, and so
they were like “Damn kid you kinda talk white!”, they would say. But
at the same time, everything that would come out of my mouth would be
something that I read in some Malcolm X book or something, so I was
the most militant kid, that seemed to talk white, but I was also
literally the darkest kid in the community! It was a fusion of shit,
you know? It was a fusion of realities that were impressed upon me as
a kid, and so my artistic expression reflects that fusion, yet now
it’s pointed towards the goal of fusing humanities, of fusing
consciousness, that’s the point of all this. To get people on the
same page. To get people realizing that we are human first, not
American first, to get men realizing the importance of women, you
know, just all of these things. There is so much growth that we need
to do before we can transition into the society that we want to live
in. The point of my music is that.

TheOG: That’s dope man, that’s real dope. I got two more for you,
one: the state of music in the world today? Do you feel optimistic,
do you feel pessimistic, I mean, how do you feel about where
we’re….

SW: Optimistic man! I feel optimistic. You know, like, I swear
hip-hop has taken a turn for the better. Like, what, the most
commercial release right now is, what, The Game album right?

TheOG: Yup.

SW: And…. that shit is dope!

TheOG: Yeah man! That “Documentary” track on there…

SW: It’s all about “Dreams” man. That [singing] “Martin Luther King
had a dream!” That shit!!!!!!

TheOG: Yeah!

SW: Yeah but the “Documentary”, where he throws all the names of the
classics out…

TheOG: Word, that’s all I am!

SW: All I ask is that the cats who take the spotlight, earn it. And
you don’t earn it by shooting or getting shot, you earn it by doing
your homework, and realizing the power of what you say. And I feel
like that’s what I’m getting from this dude. You know, The Game, I’m
like, okay, that’s alright, I hope it goes platinum! Double time! You
know, like, that’s the type of shit, it’s like it’s right, so like
yeah, I think shit is happening right now. And I hope that inspires a
lot of these young kids, you know, from whoever, from Lil Wayne on
down. To look at that and be like, okay, maybe we need to do some
homework and not just talk about the amount of money we’re making.
It’s all about the connections between what we’re doing and what’s
already been done, you know? And not just what’s already been done in
hip-hop, but, you know who the original MC in the Black community
was, the minister! You know? And the street version of that was the
pimp. Like there’s just a whole, there’s a whole long line of history
that we have to connect our work to, or else we won’t be doing our
job. Or else we’ll be confusing kids, and making people think that
money is God, that money is power, and that is corruption.

TheOG: Speaking of young people, I’m affiliated with a group of young
aspiring spoken word artists who are incarcerated at a youth
detention facility in California, and man they would love it if you
could give them some wisdom.

SW: Well, my belief is that good writing is reflective of good
reading, first of all. Now, for a lot of people, there’s a lot of
variance about what is good reading. Some people think that good
reading means that means you’re supposed to read, you know, the
Autobiography of Malcolm X, and, you know, some non-fiction books
about the state of society, and blah blah blah. Now that’s good
reading, but poetry is an aesthetic art form. Poetry is very much
about aesthetics, aesthetics is about beauty, and enhancing the sense
of truth and beauty, so that we have to study beauty if we are going
to write beautiful poetry. So we have to find some flowery writing,
we have to find not only the politics but we have to find beautiful
ways of saying what we mean, and meaningful ways of saying what we
feel. That also is learned truth. So I would say, umm, I personally
would make lot’s of trips to second hand book stores, and find odd
books that just fall off the shelves in the fiction zone, in the
science fiction zone, in the poetry zone, and all those different
sections, and read them! I would expose myself to as much amazing
literature as possible, enter in to conversations about books that
have moved me, find books that move me. I read a lot of books that
move me because they teach me how to write stuff that is moving! It’s
very much about what you read, which is to say it’s very much about
your diet, because what you read is what you ingest, so it’s also
about what you watch. If you watch a lot of bullshit and listen to a
lot of bullshit, you’re going to write a bunch of bullshit because if
that’s what you’re digesting, that’s what will come out of you! You
have to be mindful about what you put into your body, not just your
food, but what you read, what you listen to.

TheOG: Truly man. Well, that about wraps it up for me, thank you so
much for taking the time to share your thoughts with us, I’m really
glad we got the chance.

SW: No problem man, thank you.

TheOG: Alright, peace!

Credit: G-Rice Exclusively for theOG.net
Special thanks to Saul Williams

Top Azeri diplomat downplays corridor idea between breakaway region, Armenia

Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
14 Feb 05

[Presenter] Baku has immediately responded to [Armenian Defence
Minister] Serzh Sarkisyan’s statement [on the opening of corridor
between Armenia and Karabakh]. [Azerbaijani] Deputy Foreign Minister
Araz Azimov has said that Azerbaijan will not allow [occupied
Azerbaijani district of] Lacin to be used as a transit corridor
between Armenia and Karabakh.

[Correspondent, over archive video of Araz Azimov speaking to ATV] Both
[Azerbaijan’s exclave of] Naxcivan and Nagornyy Karabakh are integral
parts of Azerbaijan and therefore there cannot be any talk about the
opening of a corridor there, the president’s special representative
for settling the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict, Araz Azimov, said. He
noted that Baku is actually against the notion of the corridor to
build relations between Armenia and Karabakh’s Armenians, because
this notion is quite a limited one. Whatever action is to be taken
within this corridor, it may face certain difficulties. As a result,
the parties will face mutual distrust and will be taken with the idea
of ensuring the security of the corridor, end of quote.

Azimov said that Azerbaijan has its own proposals instead. He
stressed that Baku thinks that both Azerbaijan and Armenia can
use all communication lines in the conflict zone which will enable
Azerbaijanis to travel freely to Naxcivan and Armenia to maintain
relations with the Armenians in Nagornyy Karabakh. Azimov said that
the roads should be freely used for this purpose.

The presidential envoy emphasized that Lacin has been and will
continue to be Azerbaijani land. No part of Lacin can be included
in the Armenian-proposed corridor. We are talking only about roads
and communication lines here. If we talk about a particular road
traversing Lacin, this road can be made safe only if Azerbaijan uses
it to go to Naxcivan and Armenia to go to Karabakh. This road can be
made safe by the parties committing themselves to that, end of quote.

Azimov said that this proposal can be discussed. The envoy stressed
that the return of refugees to their native lands is not yet on
the agenda. This problem can be discussed only after Azerbaijan and
Armenia restore normal relations, he said. As for relations between
Karabakh’s Armenians and Armenia after the resolution of the problem,
Azimov noted that Baku, which wants a peaceful solution to be found to
the conflict, guarantees the security of these relations. The envoy
said that Armenia has a military solution in mind in its approach to
the settlement of the conflict, while Azerbaijan is in favour of a
peaceful settlement. There would be no need for a security belt if
peace is restored. What is needed is economic cooperation around
Karabakh, he said.

Namiq Aliyev for “Son Xabar”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AzerTag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
Feb 15 2005

ARMENIANS PUTTING PRESSURE ON EDUCATION SYSTEM OF GERMANY
[February 15, 2005, 13:13:42]

The Armenians are saddened with decision of the Berlin-Brandenburg
federal government on remove of the topic on the so-called “Armenian
genocide” from the curriculums and historical textbooks.

The Armenian communities in Germany have launched protest campaign to
propagandize their insidious goal, AzerTAj correspondent reports. Of
course, they want to attract attention of the international community
and gain support for the territorial claims towards Turkey and
aggressive policy against Azerbaijan. The Armenians have sent a letter
of protest to the government of Berlin-Brandenburg and minister of
education of this province demanding to keep the mentioned “topic”
in the historical textbooks, the “Oranienburqer Generalanzeiger”
newspaper writes.

Head of the Berlin-Brandenburg government Mr. Platsek has received
delegation of the “rebellious Armenians” at the Berlin Senate saying
their demands contradict national interests of Germany.

AzerTag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
Feb 15 2005

SESSION OF COMMITTEES OF MANAGEMENT OF SCAD PROGRAM HELD
[February 15, 2005, 13:46:30]

On February 10-12, in Tbilisi, with participation of official
representatives of the government of the countries of Southern
Caucasus, management of the Commission on assistance of the European
Union and UNDP representations in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, was
held the session of Committees of political and technical management
of the Program of the regional assistance “South Caucasus Anti-Drug”
(SCAD) Program. The program is financed by the European Union.

The deputy interior minister Zahid Dunyamaliyev, the vice-president of
the State Customs Committee Rafael Mirzoyev, the national coordinator
of SCAD Program Mazahir Efendiyev and other officials represented
the Azerbaijan Republic.

At the session, was analyzed the work done in each three republics
on IV SCAD project in 2004, also discussed plans for 2005.

The head of delegation of Azerbaijan, the deputy interior minister
Zahid Dunyamaliyev spoke of questions of methods of combat
against illegal circulation of drugs, the organized crime and
international terrorism, money laundering, has expressed gratitude
to the international organizations, the SCAD Program for the help in
carrying out reforms by the government of Azerbaijan in this field.

Azeri civilian wounded in ceasefire breach

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Feb 15 2005

Baku, February 14, AssA-Irada — At about 5 p.m. on Sunday, Armenian
units, from their positions in the occupied Jeysulanli village of
Azerbaijan, fired at the Gapanly village in the Terter district for
one hour. As a result of the shooting, a resident of the village
Farman Mirkishiyev, 38, was wounded in his shoulder, local ANS TV
reported. Mirkishiyev, who was rushed to the hospital, underwent a
surgery and is currently in satisfactory condition.

Mirkishiyev was ploughing soil when he was fired at. It was impossible
to remove him from the area for an hour.*

Pan Armenian Network

COMMODITY TURNOVER BETWEEN ARMENIA AND TURKEY IN 2004 MADE $120 BILLION

14.02.2005 16:54

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The commodity circulation between Armenia and Turkey in
2004 made about $120 billion, Kaan Soyak, the Co-Chairman of the
Armenian-Turkish Relations Development Council, stated in Yerevan today.
According to him, before the formation of the Council in 1997 the turnover
made no more than $60 million. He says, in case of opening of the
Armenian-Turkish border the turnover can increase at least three times. Kaan
Soyak stated he is for soonest opening of the border and invited
representatives of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun to Turkey for establishing
dialogue on urgent issues. “The ARFD is a serious and experienced party and
if they agree I am ready to exert every effort to start this dialogue”, he
noted. When touching upon the Armenian Genocide Soyak said that Turks began
speaking of it during the recent 2-3 years. “Our organization will do its
best to make the historical truth clear to the Turkish people”, he stated.
It should be noted that when commenting on the killings of 1915 in the
Ottoman Empire the Turkish businessman used the word “genocide”.

Pan Armenian Network

TURKEY SHOULD NOT DEFEND AZERBAIJAN’S INTERESTS WHILE ESTABLISHING RELATIONS
WITH ARMENIA, TURKISH BUSINESSMAN CONSIDERS

14.02.2005 15:53

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey should not defend Azerbaijan’s interests and
demand Armenia’s abandoning the seized territories as a precondition
for the establishment of the Armenian-Turkish relations, Co-Chairman of
the Armenian-Turkish Relations Development Council Kaan Soyak stated
in Yerevan today. According to him, the organization headed by him
advocates activation of Turkish-Armenian relations and raising the
blockade of the Armenian border. “Europe has not had borders for
long time and I think Armenia and Turkey should not be separated
by borders. These two countries should follow the example of the
European states”, he said. However the issue of the opening of the
Armenian-Turkish border will remain unsettled for many years if the
parties are fundamental on their stands. “For the soonest resolution
of the problem I exert pressure on the Turkish governmental circles
within the limits of the possible. I call my Armenian colleagues to
follow my example and put pressure upon the Armenian government”,
the Turkish businessman noted.