08/12/04
SPPD Receives $10 Million Gift

The funds will establish the Judith and John Bedrosian Center on
Governance and the Public Enterprise, examining the nature of
democratic governance and policymaking.

Judith and John Bedrosian’s $10 million gift to the USC School of
Policy, Planning, and Development is the largest received by SPPD and
either of its predecessor schools.

By Elaine Lapriore

Judith and John Bedrosian have given $10 million to the USC School of
Policy, Planning, and Development to found a new center to study
governance.

The Judith and John Bedrosian Center on Governance and the Public
Enterprise will focus on the nature of democratic governance,
policymaking and management of the public enterprise. Led by the
as-yet unnamed holder of the Bedrosian Chair in Governance – also
established by the gift – the center will be fully operational for the
2005-2006 school year.

John Bedrosian, a founding member of the USC School of Policy,
Planning, and Development’s board of councilors, has served as the
board’s chair for the past five years. The gift from him and his wife
is the largest received by SPPD and either of its predecessor schools.

“This generous gift by John and Judy Bedrosian is a measure of their
commitment to ensuring that the best minds and best ideas be assessed
and amplified as a central mission of SPPD and our university,” Dean
Daniel Mazmanian said.

San Francisco Chronicle, CA
Aug 14 2004

Birds Without Wings

By Louis De Bernières

KNOPF; 553 PAGES; $29.95

“Birds Without Wings” is Louis De Bernières’ first novel since
“Corelli’s Mandolin” (1994), which won the Granta Prize, sold 2.5
million copies worldwide and became a big-budget Hollywood film with
Penelope Cruz and Nicolas Cage. Even the author acknowledges that his
new novel may not duplicate the success of the previous one. “Birds”
is a long, interesting and sometimes challenging book. An account of
the changes the first third of the 20th century brings to a small
Turkish village may not appeal to a mass audience, particularly
without an overriding romance to leaven the tale.
At the dawn of the 20th century, Eskibahçe is a town of no
distinction in western Anatolia. Muslims, Orthodox Christians and
Armenians live there in relative peace under the policy of tolerance
that represented the Ottoman Empire at its best. In Eskibahçe, a
Christian father veils his young daughter at the request of the
learned imam, who finds that her beauty is distracting the local men;
a Muslim housewife asks her Christian neighbor to light a candle
before the icon of the Virgin — just in case. The scandals,
triumphs, solutions and problems remain local matters that the local
people can handle, just as their parents and grandparents did.

Then what Iskander the Potter calls the “great world” intervenes,
precipitating decades of wrenching sorrow and bloodshed. The Armenian
genocide is followed by World War I, the collapse of the Ottoman
Empire and the emergence of modern Turkey. The end of the war
produces the forced expulsion and resettlement of half a million
ethnic Greek Christians to Greece (and of 1 million ethnic Turks to
Turkey), a socially and economically disastrous policy dictated by
the Lausanne Settlement.

De Bernières presents the suffering of the inhabitants of Eskibahçe
in counterpoint to the life of Kemal Ataturk, commenting that history
“is finally nothing but a sorry edifice constructed from hacked flesh
in the name of great ideas.” De Bernières writes dense, fine-grained
prose that moves with the measured grace of a 19th century novel. But
he often seems to have spent too much time with the thesaurus and to
have picked up a little too much local color. If there’s an obscure,
multi-syllable adjective that can replace a simple, familiar one, he
invariably chooses the former. He delights in including words and
phrases in Turkish and Greek, but rarely bothers to translate them.
When a grotesque, eccentric beggar takes up residence among the
nearby ancient tombs, the people of Eskibahçe provide alms in the
form of food: “They arrived with their small but honourable offerings
of kadinbudu köfte, green beans in olive oil and iç pilàv, and then
departed, having greeted him with a quiet ‘Hos geldiniz.’ ”

In an interview with the Observer, De Bernières said, “I’m one of
those writers who’s always going to be trying to write ‘War and
Peace’: failing, obviously, but trying.” A more apt comparison would
be Dickens. De Bernières’ narrative doesn’t proceed with the
irresistible, martial sweep of “War and Peace”; events seem like the
product of chance and myriad small decisions made by individuals,
rather than historical inevitability. There’s a Dickensian tone to De
Bernières’ accounts of the everyday experiences of his numerous
characters, including minor, eccentric ones. It’s easy to imagine Pip
encountering Daskalos Leonidas, the embittered teacher who spends his
days teaching Greek to students he disdains and his nights writing
subversive political tracts that everyone ignores.

“Birds Without Wings” also lacks the passion that marks the novels of
Tolstoy (and Dickens, for that matter). Although Iskander’s son
Karatavuk takes part in it as a sniper, De Bernières fails to convey
the horrors of Battle of Gallipoli in 1915, where 281,000 Allied
troops and 250,000 Turks perished. The intimate domestic vignettes
come to life in a way that the big set pieces don’t. When two village
housewives help each other during hard times, blithely ignoring the
religious and ethnic differences that will later tear their lives
apart, the reader can almost smell the onions and olives in their
kitchens. Karatavuk describes the stench and filth of the battlefield
in endless detail, but the images don’t register with the same force.
The catalog of tortures inflicted on the civilian populace by various
armies and brigands has less impact than the list of dishes at the
feast that Rustem Bey’s new mistress prepares for him.

Ultimately, “Birds Without Wings” is an ambitious book in which the
little things are what come to life. –

Sunday Herald, UK
Aug 14 2004

A cloud of war sits over festival launch

By Senay Boztas

THERE was much talk of war in the almost Middle Eastern sunshine of
Charlotte Square yesterday; the Edinburgh International Book Festival
launched its 650 events and found eminent authors concerned with
global conflict.
Scottish poet and playwright Liz Lochhead opened the festival with a
sell-out discussion of her latest work, Thebans. She set a tone for
the day, comparing the struggles in her Greek drama with the
complexities of the war between Israel and the Palestinians.

Louis de Bernières, the award-winning author of Captain Corelli’s
Mandolin, took up the gauntlet, discussing the Turko-Armenian war and
the horrors that were inflicted. In researching his latest book,
Birds Without Wings, he studied a history that is not widely known in
the West .

But the most anticipated event of the festival will be JK Rowling’s
first public reading in four years at 9am today. Just over 500 fans
were the lucky winners of a ballot for tickets, with the remaining
few spaces given away in a competition by the Sunday Herald.

Other speakers included Lord Melvyn Bragg taking part in an Amnesty
International debate, Tony Parsons – who revealed that his next book
would be about punk rockers of the 1970s – writer and broadcaster
Joan Bakewell and Scottish success Alexander McCall Smith.

Yesterday, the festival reported over 8000 people through the doors
by 4pm and organisers were relieved that the rains held off for a
perfect day.

Festival director Catherine Lockerbie said: ` So far this has been
fantastically successful. Audience numbers and feedback have been
great, after a long, hard year of planning.’

USA Today
Aug 14 2004

Daily Preview of Olympics 2004

Boxing

Light welterweight Rock Allen got a bye into the second round of the
141-pound competition, so the sole American boxer in action on Sunday
will be 152-pound welterweight Vanes Martirosyan, who takes on
Benamar Meskine of Algeria at 7:45 a.m. ET. Just 18, Martirosyan was
born in Armenia and moved to the U.S. when he was 4.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

In-Forum , ND
Aug 14 2004

MeritCare program just what the doctor ordered
TerryDeVine,The Forum

The guest services program at MeritCare Medical Center has proven to
be a great success in its four years of existence and a public
relations bonanza.

And a year-old pilot program, also designed to enhance customer
service, is so popular with patients and their families that it will
become a permanent fixture, says Patricia Dirk, MeritCare coordinator
of guest services.

The pilot program was started with $200,000 in seed money from the
MeritCare Foundation and the MeritCare Auxiliary, but Dirk says it
will be included in next year’s budget as a separate line item.

“The guest services program was a strategic initiative to enhance
customer service and the patient experience,” says Dirk.

“Dr. (Roger) Gilbertson (MeritCare president) is very concerned about
easing the burden of illness, about having employees who are
compassionate and help patients and friends through illness,” says
Dirk. “He wants to know what we can do to make things better for
them. After all, they don’t choose to be here. The stress of illness
can make simple things much more difficult.”

The program is designed to alleviate that stress. By all accounts, it
is succeeding.

The key is having the right people in place, says Dirk, and she now
has 26 full- and part-time guest services representatives operating
throughout MeritCare’s health system.

The pilot program is operating on two medical/surgical floors, with
an eye toward future expansion.

In fact, Dirk says she’s currently seeking and training volunteers to
help with the pilot program.

She’d be happy to have you apply.

The person who makes the pilot program go on the two medical/surgical
floors is Karine Pogosyan, a 29-year-old sparkplug from Armenia, who
emigrated to the U.S. with her parents back in 1992.

“I don’t only laugh with patients, I also cry with patients,” says
the personable Pogosyan, who will shortly finish a master’s degree in
counseling at NDSU and start a doctoral program in human development
in the fall.

“My passion is love for people,” says Pogosyan. “It’s what keeps me
going.”

Need a movie? She’ll run down to the video store and get it for you.
Need a motel room? Count on Pogosyan. Want to know where you can find
a certain kind of cuisine? She’ll point you in the right direction or
go carry it out for you.

Pogosyan, who is fluent in Armenian, English and Russian, is a breath
of fresh air. She makes people smile, even those who don’t feel much
like smiling because they don’t feel well.

During the week, Pogosyan can be found roaming her two floors,
stopping in all the rooms and talking to patients and their families,
assisting them in any way she can. No request is too small or too
large for her to deal with.

“It makes my day to satisfy an ill person who is not in a good mood,”
says Pogosyan. “It’s my job to build a relationship so people trust
me enough to ask for something.”

Every Wednesday afternoon guest services serves coffee for patients,
family, friends and anyone who wants to come. Cookies and popcorn
come with the coffee.

“People laugh and have a great time,” says Pogosyan. “They forget
their stresses. It’s something positive and gives them a chance to
vent.”

Pogosyan says she sees her job as simply making people happy. “I
never know what I’m walking into. It’s very challenging and very
unpredictable and I love it.”

Many of her patients and family members, often from rural areas, are
now friends and keep in touch from time to time.

“We all have a purpose in life,” says Pogosyan. “My purpose is to be
here. My motto is do whatever it takes and always treat others as you
would like to be treated yourself. I always ask myself that
question.”

Dirk, a veteran of more than 20 years with MeritCare, shares that
philosophy with Pogosyan.

“The clinicians care for the patients and we care for the families,”
says Dirk.

“If someone is here with a loved one in critical care, they need as
much care as their loved one,” says Dirk. “Some don’t ever leave the
hospital.”

The goal of guest services is to attend to those needs.

“If we walk away every day feeling like we made a difference in the
lives of the people we serve, that’s what keeps us motivated,” says
Dirk.

Judging by the results of patient satisfaction surveys, the program
is an unqualified success.

Guelph Mercury (Ontario, Canada)
August 14, 2004 Saturday Final Edition

These Birds soar, even without their wings; Author of Captain
Corelli’s Mandolin strikes poignant chord in new novel

by WILLIAM CHRISTIAN

BIRDS WITHOUT WINGS, by Louis de Bernieres (Random House of Canada,
625 pages, $36.95).

Perhaps you know Louis de Bernieres only through the movie version of
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and think that Nicholas Cage’s
cartoon-like Italian soldier is typical of the author’s work. If you
do, this book will be an illumination.

This is a work that will move you deeply.

A profound sadness and world-weariness pervade it, though at times it
moves us to anger and pity. As the First World War British poet
Wilfred Owen wrote, the poetry is in the pity.

The story is set in a small coastal town in the Ottoman Empire before
the Great War. There, Muslims and Christians (mostly of Greek
background, a few Armenians) lived peacefully together. Everyone
spoke Turkish and was loyal to the Sultan.

They herded goats, they made pots, they taught school, they
quarrelled with one another. If they were religious, they were not
noticeably more so than most people.

>From time to time they forayed into the outside world, but normally
they kept to themselves. They were birds without wings, but the
outside world would not leave them alone.

De Bernieres tells his story through a series of discrete chapters.
One powerful theme is the rise of Mustafa Kemal, later known as
Attaturk, the founder and modernizer of Turkey.

Like many other countries, Turkey gets entangled in the slaughter of
the First World War, but the political turmoil allows Kemal to
consolidate his power.

He wants to create Turkey out of the Ottoman Empire and war with
Greece gives him his excuse for ethnic cleansing, just as the Empire
had expelled the Armenians and other groups earlier. Greeks who spoke
no Greek, who had never been to Greece, were driven from their
homeland with great brutality in the name of a political ideal.

What makes the work so poignant is de Bernieres’ exquisite ability to
draw complex and fully realized characters about whom we come to
care.

There are Karatavuk, a Turk, and Memetcik, a Greek, the title
characters, a robin and blackbird driven apart by politics they don’t
understand.

There is Philothei, who waits for Ibrahim the Goatherd, who returns
from the war driven mad by its horrors. Rustem Bey, the complex and
sophisticated landlord, is a man who lives a lonely life until a
platoon of Italian occupiers arrives and he suddenly has an equal
with whom to converse.

None of these people understand what is happening to their lives.
They don’t know why the soldiers arrive one day, force them to gather
their possessions and travel to a strange land.

There is so much brutality in this book because there is so much
brutality in the world. Some, of course, is planned.

Some massacres are ordered to prove a point or achieve a specific
end. At other times, they happen because soldiers become
desensitized.

They kill people because it’s too much trouble to take them prisoner,
or they rape and murder civilians, as it were, for fun.

The worst brutality seems to be the bureaucratic sort. Move 200,000
people from point A to point B, but don’t bother too much about
transport, food or any other necessities of life and shoot any
stragglers, not out of spite but just to maintain order.

Death by bureaucratic indifference. Death because no one really
cared. Death because, to those who had power, they were simply
things.

De Bernieres will not let us forget that these things have happened
and will happen again.

William Christian teaches political science at the University of
Guelph.

Associated Press Worldstream
August 14, 2004 Saturday

Judo Results

ATHENS, Greece

results for Saturday’s Olympic judo competition at the Ana Liossia
Olympic Hall:

Women
48Kg
Round of 32

Lyubov Bruletova, Russia, def. Konkiswinde Hanatou Ouelogo, Burkina
Faso, Waza-ari awasete Ippon, 1:39.

Anna Zemla-Krajewska, Poland, BYE.

Tatyana Shishkina, Kazakhstan, def. Lisseth Orozco Pallares,
Colombia, Koka.

Alina Alexandra Dumitru, Romania, BYE.

Soraya Hadad, Algeria, def. Bertille Ali, Central African Republic,
Ippon, Kuchiki-taoshi, 1:27.

Yamila Zambranon Cuenca, Cuba, BYE.

Ryoko Tani, Japan, BYE.

Maria Karagiannopoulou, Greece, BYE.

Gao Feng, China, def. Daniela Polzin, Brazil, Ippon, Kata-guruma,
1:24.

Giuseppina Macri, Italy, BYE.

Tatiana Moskvina, Belarus, BYE.

Frederique Jossinet, France, def. Sonya Chervonsky, Australia,
Waza-ari awasete Ippon, 1:34.

Julia Matijass, Germany, BYE.

Carolyne Lepage, Canada, BYE.

Nese Sensoy Yildiz, Turkey, def. Ri Kyong Ok, North Korea, Waza-ari.

Ye Gue-rin, South Korea, BYE.

Round of 16

Anna Zemla-Krajewska, Poland, def. Lyubov Bruletova, Russia, Ippon,
Kosoto-gake, 1:38.

Alina Alexandra Dumitru, Romania, def. Tatyana Shishkina, Kazakhstan,
Ippon, Uchi-mata, 1:33.

Soraya Hadad, Algeria, def. Yamila Zambranon Cuenca, Cuba, Ippon,
Kuchiki-taoshi, 1:54.

Ryoko Tani, Japan, def. Maria Karagiannopoulou, Greece, Waza-ari
awasete Ippon, 3:22.

Feng Gao, China, def. Giuseppina Macri, Italy, Ippon,
Yoko-shiho-gatame, 3:45.

Frederique Jossinet, France, def. Tatiana Moskvina, Belarus, Ippon,
Sukui-nage, 0:15.

Julia Matijass, Germany, def. Carolyne Lepage, Canada, Ippon,
Uchi-mata, 1:42.

Gue Rin-ye, South Korea, def. Nese Sensoy Yildiz, Turkey,
0010S1-0001S2.

Quarterfinal

Alina Alexandra Dumitru, Romania, def. Anna Zemla-Krajewska, Poland,
Ippon, Ushiro-goshi, 0:35.

Ryoko Tani, Japan, def. Soraya Hadad, Algeria, Ippon, Osoto-gari,
2:17.

Frederique Jossinet, France, def. Feng Gao, China, Waza-ari.

Julia Matijass, Germany, def. Gue Rin-ye, South Korea, Ippon,
Uchi-mata, 1:07.
Quarterfinal Repechage

Anna Zemla-Krajewska, Poland, def. Tatyana Shishkina, Kazakhstan,
Hansoku make, 3:13.

Maria Karagiannopoulou, Greece, def. Soraya Hadad, Algeria,
0101S3-0100S1.

Feng Gao, China, def. Tatiana Moskvina, Belarus, Waza-ari awasete
Ippon, 2:12.

Gue Rin-ye, South Korea, def. Carolyne Lepage, Canada, Yuko.
Semifinal

Ryoko Tani, Japan, def. Alina Alexandra Dumitru, Romania, Waza-ari
awasete Ippon, 4:19.

Frederique Jossinet, France, def. Julia Matijass, Germany, Ippon,
Yoko-shiho-gatame, 1:33.
Semifinal Repechage

Maria Karagiannopoulou, Greece, def. Anna Zemla-Krajewska, Poland,
Ippon, Ippon-seoi-nage, 1:18.

Feng Gao, China, def. Ye Gue Rin, South Korea, Koka.
Bronze Medal Matches

Julia Matijass, Germany, def. Maria Karagiannopoulou, Greece, Ippon,
Uchi-mata, 2:51.

Feng Gao, China, def. Alina Alexandra Dumitru, Romania, Ippon,
Yoko-shiho-gatame, 5:00.
Gold Medal Match

Ryoko Tani, Japan, def. Frederique Jossinet, France, Waza-ari.
Men
60K
Round of 64

Younes Ahamdi, Morocco, BYE.

Evgeny Stanev, Russia, BYE.

Anis Lounifi, Tunisia, BYE.

Pak Nam Chol, North Korea, BYE.

Nestor Khergiani, Georgia, BYE.

Kenji Uematsu, Spain, BYE.

Bazarbek Donbay, Kazakhstan, BYE.

Omar Rebahi, Algeria, BYE.

Craig Fallon, Britain, BYE.

Scott Fernandis, Australia, BYE.

Sanjar Zokirov, Uzbekistan, BYE.

Revazi Zintiridis, Greece, BYE.

Masoud Haji Akhondzadeh, Iran, BYE.

Jean Claude Cameroun, Cameroon, BYE.

Armen Nazaryan, Armenia, BYE.

Alexandre Lee, Brazil, BYE.

Tsagaanbaatar Khashbaatar, Mongolia, BYE.

Akram Shah, India, BYE.

Gal Yekutiel, Israel, def. Albert Techov, Lithuania, Waza-ari.

Taraje Williams Murray, United States, BYE.

Reiver David Alvarenga Dominguez, Venezuela, BYE.

Benjamin Darbelet, France, BYE.

Choi Min-ho, South Korea, BYE.

Ludwig Paischer, Austria, BYE.

Tadahiro Nomura, Japan, BYE.

Modesto Lara Arias, Dominican Republic, BYE.

Oliver Gussenberg, Germany, BYE.

Siarhei Novikau, Belarus, BYE.

Cristobal Alejandro Aburto Tinoco, Mexico, BYE.

David Fernandez Tercero, Costa Rica, BYE.

Francis Labrosse, Seychelles, BYE.

Miguel Albarracin, Argentina, BYE.
Round of 32

Evgeny Stanev, Russia, def. Younes Ahamdi, Morocco, Ippon, Uki-waza,
0:29.

Anis Lounifi, Tunisia, def. Pak Nam Chol, North Korea, Ippon,
Harai-goshi, 1:28.

Nestor Khergiani, Georgia, def. Kenji Uematsu, Spain, Ippon,
Kuchiki-taoshi, 3:41.

Bazarbek Donbay, Kazakhstan, def. Omar Rebahi, Algeria, Ippon,
Seoi-nage, 0:14.

Craig Fallon, Britain, def. Scott Fernandis, Australia, Ippon,
Tai-otoshi, 0:37.

Revazi Zintiridis, Greece, def. Sanjar Zokirov, Uzbekistan, Ippon,
Tani-otoshi, 4:33.

Masoud Haji Akhondzadeh, Iran, def. Jean Claude Cameroun, Cameroon,
Yuko.

Armen Nazaryan, Armenia, def. Alexandre Lee, Brazil, 0101S1-0001S3.

Tsagaanbaatar Khashbaatar, Mongolia, def. Akram Shah, India, Ippon,
Gyaku-juji-jime, 0:44.

Taraje Williams Murray, United States, def. Gal Yekutiel, Israel,
Ippon, Morote-gari, 2:59.

Benjamin Darbelet, France, def. Reiver David Alvarenga Dominguez,
Venezuela, 0010S1-0002S2.

Choi Min-ho, South Korea, def. Ludwig Paischer, Austria, Ippon,
Tai-otoshi, 4:31.

Tadahiro Nomura, Japan, def. Modesto Lara Arias, Dominican Republic,
Ippon, Seoi-nage, 2:46.

Oliver Gussenberg, Germany, def. Siarhei Novikau, Belarus, Ippon,
Ushiro-kesa-gatame, 3:03.

Cristobal Alejandro Aburto Tinoco, Mexico, def. David Fernandez
Tercero, Costa Rica, Koka.

Miguel Albarracin, Argentina, def. Francis Labrosse, Seychelles,
Ippon, Sukui-nage, 4:14.

Round of 16

Evgeny Stanev, Russia, def. Anis Lounifi, Tunisia, Ippon, Sukui-nage,
3:03.

Nestor Khergiani, Georgia, def. Bazarbek Donbay, Kazakhstan, Yuko.

Revazi Zintiridis, Greece, def. Craig Fallon, Britain, Ippon,
Sumi-otoshi, 4:56.

Masoud Haji Akhondzadeh, Iran, def. Armen Nazaryan, Armenia,
0010S1-0001S2.

Tsagaanbaatar Khashbaatar, Mongolia, def. Taraje Williams Murray,
United States, Ippon, Kibisu-gaeshi, 1:37.

Min Ho-choi, South Korea, def. Benjamin Darbelet, France, Yuko.

Tadahiro Nomura, Japan, def. Oliver Gussenberg, Germany, Ippon,
Seoi-nage, 0:53.

Miguel Albarracin, Argentina, def. Cristobal Alejandro Aburto Tinoco,
Mexico, Ippon, 2:08.

Quarterfinal

Nestor Khergiani, Georgia, def. Evgeny Stanev, Russia, Waza-ari.

Masoud Haji Akhondzadeh, Iran, def. Revazi Zintiridis, Greece, Ippon,
Kouchi-gari, 2:55.

Tsagaanbaatar Khashbaatar, Mongolia, def. Min Ho-choi, South Korea,
Ippon, Kami-shiho-gatame, 1:14.

Tadahiro Nomura, Japan, def. Miguel Albarracin, Argentina, Ippon,
Ouchi-gari, 0:14.
Round of 16 Repechage

Kenji Uematsu, Spain, def. Bazarbek Donbay, Kazakhstan, Sogo gachi,
5:00.

Jean Claude Cameroun, Cameroon, def. Armen Nazaryan, Armenia, Ippon,
Kuchiki-taoshi, 1:01.

Akram Shah, India, def. Taraje Williams Murray, United States, Ippon,
Ude-hishigi-juji-gatame, 0:47.

Oliver Gussenberg, Germany, def. Modesto Lara Arias, Dominican
Republic, Yuko.
Quarterfinal Repechage

Kenji Uematsu, Spain, def. Evgeny Stanev, Russia, 0001x-0000S1.

Revazi Zintiridis, Greece, def. Jean Claude Cameroun, Cameroon,
Ippon, Sukui-nage, 0:09.

Min Ho-choi, South Korea, def. Akram Shah, India, Ippon, Seoi-nage,
0:49.

Oliver Gussenberg, Germany, def. Miguel Albarracin, Argentina, Ippon,
Yoko-shiho-gatame, 0:49.
Semifinal

Tadahiro Nomura, Japan, def. Tsagaanbaatar Khashbaatar, Mongolia,
Ippon, Ouchi-gari, 0:23.

Nestor Khergiani, Georgia, def. Masoud Haji Akhondzadeh, Iran,
Waza-ari.
Semifinal Repechage

Kenji Uematsu, Spain, def. Revazi Zintiridis, Greece, Ippon, 2:07.

Choi Min Ho, South Korea, def. Oliver Gussenberg, Germany, Ippon,
Seoi-nage, 2:20.
Bronze Medal Matches

Tsagaanbaatar Khashbaatar, Mongolia, def. Kenji Uematsu, Spain, Yuko.

Choi Min Ho, South Korea, def. Masoud Haji Akhondzadeh, Iran, Ippon,
Seoi-nage, 0:53.
Gold Medal Match

Tadahiro Nomura, Japan, def. Nestor Khergiani, Georgia, Waza-ari.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

armenianow.com
August 13, 2004

Safe at Home?: Survey looks at homeland security

By Zhanna Alexanyan
ArmeniaNow reporter

The Armenian National and Military Research Center has released a survey
projecting the republic’s defense capabilities.
“Armenia’s National and International Security in 5-10 Years” is information
gathered from 50 experts and 2,021 citizens through Armenia.
Stephan Safaryan, the center’s expert in state-legality and home policy
questions, presented the results of the survey.
“Our point was to estimate from society’s point of view what dangers they
expect in the coming 5 to 10 years,” Safarian said.
The survey found that 76 percent of experts think Armenia has no national
security. But only 27.5 percent of citizens agreed with the experts.
“Such a big difference is apparent, because experts are very informed and
know today’s situation and many other issues that become dangerous for
Armenian security,” Safaryan said. “Experts can analyze deeper and know the
dynamics of problems to reach an opinion that security cannot be guaranteed
even partly.”
How do experts and citizens assess security issues?
The number one danger (44 percent of experts and 47.5 percent of citizens)
is renewed military action with Azerbaijan.
The second concern for experts is the presence of Russian military bases in
Armenia (though they don’t foresee any problems in the coming five years or
so). Average citizens in the survey, however, concluded that only Russia
could guarantee Armenia’s safety.
General citizens are also concerned about the possibility of civil war,
sparked by political discord.
About 22 percent see serious conflict within the next five years.
“Society understands that all peaceful methods of the political games are
over and only harsh methods remain,” said Safaryan.
Experts and citizens agreed that flawed elections could lead to serious
security problems in the coming five years. Thirty percent of experts saw
this as Armenia’s number one security issue.
“Comments in the questionnaires say that another October 27 (the date of the
1999 Parliament assignations) is possible,” Safaryan said. “The reason is
that the real criminals are still not identified.”

Addis Tribune (Addis Ababa)
Aug 13 2004

Ethiopian Culture Revisited

ANALYSIS
Richard Pankhurst

The History of Writing in Ethiopia

Papyrus Writing and Stone Inscriptions

The history of writing in Ethiopia dates back to extremely early
times. Some scholars believe that use may have been made in Ethiopia,
as in ancient Egypt, of papyrus, which, then as now, grew abundantly
around Lake Tana. No examples of Ethiopian writing on papyrus,
however, have thus far been found.

Many royal inscriptions on stone were nevertheless later produced by
Aksumite rulers, in the early centuries of the present era. Some of
the most important, written in Ge’ez, South Arabian, and Greek, were
erected by the early fourth century King Ezana. He used them to
describe, and glorify, his victorious expeditions in various parts of
the country, as well as to Nubia and South Arabia.

Parchment

Parchment, made from the skins of sheep, goats, cattle, and even
horses, later came into extensive use, particularly after Ethiopia’s
conversion to Christianity in the early fourth century. This period
witnessed the translation into Ge’ez, as well as the writing on
parchment, of the Bible and other religious texts, mainly translated
from Arabic and Greek.

Letter Writing

Parchment, in the medieval period, was also used in Ethiopia for the
writing of letters. One such epistle was a famous communication from
Emperor Zar’a Ya’qob (1434-1468) to the Ethiopian community in
Jerusalem. The text was written in Ge’ez on four sheets of parchment.

The continued writing of letters on parchment was noted a century or
so later the Portuguese traveller Francisco Alvares. After visiting
Shawa in the 1520s, he reported that Ethiopian letters were written
on parchment, and to avoid the risk of loss in transit, were often
despatched in duplicate.

The strength of tradition was such that Ethiopian Christian
manuscripts continued, on the other hand, to be written on parchment.

On parchment-making see the impressive exhibition in the Institute of
Ethiopian Studies organised by two decicated and committed British
scholars: Anne Parsons and John Mellors.

Paper

We cannot tell exactly when paper first made its appearance in
Ethiopia. The first reference to its import into the country is by
the French traveller Charles Poncet, who visited Ethiopia at the
close of the seventeenth century. He mentions paper, in 1699, as one
of a number of commodities imported into the country, as well as
Sennar, in what is now Sudan. The imports he describes all came by
way of the western route to Gondar, the then capital of the Ethiopian
Empire, There is, however, is no reason to suppose that imports did
not entered the area by way of the Red Sea port of Massawa, and, the
Gulf of Aden ports of Tajura, Zayla and Berbera.

Harar

The great Muslim walled city of Harar, because of its relatively easy
access to the sea, was able to import paper much more easily than was
the highlands of the interior. The result was that while Ethiopian
Christians made use of Bibles and other religious works written, in
Ge’ez, on parchment, the Muslims of Harar, as well as their
co-religionaries in the lowlands to the East, had Qorans and other
Islamic texts written, in Arabic, on paper.

Magic Scroll

One exception to the above statement deserves mention: a century
Ethiopian magical scroll, now housed in the Institute of Ethiopian
Studies Library. Unlike all other scrolls with which we are familiar
it is written on paper.

Continued Letter-writing on Paper in the Highlands

The use of paper for letter writing in the Christian highlands seems
to have gained currency in the eighteenth century. The Armenian
jeweller Yohannes Tovmachean, who visited Gondar in 1764, for example
reports that, when he left two years later, Empress Mentewwab, the
Regent for her grandson Emperor Iyo’as, gave him “ten sheets of
paper”. These were printed only with the seal of the King and Queen,
so that “whoever sees our seals will receive you graciously, and
whatever you write beneath them will be performed”.

Ethiopian royal letters of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
were likewise invariably written on paper. The latter had thus
replaced parchment – except for the writing of religious manuscripts,
which latter continued to be written on parchment, right down to the
twentieth century – and to this very day.

The relationship between parchment and paper in the highlands can
vividly be illustrated by the tax records of Emperor Tewodros II
(1855-1868). These were looted from Maqdala by the Napier expedition
of 1867-8, deposited in the British Museum (later the British
Library), and more recently published two by Richard Pankhurst and
Germa-Sellassie Asfaw. One part of this material was written in on
spare pages of a parchment manuscript; the other part on loose sheets
of paper.

Printing

The travels of Ethiopians abroad, and most noticeably to Rome,
created considerable European interest in Ethiopic, or Ge’ez,
writing. This resulted in the setting up in Rome of the first
printing press with a font of Ge’ez letters. This pioneer press
printed a Ge’ez Psalter (on paper) as early as 1513.

Presses for the printing of religious texts in Ethiopian languages
were later established, in the early nineteenth century, by the
British and Foreign Bible Society, and other missionary organisations
in Europe. The first printing press in the Ethiopian region was,
however, founded by an Italian Lazarist Father, Lorenzo Bianchieri,
at the port of Massawa, in 1863, during Emperor Tewodros’s time.

The increasing use of paper was further symbolised by the
introduction, by Emperor Menilek II in 1894, of postage-stamps,
printed of course on paper, as well as by the establishment at his
palace at about the same time of a small printing-press.

The first Amharic newspaper, if such it can be called, was a
hand-written news-sheet, produced in Addis Ababa at the end of the
last century by an Ethiopian enthusiast and scholar, Blatta Gabre
Egziabher, from Hamasen (now Eritrea). The tragedy is that no copy of
this work survives: if any reader knows to the contrary plese contact
me IMMRDIATELY!

THE first duplicated publication, the Bulletin de la Léprosie de
Harar, was started shortly afterwards, in Harar in 1900. It was
replaced, in 1905, by Le Semeur d’Ethiopie, a small missionary
publication in French, which occasionally included special items in
Amharic.

The first real Amharic newspaper, Aimro, had meanwhile been founded,
in Addis Ababa in 1902, by Mr A.E. Kavadia, a Greek.

The coming of these and later printing-presses, and the founding of
these and other newspapers meant, very simply, that paper in Ethiopia
had come of age.

Parchment, however, has by no means beem dethroned – it may well be
that there are currently a third of a million, if not half a million,
such manuscripts in the country today, as well as perhaps five
thousand in foreign libraries, in London, Paris, Rome, Princeton, and
elsewhere.

These manuscripts, wherever they are, represent an important part of
Ethiopia’s historic culture – which must be preserved, through
microfilming, as well as preservation in the Institute of Ethiopian
Studies Library.

It is Imperative that the microfilming of Ethiopian manuscripts,
began many years ago by the Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library,
EMML, in Collegeville. Minnesota, be continued; also that microfilm
copies be made of the Ethiopian Manuscripts in foreign libraries.
Several countries, including Sweden, Switzerland, and the former
Soviet Union gave copies of Ethiopian manuscripts in their respective
countries to the Institute of Ethiopian Studies – as did the British
Council (though there are still further manuscripts in Britain to be
copied).

International Co-operation

Relevant Links

East Africa
Ethiopia
Arts, Culture and Entertainment

But more such copying is needed, if the Institute is to be really a
centre of Ethiopian Studies.

Here is an important field for international cooperation, in which
foreign Embassies and Cultural Institutes can collaborate, so that
Copies of Ethiopian Mmanuscripts in their respective countries can be
studied in Ethiopia, and thus contribute to the expansion of
knowledge.

Associated Press
Aug 13 2004

Study: Glendale leads state in multiracial residents

GLENDALE, Calif. – Glendale has the state’s highest percentage of
people who identify themselves as multiracial, according to a new
study.

Using the 2000 Census, the Public Policy Institute of California
concluded that more than 10 percent of the Los Angeles suburb’s
200,000 residents identified themselves as multiracial. That was 2.6
percentage points more than the California city with the second-most
multiracial people, Hayward.

One factor in the number was an effort to get Glendale residents of
Armenian descent to note their background on 2000 Census forms.

For the first time, the 2000 Census allowed Americans to identify
themselves as multiracial – for example, an Armenian-American could
have checked both the white and the “some other race” category, or
written in “Armenian.”

Glendale has the largest Armenian population of any city in the
United States, and local leaders hoped a higher profile would help
them benefit from government and social programs for minority groups.

“That has drawn a lot of attention to the Armenian community and
Armenians are a political force to be reckoned with as a result of
those efforts,” said Ardashes Kassakhian, director of government
relations for the Armenian National Committee of America, Western
Region.

The study found that multiracial Californians make up 5 percent of
the state’s total population, twice the percentage in the rest of the
nation.

“The face of the United States is changing very rapidly and Glendale
is a very good example of what is to come,” said Glendale Mayor Bob
Yousefian, whose 15-year-old son is half Armenian. “You put different
races and ethnicities together and they’re going to mix. It’s
natural.”

Thousand Oaks and Newport Beach were the two least multiracial cities
in the state, with less than 2.8 percent of residents identifying
themselves as multiracial, the study found.