Malay Mail, Malaysia
July 3 2004
Feature: Giving refugees back their homes and dignity
Meera Murugesan
IF a house is on fire, we don’t send people back into it. Volker
Turk, the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) in Malaysia, who said that, certainly has a point.
There are about 17.1 million people around the world today whose
`houses’ are `on fire’ but surprisingly, the overwhelming majority of
them still nurse hopes of returning to these homes some day.
It is a myth that refugees want to stay put in their host countries,
said Turk, during a presentation at Wisma UN in Kuala Lumpur, in
conjunction with World Refugee Day on June 20.
`Very often, the most fervent wish of a refugee is to return home,
but they are unable to do so until there is a change in the situation
that drove them out in the first place,’ he said.
This statement is backed by UNHCR figures which, among others,
indicated that three million Afghan refugees have made the move back
home from places like Pakistan and Iran since the situation in
Afghanistan started to improve towards the end of 2001.
Refugees from countries like Angola, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Burundi,
Liberia and Somalia have also decided to return in large numbers.
Last year alone, some 1.1 million refugees around the world returned
home.
But the work of the UNHCR doesn’t stop with `returnees’ making their
way home through voluntary repatriation programmes.
The agency continues its work by monitoring the returnees and looking
into human rights issues that affect them. It focuses on
reconstruction and rehabilitation work as well, to ensure that the
returnees can go home to conditions of safety and dignity.
The UNHCR also assists in rebuilding homes and communities and in the
reconstruction of important structures for living such as wells,
schools, clinics and roads.
Of the more than 21 million people worldwide under the care and
protection of the UNHCR, more than half are children. Children
naturally suffer the most when war breaks out, and some refugee
children may sit in total silence all day, or rock back and forth
endlessly, or throw uncontrollable tantrums.
Their memories are full of terrifying nightmares and, whenever
possible, the UNHCR provides medical and psychological treatment for
these desperate children. Slowly, with loving care and a routine of
lessons and play, many recover to lead normal lives again.
While voluntary repatriation works for some refugees, there will
always be those who can never return or are forced to remain in the
host country for a long period.
For such people, there is the challenge of finding a practical
solution to their problem. Generally, there are two options, one
being resettlement in a third country and the other, the possibility
of integration into the host country itself.
The better solution would be integration into the host community
itself, said Turk, and over the years, the UNHCR has seen some
positive examples of this.
The Armenian Government, for example, has naturalised between 50,000
and 60,000 refugees of Armenian origin who were originally from
Azerbaijan. These people fled their country for Armenia when conflict
broke out between the two countries in 1988.
However, if a solution cannot be found in the host country, then
placing refugees in a third country is usually the method undertaken.
Last year, the UNHCR helped to resettle some 28,000 refugees
worldwide in countries like the United States, Canada, Australia and
a number of European countries.
But for many people today, the image of a refugee is fast becoming
one associated with criminals and illegal migrants, said Turk, and
these perceptions have to be changed if refugees are to receive the
help they deserve.
`I think we have seen more public hostility towards refugees both in
the media and among politicians worldwide,’ he said.
`It is unfortunate that the positive role that refugees can play in a
country is rarely highlighted, nor the inspiring stories of these
individuals. Very often, refugees are resourceful people who have
demonstrated tremendous strength and courage in overcoming obstacles.
What we need to hear are these stories because they help to create an
awareness and an understanding of their plight.’
Over the past five decades, the UNHCR has helped more than 50 million
people uprooted by the turmoil of conflict to find a new home and
start their lives over again.
In honour of every refugee’s dream to return home and live in dignity
and security, this year’s World Refugee Day had the theme: `A Place
To Call Home’.

RosBusinessConsulting, Russia
July 5 2004
Armenian Foreign Minister to visit Moscow
RBC, 05.07.2004, Moscow 09:19:06.Armenian Foreign Minister
Vardan Oskanian is to arrive in Moscow on an official visit today. He
is expected to negotiate a broad range of issues of bilateral
cooperation as well as international and regional problems.
The Russian Foreign Ministry reported that Russian-Armenian
trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian cooperation would be one
of the priority issues to be considered at the talks. Great attention
will be paid to problems of Nagorny Karabakh. Russian and Armenian
diplomats will also discuss issues of coordination of the efforts of
the two countries to improve the situation in the Caucasus. The sides
will consider collaboration within the framework of the CIS, the
Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Eurasian Economic
Community (EurAsEC).

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
July 5 2004
LENNMARKER’S REPORT ON NAGORNY KARABAKH TO BE HEARD
[July 05, 2004, 11:25:37]
As stated, the XIII annual session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly
commences on in Great Britain, 5 July.
The session is to hold discussions on the topic `Cooperation and
partnership: combat against new threats of safety’, the Milli Majlis
press service said. The agenda also includes report of OSCE PA
special representative on Armenian-Azerbaijan, Nagorny Karabakh
conflict Goran Lennmarker.
The said event to be attended by Azerbaijan parliamentarians Sattar
Safarov, Eldar Ibrahimov, Rabiyyet Aslanova, Fattah Heydarov, Sayad
Salahli and head of the MM international relations department Namig
Aliyev, will end on 10 July.

Eurofunding.com, France
July 5 2004
Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia included in the European
Neighbourhood Policy.
Commissioner Janez Potoènik will visit Georgia, Azerbaijan and
Armenia on 5-8 July. The visits follow the decision by the Council to
include this countries in the European Neighbourhood Policy.
Commissioner Janez Potoènik will visit Georgia on 5-6 July,
Azerbaijan on 6-7 July and Armenia on 7-8 July. The visits follow the
decision by the Council on 14 June to include the three Southern
Caucasian countries in the European Neighbourhood Policy. Mr Potoènik
will welcome the countries into the European Neighbourhood Policy and
explain the significance of the initiative to his counterparts.
Commissioner Potoènik will meet with the Presidents and the Prime
Ministers of the three countries. He will also hold meetings with
other government members, members of Parliament and opposition
leaders. He will take the opportunity to address wider audiences,
including civil and business societies, on the ENP and its
significance for the Southern Caucasus.
Mr Potoènik will explain the objectives of the ENP initiative to his
counterparts and set out the next steps to be made by the countries
in order to follow-up on the Council decision. The bilateral talks
will also touch on the EU’s relations with these countries more
generally. Mr Potoènik will encourage the partners to put special
emphasis on conflict resolution and prevention and underline the
importance of strengthening regional cooperation.
The visit takes place in the context of the EU’s continuing efforts
to strengthen political relations with the region and to be more
actively involved in conflict prevention, confidence-building
measures and post conflict rehabilitation.
On 14 June the Council decided to include Georgia, Azerbaijan and
Armenia in the European Neighbourhood Policy. At the same time, the
Council endorsed the Commission’s strategy for putting the ENP into
action.
The objective of the European Neighbourhood Policy is to share the
benefits of the EU’s 2004 enlargement with neighbouring countries –
i.e. stability, security and well-being – in a way that is distinct
from EU membership. It is designed to prevent the emergence of new
dividing lines between the enlarged Union and its neighbours and to
offer them an increasingly close relationship with the EU involving a
significant degree of economic integration and a deepening of
political cooperation.
The ENP will also help address one of the strategic objectives the
European Union set in the European Security Strategy in December
2003, that of building security in our neighbourhood.
Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia all have Partnership and Cooperation
Agreements in force with the EU. The EU will consider the possibility
of developing jointly agreed Action Plans, as foreseen by the ENP
strategy, with the three countries on the basis of their individual
merits.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Mehr News Agency, Iran
July 5 2004
Hedayat’s “Buried Alive” Published In English and Armenian
TEHRAN July 5 (MNA) — Sadeq Hedayat’s collected stories “Buried
Alive” along with critical essays from the last half a century will
be published in English and Armenian by Varjavand Publications.
Jahangir Hedayat on Sunday said the book includes the original text
and Hedayat’s manuscripts since some changes have appeared in the
writer’s works in recent years.
Hedayat said, “In addition to `Buried Alive’, the book contains a
collection of critical essays written by the critics over the last 50
years.’
He said the English translation of the book was done by a Bryan
Spooner.
Hedayat says publishing translations of the book promotes Iranian
culture in other countries.
Sadeq Hedayat (1903-1951) was the foremost short story writer in
Iran. He was exposed to world literature especially European
literature, and read the works of Kafka, Poe, and Dostoyevsky.
He wrote collections of short stories and a novella, `The Blind Owl,’
which is regarded as Hedayat’s masterpiece and has been translated
into many languages.
Hedayat asphyxiated himself by turning on the gas in a small flat in
Paris.

Hetq Online, Armenia
June 29 2004
Armenian children are neglected in Calcutta
by Aghavni Yeghiazaryan, Edik Baghdasaryan
`We were playing Rugby in the seminary yard and the ball hit me in
the left ear. I felt a stab of pain, and fell into the mud; then the
boys sat me down on the stairs. Then one day when we were playing, my
friend Harutik whispered something in my left ear, I couldn’t hear
it, I couldn’t hear it at all. Then he repeated it in my right ear
and I heard. I realized that I couldn’t hear with my left ear. I told
the doctor. He examined my ear and said that there was nothing wrong
with it. I put medicine into my ear for a few days, and then some
grains of sand came out of it. That was the end of my treatment,’
explains Narek Arshakyan, a student at the charitably-run Armenian
Seminary in Calcutta. Narek was subsequently examined by Doctor
Mirakyan at the Republican Hospital in Yerevan, who told his mother
that it was too late for the hearing in the boy’s left ear to be
restored.

The seminary in Calcutta, India was established in 1821 and is headed
by a director appointed by the Catholicos of All Armenians, at the
suggestion of the Board of Trustees. Since 1999, the seminary has
been headed by Sonya John (who is Armenian by origin). Max Galstown,
a member of the Indian-Armenian community, has been sending letters
to us expressing his anxiety about the situation in the seminary
since last February. He says, `This establishment, with a 180-year
history, has been turned upside-down under Sonya John’s management.’
Another member of the community, a well-respected woman who had
worked at the seminary with Sonya John, sent a letter to the
Catholicos in 2003 describing John’s working style and behavior. She
never received any reply. `Since appointing the director, the
Catholicos has not supervised her work,’ Max Galstown wrote us. He
says Sonya John misappropriates donations from Indian Armenians;
under the pretext of allocating money to the hospital, she
transferred 15 million Rupees to the Communist Party of India (of
which she is a member), 30 million Rupees for the construction of the
Armenian Embassy in New Delhi, and so on. `None of the local
Armenians is involved in the administrative matters of the seminary.
We consider it to be a conspiracy against us, and Echmiadzin is
taking part in it,’ Galstown writes.

Narek’s mother, Susanna Arshakyan, reported her son’s hearing loss to
Deacon Tigran from the information department of the Holy See of St.
Echmiadzin. The deacon promised to inform the Catholicos about it.
`The boy has lost his hearing because of negligence; if he had been
examined and treated in time it wouldn’t have happened. Our children
are disregarded and neglected there,’ Susanna says.
Sixty seminary students came to Armenia in May for a month’s
vacation, and were supposed to return to Calcutta on June 18 th . But
only one student, Elisa Matevosyan, and the families of teachers from
Armenia working there went back. The postponement of the return of
some of the students was explained by illness. It is clear that 80
percent of the students who came home for vacation will not return to
Calcutta.
Narek went to Calcutta in 2001, from the Zatik children’s home. Narek
has two brothers, and his socially vulnerable single mother decided
to send her son away to study. At the dictation of a Church
representative, she wrote that she had given her consent to her son’s
going abroad to study for ten years. She signed another document as
well, but she doesn’t remember what was it. `Whatever I signed, I am
not going to send Narek back. I haven’t abandoned my child, have I?
If they take the child, they are first of all responsible for his
health. Our children were still standing on their own two feet when
they brought them back, but we’ll find out later whether they have
any diseases,’ Narek’s mother says.
All of the children returned to Armenia with medical records
regarding annual checkups and individual diseases. There is a
separate document stating that they don’t have any contagious
diseases and don’t carry any infections. But eight children have
already been diagnosed with malaria, and two of them have been
hospitalized in the Nork Infectious Hospital. `They brought the
disease with them; it is too early for local malaria, this is not a
local malaria,’ says head physician Ara Asoyan.
Narek is not going to continue his studies at the seminary. The Zatik
boarding school no longer has a place for him. His English is better
than his Armenian, and it will be hard for him to go to ordinary
school, not to mention his hearing problem. Susanna’s only hope is
the Church. She believes that the Catholicos cannot remain
indifferent, since Narek studied at a seminary that the Church is
responsible for.
To be continued
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Payvand, Iran
July 5 2004
Iran: Rowhani stresses determination of Caspian legal regime
Tehran, July 5, IRNA — Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security
Council (SNSC) Hassan Rowhani here Monday stressed the need for
speedy settlement of the legal regime for the Caspian Sea through an
agreement among littoral states.
In a meeting with the head of Russia’s Security Council, Igor Ivanov,
Rowhani said determination of the legal regime of the Caspian Sea
would play an important role in safeguarding regional stability and
security.
He added that NATO’s efforts to be present at the region run counter
to the regional interests and would bring about instability. He
termed security cooperation among Caspian Sea states as very
important.
He said joint meetings between Security Councils of littoral states
would be an effective factor in implementation of collective
cooperation among regional countries in order to safeguard peace,
stability and security.
The SNSC secretary stressed Iran’s commitment to the
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), full cooperation with the
International Atomic Energy Agency, the Safeguard and temporary
implementation of the NPT additional protocol.
“Through This policy Iran is sending most complete and powerful
signals to the international community on peaceful nature of its
nuclear activities, and it provides the best reason for cooperation
of the IAEA Board of Governors with Iran to realize its full rights
to the possession of peaceful nuclear technology,” he said.
Pointing to the expansion of Iran-Russia economic ties, he added high
volume of direct and indirect two-way economic exchanges which have
reached up to two billion dollars, is indicative of an eye-catching
growth. He called however for a balanced exchange trend to guarantee
the stability in economic ties.
Rowhani said successful implementation of Bushehr power plant project
is the symbol of technological relations and called for settlement of
remaining issues and speedy carrying out of the project.
He assessed expansion of cooperation in various transportation fields
and bilateral cooperation in promoting North-South transit in line
with regional interests and asked for providing further facilities of
member states for transit of goods.
Ivanov, who is currently here at the invitation of his Iranian
counterpart, stressed the importance of expanding Tehran-Moscow
political ties in line with the two sides’ national interests at
regional and international levels.
Complicated developments in the world in general and in the region in
particular highlighted the need of strengthening mutual relations to
settle regional crises and establish stability more than ever, he
said.
The Russian official noted that construction of Bushehr power plant
would be completed by 2005 and it would come on line in 2006.
Ivanov expressed satisfaction over the progress made in issues
regarding legal regime of the Caspian Sea, saying “Iran and Russia
can establish joint economic cooperation in Central Asia and the
Caucasus.”
He noted that Iran-Armenia and Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline
projects are among strategic schemes in the region and voiced his
country’s readiness for cooperation to this effect.
Ha praised Iran’s nuclear policies and stressed that Iran’s logical
policies prevented its nuclear case to be referred to the United
Nations Security Council.
The enemies of Iran could not use the issue as a pretext to put the
country under pressure, he was quoted as saying.

Moscow Times
July 6 2004
Azeri Detention Upheld
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — An Azeri appeals court has upheld a lower
court’s decision to jail five activists who disrupted a NATO forum in
Baku last month to protest the involvement of two Armenian officers,
their lawyer said.
The protest, which briefly disrupted the NATO forum, highlighted the
still simmering tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the
disputed Nagorny Karabakh territory.
Akif Nagi, head of the Organization of Karabakh Freedom, and five
other group members pushed through police cordons, broke glass doors
and stormed into a conference hall in Baku’s Europe Hotel on June 22.
The protesters and hotel security guards suffered minor injuries in
the incident in the hotel and the meeting resumed after several
minutes.
They were accused of hooliganism and ordered by the Nasimi Regional
Court in Baku to be held for two months. The appeals court upheld the
ruling Friday, lawyer Elchin Gambarov said.

Moscow Times
July 6 2004
>From Cow Tails to Top Farmer
By Jennifer Davis
Special to The Moscow Times
The farm has a barn with 10 cows and several pigs, an adjoining dairy
to process milk and cheese, a garden, and grain fields.

CAMPHILL-SVETLANA, Leningrad Region — When Minka arrived at
Camphill-Svetlana, his first job was to hold cows’ tails. Now he
proudly calls himself the village’s farmer-in-chief.
Minka, who has Down syndrome, is something of a celebrity in the tiny
village, Russia’s only fully integrated community for people with
special needs.
Thanks to a flamboyant, charming personality, Minka regularly takes
part in local cultural events and is an active participant in the
village meetings held every Monday evening.
But that wasn’t always the case. One volunteer recalls Minka’s move
in 1997 to this village nestled in the fertile, river-crossed lands
surrounding Lake Ladoga and about 160 kilometers east of St.
Petersburg.
“He was assigned to help milk the cows each morning. At first, Minka
was very frightened of them — he was just supposed to hold the cows’
tails, while I milked them,” the volunteer said. “Within a couple of
months, he started milking the cows himself and later he was the one
waking me up at 6 a.m., pails in hand, ready to get to work.”
Svetlana, as residents call the village for short, is home to an
international group of nearly 40 people who are helping transform the
landscape for Russians with disabilities.
Founded in 1992 by a group of Russians and the Camphill Village Trust
of Norway, the community is designed to allow each person to
contribute to the best of his ability. Svetlana is one of almost 100
communities in Europe, North America, Africa and India run by
Camphill, which was founded in 1939 by Austrian pediatrician Karl
Konig.
“The idea behind Svetlana village is to recreate social life,” said
Svetlana’s British director, Mark Barber. “In modern society, people
are increasingly lonely and living ever more antisocial lives. The
wonderful thing about Svetlana is that it’s such a positive attempt
to recreate the world. Many people, both those with special needs and
volunteers, have found their salvation here.”
Traditional village life revolves around the farm, and Svetlana is no
exception. Its farm has a barn housing 10 cows and several pigs, an
adjoining dairy to process milk, cheese and other products, a garden,
grain fields, an herb workshop and an earth cellar. A bakery and doll
workshop are also on site.
People with special needs, who are referred to here as “villagers,”
live together with volunteers, or “co-workers,” in three houses,
where they share meals and various household duties like preparing
food and cleaning.
Lena, who uses a wheelchair, came to Svetlana from Tashkent,
Uzbekistan, in 1999 and works in the bakery. There she actively
engages others in lengthy conversations about philosophy and
politics.
“When I got here for the first time, it was hard to get used to
living without my family,” she said. “At home, my family helped me do
everything and here I had to learn how to take care of myself. This
is especially hard for someone in a wheelchair.”
The volunteers come from all over Russia as well as Germany,
Switzerland, the Netherlands, Britain and the United States. Barber
is one of several volunteers who have lived in Svetlana for years and
have started families here. Others come for six months to a year.
Gamlet Saakyan, a volunteer from Armenia, has lived and worked on the
farm with his wife, Yelena, and his 5-year-old son, Ilya, since 2000,
and he said the experience has been priceless. “The great thing is my
son doesn’t notice the difference between villagers and co-workers,”
he said. “He treats everyone the same. It’s wonderful to see.”
The cheese workshop is run by Sven Dietsche from Freiburg, Germany,
who is fulfilling his year of compulsory alternative service to the
German military at Svetlana. Dietsche, who makes hard cheese, brinza
and softer, sweet tvorog with villager Yulia, acknowledged that he
was by no means an accomplished cheese maker when he arrived last
summer.
“I was introduced to the cheese-making process in one day, and the
next day I was on my own,” he said. “After a few months, Yulia came
to work with me. At first, she didn’t understand what was going on
and couldn’t remember the steps. Now she tells me what to do.”
Dietsche and several villagers have been going to a nearby market in
Volkhov on Sundays to sell their wares. “We weren’t very welcome
there at first,” Dietsche said. “We’d get a lot of stares and few
people stopped at our stand. Now we’ve become quite famous.”
Jennifer Davis / For MT
A bakery also operates in Camphill-Svetlana, a village designed to
allow each person to contribute to the best of his ability.

Russia’s disabled, who were reasonably well looked after in Soviet
times, have little support these days. Children with special needs
can be a huge burden for already financially strapped families, and
doctors often encourage parents to leave their children in the care
of understaffed and overcrowded internaty, the state-run institutions
where they receive little, if any, personal attention.
Svetlana does not advertise, so information about the village travels
by word of mouth. Interested families may approach Svetlana, but the
village is not able to accept any applicants from institutions.
“We’ve tried to take people from internats, but legally we have no
way to keep them,” Barber said. “Unfortunately, we’re in this
position where we can only take people from parents or guardians.”
Although volunteers usually come to Svetlana to work with people with
special needs or simply to experience life in a rural community, many
are also here to study biodynamic farming, which is practiced in all
Camphill villages. Biodynamics, a form of organic farming developed
by German philosopher Rudolf Steiner in 1924, views the farm as a
self-sustaining organism within the surrounding ecosystem.
“In traditional agriculture, the goal is to extract from the earth,”
Barber said. “In biodynamic farming, the goal is to heal the earth.
One of the great tragedies of our age is that we’ve lost a spiritual
connection to the land. Biodynamic farming re-establishes that
connection.
“In fact,” he added, “this is the same concept in our work with the
disabled. We hope that by helping these people with special needs we
will also heal ourselves.”
Although Svetlana got the land it occupies free of charge from
regional authorities, it mainly relies on donations from the Camphill
organization to keep going.
“We don’t currently pay rent, but this could end at any time,” Barber
said. “We don’t receive any money or subsidies from the government,
except for the villagers’ state payments of about 1,000 rubles [$34]
each per month.
“Foreign sponsors are increasingly asking why the Russian business
community cannot begin supporting such a project on their home soil,”
he said.
At the end of the day, the glue that holds Svetlana together is the
hardworking community itself, which treats each villager with respect
and kindness, Barber said. “One of the great secrets of Camphill is
that at the center of the community there are these people with
special needs, who have amazing social skills,” he said. “And that is
what somehow makes it possible for us all to live together.”

Phayul, Tibet
July 6 2004
Dalai Lama’s Birthday in New York
Office of Tibet, New York[Tuesday, July 06, 2004 07:17]
NEW YORK, July 5 – They were on subway trains from Queens and
Brooklyn. They were on cars and trains from Connecticut and other
parts of upstate New York. Some of them had journeyed the day before
on the cheap China Town buses from Boston and Washington, D.C. Others
had journeyed from Pennsylvania and Minnesota.
As they headed toward Manhattan’s Armenian Church, their colorful
chubas and traditional hats attracted curious looks from fellow
travelers and holiday-makers, who tried to guess their nationality
and but did not venture a question.
Even the lone Tibetan layman from Florida was on the New York subway
train that morning, having come all the way to take part in the
famous New York celebration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s
birthday.
Armenian Church, the favorite venue of Tibetan events in New York, is
just 15 minutes of brisk walk from the United Nations headquarters,
where three Tibetans had nearly starved themselves to death two
months ago to demand justice for their countrymen in Tibet.
Last Saturday, 1,500 Tibetans gathered there for the first day of a
two-day celebration to mark His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s birthday,
which actually falls three days later, on 6 July, when very few
Tibetans can get leave from their jobs in this energetic and
relentlessly toiling city.
The celebration was organized by the Tibetan Association of New York
and New Jersey.
Mr. Karma Khedup, president of the association, started the morning
ceremony by offering a white greeting scarf at the portrait of His
Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Dr. Nawang Rabgyal, Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to
North America, addressed the gathering and said the birthday should
not become an occasion for mere festivities and that it should
instead be made more meaningful to the self and others.
He called on Tibetans to use this occasion to “rededicate our mind,
speech and body to the advice and vision of His Holiness”.
Dr. Rabgyal emphasized the need for introspection at a time like this
in order that “we may feel inspired to commit ourselves afresh to the
efforts of internalizing basic human values”, and to studying our
culture and language, as well as to bringing the light of freedom in
our homeland.
Cultural performances and talents shows, followed by
all-can-participate gorshey, a circuitous folk dance from western
Tibet, took the best part of the first day.
On Sunday, Tibetans and other Buddhists from the Himalayan regions of
India and Nepal gathered in Central Park for a day-long picnic.
Stand-up comedies and songs from Tibet, Nepal and India regaled the
crowd till five in the evening.
It was a measure of the singers’ talent that a family of Indian
tourists from Mumbhai was lured to the site to witness what they
thought was the local Indian community’s live concert with artistes
from Bollywood. Their eyes nearly popped out when they saw a tiny
white awning under which a “Japanese” face was mouthing Bollywood
strains into the mike in front of hundreds of other admiring
“Japanese” faces.
Ironically, the Indian family had to come all the way to New York to
learn that over 100,000 Tibetans were living as refugees in India and
the seasonal sweater sellers on the “footpath” of Mumbhai were
Tibetans and not Nepalese. They promised to say “Tashi Delek” to the
sweater sellers back home and also to visit Mundgod, the nearest
Tibetan settlement from Mumbhai.
The day stealer, however, was a stand-up comedian’s mimicry of a new
Tibetan dialect that has evolved among the Tibetan emigre community
in Darjeeling. Known as the Darjeeling Tibetan, it sounds like a
hybrid language, has heavy Nepalese intonation and is laced liberally
with Nepalese words.
The Tibetan Association of New York and New Jersey took the advantage
of this large large gathering to conduct an election for its new
office bearers. The biggest winner was Sonam Wangdu, one of the three
hunger strikers, who is presently in California playing soccer for
the New York Tibetan team.
On 8 July the Office of Tibet in New York will host a special
reception at Tibet House. Dr. Nawang Rabgyal said invitations had
been sent to 400 people, including diplomatic missions, US Government
officials, local Tibet Support Group members and leaders of the
Tibetan community.
“This year we are expecting attendance from many important
dignitaries, including members of the UN missions,” Dr. Rabgyal said.
The increase in attendance, Dr. Rabgyal, said reflects growing
awareness of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s contibution to the
promotion of peace, non-violence and human brotherhood.