Friday, December 28, 2007

Thought this was funny...

If you need a good laugh, read this article about the Armenian and Greek priests fighting over cleaning a church. :)


Priests scuffle with brooms, stones, at Church of Nativity in Bethlehem
(World News) Sunday, 30 December 2007, 16:07 PST
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


BETHLEHEM, West Bank - Robed Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests attacked each other with brooms and stones inside the Church of the Nativity today as long-standing rivalries erupted in violence during holiday cleaning.The basilica, built over the grotto in Bethlehem where Christians believe Jesus was born, is administered jointly by Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic authorities.
Any perceived encroachment on one group's turf can set off vicious feuds.Thousands of tourists visited the church this week for Christmas celebrations. Dozens of priests and cleaners went to the fortress-like church today to scrub and sweep the floors, walls and rafters ahead of the Armenian and Orthodox Christmas, celebrated in the first week of January.But the cleanup turned ugly after some of the Orthodox faithful stepped inside the Armenian church's section, touching off a scuffle between about 50 Greek Orthodox and 30 Armenians.
Palestinian police, armed with batons and shields, quickly formed a human cordon to separate the two sides so the cleaning could continue. Four people, some with blood running from their faces, were slightly injured.An Associated Press photographer was ordered out of the church.

Monday, December 24, 2007

Armenians in Vegas

My family and I are spending Christmas in Las Vegas this year. This was pretty much prompted by my aunt wanting to go to see an Armenian singer named Tata perform at the Paris Hotel (click link for a youtube video of him). Tata is a pretty famous singer in the Armenian community so having this performance in Vegas (the first of its kind) was a big deal and EVERYONE came. By everyone I mean the entire Armenian community- or at least it feels like it. Now every culture has its [stereotypical] flaws and such. However, growing up surrounded by Armenians, I have learned one thing- we are not cheap people. We are a part of a community that enjoys helping each other out. It is just a part of who we are and how we were raised (which is pretty much the same for all of us since a majority of the Armenians in the United States are 1st generation). Well imagine my surprise and disbelief when we were confronted with a taxi driver that said that us "Armenians are cheap and never tip".

You see, we are staying at the Venetian and were on our way to the forum shops at Caesars Palace. We were all chatting amongst ourselves and got in the taxi and realized as soon as well pulled away from the hotel that we had forgotten to tip the guy that opened the door for us. The taxi driver we had immediately asked if we were Persian. When we responded that we were Armenian, his reaction was something along the lines of "Oh, that explains it. You guys never tip." Really? I could have sworn that we had tipped pretty much everyone that deserved a tip all day long and yet once we forget to tip one gentleman, our entire culture is labeled?

Has no one learned yet that the action of one person does not represent their entire race? Have we not grown as a society? I think it is awful that we still label and stereotype people. I think it is even worse that during this trip (and in my first post actually), that I did the same thing. I jokingly will make fun of my own culture but I have never meant to actually stereotype them in a negative sense. It is just fun to poke fun at our little quirks.

Friday, December 21, 2007

A little off topic...

One of the featured stories on Yahoo! News in the past few days was one that talked about how cancer patients without health insurance are more likely to die than those with it. This is very sad but pretty understandable since all the treatments costs are so high, many families forgo treatments that may save their loved ones lives. Well what about those WITH health insurance? Yesterday evening, a 17 year old Armenian girl from Northridge, CA passed away because her insurance company refused to pay for the liver transplant she so desperately needed. It took a huge community effort to get her insurance company to approve the transplant. Sadly, the approval came too late. Here is the story from CBS

Cancer Girl's Lawyer Blames CIGNA For Her Death

GLENDALE, Calif. (CBS) ― An insurance company that initially refused to pay for a liver transplant for a 17-year-old Northridge girl who died in a hospital should face criminal charges and pay civil damages, an attorney for the girl's family said Friday.

Cigna HealthCare "literally, maliciously killed" Nataline Sarkisyan, attorney Mark Geragos told reporters in downtown Los Angeles.

Sarkisyan died at 5:50 p.m. Thursday after being pulled off life support at UCLA Medical Center.

Geragos said Cigna twice took Sarkisyan off the liver transplant list
and purposely waited until she was near death to approve the transplant because the company didn't want to pay for her after-care.

Cigna announced yesterday -- just hours before the girl died -- it would pay for the transplant. "Cigna decided that they were going to take profits over this little, beautiful princess' life," Geragos said. "We believe that they single- handedly decided that they wanted to have her die and wait so they would not have to take the after-care coverage."

Geragos said a civil lawsuit would be filed and he plans to petition
District Attorney Steve Cooley to pursue murder or manslaughter charges against
Cigna. "I believe that it's criminal and this corporation should be held accountable," Geragos said, adding this could be a "test case" because no such criminal complaint has yet been brought against a health insurance company.

In a statement issued yesterday after it had approved the transplant, the
company said the procedure "was outside the scope of the plan's coverage."
"... and despite the lack of medical evidence regarding the
effectiveness of such treatment,
Cigna HealthCare has decided to make an exception in this rare and unusual case, and we will provide coverage should she proceed with the requested liver transplant. Our thoughts and prayers are with Nataline and her family at this time."

Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office, said it
would be inappropriate to comment on any possible criminal charges against
Cigna since Geragos has yet to present anything to prosecutors.

Sarkisyan's 21-year-old brother, Bedros, told reporters that UCLA had a
liver available for transplant, but they could not perform the procedure
because of
Cigna's refusal to cover it.

The girl's father,
Krikor Sarkisyan, held a photograph of his daughter,
and with his eyes wet with tears, cried out. "They took my daughter away from me!"

"The
Cigna people, they cannot make people's decision if they (are)
going to life or die," he said through a heavy accent. "Doctors ... they all
signed the papers. ...
Cigna denied it two times."

Cigna insurance initially declined to pay for the transplant for Nataline Sarkisyan because her plan did not cover "experimental, investigational and unproven services," her doctors said.

The denial prompted nationwide protests, including a rally outside
Cigna's Glendale offices yesterday and complaints by members of the California Nurses Association. About 15 minutes into the rally, Cigna announced it would approve the transplant.

But last night, Nataline's parents had her removed from life support at
Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA"because her condition was hopeless,"
family friend Steve
Artinian told reporters.

"Now we have to start the healing process to try to figure out what
happened and why it happened,"
Artinian said.

A state and national nurses organization blasted
Cigna's decision to
deny Nataline's transplant. "Why didn't they just listen to the medical professionals at the bedside in the first place?" said Geri Jenkins, a registered nurse and member of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee Council of Presidents. "Insurance companies have a stranglehold on our health," said
CNA/NNOC Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro. "Their first priority is to make profits for their shareholders and the way they do that is by denying care."

Nataline had been in a vegetative state for three weeks, according to
her mother, Hilda
Sarkisyan. The girl was diagnosed with leukemia at age 14.

After two years of treatment the cancer went into remission but came back this summer.

When doctors said Nataline could use a bone-marrow transplant, the
Sarkisyans discovered that her brother was a match, and he donated his bone marrow the day before Thanksgiving.

However, Nataline developed a complication from the bone-marrow
transplant and, because her liver was failing, doctors recommended a
transplant, according to an appeal letter sent to
Cigna earlier this month.

The
Sarkisyans filed an appeal with the California Department of
Insurance, which sent a letter this week saying it needed more information.

Then came the protests and the insurance company's decision to approve
the liver transplant, but by then it was too late for Nataline.

Friday,
CIGNA released the following statement: "Our deepest sympathies are with Nataline's family. Their loss is immeasurable, and our thoughts and prayers are with them. We deeply hope that the outpouring of concern, care and love that are being expressed for Nataline's family help them at this time."

(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Researching Armenia

It occured to me that I have never sat down and read anything on Armenia that does not have anything to do with the Genocide. I spent about half an hour today trying to get an idea of what type of information is out there. Let me tell you, there is a lot more than I expected. I even found a website that linked all Armenia related forums on one page (Click Here).

Here is a recap of the information I picked up today in my search:

Armenia is a member of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Commonwealth of Independent States, NATO's Partnership for Peace, the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, the International Monetary Fund, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the World Trade Organization.

Approximately 70 U.S.-owned firms currently do business in Armenia, including such multinationals as Procter and Gamble, M and M-Mars, Xerox, Dell, Microsoft, and IBM. Recent major U.S. investment projects include the Hotel Armenia; the Hotel Ani Plaza; Tufenkian Holdings (carpet and furnishing production, hotels, and construction); several subsidiaries of U.S.-based information technology firms, including Viasphere Technopark, an IT incubator; a Greek-owned Coca-Cola bottling plant; petroleum exploration by the American-Armenian Exploration Company; jewelry and textile production facilities; a large perlite mining and processing plant; and Jermuk Mother Plant, which produces one of the more popular brands of mineral water in Armenia. -I wonder if when I call Microsoft tech support, I'll be able to talk to an Armenian and find out that he is some distant relative. Hmmm...

Armenia first emerged into history around 800 BC as part of the Kingdom of Urartu or Van, which flourished in the Caucasus and eastern Asia Minor until 600 BC. After the destruction of the Seleucid Empire, the first Armenian state was founded in 190 BC. At its zenith, from 95 to 65 BC, Armenia extended its rule over the entire Caucasus and the area that is now eastern Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon. For a time, Armenia was the strongest state in the Roman East. It became part of the Roman Empire in 64 BC and adopted a Western political, philosophical, and religious orientation. - Wow, go ancestors!

Armenia is trying to address its environmental problems. It has established a Ministry of Nature Protection and has introduced a pollution fee system by which taxes are levied on air and water emissions and solid waste disposal, with the resulting revenues used for environmental protection activities. Armenia is interested in cooperating with other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS--a group of 12 former Soviet republics) and with members of the international community on environmental issues. The Armenian Government has committed to decommissioning the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant as soon as alternate energy sources can be identified.- Armenia is trying to go green!


Finally!

TEACHERS EDUCATED ON GENOCIDE AT 87TH ANNUAL NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE SOCIAL STUDIES CONFERENCE


San Diego, CA- In an effort to promote genocide education and awareness, ANCA Eastern Region Executive Director Karine Birazian, Anastasia Skoupas, a member of the Pontian Greek Society of Chicago, and Ron Levitsky an educator at Sunset Ridge School in Northfield, IL presented at the 87th Annual National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) conference which took place November 29th to December 2nd at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California.

The lecture entitled Death, Despair, and Denial: The Armenian and Pontian Greek Genocides attracted educators from all over the United States including Illinois, Virginia, Tennessee, and South Carolina. For 60 minutes, Birazian and Skoupas discussed the Armenian and Pontian Greek Genocides, incorporating these teachings into lesson plans. Touching upon the history as well as the current struggles with denial and underlying politics, the lecture proved to be quite valuable for those in attendance. Levitsky, who was also present at the workshop, discussed with teachers various resources available for teaching this subject including those from The Choices Program, Facing History and Ourselves, and the Genocide Education Project.

“It was such a great experience to present at this years NCSS conference,” commented Birazian. “Given the recent increase of interest and awareness of this horrific topic, educators are incorporating this information in their classrooms and working to make a difference.” Birazian, who is also part of the Genocide Education Network of Illinois, an organization developed in conjunction with a mandate in Illinois on the teaching of genocide, has been active in educating teachers and students about the Armenian genocide and ending the cycle of genocide for nearly a decade.

The morning of the lecture, in the “Our Region” section of the daily San Diego Union Tribune newspaper, an article entitled Educators Across the Country are Increasingly Addressing Genocide commented: “Genocide is a hot topic in local classrooms. Educators nationwide are giving it more attention, as evidenced by the schedule for this weekend's annual conference of the National Council for the Social Studies in downtown San Diego.” The article went on to discuss the various workshops specific to genocide education, including the one presented by Birazian and Skoupas, as well as quoting Sara Cohan, education director for the Genocide Education Project.

Founded in 1921, the NCSS has grown to be the largest association in the country--devoted entirely to social studies education. The NCSS engages and supports “educators in strengthening and advocating social studies.”

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) is the largest and most influential Armenian American grassroots political organization. Working in coordination with a network of offices, chapters and supporters throughout the United States and affiliated organizations around the world, the ANCA actively advances the concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad range of issues.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Armenian Terrorism?

I have to admit, I do not feel as though I am the type of person that should be blogging. In fact, a part of me feels that, in general, bloggers are people that are really full of themselves and think that they have to share their lives with the world. I still think that, but here I am blogging. I figure if I am going to sit in the library studying for finals until closing time (2am, folks), then I might as well do something productive while avoiding my work. Come to think of it, my finals are the reason I am writing this post. You see, in researching for my last paper of the quarter, I stumbled upon the section of our wonderful library that held the books on the subject of Armenia, my homeland-or eem hayrenike. This section, unfortunately, consists of about 20 or so books, most of them on the subject of genocide and very few by non-Armenian writers. I came across one called...well actually I am not sure what it is called since I just returned it...(I should probably look it up.) Anyway, this book was about Armenian Terrorism. Now I am not an expert on Armenia at all. In fact, growing up in the community I was in, I was at times ashamed to say that I was Armenian. It seemed as though every Armenian male I met came to school with a 1/2 inch binder with three sheets of paper and ditched class to go drive around in their luxury cars. The females were not much better. It was as if it was a requirement to have the desire to be engaged in your senior year of high school and have your first child before finishing your Associate's at LA City College- if you got that far. Anyway, back to my point. I pick up this book and it talked about how Armenian terrorist organizations are one of the most dangerous and most neglected organizations in the world. Did I miss something? We have terrorists? The only image that came to my mind when I read that was a group of Armenian men with big bellies running off to threaten the life of the odar that dared to date their little girl.

This lack of knowledge about my own country prompted me to start this blog. I think what our community needs most is a resource that is easily accesible in order to learn about various topics concerning Armenia. My goal is to learn something new about my culture each week and share my new found knowledge with my readers...which I hope eventually will consist of more people than just my boyfriend and my brother.