"Collapse" and how it relates to things Armenian

One of my personal influences is Jared Diamond. After reading his Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs and Steel (1998), many things that were a mere suspicion became very clear, as if when a misty and blurry image suddenly comes into very sharp focus. The memory of that moment never leaves you and, even when you willingly try to, you can no longer claim that you do not know. It keeps drawing you back into its referenial frames and reminds you that you cannot stray away from its conclusions.

In fact, that book was a source of inspiration for me to deliver a lecture a few years ago, on the invitation of the Canadian Armenian Women's Association on March 8th, the International Women's Day. The topic was, "History of the status of women over the past 10,000 years, or How we got where we are today". The lecture lasted about 2 hours.

As a result, I might actually be the record holder (at least among Armenians) of covering such a long period of time in such a relatively short lecture. It would put me at about 5000 years per hour or at an "astonishing" 1.9 years per second. I had a lot of fun researching and delivering it.

In 2005, Diamond published another book called Collapse, How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. By all indications, it is destined to become another landmark book. Collapse describes the stories of several historical societies that collapsed because of certain things they did or did not do. Examples of such societies, which lasted several centuries and even millenia before they destroyed themselves, include Easter Island, the Maya and the first Norse settlement of Greenland. Diamond also analyzes the reasons for such behaviour by those societies and, once again, comes up with masterful conclusions as to the causes.

In the same year of publication, Diamond gave a series of lectures about his new book. The most famous of them occured upon the invitation of the Long-Now Foundation, an institution dedicated to foster and encourage the proliferation of very long-term thinking (on the millenial scale). Give their web site a visit, you might learn a thing or two. Here they are

http://www.longnow.org/

You can listen to Jared Diamond giving his famous talk here.

Diamond's book is ultimately about environmental degradation and how, despite the glaring evidence, societies have in the past continued (and sometimes still do so today) to destroy their surroundings and themselves in the process.

Here are some of the main reasons, Diamond concludes, that cause societies to refuse to acknowledge that they have embarked on a track of self-destruction. He is, of course, much more articulate and gives numerous examples of each case.

1. Failure to anticipate the upcoming disaster, sometimes because nothing in their past experience would suggest the resulting outcome, or because that past experience is forgotten, or because they refuse to learn from that past experience fuelled by their use of false "analogies".

2. Failure to perceive that the problem has actually arrived, sometimes because the problem is imperceptible, or because of the remoteness of the decision makers from the actual place of occurence of the problem.

3. The slowly accruing trend of the problem that creates the concept of "creeping normalcy", in other words, because of the long-lasting trend, the incremental differences in degradation become accepted by that society until a point of no return is reached.

4. The "rational/utilitarian" behaviour of some of the members of that society, whose interest is at a conflict with the interest of the society as a whole. This argument follows the "logic" (or lack thereof) of someone who decides, for example, to overfish or overharvest, because he reasons that if he doesn't, then someone else will. As more and more members of that society behave that way, the society depletes the resources it relies on and essentially dies off. Such decline is rapidly accelerated especially if it is the governing elite that engages in such predatory practices, at the expense of the common folk.

5. "Irrational behaviour" attached to values, mainly religious ones, resulting in persistence in error. For example, by insisting on not practicing birth control by many societies today, or by the religious fervour of building monumental statues on Easter Island.

6. Dislike of the general public of those who are bearers of bad news, and their ensuing dismissing of the warnings as exaggerated. This results mostly from a short-term focus of all the levels of a society and the inability of the governing elites to focus on the longer term issues that would extend beyond a generation.

7. "Crowd psychology" or "groupthink", better known as the herd mentality, where a smaller group of people who think alike, will act in a mutually reinforcing way, and as they steer the society in the wrong direction, they are followed by the rest. This leads to a complete disappearance of critical thinking and the eventual destruction of that society.

8. Psychological denial, because of suppressed painful memories that prevent a society from taking the right decisions and basically paralyze it. The same way that such denials are used to explain individual behaviour, they would apply to societies that have suffered some kind of historical trauma or terror, therefore refusing to confront a massive threat and essentially "shutting down" their collective defense mechanism.

As you will hear in the lecture linked above, Diamond says that when he presented the case of the collapse of the Easter Island society to his students, they posed a very interesting question. Since the collapse of that society was ultimately driven by the destruction of all the trees on the island (which they needed for wood to build sleds to carry their megastatues to their places of worship, and to build canoes to go fishing in the ocean), the question that his students posed is as follows:

"What did the person who chopped down the last tree on the island say, as he was chopping it down?". They also proposed some answers as follows:

a) "Never fear, technology will solve all our problems by finding a substitute for wood !!!".

b) "This is my private property. This tree is mine. Private property rights are to be respected and I can do with them whatever I please. Keep the big government and the chiefs off my back !!!".

c) "The fears of you environmentalists are exaggerated. You don't know what is going on in some other part of the island. Perhaps there are still trees out there. A ban on logging would be premature. We need more research".

d) "Never fear ! Have faith ! God will somehow provide for us".

Of course, history tells us that after a civilization that likely lasted over a thousand years, the last tree on Easter Island was cut down in the 1680s. The islanders could no longer build the sleds to carry the giant statues of worship. Soil erosion and deforestation killed off all sources of food on the island. They could no longer build canoes to go out fishing. So they turned on each other for sources of protein. They descended into civil warfare and cannibalism. When Europeans discovered them about a century later, there were only a few hundred islanders left who had lost the ability to read and write in their uniquely developed language, and had almost reverted to stone age tools. Most of them died as a result of the diseases imported by the Europeans or were enslaved by the newcomers.

Now why is all this relevant to Armenians?

Let me count the ways.

Firstly, every single one of the reasons that these societies collapsed seems to be endemic among Armenians, both in Armenia but, also mainly, in the Diaspora.

Secondly, the Easter Island metaphor is very much applicable and in fact quite analogous with our situation as a people.

If we look at our resources that will be required to get to through these difficult times, then they would be financial capital, intellectual capital and arguably the State of Armenia itself. Related resources and concepts would be the Armenian identity (for, in general, one will firstly need to identify with being Armenian in order to feel compelled to act for improving our sort), and ultimately the demographic vigor and dymamism of the Diasporan communities and its institutions.

These resources are finite and under tremendous stress.

Here is a one-to-one mapping of the above reasons for collapse to our situation:

1. Failure to anticipate the upcoming disaster, well, this would be rather obvious. In the past century, we collectively failed to anticipate the Genocide, the Treaty of Lausanne, the assimilation of the Diaspora. I single these three calamities out because we are today living and literally dying as a nation because of the consequences of these three events.

2. Failure to perceive that the problem has actually arrived, the real problem, after the Yeghern, has always been the gradual disappearance of the Diaspora and the increasing distance between itself and its collective memory of a homeland. Demographic and societal evolutions have statistical and mathematical rules by which they evolve. The notion of a minimal critical population mass in a community is actually a well-established construct in the social sciences. We have ignored these important intellectual advances to our own peril, and gradual assimilation has blurred the boundaries of what can or can no longer be saved. Large migrational trends away from the geographical proximity of a historical homeland have accelerated the assimilatory trends and the further dispersions of the Diasporan communities. For the first time ever, we have a new generation that has not even grown up knowing and interacting with Genocide survivors. That experience is now therefore relegated to a memory which, at best, is written in a language which is no longer read, or it is largely a memory of oral history, therefore subject to distortion. As a result, the survivability of such communities beyond a single generation is highly questionable.

3. The slowly accruing trend of the problem that creates the concept of "creeping normalcy", a glaring example of this one in our communities is the current almost "accepted gospel" that the Armenian language is not relevant for the modern conceptualization of an Armenian identity, or that at least it is not as relevant as it used to be. Parents of children attending Armenian schools complain about the "high" number of hours alloted to Armenian topics and the amount of homework given in Armenian. Organizational leaders publicly argue that the role of language in determining identity belongs to the past and that we must embrace the definition of the new Armenian for whom the learning of the Armenian language is equivalent to learning any foreign language, like Mandarin or Spanish. The fact that this position goes against not only common sense, but in fact against every single research conclusion done on the topic of language and identity for the past two hundred years does not seem to bother anyone. Furthermore, there is a conspicuous absence of any organized official or grassroots body in the Diaspora or even in Armenia to defend the Armenian language, in any of its forms (Eastern or Western) against serious encroachments and outright assault from all sides. Lack of knowledge of Armenian does not seem to be a deterrent for advancement in any Armenian insitution (even in Armenia), mastery of the language does not seem to be a requirement even for journalists in Armenia, whose media is literally peppered with gross grammatical and orthographic violations. For example, as recently as a few weeks ago, one of the web sites of a major and respectable journalistic outlet (in Armenian) from Armenia had the label on its Search Function button spelt glaringly ՓՆՏՐԵԼ (Pronounced Pndrel). After I pointed out to them 3 times, over a period of three months, that this is a major error in any branch of the Armenian, the Western, the Eastern and even in the bastardized Apeghian orthography and should be ՓՆՏՌԵԼ , i.e. with the trilled letter "r" (Pronounced Pndrrel = to search for). I am still to be honoured by even an acknowledgement of receipt of my emails. There is a massive international movement to protect and even to revive thousands of languages that are part of the human heritage and shape the identity of the people who speak them. In fact, this is deemed so vital to identity and heritage that the UN General Assembly declared 2008 to be the International Year of Languages and mandated the UNESCO to lead the initiatives worldwide to preserve all languages. Visit their website and you will see there calls for papers, projects, conferences, research material, funding opportunities. The Armenian contribution? How to preserve the cultural heritage of the Duduk. Important, but hardly relevant.

4. The "rational/utilitarian" behaviour of some of the members of that society, whose interest is at a conflict with the interest of the society as a whole. Now, examples of this would really be countless, but certainly, every single story of embezzlement, enticement to fraud in our community organizations would fall under this one. How about the stifling of dissent in our organizations? The hiring of incompetent teachers and administrators in our scools? How about our political parties pursuing a strictly self serving agenda? Do we need to enumerate the incidents of brotherly hate? The murders of Armenians who belonged to other factions by fellow Armenians? How about the assasination of the former Prime Minister in the Armenian Parliament? The murder of an archbishop on the altar in New York? The betrayals to the Ottomans, the Stalinists, and even the collaboration with the Nazis of our modern "heroes"? Every single one of these instances is actually an exercise in "utilitarian" behaviour by the perpetrators. The end result? Erosion of collective goodwill, institutional breakdown, decline of standards of social behaviour, disappearance of true altruism, and a growing mentality that the Diaspora is not reformable, and hence the disappearance of vitality and youth involvement is virtually guaranteed. Members of an educated, highly mobile, ambitious young generation of Armenian descent see no reason to invest of themselves in their communities.

5. "Irrational behaviour" attached to values, mainly religious ones, resulting in persistence in error. This one is certainly prevalent across the board. Ask any Armenian, in the Diaspora or in Armenia to name five top priorities for the nation, and I can guarantee you that building more churches would not be one of them. In Armenia, the issues would be centered around healthcare, jobs, decent living standards, environmental degradation, democracy, corruption, crime rate, outmigration from the villages into Yerevan, emigration from the country etc. In the Diaspora, the issues would be centered around survival of the Armenian language, the lack of youth involvement in traditional organizations, the lack of quality Armenian schools and the qualified staff for them, Genocide recognition, survival of the community as a whole, intermarriage with non-Armenians, migration demographics and integration issues among several communities of differing geographical backgrounds (e.g. Egyptian-Armenians with Iranian Armenians), etc. The solutions to many if not all of these problems hardly ever would include the building of churches, especially in communities and places that have an overabundance of them, like Armenia. While a church has its place and role in the Armenian psyche, it cannot be the all curing panacea. No truly critical thinking would come up with such an approach. The question then is, why are enormous resources literally wasted to build more and more churches? Why can't we renovate the existing historical ones in Armenia and revive them instead? And in the Diaspora, why cannot we dedicate our resources to building museums, better schools, training our teachers, building art institutions, concert halls, research labs, university scholarship funds for all Armenians, publishing books, creating literary and artistic prizes, building clinics, old age homes? Sure, we might be doing all or some of that, but if we compare the level of investments, I suspect that over 90% of it go into churches or related religiously affiliated establishments which become the only way to channel any other community public activity, essentially lulling us to believe that there is no other way to do things. We can see that all across the Diasporan communities in the Western world. The wealthiest and most properous of the Diasporas which is in US, after at least a century of highly affluent existence, does not have a single Armenian Art Center or a Concert Hall. If the Italian community in Montreal can initiate and complete the DaVinci Cultural facility which is unique in the city and attracts world class performances and events, why can't Armenians have one, and they focus instead on building church number 8 in a community of 35,000 and actually see nothing wrong with this? Why is it that there are special educational consultants that work for the secular institutions built by the Jewish community such as Jewish Family Services, (not attached to any synagogue by the way), who provide expert services not only to the Jewish community but to all educational institutions in Canada, and Armenians insist on attaching any social service programs they might have, if at all, to their religious institutions?

6. Dislike of the general public of those who are bearers of bad news, and their ensuing dismissing of the warnings as exaggerated. The most persistent example of this is the rapid disappearance and quasi elimination of the Armenian intellectual in the Diaspora (see my lecture "The Vanishing Breed of the Armenian Intellectual : Canaries in a Mineshaft", at the Columbia University conference The Diaspora and its Discontents to be posted soon on this blog). The educational institutions nurturing those intellectuals are all but gone or have been radically reduced in their instructional stature and capacity (The Melkonian Educational Institution in Cyprus, Mourad Raphaelian of the Mekhitarist Order in Venice, Hovaguimian-Manouguian of the AGBU in Beirut, Djemaran of Hamazkaine in Beirut) the only exception still being Getronagan in Istanbul. Arguably the two greatest writer/intellectuals of the Diaspora and even Armenia were Shahan Shahnour in Western Armenian and Gostan Zarian in Eastern Armenian. Both of whom were reviled and attacked at all levels both by individual, institutional and even state structures. Yet both produced pieces that diagnose the destiny of our people with remarkably clear foresight. The intellectuals of today, none of whom is at the level of these two, are at best ignored, and at worst, still reviled publicly and privately. This behaviour, while not unique to Armenians, is particularly detrimental for us as a people, because we lack any other mechanism of checks and balances. Destroying our own intellectual ability is literally cutting off our potential to renew ourselves and destroying our early warning system. Tsunamis, earthquakes and other extreme natural phenomena do a lot more damage when they are not predicted.

7. "Crowd psychology" or "groupthink", better known as the herd mentality. Think about it, when was the last time that any convential wisdom in any community was challenged with a true public critical debate? Things like "There is no HIV crisis among Armenians in our community" (no one knows how many Armenians have died of AIDS or are HIV positive), "Armenian youth are not involved in gangs" (There are 15,000 Armenians in California jails), "There is no bullying in Armenian schools" (deny, deny, deny), "Wife beating is only a very rare phenomenon among Armenians" (ask Armenian psychiatrists to give you the real story), "Our only saviour throughout history has been our church, therefore they alone can bring us through these difficult times once again" (we now have an independent country, and it is the Ottoman Sultans that have taught us that our leaders are our religious leaders), "There is no scandalous behaviour among our clergy" (look closely, really closely, the evidence is all around you, or you can play the Name That Khatchakogh game), "There is no potential for fraud in our institutions" (has anyone ever actually had the books audited by any of the big five firms?), "All our resources must be focused on Armenia" (and deplete the Diaspora for good in a few years?), "Our history is proof that we can survive the worst" (It is yet to be proven that we have survived the Genocide), "Gay Armenian rights? What gay Armenians?" (no comment), "There is no physical and sexual abuse of Armenian children in Armenian families" (check with your own families and those of your neighbours or your neighbours' neighbours), "Our school is the best, and parents love sending their children to our school" (so why is enrollment declining? Do we have year to year comparisons? Do we have market research that highlights what parents want or do not want?), "Armenians are not racists" (really?), "All Turks are murderers, it is in their genes" (so all the Turks who have bravely challenged the denials of their country and continue to do so are murderers too), "There are no cowards among Armenians, all our historical figures are heroes" (right, so the traitors in our history should not be analyzed), "People in our community do not appreciate culture and arts, they prefer to have parties, dances and eat Armenian food, so that is why we give them what they want, at least they are getting together (bring on the kebab singers)."

8. Psychological denial, because of suppressed painful memories that prevent a society from taking the right decisions and basically paralyze it. Two words Medz Yeghern - Մեծ Եղեռն.

In the final analysis, how many times have you heard, "Do not worry, God will build this church for his glory" (so why are we asking then the community to pay for it blindly?), "The community has the financial resources, so why shouldn't they support this project" (let's see, maybe because the project does not make neither financial nor strategic sense?), "We are a victorious nation, all our enemies over the millenia have disappeared yet we are still here" (so why worry about identity, saving the Diaspora or Armenia, if we are genetically predestined to survive?),"This church/school/community center is a private institution and we can do with it as we please" (so how come it was built with funds raised from the community? And wasn't it built for the community in the first place?).

For the record, one thing that Jared Diamond does not mention. It goes without saying that all those societies that collapsed, never ever had a clue that they were about to do so.

As already mentioned, the Easter Island civilization collapsed and subsequently degenerated into cannibalism. Armenians are notorious for despising each other to the extreme, perhaps that is proof that we have degenerated into our form of "cannibalism" and we may have already collapsed as a collective.

It would be worthwhile to contact Jared Diamond and ask him to write a book about Armenians. If he does, would that be further proof about us being an endangered species?

Language, Beauty and Memory Part IV (Name That Khatchakogh)

Yeah, it is definitely a good idea to start that contest.

Here is the idea for the script of a television or web show.

"Coming right now to a web post in your home. An exciting new show the like of which you have never seen !!!!!!"

"NAME THAT KHATCHAKOGH".

"Using ancient techniques developed by Armenians centuries ago, the khatchakoghs have infiltrated modern society".

"On this unique show, and on every episode, contestants will be able to name them based on clues that we shall provide. Each question has a multiple choice answer. Remember, the right answer is right there in front of you. You're not blind, say what's on your mind !!!!

"And what's the prize you ask? The winner, will get an all-expenses-paid trip to the ancient region of Salmasd in Persia (Iran), the birthplace of the original khatchakoghs and spend a night at the cemetary in the principal village of Savra, their presumed den, to speak with the ghosts of the great founders of this movement".

"If the prize cannot be collected due to visa restrictions, we shall substitute it for a trip to Yerevan. Ghosts of the khatchakoghs will be substituted for anyone in power or anyone of the fifty oligarch families that own the country."

"If that prize cannot be collected, then a trip to almost any televangelist center would do".


"You don't understand the game? No problem, here are a few examples".

"Question 1.

"This khatchakogh collected a wealth of close to $100 million by publicly stating that God and Jesus speak with him all the time, in fact that Jesus has appeared to him in a gigantic 900-foot form. On one TV show, he stated that unless he collects the magical amount of $8 million God would call him back to heaven. He actually raised more than $9 million in that campaign. He founded a "university" and an affiliated "hospital" where "research" would be carried on cures for deadly terminal diseases, the cures to be provided by administering cocktails of medical therapies combined with prayers. His son Richard went on his show and claimed that he had witnessed his father raise a child from the dead. The "university" board then complained that millions in funds were being used to build homes for him and his son in Beverly Hills, and to purchase very exclusive golf club memberships.

"This khatchakogh is a) Bishop Desmond Tutu or b) Oral Roberts.

/audience cheers : You're not blind, say what's on your mind !!!! /


Question 2

"This khatchakogh was a tag-team with his wife. He was originally a waiter in a restaurant and his wife worked in a boutique. They dropped out of Bible college and became, you guessed it, travelling evangelists. They then got into TV and created the concept of the "TV Bible variety show". At some point their faithful were sending them $1 million a week. They also built the third largest theme park in the US, called Heritage USA."

"She was famous for always crying on TV and the running of her makeup mascara. He on the other hand, became famous for a sex scandal with Jessica Hahn, whom he tried to pay off with over $250,000. He was also later tried for fraud, embezzlement of millions from exclusive "memberships" that they sold to the believers. He was sentenced to 45 years imprisonment. He still owes $3 million to the IRS.

"This khatchakogh is a) Mahatma Ghandi b) Jim Bakker.

/audience cheers: You're not blind, say what's on your mind !!!! /

Question 3

"This next khatchakogh had the most popular Bible thumping program on TV. He is the first cousin of the great rock'n'roll pianist, Jerry Lee Lewis. At his peak, over 200 stations across the US would carry his show. His weakness was that he liked to spend the night in motels with prostitutes, got photographed doing so and was exposed. Yeah, pun is intended.

"He then went on the air and started crying and asked the Lord for forgiveness for his one-time sin. Four days later, the prostitute in question said that he was a regular customer. His ministry defrocked him and took away his license. Yet he insisted on going to the pulpit, claiming that if he doesn't preach millions will go to hell. Especially because they listen to Ozzy Osbourne music and should listen to gospel music he has composed. He has since started a new ministry.

"A few years later, when he was making a meagre salary of only $350,000 a year, he got caught by a traffic cop for having sex with a prostitute in a car. When his congregation asked him for repentance, he is supposed to have said "God told me that this is none of your business".

"He has now retrenched and started a new ministry of his own, broadcasting to over 50 countries. Trying to take on the world. He claims on his website that his biblical commentaries are actually ordained by God. A man of his calibre knows no limits.

"This khatchakogh is a) The Dalai Lama b) Jimmy Swaggart.

/audience cheers : You're not blind, say what's on your mind !!!! /

Question 4

"This khatchakogh appears as an enigma. He started his career as a philosophy teacher. Somewhere in there he achieved "enlightenment", then he called himself "the blessed saint". He preached worldly pleasures. So much so, that his houses of worship had a libertine party atmosphere of drinking, shouting, occasional violence and ensuing sex orgies. He predicted that before 2000 the world will either be destroyed by HIV/AIDS or by nuclear warfare, so they might as well enjoy a hedonistic life. His teachings included the forced laughter for three continuous hours every day for a week, and then followed by three hours continuous crying for every day for a week and to keep alternating. Supposedly to be in tune with the universe. He was only interested in rich followers. Especially those who could gift him Rolls Royces. At the time he fled the authorities in the US he owned 93, his presumed target was to have one for every day of the year.

"When he fled the US he was accused of several criminal activities, including profiting from prostitution, drug abuse, tax evasion, attempted murder, poisoning of public officials, illegal wiretapping and even attempted bioterror against a peaceful population using salmonella.

"This khatchakogh is a) Pope John Paul II b) Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

/audience cheers : You're not blind, say what's on your mind !!!! /

Question 5

"This next khatchakogh is a "bishop" who manages a "herd" of women based on a special breeding program. He used to be a tag team with his Canadian counterpart in British Columbia but they have now gone off their separate ways with the same practices. He is on the FBI 10-most-wanted list in the US and has been a fugitive for some time. He is accused of polygamy, welfare fraud, incest, statutory rape, physical, sexual and psychological abuse. The "church" he leads is a fundamentalist offshoot of the Mormons and is known as the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, which also, by the way, owns all of the properties of its members who are not allowed to become property owners themselves.

"This khatchakogh is a) George Clooney b) Warren Jeffs.

/audience cheers : You're not blind, say what's on your mind !!!! /

Question 6

"This next khatchakogh has reached the pinnacle of "achievement". He calls himself "The second Christ", "The Savior", "The Returning Lord". He has been jailed for counterfeiting, has publicly supported Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal, has been convicted of conspiracy and income tax fraud in the US. He considers his dead son resurrected in a young man in Zimbabwe. He is the founder of the Washington Times on which he has spent between $1 and possibly up to $3 billion dollars (yes billion), which he uses to spread the "word of God". And since his followers consider him and his wife the "father and mother of Heaven and Earth", he is therefore God and his paper spreads his word. He was actually crowned as such by a US Senator and in his speech he called himself the Messiah and the Returning Lord who is the Saviour of humanity.

"His followers are asked to donate all that they have to his "church". He lives in a lavish 18 acre castle in New York and his family owns castles and mansions in South Korea, England, Scotland and Germany. His children receive an allowance of $50,000 a month and they also own an exclusive golf club in California.

"One of the major manufacturing businesses he owns in Korea is a company that produces M-16 assault rifles, anti-aircraft guns and various other weapons.

"This khatchakogh is a) Nicolas Sarkozy b) Sun Myung Moon

/audience cheers : You're not blind, say what's on your mind !!!! /

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the audience. The ways of the khatchakogh were actually invented by Armenians, yet you may wonder why we haven't given any examples of Armenian names. Well we have a treat for you this evening.

Questions 7 and 8

"One of the next khatchakoghs became a Patriarch in Jerusalem. A talented poet and writer, unfortunately he had a weakness for women and gambling and had at least two illegitimate children, but numerous affairs. He was accused of misappropriating over $10 million from the coffers of the St. James complex in Jerusalem, along with diverting precious historical jewelry to auction houses in Western Europe and replacing them with fake ones. He literally was a cross-thief. Such diversion included also priceless ancient manuscripts. All funds were pocketed personally.

"His accomplice of many years was also "prey" to many of the same vices and lifestyle. He was an archbishop who held the influential position of Chancellor and Manager of Properties of the Patriarchate, when his confrere was Patriarch. Talk about a greeeeeaaaaat arrangement. The fox in charge of the chicken coop. I hear the Saturday Night Live Church Lady saying "Isn't that conveeeenient?".

"In later years, these two "partners" became sworn enemies, and it is rumoured that the likely cause of this falling out was of the "female persuasion". After the death of the Patriarch, the archbishop settled in Armenia where he donated his personal ill-acquired wealth to the establishing of the Theological Faculty of the Yerevan State University, that has produced many graduates, hopefully not followers in his footsteps (although he was the dean of the faculty for 10 years).

"Can you name these khatchakoghs? Come on, what do we say?

/audience cheers : You're not blind, say what's on your mind !!!! /

"Tune in next month when we'll bring you another exciting lineup of contestants and we attempt to answer important questions on your mind like

- Are there any extraterrestrial khatchakoghs? What about Rael?

- Is it true that members of a famous disco band of the 60s and 70s who have given us such wonderful hits like Stayin' Alive, are actually Armenian khatchakoghs in perfect disguise?

- Was the mass-murderer Jim Jones a khatchakogh or just plain crazy? Or both?"

Now all I have to do is wait for a TV corporate executive to pick this one up.

Praise the Lord.

Language, Beauty and Memory Part III

When I replied back to Edwina Charles congratulating her on her exquisite Chekhovian piece, I wrote to her that her short story reminded me of the main character in a wonderful adventure novel written by the great Armenian writer, Raffi. The work in question is the Memoirs of the Cross-Thief, or in Armenian, Խաչագողի Յիշատակարանը (Pronounced - Khatchakoghi Hishadagaranuh). This is the novel that I had read as a young teenager. It is 340 pages long.

The main character in that novel is Kavor Bedros, a ruthless criminal who has no morals and will do anything for illicit financial gain, including lying, cheating, murdering, raping, falsely befriending, disguising himself, betraying his kind and so on, he is the proverbial Cross-Thief. Once again, Armenian is unique among languages to have invented this word. Why? Because Armenians felt the need to express such a concept. We had (and still do have) many khatchakoghs.

Raffi was well known as a field researcher so all his contemporaneous novels are based on actual characters. Here is how Raffi describes them in his introduction to the novel (completed in 1870). These are excerpts, the translation is mine:

"The khatchakogh can change shape like the devil. He can appear as a completley different person than he truly is. No one can compete with them in such guiling disguise. You can never see a khatchakogh in his true self and form. In different places, and depending on different circumstances, he always conceals the truth and adapts.

"The khatchakogh contains within him all the habits of a human society. He climbs and descends all societal ladders with great ease and remarkable agility. He gets in and out of all social classes with a great ability to adapt. Among the upper classes, he is a proud, vapid and articulate nobleman, with all the gloss of such a person. Among the lower classes, he is a poor, kind and uneducated peasant, with all the simplicity of such character. With the educated, he can argue with conviction and all the moral fortitude of a humanist of lofty ideals. With the mullahs, he is a fanatic, dark minded like the night. One day he is evil, the next day good, but never himself.

"The khatchakogh is very elastic and malleable. He can lean any which way. He takes the form of any mould and many forms but never keeps a truly characteristic shape. He is a true chameleon.

"He knows how to cheat and lie, how to evade and become invisible. The all-seeing eye of the lawman cannot follow his footsteps. He disappears as a demon and reappears as an angel.

"The khatchakogh looks at the universe as his personal field to harvest. He is the ultimate parasite as he knows how to extract what he needs from the work of the community. He reaps but never sows. He does not produce and only consumes. He lives off the sweat of others. And to achieve his objective he uses all of his incomparable abilities. Where he cannot cheat his way, he is ready to shed blood.

"The khatchakogh has everything yet he owns nothing. He always tells his stories with a unique pride. He looks upon his cheatings, lies and sickly acts as deeds of great bravery.

"The khatchakogh is never satisfied with the amount of illicit wealth he accumulates. He is never satiated and his uncontrolled greed drives him to greater machinations and corruption of those around him. There have been khatchakoghs who, before the arrival of the British, had become Grand Viziers or Viceroys of whole provinces in India.

"Khatchakoghs are also known as "old woman stranglers" (Barav kheghtogh - Պառաւ խեղդող) and "donkey painters" (Esh nergogh - Էշ ներկող). As for the real origin of their name it is because many of them do not shy away from pretending to be priests and men of the cloth who thus would get into various positions of authority in a church or a monastery. Afterwards, they would steal all the golden crosses and ceremonial silverware and vanish. They also like to approach wealthy elderly widows, befriend them, gain their favor and when they become a household presence, they take the opportunity at night to strangle these unsuspecting women, steal all their wealth and then disappear. Finally, because they are very wily in their ways, they can steal someone's grey donkey, paint it black and then sell it back to the poor soul who would be totally impervious to their wickedness".

Raffi, of course, wrote his novels in the mid 19th century. He mentions that the original khatchakoghs were from very specific villages in the Salmasd region of Persia, specifically, the village of Savra. Many elderly khatchakoghs would teach their "trade" to their offspring. He then mentions that with the Russio-Persian wars, many khatchakoghs emigrated from the region and established themselves in Yerevan.

It seems to me that the khatchakoghs are doing very well these days. They are not extinct at all and are in fact thriving.

I think I'll start a contest called "Name That Khatchakogh!".

Language, Beauty and Memory part II

The short story Pure Charm actually triggered many memories in me. The style was exquisite and "exquisite" is an adjective that I always associate with two notions. Firstly, the infinite possibilities within languages and the mastery of its writers, secondly, specifically with the Armenian language itself.

To demonstrate the subtle ways that language works, here is what I remembered reading many years ago and managed to track it down in cyberspace.

This anecdote is told about Professor William Thomson, a.k.a. Lord Kelvin (1824-1907), the great physicist and inventor of the Kelvin scale.

When he was a professor of natural philosophy at Glasgow University for some fifty years, William Thomson, unable to meet his class one day, posted a note on the door of his lecture room: "Professor Thomson," it said, "will not meet his classes today." As a joke, some of his mischievous students erased the "c," leaving a message reading: "Professor Thomson will not meet his lasses today." The following day when the pranksters assembled in anticipation of the effect of their joke, they were chagrined to find that the professor had outwitted them. The note was now found to read: "Professor Thomson will not meet his asses today." (from http://www.anecdotage.com/).

Isn't language marvelous that it allows itself to be played with like that?

Now Armenian is even better, because it has more letters (originally 36 and now 38) which allows an even more sophisticated word play. You just have a bigger palette of letters to choose from.

Take for example a common word known to many. The word Srpazan-Սրբազան, which is a title reserved for the upper echelons of the religious hierarchy, mainly bishops and archbishops. and it literally means "adorned with holiness". And rightfully so, because they are supposed to act in a holy fashion and within the contextual framework of an exemplary moral and ethical behaviour.

Armenian has a letter called Tsoh, and here it is, "ց", in the printed form it looks like the letter g of the Latin alphabet, and it is very inconspicuous. Most languages reproduce this sound with two letters. Armenian is frugal and uses a single letter for it. Actually, the scientific name for it in the International Phonetic Alphabet is the very confounding voiceless alveolar affricate. Go figure.

Here is a perfect opportunity to beat the great Lord Kelvin at his game. All one has to do is to add this one single letter behind the word Srpazan and presto, true magic happens !!! We have the word Srpazants-Սրբազանց. A word that means "desecrator of holiness".

Now something tells me that the inventor of the first word, also mischievously invented the second. He was trying to teach us a lesson.

The question is, are we ready to learn?

Language, Beauty and Memory Part I

About a year ago, I had received an email from the UK containing an exquisite short story. I stored it on my computer under the directory of "Important Files" for future use.

Some recent events that have touched me personally have triggered a memory to reread it, along with some other material which I had not touched since I was a teenager. More on that in a later post.

Here is the short story. Enjoy it !!!! The author is Edwina Charles

Pure Charm

A short story

by
Edwina Charles

Father Thomas stared grimly into the hallway mirror at his nearly perfect reflection.

He rubbed his well-manicured hands along his not quite smooth jaw line, thinking a closer shave was in order, but frankly had not the time, nor the motivation. Let’s face it; his only appointment today was with the elderly widow Mrs Gluff, who was near sighted and unlikely to pass comment. Still, he prided himself on his immaculate appearance. He straightened his already stiff clerical collar, put his jacket on and slammed the door firmly behind him.

Father Thomas was a noticeable figure in the small docile village of Bushdaisy. He was tall, narrow and dark – a bit like a long shadow cast by the evening sun. For a tall man, it was amazing how he managed to walk at such a brisk and jaunty pace, as if there were springs in his shoes. He had a charm about himself that disarmed the villagers. Greeting them tunefully; “Hellooo”, he would call out in a jolly singsong fashion, with a quick flash of his spectacular white teeth. Mind you, not everyone liked him; Mrs Green who cleaned the church and tended the flowers wondered what he had to be so jolly about. Yet, most people found his greetings infectious and would respond in a similar manner.

It was quite a walk, before he arrived at Mrs Gluff’s house. In his opinion this was a queer little house, in a sloping street, where all the houses were bunched together with no visible separation. He stood in front of the small front door, which was far too small for him to pass through without the inconvenience of stooping. Had it not been for his moral duty towards his parishioners, Father Thomas would have vowed there and then never to venture into such a miserable district again; where frankly any black hearted fiend with an eye for quality could relieve him of his watch and wallet. He waited without patience at the door for what seemed like an age. After some time, Mrs Gluff let him in apologising for her incapacity; she proceeded to move with great care and discomfort back to the sitting-room and into the comfortable armchair by the fire. “Take a seat Father. As you can see I’ve prepared tea and biscuits, so you won’t go hungry,” she said. Father Thomas stared down at the unappetising display; he had no intention whatsoever of eating what appeared to be stale biscuits and over-brewed tea. However, he smiled generously, “So kind of you Mrs Gluff, you should not have put yourself to so much trouble, especially in your fragile and clearly vulnerable state of health.” His compassionate words spoken in that silky smooth manner touched her deeply. When they were both seated, Father Thomas held up a hand, “Please allow me”. He poured the thick dark liquid into her teacup, then poured a handsome measure of milk from the small dainty matching milk jug. Reaching into his breast pocket, he retrieved a small leather bound bible, and at once began his reading, doing his best to ignore the loud chomping and slurping sounds of Mrs Gluff attacking her tea and biscuits. Soon the hour passed.

Before he left, Father Thomas gently took hold of Mrs Gluff’s dry weathered hands and held them between his own soft palms; “I shall take these teacups to the kitchen for you and then see myself out, now don’t you argue with me.” Mrs Gluff beamed again and sat back in her comfortable chair bemused by the sight of this tall good-looking figure of a man busying himself in her kitchen. Her Harold, bless his soul, in all the years they had been together had never once made himself so useful.

On his way out, Father Thomas hesitated in the dimly-lit space between the stairs and the front door. He looked at a rather exquisite figurine, which he had spotted when he first arrived. It was really quite beautiful and ought to have been placed in more suitable surroundings; he knew just the place for it. Shaking his head in quiet frustration, he picked it up, then with great care he wrapped it in his white silken handkerchief, popped it in his pocket, and left, shutting the door firmly behind him.



The End