Posted by Sadie from ? (160.129.27.22) on Thursday, July 17, 2003 at 5:50PM :
Who put Fred Aprim on the "happy drugs"??? Quick! Take them away from him before he goes too far! Oh, no, wait - he already has!!! I think he's suggesting we all get naked together & embrace at the end there (& I shudder to think what good THAT would produce).... AND what the hell does this mean? "...let us live new beings; a being of cooperation, support, and Assyria first and foremost for our destiny is one"?
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Today is a Happy Day; Let's Make Tomorrow Glorious
Posted By: Fred Aprim (12.81.125.112)
Date: Wednesday, 16 July 2003, at 10:36 p.m.
TODAY IS A HAPPY DAY; LET US MAKE TOMORROW GLORIOUS
On July 13, 2003, the New Iraqi Governing Council was formed from 25 members and Assyrians were part of it. The Assyrian representative in the Iraqi Governing Council was Mr. Younadam Kanna, whose title is "Secretary General of the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM), representing the Chaldean-Assyrian Christians of Iraq."
If the readers had followed closely the Iraqi, Middle East, and International news in the last year or so, they would have noticed a significant increase of references to the Assyrian name and Assyrians in the media. Allow me to put the west and its media aside here. We can say in confident that for decades the Assyrians' own neighboring Arab writers and reporters have denied the Assyrian existence. They continuously ignored the Assyrians in their writings for various reasons. First, they perhaps had limited knowledge of the history of most parts of the so-called "Greater Arab Country" (al-Watan al-'Arabi). Second, they might have lacked the proper education regarding the demographic picture of the said region. The third is that the majority of the writers assumed the role of their chauvinistic and non-democratic governments, which marginalized and obliterated the Assyrian name.
Today, the Assyrian name is forcing its presence throughout the Arab media; satellite TV stations, newspapers, and magazines. This might sound insignificant for some, however, understanding the political, religious, and cultural developments in the Middle East in general and Iraq in particular in the last 100 years at least, one can imagine the historic dimensions of the inclusion of an Assyrian in a governing council for Iraq. Yes, we are the indigenous people of northern Iraq (Assyria) and we have national and ethnic rights in our own homeland. However, this would have not materialized without the diligent work of many dedicated people and organizations, particularly the ADM in Iraq.
Assyrians have the tendency to be pessimistic when it comes to national affairs and one cannot blame them due to well-known Assyrian experiences. However, we must learn how to enjoy certain moments in life; we must at times find the time to stop and smell the roses. Despite the historic importance of what have conspired in Iraq today, we have noticed certain critics trying very hard to dig any flaws in this unprecedented step. Allow me to remind the reader that I have nothing against dreamers because many great things in life began with a dream, but there are times that we must be realistic. Risky situations could mean different things to different people. An Assyrian in the USA could look at the Assyrian issue from a certain perspective completely different than that of an Assyrian in Iraq. Allow me to explain, a single unmarried person who has worked hard for years and had saved $100,000 might think twice or three times before investing his money in the stock market on a specific new stock that a certain analyst was promoting. Meanwhile, a married man with five children will think not twice or three times but two or three hundred times before investing in that same new stock. The risk taken by the prior is a risk that could affect an individual while the risk taken by the latter is the risk that could destroy a family.
There is a lot of work ahead of us, especially by the Assyrian organizations in the Diaspora. We have for so long wasted energy on weakening rather than strengthening each others. No human being is perfect; thus, our primal work must be geared towards enhancing and completing others' work not reinventing, rebuilding, or demolishing what is out there already. No matter how unappealing and weak a project that many individuals have worked on can be, still, it must have a positive aspect to it and if we were to dedicate our lives for simply digging up mistakes without pointing to how we can build on the positive aspects of any such project, we will get nowhere. A mouse could spend the whole day turning the wheel from within, but at the end of the day, it has remained where it was. Many church, civic, and political leaders have transformed the Assyrian national movement and Assyrian affairs to that mouse inside the turning wheel and it is time to blow such people aside.
Fellow Assyrians,
Let us learn how to add one brick at a time to build the Assyrian home; Rome was not build over night. Let us rejoice today, for today is a happy day. Whether you are Nestorian, Chaldean, Jacobite or Suryan, let us take off our cloths of selfishness, let us live new beings; a being of cooperation, support, and Assyria first and foremost for our destiny is one. Let us embrace each other for yet a glorious future for all Assyrians.
Fred Aprim
California
www.zindamagazine.com
-- Sadie
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