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=> Dropping Dead For Assyria

Dropping Dead For Assyria

Posted by Farid (Moderator) - Monday, November 17 2003, 18:32:29 (EST)
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What we would do to benefit the Assyrian Heritage has to be structured in such a way as whoever initiates it can drop dead the next day and never be seriously missed...as far as the continued functioning of whatever that person created is concerned. There's no point in rallying round the feet of one or ten charismatic figures whose effectiveess is completely dependent upon their personal attributes as well as their willingness to be effective for "our sakes" and continue in that path or else the entire edifice crumbles when they leave...

At last year's AAS fundraiser, the first...people got to their feet applauding and weeping for a troupe of young dancers performing our dances...not a one of whom was an Assyrian. What should have been a clue instead turned into another performance this year...and for as long as those children dance for us...we'll weep to benefit. But we remain as dependent on them to continue dancing for others the rest of the year and save a date for us... as we do on Narsai to bring them before us...and that's the whole point as well as the entire problem.

I suggested we create a foundation and a board of directors to secure funding and do all of the work that goes into producing our own dancers who could perform professionally. It's not as bizarre as it sounds...where do you think those children came from? Narsai said he was too busy and it was too much to attempt. Yet he once agreed to be founding director for the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and along with other people built it up into one of the finest regional theatres in the country. An Assyrian will agree to bask in the reflected glory of any American enterprise...but play second fiddle in an Assyrian organization? No way.

A couple of years ago I made a copy of an ancient Assyrian Vase that was drop dead gorgeous...the original I mean...my function was just to be a good copyist...something I was most willing to do. I brought it here to Mexico and had a slip casting mould made of it so it could be mass-produced but still remain "hand made". I managed to glaze half of one...a fairly close approximation of what the originals looked like. And then it struck me that we should have these made in Iraq with clay dug from the same pits Ashurhaddon got his from. With a small informative card attached we could have sent them out into the multi-billion market of giftware, fine china etc...even garden supply.

I showed the vase to Narsai over a year ago to see what he thought of the possibility of getting AAS involved. He at least knew me well enough to know I wasn't angling for MONEY...something he used to wish I would go looking for...to "spare him", as he would say. He took the vase...said he'd get people working on it...and it's there in his office yet. Meanwhile he sends welfare money to Iraq. It's more of the, "why should I make you famous"...these people are infamous for. My sculptures too sit in storage...or they did till I liberated them...ahem.

How many times I sat around Jackie's table with her to hear her rag on how stupid her Assyrians were...how they had to be led by the nose...how they drained her and the rest of it. She'll never admit it but considers it her greatest personal achievement that no one wants to be president of her club and follow in her "illustrious", pigeon-toed footsteps. That's a thing of great success to her because it elevates her personally...makes of HER a "Great Assyrian Leader". To these people a leader...a professor...a teacher, is a Big Shot...a guy or woman with an expensize car...expensive watch...diamond ring...a guy with his own parking space and monogrammed shirts etc. Do you really expect such people to make themselves expendable...are you CRAZY? I mean where would the Pay-Off be for being your leaders? Do you think they think of the greater good...in any way but as it refers to themselves first and foremost?

Narsai takes great satisfaction in knowing that without him...there'd be no fundraiser...and not much of an AAS either. He was furious at me for 14 years for refusing to give him his own line on the Ashurbanipal listing HIS ACHIEVEMENT FOR HIS NAME. I said the fact that the work was done at all was enough satisfaction for us both...why did people need to know EXACTLY who did what?

A man of Narsai's gifts and position could create a foundation to assemble the funding for our own dance troupe made up of Assyrian children who would get PAID at least expenses for performing and bringing tears of joy and a swelling of pride to our hearts such as we've never experienced in 2500 years since the last Assyrian dancers..professionally trained and supported...danced. But why should he? Why, when someone else will take it over when Narsai goes to that kitchen in the sky and perhaps make it even better..perish the thought and the whole thing get along without HIM! Why should he labor to make another Assyrian..or some Assyrian children...FAMOUS. He spent his entire professional life making HIMSELF and his sauces and sausages and pig's feet famous...and he's doing more of the same with AAS...that's all.

I could have dropped dead the day after we installed the Ashurbanipal and what difference would it have made to anything "Assyrian".

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