The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> Bragging in Assyria

Bragging in Assyria
Posted by pancho (Guest) - Sunday, February 10 2008, 3:12:16 (CET)
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..here's a very significant difference between what Assyrians used to be and what these so-called Christian Assyrians have become.... that difference is in Bragging.

..in a very real way the ancient cuneiform writings are filled with bragging....the king praises himself, lists his achievements etc. One thing he won't do and you wont read anywhere is any list bragging of his failures. As Christians, people are warned that "pride goeth before a fall"...and in Christian society it's uncool to talk about your own accomplishments...

..now, if modern so-called Assyrians were to write cunieform tablets today, they'd be filled with martyrdoms, persecutions, needs, losses, wants etc. The only things they could brag about would be the things done by Assyrians BEFORE they supposedly converted to Jesus and learned to eat dust and love it.

..Christian Assyrians brag....all the time. They just don't brag about things they've actually done but instead that the god of the universe has taken delight in them, personally, and sits up nights worrying about them. Our people can't stop bragging...if by that you mean detailing all your aches and pains and burned churches and martyrs, failures, bombings etc.

And so it is, in the tradition of our ancient kings and other accomplished Assyrians that I'm willing to brag about what I've done, with lots of help of course, just like the ancients did, while going easy on the martyr thing.

I find myself uniquely qualified to describe what it takes to actually pull a project off, in real time, and not as a wish list on forums or in clubhouses....but in the world and by the standards the world sets, not my friends or doting family.

So, around 1980, I decide it's time to make an Assyrian monument. First step is to look around at existing monuments and wonder how they got made and installed...after all, there's no point to making one if no one will install it...and if you want the best possible locations, and not a parking lot in Ceres, you have to produce work that will be considered at the highest levels. But it CAN be done...all you need do is figure out how, realistically, these things get done.

In my case I noticed a monument to Simon Bolivar errected in San Francisco two years before I had the idea for an Assyrian monument. How was it, I thought, that a monument of a Bolivian could be errected in San Francisco? Why? A little reading showed that the monument had been given as a gift to the city by the government of Bolivia years ago and had been stored until someone decided they might as well install it. Aha! So, a gift monument, COULD be installed. And since there were more Assyrians in the Bay Area than Bolivians, I assumed, an Assyrian monument had every reason to expect a gracious welcome as did a Bolivian one. Okay, so at least I knew it COULD be done...and I had an idea of HOW it could be done.

Next thing was to make sure I could make a sculpture that a city like San Francisco would be willing to honor enough to NOT put in storage and, just as important, could expect to receive a prime location and not be pushed off to the side somewhere obscure. In other words, it had to be a very GOOD monument...far better than anything "assyrians", so-called, had done up to then...not that we aren't capable people, but because we don't respect the Arts enough to dedicate the time necessary, or allow our children to think of making it their profession, instead of being a (gasp!) Doctor! Also because in order to compete at the higher levels means a certain kind of clarity and dedication completely lacking in our "heroes" and "nationalists"...all of whom are more satisfied in telling what they WOULD do if they could...instead of what they're actually DOING.

But, at least it was within my capacity...it could be done...wasn't out of the question. That being settled it remained to figure out how to raise the needed funds...monuments are big and they're expensive to make, plus which you have to feed your family while you make them. I read of a project to honor a certain kind of draft horse which had been used to help carry loads and do the heavy pulling in settling Alaska. It was a huge bronze, several times life-size. The committee in charge was taking donations for which the donor's name would be inscribed on a plaque to be attached to the pedestal of the monument...aha, sez I, that's the way we can do it.

But you need an organization...an artist can't raise tax-exepmt dollars himself, neither can he give such a gift...it has to come from a "community" and you need other people to run your foundation..if you make a new one...or an established foundation which agrees to take on the work and responsibility and has the tax number etc. As there were no existing Assyrian organizations which could do much more than turn the lights on in their building, I decided we needed a foundation of our own.

But we also needed a recognized figure...someone better known among others than necessarily among ourselves....certainly no "leader" at that time, or any time, would have been right. Fortunately I stumbled across Narsai David, took a sculptute with me to his office one day and plunked it down on his desk, weathered his withering glance, and told him I wanted to make an Assyrian monument to put in San Francisco. He visited my studio...liked what he saw...had a meeting or two more and agreed to sponsor a get-together at his restaurant, which was still in operation then. At that meeting he spoke, I spoke, showed off the model of the Ashurbanipal and based on that got a quick two thousand to buy stationery and a few other tools we'd need. I got hold of the by-laws of some other organization, it's more or less a standard form, and merely substitued the name of our new foundation for their's and modified their description of their work to suit ours...which was to create Assyrian public monuments. We filed the papers and were set to go.

Then, for the next three years, Narsai and I took our act on the road.,..we spoke at diferent Assyrian clubs...we spoke at AANF conventions in San Jose, Chicago, New York and New Jersey....plus which Narsai made countless telephone calls...and the money began trickling in..enough so I could begin my part...making the actual sculpture. Our biggest donors received a maquette of the monument, with smaller pieces of it going to smaller donations....it was important to offer people something tangible in return for the risk they were taking..not just hot air. After all, what reason did anyone have to think I could do what I said I could? We ALL talk big...but who delivers? Even more than that, who picks something that CAN be delivered, even after a lot of hard work? Very few of us...you get instead a lot of Maggies who tell you what they would LIKE to do...puff you and themselves up with grandiose statements and agendas and plans, knowing damn well all the time that they haven't the least chance of actually doing any of it, but getting a HUGE rush from just the words...in fact, I believe they deliberately pick impossible(for them) things to do JUST so they never have to actually start and do anything...just dream big.

Anyway...the next problem is getting an idea, ahead of time, if the city will accept such a gift...will it meet the requirements, as a work of art, or will they pat us on the head and send us along to "assyria" instead. So we appeared before the 16 member Arts Commission with a model of the monument...and they approved it, unanimously(which we learned later had hardly ever happened before). They accepted, provisionally, based on a final look at the finished monument. Fair enough...because lots of people can make a small sculpture which they then ruin in trying to make it bigger. So they wanted to reserve the right of final approval. That placed even more pressure on my back...we were taking in thousands of dollars($170,000 in all), based on my word, my ability and Narsai's trust and willingness to attach his name as president of our foundation to the project. It would have been a pretty pickle if at the end the city rejected it. So work progressed over the three years it took to finish and cast the monument.

When ready, we invited the Arts Commission to travel to the foundry to see the completed monument...I was nervous. They came, they saw and they loved it. Whew! Now we had to select a spot. The city chose what has to be one of the very best locations...100 yards from that Bolivar monument, in Civic Center in San Francisco. And then things got weird....the usual kinds of Assyrian nationalists started a campaign to stop the city from installing it, they failed but it was a most interesting experience...especially when they were laughed out of court...much to my delight...(Aryan Ishaya led the charge).

So, the Ashurbanipal Monument was installed in 1988 and has been there doing its job for 20 years now, seen and appreciated by a few million people at least, coming to a city famous the world over as a most desirable tourist attraction...there he stands, between the new main library building and what became the Asian Art Museum containing the largest collection of Asian Art in the West...visitors from all over the world see this piece and learn we are not dead, even though Christians have been trying to kill us off or smear our ancient Heritage since we can remember.

The point to all this bragging is that I know how to get things done. So, if you asked me how to get a country...I'd follow the same steps: First of all I'd look around to see how countries get made...and I'd see that it's done by theft and overwhelming force...also that a Big Brother or ten is usually necessary. We have neither the numbers to create any kind of force...nor the determination and grit to engage in that sort of sustained violence. That's a simple fact. While I could see how monuments get made, I could also see how countries get made....while Maggie and our nationalists can't do the simpler tasks, but feel ready for the most difficult of all....keep in mind though that they don't really want to DO what they say they WANT...they just like picking really HARD things to TALK about...after all, if you're a putz, you might as well be the BEST putz you can be!

Why be a putz of a putz when you can be a HEROIC Putz!!!

So that in order to make a country, we haven't the first thing needed...we have no military might and would be a danger to ourselves if anyone was so stupid as to arm us. We've been running from Iraq since they let us in....those of us who "demanded" a country faster than anyone else...because they found out what all governments do to people who preach and teach sedition...which is a CRIME...even if YOU think it's patriotic. The Kurds stayed and fought..and have shown they understand how countries are made...and I'm sure they'd have no trouble getting monuments made either...but Aprim? Maggie? Hajjar" Wellfed? Sure, right, whatever.

Maggie says "raise taxes from Assyrians". Let her raise money from them for anything else...anything, and then tell us about taxes. In order to succeed in the real world, especially where you're basically competing with the boldest and best and most determined and dedicated, even to the point of nervous exhaustion and death, you have to be able to match them..in DEEDS, not words.

I chose monuments...and I studied what it takes to make them happen...actually happen and not just as a dream. Making a country is much harder...but the basic ingredients are the same. Maggie ran her teevee program. It was a sad, pathetic affair. She neither could speak intelligibly, or intelligently...she looked scary, very unpleasing to the eye as well the ear. And yet, there are guidlines, better examples, she could have followed which would have cost nothing, to make her show on airDadeeshoo the BEST it could be. She didn't. Because to do your best you have to be humble, willing to learn, open, not afraid of failing etc. Maggie has the same demonic pride, false pride, all these heroes and nationalists have...they are so aware of their inadequacies that the only way they can exist with some semblance of grace is to pretend they are GREAT! Which is the main reason they've latched onto the ancient Assyrians...because they thought something would automatically rub off on them...with little to no effort of their own.

If Maggie thinks her resume at Dadeeshoo teevee, or if Aprim thinks his "books"...as Hajjar thinks his clothing line, have prepared them to tackle getting a country next, they're sadly mistaken. They've basically failed at those endevors; at least in the sense that they didn't even bother to do the BEST at those levels...and yet want to get a clountry. But they can never admit such a thing because their self-esteem is SO low as "Assyrians", that they can't bear the slightest push...instead everything has to be smoothed out for them...they have to be carried and protected and nurtured, just like when they were children and their parents said, "whatever they are, they are ASSYRIANS"..like that settled it...that's all that was needed...except it isn't...and they know that...and that's why they never ATTEMPT the things they suggest...because they know without even trying that they're going to fail...so they write about it instead.

On the famous other hand, someone looking at my work, to determine if I could get a country, would say that at least I knew how SOME projects get done...so maybe, just maybe, I'd bring the same realistic appraisal and dedicated work and concentrated work to the issue of making a country...and they'd be right. Because I'd look at the countries most recently made, to the first thing needed in making those countries; violent force and theft, and I'd pass. Which is the wise, thoughtfull, correct and right thing to conclude. There's no way in hell Maggie could have pulled off a monument...no way Aprim or any of them could....or even anything comprable...so we know ahead of time they can't even UNDERSTAND what it takes to do the more difficult thing; to wrestle land away from MUSLIM nations to make a Christian enclave, I mean REALLY! Who are they trying to fool? But even more to the point; why? Why, when they know full well they haven't the slightest chance or even INTENTION, do they go on voting for governments in exile, planning parliaments, writing those awful letters, dreaming of an army, attending "confereces" they then have to lie about in reporting all that was "accomplished"...even down to the actual number of "delegates" attending.

It's all a grand joke...we know it and they know it. But you're not supposed to come out and SAY it. THAT'S "negative". But the question remains; WHY? Why do they play this game? We know history shows no evidence of their claims; no instance when a country was "given" to anyone...no massacres and martyroms and persecution based soley on their religion....we know, and they know, they're lying. They ease their conscience, because they are Christians and shouldn't lie, by remaining willfully IGNORANT! Deliberately! They refuse to read a dictionary, refuse to learn the correct meaning and usage of words, refuse to read widely from sources other than the bible and the "books" their tribal members write...they shun higher education like the plague, except in subjects OTHER than modern Middle Eastern history, meaning, OUR HISTORY...and you can see how they treat Dr Joseph...the ONLY one among us who's bothered to go about it the right way, even if the answers were less than pleasing to our vanity.

This is all a grand hoax....it's a way for people who have achieved very little and have no intention of achieving much more(and who are devastated that it should be so), to hire themselves and annoint themselves as HEROES and workers and "Fathers of Assyria"...it's oh so simple...so appealling and SO much faster than rolling up your sleeves and actually risking anything meaningful. That's the reason they cling to it...not because it can be done...but because TALKING about DOING it is about the only thing that fools them into believing they are doing "great things"....perhaps the greatest all, because there will be no peace on EARTH until Isaiah is proven correct.

The maker of the Universe is depending on THEM! If Assyria doesn't rise again....God's plans will be thwarted...the entire WORLD will blow up and everyone on it killed unless Maggie and Aprim and Jumblat and Hajjar and BetJassoo keep "working".

...at least they provide comic relief!



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