I remember when I lived in the US and it would rain on Sunday, I would stay in bed, watch T.V. and read the newspaper. Well when I woke this morning to find it was raining, I decided to pretended I was back in the US and it was Sunday. I turned on the T.V. and all that I could get a decent signal from was BBC news. It was so depressing to watch, that I turned it off and logged on to read the LA Times. Well that was a mistake. So I decided that today was going to be movie day!!! With that said, I made some popcorn, got in bed and did a marathon quadruple-feature. The Green Mile, The Sixth Sense, The Beach and Saving Private Ryan. While that noise was going on in the background (I've only seen them at least 5 times), I surfed the web looking for alternative ways to heat my house. I found that the US Patent and Trademarks Office not only has the abstracts of patents online, but they also now have the drawings and detailed descriptions. Did I hit pay-dirt or what? So I downloaded a few patents of boilers, burners and multi-fuel stoves that I'll mix and match to maybe have something built here that will not only heat my house, but also heat the water for my bath, swimming pool, Jacuzzi and maybe I can even design it so I can built a Sauna right on top of it and heat that too!!! As you can imagine, today was really boring.

Today it rained all day so I stayed inside and turned my electric heater all the way up. I worked on an assignment from a good friend who has a daughter that got married and moved to Brussels, Belgium. She calls once a week, but the connection is really horrible and I'm sure costing someone a small fortune. They want for her to send letters via e-mail, but she has no idea where the internet cafes to do this are. Unfortunately I'm not there to hold her hand and get her set-up so I need to find someone there that can help me out to do this. I got on the internet to find someone and did a search for an Armenian organization or anything Armenian there, but came up with nothing useful. So if there's anyone out there that can help me or you know someone there with e-mail that you think would be willing to make a phone call and maybe even a new friend from Artsakh, please contact me so I can get you in contact with her. Thanks in advance.

Not to scare Lena, but I was over at my neighbor's house this morning for breakfast. This is the same neighbor that told me about mini-summer. I asked his wife when will mini-summer come? She gave me this look and said mini-summer has come and gone. I asked her if I missed it and she said that it was an extra-mini one this year. Great, does that mean winter is here? Let's hope she's wrong. Just in case, I better get the long underwear out and charge up the batteries for my electric socks. Today it was overcast and right now it's raining. The outside temperature all day has been 12.3c (54f) and is starting to drop. I hope my sneezing is because I have dust in my house.

In front of my house is where the neighborhood kids gather at night. I guess since we don't have street lighting in our neighborhood and I have a motion light, that makes my place the hotspot. I sometimes get calls from parents telling me to send their kids home when it gets late. Like tonight I got a call from Ashot's mother telling me that he has to do his homework and to please send him home. So I went out to find Ashot sitting in front of my house talking with his friends, eating a pomegranate. I told him that his Mom wants him to come home. He thanked me and went running off. The kids range in age of 2 to 16 years old. It's not uncommon for a mob of over 20 kids to gather in the summer. Sometimes it gets a little loud out there, but I've never seen things get out of hand. They all know me and call me by my first name. The little ones are the cutest and always ask me how I'm doing? Hide and Seek, Tag, Statue/Free (same as Red-light/Green-light) and War seams to be their favorite games. I remember when I was a kid we use to play the same games all the time, but when it got dark, we had to come in and make sure the front door was locked. Well I guess that rule does not apply here. On non-school nights these kids stay out until midnight or even later. I mean this last summer I don't think they slept at all. I would sometimes come home at 2 or 3 a.m. and find some of the older kids still up and talking. One thing I can say with confidence is that we don't have the same predators Western countries have. When my very protective cousin, wife and 7 year old son came for a visit this summer, they very quickly got use to the idea of letting him join the other kids without a worry in the world. I guess life here is different in that way. So tonight after sending Ashot home, I decided to walk down to Arthur's store to get some munchies. I walked in the store and this little boy of probably 3 years old looks up at me with amazement and says "Aran neh", meaning "it's Ara". I said hello to him and pat him on the head. As I'm waiting my turn, he stares at me with his big brown eyes watching every move I make. I take a piece of gum off the counter and give it to him. He smiles and runs to his mother. While leaning up against her hip and still staring at me, he says in a soft, secretive voice, "keedes, Aran neh". She smiles and the lady working behind the counter comments on how important I am to the children here. I ask him his name and he does not seam to know what to say, so his mother answers "Aram", like your name, only with an "m". They finish their purchase and Aram and his Mom walk out with Aram tightly clinching the gum I gave him.

Well the weather is starting to change and it looks like winter is coming. Everyone tells me that we will have a mini-summer, which I guess comes in November and then winter will sets in. Regardless, it made me think of how I'm going to stay warm this winter and heat my house. I mean coming from Southern California it's not something that I've ever really had to think about too much before moving here. My house there had a central heating system and all I had to do if and when it got cold was turn it on. But here it's a bit different. Right now you can hear the sound of saws and axes cutting and splitting wood, as people get ready for winter. Last year I hired a crew to go and chop down a forest of trees for hardwood flooring and to burn. Part of the burning wood I donated to the two preschools we have here in Martuni and also gave some to my close friends (I still have enough to last me a couple of winters). In my house I had a wood stove and an electric heater going and that seamed to do the job. I only had the problem of remembering to dress warm (something I'm not use to doing) and got sick twice. Well this summer I decided to complicate things and had the ceilings in my house painted and the walls whitened. So if I put the wood stove in this year, everything will blacken for sure. I have radiators in my house, but since we don't have natural gas yet, it's a real chore feeding the boiler with wood all night and day (I tried it for about a week the year I had the system installed, but it was too much work). I'm told that I can add a 250 gallon tank and some drip system so it will work on diesel, but considering that diesel is now $1.45 per gallon (last year I think it was less than half that) and its average use is 2 gallons a day, were talking something like $85 a month, which is way more than what I spend on electricity during the winter months. I saw in Yerevan electric blankets, but being that they were Turkish, it was not an option. So after thinking about it long and hard, I decided that I'm going to spend the winter in Costa Rica!!! Just kidding. I guess I'll move into one of my smaller rooms and just crank up the electric heater and hope that we don't have many power outages. The locals tell me that I can solve all my problem by getting married. I don't know how they figure that's the solution. Maybe they figure my wife will make her way through the snow to keep feeding wood into the boiler? I would never allow that!!! Just kidding, I would. I mean NO, it's wrong for them to think that way!!! How dare they!!! Let's just hope we have a short and mild winter.

I'm so pooped out with all the weddings and birthdays parties I've been going to. I mean it's a good sign to see so much activity here, but with two a week, it's just too much for me to deal with. What I've noticed is that Armenian's love to entertain and when they invite people over for a celebration, they don't skimp on anything (though most don't have it, they find it someplace). The typical party here is done at ones house and I've never been to a gathering with less than 100 people. I mean if you're going to party, you have to invite everyone. They set out these long tables and barrow dishes, cups and utensils from their neighbors and relatives. Part of the talent of giving a good party is to not only prepare as many different tasty dishes as possible, but to stack them as high as you can. Though there are always these great salads and cooked dishes, my favorite has to be the 100% pure honey with butter, on home-baked bread, yum!!! Besides the food, drinking is a big deal here, though it can be very dangerous. No one drinks alone and those that don�t drink are looked upon a little strangely. I'm not a drinker and fortunately people are now use to me not drinking too much and are okay with me just lifting my glass for a toast. Beer is not considered a real drink, but is very strong (11 to 12.5% alcohol) and the wine is usually so good that you think your drinking grape juice and don�t know that your drunk until it�s too late (it's happened to me a couple of times). Then there�s the vodka (a man�s drink!!!), which in most cases is made of white mulberries and is way too potent for me (up to 70% alcohol and not only a drink, but a medicine that cures just about anything that could ail you when taken with fresh garlic). Next month the high season for weddings will end and winter will set in. The layer of fat that I�ve acquired will burn off by the end of winter when I finish hibernating and it will start all over again next year.

Since everyone is posting about America under attack or as BBC is reporting it as "America Under Siege", here is what happend in Karabagh. I received Jeff K, his Dad, David and Lala as guest and while they were resting from their long drive, my neighbor called over to me to turn on the T.V., as the Pentagon had been bombed. I rushed inside and turned on BBC World. There was the World Trade Center on fire. We all sat and watched in shock. Lala was really upset and wanted to call the US, but settled to send an e-mail to a friend in New York who goes to the WTC a couple times a week. She got an instant response that he was okay, but was left shook-up and I guess I could not blame her. I started to get calls from people here in Martuni to ask me if my family was safe? I only could think of my aunt that was going to be coming to visit my family in California from Boston and she always flies American Airlines, but remembered that this is not to happen until next week. We went to my friend the mayor or Martuni's house for dinner and talked about what had happened the whole night. The first toast of the evening was to remember the victims and their families.

I have to apologize to the readers and Raffi for not being so active in posting, but as I said in my very first post, I will be posting every now and then when something noteworthy happens. I have been working on a few interesting things to share with you, one of which is with my July 14th posting when I asked the readers what are the pros and cons of living outside Armenia, as many people here think that things are much greener on the outside (feel free to continue commenting on this if you wish). I have had the letters I�ve received from you on that subject translated and am getting response letters from the locals. The results my be quite enlightening and should give most a better grasp on reality. I�ll have to ask Raffi if it�s okay to post my findings here, as it�s going to be very long and for some it may be too much to read. We'll see.

So here is the next assignment for those that are interested. I�m not going to share my opinion on this right now, as I don�t want to put any ideas in your head. What I am asking you as someone living outside of Armenia and Artsakh is what you think the pros and cons of combating "the traditional stereotype of women..." which it appears that the UN thinks is a problem (see snippet of article below). I�ll be asking the same question to the local population on a more formal level, as in the past this issue has come up quite a bit, being male, doing my own laundry, cleaning, cooking and other domestic chores (you can only imagine those conversations, which I will add to my overall findings when I report them to you). I guess I will be asking locals if there was a change, what they would like that change to be and the end result. How it will affect children, the family and things of that nature. Maybe those who were around before the women's rights movement in the US and other parts of the world really kicked in, what life was like then and what it has become now. Was it what you expected? You can write to me at: ara_manoogian@yahoo.com

Calgary Herald
August 11, 2001

The UN quietly wages war on religion: Does this respected body
suppress monotheism in order to regulate global values?

BY: Joe Woodard

{parts omitted]

The Czech Republic has been criticized for "over-protective attitudes
toward pregnancy and motherhood," and Armenia has been told to use
its schools and media to combat "the traditional stereotype of women
'in the noble role of mother'."

Yesterday in Martuni I attended the quarterly meeting where our elected Member of Parliament (MP) has to report what he is doing for the people who put him in power. It started out with him informing us of the new laws that have been adopted, complaints that he has addressed on behalf of the people and then on to questions and answers. The hot topic was pensions. The biggest complaint was that there are many people who receive a pension of 6,000 dram (about $11), and on the other end of the pension scale, a few who receive 46,000 dram (about $83). The official government figure for cost of minimal food per month to provide a balanced diet is between 25,000 dram and 30,000 dram (about $55). So how do these people with the less than 25,000 dram pensions survive? According to some of the people in the hall, they really don't. Many become a burden on their families. Those who don't have families, in some cases live on bread and water only. So what is going to be done about this? According to the MP, he is going to bring up the subject in Parliament for discussion. However, he did add that today's government is very poor and may not have the resources to pay more. The other hot topic was the lack of jobs, especially for young people. As a result, many people are looking to seasonal work in Russia, which in the end could result in permanent relocation. The MP was really unable to give any answer to this question and said that he would have to refer it to the Minister of Economy. So that night I was pondering these questions, to see what we, the Armenians of the Diaspora could do to help. As for the pension question, what is needed for these people is money. For a self-sustaining nation, there needs to be a tax base to provide financial resources. With the present lack of jobs, there is little tax revenue. This situation is really a losing combination where everyone is affected, young and old. I would say that we should start a pension fund in the Diaspora to temporarily address this problem, but from my past experiences with trying to raise funds in America for educational projects here and the lack of interest, we would get no place and it would just be a waste of time. The real answer is stimulating the economy. A friend of mine is bringing a group of serious business people to Armenia and Artsakh in October/November to investigate investing in the economy. Perhaps we can get some electronics' assembly factory or some other business going here in Martuni to employ some people. For those who are in business and interested in investing in the economy in Armenia and/or Artsakh or know someone who is, I encourage you to e-mail my friend Harout Bronozian at: hbenviro@ix.netcom.com to get involved. For those interested in donating to a supplemental pension fund for the city of Martuni, you can contact me. Yes, those residing in America can even deduct it from their taxes, as it would go through a California 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization, which is also registered here in Artsakh for just such things.

Though I really have nothing special to report as far as my life here in Artsakh, I wanted to tell you what a joy it is for me to read about our up and coming new arrivals to Armenia from the Diaspora. You can be sure that I will personally greet each one of them and welcome them home. This is the best decision anyone can make and though the lifestyle change is a big one, it's worth it. I can only speak for myself, but know that what I say applies to most of us in regards to what our being here means. Not only does it give us the good feeling to know that by us being here, we are doing our share to keep this land, but most of us come with financial resources, which in it self is a big economic stimulator. I'm not sure of the others spending habits, but I know that I personally support at very least 10 families with the money I spend each month. So just coming here and doing nothing other than living is really a big help. I mean regardless of where I live I have to spend money each month to survive, so why not here? I encourage anyone that can come here to do so as not only is the air clean and the water sweat, but it really is the right thing to do. Get that one-way ticket and come on over so I can welcome you home too.