...2014 Sharon Chappelle New In America Paper America is a nation of immigrants. From the early colonists to the current entrants, indigenous and cultural diversity is plentiful. When this nation was still undeveloped, the settling population was of the same background; they were white, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant background. Over time, Northern Europeans wanted entry, and eventually, Eastern and Southern Europeans, Asians, South and Central Americans came to America by the thousands. The American medley, what we call the melting pot was gradually emerging, but during progression, differences became noticeable. Such differences involved varied religions, races, and ethnic heritage. Two groups that I have researched are Chinese and Armenian immigrants. Chinese immigrants came to America in the mid-19th century. Chinese came to settle in California to join the Gold Rush that originated at Sutter’s Mill in Sacramento, California. But once the gold lessened, they came to seek work. The Chinese immigrants were mostly farmers who left china due to the economy and governmental dilemmas in China. Most anticipated on working hard, earn a large portion of money, so they could return back to country with their families as well-off men. During this time, the Chinese was no different than any other immigrant who came to America. They lived in neighborhoods and communities yet the Chinese maintained their culture. But, while a lot of Americans looked down on every immigrant, the Chinese...
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...To listen is to feel, and to play is to live. This statement is highly representative of the Armenian interaction with their famous instrument, the duduk. A culture riddled with hardships due to a collapsed country, the Armenian people utilize their music to connect themselves with their culture no matter where they are (Shelemay). For the Armenian people, the duduk historically creates two sentiments; it represents the nation’s perseverance through history, specifically through the recent genocide, and it is a reminder to the diaspora community of the home they left behind (Shelemay). Despite the duduk moving over the course of the last century from a rural instrument to a popularized instrument played in movie scores, such as Gladiator and...
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...Epiphany There is a time in every child’s life when they go through a difficult time either trying to inhabit to a new environment or figuring out who they are, overall being very confused. When I was nine years old my family and I came to America to start a new life. I had an epiphany a year after, when I saw a girl that was in my situation a year before on my first day of school. It was very difficult at times and starting school without knowing one word in English made the situation even worse. The first day of school was a day that I would in no way forget. I felt so alone and different from everybody else. Even though there were other Armenians in my class, they seemed to look at me like I was an alien. In Armenia I was always the top student in class, and I had many friends that I actually played and did my studying with. I was not used to being treated so dreadfully. During the first year my self esteem came down because of the way other children treated me. I kept telling my parents I was not feeling well just to stay away from school. A year later school was not the “frightening place” that made my heart pound in the beginning, but I treated everybody else the way they treated me in the beginning. I was sitting in my ESL class when the door opened and one of the teachers came in with a girl with red cheeks. When the whole class turned to look at her the teacher told us she was a new student who came from Armenia two months ago. I immediately felt a bond between us...
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...H. Res. 106: Affirmation of the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide Resolution 110th CONGRESS 1st Session Calling upon the President to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the United States record relating to the Armenian Genocide, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES January 30, 2007 Mr. SCHIFF (for himself, Mr. RADANOVICH, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. KNOLLENBERG, Mr. SHERMAN, and Mr. MCCOTTER) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs RESOLUTION Calling upon the President to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the United States record relating to the Armenian Genocide, and for other purposes. Resolved, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This resolution may be cited as the `Affirmation of the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide Resolution'. SEC. 2. FINDINGS. The House of Representatives finds the following: (1) The Armenian Genocide was conceived and carried out by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, resulting in the deportation of nearly 2,000,000 Armenians, of whom 1,500,000 men, women, and children were killed, 500,000 survivors were expelled from their homes,...
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...Two million Cambodians died in the war, and Dara the main character in the book had to witness it and experience the troubles of the war.In the book The Clay Marble by: Ming Fong Ho, Dara and her family are in a war stricken Cambodia, and are trying to find a safe place to live and get food after their town was set to rubbles and destroyed and they decided to go to the refugee camp at the border where they were provided with safety and food, but also had to experience some troubles along the way. Before the camp, Dara wanted to go home to her old bad life, after she wanted to stay because of the people or things she loved. At the beginning Dara wanted to go home and not to the camp. At the beginning they were riding to the border, and Dara was complaining about going to the camp, and that she wanted to go home. “We would have been better off if we stayed home”(5). The evidence shows how she is changing, so it shows what she is doing, and also what she doesn't want to do. It relates back to my claim on how she hasn't changed at the beginning and is going to change. In the middle she is still kind of wanting to go home but didn't want to leave things that are important to her. It was towards the middle now and they were getting bombed at the border. Everyone had to leave, but Dara didn't want to because of the things she loved.Jantu said to Dara “Come on, it's just a toy, we have to go” Then Dara responded to Jantu and said “I'm not going”(57). This shows that she is now...
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...were moving to Los Angeles at the time and they would all tell him that it was the place of opportunities and that living in the United States would make life easier. My family moved to Hollywood, Ca in 1989 because during this time all of our family members were living in this city and we all wanted to live near each other, thus Hollywood became our segregated cultural space. I am so privileged that my family decided to move to California many years ago because I have many cousins in Armenia who are living a hard life in Armenia, since there is no work. On Armenian channel, I always see many poor people who live in broken down homes and when I look back at the life I am living today, I couldn’t be any more fortunate with what I have today. The biggest conflict that I am faced with today is how the Turkish do not recognize the Armenian Genocide. This social justice issue has not only affected me, but also many Armenian families. As I was talking to both my grandparents, my mother’s parents told me that during the Genocide, many of their family were not killed because they were not living near the...
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...AMARO, Beya Marie F. Professor Ronald M. Castillo 3POL1 THE TUG OF WAR: Armenia vs. Azerbaijan The Relevance of Institutionalism and Functionalism to the Nogorno – Karabakh Conflict I. Introduction War is one the many words that is being frequently use nowadays. People hear or see the word “war” anywhere and everywhere. There wouldn’t be a day that there is no news about the different conflict in the Middle East or a news paper headline that doesn’t have any updates about what is going on in the other side of the world. Thus, the impact and intensity of the word has been become lesser and lesser as the time past. Ironically, the word “war” has been as famous as the word “love” or “peace”. The clash between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan is a territorial dispute about the region of Nogorno – Karabakh (BBC, 2012). It a long-ago issue that was set aside and forgotten through time. After all the years that it was buried in a pile of issues of much more prominent states, it seemed to be like a mummy that has risen from the dead. In the recent years, the conflict between the two states reopened and became more dangerous and violent. The conflict became more violent resulting to numbers of casualties (BBC, 2015). This paper aims to provide a possible solution to the escalating conflict between the Republic of Armenia and the republic of Azerbaijan. The researcher will utilize...
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...CASE STUDY Executive Summary: Based on the research carried out, the benefits of investing in Armenia exceed the risks associated with the Armenian economy and as a result I would recommend our company to set up a business in Armenia. The Armenian economy is growing at a fast rate due to its political stability, free-economic zones, trade agreements with key partners, and an abundance of natural resources. Gross domestic product and foreign direct investment are increasing at fast rates and this has led to recent improvements in social and human development in the country. This will also improve skilled workforce in the country in the near future. Armenia is getting involved with the leading countries in the world which is impacting Armenia to increase its capacity to gain a competitive advantage in the global economy (Global Edge, 2014). Country description: Armenia was ranked first among CIS (Commonwealth of Independent State) and CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) countries in GDP per-capita growth rates from 2000 to 2008. Growth slowed at the end of 2008, and actually declined in 2009, primarily due to the effects of the global economic crisis. But in 2010-2011, the economy experienced renewed growth. After the upturn in economic activity in 2011, the economy slightly slowed in 2012, limited by less favourable external conditions (Global Egde, 2014). Armenia is very...
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...Armenian Genocide In 1915 leaders of the Turkish gov’t set in motion a plan to expel and massacre Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire. From April 24th 1915 - 1917 the Turkish gov’t committed a genocide towards the Armenian population. The Armenian population was mainly Christian and the Turkish gov’t was Muslim. The Turkish gov’t committed this because they believed in religious purity. The Armenians were forced to pay higher taxes than muslims and they also had less political and legal rights. The Turkish gov’t became kidnapping children, forcing children to convert to Islam, women were raped, the children were given to Turkish families and served them as slaves. By the early 1920s when the massacres and deportations ended about 1.5...
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...Culture Paper For the Culture paper I had Charles Smith. He is Armenian/Lebanese and Scottish. From the information I got from him, he sounds like he knows all about his culture and they celebrate all their cultural holidays. He explained to me that most of the traditions and for the most part religion he followed was the heritage of his mother and not much of his fathers. His cultural heritage is made up of Armenian/Lebanese roots from my mom’s side and Scottish from his dads side. His Armenian/Lebanese culture has had a great impact on his life. His mom’s family’s ethnicity Armenian, but they moved to Lebanon during World War 1 to flee the Turks. The Armenian people value their religion highly. Armenia was the first country to accept Christianity as its national religion in 301 AD. He grew up going to an Armenian Orthodox church every Sunday. The entire service is spoken and sung in Armenian. Armenians believe that Jesus was born on January 6th and not December 25th. So January 6th is known as the "Armenian Christmas" in his house. His Family celebrates both days, but love to utilize the post Dec. 25th sales for gifts to be given on Jan. 6th. Growing up he went to an Armenian Language school on the weekends where he learned to speak, read, and write Armenian. They would also learn traditional Armenian songs and dances. Although he learned Armenian, he does not have many opportunities to use it because there aren't many people who speak it in...
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...THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE “Kill every Armenian, women, children and men without concern for anything”~ Talaat Pasha, Ottoman Turkish leader. The Armenian Genocide, also known as the Armenian Holocaust was the Ottoman government’s systematic extermination of its minority Armenian subjects from their historic homeland in the territory constituting the present-day Republic of Turkey. It took place from April of 1915 to 1923 (during and after WWI), and was implemented in two phases: The wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population through massacre and forced labor, and the deportation of women, children, the elderly and infirm on death marches to the Syrian Desert. The total number of people killed as a result has been estimated at between 1 million to 1.5 million. But people may ask why? Armenia had come largely under Ottoman rule during the 15th and 16th centuries. The majority of Armenians were grouped together under the name Armenian Millet (community) and they were led by their spiritual head, the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople. This community was made up of three religious denominations: The Armenian Apostolic, The Armenian Catholic and The Armenian Protestant, meanwhile the Turkish were Muslim. Basically the Armenian community were persecuted and killed by the Turkish because a religion matter. The Armenian Genocide it is acknowledged to have been one of the first modern genocides. It have been pointed as an organized manner in which the killings were carried...
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...“Bye-Bye, Babar” is a world-renowned essay written by Taiya Selasi, which tackles a term coined by the author herself: “Afropolitan.” Afropolitans are, according to its instigator, are Africans influenced by the different countries they’ve come from or went to –which also applies to Taiye Selasi. Being someone of both Nigerian and Ghanaian descent, it would be expected that she would be born on African soil. However, like other transnational Africans, her parents migrated “in pursuit of higher education and happiness abroad.” The result of this widespread immigration is that the following generation became exposed to a diverse range of cultures, races, and nations; while in Selasi’s case, hers leans more toward the European culture due to...
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...Entangled Identities: Ritual Performance of Alevis in an Urban Area Over the past two decades, there has been considerable debate on the identity of Alevi and representations of their ritual performances in their worship places located in urban areas. All debates illustrate that they have been relinquishing their strong and traditional identities like other traditional cultures would seem around the world. Their traditional culture has been getting lost due to economic and life challenges emerged not only individually or collectively but also globally. It is important to highlight that the change of the traditional cultures of Alevis first appeared when they migrated from rural to urban areas. Most of the Alevis couldn`t carry on their identity and culture when they migrated from their hometown to the areas where they live. Most have lost their belonging to traditional identity and culture. At his juncture, I must explain Alevism is a religious community that is practiced in Turkey, Balkans and Syria among the ethnic groups of Turks, Kurds and Arabs. In the Balkan area their name is generally known as Bektashis. Some sources indicate that Alevi tradition is inspired by Sufi traditions and they are heterodox groups within Islam. There have been considerable debates about their identity, history and especially the performances that quite different from Sunni Islam. The place where the Alevis perform their rituals is called a cemevi, a word which means gathering house. Cem is...
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...Diaspora communities always inevitably experience a sense of loss, an absence, which is crucial to the development of a consciousness of identity and ethnicity. Thus the narratives produced by the authors of the diaspora community highlights this trauma, struggle and the sense of loss of experienced by these communities and the cultural negotiations they have to indulge. These experiences of the struggle to assimilate and integrate into the host nation’s socio-political environment result in the formation of hybrid identities. The exiled communities dwell in a space, juxtaposed with fragments of memories, imagination and a real geopolitical space, which is regarded by Bhabha as “hybrid space” and by Edward Soja as the “third space”. Hosseini’s creative imagination is fuelled by his memories of his childhood and...
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...century, the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust, have many similarities. Although the Armenian Genocide was twenty-five years before the Holocaust, both leaders had a goal of diminishing the Christian and Jewish religions and both leaders decided to massacre and kill innocent victims through starvation since the two were vulnerable targets. The Armenian Genocide took place on April 24, 1915. “The Armenian people were subjected to deportation, expropriation, abduction, torture, massacre, and starvation” (Armenian National Institute). The Turkish government planned this Genocide, which took place in Armenia and Anatolia. The Ottoman Empire forced the Armenians to relocate to Syria. Armenians walked through the Syrian Desert where many starved to death and died of thirst. Both the Christians and Jews were terribly abused and massacred. Their wealth was taken from them and they were also stripped of their clothing. Many people were treated like animals and went through excruciating pain before their deaths. The Armenians, from the Armenian Genocide, and the Jews, from the Holocaust, had both been treated inhumanely. Both races had been starved to death and the Turks and Hitler had the ‘strong and intellectual’ killed before they killed the ‘weak and dumb.’ The Armenian Genocide is also similar to the Jewish Holocaust because both people “adhere to ancient religion.” They had both occurred because of religious reasons and because of what they believed in. The Armenian Genocide was...
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