Young Russians in Moscow have blockaded the Estonian Embassy for relocating a Soviet WWII Statue and graves in Estonia from its in situ state to a less popular location.

Perhaps vandalism but not cultural destruction, yet look at the Russian outcry.  Just makes my eyes wet that Armenians couldn’t even get the news published about the complete wipeout of their ancient medieval cemetery in Djulfa.

Why are the Russians making news?  They have threatened to cut oil supply to Estonia.  But let’s not justify the lack of Armenian oil for the Armenian inability to shake the world for Djulfa’s wipe out. 

I just received an e-mail from my school (University of Colorado at Denver) informing the students that a referendum to increase alternative energy use and other environmental projects on our campus – shared by two other schools – has passed by 96%:

Last week downtown Denver campus students went to the polls to consider an increase in student fees to support the Sustainable Campus Program.

The response was overwhelming, with 96% of UCDHSC (University of Colorado at Denver and Health and Sciences Center) students supporting an increase of $1 per semester each year through 2011. Colleague students at Metro State and the Community College of Denver also voted for the proposal, with 97% and 95% support
respectively.

The program aims to enhance renewable energy programs, including increased purchase of solar and wind power sources, implementation of a comprehensive campus recycling program, increased energy efficiency in buildings, reduced per capita water use and education of our community on ways to become a sustainable campus.

The final steps in this effort include review and approval of the student fee by each of the institutional governing boards.  

I am extremely happy that my first time ever voting in a referendum brought the resulsts that I so wanted. I titled the post “My Three Cents,” because in addition to getting my own back to the voting booth to vote I also (literally) forced two of my classmates – whom I saw on the way – to go together and vote (we had to go to renew the student ID for one of them).

We were ten minutes late to class, but we did the right thing.

I am really angry after finding out that a group of Azeri students has disturbed an Armenian student dance in Moscow by stealing the flag of the dancers (during the dance) and tore it apart.

Yea yea tell me the crap that Armenia has won the war with Azerbaijan that is why there is so much chauvinistic hatred toward Armenia.  That is total crap.  That kind of chauvinist hatred has started the war in the first place and Armenia had to win that war otherwise there would have been no Armenian living in Caucasus today.  

Anyhow, I got the news from the incredibly biased official Azerbaijani crappaper APA. It says an Armenian student shot at the Azeri students after they disturbed the dance and tore the flag of Karabakh. 

Browsing something on Google Earth I noticed some “UNCP” cubic signs on the globe.  Opening them I found out they show how the environment is changing.

Although there is no word about “climate change” or “global warming” (Google can be politically very correct, as you know), the before and after satellite images mostly document the environmental damage that has taken place on Earth.

My dial-up Internet at home is not letting me watch this, but the title and the short description are interesting enough to inform about a French TV video.

France 24, a sort of French CNN, has posted a reportage about Turkey’s Hidden Armenians:

Turkey’s hidden Armenians

Friday, April 27, 2007

After the genocide of the early 20th century, Armenian identity in Turkey has been hidden or even pushed away for fear of discrimination.

Thank you to Appo Jabarian from Armenian Life Magazine for sending an e-mail about the video

A documentary about Sibel Edmonds, a Turkish-American born in Iran and a former FBI translator who was fired after accussing FBI for cooperating with America’s enemies, is now available online at http://www.veoh.com/videos/v354689MGcbpamf&source=embedVideo.

This documentary reveals how a foreign spy ring with links to “Al-Qaeda” has been discovered working within the FBI. Sibel Edmonds began work … more » This documentary reveals how a foreign spy ring with links to “Al-Qaeda” has been discovered working within the FBI. Sibel Edmonds began work at the FBI translating wire taps in an investigation into a foreign spy ring operating in the US. She became suspicious of her colleagues after discovering some mistranslations and was then invited to join the spy ring which had evidently infiltrated the FBI itself. She went straight to her bosses and rather than being hailed as a hero she was promptly sacked. After going public on 60 Minutes she has been officially gagged.

Edmonds, being a Turkish woman, also reported nationalist Turkish groups had bribed the House Speaker Hastert to kill a bill recognizing the Armenian Genocide, a taboo subject in Turkey.

via Rastibini

OK my title got some of you.  I meant talk about SEX SLAVERY.  

I was viewing the YouTube profile of Ara Manoogian, an investigative journalist at Hetq and a blogger who has traveled undercover to Dubai to report the human trafficking of Armenian women and children, and found out something that made me very sad – a 19-year-old female user from Armenia had posted a comment urging Ara to remove his videos about the trafficking of Armenian women and children:

| January 17, 2007

barev [hello]

Es uzum asel vor duk ANPAYMAN petkek jenjel ajt videonere hay axchikneri masin vor ‘ashxatumen’ Dubai um. [I want to say that you WITHOUT CONDITIONS should delete those videos about Armenian girls who are “working” in Dubai]

Duk petka haskanak vor da mer hayeri hamar vate.
Gitem vor jishta ajt amene u tents baner linumen.
Bajts… [You should understand that it is bad for Armenians. I know all of that is true and things like that happen. But…]
Vor tex chen linum?? [Where don’t these things happen?]
Bolor jerkirnerum ka bajts irank internetum chen denum. [These things are in all countries that they don’t post on the Internet]
Ajt videonere mer hayastani hamar vat reclame. [These videos are bad advertisement for our Armenia]

Gentrumem jenjeq!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [Please delete]

The young woman’s comment shows that human trafficking is a taboo in Armenia.  “Don’t talk about it, it makes us look bad.”

Photo from Polaris

It doesn’t make us look bad because we are organizing it, but makes us look bad because there are prostitutes among Armenians.

After all that awareness people still don’t get what human trafficking means.  Last week, when I interviewed a random lady in downtown Denver for an upcoming school-project documentary, she thought human trafficking meant “lot’s of people walking on the street.”

You say it is slavery, they answer slavery doesn’t exist. You say it is sexual slavery, “macho” men jump in and say, “wow, where?”

I guess women are the “best” audience to raise awareness about human trafficking in.  So please, especially Eastern European and Armenian women, TALK ABOUT SEX SLAVERY, let your friends know that it exists, and watch videos about Armenian women and children trafficked to Dubai. 

Trafficking is when people are tricked or forced into slavery and kept in it with threats and torture. It is not a woman’s or a child’s fault to be a human trafficking victim. TALK ABOUT SEX SLAVERY. TALK ABOUT IT.