THE POWER OF SEVEN - CHRONICLES OF CHRONOLOGY


[The following article appears in the December 12th issue of the Economist weekly magazine -The Economist, Copyright (C) 2001]


The week, to which we are all enslaved, has a strange and erotic history. Why does The Economist appear every seventh day? The answer is because we, like you, still regulate our lives by a septimal law that Mesopotamian star-gazers framed, and local warlords imposed, more than 40 centuries ago. Our weekdays and weekends and weeks off, our dress-down Fridays, hectic Saturday nights, Sundays sacred or profane, and Monday-morning blues all have their origin in something that happened around 2350BC. Sargon I, King of Akkad, having conquered Ur and the other cities of Sumeria, then instituted a seven-day week, the first to be recorded.

Ur was probably using weeks, less formally, long before Sargon came marching in. The Sumerians were great innovators in matters of time. It is to them, ultimately, that we owe not only the week but also the 60-minute hour. Such things came easily to people who based their maths not on a decimal system but on a sexagesimal one.

Why were these clever chaps, who went for 60 because it is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20 and 30, fascinated by stubbornly indivisible seven? In ancient Egypt and ancient China, "weeks" of ten days were long in use - much more understandable, as people have ten fingers to count on, not seven. (And yet you have to wonder, if the Pharaohs' long week was intended to drive their workforce harder, whether it provoked the Exodus?)

Above all, why should the Sumerian system have not merely endured but become an almost universal conqueror? Ur's posterity now sways regions Sargon never knew. Its lead has been slavishly followed by Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Hindus ancient and modern, Muslims and most of the present inhabitants of Europe and the Americas. Even China surrendered a good thousand years ago.

The year, the day and (not quite so obviously) the month are natural divisions of time. The week is an oddity. The moon's four phases are a near miss, but still a misfit, for weeks. You will be in trouble (like H.G. Wells's "The Man Who Could Work Miracles") if you try to make the moon perform every 28 days, instead of its usual 29l and a bit. The Sumerians had a better reason for their septimalism. They worshipped seven gods whom they could see in the sky. Reverently, they named the days of their week for these seven heavenly bodies.

So do most of us today. Greeks, Slavs, and many Jews and Muslims, although loyal to Ur's seven-day week, have shaken off its planet-gods; but a great majority of Christians and of Hindus, and virtually all "unbelievers", still pay their respects daily to the Sumerian seven - under changed names, of course.

For the Sumerians themselves, seven was a very special number. They conceived of a seven-branched Tree of Life, and of seven heavens, that were passed to Babylon and symbolised there in seven-tiered ziggurats, or hanging gardens. Sumeria's Gilgamesh epic describes the rite of passage through which Enkidu the ape-man became human, thanks to the obliging Shamhat:

While the two of them together were making love,He forgot the wild where he was born.For seven days and seven nightsEnkidu was erect and coupled with Shamhat.

In spite of all that, Ur's seventh day was not holy. On the contrary, it represented danger and darkness. It was risky to do anything at such a time. So it became a day of rest.

Ever since the time when Abraham trekked westward from Ur, Mesopotamian influences had helped to form Hebrew traditions. The Jews got the story of the Flood from Sumeria. They got the seven-day-week idea early enough to use it in the account of the Creation given in Genesis. But there may have been some garbling in the transmission. The Sumerians would not have depicted the Creator as just sitting back, satisfied, on the seventh day; to them, he would seem to have stopped work, wisely, because anything attempted on that day must end in tears. The week reached India from Mesopotamia more than 2,000 years ago, in time to get into some of the Hindu scriptures. But the Hindus' creation stories were far more complex than Hebrew ones. They never accepted a Sabbath; their scriptural references to the week, as in the Brahmavaivarta Purana, were almost casual:

When Brahma had fashioned this universe, he placed his seed in Savitri, his best wife. When she was ready to give birth, she bore the year, the month, the days of the week, the seven Pleiades.

The Hindus were keen sky-watchers and sometimes keen septimalists. They had noted the Pleiades (Krttikas). Noting also the Great Bear's seven stars, they identified them with the Seven Sages who survived the Flood, combined these starry sevens, and made the Pleiades the wives of the Sages. Yet, in their absorbent way, they happily adopted the seven planet-gods who arrived with the original Sumerian week. And, in their retentive way, they held on to them. In modern Hindi, as in ancient Sanskrit, the planets we call Mars and Mercury are Mangal and Budh. The days called Tuesday and Wednesday in English, and mardi and mercredi in French, are Mangalvar and Budhvar.

Elsewhere, new names have been showered on the old gods and their planets. Yet, to an astonishing extent, they have retained their identities - and kept their places in the order of the days of the week.

Enter Ishtar and Venus

The first recorded change came when the Sumerian week-system was transposed into the Semitic language spoken in the Babylonian empire. The day-names used in Babylon around 700BC (running as if from our Sunday to our Saturday) were: Shamash (Sun), Sin (Moon), Nergal (god of war), Nabu (god of scribes), Marduk (supreme god), Ishtar (goddess of love) and Ninurta (god of farming). They had simply replaced their Sumerian predecessors; for example, Ishtar had succeeded Inanna both as a planet and as the presiding deity of love.

By the time the Romans had adopted the system, the planet-gods wore names more familiar to us: (in the same order) Sol, Luna, Mars, Mercurius, Jupiter, Venus, Saturnus. But their identities remained almost intact. The name-chain Inanna-Ishtar-Astarte-Aphrodite had led to Venus. Nergal lived on in Mars. Aptly, the god of scribes had mutated into the heavenly messenger, Mercurius.

In English and the other Germanic languages, Mars, Mercurius, Jupiter and Venus were, in time, renamed in honour of Teutonic gods. From Tiw, Woden, Thor and Freya came the names of our weekdays from Tuesday to Friday. Even so, the chain remained unbroken. Although English Wednesday and Scandinavian Onsdag salute the god Woden or Odin, this came about only because he was identified with Mercurius. Similarly, the love-goddess Freya took the place of Venus - and her place in the weekly sequence.

Among Europe's Romance and Celtic languages, the Ur-idea of naming days from planet-gods is obvious. Mercurius is as recognisable in the French mercredi as in Romanian Mercuri or Welsh Mercher. The Slav languages, however, taking a lead from Greek, prefer numbering systems. (Five, in Russian, is pyat; Friday is Pyatnitsa. In Greek, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are Deutera, Triti and Tetarti; i.e., second, third and fourth.)

Saturnus, alone among the planet-gods, resisted Germanisation. And Saturday was "different" from other weekdays long before the two-day weekend developed. In ancient Rome it became somewhat inauspicious. Then it was, for a time, the Sabbath, both for Jews and for many early Christians. It is still Sabato in Italian, Sabado in Spanish, Sobota or Subota in the Slav languages.

Over the naming of Sunday some confusion has crept in, for which Constantine the Great is much to blame. In 321AD, when he ordered the cities of his empire to rest on this day, his edict was related to the sun, rather than to Christianity. Three centuries earlier, Augustus had officially recognised the week, with its Sumerian-style planet-gods. Dies solis, the sun's day, was mildly auspicious, but only the Christians made it really special as their day for congregational prayer, linked with the Resurrection and called the Lord's Day. Constantine chose to boost that day while invoking not Christ but the Unconquered Sun (the emperor himself, at that point, saw the two deities as one). He thereby gratified Christians without offending sun-worshippers.

So it was a shrewd move, at the time. But it left the naming of the day in schism. In its Germanic versions it is now strictly the Sun's day (Sonntag, Zonday, etc). But it is given to the Lord (Latin dominus, Greek kyrios) in Romance languages (Domingo, Domenica, dimanche) and Greek (Kyriaki), and the Celts are split, Welsh Dydd Sul confronting Gaelic De Domhnaich.

Most striking of all Sunday's names is the Russian Voskresenye ("Resurrection"), which endured through long years of imposed atheism. Do not imagine that Sumeria's week and its day-names have never faced any challenges. The French Revolution brought in a ten-day "week" whose days were, literally, numbered (the experiment lasted, officially, for 12 years, but never really took). As soon as the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia in 1917 they tried, but failed, to imitate the French revolutionaries (or the Pharaohs?). Later, for 11 years starting in 1929, Stalin imposed first five-day and then six-day weeks on the Soviet Union. The elimination of Sunday, with its strong religious associations, was one purpose of his experiments. They all failed, abjectly. Warned by this, the communist regimes established in other countries after 1945 did not even try to tamper with the Ur-old seven-day week.

Today, Sumeria's 4,400-year-old feat of cultural imperialism is triumphantly intact and more assured of universal acceptance than ever. How can this be explained? Seven is a thoroughly awkward number. It gives us a year of 52 weeks (another awkward number), plus the annoying extra one or two days which force us to keep buying new calendars.

The seven-day system's ability to challenge and, in time, overlay all others has always rested on its religious inspiration, not on its practical value. It has leapt blithely from one religious base to another, from Ur of the Chaldees to Israel, then on to Christendom, to Islam. It infiltrated the Roman empire before Christianity and reached India many centuries before the first Muslim invaders. European colonisers spread it through the Americas, but in the Old World, wherever Hindu or Muslim influences had penetrated, even the earliest European explorers found it was there before them.

Today, most of the human race takes it for granted that their activities are recorded in weeks. There are two groups: those who feel that the week has real religious significance and that there is something holy about one day in seven, and those who have no such feeling. In neither group will you find many people who know how the week came into existence, or came to matter.

"Men of old" knew. They could read it in the heavens. In a song of great antiquity like "Green grow the rushes O", it was natural, perhaps unavoidable, to include the line "Seven for the seven stars in the sky".

They are all still there: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn. We may send out spacecraft to ring them round, but we ourselves are still held in the hebdomadal grip of the Seven.

The seven-day system has leapt blithely from one religious base to another, from Ur of the Chaldees to Israel, to Islam.

CHALDEAN FATHER & SON SHOPKEEPERS KILLED DURING HOLDUP

Courtesy of the Detroit News; Based on article by David G. Grant

(ZNDA: Detroit) A Chaldean-Assyrian shopkeeper, Yousif Yono and his son Jack were shot to death during a holdup in Detroit's east side on Friday, November 20. The next day police arrested three men from the same neighborhood.

"The speedy arrests were due to citizen involvement, people coming forth with accurate information about the suspects," said Homicide Inspector Bill Rice. "Without the citizen participation we still might be looking for the individuals involved."

The Yonos where killed about 3 p.m. in 3-J's Party Store in the 3700 block of Maryland, near Mack and Alter Road, and the suspects were picked up between 3-4 a.m. Saturday (November 21), Rice said.

At a news conference on the arrests last Tuesday at police headquarters, Yousif Yono's first cousin, Sam Yono, commended the Police Department for quickly finding the suspects in the case.

Homicide detectives had obtained warrants charging Laron Harper, 24, and Cameron Williams, 24, Trandell Esters, 22, and Antonio Evans, 22, with two counts of felony murder and armed robbery. Harper, Williams and Esters are in custody. Police are still seeking Evans.

The four men drove to the party store about 3 p.m. Friday to rob it because they had heard the Yonos would have a large amount of money on hand to cash checks.

Esters, Harper and Williams went inside. Esters acted as lookout as Harper and Williams are charged with robbing Yousif and Jack Yono and then shooting them because the owners knew them.

All three men fled in a waiting car driven by Evans.

Rice also said that a friend of the men, Latoya Williams, 25, has been charged in a warrant with obstruction of justice and accessory after the fact in the case for allegedly hiding the guns suspected of being used in the shootings.

The three men and Latoya Williams were arraigned last Wednesday. According to one Zinda Magazine reader in Detroit over 300 Chaldean-Assyrians have been shot and killed in the past few years in Detroit.

CHICAGO ASSYRIANS COMBAT IGNORANCE, BIAS AFTER SEPT 11

Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune (Dec 21); Story by Ed Fanselow, Tribune

(ZNDA: Chicago) The mood was noticeably somber at last weekend's Christmas brunch, usually one of the year's most festive occasions at St. John's Assyrian American Church on the North Side.

Like every year, church members sipped tea and nibbled on dolma-- tiny cabbage rolls stuffed with rice--as women helped decorate trees in preparation for Christmas services.

But conversations this year moved from talk about gifts and celebrations to discussions of Middle East politics, family members in danger and, most prominently, what happened to their church in the early morning of Sept. 23.
Less than two weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, someone threw a crumpled piece of paper through a mail slot in the church's foyer at 1421 W. Lawrence Ave., then dropped a lit match onto it.

Rev. Charles Klutz, the church's pastor, says the fire caused about $100,000 in damage, and water from firefighters' hoses ruined some carpeting, floor tiles and a few holy pictures.

But Klutz is more concerned about how the incident has affected his members.

Some parishioners think the fire was simply the work of "someone who had too much to drink" or some "rowdy neighborhood kids." But most are convinced that the fire is the work of someone who mistook the church's many Middle Eastern members for Muslims, or even for followers of Osama bin Laden.

"They must have missed the huge cross outside our church," said Sarah Benjamin, a lifelong parishioner whose parents were born in Iran. "It's bigger than our church is, though, so they must not have been looking very hard."

Regardless of who is responsible, for many St. John's members the incident has underscored their long and painful battles with discrimination and ignorance.

"People don't know who we are," said John Yadgir, an American- born Assyrian who has been a member of St. John's for almost his entire life and is now church vice president.

"We are Christians. We are loyal Americans. Many of us have fought in wars for our country, and others have come here because they were persecuted for being Christians in the Middle East."

John Hewiyou, a St. John's parishioner who immigrated to Chicago in 1978 from Iraq, experienced such persecution firsthand. He remembers the Iraqi government bombing Assyrian churches and people in his home country, referring to him as a "dirty Christian."

"Never in a thousand years would I have thought something like this would have happened in America," said Hewiyou, who still has family members living in Iraq and Jordan. "We came from a hell to a heaven. Never before have the Assyrian people felt as at home as they do in America."

Numbering just over 100,000 in the Chicago area and about 3.3 million worldwide, Assyrians are a Semitic race of people who were among the first converts to Christianity--even before the Romans. Their language is described as modern-day Aramaic, the language of Jesus.

"We speak how Jesus spoke," Klutz said. "Our people walked and talked with him."

Still, the parishioners say, because of the Assyrians' relatively small number, many people have never even heard of them.

"A man asked me what my background was, and I told him I was Assyrian-American," Yadgir said. "He said, `Isn't that a surgery?' He thought I was talking about a Caesarean delivery. I suppose this is what happens when people don't know about you."

That is all the more reason to reach out to the community more actively, Klutz says.

"This has only made our faith stronger and made us more determined to tell others who we are," he said. "The only way to fight ignorance is by educating people about us. We can't rest on our laurels any longer."

Yadgir and Hewiyou say it is important for people to know that Assyrian-Americans are loyal to their adopted country.

Yadgir, 70, is a Korean War veteran and a member of Amvets Post 5, which includes more than a dozen members of St. John's.

Hewiyou, wearing an American flag pin on his tweed sport coat, said he remembers the day when he returned to the United States in 1989 after living with his dying father in Iraq for more than a year.

"I stepped off the plane, and I just started crying and crying," he remembered. "A lady there asked me if something was the matter and I told her, `I'm just so happy to be home.'"

He cried again on the morning of Sept. 23, for a different reason, he said.

"I asked myself, `How could somebody do this to the house of God?'" he said. "I will never understand this."

AUSTRALIAN ATTORNEYS WARN SARGON DADESHO FOR ALLEGATIONS AGAINST SUZY DAVID

(ZNDA: Sydney) Last week Zinda Magazine obtained an exclusive copy of a legal communication dealing with the Karl Suleman matter in Australia. The correspondence noted below is from the offices of Dominic David Stamfords, a law firm in Australia representing Ms. Suzy David, directed to Sargon Dadesho, chairman of the Assyrian National Congress and the Bet-Nahrain media services in California. Ms. Suzy David is the Deputy Secretary General of the Assyrian Universal Alliance and a legal advisor to Mr. Karl Suleman who is currently subject of legal proceedings in Australia.

---------------------------------------------------------Begin Here--------------------------------------------------------------
DOMINIC DAVID STAMFORDS
Australian and International Attorneys

18 December 2001

Re: Karl Suleman Matter

Mr. Sargon Dadisho

Dear Sir,

As you are aware we act in a matter involving Mr. Karl Suleman currently the subject of court proceedings.

We have been informed that in your various radio and television programs you have taken the opportunity of reporting matters pertaining to individuals and organizations, including Suzy David which are unfounded and unsubstantiated. On the information received much of what has been reported has been malicious and false. No effort has ever been made by you or any person in your media organizations to verify any of the information presented.

We have reason to believe that you have specifically made at least the following allegations in your various programs:

1. That Suzy David and her brother Fred David are involved in a scheme for which Mr. Suleman is presently involved in the present litigation;
2. That Suzy David and her brother Fred David are beneficiaries of the scheme funds;
3. That Suzy David has been arrested as a result of her illegal activities;
4. That Suzy David has abused community trust as a leader and has enticed Assyrians into the scheme.

Currently we are awaking verification of these reports by way of a collection of material including tape recordings and video recordings of your programs.

Our sources to date are reliable sources and in this immediate instance, and even in the absence of our inspection of such material, we are of the view that you have been seriously defamatory of Suzy David's character. As you are aware Suzy David is a respectable member of the Assyrian community having been a dedicated volunteer working towards a number of Assyrian causes and with a number of Assyrian organizations both in Australia and internationally. More notable she has been in practice as a lawyer in the last 17 years with high credentials and a reputation of great fame and character.

Similarly your reports have been seriously defamatory of Fred David who has been a server of the community particularly the Assyrian Church of the East for a number of years and similarly holds a profile of high fame and character as a lawyer practicing for the last 10 years.

We also have reason to believe that you have recently announced an interview with Ms. Linda George who will according to statements made by you to the effect that she will "present an unbelievable revelation of Mr. Suleman and his team."

Clearly you are not aware of Ms. Linda George's contractual relationship with Mr. Suleman. We hereby put you on notice that should any interview with Ms. George make any statements which even if by inference or by implication amount to defamatory comments we will take all appropriate legal actions for the recovery of damages against you and Ms. George without further notice.

Further and without in any way prejudicing our present legal rights against you or your media vehicles we put you on notice that should you continue to broadcast such false and defamatory reports against any of the persons named herein we will seek additional damages against you and your relevant vehicles.

We again repeat that at present we are obtaining verification of your broadcasts an we will reserve our position in regards to all other actions we are presently considering taking against you and all other relevant persons within your media groups.

Please note that this matter will be presented in support of any application we intend to make in the near future and will also be used in seeking damages and costs on an indemnity basis.

Yours faithfully,

Dominic David Stamfords

OBITUARY: LODIA N. ODISHO

(ZNDA: Chicago) Lodia N. Odisho of Roselle was the beloved wife of Alexander; devoted mother of Dalila (Jesse) Martinez, Luther (Omay), Fred (Mena), William and Homi (Kim) Odisho; and fond grandmother of Jesse, Diana, Angelina, Marissa, Gina and Alex.

Funeral services for Lodia N. Odisho were held last Thursday at Salerno's Rosedale Chapels, 450 W. Lake St. in Roselle and continued with Mass at 10:30 a.m., at St. Mary's Church, in Roselle.

OBITUARY: YOURAM DARMOUSSEH

(ZNDA: San Jose) Youram Darmousseh, 67, of San Jose, certified public accountant, died Dec. 16, 2001. Services were held last Friday at 10 a.m. at Mar Addai Assyrian Church of the East in Turlock. Burial was held in Turlock Memorial Park.

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

"Wishing you a merry Christmas and a happy new year with peace and happiness for you and the crew of Zinda magazine. I hope that all your wishes will be fulfilled this year. I wish a lot of happiness to our Assyrian people."

Dr. Ephrem-Isa Yousif
France

 

ASSYRIAN UNIVERSAL ALLIANCE ON KARL SULEMAN

"In response to the question of whether the Assyrian Universal Alliance (AUA), through its local chapter in Australia, is in any way connected to the Karl Suleman Enterprizes investment scheme (KSE), I would like to assure those who are concerned that the AUA has no involvement whatsoever with K.S.E.

Mr. Karl Suleman has provided all Assyrian organisations whether social, political or religious with his generous donations and has supported all these organisations as a representative of our community and also has extended his assistance in non monetary ways.

AUA received an invitation from the Froggy group of companies, as sponsors of the fundraiser dinner for the Westmead Children Hospital at which the guest of honour was the former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

It was certainly an honour for our delegates to be seated in the company of one of the most influential world leaders. However, more importantly this was an opportunity for us to present President Clinton with a submission on the Assyrian situation. In this regard at the direction of Senator John Nimrod we requested that Ms Suzy David prepare and present the submission. President Clinton received the submissions and promised to consider the Assyrian issues and pleas therein.

Despite her very busy work and community schedule, Ms Suzy David spent an entire week working until the early hours of morning preparing a seven-page submission together with numerous pages of selected Assyrian attachments. In presenting the submissions Ms David also raised the question with the President that where he to continue life as a private citizen would he please convey the submissions to other forums wherein the Assyrian situation may be made the subject of appropriate discussion and discourse.

The Assyrian Universal Alliance and the Assyrian Nation are proud of what Ms. Suzy David has achieved for the Assyrian people, both in Australia, the United Nations, and in the International arena. She has been a pioneer in representing our nation in more than four United Nations meetings in Geneva, and has achieved much by her voluntary assistance to our people in Australia. For more than 20 years she has been instrumental in the progress of our Assyrian society and our community organisations, serving as a volunteer and has donated large sums of money directly and indirectly by providing free legal services.

Suzy David has served as an adviser to the Secretary General of the AUA for several years and was elected as Deputy Secretary General of the AUA in this year's AUA World Congress in Marbella, Spain.

Ms. David's involvement with Karl Suleman Enterprizes is on a professional basis and in the course of performing her professional duties, we trust that she will do all that is ethically required of her as a lawyer, serving both the interest of her client as well as the people of our community. The information we have received is that Suzy David and the legal team for Karl Suleman in conjunction with Karl Suleman are doing all that is possible to maximise the return to all investors. We acknowledge that this is a very complex matter and we should not as individuals and as a community act in haste in our assumptions and accusations. We must be patient and allow the due process of the law to determine the ultimate result.

Let us not abuse the freedom we all so enjoy and appreciate by false and destructive accusations against individuals or organisations which serves no purpose to our community. Those that enjoy the temporary satisfaction of falsely accusing the devoted members of our community will have to ultimately account for their evil deeds and ambitions. Truth always wins out and time will determine its course."

Hermiz Shahen
Assyrian Universal Alliance
Australian Chapter

 

CHURCH OF THE EAST IN AUSTRALIA ON KARL SULEMAN

"On behalf of the Assyrian Church of the East in Australia and after seeking the permission of His Grace the Bishop, we would like to clarify the situation in regards to the affairs of Karl Suleman and his investment companies.

Over recent weeks there has been much rumour and speculation within our community and even in the Sydney media, some of it involving the Church.

There are three main areas that this Diocese wish to address. They are fund-raisers involving former United States Presidents; donations to the Assyrian Church and individual investments in Karl Suleman companies.

1. Charity fund-raisers.

Invitations to attend charity fund-raising functions attended by Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush were extended to a wide range of individuals including H.G Bishop Mar Meelis Zaia and other representatives of the Assyrian community, together with Federal and State Government representatives and major business leaders.

Since the functions were intended to raise money for a worthy cause, namely the Westmead Children's Hospital, we saw no reason not to join the other community leaders present at those charity functions.

2. Karl Suleman's donations to the Assyrian Church and other charities.

As many of you know, Mr. Suleman has been a generous contributor to Assyrian community and religious organisations both in Australia and overseas. The Assyrian Church of the East in Sydney, received the following generous donations from Mr.Suleman.

(a) One used Coaster Bus (21 seater), to the value of A$18,000.00, to be used by the Church Sunday School, the new St. Hurmizd Assyrian School and Assyrian Senior Group.

(b) A donation of A$25,000.00 was made to the Church building fund in Melbourne. Mr. Suleman made other donations to sister Churches in Sydney and abroad.

(c) $154,000.00 was donated towards the new School (The St. Hurmizd Assyrian Primary School)

(d) Mr. Suleman generously donated to the Church a 5% share in the Froggy ISP company. He also donated a similar share (10%) in the new company to a Jewish charity.

Because the school was not registered at the time, Mr. Suleman, unknown to His Grace, registered the donated shares in the name of the Bishop in TRUST for the school.

We would like to stress that neither the Assyrian Church of the East, the school, or any church leaders have directly or indirectly received any dividends or benefits from the donated shares.

It should also be clearly understood that no funds from the Church or church leaders have ever been invested in any of Karl Suleman's companies.

It was purely a one-way traffic. Mr. Suleman was keen to assist with the most historical and significant project ever undertaken by the Assyrian Community in Sydney - the founding of the first Assyrian Private School in the western world.

The Church accepted his donations in the generous spirit in which they were given.

However, we know that many members of the Assyrian community are now facing financial hardships, as the result of investments in the Karl Suleman companies. We are now seeking to clarify the Administrators' position on monies donated to charities. If they advise us that those monies should be refunded and used for the benefit of investors we will of course do that immediately.

It is also important to note that the Church in Sydney recently acquired a bank loan of A$1.6 million to finalise the School construction program and we now expect that it will be officially opened at the end of January 2002.

2. Investments in Karl Suleman companies.

In regards to the Church of the East involvement, IN ANY WAY, with the Karl Suleman companies we must stress again that there has simply been NO participation, investments, promotions or support directly or indirectly towards those investment schemes.

Our thoughts are with those many individuals in the community who stand to lose so much as a result of the financial problems associated with the investment companies.

It is time for our community to unite and think rationally in an effort to find solutions that will help our people to overcome their pain and suffering.

It is not the time for recriminations and baseless rumours. We are a strong and proud community. The Church is determined to do what ever is needed to protect the integrity of both the church and her members. We will not allow the good name of the Church to be defamed and members of the congregations can resta ssured that we will take what-ever legal steps are necessary to protect the reputation of the Church."

Assyrian Church of the East
Diocese of Australia & New Zealand

 

LEAVE THE BISHOP ALONE!

"I read with great interest the article that appeared in your previous issue regarding "Pyramid Schemes" by Shimshon Antar. However, I was amazed, to say the least, when I saw the other article in the form of a letter to Zinda Editor by the same writer under the above heading.

To associate His Grace Bishop Mar Meelis in any way or form to the failed and disastrous scheme, does not only infringe on individuals rights to a fair and just treatment, but it may consequently lead to legal action being undertaken to right the wrongs done against a man who has served our Assyrian community in Australia and New Zealand for nearly 18 years and made it into a viable and admirable parish.

The writer is unmistakably accusing His Grace Bishop Mar Meelis of involvment in this scheme without any hesitation, when he says "It burns my heart to see these good people suffer so much and hope that this bishop and the other civic leaders who are involved in this scheme can sleep peacefully and clear their conscience from guilt."

Allow me dear sir to say that as an individual member of the Australian Parish of the Assyrian Church of the East, I am abhored to see an Assyrian and a well known member and administrator of the same Church's California Parish, come up with such ludicrous and totally unethical and fabricated accusation of a leader of the same church that we all -as Assyrians- try our best to uphold at all times.

I will not be surprised if in the very near future some sort of legal action will be taken to clear up this totally uncalled for action by such an individual."

Sam Shalalo
Australia

 

WE ARE PROUD OF OUR CHURCH AND OUR BISHOP

"After reading Mr Antar's comments regarding the "Blood and sweat" of poor Assyrian residing in Australia, I would like to relief him from his pain and sorrow endured on behalf of the Assyrian people here in Sydney.

Rest assure Mr Antar, when one examines and witnesses the prodigious progress accomplished by the Assyrian community in Sydney within 17 years, yes 17 years, under the Leadership of His Grace Bishop Mar Meelis Zaia, Diocesan Bishop and secretary of the Synod, one cannot refute that "this bishop" has proven himself to be one with pure conscience and genuine love for His Church and people.

His Grace, through His purity and utmost honesty has been the core motivation of our Church faithful to come forward and strive towards the intensification of our Faith, heritage and language. I believe, one must first open the history book of the Assyrian Church of the East in Sydney and study carefully its victorious contents, prior to making judgment regarding its docile leader based on assumptions and misnomers.

His Grace, along with our Assyrian Nation in Australia, have been through thick and thin together and I can claim with growing buoyancy, that we will once again be triumphant over this sad situation with the help of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and the astute comforting of our Beloved Bishop, His Grace Mar Meelis Zaia.

Mr. Antar, the "BLOOD & SWEAT" of our people in Australia cry out from the walls of our extraordinary accomplishment within 17 years. Each time one examines the Quarterly/Yearly Church Financial Budget Reports, displayed on the notice boards of both our Churches, for the information of all the faithful, for the past 17 years, one feels safe and secure, as far as knowing what his/her "BLOOD & SWEAT" have achieved. They have been kept To bear witness of our challenges and victories for our Children and their future. His Grace has cherished them and is at all times revitalizing our courage to go forward and succeed.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and prosperous 2002."

Frank Alkhas
Australia

AN UPDATE ON LINA NISSAN

(ZNDA: Germany) The following personal letter submitted to Zinda Magazine is an update on the situation of Lina Nissan, a 16-year-old Assyrian girl from Syria. She has been diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia also known as CML. CML is a cancer of blood cells located in the bone marrow. See September 10th issue for more information.

Shlama,

In regards to the update of Lina Nissan's situation, both her and her mother have received their visa's to come to the USA. We are waiting for her brother Daneal (the bone marrow donor) to get his visa. The embassy in Damascus told him to come to the embassy on Dec. 30. We will wait until that date to see if he will get the visa or not.

All of this would not have happened if it had not been for the hard work and dedication of Dr. John Michael from Chicago. He has been working very hard throughout the whole process of Lina obtaining her visa from the start.

Although Lina has received a visa for the US, we still have not yet closed the doors to possibly going somewhere else for the surgery.

However, even though she has her visa, it doesn't mean that the operation is set. Or there is a hospital to get her, still there a lot to do. We still have to try to find a way of getting the surgery done. But being here in USA, Canada, or Australia is much better than to stay in Syria waiting for nothing.

Here in Canada, I am still in talk with hospitals. They tell me they can't do anything unless I deposit to their account at least $160,000 Canadian in advance.

This is what they told me in an email previously sent to me: "As previously discussed we require $160,000 Canadian deposited prior to arranging appointment."

Some doctors from Ottawa said they will try to contact Lina's doctor in Damascus to obtain all the information directly from him. The Sick Children's Hospital in Toronto, which I had sent them all the documents they required, say they have a very long waiting list for patients from foreign countries. I also tried with our MP (Member of Parliament) and they too contacted the hospital. However, we don't have any improvements in the processes with the hospitals in Toronto. All they want is money. No less then $160,000 CDN.

Thankfully, the money is still coming thanks in large part to the hard work of our Assyrian men and woman, working around the world for Lina, organizing fundraisers and promoting the cause to the people in their respected communities.

Unfortunately we are still far from paying the costs of such an operation. We wish we could thank everyone personally but many donors remain anonymous. God bless all of you.

Thank you very much for your support,

Yakdan Nissan
Germany

[See also: http://www.zindamagazine.com/html/archives/2001/9.10.01/index.php#SurfsUp]

United Assyrian Voice Radio from New Zealand
[ http://www.angelfire.com/me4/assyriannation1/united_assyrian_voice_radio.htm ]

AUA ANNUAL GALA VIP DINNER

Part 2: 2001 Assyrian Award Recipients

Philimon G. Darmo
Assyrian Culture And Heritage Award

Philimon was born in 1938 of Assyrian parents in the village of Harir in Northern Iraq. Both of his parents were born in the village of Bet-Teemo in the district of Shamisdin, Hakkari Region in the South Eastern Turkey and left their village in 1915 as all Assyrians of Hakkari did in the aftermath of the Assyrians' decision to join the Allies in the First World War against Turkey. After spending the war years as refugees in Iran, they joined the Assyrian Exodus of 1918 from Urmi in Iran to the refugee camps of Bakuba, some 30 miles to the North East of Baghdad. They were married in Bakuba in 1920 and moved to the Mosul Region where they settled in the village of Semileh.

Philimon's parents moved to the Village of Harir in 1927 when it was decided by the Assyrian leadership in Iraq that all Assyrian families from the Shamisdin district of the Hakkari Region in Turkey, including the Mar Yousip Khnaneesho family, be settled in the Harir/Bataseh/Dianah district in the Arbil region.

Philimon completed his primary schooling in Harir and Bataseh. He moved to Kirkuk in 1951 where he enrolled in Mutawassita Al Gharbiyya (Al Gharbiyya Intermediate School). In 1953 he was accepted as an apprentice in Industrial Training Centre of Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC). He completed the five-year studies in the Industrial Training Centre in 1958. His first involvement in Assyrian community affairs was in 1957 when he worked in the Seeta Hayeranta which raised funds for the Assyrian School and Church in Kirkuk.

In 1959 Philimon and three of his friends decided to write a book in Assyrian. The book was called GHDA GASHAQTA L'KHAYEH. It was printed at The Nineveh Press in Kirkuk. This small book of 91 pages got his name (in those days Philimon Gulazar) into Dr Peera Sarmas' THE HISTORY OF ASSYRIAN LITERATURE (Tash'eeta D'Siprayoota Atoraita) Volume One, which was published in Tehran in 1962.

Philimon left Kirkuk in September 1960 for London where he studied accountancy on a scholarship from the IPC. He returned to Iraq in December 1962 and took up a position of Senior Clerk in the Budget Section of IPC. In October 1963 he resigned from the IPC and left Iraq for Germany where he intended to settle down. However, in late 1964 he was accepted as a migrant by the Australian Embassy in Germany. He left Germany for Australia in November 1964 and settled in Sydney.

Professional Qualifications

· Member of Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) in the United Kingdom since 1963.
· Member of Australian Society of CPAs since 1983.
· Philimon was one of the founders of the Assyrian Australian Club in 1966 and Served on the Committee as Treasurer in 1966 and 1967. He was one of the founders of the Assyrian Australian Association (AAA) in 1969. Served on the Committee as Treasurer for a number of years during the past 32 years
· Mr. Darmo was the founder of the Assyrian Language School in November 1974. Served as the Principal and Teacher during the next 15 years.
· He was the principal force that brought Rabi Nimrod Simono to Australia in 1985 to conduct a course in Assyrian Grammar. He was one of the students who completed the course.
· One of the authors of KINARAH - TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF ASSYRIAN AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATION (1969 - 1989).
· Member of the Editorial Board that published ASSYRIANS IN AUSTRALIA - TEXT OF PAPERS PRESENTED AT AN INFORMATION SEMINAR HELD ON 3 NOVEMBER 1993 AT THE NINEVEH CLUB.
· One of the founders of the Nineveh Club in 1979 and has served as Treasurer of the Club for a number of years
· One of the founders of the Assyrian Church of the East in Australia in 1970 and served on the Church Committee from 1972 to 1975.
· From 1976 to 1992 - Served as a broadcaster on the Assyrian Language Program on Ethnic Radio, which later became SBS Radio.
· Author of ASSYRIAN LANGUAGE FOR BEGINNERS accompanied by ASSYRIAN LANGUAGE FOR BEGINNERS - TEACHERS MANUAL, published in 1986.
· Has had articles published in Ator Newspaper (Tehran 1969 to 1979), Nineveh Magazine, Khuyada Magazine, The Progressive Assyrian Magazine, Nagha Magazine, Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies, Purely Academic Magazine and Zinda Magazine.
· Has served as Secretary of the St. Hurmizd Assyrian Primary School Project Committee since 1996.
· In September 2001 He was invited by the Editorial Board of Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies (JAAS), published twice a year in Chicago USA, to join the Editorial Committee of the Assyrian language section.
· He is currently conducting a ten week course in Assyrian Language and Grammar for the Assyrian Australian Association Assyrian School teachers.

Hermiz Shahen
Secretary
AUA Australia Chapter

VICTORIA AIVAZOVA

Zinda Magazine is pleased to introduce Victoria Aivazova, a 23-year-old Assyrian from Tbilisi, Georgia. Victoria is a 23-yea-old. Her father, Michael, was also born in Tbilisi and works as an Engineer. Victoria's mother, Elena is a Pediatrist in Tbilisi, where she too was born. Maria, Victoria's older sister is a philologist of Russian language and literature. Victoria's 10-year-old sister is named Elena.

Victoria is now a 7th year medical student at Tbilisi State Medical School. She will be graduating with honors in June when she will be receiving her General Practitioner's Diploma. She will then proceed with furthering her education in order to obtain specialization as a gynecologist. While studying at Tbilisi SMS she is also engaged in conducting scientific research. Victoria is also a member of the Assyrian Medical Society.

As a student in Father Benjamin (Benny) Bet-Yadeqar's classes, Victoria successfully completed the Assyrian language program . She writes to Zinda Magazine: "I respect my national culture and traditions. I was raised in the spirit of love and patriotism for my motherland Assyria, which doesn't exist in the map, rather spread all over the world."

Victoria writes poetry in several languages and dedicates them to "Assyria". Some of these poems have already been printed in the Assyrian newspaper of "Awyoota" in Georgia and the Nineveh Magazine (San Francisco, California). Victoria is fluent in Russian, Georgian, Assyrian, and English, and is currently mastering German. Russian,Georgian,

In a message to Zinda Magazine Victoria writes: "My cherished dream is to become a good physician, establish an Assyrian clinic and do my best for my people. Our nation has suffered a lot; it has passed through sorrows and hardships. We leave over two thousand years after the downfall of Assyria behind us, but our nation is still alive with God's will and wherever it lives it preserves its language and culture. I hope that God will help me in my difficult choice and my noble intentions in a few years will come true. I would like to share my achievements with you."

Victoria participated at the 64th Scientific Conference of Tarkhnishvili Students' Scientific Society of Tbilisi State Medical University in association with the European Medical Students' Association. She entered in the "Surgery" section of the Conference and presented her work under the title "Clinical and Morphological Features of Intrauterine Growth Retardation" and was rewarded with a certificate. Her research was printed in a volume of the proceedings presented at this Conference in September.

Look for Victoria's article in an upcoming issue of Zinda Magazine…

(9th Century B.C.)

According to Texas A&M University anthropologist Vaughn Bryant, in the ancient Babylonian-Assyrian empire single women would show praise to the goddess of beauty and love by standing beneath the mistletoe that adorned her temple. While standing there, it was customary for the woman to bond with the first man who approached her. Interestingly enough, Bryant says, she did not kiss him because this was before the art of kissing had reached that region of the world.

[Zinda: Professor Bryant should slow down on his consumption of the creamy holiday eggnog and read the love poems of Inanna and Tammuz or the meeting of Enkidu and his female lover instead. In one instance Gilgamesh informs his friend Enkidu: "You should not put on your clean garments: they would recognize immediately that you are alien. You should not anoint yourself with fine oil from a bowl: they would surround you at its scent…and you should not kiss your beloved wife.]

(A.D. 1902 )

Oxford University Press publishes Dr. Payne Smith, D.D. "Syriac Dictionary". A new edition of this important compendious was published by Eisenbrauns Publication Company in 1998. A dictionary of English-Western Assyrian (Syriac) language, Smith's work remains a significant achievement in understanding modern Assyrian language.

December 26, 1924

Dr. Abraham George, an Assyrian nationalist who served in the U.S. Army, dies in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Zindamagazine would like to thank:

Jeff Atto
(Michigan)

AssyriaVision Television - KBSV TV
(California)