paul chaderjian

a column for the Asbarez newspaper BY PAUL CHADERJIAN Once there were and there were not golden, grand, palatial, marbled malls of commerce in modern-day Dubai that are incomprehensibly surreal and amazing. But this column starts with the premise of the more conventional malls of commerce in our incredible and bountiful American nation. In the fashion fairs, park plazas, grand gallerias, and other generic malls of the American suburbs, the world outside our borders dissolve to nothingness. When we are there, we focus on wanting and having. We see the goods, abundance, the colors, the cleanliness, the air conditioned carpeted and tiled environments. Inside these grandiose architectural halls of business, a shopper or spectator loses himself to the reality of the global human experience. We forget that there can be ungodly places where other human beings at that very same moment are doing their living, eating, shopping, or sleeping. These unimaginable places are not only south ...

by Paul Chaderjian Once there were and there were not … a fashionable shoe that is now known as “the world’s oldest shoe found in an Armenian cave.”  And what was found in a cave in Armenia this week was not just the world’s oldest shoe, but there were scarves and pots and pans and two skulls with missing jaws. This story feels like Armenians have just put on a pair of new shoes, and everything feels alright (Nutini 2007). Our ancestors were apparently not only fashionable, wearing moccasins in a style that survived for nearly six millennia, but they were also good at housekeeping and quite brutal. One of the skulls must have pulled a Helen Thomas and had his or her jaw yanked right off its face. This bizarre headline of the day was bigger than the BP (beautiful people) oil spill for a split second. The story went viral, and it warrants all the clichés we can remember to use. So let’s capitalize on these rare gifts from the universe, because good PR comes too i...

a column by Paul Chaderjian for the Asbarez newspaper Once there were and there were not … a people so ancient and devoted to their culture and identity, that their sons and daughters can be found in the most unexpected places in the world. It’s graduation season, and my niece Ani (who was just born yesterday!) is heading to my Alma mater to pursue a graduate degree in Strategic Public Relations. It was just yesterday when she was a one-year-old, being prompted to articulate where her uncle lived. “Boor-bank,” she would say. We learn early in life how to communicate, what to say when given specific questions, and what the talking points of our lives should be. Then one day, we discover we have the right to design our own talking points and how we want to answer others’ and life’s questions. Those who are wordsmiths get to write their way through a successful high school career and land at the best universities. Everything begins, after all, with the written word. The Bible tol...

95 years of questioning the reality of planned, brutal mass executions, the ethnic cleansing of a people from their place is far too long. Up against a looming deadline, a threat of losing their history and identity, a new generation of Armenians is waking up to an economic collapse, disappearing Diasporas, and questionable leadership. The time has come for modern-day Fedayees to take action, to use modern technologies and create global media messages about their legacy, history, and their future. This is our prophecy. BY PAUL CHADERJIAN AND ALLEN YEKIKAN At twenty-four minutes past four o’clock on the afternoon of April 24, a war for cultural survival wages on the streets of this metropolis. In the fight of their lifetime are young Armenians on the sidewalks of Wilshire, changing the rules, questioning Baby Boomer values, inventing a new movement, and sending a message to the world that justice will be served and their ancient culture will survive and thrive. On the front lines of thi...