Labor and Automation

     I was reading an article, "State of the Unions", in the August 26, 2019 issue of The New Yorker. The article covered about the rise of unions and how they truly did help create the magical 1950 – 1960s prosperity that we experienced in this country. It also delved into the waning of unions since global competition became more of a force. 

    There was this great little story in the middle of this article:

The story goes that a Ford executive once asked, as he showed off new robots to a union leader, “How are you going to collect union dues from these guys?” (“How are going to get them to buy Fords?” the union leader replied.)

     Both are very good questions and point to an issue that we may have to deal with sooner than we think. As technology advances, we are able to automate more and more jobs. It used to be just the hazardous or tedious jobs and that was “good” automation. But more and more automation in mechanical or IT form is taking over jobs of all kinds both blue and white collar. If costs are reduced, automation is the way to go. So, automation is still good from an economic standpoint. It is “bad,” I suppose, when it is your job that is automated away.
     There is an ongoing debate that about automation and the number of jobs for humans. One side of the argument states that this is nothing to worry about. Plenty of new, albeit different, jobs will be created in robot manufacturing and maintenance. We will be OK. On the other hand, some argue that the rate of jobs being automated away is higher than the rate of job creation and we will be creating a class of permanently unemployed. I tend to side with this second argument.
     Companies make goods and service that eventually bought be people. People need money to buy things. Therefore, people need jobs so that they have money to buy things to live and prosper. So, who indeed is going to buy the Fords?
     One idea that is bandied about these days is the old notion of a guaranteed annual income. If society does not have enough work to employ everyone, society i.e. governments and firms has to still provide monies so these folks can live. It is the right humanitarian thing to do. Normally, the executives who run for profit businesses would scoff at such an idea, but lost sales and diminished profits might bring out the liberal side of many conservative executives. How to pay for this, collect taxes, and still have corporate profits? I am not sure that has been worked out as yet. I am not sure if it is even possible with taking us toward a governance style that is more socialist or communist.
     I covered this topic in a TEDx speech I gave at North Park University in April of 2017 which you can watch here:

Greenland?

      I try to stay away from politics and religion they are no-win subjects that result in half of the readers getting somewhere between upset and enraged. Yet, I have no issues in writing about economics and philosophy which are somewhat related. The only risk in these subjects is putting all my readers to sleep. 

     Thus far, I have avoided writing about our President who provides numerous opportunities a week for commentary. He is so polarizing that I have simply avoided writing about him since the election and inauguration: This Crazy Election Night, The Transition of Power, and The Inauguration and the Day After. Oh, I forgot, I did mention him recently in February of this year when I wrote that America will Never Be a Socialist County... I have not written about his squaring with anybody and everybody on Twitter and his countless inappropriate comments that seem to further the polarization in our government and country that bothers me so. 

     But, I have to comment on this Greenland thing. It caught me completely off guard. I would have never predicted that President Trump would raise the idea of purchasing Greenland from Denmark. At first, I thought it was a joke. It had to be a joke. But he did not let it go of it. He was so serious about it, he cancelled a planned trip to Denmark and attributed it to “Prime Minister Mette

Frederiksen’s comments, that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland.”

     The cancellation of the September 2 – 3 trip stunned and upset Prime Minister Frederiksen and the Danish Royal Family. 

     Greenland? Why Greenland? I have a few theories. 

     Perhaps he just didn’t want to go. He needed a reason cancel, so he brought up this Greenland thing knowing that they would never go for it and he could back out of the trip and get points with his followers. Sure, it is absurd but it worked and probably made his supporters even prouder of him. 

     The Jefferson-Madison Factor: One of the greatest achievements of Thomas Jefferson’s Presidency was the Louisiana Purchase. The purchase of this vast territory from France was negotiated by future President James Madison. Perhaps Trump wanted to leave a similar legacy by purchasing… um… Greenland. 

     The Climate Change Theory: Maybe he is interested in buying Greenland because secret government climate change studies show that Greenland will become a tropical paradise in the future. He is, after, all a real estate speculator and developer. He professes not believe in climate change but that is mere political posturing. Greenland becoming the Hawii of tomorrow, that is inside information that gives him leverage in a business deal. He even tweeted that he would not develop it… yeah, right. 

     Why not buy Mexico and Central America? We could “fix” those countries and solve our immigration problems all at the same time. Well… maybe. As it turns out, we don’t have a great track record of fixing our own Trump defined problem areas like the murder and gun violence problem in Chicago or the poverty and rat infestation in Baltimore. 

     Why Greenland and not other countries? Needless to say, I think we could buy Armenia to irritate Putin and Erdogan. We could buy Formosa just to irritate China. We could buy Canada as it is practically a state already. Heck, we could buy back the Phillipines? We could by Kashmir and bring peace to the region. We should buy Puerto Rico. Wait… 

     Yeah, Greenland! Most definitely Greenland. Let’s stick with that. After we close that deal, we decide what to buy next.

-->

Killing Sprees: More Questions than Answers

Memorial flowers for the victims in El Paso

     This past weekend, August 3rdin El Paso and August 4thin Dayton, were the 16thand 17thmass shootings in the US thus far in 2019. An ABC News post reported we are averaging “one every 12.7 days this year.” That is a horrible statistic.
     We have a problem in this country. We have a big problem. Something is fundamentally wrong in our society and way of life that, first and foremost, we have killing sprees with this frequency and, secondly, that we have done nothing about putting an end to them. Either one of these two is mind boggling. Having both means to me that there is something fundamentally wrong in our society.
     Something is so very wrong that we have 17 people, just this year, who took up guns or knives and attacked others. No other country seems to have these kinds of incidents and when they do, they are extremely rare. With each occurrence, we get upset, rant a bit, and then forget about it until the next. We forget about it until the next… What is wrong with us?

• Why is this happening here? What is wrong in our country that has this sad condition?
• Is it due to our societal pressure to have to be successful? The relentless drive to make more money? Does this make people who aren’t ever going to achieve that kind of success begin to hate, blame others, and make a name for themselves with their own killing spree?
• Is it due to TV and video games? Drugs? 
• Is it because parents are not dedicated to raising their children?
• Can any of this be quickly solved? Or are we just stuck with this problem?

     There are those who will argue it all about having too many guns and it being way too easy to buy guns in this country. It comes down to the right to bear arms as guaranteed in the Second Amendment to the US Constitution:

A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

     Almost all of the rest of the world is not so free with gun ownership. I have pellet gun but have never owned a firearm. I have never had the need to buy a gun. I do not hunt. I get all the target practice I might ever want with my pellet gun without all the maintenance and having to go to a target range to do it. I thought about having a gun for home protection. I have not acted on it because I have never felt the need to have one to protect my home or family nor did I want to also have to buy a gun safe to secure the weapon and ammunition.
     Certainly, keeping guns out of the hands of killing spree lunatics seems like a sensible

Memorial to the victims in Dayton

idea. But how do we detect who these folks are? Where do we draw the lines?
     I often comment that the Second Amendment was written in the era of muzzle loading rifles. Maybe it should only apply to firearms that were available when it was written and not every high-power repeater available on the market today.

• How many guns should one be allowed to own? How much ammunition?
• How do we allow hunters, sportsmen, and collectors the freedom to enjoy their passion?
• How do we differentiate between honest law-abiding gun owners versus criminals and lunatics?
• If we banned guns tomorrow, would it stop these killing sprees immediately? Or would it take 10 – 30 years to have an impact like the anti-smoking campaign did? 
• Is the black market for illegal guns already well established for a ban to have any impact?

     I do not really have the answers to most of these questions. I do believe that we should start trying to answer them. We have to seriously try to stem this tide of killing sprees and I see no evidence that we really want to do that.  This leaves me bewildered and sad.

Aram Tigran

     I saw a post today on Facebook that I shared. It was of Aram Tigran singing one of his more popular songs: Ay Dilbere. It was posted on the Anatolian Armenians wall. I had just learned and performed this song a few weeks with a small trio that included a Kurdish saz player and an Assyrian drummer. I love the simplicity, in a most troubadour-like style, of this famous singer.
     After I shared the video I thought I would put my blog post about Aram Tigran in the comments. I was a bit surprised that I had not blogged about him at all. For some reason, I thought I had. Then I realized that today, August 8, 2019 is the tenth anniversary of his passing. So, it was an appropriate time to write about Aram Tigran.
     Aram Tigran Melikian was born in Qamishli, Syria on January 15, 1934. He was a son of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide. His father was from Sasoun and his mother was from Silvan, a village just north of Sasoun. The main city for Armenians and Kurds then and now in that region is Diyarbekir but better known to Armenians as Tigranagert named for and founded by the famous Armenian King Tigran the Great (140 – 55 BC). Qamishli is less than 100 miles SSE of Tigranagert and about the same distance south of Sasoun and Silvan.
     Aram is beloved as an adopted son and artist amongst the Kurds. From Wikipedia, "He is considered among the best of contemporary Kurdish singers and musicians. He recorded 230 songs in Kurdish, 150 in Arabic, 10 in Syriac, 8 in Greek.” Yet, oddly, until the mid 1990s, I had never even heard of him. I was introduced to him by my good friend and amazing singer, the late Varoujan Vartanian. I met Varoujan when we were thrown together to perform a concert of Tigranagerd folk music first in Montreal and then New Jersey. Varouj could sing in the unique Tigrangerd dialect and I was amazed that he knew these songs and even moreso when he threw Kurdish songs in the mix as well. I asked him where and how he learned this great music that I was just being exposed to. Varouj told me that he learned it from his neighbor in Qamishli, Aram Tigran, who was a famous Kurdish singer. Aram was a family friend who saw Varouj’s passion for singing and took him under his wing and help him learn the folk repertoire of the region. Based on this new found knowledge, I went out and bought a few CDs and became familiar with Aram’s song and style.
     Aram sang and accompanied himself on the Cümbüş which is basically a banjo version of the oud. His songs were simple but always captivating and memorable. It could be noted that he was neither the best player or singer, but he was a good writer and composer of songs. In total, singing his own songs in his own style worked out very very well for him and his legion of fans.
     I was sad to hear that Aram Tigran passed away. He died in Athens on August 8, 2009. Tigran wanted to be buried in Diyarbakır in Turkey, but the Turkish authorities refused this request." Rumor has it that his ashes somehow made it Tigranagert.
     The Anatolian Armenians wall on Facebook had a post commemorating the passing of Aram Tigran. This quote shows the master’s dedication to peace and brotherhood between the peoples in that troubled part of the world. Their posting was in Turkish. The translation is thanks to Google Translate with some editing by me.

Dünyaya bir daha gelirsem, ne kadar tank, tüfek ve silah varsa hepsini eritip saz, cümbüş ve zurna yapacağım.

Bir gün Dünyada ne kadar tank, tüfek ve silah varsa hepsinin saz, cümbüş ve zurna olması dileğiyle, İYİ SENELER
~ Aram Tigran 

8 Ağustos 2009
Aram Tigran’ın aramızdan ayrılışının 10cu Yıldönümü.
Sireli Aram Tigran'ı Saygı, Sevgi ve Özlemle Anıyoruz... 

If I come to the world again, I will melt all of the tanks, rifles and weapons, and make sazes, cümbüşes, and zurnas. 

How many tanks, rifles and weapons are in the world? I would make them all sazes, cümbüşes, and zurnas. Happy New Year.
~ Aram Tigran n

August 8, 2009
It's the 10th anniversary of Aram Tigran's departure.
We commemorate Sireli Aram Tigran with respect, love and longing ...

    There is a statue of Aram Tigran in Diyarbekir and a park named after him in Batman, Turkey.
     I wish I had met Aram Tigran. Now, I wish I knew more about him.

---

If you want more on Aram Tigran

• I love this rare and impromptu video of Aram singing a patriotic song in Armenian.
• Search on Aram Tigran on YouTube to hear more of his music
• Here is a beautiful article in the Kurdish ANF News on the eighth anniversary of Aram Tigran’s passing in 2017.

-->

Baron Krikor Pidedjian (1935 - 2019)

     I learned today that an old friend and revered elder, Krikor Pidedjian, passed away on July 30. 

     I first met Krikor in 1967. He was the Camp Director, the Baron in Armenian, of Camp Haiastan in Franklin, MA the one and only year I attended that revered Armenian summer camp. He was one of the nicest and sweetest men I have ever met. He was always upbeat and he loved life.
     He was 32 and I as 14. He was the Baron and I was a camper. Yet, he was the easiest adult to become friends with I had met up to that point. He valued people and took joy in getting to know them. He was like this with everyone. Clearly, I am writing a post upon learning of his passing. At the same time, my Cypriot Armenian friend from Prague, Haig Utidjian, posted a lengthy tribute on Facebook. This is the kind of impact Krikor Pidedjian had everyone he met.
     I learned that summer at Camp Haiastan that he had been ordained a celibate priest and left the priesthood to marry and start a family. His love and devotion to the church never ceased. He conducted choirs. He formed and conducted cultural choirs. He went to school and became a musicologist and he written several books on the subject of Armenian music in general and Armenian Church music in particular. Per the Armenian Prelacy Facebook Page:

He wrote scholarly monographs, as well as books in Armenian and English, including Anzink Nuviryalk (Devoted Persons); Armenian Songs of Exile; The Place of Armenian Revolutionary Songs in Armenian Music; Armenian Diction; The Chants of the Armenian Church; Was Krikor Narekatzi a Composer of Hymns?; and Kristapor Kara-Murza.

I need to get a few of his books.
     I learned from Haig Utidjian’s Facebook eulogy that Krikor was distantly related to the famed musician and composer Sebouh Efendi who composed the well-known Kurdili Hicazkar Longa. I learned from the Prelacy Facebook Page Krikor was born in Alexandria, Egypt. He went to Beirut to study at the Theological Seminary of the Holy See of the Great House of Cilicia. He later went for a bachelor’s and master’s in music.
     I have three memories of Krikor that stand-out in my memory. The oldest is from Camp Haiastan. After dinner one evening, Baron outlined the evening activities ending with “Boys go to Mess Hall and girls go to Rec Hall. Everyone have good time.” To the teenage campers, this hardly was the formula for a good time. There were budding puppy-love romances that had us all looking forward to the evening social activities. Ever since I heard him say it, I have been quoting him whenever anybody suggested a good time idea that didn’t sound like all that good a time. For the life of me, I cannot recall what the activities were that evening but, the Baron’s charge has sure stayed with me.
     The second memory we while we were living in CT. We were playing for a baptism, the weather was great, and we were set-up outside. I wrote about it in a post called The April 2010 Letter Continuation:

I recall once playing an old Armenian Vanetsi folk song, Aghchigan Yerdasart. Vigen Babayan pulled me aside later and told me it was a Turkish song. He did not tell me never to play it but said it was a Turkish song. Years later played the same song, Krikor Pidedjian, an equally ardent Armenian, came up to me asking where I learned that song. I thought, "oh here we go again." But, Krikor went on to say that his mother used to sing that song to him when he was a child. He had not heard it in years and thanked me for bring back such a great memory.

     Krikor was delighted to hear this wonderfully whimsical folk song being performed anew. I was delighted by his enthusiasm. The song is about a family of three. The song talks about the daughter getting a diamond ring and the mother getting gold. But, alas, the poor father only got a ‘tuchè khakha’ that kept falling off his finger. I never knew what a tuchè khakha was but Krikor did. It was a kind of simit or bagel popular in Van when Armenians lived there. It was another unforgettable moment.
     The third? It happened this year a few months ago. I lead an International Experience tour of students to Prague. I had the great honor of meeting the esteemed Maestro Haig Utidjian there. I carried copies of three books Haig authored back to the states. I was to send one set to Krikor. I did have an entry for Krikor in my phone address book but as I had not seen or talked to him in over ten years, I thought I would call to verify the address, let him know what books I was going to send him, and, of course, to catch-up. Krikor answered the phone and, as Haig had warned me, he sounded very frail. I told him it was me, he paused and said “Oh, Mark how wonderful of you to call.” He told me his health was failing. But, as we talked, he went gradually from frail to enthusiastic asking questions and answering questions I asked him. We talked for about an hour. It was indeed wonderful and I am so thankful for that call.
    My deepest condolences to his wife Berjuhi and his sons Artovk and Datev and their families.
     Աստուածհոգինլուսաւորէ:
     May God illuminate his soul.