Response to YoYo at aina re: scholarships

Posted by parhad on July 18, 2001 at 10:44:20:

Would any Assyrian organization consider giving scholarships JUST for studying our own history, especially learning to read cuneiform so we can find out what's

contained in all those thousands of tablets stored away in vaults?

I've never understood how it benefits the community to produce doctors and engineers. Are they doctors of Assyrian medicine or Assyrian engineering? They

graduate, get jobs, and benefit the heritage not at all. Are Assyrian students NOT able to get degrees without the relatively small amounts they received from the

community in the form of scholarships? I don't know how much you give, but I know of two such groups who give out $500.00 to worthy students. Thirty years ago

that wasn't much money...what does it buy today? Anyone going for an advanced degree is pretty motivated already, and for that, these small amounts don't make

much difference...for the others, is a BA or BS such a big deal?

An Armenian friend in San Francisco says the community there gives serious scholarships but ONLY to those studying Armenian history...but then they also maintain

a lobby group which nets them millions from the Congress for their homeland.

My experience has been that those who are motivated to get formal education, do so...in fact they can't be stopped. To such a student, a few hundred dollars is a

token only...it hardly smoothes the way. That student will manage to get through somehow. But, any student of ours who chooses to become an Assyriologist, or

linguist specializing in our own ancient writing, baisically consigns him or herself to a lifetime of poverty. The doctor or engineer among us will make far more money

once out of college. Not so with the one choosing to make "Assyrian" the chosen field. If we could manage to get a few of our own out there...we might be surprised

ourselves...and surprise others with what we might unconver.

Imagine if all those tablets at the British Museum, or the Louvre, or the Berlin Museum, or the Oriental Institute, or or or...were written about the Hebrews or the

Armenians or the people of Crete or Greece. They would have had their own building...a college attached, and any number of scholars from the world would have

been pouring through them for the last 100 years. If they contained the words of Jesus, I'm sure any number of Assyrians would have taken an interest...but they only

have the writings of the followers of Ashur.

Have a good evening for all of that. Visit us at fredparhad.com

(good-bye, little post)