Posted by farid from customer-148-233-71-124.uninet.net.mx (148.233.71.124) on Friday, August 01, 2003 at 12:01PM :
In Reply to: furthermore... posted by Sadie from D006093.N1.Vanderbilt.Edu (129.59.6.93) on Thursday, July 31, 2003 at 5:57PM :
: How does the AANF think it will stay alive if it can not recruit more members or willing participants at its conventions? I have heard from at least 2 different sources that there are a LOT of people who are upset about the registration fee. That means that the AANF loses customers.
***I sat with Jackie at her kitchen table...trying to keep her cheeks from spilling over onto me...when she hit on the idea of charging the fee as a way to weed out undesirables...without actually having to say, "You, get out"...they would just impose a fee that would supposedly keep away the young riff raff.
***To tell the truth...they don`t WANT new people. They`ll be just as happy killing the thing with them. New people means other ideas, which means challenges, which means change, which means they`ll die of fright.
***There isn`t a leader among them who would sacrifice anything, anything at all...most of them are underemployed and thrilled to death to be known as leaders of Assyria. They have no desire to go anywhere...achieve anything...just showing up, after work and soccer practise, is enough of an >"Assyrian" thing to do.
People don't HAVE to support the AANF - they do it out of their own good will. & if the AANF tries to charge a rediculously high door-fee, the AANF will lose support. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out. So, if the AANF tries to subtley oust the "riff-raff" from their society - they lose not only the support of the "riff-raff" but all of the people who are not "riff-raff" who are disgusted by the snobbish character the AANF is showing this year.
: & it appears that the snobbishness of the AANF leaders is also infecting other people in the community.
: I am disgusted by this. I had hoped to find people who have minds big enough to contemplate new, sensible ideas & who are sensitive to the needs of others. The mere fact that the AANF is NOT sensitive to certain people in its own community here in the States speaks VOLUMES for how *insensitive* it must be toward the Assyrians in Iraq.
: The idea behind the conventions should be to *encourage* & support the people who support the AANF. This way, the community can flourish. It makes NO sense to push people aside because they are young &/or making a low salary. Who knows? Perhaps those people become rich someday & can then give more money to the AANF? & any sensible person would understand that it is unfair to "tax" (via a registration fee that is too high) all people the same. The AANF could make the registration fee lower & let people donate of their own goodwill at the convention or charge more for the "posh" events.
***Don`t blanch at the idea of starting our own...I know they yap about unity, but they mean homogeneity...which would be fine if there was anything of substance to attach yourself to...there isn`t...and I`m certainly not talking about an AANF clone...which is what most of these guys start when they walk out in a huff...I`m talking about something real...something modest with practical, acheivable, measurable goals...scary ain`t it?
-- farid
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