Written on 7:42 AM by yahoo
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What is this about?It is a fun-filled outdoor class for learning the basics of group riding.
Who should attend this activity?
Bikers who are participating in the Tour of the Fireflies for the first time. You may also bring along your family and friends who have never joined the Tour of the Fireflies.
When will this be held?
It will be this coming Saturday, March 27. The Bike Clinic will start at 8 AM and is expected to finish by noon.
Where is this Bike Clinic happening?In the Stage Area of Tiendesitas, Ortigas, Pasig City.
What do participants need to bring?
Participants should bring their bike, helmet, personal snacks and lots of water. Bring a notepad and pen too.
Do participants need to register?
Yes, there is a registration for this activity but it is free. There will also be a Special Registration for the Tour of the Fireflies where you can get your souvenir Tour shirts or jerseys.
Note: Children who are riding during the Bike Clinic are expected to be guided by their adult companion.
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Written on 11:59 PM by yahoo
April 24th is the day we remember the victims of a forgotten genocide.
On April 24, 1915, turkish soldiers arrested 250 Armenians in the first of hundreds of raids designed to wipe out the Armenian population of turkey.
Armenian villages were rousted one by one, and the men ordered to leave at once and serve the turkish army. Boys as young as 9 or 10, and men as old as 70. Many never made that far, as turkish soldiers often took these "new recruits" not to the army camps but out to the woods, where they were summarily executed. The women and girls, thus undefended, were easy prey for the turkish soldiers.
Those who remained behind were forced from their lands, homes, and belongings, and force-marched to "settlement camps" in remote areas. Many died along the way from exhaustion, starvation, and exposure to the elements. According to French scholars Joel Kotek and Pierre Rigoulot, there were up to 25 such camps.
But the Armenian's plight was nowhere near as unknown, even in that day, as it is now. Despite the lack of internet, video cameras, and TV screens, in 1915 the plight of the Armenians was a worldwide topic of discussion. US Consular officials, as early as July of 1915, were concerned enough to beg the US government to step in.
(click to enlarge)
During 1915, the New York Times paper published 145 articles about the mass murder of the Armenian people, describing the massacre as "systematic, "authorized" and "organized by the government." In 1918, Theodore Roosevelt called it "the greatest crime of the war."
But today, no one even knows it happened
Denialists of all stripes, from US and EU officials who find turkey's past "annoying", to the turks themselves who believe such raids were justified to "pick up deserters" (yeah, little old men, deserters. right.) have managed to decrease the general public's awareness of these atrocities. But they happened. There was no Photoshop in 1915. All of the horrible pictures you see here are real.
Despite missions from the US and UK, Austria, France, and others, the plight of the Armenians faded off the radar screen as war in Europe intensified.
Looks a lot like Germany around 1942, huh?
In fact, Adolf Hitler said of the Armenian Genocide: "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"as his justification for the atrocities carried out on the Jews and others during the Nazi's reign over Germany.
We did not forget. We do not forget. We will always remember.
My previous remembrances here. This stays on top all day.
Posted by caltechgirl at April 24, 2007 09:50 AM | TrackBack
I remember - although I didn't know there was a special day of remembrance.
Until recently, this awful event was only 'vaguely' in my realm of knowledge. Thank you for making it more than a footnote. Evil simply does not go away if we ignore it or pretend it didn't happen. We must never forget, or it will happen again (as history has shown).
Let me echo Mrs. Who's sentiments . . .thank you for the education.
I'd never heard of it until I was in college. In 1975 I spent the weekend with a good friend of mine, Armenian. His family showed me the photo albums of all his relatives, perished. Only his maternal grandparents escaped to America. They were quite passionate about the subject, naturally.
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Written on 8:29 PM by yahoo
A bill recognising the killing of Armenians in Ottoman times as genocide has cleared its first hurdle in the US Congress despite Turkish warnings.
It passed through the House Foreign Affairs Committee by 27 votes to 21 - the first step towards holding a vote in the House of Representatives.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul reacted swiftly to the result, saying the move was "unacceptable" and had no validity.
President George W Bush had urged the committee not to approve the bill.
"Its passage would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in Nato and in the global war on terror," the US president said.
Turkey is a regional operational hub for the US military, and some suggest access to Incirlik airbase, or other supply lines crucial to US forces in Iraq or Afghanistan, could be cut in response.
'Invalid'
After the vote, the US Undersecretary of State, Nicholas Burns, told the BBC that the Bush administration was "deeply disappointed".
"The United States recognizes the immense suffering of the Armenian people due to mass killings and forced deportations at the end of the Ottoman Empire," he said.
"We support a full and fair accounting of the atrocities that befell as many as 1.5m Armenians during World War I, which House Resolution 106 does not do."
The Turkish president also attacked the measure, saying some politicians had "closed their ears to calls to be reasonable and once again sought to sacrifice big problems for small domestic political games".
"This unacceptable decision of the committee, like similar ones in the past, is not regarded by the Turkish people as valid or of any value," Mr Gul said, according to the Anatolian news agency.
The BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Istanbul says it is very unusual to hear such high-level political reaction so late at night from the Turkish government - a sign of how seriously it takes this.
This resolution is largely symbolic and is non-binding, but that will make little difference to most Turks, our correspondent says.
Turkish politicians will now focus on trying to keep the resolution from a final vote on the House floor, she adds.
'Sobering'
Correspondents say Wednesday's result means that only a change of heart by the opposition Democrats, who control Congress, can now stop a full vote on the bill.
 A German soldier took photos of Armenian deportees at the time |
Divisions within the Foreign Affairs Committee crossed party lines with eight Democrats voting against the measure and eight Republicans voting for it.
Tom Lantos, the committee's chairman, had opened the debate by admitting the resolution posed a "sobering" choice.
"We have to weigh the desire to express our solidarity with the Armenian people... against the risk that it could cause young men and women in the uniform of the United States armed services to pay an even heavier price than they are currently paying," he said.
Mr Lantos, himself a survivor of the Jewish Holocaust, said he would introduce a resolution praising US-Turkish friendship next week, according to AFP news agency.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is expected to take up their version of the resolution in the future.
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This unacceptable decision of the committee, like similar ones in the past, is not regarded by the Turkish people as valid or of any value 
