The Assyrian Democratic
Organization Celebrates its 50th Anniversary in Sweden
DAY 2
The Assyrian Democratic
Organization is celebrating its 50th Anniversary in Sweden. The celebration
is spanning 3 days of events hosted by the Assyrian Cultural Club in
Södertälje, Sweden beginning August 31, 2007 and ending September 2, 2007. |
|
Day 2:
The second day of the events contained lectures, seminars,
poetry and ended with a party at night.
At 12:00 PM, Mr. Abboud Zeitoune of Germany presented his new book, “Music
Pearls of Beth-Nahrin”. In this book, Mr. Zeitoune created a great resource
for all Assyrians to know what musical publications have been created
throughout the past and current century. Mr. Zeitoune has a great collection
of Musical CDs, tapes and records, which has digitized. In “Music Pearls of
Beth-Nahrin,” a person can find out what singer has recorded of albums, and
the name of every song that is on the CD in addition to the names of the
lyricist and composer. The collection in the book is listed by Singer Name
and in alphabetical order, and also contains a picture of each CD cover. Mr.
Zeitoune also has sections in the book about the Assyrian Musicians and
Assyrian Poets which he talks about and gives a description of each person.
The second lecture was that of Professor Josef Yacoub which he talked about
“The Question of Indigenous Peoples: Assyrian Case”. Prof. Yacoub’s lecture
was well attended and had a great deal of participation by the audience
through the questions and answers. The lecturer intrigued the audience and
his topic allowed everybody to think about the future of Assyrians in the
homeland as an indigenous people. Mr. Bachir Saadi, the chairman of the ADO
Political Bureau, invited Prof. Yacoub to the homeland in Syria and lecture
and discuss these matters with our people in the homeland. Prof. Yacoub’s
lecture was in English and was also translated into Assyrian by the lecture
moderator, Mr. Ilhan DeBasso.
Then came a poetry event which had four poets, two male poets and two
females. The two male poets recited poems in the Western dialect while the
two female poets recited poems in the Eastern dialect. The poets were:
•
Arbilina who recited two poems in the Eastern dialect.
•
Yousif Afram Touma who recited two poems in the Western dialect, where one
of them was about the ADO (Mtakasto) and the other about Agha Petros.
•
Ramsina read a poem by her father Shamasha Penkhis about the 50th
anniversary of the ADO, in the Eastern dialect.
•
Sleiman Galle who recited a nice poem in the Western dialect about the Male
Leaders who control the leading positions and will not give it up and how it
is our hope to have Females take a leading role.
The poets were then honored by Rahel Hadodo (President of the Assyrian
Federation of Sweden)
Following the poetry event, there was a lecture by Dr. Gabriele Yonan of
Germany, which talked about “The Activities of the ADO in Europe and Seyfo
Issue”. Dr. Yonan’s lecture in English was well attended and gave the
audience a beautiful history of the ADO and its activities in Europe which
included youth camps, theatre, cultural events, lectures, seminars,
magazines, newspapers, language courses…etc. Dr. Yonan mainly focused on the
role of the ADO in working on the Assyrian Genocide (Seyfo) issue. The
lecture was also translated into Assyrian by the lecture moderator, Mr.
Ilhan DeBasso.
At 9:00 PM, a party was thrown and attended by over 700 people where the
singers were Habib Mousa, Babylonia, and Ninorta
The party was extremely well organized and the attendees enjoyed and had a
great time. The audience was given a great surprise, which was a sketch play
by the Assyrian actor and artist Malfono George Farag. Malfono George
Farag’s satirical comedic style is amazing where he uses it to criticize and
shed a light on the current situation of our people. He made everyone laugh
and enjoy the night.
The celebration lasted until 4:00 AM and at the end of the party, this
beautiful night ended. See you all in Day 3 of the activities.
|