Name:  born2drv
Date: Oct 15th, 2003

Hello and welcome to our website:
first of all we would like you to introduce yourself

PERSONAL QUESTIONS

-Nickname:
born2drv

-Sex/age/location:
25(1978)/M.... my location is currently in limbo... I'm a man without a country planning to move very soon :)

-Tell us about yourself and what you do?
I'm just your average guy I guess. I'm fairly Americanized, so unfortunately I don't speak Assyrian well.
My dad is Assyrian, my mom is 1/2 Lebanese and 1/2 Irish which is why I don't look all that Assyrian. What I
do? That's hard to explain :) Basically I sell stuff online through various websites I own/operate.

-Tell us about your city? how long have you been living in there? ever planning to move?
I've been in Mississauga (Toronto) now for a while, planning to move to California in the very near future.
I'm an American citizen, so it will be relatively easy to go and I just got my California driver's license
in the mail today woooo hooo :)

"-How did you first get to know our website? who told you about it?
After my breakup with my ex almost a yr ago, I did a google search for "assyrian girls" LOL No more white girls
for me me! Hahaha... :)"

-Your personality in few words?
Like the Incredible Hulk, kind and gentle most of the time with a hidden temper :) I'm also a very ambitious
and self-driven person who usually gets everything he wants ;)

-What is with your nickname?
It's my license plate for my baby (Desirae, my supra). I've had her since high school like, wow... 8 years ago.
(man, I'm getting old). Hopefully i can get it again in California but I'm not so sure there are enough
characters allowed there.

-How do you define success?
Success is when you are able to balance your family life and finances without any issues. I hope to be able to
provide a comfortable life for my family so that I can spend as much time with them as possible, that's my
primary goal in life.


-Tell us about the Christian and Assyrian sides of your life and personality.
My dad is an Orthodox priest, so is my Uncle. My great-uncle was a bishop, so it's a holy family except for
me… I don't really have a strong faith in God now, but I hope I will in the future. My Assyrian side...
there's not much to tell. I speak Suryoyo very little, from what my grandparents taught me as a little kid. I
would like to get involved again in the Assyrian community, which is one thing that lead me to this site.

-How can you love your enemy? or how to disagree with someone without having to hate them?
I don't really have many enemies, and I don't generally hate anyone. I guess everyone is entitled to their
opinion and if you don't agree with them, you have the right to disassociate yourself with them and not hate them.



 

CHAT QUESTIONS
 

-How did you first get to know our website? who told you about it?
After my breakup with my ex almost a yr ago, I did a google search for "assyrian girls" LOL No more white girls
for me me! Hahaha... :)

-What nicknames have you used so far?
born2drv, that's it :) I was thinking of using dotcomguy, maybe...mabye not, we'll see :)

-The recent proposal to turn the Message Board into a more sophisticated Discussion Forums. What do you think of it? the pros and cons to each possibility?
I think it's absolutely required. There are lots of other message boards out there that have better functionality.
Other Assyrian sites have begun to use them but have no user base to make it succeed which you do. If you can get
just 30% of your regular posters to use it, it will grow very fast and the remaining 70% will get used to it quickly.

-What is the most dominant theme on the message board at this time? anything that interested you lately?
What interests me mostly are the posters that post here, and the funny comments they have to make. I also enjoy
people posting their problems/issues and giving my advice since I'm so nosey :) Lots of people come to me for
advice generally cause they know I'm very wise ;)

-In what way have chat lines helped Assyrians in the last 10 years or so?
Assyrians are more or less scattered around the globe. It's nice to have a place like this where we can come
together, make new friends and not live so isolated. Perhaps in the future it will help us to move forward
as a people more.

-what comes to your mind when you first hear these three nicknames:
desertfoxx1, Dinaa, TheWiseOne
I don't know them really, but hopefully I will get to to chat with them soon.

-How do you see the Assyrian Voice community in ten years from now? do you think it will still be a
website only or something bigger than that?
Hard to say, I think so. I've seen lots of forums go in and out of existence. The most important thing is
the users, not how nice it looks, what the advanced features are, etc. But ten years is a lot of time to
improve a website, so hopefully by then you have areas we can purchase/support Assyrian artists and musicians,
maybe have people like me pay to get their Assyrian stores submitted to a directory. You need to monetize your
traffic more so you have money to improve it, but at the same time you have to make the ads RELEVANT to the
users on here. (no X10.com or viagra ads please) :) Get Assyrians to promote other Assyrian businesses or
people. Organize parties and activities from this site, maybe an online gaming section with scores. Possibilities
are endless.

-A lot of people don't know this, but recently you volunteered and with your own money to place Assyrian Voice on Google which is the best search engine in the world. Tell us more about that? and was it modesty or something else that led you to do all this without telling anyone about it including the Assyrian Voice team.
I didn't tell anyone because I didn't want them clicking on the ads, LOL It costs me $0.05/click but I don't
mind because it's the least I can do for you making a site that contributes to Assyrians so much, and I've met
so many wonderful people on here that I can't put a price on. I also wanted to encourage as many people as
possible to come here that were Assyrian and help build the community even more, plus it's a tax write off as
a charity :)

-Tell us about your other activities online? what websites do you have or manage etc.
All the sites I do business with are pretty much listed here: adde-inc.com, there's also my personal site,
born2drv.com. I have many others I've helped people make or am currently under development now for myself
too.

-The rude behavior that we encounter on the message board or chat. Do you have any solution to change it?
Kick me off :P But seriously, there needs to be a very well and understood forum charter, listing in
detail all the do's and don'ts... and moderators need to remove offending/spamming material lightning fast. I
think you allow certain things and then tell people to back down and generally people are confused as to what
is allowed and what isn't, so there needs to be more clear rules.

 

FAVORITES
 

-favorite sport:
 Basketball, Football

-favorite Assyrian/foreign singer:
 Sargon Adde in Chicago (my uncle, not that well known) :)

-favorite country/city:
 USA USA USA USA! city..... I guess LA :)

-favorite car:
 just one?? wow, that's hard........ I'm a big fan of the new 2004 Viper, but it's out of my
budget just a bit :) I'm planning to get a 2005 Lotus Elise however, which should be available to the US market
around May, 2004.

-Favorite soccer/hockey/basketball player:
 Yao Ming :) I don't really follow hockey or soccer.

-favorite number, and color:
 11, blue.

-favorite food:
 steamed crab legs, mmmmmmmm........

-favorite posters on the message board: (in no particular order) JROK, Destiny, God_is_in_my_heart, Audacious, Shikwanta and that guy named ASHOOR LOL j/k ;)


 

ASSYRIANS RELATED QUESTIONS





-Tell us about the Assyrian community in your city
I'm sure you know more about it then I do since we both live in the Toronto area. I don't really attend
much to be honest, but I'll go to a few picnics soon.

-What is your prospective on what is happening now in Iraq. How satisfied with the Assyrian efforts to gain something in the future Iraq?
As far as the rebuilding, I think it's coming slowly, I know not as planned. As for Assyrians getting their
fair share, I don't have too much hope to be honest, but you never know.

-Do you trust Zowaa to be the official leader and representative of Assyrians in Iraq and Middle East in general?
I don't know much about Zowaa to be honest, so I can't say.

-The Assyrian experience in Northern Iraq in the last 13 years. Do you think it will get even better? or will it stay the same with no more power given to us than what we already have?
I think it will get better. As democracy and human rights improve which I'm sure they will, then things are bound
to get better. Arabs are afraid of Americans and western culture in general because they realize just how much
freedom we have and they know that their people will embrace it if they are given the choice between freedom
and dictatorship. But eventually I see the entire Arab region transforming much like Japan did once the US
rebuilt them. But at the same time, Arab nations will still have their culture intact just like other nations
have done.

-How can Assyrians worldwide integrate their power, effort, media and financial resources to help promote their identity, history and demands?
It's the small things that make all the difference. Helping someone find a job, helping a community like this
find more members, funding your local church, etc. If people just did that more instead of fighting, then we
could move on. We also have to put aside all our differences as Christian Assyrians, both religion wise and
culturally. Everyone seems to think the way their specific tribe or community back home has the best dialect,
practices, etc. and if they have that attitude, we will never become a united people.

-What is the status of union amongst Assyrians at this time? is it stronger or weaker than before? the reasons for all this is?
Ummmmmmmmm, I don’t know… can you ask me a calculus question instead? :)

-What do Assyrians have at this very time that can help them start towards a better future? i.e history, people, language or something else...
I'm not really sure I understand this question. Are you asking what's their biggest asset? I guess it would have
to be the culture and history since it's respected very well and is so rich.

-Speaking of language, whose responsibility is it to make sure our language doesn't disappear? is it a collective or single effort?
Yes, I think it is a collective effort if not for an entire community then at least each individual family.
But it is better to be done within a community because learning a language only from your immediate family can
be very challenging in this day and age, especially here in North America. I think every family has to
determine for itself how important language is. If it is very important to them, then I suggest they move back
home in a community with many Assyrians. I think it's unreasonable to assume that your children will be fluent
in Assyrian when being brought up in American culture. By fluent I mean very well spoken and able to read/write
scholastically. If it's somewhat-important, then the family can teach the children in North America
successfully but it requires a lot of effort.

-What would give us more hope for the future: more unity and love vs. more education and learning?
More education and learning, because through that I think people will learn to be more united and loving
people within the Assyrian community. Take me for example, I'm starting to re-discover my Assyrian history and
in the process have come across this site and united with new people I'm happy to call friends.

-What are some of the positive things that come out of Assyrian conventions?
Dances and good food :) I don't see anything ever being accomplished from there to be honest.

-Do you have any advice for Assyrians worldwide and how can they be better citizens?
Learn about your culture. Help those less fortunate Assyrians to become more educated and stronger people.





General and Miscellaneous Questions






-U.S, China, European Union: which one of these three do you think will be the most recognizable power in 50 years from now? and why?
US, I don't see their dominance as far as military ever slipping, unless there is a major technological shift
in power like China invents warp drive or something :) I also see US/Canada/Mexico getting one united currency
in the next 50 years much like the EU did.

-What did the recent Rolling Stones concert in Toronto do to help the city regain its image as a world class city, and SARS-free. As a Toronto citizen, what do you want to say to the world about your city? would you recommend people to come to it?
Of course it helped a lot. It was shown on CNN, MSNBC and just about every other major American news
organization, it went off without a hitch, and so it was very good for Toronto I think.

-What do you think is the future of the internet is? and the PC?
PCs of course will become smaller and more integrated in our lives. Once broadband is deployed throughout the
US and is much faster, you will see a big boom in the internet and PCs like never before. AOL/Time Warner and
Microsoft/NBM merged or formed alliances to bring together the internet and the multi-media experience.
However we are dead in the water because of the slow outdated copper lines running through America. Even cable
modems aren't fast enough. Once we get megabit fat pipes running in every house which is incredibly expensive,
look out, the internet is going to be very wild and there will be lots of money to be made online again :)

-What three websites do you visit on a daily basis?
Assyrianvoice.net of course, WebmasterWorld.com and Kitco.com (for gold prices)

-Mohamaed Saeed Alsahaf: the former Iraqi information minister who became very popular with his false statements about the war. If you were to give this guy any career what would it be? whether it is in the media, government or business section.
If I were to give this guy a job it would be to scrub toilets :)

-Dennis Mill, the Canadian MP who helped bring the Stones to Toronto has another ambitious idea: to bring the UN to Toronto and have its building built on the lakeshore. What do you think of this? is it an impossible dream or something that can become a reality. Given that the UN is currently based in New York.
Sure it's a good idea, but wasteful if you ask me. What's the point, to say we are the headquarters? The money
would be better spent on something that would create jobs or bring in lots of business if you ask me. I liked
Mel Lastman's idea of creating one of the largest filming studios in the world down in Toronto to bring in
more film work that usually gets shot in Hollywood or Vancouver. Of course a low Canadian dollar really helps
to bring film production here as well, and right now it's kind of high.

-The population of the Earth continues to rise. It is estimated that in the year 2050, the population of the earth will be 10 billion. Is there any way in you opinion that will make that unlikely? that is for the population of the earth to stop growing this quickly or even reverse its growth.
Well if the statisticians say in 2050 there will be 10 billion people, then I'm inclined to agree since I'm
there figures were based on good data. I don't think population will reverse itself, unless some new killer
virus emerges or something. Humans propagate very well now with very few infact deaths, live longer, etc. and
this trend will only increase with modern medicine. I don't see population growth as being a big problem,
however.

-If you were given the opportunity to travel back in time. Where would you go? Or should we say to what period?
I'd go back to 1990 and register about a thousand domain names :) For the most part, I'm happy in my time period
and if anything would only like to travel in the future to see what's in store for humanity.

-What should the future of transportation be? living in a city as crowded as Toronto, what do you hope will happen to alleviate the congestion and daily traffic volumes?
Personally I hate public transportation. I drive into downtown Toronto for business maybe 2-3 times per week.
I will never give up my car unless a really solid and fast public transportation system is in place. I'm not
talking subways here or anything like that. I want magnetically levitating trains, and not the ones they have
in Europe, but the ones they're making in Japan that can go 400+ km/hr. If that were available and it was nice
and clean, I would use it.

-Which Assyrian singers appeal most to you in: parties and albums
To be honest, I don't really have a favorite Assyrian singer or prefer any one album because I don't listen to
it all that often, but I really like the song Warde Desheh by Juliana.

-David Beckham vs. Lebron James: one is a soccer super star while the other is a rookie basketball star. Who do you think will be more popular this year, although Beckham is older than James by about 10 years.
I don't know too much about soccer so I'm going to go with Lebron James. He's got the $100 million Nike deal
so that's hard to beat.

-What do you think of the following figures?
Julius Caesar, Mar Dinkha, Mel Lastman
Julius Caesar...the last of the ancient dictators, Mar Dinkha... a very holy man dedicated to Assyrian Catholics
everywhere, Mel Lastman... Hot-headed but smart politician, Noooooooooooooobody like him :)

 

FINAL THOUGHTS
 

-What was the hardest question we asked you? or didn't like?
This one: What is the status of union amongst Assyrians at this time? is it stronger or weaker than before?
Reason being, I don't really know what the status is to be honest, I haven't kept in touch with the Assyrian
community as much as I would have liked.

-One question you were glad we didn't ask you?
How often I go to church. :P

-Some hundreds even thousands of people may read this interview. Is there any means of getting in touch with you?
Yes, my personal email is me@born2drv.com and it is forwarded to my other email accounts that I check daily.

-Your best quote in life:
Life is what you make of it. ... I don't really believe in fate, I believe in working hard for everything you
want in life and going out and getting it.

-What do you think of this idea of interviewing Assyrians all over the world? what can it help us with?
I like the idea. I really think you should have a similar type service on your webiste. Where people fill out
10-15 questions about themselves, create a profile with their name, location, photo etc (all optional) and it's
searchable in a database for other Assyrians to find people they share things in common.

-Any shoutouts to anyone out there?
JROK, Satanta, God_is_in_my_heart, AlvenaMaryam, WildAngel, Audacious, GodPapa, Chamcheeta, et. al.


-Have you read other interviews? which one did you like most?
JROK's was pretty funny, Alvena Maryam's was nice and so were many others.

-Do you recommend any person to be interviewed in the future?
God_is_in_my_heart

-Any final comments or thoughts?
Don't take life too seriously, move to sunny California if you live in Canada, and eat your spinach ;)

At the end of this interview we would like to thank you and wish you a good luck in your life.