Cops & Work
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!
To just get rid of them all and start fresh. Easier said than done? Well, Georgia reformed their police department with success (so far so good, though I'm sure not perfect) and I really hope we can do it soon. Mandatory seatbelts and cellphone use prohibited while driving in Georgia, LOL! Imagine Armenians following those rules.
Anyway, I've been working like a mad man! Thank God for home delivery. I think I'd be skinnified into nothing if food delivery didn't exist in this city. Check this out, you can buy groceries/produce online at Galaxy Supermarket. Never tried it, I'm lucky enough to have a bunch of okay stores in my neighbourhood.
I actually found an Armenian trip-hop group. What next? Any style Armenians aren't creating? Their music is actually an alternative mixture of trip-hop and mellow rock, with hints of funk, Middle Eastern and Armenian influences. They're actually a young couple, married, originally from the Mid East, with both parents a mixture of Armenian-Armenian and Lebanese-Armenian. Sadly, after studying here for a few years, they are moving abroad ... TODAY, with no real plans of returning :-(
I'm in the midst of mixing their tracks and mastering their debut album (I'm giving them a more commercial appeal.) A hectic project (owing to the conditions they worked in ... they have a very modest studio setup), but we're working on it, and they hope to get it released by the end of the year.
Another project I'm working on is one that I briefly once wrote about. It's this new kid I found writing soul songs in English with a great voice. We're working on his first single. Depending on how much positive feedback he gets, he might shoot a video as well.
On the weekend I head up to Vanadzor with a friend who had a concert at the recently built Charles Aznavour venue ... great place! After that we head over to a restaurant called Oasis. Great food! And many desserts I've never even seen in Yerevan.
Back to work, tight schedules, a lot of great projects coming up.
To just get rid of them all and start fresh. Easier said than done? Well, Georgia reformed their police department with success (so far so good, though I'm sure not perfect) and I really hope we can do it soon. Mandatory seatbelts and cellphone use prohibited while driving in Georgia, LOL! Imagine Armenians following those rules.
Anyway, I've been working like a mad man! Thank God for home delivery. I think I'd be skinnified into nothing if food delivery didn't exist in this city. Check this out, you can buy groceries/produce online at Galaxy Supermarket. Never tried it, I'm lucky enough to have a bunch of okay stores in my neighbourhood.
I actually found an Armenian trip-hop group. What next? Any style Armenians aren't creating? Their music is actually an alternative mixture of trip-hop and mellow rock, with hints of funk, Middle Eastern and Armenian influences. They're actually a young couple, married, originally from the Mid East, with both parents a mixture of Armenian-Armenian and Lebanese-Armenian. Sadly, after studying here for a few years, they are moving abroad ... TODAY, with no real plans of returning :-(
I'm in the midst of mixing their tracks and mastering their debut album (I'm giving them a more commercial appeal.) A hectic project (owing to the conditions they worked in ... they have a very modest studio setup), but we're working on it, and they hope to get it released by the end of the year.
Another project I'm working on is one that I briefly once wrote about. It's this new kid I found writing soul songs in English with a great voice. We're working on his first single. Depending on how much positive feedback he gets, he might shoot a video as well.
On the weekend I head up to Vanadzor with a friend who had a concert at the recently built Charles Aznavour venue ... great place! After that we head over to a restaurant called Oasis. Great food! And many desserts I've never even seen in Yerevan.
Back to work, tight schedules, a lot of great projects coming up.
posted by Der Hova at 1:11 PM
7 Comments:
I'd love there to be such a reform in Armenia- I have always had mixed feelings about Kocharyan, but whenever I think positively about him, I remember that he could quite easily pass the order to sack all these police if he really wanted an end to corruption. It is the most everyday encounter we get with corruption in Armenia-its elimination would restore a great deal of faith.
I highly doubt that if the traffic police was eliminated in Armenia, the driving conditions would become any worse.
yes, cops receiving handouts in plain view of everyone is an eyesore, however dismissing them all will not solve the corruption issue... unless the govt starts paying decent salaries to all civil servants, then this issue won't disappear.
I have a middle-solution... I don't mind the cops collecting the fines, as long as they provide me with an official receipt which shows that the money will go to the govt.
But, corruption per say is in the blood of all ex-Soviet republics and their citizens (remember that's how they survived for over 70 years)... we need a major BLOOD TRANSFUSION to get rid of that cancer!
Oh... you can also order from GALAXY by phone and it's delivered within the hour!... It's excellent when you have to order 10+ 5 LITRE bottles of APARAN or NOY Water !!!!!!!! all for a very minimal delivery fee (500 AMD)
anonymous said...
dismissing them all will not solve the corruption issue... unless the govt starts paying decent salaries to all civil servants
I guess you didnt see the article Der Hova has the link to. That was the point of the reform to pay better salaries along with training and so on.
Sorry if I wasn't clear in what I said. Obviously along with sacking the current force, a new one would need to be set up, based upon fair, competitive selection ..and the wages increased.
In the case of Georgia, it's the US State Dept. which is paying the cops. So we can't really compare it with Armenia as the payments don't come from state budget... However, time will come when all oligarchs in Armenia will start paying their taxes and the govt will have enough to consider salary increases.
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