Serious Log

I heard a rumour that the first McDonald's in Armenia will open on Tumanyan Street, on the first floor of Dodi Gago's new residential building project, next to the infamous Shawarma place.

Anyway ...

There's something I've been wanting to write about for quite some time, but I've always thought that I should just keep my mouth shut so that I don't get nasty remarks for whatever reason. But, after seeing Raffi's recent blog, I figured I should just talk.

I don't want to put our race on a pedestal, and talk as though we are better than all other races of this world (we're not, right?) ... but I've always believed that drug use has never been a huge part of the lives of Armenians. Sure I'm making a generalization, but I'm not saying that Armenians do not use drugs. Excluding marijuana, harder drugs don't seem to be as widespread as they seem to be in other races. Again, I will say that I'm not saying Armenians do not use harder drugs, and I know 'cause I have witnessed Armenians ruining their lives, and even committing suicide, due to drug use. But if I compare us Armenians to what I've seen and heard of Georgians, we are much less interested in drugs than they seem to be.

I was in Tbilisi a couple of years back, and I couldn't believe the things some local kids were saying. They were shocked to learn that I don't smoke pot. For these kids, smoking pot was a daily routine. And according to them, everyone in Tbilisi uses drugs. Maybe they were just stoned and talking stupidity, but Raffi making the same sort of observation makes me wonder.

Moving on ...

On so many occasions I have noticed diasporan visitors seeking drugs. They ask me where they can find stuff, and they also ask my local friends who get shocked by their requests.

Recently, I even heard an idiot diasporan say, "I want to move to Armenia to be a dealer, I think there is a huge market for it."

So this is the kind of pathetic contribution some corrupt diasporans want to give to Armenia and Armenians. Bravo!

I always figured us diasporans should try to sort of analyze what we have learned by living abroad, and to share those observations, good and bad, with locals who constantly ask us about life in the west. Never to paint a picture of North America as being paradise, and never to make it seem like Armenia is the best place on earth and the west sucks.

To see some people, particularly North Americans, coming here and giving the rest of us a bad reputation is really disgusting. What's also so disturbing is that they seem to be mostly diasporans doing this more often than non-Armenian visitors. So is this the best way we can contribute?

Sorry for the serious blog. I promise the next one will be fun.