Increased wealth in Armenia?
This year, there has been an increasing number of stores in Yerevan that are adorned with Christmas decorations: more bright lights, more color, more decorated trees, more people dressed up as Santa (did anyone see the one trying to promote the lottery of a Mercedes car in front of Cinema Moscow?). I recall only about three years ago when you would hardly see stores that were decorated – or at least, if there were decorations, they were relatively meager. The consumer-driven market is in full force maybe not in Armenia, but definitely in Yerevan. Stores are doing everything to compete with one another to attract their customers.
The decorations are not what surprise me – but that these stores seem to always be busy (whether people buy the products is another story). The number of retail customers and even the number of car owners seem to grow by the day, yet the cost of living in Armenia has amplified horrendously.
Does this mean that the wealth in Armenia is increasing? How can that be when a large percentage still lives with an average monthly salary of around $100 a month? With the dollar rate decreasing daily, the increasing cost of living, and with the average Armenian barely making their ends meet with their household bills, it’s no wonder that locals are dying to leave the country for a better (financial) life for their families abroad. Even if a family survives off its remittances from other sources abroad, how long can it continue accepting these financial impediments?
I’m happy to see more clothing or grocery stores, but these ‘improvements’ should be complemented with an increase of effective social services for everyone, equitable health care and a comprehensive advancement of the public’s welfare. Only then can we say that Armenia is wealthier.
The decorations are not what surprise me – but that these stores seem to always be busy (whether people buy the products is another story). The number of retail customers and even the number of car owners seem to grow by the day, yet the cost of living in Armenia has amplified horrendously.
Does this mean that the wealth in Armenia is increasing? How can that be when a large percentage still lives with an average monthly salary of around $100 a month? With the dollar rate decreasing daily, the increasing cost of living, and with the average Armenian barely making their ends meet with their household bills, it’s no wonder that locals are dying to leave the country for a better (financial) life for their families abroad. Even if a family survives off its remittances from other sources abroad, how long can it continue accepting these financial impediments?
I’m happy to see more clothing or grocery stores, but these ‘improvements’ should be complemented with an increase of effective social services for everyone, equitable health care and a comprehensive advancement of the public’s welfare. Only then can we say that Armenia is wealthier.
posted by Lara at 1:11 AM
10 Comments:
Well, central Yerevan is one thing, but how are the stores and decorations outside, and especiallly in the regions?
Even so, Armenia still remains one of the poorest countries in the former Soviet Union, so that should also say something.
Probably the main issues are not how much money is currently in circulation, but how it is distributed, and also, whether taxes are being paid on it.
Lara,
Nice to hear a thoughtful balanced opinion from a repatriate Armenian. I fully agree with your last paragraph, and there is no substitute for a functioning and responsible state to accomplish all you mentioned. The American model of a severely limited state is just plain wrong for Armenia! The Northern European social-democratic model is what we should aim for. Otherwise the gap between the rich and the poor will just increase, as it is doing right now.
Have you seen the pictures of downtown Sao Paolo in Brazil? It is breathtakingly beautiful and affluent. The ignorant tourists might be easily misled to believe that life in Brazil is not so bad after all. And of course, millions and millions in Brazil live in abject poverty, and it is one the most unequal countries in the entire world...
"The consumer-driven market is in full force maybe not in Armenia, but definitely in Yerevan." So, sounds like Aremenia and Yerevan are different places, the twain don't meet. "the average Armenian barely making their ends meet" Two different (economic) countries? This hits on something that's been on my mind.
I started following this blog last year searching to plug into the Armenia I knew. But that didn't happen. What I find is that either this blog and its inhabitants, or else that Armenia I knew, one or the other, isn't "Armenian." So different are they from each other.
The latter I knew from my immigrant grandparents' generation. Those Armenians were rustic; these bloggers are slick. Those were overtly, and covertly, and inside-and-out and through-and-through, Christian; these aren't or don't feel like mentioning it. Those drank jezveh Turkish coffee, these drink sidewalk cappucinos. Those sold oriental rugs and grew raisins, these are in telecom and communications arts. Those had handlebar mustaches, garlic breath, and idiosyncratic personalities like Saroyan's uncle Aram (whom I met), these are clean and businesslike. Those were 19th century characters, these are 21st. Those traveled one-way, one-time, and their flight from the old country was the landmark, defining event of their lives; these travel round-trip frequent-flyer, and casual about it. Those were Western/Turkish, these are Eastern/Yerevan. Or even Canadian! (which armenia is THAT?) Those practiced self-denial, these have ambition.
How these bloggers disappoint! How dare they fall so short of my preconception of them! Myself, I'm not exactly slick but I'm no rustic. I'm Christian, in name, but the lapsed agnostic type. I'm at Starbucks four times a week. I'm in the computer business. I'm a clean shaven, much traveled, North American, 20/21st century guy. I'm no Armenian, really. Much less culturally than genetically. My grandmother, now THERE was an Armenian worthy of the hallowed name. By contrast, these bloggers remind myself of merely me.
So Saturday, at the final meeting of the class I taught this fall, I learn from one of my more-or-less blond students that he spent a year in Yerevan (invites me to see the photos at his website errabundi.net). Small world! I express to him all of the above. Which blog are you reading, he asks, is it blogrel? is it Raffi Kojian? He knows! He chides me, "No don't you understand? It's money." Armenians assuredly aren't slick he continues. Actually it's really a very poor and rustic place, Armenia. If you have an impression of urban dwellers going to bars and clubs, they're the atypical monied. Like the wealthy found in capitals of every country, however poor. What do you expect from a blog filtered through English language? It's not going to be representative. I guess I knew that already. He just said it in so many words.
So, this blog is interesting in ways apart from my original objectives and expectations. Its virtues are other. But I would like to know if my student is right. Is the Yerevan seen through this blog unrepresentative of another, underlying Armenia? Is there a yerevan class versus a remainder-of-country class? Or within the capital, a repatriate/bi-cultural versus mono-cultural dichotomy?? Is the other segment that is not visible on the blog the authentic one, or are both authentic in some sense? In my country (U.S.) the price for coffee at a Starbucks is high. But most people if they wish to prioritize, absolutely can afford to have Starbucks if they want. Nobody doesn't have $5. From what my student tells me, not so in Armenia. Anybody found in a coffee shop is wealthy. The rest, regular Armenian folks, are simply and firmly barred financially from cafe participation. At the risk of asking the wrong folks, I'd be interested to grasp what an "average Armenian" and his life are like. Are you rich, there? Are you unrepresentative, there? Or do I think too much about bothersome irrelevancies here? Thanks.
David, I must say that though you sound genuine, I wonder how you possibly could be. You call yourself a 21st century guy in the computer business. How can you miss that this is a REPATRIATE blog? None of of is ever originally from Armenia, we are simply Armenian, just like you. We are outsiders, we ALL grew up in the west. Where was this not clear? The point of this page is to tell you OUR thoughts, having moved here. Not to pretend to be locals.
You want to read what locals think, there is a blog of locals here, linked to on the right, in Armenian :-) If you were computer savy you might have noticed it. If you already figured out that regular people in Armenia don't go out for a 25 cent cup of coffee at a cafe every day though, you should have probably concluded that you're not going to find a blog representing extremely poor Armenians. If you want to meet them, follow your blond friend and go to the villages... you might find your immigrant grandparents idiosyncratic friends hanging out there...
There over a dozen people have written or do write on this very page, born in over a half a dozen countries, with most having moved to the US, Canada and Australia. Married, single, younger, older, boys and girls... not just Raffi Kojian. So please understand who you are reading, where they are from, and who they are not pretending to be.
David, I have to say that your post is rather insulting to Armenian culture.
I don't think anybody has to have "handlebar mustaches, garlic breath, and idiosyncratic personalities" to be Armenian. Nor do they have to be Christian. (Don't forget, Armenia was originally pagan, not Christian!) The only thing you are describing above is a Turkified Kiougetsi from the 19th and 20th century from Eastern Anatolia.
There have always been affluent, gentrified, and educated Armenians throught history, with a variety of personalities types. They have lived in Armenia, but also in other countries' capitals. And their style has been influenced by the age and locale in which they lived.
Though the mentality in this blog does tend to be U.S. dominated, I think most people would agree that anybody that feels Armenian simply is Armenian.
You don't have to be a Borat to be Armenian. Quite the contrary actually. I think that's what separates us from the other peoples/nations around us.
Modern Hye guy,
Your remark that David's insulting description of old school Armenians applies to "Turkified Kiougetsis from the 19th and 20th century from Eastern Anatolia" is innappropriate. The majority of western Armenians were "Turkified kioughatsis". Even if some of them weren't at the turn of the 20th century, chances are they were "Turkified kioughatsis" not too long before that. The Armenian communities of Constantinople, Izmir or other Ottoman urban centers weren't created by refugee princes. They were created for the most part by "Turkified kioughatsis". You are correct that these Armenians became educated and urban. But don't forget their origin. Moreover, the majority of Armenians under the Ottomans until the Genocide remained "Turkified kioughatsis". Additionally, kindly refrain from describing Western Armenia as "Eastern Anatolia".
Well despite the old-fashioned comment that David made, I honestly think that you Raffi K. are doing a great Job regarding this blog that gives diaspora Armenians a very good sight. Hope to see you one day in Yerevan.
Raffi B.
David, you have got some sense of IRONY! How refreshing! You cannot be an American! :)
The deepening split between haves and have-nots in Armenia is obvious to anybody who lives there and cares to open his eyes. And yes, an average salary earner (let alone a retiree) cannot afford a cafe in Yerevan NEARLY the way an average salary earner can in America. Not even close. Most of those who sit and sip are NOT ordinary Armenian citizens. Either they have good-paying legal jobs (tiny minority), OR they are connected to the government (with the money from the pervasive endemic corruption), OR they are wasting the money their relatives send from abroad, OR they are original Yerevantsis currently living outside but visiting for the summer (as I was last summer), OR they are tourists, OR they are repatriates. Their numbers (those sitting in cafes and restaurants) are in thousands, to be sure, but they are a small, though highly visible, minority.
[My friend permanently living there angrily dismissed my feeble attempts to state that SO many people in the cafes cannot be a small minority. First, he pointed out that the number of overflowing cafes is not that big outside of the center of Yerevan. Second, he offered to make a reasonable estimate of the number of people sitting there at any given point in time, about 5000. (Well, you may or may not agree with that number.) Third, he assumed that a person goes to a cafe once a week (in reality, many with means do it much more frequently). Then he multiplied 5000 by 7 and came up with 35000. And then he let me have it and DOUBLED the original number! Now we have 70000 people frequenting cafes in the summer (10000 at any given time!). Take out ALL tourists, visitors and repatriates, and we will have a tiny minority of 1.5 million Yerevantsis sitting outside!!]
And the way Armenia is developing, middle class will hardly EVER be a majority of the population, just as it is not in Brazil and most other "developing" countries that have "successfully" developed for 50-60 years now into unequal, stratified, and deeply split societies.
Artashes, what does your friend think of all the coffee vendors at the shukas? They charge the same as most of the cafes... I do think a lot of people in Yerevan go to a cafe once in a while for a surj - maybe not at Jezzve, but at the normal priced ones. I have no idea what the numbers are, and have a hard time believing that your numbers could be anywhere near right (how can you guess the number of chairs, the number of repeat customers, etc???)...
It's funny you say that middle class cannot be the majority now that - for the first time since independence - we actually have a visible middle class. Not oligarchs, and not completely broke folks, but people who are working normal jobs and running small businesses and making a decent living. Sure - not large numbers, but still a relatively new and growing population.
Thanks Raffi B. :-) I still say all the Raffi's of the world need to unite and take over :-))
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