Two steps forward, one step back

This past weekend, there was a very interesting conference that took place in Tsakhkadzor on the social state of Armenia. The conference was hosted by the Caucasus Research Resource Center – Armenia (CRRC) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) – Armenia, and brought together Armenian government officials (National Assembly, Central Bank, ministry of education, ministry of labor, ministry of finance, ministry of health), key researchers from Armenia, Germany and the UK, and members from local and international organizations.

Over 60 experts worked and collaborated together to identify opportunities to improve the social state in Armenia, and to primarily identify ways to help restore faith and trust in the citizens of Armenia toward their country and government. Leadership in this country remains to be a primary problem and the citizens of Armenia no longer have hope that government and social services will improve considering the injustice and corruption that still overwhelm the nation. Considering these issues, it was so remarkable to witness the active dialogue between these political officials and social scientists, and to see them identify recommendations to submit to local political officials and to the public. This country can definitely improve itself with the engagement of its citizens.

Another highlight of our weekend was seeing the great improvements made to the city of Tsakhkadzor. I recall (a few years back) when this city was almost completely deserted and no longer had real attraction for tourists. This year, new hotels have been built and new ones continue to develop; the ski slopes are in fantastic shape (Ani, this is FYI as well!!!), and the number of tourists seems to have tripled.

Overall, I was so pleased with this weekend and realized that this country never stops to surprise me. It is indeed on a great pace towards improvement and even if corruption and injustice continue to prevail, the conference participants proved to me that it’s just a matter of time before local Armenians begun to create a positive movement towards change in their country.

My bubble was burst however during our drive back to Yerevan. We had noticed from the rear-view mirror that a number of cops were driving towards Yerevan as well. A few police trucks went past our car at a very high pace, and loudly (and rudely) yelled through their microphones for all cars to pull aside quickly (by the way, do they really believe we understand what they are saying when they yell like that?). We knew that the president was on his way back to Yerevan as well. We slowed the car down and pulled aside as much as we could without falling off the cliff, when all of a sudden, we felt a huge ‘BANG’ on our car and I thought that was the end of us. After we calmed our baby down, and gathered our own nerves, we realized what had really happened. The presidents’ bodyguards literally skinned our car and broke the rear-view mirror and grazed the side of our car. Apparently when the president drives by, 2-4 trucks must drive on both sides to protect him from any potential attacks. This means that they take up literally 3 lanes of the road (when there really are only 2 lanes on the highway). Since we were at the side of the cliff and had no more room to pull over, the bodyguards had no choice I suppose but to hit us (but of course!!!). I know that the president is quite fearful for his life, but is this any way to gain any kind of popularity with the public? These trucks could’ve really hurt us, and most importantly our baby, and there would be nothing that we could do about it…

For every two steps this country takes forward, we’re reminded that there’s still always a step back.

Back home

I've been back home for a week now, and what a hectic week it's been.

Other than the fact that I am feeling sick everytime I eat, and battling food poisoning on my birthday, that very same night I went to the hospital 'cause my sister had her second child. Awesome experience, was there throughout the whole thing massaging her back and letting her squeeze my hand, seeing the entire labour, and even cutting the umbilical cord.

Well, other than that, I can't believe how much crime there is in this city now. Toronto used to be known for being such a safe city, but things have changed bigtime.

I'm glad to be home so far, but I don't know how long that feeling will last. I'm already getting annoyed by the linear "robotic" lives of everyone around me. Wake up, have a coffee, head to work, come back home, eat dinner, go to sleep. Next day the same. I could never live like this. Never have, never would.

The Beach, the Georgian and the Genocide

Just finished reading the book, "The Beach", which the movie a while back was based on. Much better than the movie of course, but still, not terribly great. Now again I am staying riiiight on the beach, and it's fantastic. I miss the beach life and culture, I must say... and of course good beach weather. So last night I overhead some people speaking Russian, and understand that one is Georgian, one Ukrainian and one, well Dutch. So I said hi and started talking to the Georgian especially, since I'd never met one outside of Georgia... turns out he has an Armenian grandparent, but in any case moved here (Sydney) 13 years ago and loves it. No plans even to visit Georgia again, no apparent desire.

Most of you have probably already heard about the PBS Armenian Genocide show coming up and about the "Panel" afterwards. The big Armenian organizations say there will be deniers of the genocide on it, which, if it is true is incredibly insulting (imagine them putting Neo-NAZIs on a panel after a holocaust documentary!!). Some PBS stations have already decided not to show the panel... so take a minute and make sure yours isn't going to either... enough of this second class genocide victim status.

*Please sign the online petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?pbspanel and forward it to as many people as possible. More than 10,000 people have already signed it.

*Send e-mails to Jacoba Atlas at Jatlas@pbs.org urging her not to provide air time to genocide deniers.

* Since the individual PBS stations are the ones that decide whether to air the panel discussion or not, contact your local PBS station and urge them not to broadcast the post-show. To find your local PBS station, go to www.pbs.org/stationfinder, enter your zip code and click next. When you see the logo of your local station, click next again. This would give you the phone/fax numbers as well as mail and e-mail addresses of your local station.

I need a break

I'm outta here in about 24 hours!

I haven't been back to Canada in almost a year and a half, and I think it's about time. I think I've decided to make this an annual thing, probably an annual winter vacation. It's been a damn depressing winter, and although winters in Toronto aren't any better, I'd rather be with family and old friends, my sweet lil niece, plus the forthcoming niece or nephew in a couple of weeks.

I wouldn't say it's been a super cold winter, but the sidewalks and roads being completely covered in snow and ice and the city not cleaning it is really upsetting.

Just over a week ago a bunch of my male neighbours and I came outside to clean the entire back of the building. Over 2 hours of shovelling, and then being lucky enough to get one of the few snowplough tractors, and a severe backpain afterwards, but it was completely clean ... until today!

Coming outside on Saturday nights ... dead! Nothing going on in this city. Everything pretty much closes at 23:00, so meeting up with friends to sit at a cafe late night is pretty impossible. It's the complete opposite of Yerevan's rush rush summers.

Anyway, don't want to complain too much. I know once I return there are quite a few things to look forward to, but right now I just need a break.

Getting a phone

One week after moving in to our new apartment I finally requested two phonelines from Armentel. The process, I'm surprised to say, is much easier than I expected. The people who work in the Republic Square branch are super friendly and have bent over backwards to make sure my "Armentel experience" is good. I am, however, probably jinxing things as we won't have the lines until early next week.

The move has been an amazing experience so far. I've only encountered two problems as of yet: first the leaky closet which Armen and I to this day can't explain and second our elevator continues to break down (not a fun experience when you live on the 9th floor...)

Tried to go ice skating on Saturday. We were turned away since the weather was too warm and the ice was melting. And here I thought spring was around the corner. Then this morning we had a short snow storm that piled on quite a bit of snow. There has been a lot of complaints regarding the government's handling of ploughing streets and sidewalks. One report even claims that there are in excess of 200+ ploughs in Armenia. If you live in Yerevan you know this is not true. I've only seen one plough so far and it was ploughing the snow off of the sidewalk (near one of Yerevan's government buildings) onto the street... effective eh??

Has anyone else heard of this new show hai superstar? Please tell me it's not Armenia's version of Star Search!! And as for Jermaine Jackson's visit - a lot of Armenians seem to think he's here because his wife has some relation with Armenia (they say she looks Armenian). Mr. Jackson himself even spoke about the possibility of having Michael Jackson perform in Armenia... odd...

Perth

Nothing specific I wanted to share, since I forgot all the little things I think of writing when I'm out and about, but thought I'd log anyway since I'm in Perth... what locals like to say is the most isolated major city in the world. It is on the west coast of Australia, near the south corner and has a pop. of 1.5 million. It has beautiful beaches and warm weather, but unlike the east coast it is not humid. It's also known for having and even slower pace of life than the East coast, with most stores closing at 5pm and closed on Sundays. Some laugh and call it provincial, but I think it's cool that people working in retail get to see their families in the evenings and on Sundays too. My cousin just moved out here a few weeks ago and so I thought it would be cool to see her here and check the town out too. She's in a cool area called Freemantle at the moment, which I spent the day exploring. Started off with a free bus ride they have going in a figure 8 around the town - perfect for tourists to get an overview before jumping out on foot. Then I walked around, checked out some of the sites and shops and beaches. Then, when it got quite hot I checked out the local gelati place my cousin recommended and oookh, the pistachio was just awesome. I wish I had set aside more time for the west coast, but am not convinced I won't be back sometime... Soon I'll be heading to Sydney for the remainder of my trip, where I will get to meet some of the local Armenian community (and see my relatives!). Should be cool...

Jermaine Jackson in Armenia

Jermaine Jackson is in Yerevan. Huh? Apparently the Jacksons are planning to build an entertainment complex in Armenia. Huh?

I wish I were one of Tolkien's elves...

I am a walker. I've often thought of changing my surname to "Pedestrian". Heheheh, bad one, eh ? Anyway, Like some guy once said in some old movie, "I like to talk to a man who likes to talk". Well, me, I like to walk with a man who likes to walk. Unfortunately, I haven't met that person yet, so I go on my little hikes quite by myself...

Yerevan is a good city if one likes to walk. Just about everything is walking distance, or can be made to be. If you're not pressed for time, it's almost a crime to not walk everywhere, especially around the centre of town. However, over the past few days, we have been receiving loads and loads of snow, and this has made walking about somewhat more difficult. Get the drift ? (Heheheh, sorry, couldn't resist that one) But that does not stop me. Neither sleet nor rain, nor snow... Well, actually, I don't really like walking in the rain, and I'm not exactly sure what "sleet" is, but as for the snow, ha! I laugh the white fluffy stuff in the face. They're all a bunch of flakes anyway... Oops, did it again, didn't I ? Heheheh. I kill myself sometimes (I expect many of those reading this right now wish that were literally true).

Right. On my snowy way down to my internship, I noticed a formidable sight: Armenian women, shovelling. Yes, sir, it was powerful, and, once again, I came to realise that this nation of ours would be nothing without its strong, capable, glorious, if a bit unsung, women heroes. And by that I mean The Everyday Woman. Mayrig, kuyrig, horkour, morkour... There's a lovely song, one of the old Tashnag favourites, about one Gigo. His mother complains that they won't take him to battle for liberty because he's too young, and she says that she wants to see him with a gun before she dies. And then there's "Zartir vortyag", another very good one, about a mother awakening her son, calling him to battle, preparing him for it... She says, "Aha krchi pokhan kez sour, pokhan tghti grvi tashd / Kna prgir ko Hayrenik, ko mayr jbdi koh yev hashd", roughly, "Here is a sword for you instead of a pen, and a battlefield in place of paper / Go and free your Fatherland, so that your mother may smile with contentment". Quite touching...

But I digress. I was talking about my walk through the city the other day. The snow had pretty much ceased already, and it was (still is) getting on the warm side, as I stopped to buy some mandarins from one of those street spots on Paregamoutiun. They'll soon be shutting down street vendors, by the way. I don't know if I like that... Too "European" for me, I prefer the "Eastern bazaar" motif to Yerevan's streets... Anyway, anyway, I went off on a tangent again. So, as I was buying the mandarins, this bunch of snow falls right on my head...! Very fortunately, the fruitmonger had pulled over a cellophane sheet on top of his wares, and that prevented anything perhaps dangerous from happening, but it did fall RIGHT on my head, which I thought was rather amusing...

Still, it was hard walking that day, and I thought of the elves from J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings". They can walk ON the snow, you know, as can be witnessed in the movies of the same name, and I thought, "If only I weren't Nareg, with an internship, but Legolas, of the Fellowship"... Heheheh... I wonder how ol' J.R.R. came up with that character's name ? Oh yeah, now I remember. He was visiting Edinburgh, and saw this girl who was very much after a man. But he wasn't interested, and as she threw herself at him, he shrugged her off and said, "Leggo, lass!", and thus an everlasting name was born... Okay, okay, I'm making that one up. I always make those ones up...

But my sentiment is true; it would be nice if I could walk on the snow. And I sort of did today, for the most part, as the top layer has frozen already. Ah, you see ? Living in Yerevan, one's dreams come true... Of course, if I didn't live around here, chances are there wouldn't be this much snow about in the first place, or - better - the authorities would deign to clean it up... Anyway, another interesting bit to do with snow: I had my first shovelling experience...! It was quite something, I didn't realise one could get so hot and flustered out in the frozen snow without the aid of any of the staff at "Omega" (From what I've heard, of course; never felt the calling of actually going there).

I think I ought to end this blog now. See, I have, 'esd sovoroutyan, been cracking some pretty stupid jokes, and I guess another one will generate strict protests, and I don't want to get Raffi in trouble, especially after such a nice welcome. So, as I'm walking on thin ice, I'll leave it at this much about walking on snow.

New bloggers and comments

Welcome to the newest loggers - you may have noticed them already. Lara on this page (and Nareg a bit earlier), Rupen on Diaspora and now Christina on the Hayastantsi logs! She's logged twice already (in Armenian!), so this should be some good practice for those of you wanting something current and interesting to read in Hayeren. I'm also enjoying some of the great posts from people who've been quieter... there have been some really cool ones as of late.

I'll take this opportunity to mention that comments are now "moderated", meaning I have to read them and ok them before they actually show up. Just a nice way to prevent mess' which I seem to be cleaning up before they happen. Also nice since I am now up on the "Gold Coast" of Australia, and not really online. The "Gold Coast" is not to be confused with the "Sunshine Coast", an hour up - I tell you, a lot of marketing is in these names. I'm staying in a town called Surfer's Paradise now, which reminds me of Waikiki, actually. There is a new residential tower here they said is the biggest in the world. I dunno, but it is definitley huge - did they say 80+ floors? I wanted to know how many square meters it is to see how many times you could fit my apartment in there. Or how much of downtown Yerevan for that matter. Not being there, I hope they are making swift progress on the new blvd, though I doubt it in the cold they are having. I am tired of everything being a construction site, and it would be nice if at least Tumanyan was finished, if not Pushkin. Arami poghots will be a mess for years to come. So anyway, I will explore this area of the coast for a week (Brisbane, Byron Bay, that Croc Hunter khent's zoo, etc). Then off to Perth, then Sydney...

Will Armenia Become Soulless?

Yesterday, there was a remarkable concert at the Opera by the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra and the State Academic Choir of Armenia conducted by Ohannes Tchekidjian. The program was from G. Rossini “Stabat Mater” and the entire audience was astonished by the robust voice this choir let out. We were all pulled out of our seats.

I am relentlessly reminded by the enormous talent (musical, artistic, etc) that we have in Armenia, many of whom leave Armenia thanks to better paying contracts abroad and better living conditions (who can blame them?).

Now, if only we could stop constructing so many new condo buildings in Yerevan and put some of these construction funds to effectively support Armenian artists and the art/music industry; or better yet, find new funds for these all together. What would we have with so many new buildings with no local artists with whom to fill them? A beautiful country with no soul.

The JW at my door, again, and again, ...

So here I was writing emails when my doorbell rang. I looked through the peephole and I see two women, automatically knew they were Jehovah's Witnesses. Instead of ignoring them or opening the door, spitting on their faces, and yelling obscene things like, "You are a disgrace to our race!", I opened the door and greeted them very nicely.

JW: Hi how are you?
ME: Good, how can I help you?
JW: We wanted to see how our fellow neighbours are doing.
ME: I'm fine thanks.
JW: And how has your new year been so far?
ME: Ahhhhh, not that great actually, but it's ok.
JW: And how do you think the rest of the year will be?
ME: Very good actually, I know everything will turn out well.
JW: Wow, that's good. And is that hope connected to anything in particular?
ME: Yes of course, to my Saviour Jesus.
JW: (Shocked for a few seconds...) Ohhhh, are you a believer?
ME: Yes very much.
JW: (Starts talking some BS for a few seconds...)
ME: Sorry, can I just ask you which sect you are from?
JW: (Shocked again for a few seconds...) We are from a worldwide "Christian" religious group called the Jehovah's ...
ME: Thank you very much, stay well, goodbye.

Man, they are reproducing like rabbits all over the country. And not only the JW, but a bunch of other sects that are pumping in, and out I guess, lots of cash. And yet, our amazing and active Catholicos is doing ................... no comment. :-/