Solutions and problems

[Rubo]

Solutions and problems

 

Human beings tend to fall in two categories reactive and proactive and how they see the reality greatly influences their behavior.

Reactive people tend to project outward their insecurities and inadequateness such as blaming their failures on their childhood, parents, family genes, environment, the boss and everything and everyone except themselves. Their justification of doing nothing about these issues reflect their lock of understanding the basic human values that which one is primarily responsible for their condition.

This phenomenon was prevalent during Soviet times in Armenia since the system stifled human creativity to take initiative. Everything was government’s fault. After the independence this attitude still is present among our people. Not a week passes before I read another story about the government didn’t do this or that.

Proactive people see the life as their primary responsibility. They approach the problems to find solutions no matter what the condition. For them talking about problems that is outside of there realm of influence is waste of time. Have you notice most reactive people always talk about the environment, political situations knowing well that they are not going to do anything about it but it does give them the illusion that they do matter. It is a self-deception. I can spend my whole life talking about Armenian’s problems but so what, those problems are going to be solved by proactive people not reactive. You can notice this very well in businesses or leaders in corporations where most proactive people are hired to find solutions.

What am I saying? Lot of Diaspora Armenians for the most part does display reactive approach to Armenia’s problems instead of proactive approach. They wait until conditions are just right for business and investments then they may act. I suggest they should be proactive and be part of the process of creating those conditions for investment.

I live in a major American town and the biggest cab company in my town is owned by an Armenian whom I had the displeasure of meeting. Needless to say he is multimillionaire. He owns real state from Florida to Chili. During some business project I asked him why he does not invest in Armenia but chooses to invest in Chili. He told me conditions were not right for Armenia for investments. He told me few horror stories needless to say I was visibly upset, here is this guy with money dripping from his shoes and he talks about conditions! I told him he should at least visit the homeland so he can assess the situation on personal level instead of finding excuses. I’ll stop here.

 

Regards and please share your views

[ES]

Nature of things

 

One of the “phenomenons” of a human nature always has been its REACTIVE behavior on serthen times or in ones whole life span. Humans like any other species of this planet has been designed to act first in a reactive mode, regardless of the capacity upstairs, so its fair to assume we are no deferent then any other creature on this mother earth, basically we and lions or a snake act like same in our REACTION.

 

I do have to say however, giving the fact one group of people had been under totalitarian regime for a long time, can, and do develop reactive behavior, as an individual, family, or a nation, not to mention if one group of people have had a long history of protecting its borders, not being killed, and struggling to survive as individuals first, then as a nation. So the notion to the proactive approach to the specific, or numerous problems nation is facing after long periods of time is not likely to happen, and it will take anything short of a miracle to get the nation as a whole to go proactive.

 

The issue you raised here is to the point and makes one wonder, can we became PROACTIVE or that milioner?

Not anytime soon

 

I do believe however it has become a sort of like a gin among us not to believe in one another, for the reasons I have mentioned above.

 

But like nature, times intend to heal everything, just leaves big scares sometimes after that, hopefully sooner then later we can think and approach as PROACTIVE people, and as a nation, just imagine if we can devote one hour every week of our lives to the cause, a lot of miracles can happen.

 

However you’ve broth up an interesting subject to discuss Rubo Jan

 

Regards

[Rubo]

Dear ES

I think I have to define what I mean reactive. I am not using the word in traditional sense as to reacting to outside elements but using it as reacting to outside world as excuses for personal failures, inactions etc. It is no accident that top 5% in US population owns 95% of the countries wealth and if you study their habits you will see that they are mostly proactive people. You are right this may be a slow process for our people to act but we cannot afford to wait too long. Armenia is literary empting itself out. Since independence more then a million people left the country and majority of them never to come back. I must also mention that I am not suggesting altruistic sacrifices but simple greed for personal success, which in turn would make Armenians and Armenia successful. Healthy greed can be highly effective since few of us are motivated by altruism.

Regards.

[Sip]

I must admit I got a bit confused. I thought you were saying it is better to be proactive and create the opportunities for personal success in Armenia (from an investment/business standpoint). But how can this happen without altruism?

 

Of course I mainly have a computer scienceish problem solving viewpoint on this, in that a greedy approach almost never works (for finding optimal solutions). In order to solve most real life problems, one needs to have global vision (quoting strictly from computer algorithms theory but it applies amazingly well to this!!!!) I just don't see anyone motivated purely on greed being easily influenced by global vision.

 

In computer algorithms when solving a complex problem, sometimes you have to make your current situation worse, in order to find a much better solution in the future. I see an exact parallel right now in the problem you are proposing dear Ruben. There needs to be some sacrifice in order to enable future "profit" as far as Armenia is concerned. Well, in my book, that's altruism!!!! (goes back to this whole thing on "you are what you seem to be" and not what you "think"

[Sip]

But to clarify, Ruben, I do agree with what you saying. I guess I was just debating on semantics of some words now that I think about it.

[Rubo]

Dear Sip, lets expand on it just for the fun of it.

Global economy would not have happened if not because of greed: Greed for new markets and profits. McDonalds, Starbucks are not in China and God knows where for altruism or spread of democracy?

From my experience in real life most people minus genuine nuns and priests are not motivated to do anything if there is no personal gain. (One can argue that even nuns and priests are motivated by spiritual greed) You can call it greed or any other lofty words, which if you dig deeper end result is still greed. In ART I do display certain raw idealism, but in real life I am sure the donkey would not move unless the grass is held in front of it. (Excuse me for crude example)

You are on shaky grounds on “you are what you seem to be” verses what you think. I firmly believe and proven in real life that every action is a thought at first. What you carry with you and think daily is who you are.

 

Hajoghutiuner

[Sip]

But thoughts aren't real. They only become real through actions. That's one of the reasons I am strongly against the concept of "hate crime". You intentionally kill a human ... you are a murderer! (the debate on what the punishment should be and self-defense, etc are a WHOLE different thread).

 

But going back to the topic, if greed were enough, I think you would already see hoards of business men and investors heading towards the region (as you yourself have suggested). Unfortunately, much like manything else (ha ha new word!), the solution requires a "risk" ... and from what it appears, that risk is a big one ... one that individuals seem to be reluctant to take on sheer promise of personal gains which I fully understand and don't necessarily blame them.

 

I don't think I personally would have been that enraged by that cab company "friend" of yours. After all, he seems to be quite a rational thinking individual... maybe even a very nice person at heart (I don't know).

 

What am I trying to say? I guess that greed is not enough ... this problem needs altruists

(I actually learned that word from your post )

 

[ September 02, 2002, 05:18 PM: Message edited by: Sip ]

[alpha]

Rubo,

 

Allow me to disagree with your statement that “This phenomenon was prevalent during Soviet times in Armenia since the system stifled human creativity to take initiative. Everything was government’s fault. After the independence this attitude still is present among our people. Not a week passes before I read another story about the government didn’t do this or that.”

 

First and foremost if you had lived in Soviet Armenia you’d know that it was the most entrepreneurial part of the Soviet Union. There were even private business enterprises under the name of state ownership. It’s not a secret that salaries in Soviet Union were low and it was virtually impossible to live on salary. The term “koxmnaki yekamut” was a common occurrence. I’d argue the opposite that under the Soviet system many Armenians were pushed to take initiative and find other ways to supplement their income. You also forget the fact that besides the harsh economic reality there are other factors that need to be considered. Let’s look back at not so distant history.

 

These people, whom you call reactive, are the ones that gathered in front of Opera House in 1988 and demanded reunification of Artsax with Armenia. These were the people that stood up in front of Soviet tanks when they were entering Yerevan. These are the people, Mr. Diaspora Armenian, who first time in the last 1,000 years of Armenian history have fought and won the war. Even teenagers are proactive in Armenia since many Armenian kids learned to become electricians in 1992-93, when they were getting electricity from nearby hospitals or places that had few hours of electricity.

 

However times have changed. Many feel deceived and have no energy to fight the injustices. They have endured cold winters and loss of wealth accumulated for many years. They are just tired of fighting.

 

The reason why people blame state is because state structures are corrupt. In 1996 they have tried to fight the corrupt structures and elected Vazgen Manukyan. They have stormed the building of National Assembly trying to change the system. However, the mini coup was not successful and people again felt silenced and deceived. You can’t blame these people for being tired to fight the system. They have been through too many ordeals.

[Rubo]

Dear Alpha

I agree with many points you have raised and people who demonstrated in front of the opera house were not reactive but proactive. They wanted change.

As for soviet times, it is no secret that people became corrupt because one had to be to survive. The clerk had to cheat, judges lied, managers stole in droves, policeman, politician, party bosses, professors, in short just about everyone, so the system fundamentally eroded the basic human values and therefore its residues are still felt in Armenia. It is no question that former corrupt party bosses etc. are today’s politicians and people in positions.

Initially my outlook was from the center, being, individual projecting outwards the correct and productive attitude the reverse only compounds the individual, hence one spends relentless energy talking about things, blaming everything except taking responsibility to change the very things that bother them.

 

Dear Sip

 

In essence one does always act in self-interest regardless the cause. Call it altruism, greed, self-sacrifice in truth we do things to satisfy our deepest or shallowest needs. Religious person shows compassion because his religion told him so otherwise he wont go to heaven. My care things Armenian stem from the fact that as Armenian I want my people to win for a change, which makes me a winner. I have kids and I want my kids to be proud of being Armenian therefore my activities may look altruistic but in reality I have my motives to help my country.

Sip there is also the element of human slavery to money, power, position etc. One who is slave to money like the guy in my example could not stand the risk of losing money in Armenia but perhaps someone like that is useless to Armenian cause in general anyway. To give back your success to your people is the spiritual law. One who shares their success gets double back. I will share an interesting example. Didn’t you wanted all your friends to see the one movie, which you thought, was great? Examine this in you. Didn’t you feel better that you got to share your enthusiasm and insight? Same with business success, truly developed people with personal success want to share that success since doing it makes them grow deeper, wiser as an individual after all one leaves everything beyond once dead. I bet if the opportunity aroused you may get greater self fulfillment if you shared your knowledge about programming in Armenia, perhaps a private school where people in know how can share their knowledge or even as a visiting guest speaker who can spend one week teaching Armenian kids about computers. I bet you will find much more gratifying on personal level, nothing is greater then sharing even love is sharing.

Regards

[Sip]

Did you hear that joke about Armenians in hell? The Cliffs Notes version of it is that there are these huge pits of fire in hell where they group the different races in ... each pit has hundreds of "guards" with pitch forks that push the people back in if they try to come out. Only the pit with the Armenians has no guards!!! The reason? Yes you guessed it ... because every time one of them would succeed to climb up the walls to get out, the rest would pull him back down into the pit

 

I thought that joke was both very funny and horribly depressing at the same time since I can sense some truth in it. Boy do I start to sound like Ara Baliozian (have been reading some of his stuff).

 

I definitely did and do. I completely understand what you are trying to say and fully agree. The only question is, are we the norm or the exception ... I think we are the exceptions. :runtear1:

 

Oh this is more than just a remote possibility. It is actually one of the few things that I know I will do in the future!!! And if I don't manage to actually make it there in person, at least there is always some strange forum on the web Viva la Internet.