Independence Day

[Harut]

Ketstse Hayots Petakanutyun@!!!

Parq yev Havitenakanutyun Hayastani Hanrapetutyan@!!!

Uzh yev Korov Hay Zhoghovrdin!!!

 

Shnorhavorum em hamayn hayutyan@, yev hatkapes Hayastani Hanrapetutyan hpataknerin, ays angin dzerqberman kapaktsutyamb!!!

[alpha]

Independence is a very noble idea, but it should serve a purpose of creating a strong state where citizens of Armenia can live and prosper. Allow me to paraphrase from American Declaration of Independence before you read the article from Armenianow.com

 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

 

So will anyone blame people of Armenia for overthrowing their usurpers?

 

http://www.armenianow.com/2003/october10/outsideeye/

 

Sometimes it is the seemingly insignificant events that say the most about the living condition: Putting a new coat of polish on worn-out shoes; sweeping trash from a sidewalk that is hardly more than dirt itself; carrying yourself with dignity on your way to borrow money . . . Such things.

We have a story this week that could be seen as insignificant, unless you look past the event itself and to the mentality that creates the environment in which such actions flourish.

 

Some trees were uprooted from an Armenian hillside and replanted to decorate a Yerevan cafe. So what?

 

So what, is that the trees were planted 30 years ago in an effort to filter the air and protect, via a "greenbelt", the environment. Now they are practically nothing but potted plants, likely to dry out and do little more than filter clouds of cigarette smoke from one of too many Yerevan cafes.

 

So what, is that the person who put them there is the very appointed government official - the Minister of Protection of Nature - whose title should spell out pretty clearly the irony here. That Minister took 30 years of cultivated nature - significantly in this case, government property - probably damaged it, and turned it into window dressing for his wife's cafe.

 

The official was clever enough to disguise the intentions of his action. He filled out papers saying the trees were going to be used for aesthetic enhancement of a government property in Kotayk. But two days after those papers were filed, the 15-to-20-foot silver spruces became landscaping for Mrs. Minister's central Yerevan cafe.

 

So what?

 

So what, is that an environmental protection group - the Union of Greens - found out about the transplanting and asked the General Prosecutor's Office to look into it. An investigator found that violations had occurred.

 

I guess the fact that it involved an appointed official got somebody's attention, so the President was advised that his Minister of Nature Protection had arguably defiled his very title. The President told prosecutors to back off, answering their investigation with, in effect: "So what?"

 

I came here from California, but I am not a tree hugger. I find it hard to get worked up over environmental issues because I generally find them arrogant suppositions that Mother Nature can't find a way to take care of herself - like, after billions of years she needs our puny help.

 

This isn't about trees. It is a damn lot about the environment here, however.

 

The environment here is that abuse of government-appointed power is seen as a privilege of the post, rather than a punishable offense. I wish this incident with the trees were the most egregious example of that fact. In any case, since it is our jumping off point on this occasion please indulge further examination of this "insignificant" occurrence.

 

First, does anybody question how it is that prime property, i.e., cafe sites in one of the busiest parks in the capital, ends up owned by families who run the government? Does anybody question whether it is right that a pensioner in the city center can hardly find a park bench that isn't attached to the disco-deafening noise of a cafe? Or that a strolling family has no green space for introducing babies to nature because the green space has been overtaken by concrete and neon put up to entice business for the well-connected?

 

Finally, is it too ironic that government officials/cafe owners cut down park trees to make room for their cafes, then uproot trees from government property to decorate them?

 

Okay, okay. I won't unravel the whole socio-political ball of thread over this one. So what?

 

It's just some trees, right?

[MosJan]

INDEPENDENCE DAY

 

Today, the Republic of Armenia celebrates its Independence Day. 14 years ago this day the exclusive majority of Armenia's population said "yes" to its centuries-long dream of free and independent fatherland. 14 years were a vast period for the republic's population to become disillusioned with the first then the second presidents and the authorities as a whole. More than 1 million Armenians left the country, fled from independence. Is this the independence we longed for?

 

"... A group of mediocre people heinously deceived the people, broke its back to the extent of creating a yearning for a dependent Armenia. Only fancy that: one lives in an independent country and misses his dependent past", only 4 days ago wrote publicist Pertch Zeytuntsian.

 

The Independence Day will not cross the threshold of official holiday to enter every Armenian family as long as presidential, parliamentary and other elections are being rigged in Armenia as long as the rights of the owners of independence, the common citizens, are being violated.

 

By Tatoul Hakobian

[Harut]

voghpa, hayastan ashxarh, vor ankax es, nuynisk qo zhoghovrdits... vor ankaxutyun unes, ir uruyn orov, bayts nshogh chunes...

[MosJan]

E ap jan isk ov @sav or mortser enq ?

 

http://hyeforum.com/index.php?showtopic=12485

 

h@b@ Formu Calendar@ mortsar ? ches Ashe

[Lev7]

Kece Ankax Hayastani!