Tagged: corruption
a matter of perception
It all is a matter of magnitude and perception. Someone’s loss or victory may mean nothing to another person and visa versa. Someone’s ideals and ideas may mean a world to that person, but those may mean nothing to another one.
Today I had a breakfast outside and my waiter was nervous because he lost his bottle opener. It was a big issue for him. He was upset, he was troubled and it seemed his day would end up in negativity. For me losing a bottle opener may not be a big issue, but for him it was.
Once I broke my laptop in another country, and it was a tragedy for me. I was there for some 5 weeks and I should present the results of my mission. And all the results were in the laptop.
I know where to go in Yerevan with this problem, and I know who can do everything quickly. But in another country it is an issue – you are unaware of people, IT specialists, everything… It was an issue for me. But it might not be an issue for someone else. For someone who is either IT-familiar or knows people and quick solutions around. In addition to money issue it was a shame for me to say “I have nothing to tell you after 5 weeks of work.”
Lately I was reading the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, there was a story about one of Russia’s most prominent businessman. He was telling about his losses, and I understood that my laptop issue with all its inside information, and even losing a contract as a consequence – would be losing a bottle opener for him.
So it is always a matter of magnitude and your perception. The prism, through which you look at everything. Stealing from the state budget may be shame and mortal sin for someone, but for another one it may be profession.
A guy of my age approached me on the street today, holding a mobile phone. He was smoking. He said he had no money to pay for transport, but he needed to reach a specific place in the city. So it was a matter of only 100-300 drams…. I refused.
the inner evolution
I don’t believe in solving problems by changing one president to another one. I believe in inner evolution, instead of revolution. Especially if the coming president was in power before and had all chances to shine like a star, but did not. So, I don’t believe that changing the president, minister, prime-minister, parliament speaker, etc., will give any touchable, material, evident result. And here is why.
If you change the driver, but do not change the traffic rules – nothing will change. If you change your Opel to Maserati but your fuel tank is empty – the car won’t move. If you change your dentist, but don’t give him/her proper tools and medical equipment – s/he cant help you. If you change your president to expect him/her to change everything in the country, but you don’t change social perception of the problems, you don’t change your attitude towards the country, city and you think you should not demand anymore, as the right guy is in power – nothing will happen, nothing will change.
The history of Europe and North America vividly shows that the prosperity can come without revolutions too. And the history of revolutions will show you that 90% of revolutions brought chaos, regress of economy, depression, refugees and enormous sorrow to a mankind. So, no revolution, but inner evolution.
Inner evolution is another way and method of asking questions and demanding justice. It is another, new way of holding officials accountable. Remember, if officials are not allowed to steal, if they are controlled, if they have no chance to engage in corrupt practice – they will leave themselves. And if you change one president to another without changing anything else – it will most certainly be worse.
So instead of demanding revolution, you should demand laws to be obeyed. Instead of demanding revolution you should ask questions and hold officials accountable for every single step they make. Instead of demanding revolution you should tell the president, prime-minister, ministers, etc. that they and their families eat, because you pay their salaries from your pocket. You should tell every police officer, that he has his breakfast because you paid your taxes. You should tell the judge that he/she can afford those shoes because you paid for them. You should demand definite answers, distinct programs and plans, solid satisfaction and substantial reforms, and never a revolution.
They will never leave, remember that. They will never leave, unless they know it is unbearable and they have to report their every step. Unless you yourself stop violating the law and paying bribes.
I met so many people paying bribes to tax inspectors and blaming this reality, this country, this president, this system, etc.,.
When do you pay bribes? When you did something wrong and you don’t want to pay penalties to the state. You prefer a cheaper method. And then you blame the state, the tax inspector and everyone on earth because you first violated the law, and then you violated the law for the second time when you paid a bribe. Until we have citizens like you, this country will never become the country of your dream. Whoever is the president.
And you know what tax inspectors told me? They told me Tax Inspection is the most human organization in this country, because it gives a chance. It doesn’t sue your shoes off and it doesn’t take you to jail. It offers you a solution for the crime you made. Ironic, isn’t it?
Revolution is never a solution. Demanding a revolution is indecent, lazy and wrong way of solving problems. Those who demand revolutions (i.e. changing one president to another) simply do not want this country to prosper.
like zombies
Dealing with any Armenian state entity you need to first ask (yourself and the entity) what are the steps you have to pass, be it car registration, apartment registration, anything related to the state involvement. If you don’t know your steps (i.e. your to do list) you are destined to stay in that entity till Christ’s second coming.
Be prepared to witness long lines waiting for their turn and “absent” looks of state servants. Sweat, tears and heart attacks. And, of course, corruption. I don’t only mean bribery for not standing in the line or for solving the problem quickly. But also changing the turns to serve relatives, friends, colleagues first. This is corruption too.
Who is responsible for all this? The Government of Republic of Armenia.
Just recently media reported that the Prime Minister exploded with anger and claimed that nation will soon wait for only 10-20 minutes instead of an hour to register a car. Apparently Mr. Sargsyan doesn’t know that you need to be there for a day (if you’re lucky) or two to register your car. You need to pass numerous rooms, approvals, stay in unorganized medieval lines and smell all the “perfumes” of our drivers. You need to talk to state officials and reveal that they have an IQ and manners of an average Taliban member.
But the worst thing is, you will eventually discover that people standing in line with you deserve to be treated like shit. When you ask these people about the sequence of events, or about steps that they need to pass, about cabinets they need to enter. Nobody knows it. And nobody wants to know. They just come to state entity and wait for instructions where to go and what to do. And whom to pay.
They have no idea about their “to do list” to complete the transaction, the steps to get what they want. They come, prepared to lose as much time as it takes and spend as much money as it takes to complete the transaction. They never question, they never wonder, they never demand.
Like zombies…
the difference
The picture shows how I see my country and my country’s neighbor through a prism of a) corruption b) freedom of speech and c) political prisoners.
Many people compare Armenia and Georgia nowadays, some say it’s better there or here, however one needs to actually say what exactly is better or worse. Any country has problems and benefits. Let’s analyze this.
Corruption:
My impression of Georgia – corruption in police and judicial system is extremely minimized. Georgians say it does not exist at all, (which is a strange thing to claim, as even French and Americans accept it exists in France and USA). However even minimized corruption brings trust, investors’ money and jobs. Minimum corruption in police and courts brings order and rule of law.
In Armenia the picture is different, police and courts are corrupt. They sometimes don’t even know how to deal with cases without guidelines from bosses, bribes and relationship. Of course, the level of corruption is not the one witnessed in Azerbaijan or Uzbekistan, but still, corruption is corruption.
Freedom of speech:
Neither Armenia nor Georgia has this. Even though opposition in both countries gathers wherever and whenever it wants and expresses opinions freely. Opposition in both countries has access to print media (owns newspapers) and Internet, but not to public radio or TV.
Public servants in both countries always have pro-governmental views. You will not find oppositional figure working as minister, deputy minister, head of department, head of unit in Armenia or Georgia. And not only because the governments are not ready to share the power, but also because the opposition will consider the guy a “betrayer”. This is a matter of political maturity of countries.
Political prisoners:
Having strong police Georgia risks to transform into police state. People are afraid. The country has more than 100 political prisoners as of today. The existence of political prisoners brings the neutrality of Georgia’ courts and judicial system into question.
Armenia is the only country in the region that has no political prisoners as of today. Actually, a wider region is meant here, including Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran, Ukraine, Belarus, Central Asia and Turkey.
would you produce Sugababes?
Do you really need money to start a big, game changing business in Armenia?
Not that much. You need time, effort and connections more than hard cash. One may argue that time is money, well yes. But I’ve got lots of friends, they have lots of time, but they have trouble transferring that time into money.
To create a big business in Armenia you will need protection, in case you want to create a game changing enterprise (for example another mobile operator, or another air company, or another brandy company). In 70-80% of countries you will need protection to invest and create a game changing company (caveat, I don’t talk about small and medium enterprises). I talk about a company that takes the contracts away from Samsung in Korea, takes the contracts away from Volkswagen or Deutsche Telecom in Germany, takes the contracts away from Sony and Toyota in Japan, takes the contracts away from main weapon sellers to Pentagon, takes the contracts away from AT&T, General Electric or Boeing in US, takes the contracts away from Gasprom in Russia, etc.. Game changing, rule setting, iconic companies, monopolies that are highly linked to governments in a long run.
Naturally, if you want to change the game in almost every country – you will need guarantees or at least promises. So, Armenia is no different. For example, sugar is a monopoly.
If you want to import sugar here – no one will stop you. If someone tells you “they won’t let you import sugar in Armenia” – don’t believe them. Again, no one will stop you. This is not Uzbekistan.
But the main importer, highly linked to the government will reduce sugar prices so much, that you will want to eat all the sugar you imported yourself. You will gain weight, you will open bakery chain to finally spend all the sugar you imported. You may even start producing Sugababes pop group or become the biggest sugar charity in Eastern Europe.
How come he can reduce prices and you can not? They actually do let you import sugar in Armenia and pay customs fees. But the main importer guy doesn’t pay all the state fees (while you pay), that’s why he can reduce the price. Needless to say, army or other main sugar utilizers will never buy sugar from you. In one word – corruption. It has always been like this from Day 1 of our independence, just in case you think changing the president will solve this problem.
You can claim the same for new Boeing or new weapon producers in US, or new Samsung in Korea, or new Deutsche Telecom in Germany. No one will stop you if you want to create one. You will simply have no contracts and will eventually close the shop.
Coming back to Armenia, it doesn’t matter who the main importer of sugar in Armenia is. His name actually does not matter. One needs to be narrow minded to blame that guy, as he is just the product of a corrupt system. The government can change that name overnight if it decides that importer B will be the main sugar importer from now on.
Moreover, I’m sure that if this guy is educated enough (and he is not) and he simply calculates the amount of bribes he pays, he may end up wanting to pay taxes instead.
The monopoly problem in Armenia is so deep, so delicate and vulnerable that even if you brake this monopoly scheme today, 90% of sugar buyers will buy it from the same guy automatically, by default. They have never known other sources from the day Levon Ter-Petrosyan first swore and promised to protect the country and it’s people. The problem is so big and again delicate, that I did not even touch it here.
I hope to talk about small and medium enterprises in another post soon. The picture is much brighter and the air is much fresher there. After all, Armenia is an Eastern European country and a member of Council of Europe. AND, my friends and I are determined to create a small enterprise this year.
