Tagged: parties
happy
A little victory has been registered by me today. I am following pre-electoral speeches these days made by all parties and candidates.
I am happy to report that many parties use parts of these 17 steps, some exaggerated, some quoted literally.
As an example of exaggerating I witnessed promising an apartment to all those who has 5 and more kids. While I spoke only about 500 sq. m. of land. (As lands add lots of direct and indirect value).
While I am super happy our politicians finally appreciate exact, specific and target-oriented steps. I would be happier if those speeches could also be precise.
Just as examples, if we promise apartments, we need to mention when and where those apartments should be provided. If we talk about diaspora investments, tell people of exact timing these steps will enter parliament as changes in the law, etc.
I absolutely do not care which party takes my ideas. These ideas are for my country.
Hurry, parties. Your competitors use these 17 steps very actively.
bitter soap
Soap operas blocked Armenian TV’s prime time and they seem to find their audience.
Armenian soap operas are sad and funny at the same time. They are mostly about sad love, crime, human stinginess, guilt, death, hidden relations, poverty, lost relatives and always about big money and small oligarchs. While you may sympathize with the hero, you will find some of his/her words wrongly pronounces or irrelevant and it will make you burst with laughter. An episode can sometimes make your day. Neither artists nor the scriptwriters know what they talk or write about. A proper research of a phenomenon or a situation is never conducted. No time, no money, no knowledge, no human or other resources.
My small inquest revealed that the audience watching Armenian soap operas is quite big. Don’t be surprised, it’s 5 people out of 10. Every second citizen!
So, if every second person in Armenia watches soap operas – then soap operas are the greatest and most inventive tool to educate and promote something. I’m not talking about advertisement, I talk about ideological influence. I don’t talk about consumer approach, I talk about citizen and voter approach. In plain English, I don’t talk about showing juice or brandy in an episode, but promoting idea, news, thought, certain public institution and even specific official.
It’s a dream for politicians and parties. If the main hero, a very positive and loved person, a person in fact loved by every second Armenian praises something or promotes something in an episode – its sure a bingo. Those main positive heroes are more influential than any political person or movement in the country, just because every second Armenian knows them and naively listens to them, watches them everyday. Not to use them is stupidity.
I don’t mean to make Armenian soap operas political, all I mean is they will not become dirtier if they involve in politics too.
And not only politics. If the main hero never lies, doesn’t smoke, plants trees, cares about kids and seniors, reads books everyday, crosses streets only when its allowed, drives safely etc. – its the best way of educating the nation. And maybe today it’s the only way to educate. Think about it.
13 practical steps to win elections in 2012
13 practical tips for parties running for Armenian Parliament (National Assembly) in 2012
As very soon parties running for Armenian Parliament will start bribing media, marketing their successes and filming touching but irrelevant clips instead of providing clear, precise, specific, measurable and time bound steps and targets, I think it’s time to share some tips and ideas that can help any party win, but what’s more important, they can help the country.
Therefore, here are 13 practical and free tips on what to include in economic part of Parliament 2012 campaign. These steps do not hurt the economy of the country but make it prosper. They are social-oriented, progressive, long-term, sustainable, specific and measurable.
1. Tax-free all Diaspora Armenians investing in Armenia for a period of more than 3 years and ensuring jobs for at least 15 people with minimum salary of US$ 750/month for each employee.
2. Tax-free all foreign investors investing in Armenia for a period of more than 5 years and ensuring jobs for at least 165 people with minimum salary of US$ 650/month for each employee.
3. Tax-free importing (customs taxes and fees) any food production equipment given that a) equipment is new, unused and of most recent technological standards, b) engages at least 7 employees to run.
4. Tax-free for 3 years and offer co-investment (as government share) of at least 20% (but not more than 49%) if any of “Fortune 50″ IT companies invests in Armenia.
5. Tax-free any internationally or locally patented know-how for 5 years, given that “country of origin” of final produced goods and services will be made in Armenia and production will start in 3 months after successful patenting.
6. Offer to co-invest (as government share) at least 30% (but not more than 49%) in any new IT company, given that a) the company shows successful sales of its products or services for at least 6 months, b) company sells produced goods or services to EU or USA.
7. Demand by law to seal/mark “Made in Armenia” on any product made in Armenia.
8. As the state never trained its ministries and other state institutions on how they should spend public (taxpayer’s) money, train public servants who procures using state funds on how to procure using state funds.
9. Reduce road transit fees for logistics from Iran through Armenia to Georgia (or further) for 40%.
10. Put a minimum annual trade threshold for a newly built tax-free zone at the airport. (Example: “Dear airport, you remain tax-free zone for the next year if you trade at least EUR xxx,xxx,xxx annually”). Don’t mix up with actual duty free zone in the airport.
11. Publicly auction any new land provided by Yerevan municipality for commercial or residential construction by advertising the auction in official newspaper (“Հայաստանի Հանրապետություն”) and Public TV at least 5 weeks before the auction. Make the actual auction electronic and live webcast it on municipality’s website.
12. Companies employing 20,000 or more people with a minimum salary equaling US$ 390/month do not pay taxes for their lifetime.
13. The biggest employer and the biggest taxpayer of the country can address Parliament once a year with 30 minutes speech.
I know that for our political parties these points are hard to digest and for some of them they are even hard to simply understand, however I very much hope some progressive parties will be smart enough to include them in their 2012 Parliament campaign.
That’s the ticket to win the elections, and if a single company employing 20,000 people appears in Armenia in upcoming years – that’s the ticket to win many elections to come.
“Good artists copy, great artists steal” said Picasso. So please feel free to steal my ideas and include them in your Parliament 2012 campaign.
