There are officials who enter the Government Building through the front door on the day of a Cabinet meeting. For example, although Seyran Ohanyan, the Minister of Defense, knows quite well that mothers who have lost their sons will necessarily be standing outside that door and will surely stop the Minister and tell him once again about their sorrow. But he
doesn’t avoid listening to those women. And the majority of officials avoid such meetings, they enter the Government Building through the back door, don’t want to engage in a dialogue with the protesting people – it is obvious that during those conversations, no one will praise them and the government at all. And in order to listen to possible curses, one needs strong nerves. I remember that during such a talk, an official called a protesting citizen a “jerk.” So not only should one patiently listen to people’s complaints, not only take it easy on their hint or explicitly expressed idea that “all of you are gangsters and robbers,” but also try to respond to all that. One cannot help it, if we take into account all the “conveniences” that accompany an office, one should reconcile oneself also to some “troubles.”
In the 21st century, when everybody’s face appears on the internet from different angles every second, it is ruled out that one can merge into the crowd wearing dervish clothes. So one shouldn’t avoid at least those short conversations, regardless of how unpleasant they are. If you are not aware of the reality, dear officials, let me inform you that the overwhelming majority of citizens don’t like you, to put it mildly, they have had those feelings approximately since 1992 and I assume they will have them for another few decades. The reasons for those not-so-warm feelings are two: 1. Citizens relate their welfare and happiness to you; 2. You relate your welfare and happiness to your offices. Unless that double knot is undone, those curses will continue. And when it is undone, the powers that be will stop being such, they will stop “ruling” and will become an administration, which temporarily performs technical functions by our, citizens’, decision. And in that case, citizens will have neither warm nor cold feelings for officials. As we don’t either like or hate an iron or a gas boiler, we just need them to work.
And meanwhile, be so kind as to listen to citizens’ complaints at least once a week, don’t rush to call them a psycho or a personal enemy, although there will surely be such among them. One cannot escape from life.
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ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
