When in 1978 I was admitted to the Conservatoire, a competition was going on almost in all the departments. In particular, more than 10 applicants were nominated for 5 vocalists’ positions. I was thinking then whether Armenia needs to have 5 singers per year. Isn’t it too much? In the case of the “developed socialism”, such logic perhaps would be right. People were admitted to the university to obtain profession and to work in this-or-that “branch” of “people’s economy”. Now “we do not need that many singers” phrase has no meaning for every person, if he has passed the test, has the right to receive education at his wish, and as to what he is going to do with this education, it is already his private affair. Perhaps, for this very reason, several dozens of singers are now studying in every department of the Conservatoire.
The same for the parties, newspapers and websites. Almost every day we can hear that they are too many, that we do not need that many, that most of them are poor in quality, that this is too much for our small republic and so on. All of this, of course, is true. In particular, all the members of most of the parties could be accommodated in a minibus, without letting anyone on foot. In fact, it is contrary to the law, which defines certain qualitative and structural requirements for the parties. But this is the case when the law is wrong rather than the reality. What is wrong here? Let it be a 3-person party and operate in compliance to its influence and reputation. If it exists, then, as they say, someone needs it.
So are the websites. They might have few visitors, but someone might be interested in it. They might have many visitors and write in the heading of each article: a “scandal”, a “thrill”, “this video blew up the Internet” and so on. Let it be this, that and various other websites. What does it mean we do not need so many websites? And is there someone who should restrict their quantity by any standards? I do not believe in anyone’s impartiality of standards.
I will make a reservation: the matter is about non-government structures. In the case of the government agencies, it is the opposite, the questions about optimization are absolutely true. In a small country like ours, we do not need so many ministries and other government agencies, we do not need that many employees in the existing agencies. A country like Armenia does not need to have 131 parliamentarians. Twice a smaller legislative body is quite sufficient for us. For the government agencies are spending the taxpayers’ money. As you can see, not so efficiently.
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Aram ABRAHAMYAN
