“Charity, assistance, international grants are killing the future of Armenia-they help to get by, but not to become the best”, Russian Armenian businessman Ruben Vardanyan said recently. Aptly said as always, however, the “getting by” has very deep roots and comes of a rather unique manifestation of laziness.
You cannot become a millionaire in Armenia if you are not in a close relationship with the government, or, rather, not being part of the government. It’s too bad. It is the reflection of corruption, monopolies, and other vicious phenomena. But it is possible to receive a normal salary or income in Armenia, which will provide a proper life for you and your family. (Of course, this refers to people capable of working). The problem is that the views of a proper life are different. There are people who have the chance to receive 2-3 hundred thousand Armenian drams, but refuse to work for such salary, bringing the following rather strange reasoning, “how come this or that oligarchic man drives along the streets of Yerevan with his gang in luxurious cars, and I don’t”, or “why this official can afford a four-storey mansion, and I live only in a three-room apartment”.
I do not know, maybe these statements of questions are mere theoretically justified, but I do not think one should waste whole life on dreams about unreachable luxurious cars, and mansions, not raising a finger to afford a much more modest but perhaps more meaningful life. (I do not understand people who compare themselves with someone else, forgetting that each of us has our own mission).
Then, the logic is as follows: As anyway it is not possible to become Tsarukyan, or Aleksanyan in this damned country, then only two options are left-either I sit and wait for someone-my state, foreign states, a rich relative living abroad-to assist me, or I leave for Russia, which, of course, is even more damned country, with more robber officials, and greedy oligarchy, but at least they are not my own, so I will get by. In both cases the ideology of “getting by” dominates.
For over 10 years I cannot find a gardener. Either they come and tell that they are the best farmers in the world and refuse to work for any amount of salary, or they come, take the salary (not little, by the way), and shirk their work.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
