From January 22, access to some public places will no longer be allowed without a vaccination certificate or PCR certificate. From March of this year, smoking will be banned indoors and outdoors. I know many will disagree with me, but I think these are steps in the right direction. The exception, I think, is the PCR test requirement. In this difficult social situation, in the conditions of sharp rise in prices, it is not possible to demand additional expenses from people. Tests should either be free for citizens (through the state and / or employers) or not mandatory at all.
All these decisions have only one drawback: they will not be implemented. Let me remind you that at the moment, the orders of the Minister of Health that masks should be worn on public transport and closed areas, for example, are still in force. What percentage of those requirements are maintained? Why should the situation be different with these new orders? For 2-3 days, cafe owners will pretend to check QR codes, and then everything will be back to normal. There are not enough police officers or inspectors in Armenia to monitor all the cafes. (Police barely manage to track who writes what to high-ranking officials on Facebook).
Until culture changes, that is, until people, for example, realize that smoking in the presence of other people is a manifestation of ugly, rude behavior, then nothing will change. The police do not make sure that people do not walk around the street in, say, underwear, because there is a certain consensus in our society that such behavior is unacceptable. And there is no such agreement on not blowing smoke on a person’s face.
There is no agreement on more important issues, including civil service. No matter what the pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary authorities say, public service has been and remains a means of solving social problems at an “above average” level for at least the last 50 years. Why can a teacher or a university lecturer live on a salary of 100-200 thousand AMD? Because, according to that logic (which, of course, is not officially voiced), the teacher and the lecturer are “uncultured.” If they “became cultured,” they would become employees of the tax committee or road police. And the latter, since they have “became cultured,” should use their position, otherwise why did they “enter the state business”? They could have become teachers. I think the logic is clear, and it is a cultural issue.
Not smoking and getting vaccinated are also linked to culture. If the laws are not in line with the thinking of most people, they (in the case of a non-totalitarian system) will not work.
Aram Abrahamyan
