Politics

I am not much into politics, in fact - not at all. But Armenia is a small country, and you can't hide from what's going on around you. Here is a very interesting blog post about the presidential elections coming up. It speaks for itself, so I won't comment on it...

http://hnazarian.blogspot.com/2008/01/illegal-candidate.html

The elevated style and unnecessary capitalization of the offer below sounded so amusing, that I decided to post it here - maybe it will amuse someone else beside myself. I didn't change a word, only deleted the name of the travel agency - no need to embarass them.

Distinguished Sir/Madam,

I am happy to inform you that "... TRAVEL" offers you its services different and interesting in kinds. We are pleased to be engaged with Tourism and also provide our guests with Air tickets service. Our Travel Agency will surely make the Tour Package of your wish developing the tourism both inside and outside of Armenia. Moreover, we can arrange your short, a few days trip around the country to spend your winter vocation. Besides you can turn to us if you need to Rent a Car. Any car which will appear to be appropriate to be rented by you will undoubtedly be at your disposal.

Alongside with these offers we also have such services as , CapitalConstruction, as well. Dear Sir/Madam, Any of these services is realized by our Agency friendly but professionally.

Anti-logic

On Saturday, my next door neighbor knocks on my door - rather loudly, I must add. I just moved into the building a few weeks ago and so far was on friendly terms with their rather large family. So I open the door and smile.
"Your cat poops on my doormat" - she says without the preliminaries.
"I am sorry, but it is impossible," I answer, still smiling. "Our door is never open for the cat to get out; besides, she is scared to go out of the door".
I omitted the fact that the sheer amount of cat poop I find inside my house leaves none to be deposited outside.
"I have seen various stray cats inside the building. I am sure it's one of them," I add.
"It never happened before you moved here," insists the neighbor. "It must be your cat."
"But my cat doesn't go out!"

After 10 minutes of this exchange, still unconvinced, she turns to go back inside.
"I am going to put some poison out. Don't blame me if your cat dies" is her parting shot.

Poor street cats!

The peculiarities of national driving - part 2 (an angry post)

Once more peculiarity of automotive culture in Armenia is the license plate game. It goes like this: if you want the police to leave you alone no matter how you drive, get the right license plate. Not a vanity plate that expresses your individuality, but a plate which is easy for the policemen to memorize. If you have any way of getting a diplomatic plate, even better - no one will dream of pulling you over. If not, at least make sure that the numbers and letters on your plates are well-known to every road policeman, law enforcement officer, local mafia and vendors.

The road police in Armenia is heartily despised by all drivers. Why? Because they deserve it. Once a law enforcement institution, it has gradually become a corrupt and lax body of people concerned only about personal profit and the whim of those at the top. (By the way, the rank of a traffic cop can be easily guessed by the size of his cheeks, stomack and his, pardon me, rear. The larger the butt, the higher the rank.) Instead of learning by heart the rules and regulations, they study the license plate numbers of the "important" people, so that in their continuous hunt for driver bribes they won't, even by mistake, stop anyone who is someone. God forbid! there were cases of policemen getting beaten up for pulling over people obviously in violation of the law, who were certain they are above the law.

On the other hand, a common driver can be pulled over on a slightest excuse, or even without, and can be threatened with a huge (by local standards) fine, just to eztract a bribe. When I asked our senior driver why he didn't argue with, or even take to the court the guy who pulled him over for no reason at all, he answered "I don't believe it will do any good. It is easier to give him 3 000 ($10) and go, than to pay a 30 000 ($100) fine".

Alltogether, it rather makes me miss the trim, proper and correct American cops. Sure, they too are human and some are not above abuse and corruption, but I haven't met those, except in the movies...

What Yahoo! knows about Yerevan

I typed Yerevan into the Yahoo search window - accidentaly, mind you! Yahoo, being the helpful search engine that it is, immediately came up with some search suggestions:

(You gotta click on the pic to see the details.)

For those of you who don't know who dodi gago is, you can go here: http://wikimapia.org/760402/.

Winter wonderland

This as about how Roxy and I went skiing with our cousins. We stayed overnight in their little chalet on the foothills of Mount Aragats and spent the day rolling down the small hill behind the house. It was fun, even though inside the house it was pretty cold at first (no one stayed there since summer and it took a while to heat up two of the bedrooms).

The house (above) and the view from it (below).

Views of the neighborhood - a real winter wonderland. The snow in some places was knee-deep.

Roxy - first time on the skis.

That's Mount Ararat hiding in the clouds at dawn.