BETWEEN ETERNAL HAVEN AND TEMPORARY ABODE
James Hakobyan
Lragir.am
20-08-2007 11:23:21
It would not be exactly true to say the report of the World Bank
experts on demography in Armenia gave us a surprise. But it was good
news that the population of our country will have decreased by 200
thousand by the year 2025. The rate and tendency of development that
is observed in the country now gives rise to worse forecasts. In
this context, it is great that the population of Armenia will have
gone down by only 200 thousand and not by 2 million. Moreover,
it is great that people will continue to live in Armenia at all by
the year 2025 and there will not be only say tourists. The point
is that in our country everything is done for tourists now. Hotels,
restaurants, night clubs, expensive resorts are being built. Even the
construction of elite neighborhoods, which is proceeding so fast,
although it is not clear where it is heading for, is for tourists,
in fact. Those elite high-rises are targeted at the Armenians living
abroad, who are expected to buy apartments looking to Ararat. Most of
them do buy. However, these buyers are not residents of Armenia. They
live in these apartments for one or two months, for the rest of the
months these apartments are havens for souls, sources of satisfaction
of the soul. In other words, the construction of elite apartments is
also part of the spiritual Armenia project. Meanwhile, the physical
Armenia is gradually disappearing. Or growing old, the World Bank
experts forecast. But since this time their forecasts are not on the
merits of the "tiger", the Armenian government did not bother to work
the propaganda machine.
Although it does not matter much. The government must be mindful of it
and make moves to avoid the situation that was forecast. Logically,
it is necessary to make efforts to improve the quality of life to
avoid this situation. It is necessary to build apartments for a bigger
class of people, provide people with more or less well-paid jobs,
launch flexible mortgage lending for people to be able to have two
or three children instead of one.
The government should encourage births by aiding financially. These
are the basic means of improving the demographic state which seem
obvious to every citizen.
In Armenia, however, it is very slow, and the situation changes at
a low rate. We may even say very few more young people can afford
to buy apartments in 2007 compared with 2006, and very few more
young people’s jobs became more steady and profitable. And it is
all but evident that very few will have improved their lives in 2008
compared with 2007. The picture will change only in case the government
launches the real "second generation" of reforms which are so often
discussed. In addition, these should be implemented as fast and
consistently as the first generation of reforms in the early 1990s. It
is clear that for the government the rate of the first generation of
reforms was desirable because it helped create a class of proprietors
comprising the government and the pro-government circles. Meanwhile,
the second generation of reforms supposes the emergence of a middle
class for which the government and the pro-government circles will
have to bother.
Meanwhile, the country has no other way. Either radical steps are
taken to change the situation in the country which make Armenia
attractive not only for Diasporan Armenians for 5 or 6 months but
also for the citizens of Armenia for the year round, or the country
becomes a temporary abode where people come for some time and the
residents wait until they save enough money for the ticket.