ARMENIANS ARE CRYING ALL THE TIME

Lragir, Armenia
10-09-2007 14:08:50

"In fact, in 2004 poverty was 40-41 percent, in 2006 it dropped
to 26-27 percent, and extreme poverty declined as well," says
Aaron Adibekyan, sociologist, who has studied recently the state
of poverty in Armenia for the UN Millennium program. On September
10 Aaron Adibekyan and the head of the Commission for Religion and
Ethnic Minorities Hranush Kharatyan, ethnographer, were hosted at
the Hayeli Club for a debate.

Kharatyan said she has at hand the results of her survey which is
qualitative rather than quantitative. Hranush Kharatyan says she has
studied poverty since 2000, and observed the dynamics of the quality
of life of the same families. She says the results are not reassuring
because the survey conducted in different regions of Armenia show
the families which were poor in 2000 not only did not improve their
quality of life but on the contrary.

"I am sorry to say that only one family had improvement. It is a
family of refugees in Charentsavan who have finally got an apartment.

We did not observe any positive change in the lives of those families,
on the contrary, we observed regress, a poor state," Hranush Kharatyan
says.

Aaron Adibekyan speaks about a reality which he explains by the
Armenian mentality. According to him, the pollsters wanted to find
out how they evaluate the state of their family. Over 60 percent of
respondents said satisfactory, they can solve their problems. And
in evaluating the state of the community in general, the respondents
said over 60 percent are poor.

"If 60 percent of the members of the same community say the state
of their family is satisfactory, how does it happen that 60 percent
of the community are poor? An Armenian starts complaining whenever
he meets another Armenian. An American says on meeting his friend he
does well, he has some problem but he will solve it. But an Armenian
starts weeping," Aaron Adibekyan says, describing the Armenian habit of
"weeping".

Adibekyan says the gap between the rich and the poor has shrunk as
well. His statement amazed Hranush Kharatyan who thinks in reality
the gap between 10-20 percent who have the highest income and 10-20
percent who have the lowest income has become larger.