How Can We Help Armenia?

[MrLeftyHye]

I went to Armenia this past summer & I really thank God I live in the USA. Seeing my home country made me realize how some people really live. I loved the expierence there but I cant live there. If you have been to Armenia you know what I mean. If not let me tell you some stuff that I saw whicj broke my heart:
1) Kids smoking on thr streets at the age of 11 12.
2) Kids selling anything (roses, doves) to suppor tthere fmaily.
3) The Elderly begging for $$$.
4) People sleeping on the street.
I mean the whole country is run by the Mafia, I hope we can do something to uprise the country of Armenia.

[gmd]

Re: How Can We Help Armenia?

If I can play devil's advocate for a minute....

All those things you described happen right here in the good ol USA everyday. Maybe it is more obvious in Armenia because it is a smaller country and most of us feel more empathy towards "our own people".

[MrLeftyHye]

Re: How Can We Help Armenia?

I guess so but maybe because its a smaller place you see the majority of people doing the same thing. Yes thats everywhere but I dont know how to explain it, Armenias just diffrent.

[Sip]

Re: How Can We Help Armenia?

What was the recent stat .. something like 70% of the men smoke in Armenia? It's one of the worst in the world (something like 6th if I remember correctly in terms of total smokers).

[gmd]

Re: How Can We Help Armenia?

What was the recent stat .. something like 70% of the men smoke in Armenia? It's one of the worst in the world (something like 6th if I remember correctly in terms of total smokers).

Do they count me in that stat too, even though I am in California?

[armo_origin]

Re: How Can We Help Armenia?

My dad and sister went to Armenia last summer and they loved it. They said it's so much better now then it was when I went in 1999. I saw all that too when I went, but you really can't compare Armenia to the USA, because the latter has had so much more opportunity to improve itself, whereas the former has gone through a lot of crap during the last decade.

[gmd]

Re: How Can We Help Armenia?

My dad and sister went to Armenia last summer and they loved it. They said it's so much better now then it was when I went in 1999. I saw all that too when I went, but you really can't compare Armenia to the USA, because the latter has had so much more opportunity to improve itself, whereas the former has gone through a lot of crap during the last decade.

good points. corruption and all that aside, we need to keep in mind Armenia is still landlocked with unfriendly neighbors, limited natural resources, etc. not trying to make excuses, i think even if corruption was not an issue there would still be problems in development.

[MrLeftyHye]

Re: How Can We Help Armenia?

good points. corruption and all that aside, we need to keep in mind Armenia is still landlocked with unfriendly neighbors, limited natural resources, etc. not trying to make excuses, i think even if corruption was not an issue there would still be problems in development.

Ya gmd you can only do so much to improve a 3rd world country.

[armoblog]

Re: How Can We Help Armenia?

I think Armenia needs to be educated about a few things: Western-style business, the ill-effects of tobacco, safe sex (AIDS rates are up), and so on. We can't change the government, not even with an election, but what we can do is empower people to make do well, even if the local government often prevents anyone from doing so.

However, the most important thing: end monopolies at the state and local level. Let market forces dictate success of failure of business. This is out of our control, however. Short of a revolution, that is.

[MrLeftyHye]

Re: How Can We Help Armenia?

If we have some Armenians with courage lets start helping & making Armenia cleaner.