Politics
When “everybody is us”
Lilit AVAGYAN | May 8, 2012
On May 5 all the parties will finally be silent. Will this silence help the constituents better orient who they’d like to vote for. Nonetheless, the most important thing, the answer of which we are trying to find out whether they should vote between bad and worse or boycott the elections. There is a slight nuance. In the case if boycotting you cannot express your feeling of contempt and detestation. First of all, no one will let you express your feelings and opinions and secondly someone will vote instead of you by all means. And in this case, as well, the party which the voters wouldn’t vote for, will win the race. We can be honest and mention that this time all the parties had equal opportunities to be on TV and express their viewpoints. This was obviously a step forward. In fact the external effects didn’t have much influence on the quality of the pre-election campaign. And let’s not mention the opposite either. What did the presence of children and juveniles during the RPA, PAP and...
Business & Economy
Differentiate if you can
Ara GALOYAN | May 5, 2012
The economic week was strangely glutted both in terms of information and events. The most important event was unfortunately expected. The US government has long ago stated that it was going to cease the funding of the Millennium Challenge Corporation project in Armenia. They promised to cease and they did so. The Corporation was supposed to provide 235 million USD for the Armenian projects since 2006 but only 177 million USD was provided. And now our government had to state that the Yerevan office was going to be dissolved. The renovation of inter-community roads still remains a burden for the Armenian state budget. As though this bad news wasn’t enough when it was stated that compared to the previous year the number of tourists to Armenia has reduced. The official reason is the extended winter season. They wouldn’t possibly say that the tourists avoid coming to Armenia during the pre-election period, where the last elections ended with March 1. The author of the next dubious economic information is...
Business & Economy
Harmonic contradiction
Ara GALOYAN | April 21, 2012
Everything is pretty harmonic. The nature is becoming active together with spring. The political life is becoming active with electoral competition. The Armenian media is full of coverage on the Armenian elections and the foreign media is full of information concerning elections in France, the US, Latin countries, etc. readers compare those processes as the economic basements are the same. Due to the international crisis in all countries that are setting foot in elections economic issues are top priorities. The presidential candidates of France, the US and the leaders of our parties are speaking of the same issues. During all meeting with voters all party leaders are promising jobs. The reason is the fact that due to the crisis in Western countries the unemployment rate is extremely high. In the US the unemployment rate has reached 8-9%. In other countries the situation is worse. According to official information, in Spain the unemployment rate of people that can work is 24%. The youth in France has got used to...
Politics
The routine of the party state
Ara GALOYAN | April 14, 2012
The main economic news of the week were quite controversial as it’s characteristic to this pre-election period. During this period usually lots of things become simple and noticeable. Unfortunately, a few people pay attention this and these developments vanish over time. But these developments prove the quality and productivity of governance. The economic week continued the trend of slow but stable devaluation of the national monetary unit. Yesterday the exchange stock market was closed with 392.4 AMD per USD rate. In the exchange points of Armenia the USD was being sold at a more expensive price. Indeed, this is not a very negative thing for the economic market. Moreover, it can conduce to the growth of export rate. However, the next information released from banks was quite controversial and contradicted the stable growth of the AMD. It turns out that in our banking system the savings are being de-dolarized. Before March 2009 the USD was devaluating day by day. The majority of the banking savings were...
Business & Economy
The selective section of the economy
Ara GALOYAN | April 7, 2012
The Parliamentary elections already have their impact on the economy. According to the official statistics the lowest inflation rate was recorded in February. Official statistics will record deflation of u number of products. And this may be explained. In spite of the promises given by the RPA, many of the businessmen were nominated. The nominated oligarchs, as importers and producers, understand that restraining the inflation is in their favor. Otherwise the complaints will increase prior to elections. It will lead to unmanageable increase of election bribes. The candidates and parties will spend approximately 80-100 billion dollars will on the upcoming elections. It is a huge amount for pre-election campaigns, party platforms, salaries and election bribes. The experts suppose that elections bribes will increase immensely. According to them, the inflation of the recent years finally increased the election bribe. It is clear that the oligarchs and parties will artificially circulate currency to be able to cover...
Politics
Fake and foul science
Ara GALOYAN | March 31, 2012
Last week was another week for disappointment from the point of view of both economy and politics. It is normal that in the pre-election period everything must be viewed through the prism of elections. The expectations for appreciation of the national currency did not come true. Iranians did not spend huge cash flow in the market either. Neither the oligarchs that sponsor pre-election campaign exchanged their foreign currency for the purpose of spending on pre-election activities. The exchange rate of dollar grew and again crossed the limit of 390. The disappointment was doubled when the police published the pre-election lists nominated for the parliamentary elections. Before the publication of these lists there was some optimism and international organizations and community were petitioning the political powers of Armenia to organize fair elections. Our political powers announced that they had taken those advices. Even the Prosperous Armenia party that is a part of the coalition believed in this and announced...
Politics
Pre-election metamorphoses
Lilit AVAGYAN | March 29, 2012
During the pre-election period each party is able to degrade its reputation and image without any external mediation. In the case of the ruling coalition parties there was no need for efforts although the RPA has pretty good black jokes for Prosperous Armenia and vice versa. And both of these parties have jokes for the Legal State. As these jokes are mostly vulgar rather than intellectual I wouldn’t like to speak about these jokes. And the opposition doesn’t waste time and efforts to destroy its own rating and reputation. Moreover, the opposition parties use the old methods of degrading themselves. They all blame each other for cooperating with the government. They are blamed for secrets deals with the government and for taking on the role of mines in the opposition field. The last episode was initiated by Raffi Hovhannisian. He got nominated in the same district as the ANC nominee Nicol Pashinyan. And he did this several minutes after Pashinyan’s nomination. The ANC members have responded this...
