Investing in the Future

Freedom of speech is guaranteed under the Armenian constitution, but only a handful of newspapers can publish regularly and their combined daily circulation is trapped at under 15,000 in a country of more than three million people. The reason for their poor performance, most newspaper editors agree, is not government intrusion into their news-rooms as much as poor distribution and the negative impact of an economy which has squeezed newspapers out of the shopping list of the population.

There is more to foreign aid than just providing financial assistance to cash-strapped nations, and in Armenia one autonomous agency is breaking new ground by encouraging community involvement. The concept is the brainchild of the World Bank and is being implemented by the Armenian Social Investment Fund (ASIF), one of Armenia's most transparent autonomous entities whose work is subjected to regular international audits and the scrutiny of the beneficiaries themselves.

We know most of our readers by now are familiar with AGBU’s educational, cultural and social programs in Armenia. Each year, with the input of many individuals, every long-term project improves and expands. For this, we owe a debt of gratitude to our donors for their generosity, to our directors and staff in Armenia and the United States for their vision and administration and to the government of Armenia for their assistant and support. In the past few years, through the generosity of new donors, AGBU has extended its assistance to a variety of other institutions.

There are two sides to every story, and often the side that tells it best gets the larger audience. This is what a small group of theater fanatics are trying to prove in Armenia with an uphill battle to keep their art form alive without government funding. "Many of us still think that the theater is dying, and nothing of quality can be produced because there is no money from the government," said playwright and actor Vahram Sahakian after a recent presentation of one of his works in Yerevan

There are a lot of hidden assets in Armenia, and one of them is its youth, especially a group of university students who devote their free time to helping the less fortunate not only in their own country but also around the world. They are Armenia's "other ambassadors" who have in recent years established their own "diplomatic relations" through an international youth network which has also attracted hundreds of young "envoys" to Armenia.

The people of Gyumri are famous for their sense of humor, but it is their survival instinct that has kept them going despite the devastation caused by an earthquake nine years ago that killed twenty-five thousand and left many more homeless. "Anywhere else in the world, families would have moved away in search of a better life. But not the people of this region," Governor Ararat Gomtsian says with pride as he talks not only about reconstruction but building a new infrastructure for the future.

Some thirty years ago Hollywood writer and director Elia Kazan produced a stirring movie “America, America"; the story of a young boy in Turkey during the early years of the 20th century who dreamed of living in the United States. Well, it is not quite the same scenario but, nevertheless, a new film could be made called "Armenia, Armenia."

There are no easy ways to get the Armenian economy out of its post-Soviet slump, but despite the difficulties, Minister of Industry and Trade Garnik Nanagoulian says the wheels of fortune are finally beginning to turn. Armenia has the technology, the manpower and the resources. It also has a viable industrial base which once was a major component of the old Soviet infrastructure.

Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrossian has said that continued demands for the independence of Nagorno- Karabakh are unrealistic and that the current stalemate cannot continue indefinitely, Snark News Agency reported. Speaking at a news conference in Yerevan on Sep­tember 26, Ter-Petrossian said that “at the current time the demands to give full independence to Nagorno-Karabakh or for it to unite with Armenia, just like any attempt to use force to make Azerbaijan capitulate, are not realistic,” the agency reported.

Healthcare reform is like a bitter pill. It is easy to prescribe but difficult to swallow, especially when the patient is the healthcare system itself. It makes it harder when the prescrib­ing physician is the Minister of Health himself, who has to balance between what he wants to do as a doctor and what he must do as an administrator.