Parking Tickets in Armenia are...Different

Click to enlarge.

Keep this little tidbit in mind the next time you're in Armenia: when the police or the parking people or whoever decide that you've parked in the wrong place, they take your license plate to the police station. That means you have to go to the station, pay your fine, and then get your plate back.

How neat is that?

Source: Flickr

Video: Everything That is Wrong with Armenia

Here's a video, provided by A1+, of cars and trucks using a public park as a street because city services was incompetent enough to provide a proper detour: for me, this video highlights everything that is wrong with Armenia.

First off, we have the city or whoever is in charge of maintaining roads. Not only are they apparently poorly run, but they are unwilling or stupid enough to direct cars and trucks to drive through and damage a public park, while at the same time endangering civilians.

Second you have the drivers themselves, who care only that they get from point A to point B, without at all considering the damage that they are doing to a park. Since they are probably evading taxes anyway, their hearts don't hurt when they destroy the work of others before them, because it is not theirs.

And lastly you have the people in the park themselves or those who use it often, sitting idly by and doing nothing to prevent the traffic from raping everything in its path. Granted, that would be more of an activist role and that's too much to expect. Right, those people only come out during elections, when they have personal bones to pick with certain politicians, and not when material harm is being done here and now. Irreverent cowards.

What you have is a system where the average person does not care about their own country. Who cares if they drive through a park? Who cares if we destroy something that our fathers built? It's not mine, it doesn't cost me anything, and I have zero regard for it!

Armenia's First 3D Game: Yerevan Drive!

How would you like the chance to drive around on the streets of Yerevan? No joke! The game is called Yerevan Drive - produced by Emergency Soft - and you get to drive and crash around Yerevan. Choose a Niva, 08, CL600, and many other cars and tear up the streets! You see modern and Soviet-era cars driving past you. Don't like them? Crash into them!

The game engine was built from scratch and that in itself is worthy of respect. While it will be a lie to say that this game is on par with American racing games, which have budgets of millions of dollars, it is a great first step and fun, too!

While the game has been out for two or so years, it was completely new to me. Check it out at the links below:

Yerevan Drive Official Site
Download Demo

90% of Yerevan's Pollution Due to Cars

Cars and trucks, I suppose. Incredible figure, isn't it?

The air in Yerevan is polluted by transport by 90 percent. Expert alarm that clouds of dust have been formed because of air pollution. German experts say in case of planting enough trees air pollution may be down by 40 percent.

Armen Saghatelyan, ecolosphere research center head, said several factors must be considered while planting green zones, including esthetic requirements, climate, sustainability of plants and the qualities to absorb hazardous materials.

Planting trees in Yerevan? For one, it sounds like a lost cause, and for another, they wont last very long. Oh, and did I mention that commercial interests will get there before the previous two?

Source: Panorama

Armenian Ferraris - One Man's Garage

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Many Armenians have done well in this country and abroad, no question about that; and no question about the fact that we must always have the best of everything, as if we were in a perpetual competition with the Armenian Joneses! These Ferraris belong to an Armenian named Armen, but that's as much information as I'm going to give out.

The reason I posted this is to show that anything is possible. When I see young Armenians using words like "gangsta" and "thug" as they look up to unsavory characters, I wonder if they realize that there is a world beyond "Deagles," "hoes," and "chronic." Seriously though, Armen is just one guy out of many who has steered clear of everything that's holding back many among the youth of today within the firm grasp of clever marketing and smoke and mirrors.

Of course, the other reason I posted this picture is because I love homes and I love cars!

Imported Cars Met With Stiff Fees

If you're one of the many people sending cars to be sold in Armenia, have a look:

...26,157 cars were imported to Armenia 7,302 of which of Russian trade mark and 18,855 of foreign mark.

According to the law on environmental payments, 5-10 years old cars have to pay additional environmental fees in the amount of 2 percent of customs duty. Cars 10-15 years old have to pay 10 percent of the amount and 15 and more years old cars pay 20 percent of the customs duty.

The ministry of nature protection explains that new cars are less harmful for the environment and people will be encouraged to buy more new cars, thus causing less environmental damage.

Since when does the Armenian government tax imports to help the environment? I think what they're really doing is promoting the import of newer cars, which in turn means higher customs duty. Regardless of how they may claim to assess duty - and they refused to estimate how much they've collected from imported cars - more expensive cars end up paying much more than their less expensive counterparts.

Source: Panorama

From Glendale, With Fraud

Don't think that just because I am an Armenian and this is Armenia Blog that I'm only going to talk about positive things as they relate to our people. From the "not so great" department, I give you this:

Eight people connected to a Glendale-based charity were arrested on suspicion of fraud after the Los Angeles Police Department linked them to an international crime ring.

Global Human Services, which posed as an organization that regularly sent humanitarian aid overseas to the Republic of Georgia, Jordan, Armenia and Russia, was actually a front for international car theft and fraud...

In June, an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement search of two of the organization’s shipping containers in Houston uncovered a shipment of women’s shoes and two late-model sport utility vehicles hidden behind false walls in each container...

It’s estimated that the GHS shipped $5 million worth of cars in the past few years, not including the loss to insurance companies through fraudulent claims.

Those in custody are: GHS operators Rita Gervorkyan, 27, and Garegin Narinyants, 32, both of Burbank, who are being held on $500,000 bail. Co-operators Lioudvig Gevorkian, 57, and Gayk Gevorkian, 21, are believed to be out of the country but are also wanted by the LAPD.

Six car owners and lessees who allegedly participated in the scam were arrested last night and early this morning. Each was being held in lieu of $30,000 bail, according to the LAPD.

Stories like these don't make me proud to be Armenian, because these people only serve to create stereotypes for the rest of us. The Armenians that I like to think of are artists, musicians, businessmen, and others of positive influence.

Source: CBS

23 Road Accidents in First Week of 2007

Mix icy roads, half-drunk drivers, and unsafe cars, and this is what you get.

Twenty-three road accidents were reported in the first week of the new year killing three and injuring 37 people, Armenian road police department said. Also 56 fires were reported in the same time span, one of which killed a 47 year-old woman.

A better definition of "road accidents" would have been preferred. Are these car accidents? Are these people getting hit on the roads? Too much ambiguity, but a tragic set of numbers by any measure.