Tonight at dinner, the usual roundtable discussion took place and tonight subject was the price of flower and the restriction on the export of grapes.
On September 23rd, at the Armenian-Diaspora Economic Forum, I ran into a man named Arnold, a man who use to be the Artsakh Minister of Economics and is now an advisor to the Prime Minister. He also happens to be a distant blood relative from my father's side of the family (nothing I'm proud of).
Before the session on economic policy started, I asked Arnold about why they are preventing people from exporting grapes to Armenia and why we are exporting needed wheat? He told me that the decision on grapes was wrong, but now people can export grapes freely and for the same reason why people can freely export wheat, it's a free market.
One thing to keep in mind about Arnold is that he only has his job because he is one of the Prime Minister's yes-men. I've seen him say one thing and when the PM says he is wrong, he just agrees and shakes his head up and down so much, it make you dizzy to watch. He is also one of three people who tried to make it look like our telecommunication system was in such bad shape by making sure it didn't work well, in hopes that he and his two friends could privatize it for almost free. This plan backfired, as the government worked extra hard in Yerevan to find us a real telecommunication provider thinking thing were beyond repair and for that reason, today our strategic telecommunication system is owned by a Christian-Arab company.
Tonight I learned that the price of flower went from 7,000 dram for a 50 kilo sack to 11,500 dram. The price of bread is expected to increase from 100 dram a loaf to 200 dram a loaf come January 1st. It also should be noted that 380,000 tons of wheat was exported from Artsakh in the last few months, thus we are already facing a shortage of wheat and for this reason the dramatic price increase.
As for grapes, there was an announcement on television the other night which said that no grapes will be allowed to be exported due to some disease our grapes have. Well there goes that free market and a reason to purchase gapes at below a fair market price.
Disease or not, the reality is that all of the major wine factories here in Artsakh are owned by a few people, including Armenia's Minister of Defense, Serge Sarkissian and the president of Agro-Bank, a guy named Arayig, who happens to also be the one whose gas stations sell bad gasoline.
So what will happen if the price of bread increases by 100%? Well, it sure is not going to make people happy here and what I would suggest to the people in power is to start a fund using some of the money they have stolen from our population to offset the price of bread so it does not go over 100 dram a loaf, or else watch out and don't claim that you didn't know. I understand that there is very little they really understand other than creating scams to get rich, but you can only do that for so long until it starts to effect the scammers in a negative way and that negative effect is just around the corner.
One counter statement I've heard the government say is that the increase is being offset by an increase in pensions. Well guess what, not everyone gets a pension and since unemployment is so high right now, the increases that we are expecting is sure to effect a large number of the population in a very negative way.
On September 23rd, at the Armenian-Diaspora Economic Forum, I ran into a man named Arnold, a man who use to be the Artsakh Minister of Economics and is now an advisor to the Prime Minister. He also happens to be a distant blood relative from my father's side of the family (nothing I'm proud of).
Before the session on economic policy started, I asked Arnold about why they are preventing people from exporting grapes to Armenia and why we are exporting needed wheat? He told me that the decision on grapes was wrong, but now people can export grapes freely and for the same reason why people can freely export wheat, it's a free market.
One thing to keep in mind about Arnold is that he only has his job because he is one of the Prime Minister's yes-men. I've seen him say one thing and when the PM says he is wrong, he just agrees and shakes his head up and down so much, it make you dizzy to watch. He is also one of three people who tried to make it look like our telecommunication system was in such bad shape by making sure it didn't work well, in hopes that he and his two friends could privatize it for almost free. This plan backfired, as the government worked extra hard in Yerevan to find us a real telecommunication provider thinking thing were beyond repair and for that reason, today our strategic telecommunication system is owned by a Christian-Arab company.
Tonight I learned that the price of flower went from 7,000 dram for a 50 kilo sack to 11,500 dram. The price of bread is expected to increase from 100 dram a loaf to 200 dram a loaf come January 1st. It also should be noted that 380,000 tons of wheat was exported from Artsakh in the last few months, thus we are already facing a shortage of wheat and for this reason the dramatic price increase.
As for grapes, there was an announcement on television the other night which said that no grapes will be allowed to be exported due to some disease our grapes have. Well there goes that free market and a reason to purchase gapes at below a fair market price.
Disease or not, the reality is that all of the major wine factories here in Artsakh are owned by a few people, including Armenia's Minister of Defense, Serge Sarkissian and the president of Agro-Bank, a guy named Arayig, who happens to also be the one whose gas stations sell bad gasoline.
So what will happen if the price of bread increases by 100%? Well, it sure is not going to make people happy here and what I would suggest to the people in power is to start a fund using some of the money they have stolen from our population to offset the price of bread so it does not go over 100 dram a loaf, or else watch out and don't claim that you didn't know. I understand that there is very little they really understand other than creating scams to get rich, but you can only do that for so long until it starts to effect the scammers in a negative way and that negative effect is just around the corner.
One counter statement I've heard the government say is that the increase is being offset by an increase in pensions. Well guess what, not everyone gets a pension and since unemployment is so high right now, the increases that we are expecting is sure to effect a large number of the population in a very negative way.
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