Another scorcher today. It’s as if were having a California winter here in Artsakh. And to think just to the West of us is Yerevan, the place where the news reported that people had to abandon their cars and walk home due to snow.

I got my haircut yesterday and it seems that this will be the last haircut I will have at my regular barbershop. It has nothing to do with the service, nor the quality or price. It’s more an end to a tradition I guess. It brings back memories of the barbershop next to my business in Burbank that also ended the same way.

In short, Martuni is developing and the barber who was renting a space in the middle of town in the hote,l has been evicted and has to move by January 3rd, as the hotel has been privatized and for the next year will be renovated. Yes folks, it looks like Martuni is going to have a modern hotel soon, which is good to all you tourist that are passing by.

Hagop Bedrosian and I were going to privatize the hotel, but by the time we found out that it was available, it was too late as the privatization process had started already.

So who purchased the hotel? Well it certainly was no Hilton or Marriott. It is Garen Yesayan, a big wig at the tax office in Stepanagert, who is the son of the President of Parliament, Oleg Yesayan. I guess this proves that corruption does pay, but at least he is putting some of what he has taken from the people back into the country, so for that we are all grateful

And since we are on the subject of corruption, here is a request that came to me from a couple of neighbors.

It seems that two of my neighbors who were police officers, retired from the force in August and to date, they still have not received their retirement bonus, nor their first pension check.

They asked me to write to the Prime Minster on their behalf, as they feel that he listens to me, but not to them. If their issues are not resolved by the first week of January, I’ll send him a letter.

And why should the Prime Minster be approached about this matter? Well it seems that when they retired, their retirement was based on their years in service, which the years during the war are multiplied by 3, meaning every war year they worked, are each counted as 3 years.

In August, a total of 8 officers retired and in September, the Prime Minster issued a decreed that the war years rule no longer applies and backdated the decreed to reflect a date prior to when the officers retired. Backdating seems to be a common practice here by our corrupt government officials.

From what my neighbors tell me, the Prime Minister told the Minster of Internal Affairs to reinstate the officers so they can work the years needed for retirement, but the MIA told the PM that he could not do this since their jobs had been filled.

With the holiday season just a couple of days away, my two neighbors who have not had an income for the last few month and are due close to $1,000 each, will have to tighten their belts and figure out a way to obtain gifts for their small children, who are accustomed to getting gifts from Winter Grandpa (Santa Claus).

Just another class of people the Prime Minster is pissing off, which means that as soon as I go up to bat for them, I’ll have a whole new group of allies to support my efforts. Thank you so much Mr. Prime Minster, may your New Year celebration be as happy as mine!!!