One of the things that an American notices right away in Azerbaijan is how little there is to do at home. Most Peace Corps Volunteers have not seen radios, children’s board games, books that are not textbooks, video games or adult games like playing cards. We have seen backgammon and dominos.
Children go to school in the morning and are home for lunch and then typically stay at home the rest of the day. They have friends at school but rarely go to each other’s homes. Most children don’t have chores or pets to play with. There are some crayons and coloring books, but no paper for art projects, paints or anything messy. Children are not ordinarily read to—and I have never seen a child reading a book and most homes have only textbooks and a copy of the Koran.
A lot of the time children do nothing. While a child in US with nothing to do might crawl under the dining table, make a tent out of a sheet, play with pots and pans on the kitchen floor or go outside and run around, Azeri children seem content to sit with nothing to do or watch adult TV shows (I haven’t seen any for children, but my families have not had satellite TV as some Azeris do). As many Azeris have one child, many don’t even have playmates at home and kids don’t normally come over to play (maybe because there is nothing to play with?) so kids spend a lot of time alone. In the summer,some kids who live in apartment buildings go outside and play on the asphalt, but in houses, they tend to stay inside their own locked gates.
Teen life would seem very bleak to an American. Playing sports is rare and electronic devices of any kind except cell phones are not common. Some teens have cell phones with music on them, but talk little on the phones since every call costs money. They do like to listen to music, which is on a TV channel, not a radio, and music videos are popular. Some boys go to internet cafes to play video games, which costs about 45 cents an hour. There is no dating in Azerbaijan and teens who are under 18 rarely go anywhere with their friends. Teens don’t usually have friends over, either, unless a group of cousins get together with the rest of the family.
Most homes are small and don’t have yards, so there is little housework. Most women cook quick meals from scratch, do laundry anywhere from once a week to once every 3 weeks (they wear the same clothes repeatedly), but not a lot else. Men do some food shopping and take out the trash, but that is all.
So what do Azerbaijani families do at home? Not much. There is a lot of TV watching. Broadcast TV has a ban against foreign languages and Azerbaijan produces very little original programming, so families who want to watch Turkish or Russian TV have to get satellite dishes. The wives invite friends and sometimes neighbors over once a week or so and are very hospitable and excited to see them. Also once a week or so, families will go separately or together to a relative’s home. They call it “going guesting”.
A couple of weeks ago, my family went to a relatives home to say goodbye for 18 months to a cousin who was going into the (compulsory) service. The men and women went to separate rooms to chat and eat, although some walked back and forth visiting. The girl cousins danced and brothers occasionally came in and danced with their sisters or girl cousins. Azerbaijanis are good dancers. Some of the young man’s friends were outside the house and he occasionally went out to chat with them. But they were not invited to the party.
For men, there is less to do than any other member of the family. There are no spectator or televised sports that are popular here. Adult men don’t seem to play sports and don’t have religious activities (Azerbaijan is listed as one of the least religious countries in the world, although they identify strongly with Muslim culture). I watched my host father as he came home several nights this week. One night, he came home, changed clothes and went to a wedding of someone from work. It is common that spouses not attend as most of the time, work friends sit together at sex-segregated tables. So my host mother did not go. The other nights, though, he came home, looked around, saw that no one talked with him, looked around some more and left again.
Rather than have their friends over to their homes, men meet friends and male relatives at tea houses, which are usually just for men. Women can entertain at home, but this is not acceptable for men, unless the guest is a relative,so they go to these small tea establishments and may play board games like backgammon and checkers or just sit and talk. It is cheap entertainment, around 35 cents for a cup of tea and helps fill the time.
People complain about how there is nothing to do in our town, which is the second largest city in Ganja. I agree there is not much, but come home with tales of visiting the two small museums, walking in the parks, visiting historical buildings. No one in my family sounds interested in doing any of these things.
I think that doing nothing is a habit. My host sister plans to go to Baku to university next year. I responded that this will be fun for her as she can get out and see all of the museums, the medieval city, parks, concerts, art fairs and all of the other events in a city of 4 million. She responded that she probably wouldn’t go anywhere.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Tents in the Street
Baku is the largest city--about half the population of the country lives there-about 4 million people. My city is the second largest in the country—about 300,000 people. We get around the city by walking, taking a few buses that are available, but mostly riding around in marshrutkas. They are vans that are outfitted with homemade seats. Each driver is an entrepreneur because the vehicle is his and he keeps the money that he makes.
All of the buses and marshrutkas in Ganja would be considered to be in appalling shape by any American standard. The buses would have been considered old in Soviet days and the majority of the marshrutkas would never pass any sort of an inspection in the US. They are likely to be liberally sprinkled with rust and dents, often list to one side , stall out at traffic lights, and some even have seriously cracked windshields. Invariably, the driver smokes and the smell wafts throughout the van.
The advantages are that they cost about 25 cents a ride and they are frequent and plentiful. They stop anywhere on the route as there are few actual bus stops. There are buses and marshrutkas that go all over the country and it is possible to get anywhere that has a road with them. When I have mentioned that some rural people in the US can’t get a job because they don’t have a car, they say “why don’t they take a marshrutka to work?” They are surprised that we don’t have a transportation system that goes throughout the country.
I take a bus to work. It takes a route that for two blocks goes the wrong way down a one-way street. Cars are not allowed to do this, but apparently the bus is allowed. The first time I rode it, I had no idea that it would go the wrong way down a one-way street. Cars come at us from the two lanes, but before a head-on collision , the car in our lane moves over.
Besides marshrutkas, another amenity that we don’t have in the US involves funeral tents. When people die, special tents can be set up on the public streets. The tents are about the size of a semi-trailer and serve as funeral homes. As Muslim custom dictates, bodies are usually buried by nightfall, but the mourning goes on for seven days in the tent.
In my community, men go the tent and women go to the home. Tea is passed, prayers are said and everyone comforts the family. After 40 days, there is another gathering.
On any day, a tent could just appear and block a lane for 7 days. Apparently, they can be put on any side street—not on major thoroughfares, though.
One day, while riding my bus to work, as we got to the place where we go the wrong way down the one- way street, I noticed that the other lane of traffic was completely blocked by one of these “funeral tents”. There was nowhere for the other cars to go, so they just came at us. It was rush hour, so there were plenty of cars. The bus driver inched forward until he blocked the street and the other cars had to back up. We went through this routine for 7 days.
All of the buses and marshrutkas in Ganja would be considered to be in appalling shape by any American standard. The buses would have been considered old in Soviet days and the majority of the marshrutkas would never pass any sort of an inspection in the US. They are likely to be liberally sprinkled with rust and dents, often list to one side , stall out at traffic lights, and some even have seriously cracked windshields. Invariably, the driver smokes and the smell wafts throughout the van.
The advantages are that they cost about 25 cents a ride and they are frequent and plentiful. They stop anywhere on the route as there are few actual bus stops. There are buses and marshrutkas that go all over the country and it is possible to get anywhere that has a road with them. When I have mentioned that some rural people in the US can’t get a job because they don’t have a car, they say “why don’t they take a marshrutka to work?” They are surprised that we don’t have a transportation system that goes throughout the country.
I take a bus to work. It takes a route that for two blocks goes the wrong way down a one-way street. Cars are not allowed to do this, but apparently the bus is allowed. The first time I rode it, I had no idea that it would go the wrong way down a one-way street. Cars come at us from the two lanes, but before a head-on collision , the car in our lane moves over.
Besides marshrutkas, another amenity that we don’t have in the US involves funeral tents. When people die, special tents can be set up on the public streets. The tents are about the size of a semi-trailer and serve as funeral homes. As Muslim custom dictates, bodies are usually buried by nightfall, but the mourning goes on for seven days in the tent.
In my community, men go the tent and women go to the home. Tea is passed, prayers are said and everyone comforts the family. After 40 days, there is another gathering.
On any day, a tent could just appear and block a lane for 7 days. Apparently, they can be put on any side street—not on major thoroughfares, though.
One day, while riding my bus to work, as we got to the place where we go the wrong way down the one- way street, I noticed that the other lane of traffic was completely blocked by one of these “funeral tents”. There was nowhere for the other cars to go, so they just came at us. It was rush hour, so there were plenty of cars. The bus driver inched forward until he blocked the street and the other cars had to back up. We went through this routine for 7 days.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Hearing from Jeff
Everyone is probably tired of hearing from me, so this tine we will hear from one of my fellow volunteers, Jeff.
He is a traditional Peace Corps Volunteer—in his ‘20’s. He joined one year before me and in my training village I got to know his former host mom. As she is a great cook and very friendly, I went over often. She spent a lot of time explaining how superior Jeff was in every way—a good eater, respectful, clean, intelligent, interesting. It got to the point that that I thought, “When I meet this guy I want to punch him in the face”.
I did meet him, of course, and as the mother of a son, I have to say that he is a great young man. He has an interesting blog, too, which is at Northwestjeff.wordpress.com. Jeff is an English teacher volunteer, which means that he partners with an English teacher in a school in a small village and they teach together. The idea is that the teacher will learn some different techniques from the volunteer.
His blog is an interesting mix of stories about his home, his work and his extensive travels inside and outside of the country, along with photos.
Here is an excerpt from a February post:
I decided to ditch my normal fifth grade English lesson last week and give a civics lesson instead. It was the first day back to school after Obama was sworn in as the president, and I wanted to try to explain to them the significance of the event, as several students had commented on it to me. I had to oversimplify quite a bit, and I know that I botched some of the dates that I gave them, but my overall history lesson was based around the history of racial inequality in America and how Obama’s presidency is a symbol of overcoming our ugly history. I think they got it for the most part, and I think they thought it was pretty cool. The conversation changed a little bit when they started asking me questions.
The first one was about whether or not Obama is a Muslim or not, which I’ve learned since then is a debate here, too. I tried to explain that he isn’t, and about the lineage of his name. Sometimes, when students ask me about this, they still have a hard time understanding how a guy named Hussein isn’t a Muslim. I do my best to explain, but sometimes the concept of religious plurality can be too much for kids to understand.
Anyway, the next questions that came up were real tough. I’ll also preface this by saying that I am really glad I had this conversation with my kids. Somehow the question, “what do Americans think of muslims?” came up. Talk about damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
What do you tell a room full of Muslim kids about the american national sentiment towards Muslims? The nuances of the topic were too difficult for me to explain, and I didn’t just want to blanket the topic with a generalization, but my hand was forced. “Everybody is different,” I told them, “but a lot of Americans don’t like Muslims.”
“Why not?” They asked.
“Because,” I paused to think of a sensible way to say this: “they think that they are terrorists.”
I winced as I explained this, but I was totally relieved when they all started laughing. It’s like they understood how absurd the whole situation is and gave me a collective “That’s silly.” It was nice to see their reactions because it also reminded me how far removed they are from the serious situations that exist in the world. They’re just kids.
I told them that it was really embarrassing for me to tell them that, but that Americans can be ignorant people sometimes. The inevitable “Why?” came up after I explained this, and I went into a short explanation of September 11th. Most of the kids new about it (these kids were about 3 when it happened), but I filled them in on some details.
We ran out of time, but I think they came away knowing a little bit more about America, how it can be a really ugly place, and how it can be a cool place, too. Still, after an interesting conversation on a very heavy topic, I was pleased (rather than disappointed) that the fact that aroused the most interest in the class was that the World Trade Center buildings were 110 stories tall. That really blew them away. I could see myself getting bothered by the fact that they were paying such attention to a side note, but it reminded me that these guys are just kids and that they can only take so much in one day.
Northwestjeff.wordpress.com
He is a traditional Peace Corps Volunteer—in his ‘20’s. He joined one year before me and in my training village I got to know his former host mom. As she is a great cook and very friendly, I went over often. She spent a lot of time explaining how superior Jeff was in every way—a good eater, respectful, clean, intelligent, interesting. It got to the point that that I thought, “When I meet this guy I want to punch him in the face”.
I did meet him, of course, and as the mother of a son, I have to say that he is a great young man. He has an interesting blog, too, which is at Northwestjeff.wordpress.com. Jeff is an English teacher volunteer, which means that he partners with an English teacher in a school in a small village and they teach together. The idea is that the teacher will learn some different techniques from the volunteer.
His blog is an interesting mix of stories about his home, his work and his extensive travels inside and outside of the country, along with photos.
Here is an excerpt from a February post:
I decided to ditch my normal fifth grade English lesson last week and give a civics lesson instead. It was the first day back to school after Obama was sworn in as the president, and I wanted to try to explain to them the significance of the event, as several students had commented on it to me. I had to oversimplify quite a bit, and I know that I botched some of the dates that I gave them, but my overall history lesson was based around the history of racial inequality in America and how Obama’s presidency is a symbol of overcoming our ugly history. I think they got it for the most part, and I think they thought it was pretty cool. The conversation changed a little bit when they started asking me questions.
The first one was about whether or not Obama is a Muslim or not, which I’ve learned since then is a debate here, too. I tried to explain that he isn’t, and about the lineage of his name. Sometimes, when students ask me about this, they still have a hard time understanding how a guy named Hussein isn’t a Muslim. I do my best to explain, but sometimes the concept of religious plurality can be too much for kids to understand.
Anyway, the next questions that came up were real tough. I’ll also preface this by saying that I am really glad I had this conversation with my kids. Somehow the question, “what do Americans think of muslims?” came up. Talk about damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
What do you tell a room full of Muslim kids about the american national sentiment towards Muslims? The nuances of the topic were too difficult for me to explain, and I didn’t just want to blanket the topic with a generalization, but my hand was forced. “Everybody is different,” I told them, “but a lot of Americans don’t like Muslims.”
“Why not?” They asked.
“Because,” I paused to think of a sensible way to say this: “they think that they are terrorists.”
I winced as I explained this, but I was totally relieved when they all started laughing. It’s like they understood how absurd the whole situation is and gave me a collective “That’s silly.” It was nice to see their reactions because it also reminded me how far removed they are from the serious situations that exist in the world. They’re just kids.
I told them that it was really embarrassing for me to tell them that, but that Americans can be ignorant people sometimes. The inevitable “Why?” came up after I explained this, and I went into a short explanation of September 11th. Most of the kids new about it (these kids were about 3 when it happened), but I filled them in on some details.
We ran out of time, but I think they came away knowing a little bit more about America, how it can be a really ugly place, and how it can be a cool place, too. Still, after an interesting conversation on a very heavy topic, I was pleased (rather than disappointed) that the fact that aroused the most interest in the class was that the World Trade Center buildings were 110 stories tall. That really blew them away. I could see myself getting bothered by the fact that they were paying such attention to a side note, but it reminded me that these guys are just kids and that they can only take so much in one day.
Northwestjeff.wordpress.com
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
The Sheep
A couple of weeks ago we had a two-day meeting here in Ganja with Peace Corps Volunteers who started with me last September. It was the first time we were together in a group since we left for our assignments in December. It was interesting to see everyone and hear how they are doing.
Our assignments are broken down into three categories—those who work as English teachers typically live in small villages and team teach with an Azerbaijani English teacher. Often they are the only foreigner for miles and have to travel on the weekend to see another volunteer and to keep track of their friends and faily at home by finding an internet café. Some villages have no electricity or gas at night and even in the daytime, gas and electricity are not guaranteed. A few villages do not yet have gas lines. So some volunteers keep warm with wood stoves.
Others are youth development workers—which means they primarily serve those under 25 years of age. They are assigned to a youth organization and spend part of their time working there and part of their time organizing and working with youth on their own. These workers are located in small villages and larger cities all over the country.
My group is the Community Economic Development group and we work in businesses, mostly in larger cities. All of us are to spend part of our time with our organizations and part on our own projects that interest us. I work 3 ½ days a week at a micro-credit organization and work on mostly non-business project with the rest of my time.
Last week, for example, I led a weekly English conversation club, which is a group of English speakers who want to improve their spoken English. I get to know Azeri people this way. I also met with two different university students and walked around my city with them. We get to know each other and talk about things that interest us--half of the time in English and half of the time in Azeri. I taught two yoga classes and had one women’s health discussion group. I did these things with my friend Elaine, who is a Peace Corps Volunteer in my town.
I also went to two Azeri homes, one of which is the relatives of my family. I have been there before and really enjoy visiting them. They live about 45 minutes outside of town in the country. They have about 1 ½ acres of land and on this land they subsist with their four children. They raise chickens, vegetables, have a cow, had calves, and a sheep. The sheep is the one in the picture below. It was their only sheep and when I was there Monday, it ran to greet us as we arrived and dog-like wanted to be petted and tried to kiss my host brother. After playing with if for awhile, we went in to have lunch. Later, I asked where it was, and they said it was gone to be slaughtered. My host brother, who is 20, said he really liked the sheep and would not eat it.
Our assignments are broken down into three categories—those who work as English teachers typically live in small villages and team teach with an Azerbaijani English teacher. Often they are the only foreigner for miles and have to travel on the weekend to see another volunteer and to keep track of their friends and faily at home by finding an internet café. Some villages have no electricity or gas at night and even in the daytime, gas and electricity are not guaranteed. A few villages do not yet have gas lines. So some volunteers keep warm with wood stoves.
Others are youth development workers—which means they primarily serve those under 25 years of age. They are assigned to a youth organization and spend part of their time working there and part of their time organizing and working with youth on their own. These workers are located in small villages and larger cities all over the country.
My group is the Community Economic Development group and we work in businesses, mostly in larger cities. All of us are to spend part of our time with our organizations and part on our own projects that interest us. I work 3 ½ days a week at a micro-credit organization and work on mostly non-business project with the rest of my time.
Last week, for example, I led a weekly English conversation club, which is a group of English speakers who want to improve their spoken English. I get to know Azeri people this way. I also met with two different university students and walked around my city with them. We get to know each other and talk about things that interest us--half of the time in English and half of the time in Azeri. I taught two yoga classes and had one women’s health discussion group. I did these things with my friend Elaine, who is a Peace Corps Volunteer in my town.
I also went to two Azeri homes, one of which is the relatives of my family. I have been there before and really enjoy visiting them. They live about 45 minutes outside of town in the country. They have about 1 ½ acres of land and on this land they subsist with their four children. They raise chickens, vegetables, have a cow, had calves, and a sheep. The sheep is the one in the picture below. It was their only sheep and when I was there Monday, it ran to greet us as we arrived and dog-like wanted to be petted and tried to kiss my host brother. After playing with if for awhile, we went in to have lunch. Later, I asked where it was, and they said it was gone to be slaughtered. My host brother, who is 20, said he really liked the sheep and would not eat it.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Busy
Last week we had a two-day meeting here in Ganja with Peace Corps Volunteers who started with me last September. It was the first time we were together in a group since we left for our assignments in December. It was interesting to see everyone and hear how they are doing.
Our assignments are broken down into three categories—those who work as English teachers typically live in small villages and team teach with an Azerbaijani English teacher. Often they are the only foreigner for miles and have to travel on the weekend to see another volunteer. Some villages have no electricity or gas at night and even in the daytime, gas and electricity are not guaranteed. A few villages do not yet have gas lines. So some volunteers keep warm with wood stoves.
Others are youth development workers—which means they primarily serve those under 25 years of age. They are assigned to a youth organization and spend part of their time working there. These workers are located in small villages and larger cities all over the country.
My group is the Community Economic Development group and we work in businesses, mostly in larger cities. All of us are to spend part of our time with our organizations and part on our own projects that interest us. I work 3 ½ days a week at a micro-credit organization and work on mostly non-business project with the rest of my time.
Last week, for example, I led a weekly English conversation club, which is a group of English speakers who want to improve their spoken English. I get to know Azeri people this way.. I also met with two different university students and walked around my city with them. We get to know each other and talk about things that interest us--half of the time in English and half of the time in Azeri. I taught two yoga classes and had one women’s health discussion group. I did these things with my friend Elaine, who is a Peace Corps Volunteer in my town.
Elaine is unusual for several reasons. After serving in the Peace Corps in Honduras some years ago, she has great perspective on the job. She has lived an interesting life and is extremely active and outgoing, dresses beautifully, (which is difficult here) and has lovely long hair that curls when it gets damp. She is a huge feminist and has volunteered for different women’s organizations all her life. She reads prolifically and text messages people all day long. Elaine is the oldest volunteer of all Peace Corps Volunteers world-wide and willl be 80 this summer. A party in Tblisi, Georgia with other volunteers is her plan to celebrate her birthday. I will be there.
Our assignments are broken down into three categories—those who work as English teachers typically live in small villages and team teach with an Azerbaijani English teacher. Often they are the only foreigner for miles and have to travel on the weekend to see another volunteer. Some villages have no electricity or gas at night and even in the daytime, gas and electricity are not guaranteed. A few villages do not yet have gas lines. So some volunteers keep warm with wood stoves.
Others are youth development workers—which means they primarily serve those under 25 years of age. They are assigned to a youth organization and spend part of their time working there. These workers are located in small villages and larger cities all over the country.
My group is the Community Economic Development group and we work in businesses, mostly in larger cities. All of us are to spend part of our time with our organizations and part on our own projects that interest us. I work 3 ½ days a week at a micro-credit organization and work on mostly non-business project with the rest of my time.
Last week, for example, I led a weekly English conversation club, which is a group of English speakers who want to improve their spoken English. I get to know Azeri people this way.. I also met with two different university students and walked around my city with them. We get to know each other and talk about things that interest us--half of the time in English and half of the time in Azeri. I taught two yoga classes and had one women’s health discussion group. I did these things with my friend Elaine, who is a Peace Corps Volunteer in my town.
Elaine is unusual for several reasons. After serving in the Peace Corps in Honduras some years ago, she has great perspective on the job. She has lived an interesting life and is extremely active and outgoing, dresses beautifully, (which is difficult here) and has lovely long hair that curls when it gets damp. She is a huge feminist and has volunteered for different women’s organizations all her life. She reads prolifically and text messages people all day long. Elaine is the oldest volunteer of all Peace Corps Volunteers world-wide and willl be 80 this summer. A party in Tblisi, Georgia with other volunteers is her plan to celebrate her birthday. I will be there.
Monday, April 20, 2009
My mom and Gorbachev
My host mother, a calm person up to now, is really annoyed with me. I can’t follow everything that she is saying, but don’t want to ask detailed questions. I think I know what I said that started her on this tirade, because I have heard all of this before from other people.
It started when she asked me what my daughter, Kelly is up to. I mentioned that she will be attending an event at her school in which the speaker is Mikayil Gorbachev, the last leader of the USSR. Under his rule, the Soviet Union collapsed and the 15 countries became separate and mostly democratic. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.
At the mention of his name, she stiffened and told me how he is despised in Azerbaijan. She is old enough to remember the time in 1991 when the USSR collapsed and overnight Azerbaijan was cut loose with no federal government and no system for running things. Effectively, no one had a job, at least not one that paid, no one was in charge, schools closed, there were no police, utilities, monetary system, medical services and of course, chaos reigned.
For about three years, things went very badly until the former head of the KGB, who was Azerbaijani, Heydar Aliyev, took over and gradually restored some order. He is widely revered here, with a statue of him in literally every city of any size. He died five years ago and his son took over as president.
Things are still not nearly back to being as successful as they were in the days of the USSR. The GNP is about 10 percent of what is was then, unemployment is very high, health and welfare problems abound (for example, there is a much higher infant and maternal mortality rate), women’s rights have regressed and poverty is high. Many people think that the country is not on an upward trajectory.
My host mother blames Gorbachev for the capitalist economy, which she says is bad for Azerbaijan. In contrast to a time when they could save money and had good schools and full employment, she points to her unemployed son, the low salaries that she and her husband earn (her husband, an engineer, earns about 90 cents an hour), the (in her view) poor medical care and schools (she is a teacher) and is angry that the Soviet Union went away. She is very satisfied with the job that the current president is doing, she just feels that the former system produced better results for the people.
I mention to her that in the US, we constantly read stories about how there was not enough food in the Soviet countries, that Soviets wanted to buy more luxury goods and better quality items, which were not sold there. Also, that they could not travel outside of the 15 country area and were effectively prisoners.
She said that the stories about lack of merchandise and food in Azerbaijan were “lies” and that she can’t afford to travel anywhere in Azerbaijan now, so having the means to travel to 15 countries then was wonderful. The Soviet collective farms produced much more food than privately owned farms produce now and there is no good way to get excess crops out of the country due to poor roads and lack of modern farming machinery. In many cases, the modern equipment that existed in Soviet times has been replaced by donkeys and wagons.
I know now not to discuss this situation with my host mother unless I approach it from a different angle—asking questions and empathizing instead of blurting out to her the American perspective as fact. I realize now how strongly democracy is a knee-jerk reaction for Americans—many of think that everyone would have a better life if they lived in a democracy like ours. But I am coming to appreciate how the type of government one chooses is a reflection on culture, values and a historical perspective.
I realize that what we have in common with people in countries with other types of governments is that we all want the same things—a way to earn a secure living, a good future for our children and the security of being safe in our own communities and countries. For some people, our type of democracy may not be their preference in providing the type of life and security they want.
One other perspective I have come to understand is that we always hear from immigrants in the US how much they like our country and our economic system. As a result, we feel that most people like our system. What I am beginning to understand is that many are not comfortable with our system and these are the people who don’t come to America or who come for an education and then return home.
It started when she asked me what my daughter, Kelly is up to. I mentioned that she will be attending an event at her school in which the speaker is Mikayil Gorbachev, the last leader of the USSR. Under his rule, the Soviet Union collapsed and the 15 countries became separate and mostly democratic. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.
At the mention of his name, she stiffened and told me how he is despised in Azerbaijan. She is old enough to remember the time in 1991 when the USSR collapsed and overnight Azerbaijan was cut loose with no federal government and no system for running things. Effectively, no one had a job, at least not one that paid, no one was in charge, schools closed, there were no police, utilities, monetary system, medical services and of course, chaos reigned.
For about three years, things went very badly until the former head of the KGB, who was Azerbaijani, Heydar Aliyev, took over and gradually restored some order. He is widely revered here, with a statue of him in literally every city of any size. He died five years ago and his son took over as president.
Things are still not nearly back to being as successful as they were in the days of the USSR. The GNP is about 10 percent of what is was then, unemployment is very high, health and welfare problems abound (for example, there is a much higher infant and maternal mortality rate), women’s rights have regressed and poverty is high. Many people think that the country is not on an upward trajectory.
My host mother blames Gorbachev for the capitalist economy, which she says is bad for Azerbaijan. In contrast to a time when they could save money and had good schools and full employment, she points to her unemployed son, the low salaries that she and her husband earn (her husband, an engineer, earns about 90 cents an hour), the (in her view) poor medical care and schools (she is a teacher) and is angry that the Soviet Union went away. She is very satisfied with the job that the current president is doing, she just feels that the former system produced better results for the people.
I mention to her that in the US, we constantly read stories about how there was not enough food in the Soviet countries, that Soviets wanted to buy more luxury goods and better quality items, which were not sold there. Also, that they could not travel outside of the 15 country area and were effectively prisoners.
She said that the stories about lack of merchandise and food in Azerbaijan were “lies” and that she can’t afford to travel anywhere in Azerbaijan now, so having the means to travel to 15 countries then was wonderful. The Soviet collective farms produced much more food than privately owned farms produce now and there is no good way to get excess crops out of the country due to poor roads and lack of modern farming machinery. In many cases, the modern equipment that existed in Soviet times has been replaced by donkeys and wagons.
I know now not to discuss this situation with my host mother unless I approach it from a different angle—asking questions and empathizing instead of blurting out to her the American perspective as fact. I realize now how strongly democracy is a knee-jerk reaction for Americans—many of think that everyone would have a better life if they lived in a democracy like ours. But I am coming to appreciate how the type of government one chooses is a reflection on culture, values and a historical perspective.
I realize that what we have in common with people in countries with other types of governments is that we all want the same things—a way to earn a secure living, a good future for our children and the security of being safe in our own communities and countries. For some people, our type of democracy may not be their preference in providing the type of life and security they want.
One other perspective I have come to understand is that we always hear from immigrants in the US how much they like our country and our economic system. As a result, we feel that most people like our system. What I am beginning to understand is that many are not comfortable with our system and these are the people who don’t come to America or who come for an education and then return home.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
