Politics doesn’t seem to figure at all in this week’s roundup of the Armenian English-language blogosphere, or at least in those posts relating to the Republic itself. Culture, however, does. Over at Blogrel, for example, Harmick says that the lyrics for Armenia’s entry in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest have been released, but laments the fact that nobody checked them first.

What I say, what I hide
Without your love?
What I have in my mind
Without your love?

Leaving out the word “will” makes the sentences senseless. Nevertheless, lets hope the music makes up for this.

Armenia will be represented by local singer and heart-throb Andre. Nevertheless, it has to be said that some concern has to be raised by the less than open way in which this singer has been chosen to represent his country. For example, a national competition chooses who will represent the UK whereas Armenia has apparently yet to hear this song.

I wonder if Armenia is already breaking the rules of the competition. If so, there’s nothing new here as this is pretty much how everything in Armenia works, or doesn’t as the case may be.

The Entries

1) Each Participating Broadcaster enters a national song. The national selection procedure is decided by each Participating Broadcaster, provided that all due transparency is ensured.

[…]

Duties of the Participating broadcasters

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6) To ensure transparency, each Participating Broadcaster will publish the rules of their respective national selection process on their respective national Eurovision Song Contest website or web page and if possible, on tele text pages (text-tv).

Meanwhile, Zarchka at Life Around Me talks about some good and not so good developments in the local music scene. However, she’s not impressed by a duet performed by Armenchik and Kristine Pepelyan and suggests the latter might have motives other than musical for the collaboration.

Two different voices which do not accord with each other. I think by singing a duet with Armenchik, who is well known and popular among American Diasporans, Kristine wanted to get fame in America as well, but she failed, because her voice is quite deafen by that of Armenchik’s (Although her voice is deafen even when she sings alone). Armenchik sings what he is majored in, that is to say rabiz. At least he doesn’t go astray and doesn’t sing for example classic music. But there’s a strange stir among Armenian pop singers, who are not determined yet about what their genre is.

Whatever the problems facing the contemporary musical scene in Armenia, however, at least the situation appears to be better in the theatre even if the olgarchs and government-connected businessmen is not being directed there as it is to the local pop scene. Garo (AKA Christian Garbis) over at Notes from Hairenik reports on the play he saw last night in Yerevan. From the sound of things, it was pretty good.

The name of the play is called “Contrabass,” and is a one-man show performed by Hovhannes Babakhanyan. It played at the Yerevan City Hall’s Young Audience’s State Theater (you have to love the theater and university names here, which are typically long and usually include the phrase “named after” in honor of a literary figure or scholar), located at 3 Moscovyan Street.

[…]

“Contrabass” is performed a few times a year, usually every three months or so, and as far as I can remember there is usually more than one performance during a single run. Simply put it’s a great play and is definitely worth seeing. Audience members also have the opportunity to hear Hovik perform “Ave Maria” and the jazz standard “When I Fall In Love.”

In the Diaspora, Blogian examines the amount of assistance that is coming into the Republic from Armenians living abroad. He says that although many imagine that a large and powerful Diaspora is interested in helping Armenia, in reality that assistance is only a fraction of what it could be.

The Russian version of Forbes magazine (February 2006), according to 168 Hours Weekly, has published an article on the “economics of the Armenian Diaspora” stating that “The money made in the Armenian Diaspora amounts to 100 billion dollars, which is a hundred times more than the state budget of Armenia.”

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By no means I argue that 100 billion dollars are not being made by expatriated Armenians. But the article is a reflection of the myth of the “powerful Armenian Diaspora” that in the eyes of many people (mostly Turks and Azerbaijanis) is responsible for everything in the world.

[…]

The Armenian Diaspora is not a structure; it is as diverse as the world itself and it has a lot of inter conflicts; and every single person of the “group” who makes 100 billion dollars has his/her own self-interests.

[…]

How does the Armenian nation or the Republic of Armenia benefit from that 100 billion?

Most of Armenia’s population lives in poverty and those who are above the poverty level are generally supported by family members who live abroad. But this is less than 1 billion dollars (the money that is wired to families in Armenia), and what this does is to keep some part of the population out of poverty.

To end, however, I’d like to draw the attention of readers to a blog by a Peace Corps Volunteer based in Berd in north eastern Armenia. Towns and areas like this are almost totally cut off from the rest of the country and the situation is desparate for those residents who have chosen not to leave. It’s vital that more information from places like Berd gets out, but John explains why he’s not posting much of late.

I know, I know, it’s March 2006…I apologize for not posting before, but the internet connection in Berd where I’m assigned to an NGO is very poor at its best. I’ve been somewhat concerned with the Peace Corps policy on posting information on the internet as well, but I’ve gotten over that lately. So, what I’m going to try and do is go chronologically from training until now until I can simply point my friends and family to this blog to keep everyone updated on what’s going on here in Armenia.

A real pity, so I hope that the situation changes soon.