Armenia: Forestfree 2024
Simon over at Blogian has posted a link to a video he’s made and put online about deforestation in Armenia. He says that viewers should not expect something highly professional as it’s the first video he’s made, but head on over and take a look anyway. The video’s content also makes use of many sources including my article written last year for Oneworld.net.
The photographs and the videos are from the Internet. Many photographs are by Onnik Krikorian and Hetq newpaper – they have given permission to use their materials. Other photographs are from Hayastan.com’s gallery and other sources. Some photographs had been already reproduced too many times without the original credit. I was not able to identify the photographer and contact them for permission. I will credit them if they contact me upon seeing the video.
In addition to the above mentioned sources, I would like to thank Armenian Forests NGO for letting me use their content; Lilit Tsaturyan from Russia for sharing the music that plays in the beginning and at the end of the music (although the music is recent, the author is unknown to me); www.armenica.org (for providing the clip about Armenia’s independence) and Mariam Nersisyan from Armenia (for sending the clip of children in Yerevan). Lilit and Mariam sent me the material long time ago, so they are not aware of the video yet.
Anyway, the internet is so lousy here that I can’t check out the full video, but it looks interesting and very well made from what I’ve seen so far. Besides, the issue at hand is important enough for everyone to take the time to take a look at Simon’s work. According to environmentalists, at the present rate of deforestation there will be no forests left in Armenia in less than twenty years. That’s quite frightening.
Really it is, and so I’m glad to see the Internet being used to push out material like this when the TV outlets in Armenia are controlled directly or indirectly by the State. And while there might be some plurality in the local print media, newspaper circulation is pitifully low, and the media in the Diaspora is still largely out of touch with the reality of present-day Armenia. So, great stuff. More of the same from others, please.
Anyway, Simon’s video can be viewed via his blog or indeed, below.
Thanks for letting us know about this film. I also wanted to let you know that some of the new documentaries produced by Vem Media about environmental issues in Armenia have been posted to Google Video–we will work on posting the rest and getting them on You Tube.
Jason Sohigian, Deputy Director
Armenia Tree Project
http://www.armeniatree.org/
Comment by Jason Sohigian — November 26, 2006 @ 6:12 am
I found it a bit ironic, but I’m pretty sure the music at the beginning and at the end is by Alihan Samedov (Sen gelmez oldun). He’s an Azeri who plays the balaban, a variant of the dudka. He has some amazing stuff. Sorry for posting this here, as I can’t seem to post on that forum.
As for the deforestation/lack of green, we have the same issue in Baku, except it’s probably much worse since we have ecological devastation from oil pollution. You can smell oil in the air…the government doesn’t care just like in Armenia.
Comment by phyek — November 26, 2006 @ 6:36 am
phyek, at least you guys don’t have to cut down the trees for heating and cooking purposes.
I’ve read in other places that the air in Baku smells of oil. Wasn’t it like that during the Soviets?
Comment by nazarian — November 26, 2006 @ 7:05 am
phyek, I would appreciate if you provided me with more information about the song. The title of the music file I have is “Magic Duduk,” but I still don’t know the performer. If it is indeed Alihan Samedov, I will be glad to credit him at the end of the film. I guess I would need a link for that. “Magic Duduk” could be a collection of music.
I am sorry that you have to smell oil in Baku. Here is another thing that Armenia and Azerbaijan have in common.
Thanks,
Simon www.blogian.hayastan.com
Comment by Blogian — November 26, 2006 @ 8:04 am
Nazarian, that’s true, though anyone living outside of the bigger towns have no oil/gas/electricity. The smell of oil has been around for decades, and is becoming even worse since green areas are replaced by new buildings. Those living on the outskirts near abandoned oil fields face respiratory and health problems.
Blogian, no problem, some info here. The track was in the buddah bar 5 compilation. You can also see the music video on youtube here.
I have his second album, so I can share if you wish. I generally love dudik/balaban music, and am also a fan of Jivan Gasparian who worked on Gladiator which I adore.
Comment by phyek — November 26, 2006 @ 10:21 am
Yeah, I’ve tried leaving comments on Blogian as well and it never seems to work. Simon, can you take a look at that and let us know what the problem is? Never seemed to work for me so I just gave up.
BTW: I’m slowly waiting for the whole video to download. Am about 75 percent of the way through and it seems pretty good so I was wondering if it wouldn’t be a good idea to post the transcript of the narrative.
For us here in Armenia on dialup it really takes a long time to stream which is not your fault, of course. It’s that damn government decision to grant a monopoly on external internet connection for ISPs which I hope will soon be reversed.
Anyway, until then, the transcript would be a useful online resource.
Comment by Onnik — November 26, 2006 @ 1:20 pm
Yep, that’s the same music in both the videos.
Comment by nazarian — November 26, 2006 @ 7:21 pm
phyek, Thanks a lot for the links. Apparently, I am Alihan Samedov’s fan. I love that music. I credited Samedov at www.blogian.hayastan.com and forestfree2024.cjb.net.
Onnik, only registered members of Hayastan.com can make comments at Blogian. I believe you are registered as OneWorld, so if you login with that name you should be able to make comments. There is no other way of fighting spam at this time.
About the script, here is what I think. It is not a research paper and is mostly summary of various sources. It is not the best script, since I didn’t have much time to work on the script alone. I spent 90% of the time trying to figure out the technical aspects of “making a movie.” I am not sure if making the script available will have the same result that I have intended to show it with the video. But if you guys insist… you know, I am poli sci major lol.
Comment by Blogian — November 27, 2006 @ 1:54 am
Onnik, now comments can be made at www.blogian.net without having to register. Sorry for the previous trouble…
Comment by Blogian — January 13, 2007 @ 8:01 am