Rock for Human Rights Protection
MDP, Puppet Theatre, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2005
To be honest I wasn’t going to post an announcement about this festival because after speaking to someone involved in this event I’m a little disappointed, but anyway, that shouldn’t reallyaffect what’s on this blog and what’s not so here goes. Tomorrow at 7pm at Yerevan’s Puppet Theatre, a Rock Festival will be staged in support of human rights protection in the Republic of Armenia. Bands schedule to play include MDP, Vortan Karmir, Stryfe and Sworn.
On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which has become a universal standard for defending and promoting human rights. Every year the 10th of December, Human Rights Day marks the adoption of the Universal Declaration. On Human Rights Day throughout the globe we celebrate the simple truth which still needs to be asserted that “All human beings are born with equal and inalienable rights and fundamental freedoms”.
In recent years Armenia has gone a long way to bring its legislation and practices on human rights to international standards; however it is not secret that there have been several cases of blatant violations of human rights and freedoms. The struggle against human rights violations requires active participation of civil society, especially that of young people. In this regard, the rock festival will provide an opportunity to promote awareness of human rights among the general public. It will attract and unite young people under the flag of freedom and human rights. Moreover, it will facilitate and foster cultural diversity which is essential element in promoting human rights anywhere on the globe.
Well, all the right things written for UNDP, British Council and the Council of Europe to love which is precisely the point. As with the rock festival staged to enocurage young voters to participate in last year’s referendum, it’s actually just an excuse to use an issue to get a rock festival funded. International donors don’t care, however, and gladly give money. Will look good in their end of year reports anyway.
Still, this festival does at least represent one advancement in this whole game of donors funding culture for political ends. Unlike the Rock the Referendum festival where the referendum was mentioned only once as if an afterthought to keep the British Embassy happy, those organizations that do work in the area of human rights protection can set up information stalls if they pay 5,000 AMD. The message might at least get across if a few such NGOs have.
However, I won’t know as I’m not going. Firstly, I think such a festival should have been organized by a human rights organization with a proven track record, and secondly, apart from MDP, I’m not particularly interested in the bands playing. Had Bambir, newly returned from the U.S., been involved then things might have been different, but as they’re not…
Anyway, with international donor support, 2,500 AMD for individuals strikes me as too high a ticket price for most young Armenians to pay for the line up on offer so out of solidarity with those who won’t attend for that reason, and even though I could get in free as a journalist, I’m giving it a miss. Here’s hoping the next rock festival in support of human rights and/or democracy has that goal firmly in mind.
I’d also hope that it’s free for all, including NGOs who want to spread their message.
Still, if you want to listen to some live rock music, and especially if you have never seen MDP perform one of their rare gigs in Yerevan, then head on down to the Puppet Theatre tomorrow night. More information is available here.
Hi Onnik,
Yea I’m rather disappointed myself. Actually, after receiving your email as well as this announcement from other people as well regarding this human rights rock festival, CSI sought to inquire what to do and how to get involved in having a “booth” at the festival. So we called and inquired with one of the organizers of the event (his name is “Mark”) and said we would have to purchase 10 tickets at 5,000 AMD each so that we could represent a booth at the festival.
So while the website said 5,000 AMD in reality they told us 50,000
go figure!
Tamar
Comment by Tamar — December 11, 2006 @ 7:55 pm
I have to be honest and admit that I’m not sure why the high cost of such an event when UNDP, British Council, Council of Europe etc financially supported part of it at least. Also no doubt that a human rights rock festival — or indeed, any human rights event — should be left up to human rights organizations who believe in their goal and don’t just view it as a money-making event.
BTW: I’m shocked about those prices for NGOs. 10 tickets at 5,000 AMD?!?!?! WTF?!?!?!? You would have thought they might have at least kept the tickets at the normal price of 2,500 AMD, but anyway. Not good, and also because I thought they just wanted 5,000 and not 50,000 AMD. Very disappointing and I hope UNDP and other donors make sure things like this don’t happen again — especially with the parliamentary elections coming up.
Like I said, leave human rights, democracy and so on to those NGOs who know what they’re doing, and who actually believe in it. I’ve heard there will be some rock events planned for these elections, but I really hope that audiences and NGOs get to at least participate free of charge. In the case of today’s event, for example, it’s not as if the proceeds were going to be donated to some worthwhile cause. I’d also be interested in learning how much money UNDP etc gave for this event.
Accountability and transparency in all walks of life, please.
Comment by Onnik — December 11, 2006 @ 8:46 pm
Just read the disgusting article in the “Hayq” newspaper about the concert. I’m disgusted at two things:
1. Because of the abundance of musical “antaghands” - fools mocking to be rocking - Rock music is sinking even deeper in the eyes of the unprepared music audience - who are only trying to get started at listening and understanding music.
2. Because of really bad jounalism and abundance of journalistic “antaghands” - fools mocking to be reporting, News media is sinking even deeper in the eyes of news consumers, who still have to live with that kind of “news” coverage for the next dacade or two.
And worst of all - the only option I see is to tolerate and wait, till the time puts everything in order…
Comment by Observer — December 13, 2006 @ 1:07 pm
Observer, any chance of a summary or link to what Hayq wrote?
Comment by Onnik — December 13, 2006 @ 2:11 pm
I have to excuse myself for not translating the extract, which I typed in here straight from the newspaper.
Hayq Newspaper, December 13, 2006 - Issue #61 (1221) - the journalist Narine Gabrielyan starts her article entitled “Puppet Rock - with Lyrical Shades” (Տիկնիկային ռոք՝ քնարական զեղումներով) with the following lead:
The openly mocking tone persists, as a paragraph below the journalist writes:
And this is how the journalist concludes the story:
Comment by Observer — December 13, 2006 @ 2:33 pm
The more I think about this event the more depressed I feel, and not least because last night I spoke to a young Armenian who went to the festival. She said nothing was said about human rights protection, which figures but is also taking the piss considering international donors gave money for this event so that there would be.
On the other hand, the international donors are also at fault because they didn’t even bother to make sure that the event was staged for the purpose stated. And they should know because we’ve seen this happen in the past. Instead, the whole idea of such events is now discredited and I doubt many sensible organizations are ever going to fund such events in the future unless the necessary safeguards are in place to stop people taking the piss on such an important matter.
At the very least, known and credible human rights organizations should be involved even if only in a consultative manner. Secondly, major human rights activists should be invoted to speak during the festival. Human rights NGOs should also be allowed to have stalls free of charge. After all, if an international NGO is to fund such an event, I doubt they’d want the NGO sector to have to pay some ridiculous sum to take part in an event on an issue that means more to them than the organizers.
I’d also suggest that if such events are staged in the future, NGOs and activists should make official complaints to those organizations funding such events. Enough of this crap. Human Rights is an important issue in this country and affects all our children. So, you either believe in human rights or you don’t. And if you don’t, let others who do stage events for that purpose. The same goes for democracy and elections next year. It’s all of our duties to make sure that any events are staged properly.
No political bias, just human rights and democracy, and hopefully staged by those with proven track records in these two areas. Incidently, as I know from my access statistics that the organizers are reading this post and checking back on the comments, they’re more than welcome to put their position here.
Comment by Onnik — December 16, 2006 @ 12:09 pm
1. There were 3-4 TV programs on the festival issues, during which Human rrights problems were discussed, trafficking and drug problems in particular.
2.There was one meeting with UNDP officials with concert leader and festival orgranizers on human rights matters ONLY. Trafficking and anti-drug problems were discussed in details1. There were 3-4 TV programs in advance and tens interviews during the event on the festival issues, during which Human rights problems were discussed, trafficking and drug problems in particular. Some of them are available upon request.
2. There was one meeting with UNDP officials with concert leader and festival organizers on human rights matters ONLY. Trafficking and anti-drug problems were discussed in details.
3. There were more than 1000 leaflets and hundreds posters on anti-trafficking and anti-drug issues. All of them were available on every seat and in the lobby.
4. Also, UNDP provided festival with projector and special DVDs – there was a special stand in the entry to the hall with video anti-drug and anti-trafficking clips. Leaflets and posters were also available on that stand.
5. Festival had a concert leader, famous RA actor, and not just some DJ with “How’re you all doing!!!” screams, who was instructed what to say and when. He had a special role. His introduction to the festival was amazing – he said a long speech on human rights protection related issues. In the end of his introduction he asked everybody to hold each others hand. Everybody did. Between the band performances the concert leader had 5-10 minutes for his speech which was 1% for the following band announcement and 99% for the human rights related issues.
6. The festival wasn’t commercial in its roots. UNDP wasn’t the main sponsor of the event – something around of 30% of the festival total expenses. IMN was the general sponsor, and the ticket price of 2500 AMD was the only possible price which could make it possible to come to zeros, at least. In fact, we didn’t, and IMN still paid 3-zero sums for the expenses of the festival and we believe community should appreciate it. The event was really good, if not to say unique – in fact, there were several “Human Rights Protection Day” festivals here in Armenia, and this one was the one of the best, but also it was THE FIRST ARMENIAN METALFEST.
7. There weren’t official 5000 AMD tickets. It was just one more way for organization to support the festival, which, as I mentioned, is a VERY EXPENSIVE THING by itself. It’s not something you can see in some of the pubs with the drunken audience and journalists. Thousands, if not tens, of dollars. I am happy that everybody on the concert appreciated the overall quality as in terms of sound and show, the concert leadership and bands quality, and also in terms of the event itself.
8. There were several organizations which I won’t mention here, who wanted to have some “presence”, as they said, on the festival, but what were their reasons? The number ONE reason: - You know, we don’t have money now, this is the end of the year, but we expect some new grants, and we want to have some presence to make it easier to receive that grant. No comments. In fact, some of that organizations were allowed to have their stands or whatever, but didn’t come back – maybe they figured out that the grant went to another “human rights protection activists”?:)
And again, thanks to ALL supporting and sponsoring organizations – they prove one more time that they are not just a fiction but a real force to make important steps in the area of human rights protection. And why not, in music also. Thanks to all of them.
Thanks,
Eduard Abrahamyan – IMN PR Director
http://rockarmenia.com
P.S. Onnik, you could always ask me how it was instead of dealing in pubs with someone who even wasn’t there.
Comment by Eduard Abrahamyan — December 16, 2006 @ 3:58 pm
Well, thanks for the comment Ed. However, a lot of what I wrote was based on a conversation with one ythe festival’s organizers which depressed me a lot. Also, my last comment was based on talking to one girl who attended the festival and said there was no reference to human rights. Given that say t here was I’m obviously confused.
Anyway, the long and the short of it is that regardless of money, everybody needs to work hard on the matter of human rights, and not just in Armenia, but across the Globe. And as you say, rather than compete for resources it’s about time that everybody worked together. I’m still not happy about this festival, but then again I’m not happy about the general apathy in society either. No doubt most of those that went to the festival went for the music and couldn’t give a shit about human rights or democracy.
Perhaps that’s the saddest thing of all.
As for money, however, one thing really pissses me off the most. People here always speak about money whereas the rest of us work on things we believe in. Human Rights is one of those, and unfortunately, as with trafficking and democracy, as soon as the West makes money available for such issues and problems, a hundred NGOs are set up the next day. It’s become a business and in most cases, the NGOs don’t give a shit about anything other than the money.
So, wanna get some easy money? Simple. Add the words “anti-trafficking, poverty, democracy, human rights” etc and hope some int org is dumb enough to fall for it. In reality, those people who really believe in the issues will do it with little or no money. Of course, this is Armenia where it’s only money that matters. When a rock group decides to do a free acoustic set in a small club for human rights because they believe in it I’ll think there’s some hope for the future.
Probably the money for a greater number of smaller events would be better spent than for a rock festival and reach more people, but that’s my opinon. To be honest, only MDP were worth seeing at the festival anyway, although I’ve heard good things about Sworn. Regardless, one things for sure. It’s about time people here started believing in issues rather than use them for personal gain. On that point, as you imply in your comment about human rights NGOs, we at least agree.
Comment by Onnik — December 16, 2006 @ 5:10 pm
I was at the festival and it sucked major ass soundwise, but one thing you can’t deny is that it was fully loaded with human rights related stuff, so you better get back to that girl and get the real truth out of here with some torture devices or smth..
Comment by I was at the festival — December 17, 2006 @ 12:15 am
Just spoke to a European friend about the concert. He says it was pretty crap too — apart from MDP, of course. Asked him about the human rights component and he says he remembers someone speaking for 2 minutes between each act or something. That was about all.
Well, it had a human rights component, doesn’t seem like it had enough to me although I wasn’t there, but anyway, while I would have paid 2,500 drams for an 1hr MDP concert with support band, I wouldn’t pay 2,500 for the festival. Then again, it’s Armenia and apart from Bambir and MDP we don’t have any good rock bands.
And, of course, we also don’t have an understanding of the importance of human rights. Hopefully the next festival will be better and what are some valid concerns will be addressed. Rock is about pushing things as much people can. In countries such as Armenia where human rights are trampled upon on an almost daily basis, that becomes even more important.
As such, I still don’t believe that this was the festival it should have been. From past experience I can already guess there was no “spirit,” although that’s pretty much a problem with everything in Armenia. Anyway, I’m glad that people are finally leaving comments.
Comment by Onnik — December 17, 2006 @ 12:40 am
Onnik, you are wuite right about the spirit that has disappeared from Armenia and almost all the public events… But that was not the fault of the organizers, I believe. I agree that time is need to have major changes in mentality and psychology and attitudes. IMHO, the festival was modest attempt to liaise rock and HR, and the young and not only young ppl who attanded the concert would certainly get at least a notion about HR, at least would think for a while. If they didn’t, they will the next time.
And I agree with certain valid points, and hope that next time the Georgian bands will also participate.
As for the rock scene in Armenia: it is moving, there are certain processes underway…. I believe we have some progress, and we will have more as more people become FREE of the current limits of today’s politics and when more people fill the vacuum of ideology and ideas that we currently observe in Armenia.
Thanks.
Comment by Anonymous — December 20, 2006 @ 11:41 am