Crazy things that happen in small countries

by Maria Titizian

Published: Saturday September 01, 2007 in Living in Armenia

Lake Sevan with a view of the peninsula. Photolure / Photolure

"What a country. The crazy things that happen here. You know, when I was a kid, one afternoon a boulder fell on a boy, and killed him on the spot. Right in our backyard. We all shared a backyard, all these buildings shared one backyard, and there was a slope running along the edge of it, like a hill, with stones and boulders And the boulder fell on this poor kid and killed him.... I sometimes think there's a reason for all these freak accidents. Some message. A message from above....The place is dangerous.

"Another guy I know got eaten alive by bees. In my high school two kids drowned and one girl died when a branch fell on her during a hike. I swear, it's weird. Those sorts of things happen everywhere, you just don't hear about them. We're a small country, so we hear about every death. We hear, and we also remember. We feel bad, and we remember.... Also people here are careless. They drive like they're homicidal and on amphetamines. They think they have to be tough, so they aren't self-protective. They don't avoid bees and they swim where there aren't any lifeguards. The city doesn't clear boulders. We don't look after ourselves, that's the problem. We're too arrogant and vain and we're obsessed with being tough. Maybe we're also suicidal."

This is a passage from the novel Look for Me written by Edeet Ravel. She's not Armenian and she's not describing Armenia but she might as well be. Ms. Ravel was born on a Marxist kibbutz near the Israeli-Lebanese border and what she was describing was the Israeli state of mind.

And it got me thinking about the parallels we share with other "small countries."

Every murder, every accident, freaky or otherwise, every attack, every rape, every drowning, every death is felt and is mourned. I have grudgingly come to accept that violence is inescapable and accidents which could easily be prevented continue to plague this society because of carelessness and ignorance.

It's true, violence exists everywhere. It is brought to bear collectively and individually. It is expressed in the desperation of a lost and floundering generation. It is expressed by those who feel they have nothing left to lose.

But as a collective entity, as a people, as a nation we never had to own up to the violence. We believed that since we didn't create the conditions which fostered violence, therefore we did not have to answer for it. Never needed to. After all, we were always living in someone else's country, never our own. It was the reflection of a society for which we felt no direct responsibility.

But in Armenia, the violence is ours to own. It exists of our own volition. And it seems to be on the increase. According to a 2006 Armenian Police Service Report, while there was a decrease in the incidents of attempted murders, there was an increase of murders in the republic (75 murders in 2006, 55 murders in 2005). I'm not sure what this means, but it appears that murderers are getting smarter and more efficient. Robberies have also been on the rise: 3,261 in 2006 compared with 2,624 in 2005.

According to this same report, rape or attempted rape has decreased dramatically - 24 cases in 2005 compared with 10 cases in 2006. A critical element that is not factored into the equation when the police publish these reports is that in the overriding majority of cases women are not reporting the rape. In a country of 3 million inhabitants, it's hard to believe that there has only been 10 cases of rape. Women don't report largely due to fear of repercussions and cultural stigmas surrounding rape. My 18-year-old daughter witnessed the brutal beating of a young woman by a man, most likely her husband or boyfriend, in his big, black SUV a few days ago on a busy street. Her friends commented that the woman, who was receiving blows to her head, must have done something to have brought on the beating. You see, the victim is responsible and everything is justifiable.

One of the main areas of focus for police was gun-related crimes. In 2006 alone, there were 180 recorded instances of illegal possession of guns and 126 instances of illegal possession of explosives. Not surprising when any number of oligarchs have a personal army of illiterate, untrained, armed bodyguards who are more than willing to put their toys to use.

Police say that as a result of this increase in crime they are overworked, and this has affected the number of cases that they have been able to solve. In 2005 for example, 84.5 percent of crimes were solved, whereas in 2006 only 79.2 percent of all crimes were solved. With violent crimes, their track record is even worse: only 71.6 percent of crimes solved.

Living in Armenia, you don't need these statistics to know that there is crime here. So what was the point of all these depressing statistics? To prove that we have crime and violence in Armenia? The point is to emphasize that this country, like any other country on the planet has its fair share of robbers, murderers, con artists, and rapists.

What we need to address is the tendency that we have been witnessing of a steady increase in the incidents of crime. We've had enough "messages from above."

***

Our attitude toward safety are lax at best. Children don't wear helmets when they ride their bikes. No one wears seat belts in a country where driving greatly increases your risk of dying. Older cars don't even have seatbelts. Young infants are held in their mother's laps while they sit in the front seat of cars, while toddlers can be seen standing up in the back seats. There are even those fathers who place their child on their laps while negotiating the treacherous streets of Yerevan behind their steering wheels. Pedestrians don't look when they are crossing the street. Construction workers are not given helmets or other protective gear while they build the buildings where we choose to live.

The dilapidated condition of elevators has at last become a source of concern for city officials who are now struggling to renovate or replace several thousand of them. Apartment buildings are falling apart along with their balconies, which have become a serious threat to the population. Manholes are left uncovered and in the darkness of night can swallow a human whole or trap the tire of any car. Traffic lights don't work. Pedestrian lights don't work. Stray dogs traveling in packs are not dealt with. Meat is sold in unhygienic conditions, oftentimes exposed under the sun where flies and humans battle to find the best cuts.