Nareg is a fellow Armenian from the diaspora who lives and works here part of the year. He and his family have initiated multiple projects, both humanitarian and cultural, in and around Nagorno-Karabagh, even in parts of the Armenian controlled territories where he encouraged settlers to live. The Naregatsi Art Institute is a center for young, emerging artists, filmmakers, and photographers to display their works. Musicians even give concerts in the mini concert hall-like setting. Another center was opened in Shushi several years ago.

Hetq already published several articles about Nareg’s arrest, including letters from friends and acquaintences. In one of them someone mentioned that it was high time Armenians from the diaspora were left alone to do their business dealings or philanthropic work without the interference of the government or people with seemingly honest intentions out to make a buck. But Armenians born and raised here have been convicted on trumped up (or even invented) charges for years since there is no independent judicial system. It seems anyone from the upper echelons of the country’s leadership can make a phone call to the Minister of Justice to ensure that someone is tried and convicted by any means necessary. It’s not yet clear who exactly ordered Nareg’s arrest but the truth will hopefully come out in the coming days.

I have met Nareg on two occasions through a mutual friend. Unfortunately I have not learned about his efforts in detail from him, but I have admired Naregatsi and I hope Nareg’s arrest does not in some way interrupt the center’s longevity.

What can be done to help Nareg? Well there is an online petition for starters. There is also a Facebook page created to spread awareness, which as of this writing already has 1003 “likes.” But the only way for the government to resolve the issue once and for all is for the Armenian diaspora to cry foul en masse. That would entail getting leaders from philanthropic and political organizations to get involved. But the success of that effort is perhaps tied to how “liked” Nareg is in different circles and by people of influence.

As with many social and political issues in Armenia, when enough noise is made by people who oppose a controversial decision, the government eventually relents. Unless people become vocal about Nareg’s plight and demand his release, he will sit in jail for another 58 days and possibly face additional recrimination when he’s finally let out, if he doesn’t pack up and leave the country in disgust before then. Let’s work to get him out now.

First let’s look at the car tax. He proposed that the owner of a car estimated to be worth $90,000 or more be taxed, estimating the collected amount to reach around $2.6 million (1 billion dram). This expectation is a bit naïve thinking, however, since the number of cars priced that high is so infinitesimal that it will be hard to believe so much will be collected in taxes. There are ways around paying that “luxury tax” of course. Since the customs department determines the value of automobiles entering the country and the customs fees required to be paid using whatever mind-numbing algorithms they employ, it certainly wouldn’t be difficult to pay an official a bribe to set the worth of the car at $89,000, thereby avoiding the luxury tax.

Then there’s the expensive alcohol tax – amounting to a 50 percent increase in excise duties. Fancy drinks like high-priced Cognac, haughty French wines and the like have a niche market, although the PM claims sales make up a 15 percent share of alcohol sold (naturally there’s no way of knowing where he got that number from). I’ve only seen expensive liquors and wines at SAS supermarket, which caters to Yerevan’s nouveau riche as well as foreigners working in the country. It’s hard to believe anyone – a visitor or a local – would be willing to pay several hundred dollars for wine when a five-buck bottle of Areni will suffice most tastes. In other words, the PM shouldn’t expect much tax revenue from the food and drink business sector.

The proposed tax hike from 20 to 25 percent of income for anyone making at least $5300 a month is intriguing. It’s safe to say that anyone making a salary that much or higher is not properly reporting their annual worth to the tax authorities anyway(if at all), and again, paying them a bribe to avoid paying higher taxes will not be difficult.

Even if he decides to crack down even more on small and medium-sized businesses (a.k.a., ordinary people trying to make a buck) than he already has, it’s hard to believe he’ll be able to collect very much additional tax revenue from them since they’ve been squeezed to the breaking point. I’ve been seeing many vacant stores recently in Yerevan, and low sales may not be the only determining factor in the decision to close shop.

The head of the State Revenue Committee Gagik Khachatrian has yet to be convinced that the funds can be raised with the PM’s plan. He’s been expressing his concerns about the new budget and the government’s anticipated ability to hit its target since the 2012 budget was unveiled on September 29, claiming that there was no way it could collect so much in tax revenues with its current focus.

What’s strange is that there’s really no intent in store to properly tax the oligarchs. Why doesn’t he simply go after the multimillionaires? Probably because that will mean he will ultimately have to tax himself.

Perhaps the Prime Minister really expects to collect the $268 million through the established system of bribery in place. Khachatrian is certainly right – on the surface of things the expected numbers just don’t add up.

Armenia today is ruled by a handful of wealthy families competing for prominence, similar to what you would find in a Hollywood film about the mafia, but without all the gory violence. The common people are subjects to the nepotistic society these leaders, or oligarchs, have created. Citizens who speak out against government decisions are cruelly suppressed by this system. Others are victims to bad policies and lose their livelihoods in the process. Civil society is weak, and initiatives to bring about change in the form of grassroots movements are often supported by outside special interest groups, mainly from the US or Europe. Narcissism has long become a virtue of the nepotists, with general disregard for law and order and respect for neighborhood peace violated day and night. Society is increasingly polarized with the dividing line between the haves and have nots all the more obvious. The social equality of Armenia’s soviet past is long gone.

Although the president is quite aware of the dire economic and societal issues that most Armenians face day to day, he either plays them down or fails to address them. For instance, he recently discounted the somber fact that entire villages have been relocating to remote parts of Russia as part of a controversial resettlement program promoted by the Russian government. Judging from the headlines in the Armenian press, it is clear that the president is often out of sync with what is transpiring in the country he supposedly rules.

Below is a list of problems that the president needs to contend with to ensure Armenia’s democratic and economic progress in the years to come:

Create jobs. In the wake of independence countless factories that were prosperous during the soviet era closed either overnight or during the course of several years. Although some like chemical plants and sugar processing facilities have reopened in recent years, Armenia’s industrial output is nowhere near what it was just before the Soviet Union began to crumble. The permanent closure of key factories in rural areas, like Sisian in the southern Syunik region and Charentsavan to the north of the capital, not to mention scores of other towns throughout the country, have resulted in a depopulation, with many people once living in small towns and villages flocking to Yerevan or leaving the country, most of them for Russia, in search of work. The president needs to create an environment whereby new factories can be built by wealthy Armenian citizens or foreign businessmen weary of doing business in Armenia. Eradicating corruption in the tax and customs departments and simplifying the business registration process would be an excellent start.

Promote small business. Yerevan mayor Karen Karapetyan made himself public enemy by sweeping traders off the streets (oddly only florists are allowed to sell roses from sidewalk stands) and destroying inconspicuous kiosks where cobblers, tailors, and cigarette sellers set up shop. Shopkeepers are harassed by taxmen and some are even forced to close for days on end while they scramble to clear up minute discrepancies found as a result of loopholes purposely left open by the tax authorities to extort bribes.  Although Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian has often talked about encouraging the growth of small businesses, he has been reluctant to disclose the details of policies his government plans to implement. Tax breaks coupled with guaranteed interest-free government loans would encourage small businesses to open and help nurture an environment of trust.

Encourage civil society. In flourishing, deep-rooted democracies dissent and opposition to government policy are tolerated, and public advocacy is allowed to function. Initiatives to promote civil society need to be implemented, mainly by immediately stopping police confrontations or crackdowns on peaceful demonstrators. Society cannot be built while oppression and fear looms overhead Armenian citizens.

Tax the wealthy and give tax breaks to the lower classes. Hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue can be generated if only oligarchs were taxed, the sums of which could be funneled to important social programs. By 2006 estimates 26.5 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Free housing could be provided to impoverished citizens still living in shacks, temporary housing, or on the street. Also, pensioners could finally receive monthly stipends that are in line with the current standard of living, which is continually on the rise with food prices often skyrocketing, especially in the period leading up to the holiday season. The government should aim to eradicate poverty nationwide, and it can easily do so if and when taxes are properly collected.

Prevent emigration and promote immigration. President Sarkisian desperately needs to draft a plan for slowing down the exodus from Armenia. That should include job creation through promoting foreign investment in the manufacturing and IT sectors, an increase in the minimum wage, and equal opportunity, particularly in government agencies. He also needs to address the relatively low birthrate, with 12 children born for every 1,000 people and on average one child born per household, according to 2011 figures. He also needs to ensure that infrastructure is modernized even in the most remote villages of the republic.  Several areas of Artsakh along with the Armenian controlled territories surrounding it must be populated, and that again can only come about with increased investment and the vital infrastructure in place.  When Armenians worldwide feel confident that the Armenian government is able to provide the means and conditions for promoting growth throughout the regions, they will begin to immigrate.

These are only a handful of issues that loom over Armenia’s destiny.  There are just as many if not more challenges related to Armenian foreign policy that must be addressed, the most important being the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which seems to be floating in an eternal stalemate.

In his Independence Day remarks, President Sarkisian hailed the new generation of the republic recognizing its “concerns and demands” of a better society.  He also stated that “… in the next twenty years we will be able to build a country which will come close to our ideals. I believe in that because I believe in our collective power.”

Now the pressure is on the president. He alone can muster the support of both an apathetic public and the oligarchic society backing him by making the right policy decisions that would benefit all, not just a select few. That is a difficult balancing act, but the means to accomplish such a feat simply need implementing and the vision to do so. Having said that, it is up to Armenian society as a collective whole to ensure he aspires to the same ideals to which he alludes, the same that all citizens expect to live by.

This blatant lack of quality control tells me a few things. One, the woman (I assume based on the hair’s length) who made and braided the cheese did not evidently bother to wear some kind of head dress — a scarf, hairnet, whatever — to prevent her hair from falling into the cheese. The mysterious specs of dust shows that the cheese was not made in a sterile (okay, let’s say somewhat sterile), sanitary environment. I can only imagine how unclean her hands were. Simply put, the woman doesn’t care about quality, and furthermore she is demonstrating disrespect towards her customers by not ensuring that her product is free of debris. Moreover, her carelessness shows a lack of self-respect by not giving a damn.

I often wonder when complaining, discontented Armenians are going to awake and start standing up for something, anything. I’ve told people time and time again, and have written in my blog entries, that change in society and governance must come from the bottom-up. It’s the people who have to demand that apathy not reign in their own society, and they can’t be afraid to push their government to meet their needs, whether economic or social. You hear complaints everywhere — in markets and taxis, in newspapers, on the Internet. But nothing changes — the same issues related to unemployment, social inequality, and economic instability not only continue but are worsening. But people don’t get it, and they continue to complain and moan. Ironically, the main opposition block, the very one that was supposed to represent the marginalized and unlucky, is “negotiating” with the government, the details of the talks still unclear.

But regardless of how hard life may seem to be, you have to foster dignity, you need to respect yourself before you can respect others. Armenians must understand that change comes from within, it comes from the soul. You have to embrace the hope and potential of change. You have to believe it.

That can start by making high-quality cheese.

Below are excerpts:

Until recently, young people in Spain were dismissed as an apathetic generation, uninterested in party politics. But the outpouring of young people who have taken to the streets since May 15 — at one point about 28,000 protesters spent the night in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square — has changed all that, forcing the country to take heed and reconsider.

The recession that has ravaged Spain, along with much of southern Europe, has had an especially hard impact on the young, with unemployment rates soaring to more than 40 percent for 20- to 24-year-olds, about twice the national average and the highest in the European Union. Many of them see limited hope of improvement unless they reshuffle the political deck and demand a new approach to creating jobs.

“Suddenly people are talking about politics everywhere,” said María Luz Morán, a sociologist at the Complutense University of Madrid. “You go to have coffee or you are standing in the subway and you hear conversations about politics. It’s been years since I heard anyone talking about politics.”

Even young people who have jobs here are often caught in a system of poorly paid, temporary contracts. The contracts were once designed to help them break into the labor force, but they have served instead to put adulthood out of reach for many. Ms. Moran said that one survey showed that about 50 percent of 30-year-olds in Spain were still living with their parents.

“We call 32- and 35-year-olds young people in Spain, because they are forced to live like children,” she said. “Thirty-year-olds should have their own homes.”

Few experts are willing to say what the protesters might achieve. But already issues that were discussed only at the margins are being taken more seriously. One major conservative daily newspaper, ABC, polled constitutional experts this week about what it would take to change the election laws, one of the principal demands of the demonstrators, who say the current system heavily favors the country’s two leading political parties.

“They have already had an impact,” said Rafael Díaz-Salazar, another sociologist at Complutense, who believes that the protesters may represent about two million voters. “They are forcing people to take a look at this impoverished generation. There will have to talk about precarious work contracts and housing in the next election. They cannot avoid it anymore.”

The moral of this story — as I’ve repeated for years — is that if people who are desperate enough really want change in their society, they can make it happen. The youth of Armenia can follow Spain’s precedent and take charge of their future, they can make a difference and have a positive impact not only on their own lives but that of future generations. Emigrating to foreign countries murmuring “the country’s not a country” shouldn’t be the answer.