you know, i love georgia, and i love tbilisi, and i would like to spend a month there, because i am extremely tired of the constant high load, i would describe tbilisi as a best city in the world i have seen, and the second would be new york. i mean, now you can imagine how i do love tbilisi. i also love the georgian language, i sincerely would like to be fluent in it, it sounds very beautiful to my ear.

now after this disclaimer i would like to tell you, that it’s surprising, how we, in caucasus can feel ourselves losers, if the neighbour could achieve something which we did not.

once i was in tbilisi, and there was this girl, who was sharing her experience with the mentioned by me in the previous post application ‘picsart’. she said - “it’s an amazing application, i do not use photoshop any more, you don’t need to as well, you can edit photos in picsart, and it has outstanding features”. well, i doubt you don’t need photoshop or gimp if you have picsart installed, but still, i said, not without feeling good about it, of course, that it’s an armenian startup.

now, because i write it here on my english stream, i need to justify why did i feel good. i know i personally did not participate the development of the app. but those are people like me. i did not study with them, they are a bit younger, but they share the same university teachers (not the best in the world, obviously), the same blockade, and crappy political situation, they went to serve in the army near the borders, like me, and they had some good ideas to create/participate the development of the application. i think it was possible to make it technically much better, i dislike the implementation, but still. the same feeling i do have, when i see good architecture. i know those who did the projects - again, people i know, those are some of us, i am one of them, not better, not worse, and that means we, are actually capable, as a society to produce good buildings, make good design, i would like, and not ashamed to show. even less ashamed than to show picsart, i would not be proud to show picsart. but that means, that though the ruling elite has its own toy architects, who are, of course stupid, because no sane person with dignity would collaborate with the regime, and that’s why we have a lot of buildings i am ashamed of, we as a society are able to produce something i won’t be ashamed of.

so if i can be ashamed of something, then i may allow myself to be proud of something as well.

and yes, i know the yerevan is completely spoiled place, it’s not what it was, it’s not what it could become. one of my friends (friends? acquaintances) uses the tag #independentlandscape for that, which is really sad, because yes, in the independent armenia we are not able to have the ruling elite we would choose. there are different global factors, including russia’s support of our current government, and the real war situation. i used to say ‘semi war’ to describe the situation, when no active military actions are taken every day, but the shootings are real, and every day people near border live under the fire. it’s real. just those in yerevan, or those who don’t take their noses out of yerevan don’t feel that. don’t know that. don’t understand that.

so back to the story, the girl in tbilisi was showing the picsart as an app, because of which you won’t need photoshop. and i said - yes, i know the app, it’s our local startup. and she said - ‘no, it’s not possible, it’s a good, important application, how could it be developed in armenia?’. and i said: ‘yes, my friends work there, i know the people who does it, i have been in their office.’ and she was in denial for some time, and then she was very upset.

so to me, georgian successes in fighting corruption, let’s say, those give me a hope, that we also can do that. this is something very close to us, and it demonstrates that we also can do that, it is real, observable, tangible. so i am glad we have georgia as a good example and inspiration.

what is frustrating, is when your neighbours have this competition feeling with you, you cannot be good for them by definition, because they are superior. it is sad when they, instead of being glad for your achievements, feel upset about those. we go to georgia, but they mostly don’t come to us. the only case a lot of young people from georgia came to yerevan was the concert of the ‘system of the down’, the armenian group at the main square of yerevan. so this is the story. sorry for bothering you. till.

բնօրինակ սփիւռքում(եւ մեկնաբանութիւննե՞ր)