Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)
March 3, 2009
Armenian Currency Free-Falls As Central Bank Ends Intervention
by Charles Recknagel
Armenia's national currency, the dram, has gone into free fall after
the Central Bank stopped intervening to support it.
In the space of a few hours on March 3, the dram went from 305 to the
dollar to as low as 400 to the dollar, a loss of up to 30 percent of
the currency's value.
Until recently, many Armenians felt relatively untouched by the
economic crisis sweeping the world, largely because much of the
country's income is supplied by remittances from the Armenian diaspora
abroad.
But as the economic situation in Russia has worsened, remittances from
that direction have steadily dried up. And the same thing, at a slower
rate, has been happening with remittances of dollars from the United
States.
Now, the decline of remittances has made its impact fully felt.
The Central Bank, which for years has relied upon remittances to fund
its policy of supporting the dram against the dollar, decided it could
no longer sustain that burden.
Read the rest of the article here...
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
The Economic Crisis Hits Armenia
Until now, I haven't really been feeling the full effect of the global economic crisis here. For the most part life seemed to be going on as usual. I mean, the economy here already had some serious problems (if it didn't, I wouldn't be here researching the social consequences of labor migration to Russia, after all). But the new crisis hadn't really seemed to impact here directly, except in terms of a wave of migrants coming home from Russia because the Russian economy is collapsing.
But today, it hit. The Armenian central bank devalued the dram by 21% and the exchange rate will now be free-floating, as part of an agreement to get a bailout from the IMF.
So...really sucks for anyone whose money is denominated in drams, and I assume prices are going to rise. You could definitely feel the sense of worry and panic in the air...especially if you went near a currency exchange booth. People have been going to stores and buying everything they can. According to my friend Anush, some of the smaller shops have already run out of things...oil, butter, sugar...
For any of you who can read Russian, here's another article.
Maybe i just don't understand economics, but i was just reading another article about what's going on here, and it's talking about how the dram being devalued is going to be good for the Armenian economy because it will improve exports and create jobs.....but....somehow that just seems wrong when people aren't going to be able to afford to eat....
I'm sorry that I don't have more insightful economic analysis than that....but if any of my readers know more about econ than I do and want to explain the ramifications, please go ahead and comment!
Also sorry this post is kind of disjointed--I keep re-editing and adding things to it as I find out more!
But today, it hit. The Armenian central bank devalued the dram by 21% and the exchange rate will now be free-floating, as part of an agreement to get a bailout from the IMF.
So...really sucks for anyone whose money is denominated in drams, and I assume prices are going to rise. You could definitely feel the sense of worry and panic in the air...especially if you went near a currency exchange booth. People have been going to stores and buying everything they can. According to my friend Anush, some of the smaller shops have already run out of things...oil, butter, sugar...
For any of you who can read Russian, here's another article.
Maybe i just don't understand economics, but i was just reading another article about what's going on here, and it's talking about how the dram being devalued is going to be good for the Armenian economy because it will improve exports and create jobs.....but...
Also sorry this post is kind of disjointed--I keep re-editing and adding things to it as I find out more!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Khorovats
On Friday, we had a going-away party for Magnus, who, sadly, is leaving us on March 6. And at this party we had khorovats, or Armenian-style barbecue. It was big pieces of pork and slices of potatoes, all grilled out on the balcony over an open flame (all the more impressive because it was raining!) Those of us not involved in the cooking alternated between watching the grilling and playing endless ping pong. Magnus is the studio's champion, and he usually wins. But it's fun to play with him!
Then we all sat down to our feast. The food was absolutely amazing--normally I'm somewhat indifferent to pork, but this was absolutely delicious. Poor Inna--she is Lenting, and in the Armenian church this entails a vegan diet for the entire 40 day duration of Lent. So she filled up on potatoes. Additionally, there was lavash and bread, a cabbage salad, the salad that looks like sort of liquified pickled tomatoes and peppers, wine (of both store-bought and homemade-in-a-Coke-bottle varieties), vodka, Jermuk (carbonated water) and oddly, Diet Coke.
There was, of course, the obligatory series of toasts, which occasionally I understood parts of (I've got to hand it to my teacher...as irrelevant as the texts on Matenadaran, the linguistic origins of the Armenian language, and Mesrop Mashtots might have seemed, I did actually learn some useful words from them!) Vahe translated some, but his translations were (understandably) directed at Magnus so I couldn't always hear. But I still got the sense.
After a fairly significant amount of alcohol had been consumed (for the record, I was drinking wine, not vodka), the singing started. Mher, our gruff security guard (who was also the one who grilled the khorovats), has quite a good voice! I don't know what the first song was about, but it had tears running down more than one person's face. Then there were some other songs that were happier in tone...one of them, I gathered, was a patriotic song that the soldiers in the Karabagh war would always sing when they saw Vardan coming with his camera...I also gathered that this song got on his nerves!
As the meal was wrapping up, Magnus, Nelly, and I started cleaning up a bit while the heavy smokers went outside and some of the other guys stood around toasting more. Then followed a highly entertaining drunken ping-pong game, in which I was by far the most sober (having only had 2 glasses of wine and no vodka), and which therefore my team won.
It was a good evening. But we're all sorry to see Magnus go.
Then we all sat down to our feast. The food was absolutely amazing--normally I'm somewhat indifferent to pork, but this was absolutely delicious. Poor Inna--she is Lenting, and in the Armenian church this entails a vegan diet for the entire 40 day duration of Lent. So she filled up on potatoes. Additionally, there was lavash and bread, a cabbage salad, the salad that looks like sort of liquified pickled tomatoes and peppers, wine (of both store-bought and homemade-in-a-Coke-bottle varieties), vodka, Jermuk (carbonated water) and oddly, Diet Coke.
There was, of course, the obligatory series of toasts, which occasionally I understood parts of (I've got to hand it to my teacher...as irrelevant as the texts on Matenadaran, the linguistic origins of the Armenian language, and Mesrop Mashtots might have seemed, I did actually learn some useful words from them!) Vahe translated some, but his translations were (understandably) directed at Magnus so I couldn't always hear. But I still got the sense.
After a fairly significant amount of alcohol had been consumed (for the record, I was drinking wine, not vodka), the singing started. Mher, our gruff security guard (who was also the one who grilled the khorovats), has quite a good voice! I don't know what the first song was about, but it had tears running down more than one person's face. Then there were some other songs that were happier in tone...one of them, I gathered, was a patriotic song that the soldiers in the Karabagh war would always sing when they saw Vardan coming with his camera...I also gathered that this song got on his nerves!
As the meal was wrapping up, Magnus, Nelly, and I started cleaning up a bit while the heavy smokers went outside and some of the other guys stood around toasting more. Then followed a highly entertaining drunken ping-pong game, in which I was by far the most sober (having only had 2 glasses of wine and no vodka), and which therefore my team won.
It was a good evening. But we're all sorry to see Magnus go.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Garbage Day, and Other Musings
Sadly, I don't have anything to report to you about Trndez, the holiday with newlywed couples jumping over fire, because I ended up staying in Yerevan last weekend. And this weekend. But next weekend I'll be back on the road doing more interviews...
The other day here in Yerevan (or at least on my street) was apparently garbage day. A couple of guys with shovels and a dump truck came and shoveled up all the trash that had accumulated along the sides of the roads, next to the lamp post, on the sidewalk at the bottom of the hill, etc. Thankfully, this also included the disposal of the cat corpse which had been laying there on the corner for quite some time. (Magnus says it's been there since January, I say only a couple weeks, but either way.......)
So yes...for the time being at least, the sidewalks are much cleaner. And they'd stay that way if people would just throw their trash away in dumpsters.....
Sadly, today winter made a comeback. I woke up to discover that it was snowing outside. Now the temperature has gone up above freezing again, so everything is covered in slush. It's gross. Needless to say, even if I weren't trying to stave off getting actually sick, I would not be going out anywhere today. Luckily I got my grocery shopping done yesterday.
Speaking of groceries, I managed to conduct an entire transaction in Armenian the other day! (And earned an "Apres!" (Bravo!) from the girl to boot) Yes indeed, I successfully requested, received, and paid for 10 apples without resorting to Russian or having to say "chem haskanum" (I don't understand). This of course, was aided by apple being one of the few food words I know. My vocabulary of nouns is still fairly pathetic....although randomly, I now know the word for "linguistic family". It's long. And hard to read.
I do still suck at reading. I don't know if my brain will ever manage to make the transition from reading one letter at a time, sounding words out, to actually reading whole words. (We're not even going to talk about writing here except to simply say--I can't.) But at least I'm getting a little better at speaking and understanding.
And that, I guess, is pretty much it for now. More interesting (hopefully!) stories to come next week after I do some more traveling outside of Yerevan. And for now, off I go!
The other day here in Yerevan (or at least on my street) was apparently garbage day. A couple of guys with shovels and a dump truck came and shoveled up all the trash that had accumulated along the sides of the roads, next to the lamp post, on the sidewalk at the bottom of the hill, etc. Thankfully, this also included the disposal of the cat corpse which had been laying there on the corner for quite some time. (Magnus says it's been there since January, I say only a couple weeks, but either way.......)
So yes...for the time being at least, the sidewalks are much cleaner. And they'd stay that way if people would just throw their trash away in dumpsters.....
Sadly, today winter made a comeback. I woke up to discover that it was snowing outside. Now the temperature has gone up above freezing again, so everything is covered in slush. It's gross. Needless to say, even if I weren't trying to stave off getting actually sick, I would not be going out anywhere today. Luckily I got my grocery shopping done yesterday.
Speaking of groceries, I managed to conduct an entire transaction in Armenian the other day! (And earned an "Apres!" (Bravo!) from the girl to boot) Yes indeed, I successfully requested, received, and paid for 10 apples without resorting to Russian or having to say "chem haskanum" (I don't understand). This of course, was aided by apple being one of the few food words I know. My vocabulary of nouns is still fairly pathetic....although randomly, I now know the word for "linguistic family". It's long. And hard to read.
I do still suck at reading. I don't know if my brain will ever manage to make the transition from reading one letter at a time, sounding words out, to actually reading whole words. (We're not even going to talk about writing here except to simply say--I can't.) But at least I'm getting a little better at speaking and understanding.
And that, I guess, is pretty much it for now. More interesting (hopefully!) stories to come next week after I do some more traveling outside of Yerevan. And for now, off I go!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
It's a kidney...it's a lung...no, it's.......a GIZZARD!
It was almost enough to make me into a vegetarian.
Chicken gizzards. Ew. Just, ew.
Actually the flavor was better than the cooked liver (not sure what species) from back in the fall...but in terms of gross meats, the ranking now goes:
1. Cooked liver
2. Chicken gizzard
3. Raw sheep liver, fresh out of the sheep
Yes, raw liver has fallen back to third.
If we're also including gross meat dishes (as in not just pieces of meat) I'd have to include kholodets (pig jello) in this list, and probably khash (hot gelatinous substance made from cows' legs and consumed with garlic and copious amounts of vodka) but I've never actually had khash, so as gross as it sounds, I must reserve judgement.
In other news, the weather continues springlike, if a bit gray and dreary. I also thought about buying a pair of blue boots yesterday, but upon trying them on, they proved, sadly, to be quite uncomfortable. So no boots.
And that's pretty much it at the moment. Tune in next time to find out about the holiday where people jump over fires......
Chicken gizzards. Ew. Just, ew.
Actually the flavor was better than the cooked liver (not sure what species) from back in the fall...but in terms of gross meats, the ranking now goes:
1. Cooked liver
2. Chicken gizzard
3. Raw sheep liver, fresh out of the sheep
Yes, raw liver has fallen back to third.
If we're also including gross meat dishes (as in not just pieces of meat) I'd have to include kholodets (pig jello) in this list, and probably khash (hot gelatinous substance made from cows' legs and consumed with garlic and copious amounts of vodka) but I've never actually had khash, so as gross as it sounds, I must reserve judgement.
In other news, the weather continues springlike, if a bit gray and dreary. I also thought about buying a pair of blue boots yesterday, but upon trying them on, they proved, sadly, to be quite uncomfortable. So no boots.
And that's pretty much it at the moment. Tune in next time to find out about the holiday where people jump over fires......
Friday, February 6, 2009
An explanation for the traffic jam...
Last night I had my weekly Armenian lesson which finished at 7pm. I took the metro home, because I have realized that it's far more comfortable than squishing myself into a marshrutka at rush hour. And it's not that far a walk from the metro stop down the hill to my apartment, especially if the weather's decent.
So when I got out of the metro and up to the street, I saw that there was a huge traffic mess at the giant intersection there. My first thought was that rush hour was a bit worse than usual, but nothing too out of the ordinary--things get backed up when too many marshrutkas try to stop in the same place. So I continued down the hill, stopping in the shoe store with the brief notion of buying some boots (I had scoped them out a few days earlier), but no matter how many times I look at them, I really will just never see myself wearing those super-shiny black vinyl boots. If they were normal black leather, there's a pair I would have already bought....but I digress.
Anyways, I went back out after only a minute or two and realized that I was walking faster than the traffic was moving. And a few seconds later, I realized that hardly any traffic at all was coming up the hill. Once in a while a car would come through, but that was it. I tried to see ahead and caught the brief flash of the lights of a police car--I decided that there must have been an accident somewhere out of sight up ahead...maybe on the bridge? I kept walking. At the bottom of the hill, I saw that the cars going uphill were only ones that were turning right--nothing was coming straight. Then I saw a bit of a caravan of black SUVs, one of which had flashing lights. So I wondered if the president were somewhere in the vicinity and they had closed some roads? Police were directing traffic at the intersection, but of course it was still barely controlled chaos. I made it across the street, went home, and didn't think much more about it.
Until today...when I found out what really happened: http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=13544734&PageNum=0
So yes. The deputy police chief was murdered just down the street from where I live. Something like 9 shots were fired into him. He leaves behind a wife and a 5 or 6 month old baby. This is just really sad.
So when I got out of the metro and up to the street, I saw that there was a huge traffic mess at the giant intersection there. My first thought was that rush hour was a bit worse than usual, but nothing too out of the ordinary--things get backed up when too many marshrutkas try to stop in the same place. So I continued down the hill, stopping in the shoe store with the brief notion of buying some boots (I had scoped them out a few days earlier), but no matter how many times I look at them, I really will just never see myself wearing those super-shiny black vinyl boots. If they were normal black leather, there's a pair I would have already bought....but I digress.
Anyways, I went back out after only a minute or two and realized that I was walking faster than the traffic was moving. And a few seconds later, I realized that hardly any traffic at all was coming up the hill. Once in a while a car would come through, but that was it. I tried to see ahead and caught the brief flash of the lights of a police car--I decided that there must have been an accident somewhere out of sight up ahead...maybe on the bridge? I kept walking. At the bottom of the hill, I saw that the cars going uphill were only ones that were turning right--nothing was coming straight. Then I saw a bit of a caravan of black SUVs, one of which had flashing lights. So I wondered if the president were somewhere in the vicinity and they had closed some roads? Police were directing traffic at the intersection, but of course it was still barely controlled chaos. I made it across the street, went home, and didn't think much more about it.
Until today...when I found out what really happened: http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=13544734&PageNum=0
So yes. The deputy police chief was murdered just down the street from where I live. Something like 9 shots were fired into him. He leaves behind a wife and a 5 or 6 month old baby. This is just really sad.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Spring?!!
It seems that were there groundhogs in Armenia, they would predict the impending arrival of spring, for it was quite cloudy here on Groundhog's day. And it also seems (*knocks on wood*) to be coming true, at least for the moment. The temperatures have been getting above freezing most days, and the air frequently feels springlike--especially on sunny days. This, by the way, only applies to Yerevan and Yeghegnadzor. I fully expect to freeze when I go to Hrazdan again this weekend...
But let me back up and explain.
For the last couple of weekends, I've been heading out to other towns around Armenia to do interviews and research. (Yes, fulfilling my actual purpose as a Fulbrighter.) Somehow all of a sudden I became insanely busy, between teaching English 3 times a week, studying Armenian once a week, stuff at the studio, and then long weekends out in the countryside. Two weeks ago I went to Hrazdan and absolutely froze because first of all it had been getting warmer in Yerevan and nobody warned me that Hrazdan is much colder (I didn't realize that it's virtually next door to the ski resort Tsakhgadzor...which, by the way, I can't spell). And due to the whole lack of indoor heat issue, it was a cold weekend. But a very productive one!
Then last weekend I headed southwards to Yeghegnadzor, which was completely opposite weather! It was sunny and warm (on Saturday I didn't even need a scarf!) and everything was melting, leaving the streets an absolute mess of mud. But eminently preferable to freezing. I have clearly lost my love of winter. It might come back when I'm back somewhere with central heating, but for now I can't wait for spring!
So anyways, while in Yeghegnadzor I got to do a little sightseeing in addition to interviewing--we went out to the church that's near there...Noravants (or something like that. I'm awful at remembering names unless I've heard them lots and lots of times.) Of course it's stunningly beautiful, as are most such places in Armenia. It's up in the mountains, and there are red cliffs surrounding it. There are two church buildings, and there used to be an academy as well, but now just the foundations remain. On one of the churches you can climb up these stairs to the second floor but they're very narrow and there's no handrail or anything and well...it's probably better attempted in tennis shoes than boots. On the way to and from the church, we drove through Armenia's Grand Canyon. It's absolutely amazing, especially when the fog was amassing near the tops of the cliffs. I'm told that the American Grand Canyon is even more impressive, but well, I've never been there...and this was pretty awesome.
But speaking of fog...
I took a marshrutka to Yeghegnadzor, and the road you take to get there starts off on a flat plain south of the city, and then goes through the foothills and into the mountains. It was sleeting in Yerevan and on the plain at the time, but visibility was good. Then all of a sudden we hit a super-thick fog. Visibility was maybe one car length in front of us. Now any sane person would think that this would curtail the giant game of chicken that is played on curving, two-lane mountain roads with barely a guardrail. But that sane person would be wrong. No, the fog just adds a new level of excitement. Because you still pass anyone whom you deem to be driving too slowly. And you do so despite the fact that only about half of the oncoming cars are using headlights, and despite the fog being so thick that you can't see the cars til they're nearly even with you....basically I'm amazed that I'm still alive.
But as suddenly as it appeared, the fog disappeared because we got above it in altitude. And that was pretty awesome, looking out across the mountains and seeing the fog below and the clouds above wreathing the mountaintops.
And Yeghegnadzor itself is in a stunningly beautiful location, surrounded by mountains that look like they're right out of Lord of the Rings or something. I am definitely going back in the spring!
This weekend I'm going to Hrazdan again, but this time I'm going prepared! Warm sweaters and long underwear! (Although just watch--it'll be warm there too just to spite me!)
And I guess that's about it. Pictures to come on facebook some day...but for now the internet is being highly uncooperative so it'll have to wait.
But let me back up and explain.
For the last couple of weekends, I've been heading out to other towns around Armenia to do interviews and research. (Yes, fulfilling my actual purpose as a Fulbrighter.) Somehow all of a sudden I became insanely busy, between teaching English 3 times a week, studying Armenian once a week, stuff at the studio, and then long weekends out in the countryside. Two weeks ago I went to Hrazdan and absolutely froze because first of all it had been getting warmer in Yerevan and nobody warned me that Hrazdan is much colder (I didn't realize that it's virtually next door to the ski resort Tsakhgadzor...which, by the way, I can't spell). And due to the whole lack of indoor heat issue, it was a cold weekend. But a very productive one!
Then last weekend I headed southwards to Yeghegnadzor, which was completely opposite weather! It was sunny and warm (on Saturday I didn't even need a scarf!) and everything was melting, leaving the streets an absolute mess of mud. But eminently preferable to freezing. I have clearly lost my love of winter. It might come back when I'm back somewhere with central heating, but for now I can't wait for spring!
So anyways, while in Yeghegnadzor I got to do a little sightseeing in addition to interviewing--we went out to the church that's near there...Noravants (or something like that. I'm awful at remembering names unless I've heard them lots and lots of times.) Of course it's stunningly beautiful, as are most such places in Armenia. It's up in the mountains, and there are red cliffs surrounding it. There are two church buildings, and there used to be an academy as well, but now just the foundations remain. On one of the churches you can climb up these stairs to the second floor but they're very narrow and there's no handrail or anything and well...it's probably better attempted in tennis shoes than boots. On the way to and from the church, we drove through Armenia's Grand Canyon. It's absolutely amazing, especially when the fog was amassing near the tops of the cliffs. I'm told that the American Grand Canyon is even more impressive, but well, I've never been there...and this was pretty awesome.
But speaking of fog...
I took a marshrutka to Yeghegnadzor, and the road you take to get there starts off on a flat plain south of the city, and then goes through the foothills and into the mountains. It was sleeting in Yerevan and on the plain at the time, but visibility was good. Then all of a sudden we hit a super-thick fog. Visibility was maybe one car length in front of us. Now any sane person would think that this would curtail the giant game of chicken that is played on curving, two-lane mountain roads with barely a guardrail. But that sane person would be wrong. No, the fog just adds a new level of excitement. Because you still pass anyone whom you deem to be driving too slowly. And you do so despite the fact that only about half of the oncoming cars are using headlights, and despite the fog being so thick that you can't see the cars til they're nearly even with you....basically I'm amazed that I'm still alive.
But as suddenly as it appeared, the fog disappeared because we got above it in altitude. And that was pretty awesome, looking out across the mountains and seeing the fog below and the clouds above wreathing the mountaintops.
And Yeghegnadzor itself is in a stunningly beautiful location, surrounded by mountains that look like they're right out of Lord of the Rings or something. I am definitely going back in the spring!
This weekend I'm going to Hrazdan again, but this time I'm going prepared! Warm sweaters and long underwear! (Although just watch--it'll be warm there too just to spite me!)
And I guess that's about it. Pictures to come on facebook some day...but for now the internet is being highly uncooperative so it'll have to wait.
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