Armenia: Poor and Unhappy... They said it, not me

I saw an interesting post by a friend on Facebook, and decided to do some research about the subject. This comes from www.worldvaluessurvey.org. The title of the article is, "Development, Freedom, and Rising Happiness: A Global Perspective (1981–2007)."

The article challenges the current idea about how happiness is believed to be at a set level and revolving around a set point, and that individuals or societies can not change this. However, this article goes on to argue that through such changes like democratization, economic development, and increased social tolerance have increased the extent to which people perceive that they have free choice, which in turn has led to higher levels of happiness around the world.

Because the happiness levels of given societies do not seem to change over time, the idea that economic development brings rising happiness has been widely rejected. Although richer nations show that they have a higher subjective well-being than poorer countries, these differences may reflect cultural differences in what happiness means.

"The people of high-income countries are much happier and are more satisfied with life than are the people of low-income countries, and the differences are substantial. In Denmark, 52% of the public indicated that they were highly satisfied with their lives (placing themselves at 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale), and 45% said they were very happy. In Armenia, only 5% were highly satisfied with their lives, and just 6% were very happy. In contrast to the small income-linked differences usually found within most countries, the cross-national differences are extremely large."

It goes on to explain that this survey was not allowed into the ex-communist societies until after the collapse, so the long-term data can not be taken.

"But let us note that Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine all have shown much lower levels of Subjective Well-Being than their economic levels would predict... ...We suspect that these low levels reflect the traumatic experiences linked with the collapse of communism."

I havent asked an Armenia if they are happy, specifically. But I have always stated that they will always give you an answer of hardship. Whenever I ask certain community members how things are going, they always answer with, "Its cold... We have no work... It was a bad year for fruit, last year was better..." or some type of answer always on the negative point of view. This is kind of disconcerting, even when I explain that I came here to help, and that I think there is opportunity to do many things here, they always tell me that there is no hope for Sisian.

I dont write this to show how negative Armenians are, or to express that I think this country is hopeless. I write it to show what we are up against. This is the statistic my friend posted:

According to World Values Surveys from 1995 to 2007, the 10 unhappiest places on Earth are:
1. Zimbabwe, 2. Armenia, 3. Moldova, 4. Belarus, 5. Ukraine, 6. Albania, 7. Iraq, 8. Bulgaria, 9. Georgia, 10. Russia.

Do you notice how many of them are CIS countries? (Commonwealth of Independent States) ...Google it...

People talk about other places in the world that need help, and ask me why I was sent to an area that in Peace Corps is coded as "The Caucus Region of Eastern Europe." They say, how lucky to have been sent somewhere so nice as that. One friend, that shall remain nameless, said she heard that Peace Corps Volunteers in this region live in condo's and have wireless internet, and what's so hard about that she asked. Well, 8 of the unhappiest countries are in Eastern Europe, and out of 4 countries within the Caucus Region, 3 of them are on this list as well. And by the way, we dont live in condo's, nor do we have wireless internet.

Peace Corps is different in every country. You learn that very quickly. We may not live as physically hard as those volunteers that are on the Serengeti, or live with the Masai Tribes in Africa. You can get used to crapping in a hole, or not showering for weeks, or not having electricity. And I will dare to say that 95% of Volunteers around the world do not fall into what the general public believes is the regular stereotype for a Peace Corps life. But we have much harder things than that.The hard part, for me at least, is being in a country that breeds a depressive mood, and shows no interest in why you are here, or in helping you, let alone themselves. Perseverance and Determination are what drives all volunteers, especially on the worst days.

Food for thought...

Coming this Spring..

So we have these things in Peace Corps called VRF. Volunteer Reporting Form. They are due every 3 months, and they are the worst things in the world. They take a long time to complete, are annoying, and very comprehensive. BUT, they also make you look forward to thing you will be doing soon. After I wrote this entry in the “Planned Activities” section. I am excited to read this and I thought I should share this with my avid readers (all 2 of you… mom and dad). Enjoy! Oh yeah, I will post the rest of trip to Ethiopia soon. And this is a picture of Me, Tylor, and Aaron on a walk in the snow. This is where Aaron and his wife Lauren live, Shaghat Village, enjoy...

I am currently planning a soccer tournament for my region for late March to early April. There is a lot of interest in playing soccer here, but only a select few participate in an organized fashion. So this will be a small-sided tourney, each team having 5 players: 4 playing and 1 sub. I am trying to partner with the Armenian Football Federation’s “Football in General Schools” program. This program has the same objective as mine basically. I also want to pair this with a Health Fair the same day or weekend, that way we can explain the importance of being active and being involved with sports. We will cover both the physical benefits, as well as the mental and behavioral benefits of participating in organized sports.

I am working with an individual that wants to start a organization with the idea of helping community members with disabilities know their rights, so they wont be taken advantage of. That will hopefully create a more transparent use of government funds in the area of disabled persons right and access.

I am forming a partnership with the Civic Center of Sisian, in which I will hopefully help in their projects that extend out in to the surrounding villages. Their programs cover things like Human Rights Seminars, Health Assertiveness and Community Health Needs, Business Development, and free use of a lawyer for legal consultations.

I am trying to start a geography club at the local Community Center. This would be a club free to all that want to attend. We will speak in Armenian, but they will learn all book related knowledge in English. This is mainly to expand their scope of the world, as well as their English knowledge. It will start with local geography (rivers, mountains, hills, etc.) that way they can connect it to what they know. Then it will branch out into the Caucasus Region, then onto other continents. I also have access to Discovery Channel videos in Russian, which will let them see video’s of some of the places we will be learning about.

I am currently trying to get involved with a Sports School next door to my NGO, which has facilities to train athletes in soccer, basketball, and volleyball. I am trying to for a relationship with the Director so that he will let me use the facilities for local community games and sports clubs. I am toying with the idea of trying to start a few leagues for different sports.

We are currently in the process of planning a poetry contest for Sisian and the surrounding villages. This will be done with all other PCV’s in the area, including myself, and my NGO will sponsor the event. We will have children read, remember, then recite poems in English. They will be judged on many things: pronunciation, recitation, inflection, etc. This is to help let them practice their English, as well as learn how it may be correctly spoken.

I am currently working with a FLEX alumnus that lives in Sisian to write a grant for their FLEX alumni grant. With this grant, we plan to give heat to the local history museum, do small restorations, and provide a summer camp for kids that will take them out to historical sites around Sisian and they will do excavation. This is a brand new project that isn’t fully developed, but is becoming quite impressive in its initial stages.