One statue for one renovated park

Over the last few years, one of the most bizarre attempts of Azerbaijan government has been "planting" statues of late President, Heydar Aliyev in various corners of the world for each renovated park the country invested in. Stretching from Serbia, Russia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Romania, to Georgia, the host of the next monument is Mexico. Yes, Mexico City. Apparently, Azerbaijani government invested $5million in a renovation of two parks there.

Here you can find the map prepared by the Radio Liberty Azerbaijani service. 

View Heydər Əliyevin heykəlləri in a larger map

The website is asking to send photographs of monuments of Aliyev Senior elsewhere if anyone comes across them. 

Out of curiosity- USD5million is not a small amount. Have we renovated everywhere in Azerbaijan that we are investing in renovation projects across the world? Do all our remote villages have infrastructure the people need? Do they have electricity every day? And gas? Do they have running water? And what about their salaries? Or quality of life? Its apparent that another show off is more important than any of the above? But to say that its a gift from the people of Azerbaijan to the people of Mexico is going too far- I am positive none of the Azerbaijani people knew about the allocated money nor about the park so why on earth would Azerbaijani Ambassador to Mexico say this? An average Azerbaijani spends more of his/her time working, and trying to make ends meet needs rather than think of how he/she could show their appreciation to the people of the country across the ocean. 

Maybe I am mistaken. Maybe our people do think this way. Maybe thats all they think about in fact. I wonder which will next country be? China? Venezuela? Syria?

Ah the Eurovision!

Source: Google Images

The Eurovision is fast approaching. The country hosting the competition this year- Azerbaijan- is also fast approaching. You know what? The mere ridiculousness of its current spending allocated to the contest. And we are not talking of few thousand of dollars here. In fact, this country is fast approaching the title of  being one of the few (if not the only since no one would invest so much in a silly song contest) countries in the whole history of the song contest. 

Why? To show- off would be the likely answer (and also because there is no logical one really!). The irony is that while it invests millions (USD75.7 to be precise) in a glitz event of the year, the government continues to keep a tight lid on its other spending like education, health care or social care. But I wont be writing about that this time. Instead, I am going to write about a very "generous contribution"that was allocated to the veterans of the WWII just yesterday. Get ready for the numbers ladies and gents because while we waste millions we cannot afford going over 500AZN [RUS] for the people who really are the heroes (ehm... no offense to Ell and Nikki who are too considered "heroes" by many in Azerbaijan) of this country (the money allocated takes into account families and widows of the veterans). The total amount allocated makes around AZN7.5million. 

I just don't understand why waste so much money on something thats going to last for few days when you can built a better future and provide sufficient support to those who are in need and on constant basis rather than one- time only installments as a sign of noble charity? 

What a silly question though, because no one cares about sustainable development. We should spend more now on useless things like Eurovision so that tomorrow, when we have nothing left, we can take apart the Crystal Hall (Eurovision concert hall) and use it for barter when everyone starts running scared (minus the mountains, the sea, and most importantly the dog) from Azerbaijan...

Yet another 'Flower Holiday'

In lest than two weeks, Azerbaijan will celebrate its 4th 'Flower Holiday'. It began four years ago, when local authorities decided to commemorate late President Aliyev on his birthday with this holiday. But it was never a simple holiday.

Different speculations are made each year as to how much money is spent on this holiday, but one figure always hits the media- millions. Brought either from Holland or somewhere else in the world, the flowers receive special care by gardeners like Ruslan Aliyev who spends hours on end watering, cleaning, and caring for the them. He says they need special attention, and thats what he does.

And each year, thousands of residents are either forced or come on their own to the park named after Haydar Aliyev to take a look at the flowers, take photos, have their ice creams or sun flower seeds and go home, for yet another time, not questioning the essence of this, not even one simple question: is it making their lives any better? I wonder if these people do the same on April 30th every year too, for some reason I doubt they do.

This article [AZ] published by Radio Azadliq (Radio Liberty Local Service) explores the upcoming holiday while paying a visit to heavily guarded park. Right now, no one is allowed, and the park is sealed from all the entrances.

Organized by the Baku city executive committee, the celebrations will continue throughout the day with fireworks held later in the evening. And this happens every year, including the year when just 10 days before the celebration, people died in one of the universities in Baku. Young men and their professors were shot but who cared?! Celebrations continued in their full even then. So nothing can stop Azerbaijani authorities from having their own fun, because at the end of the day, who cares about the rest...