Ah Mallory from Huffington Post...

What does a board-certified nurse practitioner in psychiatry and founding partner of BabyNames.com have to do with parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan? In a normal world nothing but in a world where glitz can blind some people the connection isn't hard to find. 

Ms. Mallory Moss visited Azerbaijan and not just once mind you. In fact she wrote about her first visit to Azerbaijan here where she describes at length about her fears of visiting a muslim country, her prejudices and her pleasant surprise upon arrival to Azerbaijan that all her fears were unsubstantiated.  

Turns out, Moss's perception of Azerbaijan pleased the two sides so much that she received a visa to travel back to Azerbaijan this year to "observe" the parliamentary elections as Trend.az reports. 

I tried really hard tracking down the "US Foreign policy news website" where the article originally was "published" but all I was able to find were websites with references to the original story, which all pointed to Trend. 

I even checked Moss's HuffingtonPost profile but couldn't find anything there either.

I hope it is just my inability to find the original article and not Trend.az making up a story that was never written. 

But just in case it was indeed published on some "US Foreign policy news website", here are some of the quotes I wanted to highlight here: 

“Azerbaijan has a well-earned reputation for its progressiveness, tolerance of religious and ethnic groups and as pro-Western strategic outlook, the author wrote. “The voters were calm and genuinely interested and involved in the process. Fail safe measures were undertaken, including identification requirements, ink spray, and ballot tracking.”

“In fact, according to my sources, the government of Azerbaijan was willing to allow OSCE to observe, but wanted to simply know why the stringencies of the system would surpass any other country in the world.”

“There was transparency, both internally and externally. Gerrymandering is non-existent and the Azerbaijanis genuinely wish to have a free and fair election process,” the author wrote.

Can someone please explain to me how a nurse from US arrives in Azerbaijan to observe elections and has all of a sudden"sources" that advice and inform her on such matters as OSCE ODIHR mission decision to withdraw? 

Can also someone explain to me how an observer who doesn't speak Azerbaijani concluded that "voters were genuinely interested and involved in the process"? 

And finally can someone please explain it to me why Moss would write something as fictional as this, despite the country having over 70 political prisoners, its best people in jails, no space for any kind of freedoms? 

Perhaps Ms.Moss herself could explain this to me?  

*The original link to the foreign policy news website was found. I thank everyone who sent me the link to the original source. It is here. Bud doubts remain on how "well known" and "well respected" this news outlet really is.

London cabs, exaggerated promo videos and lives of barons in Azerbaijan

In a little more than a month, Azerbaijan will head to the polls in the parliamentary elections scheduled for November 7th. And while much of the country's pressing problems- human rights violations, limited freedom of speech, violence against women, journalist and bloggers behind bars- remain unrecognized, the authorities instead focus on much more important things. 

For instance, purchasing London style Cabs for the booming capital. So far, only 12 of these cabbies have been purchased. Their testing was done by no other than the president himself. Of course He cares for the safety of his people, so we couldn't have expected less. 

Funny, how little do international as well as English human rights institutions statements mean in this country and yet when it comes to luxury, much of European and English couture is imported immediately.  

Oh well, lets see who will be riding those taxies as I doubt a pensioner with 85EUR a month will be able to afford that cab ride. Nor will any of the majority of folks living in the capital. I guess thats what luxury is for, its just never meant for everyone. 

Ah, lives of barons, if only it was possible to sneak in and see how they go on by their daily lives. The life must be so tough on them- driving in fancy cars, wearing luxury cloths, not caring, not thinking, occasionally having to speak here and there empty words, granting empty promises. 

Oh, and then those Azerbaijan promotion ads, all they show are parks and olympic centers and then more parks, and more olympic centers.

Thats the life in Azerbaijan... Who cares about human rights when you have Burberries and Channels because its so much important, so much more valuable...