Thursday, January 6

Changing Azerbaijani society or how to get rid of bad habits

Few weeks ago, I shared the following link on my Facebook profile. It takes you to an album from a day- campaign aimed at reminding local Azerbaijani citizens of something very simple and yet neglected all the time- standing in line. Everywhere you go, rarely you could see a proper line. In fact, there is no line culture in Azerbaijan. Most of the time what should look like a line would look like a bundle of people all trying to get ahead of the others by pushing, jumping in front and what not.

The campaign was initiated by a group of young Azerbaijani citizens calling themselves Positive Change. Today, I cam across this article introducing this initiative:
The group, also called Positive Change, grew out of the election campaign of a young candidate for the Azerbaijani parliament, Baxtiyar Haciyev (Bakhtiyar Hajiyev).
Haciyev, a Harvard graduate, went into the recent parliamentary elections with a campaign based on his U.S. experience and with the slogan of "Positive Change." He lost to a pro-government challenger in a process widely deemed fraudulent. 
But unfrustrated by the defeat, around 50 young volunteers working for Haciyev's campaign decided to set up a new youth movement to continue their advocacy for much-needed positive change in Azerbaijan. 
The video below is a reportage [AZ] about the campaign the day it was happening, with the speaker introducing the idea. "We tried showing that standing in line is possible and that while you are in line you could do more beneficial things too, like reading a book and thus use your time effectively" says the young man talking in the video.




Thumbs up for these guys as these are some of the initiatives much needed not only in the capital but also across the country. 

2 comments:

Unknown said...

here is an article, just to share:

http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/lonsdale/entry/peacejam_in_yerevan

i think it may be interesting

Arzu Geybulla said...

Thanks Lusine, this is great! I have heard about this initiative and shared it a while ago on my facebook wall too. Thanks for putting the link here.

Cheers,