Vahan Bournazian^[1]

I defect.  This morning there was no electricity to make my coffee.  I imagined that the authorities were trying to remind me of their power.  But the morning sun outside was bright.  The authorities don’t have power; they just control resources.  True power is in nature.  If I found ways to be self-sufficient, I could make my coffee without their electricity or gas, and they would become less relevant.

The purpose of government is to serve people.  When authorities do not serve, they fabricate ways and situations to make themselves relevant to people’s lives, such as by controlling resources.  Authorities need to be needed.  Václav Havel said that the communist regime in Czechoslovakia fell because people stopped paying attention to it.  Authorities have no authority once people make them irrelevant.

Last night there were protests in Yerevan and it pains me to know that the idealism of Armenia’s youth - the future of this nation - was washed down and away by water cannon.  But public protest can only produce results when it puts at risk one or both of two things:  society’s trust in government leaders and/or the domestic and international reputation of government leaders.  Elections were conducted not too long ago, and few believe that the authorities were truly elected; so their rule is not based on the trust of the people.  Worse, the authorities do not expect to earn the people’s trust for the next election.  So, protests do not put at risk for authorities the trust of future voters.  As for risks to reputation, the election situation reduces the relevance of criticism from the Armenian political opposition.  Additionally, Armenia has just completed Universal Periodic Review at the UN, meaning that the opportunity for internationally shaming the authorities has just passed and won’t return for approximately five years.  Moreover, Armenia has entered the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), which limits the level of cooperation it may seek with the European Union (EU).  As the increase in electricity rates serves Russia, there will be no criticism from the EEU, and as the EU is newly seeking to engage Armenia, the risk of criticism from the EU is low.  Perhaps worst of all, most Armenian diaspora organizations just flirt with the authorities in order to maintain a presence here, copying each others programs in order to play to their donors abroad.  Thus, protests do not present a significant risk to these authorities and have less chance of significant impact on policy.

Unfortunately, we are on our own.  If the authorities create power for themselves by controlling resources, I need to create self-sufficiency to be free.  If the authorities create power for themselves by making us need them, I must need them and their electricity less.  The 100-dram movement worked because there was a simple way to disobey the rule:  only pay 100 dram.  This time we cannot ignore the rule and pay the old electricity rate.  So, creating alternatives will be more difficult, but not impossible.  I can seek out my self-sufficiency on my own and in communion and cooperation with my neighbors.  I envision homemade windmills on top of buildings, hidden workshops making solar panel contraptions to hang in front of windows, and informal training sessions in homes teaching people how to make simple solar cooking boxes wrapped in aluminum foil to be placed on balconies.

Is my idealism too fanciful?  At the base of Garni temple there are holes in the stone where fedayee extracted ancient metal in order to mold bullets for the cause.  Armenians are creative and know what and how to do for themselves in order to be free.