Armenian News

HEAVY HARVEST IS A PROBLEM A1+ [01:47 pm] 20 September, 2007 All villages of Armavir region are occupied with vine growing. All residents of Sovetakan village in the same region earn their livings by vine growing. There are about 30 farms in the mentioned village, which purveyed grapes in tones. For an experienced vine-grower Zhirayr Gharagozyan it was a better year for the corps than he expected. He collected about 15 tones of grapes and does not know what to do with the harvest. "I signed an agreement with the factory for three tones during the years of drought. Last year was also good for the corps and I purveyed 4 tones more than we agreed. But the factory does not purchase since the harvest is very heavy this year in all regions", said Uncle Zhirayr to "A1+" His neighbor Ararat Darbinyan is also content with the harvest this year. He expects more than 17 tones of corps, but has an agreement for 13 tones. "This year only one sort of grapes was harmed, but we managed to fertilize them on time and hope that the harvest will be good", said the vine-grower Ararat. Although these are the last days to purvey grapes, they say that the ripped grapes should have 17-19 degrees of sweetness, so that the factory will buy it and the grapes will ripe to this sweetness only next week. "During the soviet period they accepted the harvest even if it was not that sweet and added some water to it, but now they accept only properly ripped corps so that the wine would be of high quality", explained Uncle Zhirayr. The residents of the village warn their relatives, neighbors and friends to come and help them to collect the harvest in one day, to load it on lorries, take to the factory and purvey it and return home as they do it every year. Only this year factories do not purchase more than the half of the harvest and the villagers do not know what to do with it, since as Uncle Zhirayr said: "Heavy harvest is also a problem". ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DANES ARE AN 8.2 HAPPY; AMERICANS ONLY A 7.4 Casa Grande Valley Newspapers September 18, 2007 AZ AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan long ago dispensed with the notion of Gross National Product as a gauge of well-being. The king decreed that his people would aspire to Gross National Happiness instead. That kernel of Buddhist wisdom is increasingly finding an echo in international policy and development models, which seek to establish scientific methods for finding out what makes us happy and why. New research institutes are being created at venerable universities like Oxford and Cambridge to establish methods of judging individual and national well-being. Governments are putting ever greater emphasis on promoting mental well-being - not just treating mental illness. "In much the same way that research of consumer unions helps you to make the best buy, happiness research can help you make the best choices," said Ruut Veenhoven, who created the World Database of Happiness in 1999. When he started studying happiness in the 1960s, Veenhoven used data from social researchers who simply asked people how satisfied they were with their lives, on a scale of zero to 10. But as the discipline has matured and gained popularity in the past decade, self-reporting has been found lacking. By their own estimate, "drug addicts would measure happy all the time," said Sabina Alkire, of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Institute, which began work May 30. New studies add more objective questions into a mix of feel-good factors: education, nutrition, freedom from fear and violence, gender equality, and perhaps most importantly, having choices. Veenhoven's database, which lists 95 countries, is headed by Denmark with a rating of 8.2, followed by Switzerland, Austria, Iceland and Finland, all countries with high per capita income. At the other end of the scale are much poorer countries: Tanzania rated 3.2, behind Zimbabwe, Moldova, Ukraine and Armenia. The United States just makes it into the top 15 with a 7.4. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CHRISTIAN CEMETERY DESTRUCTION CAN SPOIL MOSCOW-BAKU RELATIONS KarabakhOpen 14-09-2007 19:30:42 /PanARMENIAN.Net/ "The situation with the Nariman cemetery can have a negative influence on relations between our states," said Vasily Istratov, the Russian Ambassador to Azerbaijan. He said the Embassy received plenty of complaints about the issue. "We sent an Embassy employee to the site when the process began. We think that the process of reinterment should be held in accord with the adopted rules," he said, Day.az reports. As reported earlier, under the pretext of building a highway Baku demolishes a Christian cemetery (the Nariman cemetery), where Armenians, Jews and Russians were buried. Although local authorities assure of reinterment, photos in Internet show a complete dump. The photographers say the bulldozers just raze the graves to the ground depriving the relatives to rebury the remains. The city administration says exhumation and reinterment is performed in accord with ethnic and religious traditions in the presence of relatives of the deceased. Meanwhile, the Jewish News Agency reports that "observance of Jewish traditions is restricted to the fact that grave-diggers throw the ashes into sacks and then give them to the relatives." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ OVER 100 YOUNG PEOPLE FROM ARMENIA TOOK MASTER'S DEGREE PER 'CHEVENING' PROGRAMME IN GREAT BRITAIN ArmInfo 2007-09-13 16:55:00 For five consecutive years of activity of the British Council in Armenia, over 100 young people from Armenia took master's degree per the "Chevening" Programme in Great Britain, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Great Britain to Armenia Anthony Cantor said during the event dedicated to the fifth anniversary of the British Council in Armenia. He said that the goal of the programme is to enable the young and talented people to continue their education and take master's degree by specialties indicated in the "European Neighbourhood Policy" programme. " By this programme, we promote democracy development in Armenia as we assist young people to become leaders in their professional career", the ambassador said. To note, the "Chevening" programme was founded by the Foreign Commonwealth Office and has been functioning since 1983. The programme finances the annual education of participants in the educational institutions of Great Britain.