Keep this little tidbit in mind the next time you're in Armenia: when the police or the parking people or whoever decide that you've parked in the wrong place, they take your license plate to the police station. That means you have to go to the station, pay your fine, and then get your plate back.
Here's a video, provided by A1+, of cars and trucks using a public park as a street because city services was incompetent enough to provide a proper detour: for me, this video highlights everything that is wrong with Armenia.
First off, we have the city or whoever is in charge of maintaining roads. Not only are they apparently poorly run, but they are unwilling or stupid enough to direct cars and trucks to drive through and damage a public park, while at the same time endangering civilians.
Second you have the drivers themselves, who care only that they get from point A to point B, without at all considering the damage that they are doing to a park. Since they are probably evading taxes anyway, their hearts don't hurt when they destroy the work of others before them, because it is not theirs.
And lastly you have the people in the park themselves or those who use it often, sitting idly by and doing nothing to prevent the traffic from raping everything in its path. Granted, that would be more of an activist role and that's too much to expect. Right, those people only come out during elections, when they have personal bones to pick with certain politicians, and not when material harm is being done here and now. Irreverent cowards.
What you have is a system where the average person does not care about their own country. Who cares if they drive through a park? Who cares if we destroy something that our fathers built? It's not mine, it doesn't cost me anything, and I have zero regard for it!
347: Average number of people injured or killed in Armenia for every 1,000 vehicles, making Armenians the world's worst drivers. In the USA, the number is 16.
Does this make us - or rather those in Armenia - the world's worst drivers or the world's worst pedestrians? There is hardly any doubt in the minds of tourists who visit there that driving in Armenia is a dangerous affair!
On the skeptical side, no information is provided as to when or how this information was compiled.
I'm all for these types of experiments, especially if it's for the greater good. Sometimes, however, every attempt to get pulled over just doesn't seem to work!
If you've ever considered driving in Yerevan or wondered how bribes are given, have a look.
How would you like the chance to drive around on the streets of Yerevan? No joke! The game is called Yerevan Drive - produced by Emergency Soft - and you get to drive and crash around Yerevan. Choose a Niva, 08, CL600, and many other cars and tear up the streets! You see modern and Soviet-era cars driving past you. Don't like them? Crash into them!
The game engine was built from scratch and that in itself is worthy of respect. While it will be a lie to say that this game is on par with American racing games, which have budgets of millions of dollars, it is a great first step and fun, too!
While the game has been out for two or so years, it was completely new to me. Check it out at the links below:
