Azerbaijan Descending Into The Third World

[ay_kz]

by Alec Rasizade

Frequent travelers to Baku are struck almost

immediately by the pervasive bitterness and growing

sense of deprivation that most citizens feel about

their deteriorating lives. The short-lived euphoria of

independence has been replaced by the somber

realization that the so-called "transition period"

could extend well beyond most people's lifetimes. The

promise of peace, freedom and prosperity, which seemed

to come with the end of communism, has disappeared

into the distance a mere ten years later. After the

demise of the USSR, Azerbaijan has been relegated to

the category of a Third-World nation. Capitalism has

won and the class struggle for power and wealth

relapsed here as the driving force of history. The

quintessence of profound popular wrath is that the

country has moved backward rather than forward since

the beginning of reforms. This is the principal

outcome of the first decade of Azeri independence.

THE SOCIAL BRUTALITY OF AZERI CAPITALISM

As our academic and intelligence circles are still

preoccupied with the lofty strategic and energy

topics, there are also less visible consequences of

the end of communism, those omitted mundane,

non-petroleum anxieties of downtrodden masses. Whereas

the international financial institutions focus on

macroeconomic reforms, the people who live in

Azerbaijan are more concerned with keeping jobs and

getting salaries that let them keep up with the rising

cost of living.

Most Azeris live below the poverty line, inasmuch as

graft infects the nation, from the traffic cops who

demand bribes to relatives of the president widely

believed to be fleecing the state, to government

officials who have built themselves palaces with

fountains while ostensibly living on paltry civil

service wages. These popular grievances are the

universal driving force of history, generally

disregarded by our foreign policy planning pundits

until another upheaval would goad them to inquire:

"Who lost Azerbaijan?"

Perhaps the keenest measure of impoverishment in

Azerbaijan can be taken from the scenes at places like

Jafar Jabbarly Square across the railway terminal in

central Baku. The square, like similar sites in all

Azeri cities, has been transformed into a vast flea

market. Here, the sellers of household bric-a-brac, of

plumbing fixtures, of old books and music records, of

plastic sandals, of anything with even vestigial

monetary value, are not the illiterate underclass so

much as the newly destitute middle class: engineers,

teachers, lawyers, writers, musicians, artists,

academics, war veterans and white-collar pensioners,

some of them jobless, others seeking a few extra

dollars to augment salaries and pensions rendered

virtually worthless by the inception of free market

reforms.

One of them, a Karabakh war veteran with a pension

equivalent to about $25 a month, said he was trying to

support on this a family of seven; another, a

gray-haired academic salaried at $50 a month at the

National Academy of Sciences, dispensed to me the

usual praise of President Aliev, whose beaming

portrait, on a concrete plinth, looked down as he

spoke. But even taken on the evidence visible to all

Azeris and the foreigners, what has developed under

his presidency is a pitiable society of social and

economic extremes, contrasting the record of Soviet

equity in free-for-all health care, education,

housing, sanitation, employment and the 80-percent

middle-class level.

Today, in the teeming outskirts of the capital that is

now home to almost half of the entire population of

the country displaced by the Armenian occupation of

Karabakh and the economic plague elsewhere, small

children can be seen clambering amid mountains of

refuse at garbage dumps looking for scraps of food or

other salvageable items for barter. Begging is common,

every-where, among tousled street urchins, mothers

with infants clutched to their breast, widows in black

cloaks and scarves and toothless old men.

But another, new Azerbaijan, also exists

conspicuously, unimaginable in the old Soviet times.

Cruising the seafront boulevard at night are

expensively groomed men and women in their open-topped

sports cars, many of whom make purchases from wads of

American dollars. In downtown Baku money can buy

almost any luxury. Merchants offer Armani suits,

Escada blouses, L'Oreal perfumes, Sony digital

television sets and $2,500 American-made, double-door

refrigerators. At Baku's thriving car market showrooms

are filled bumper-tobumper with luxury cars. Eager

salesmen offer a brand new, gleaming Mercedes-Benz for

$72,000, along with new BMWs and Jaguars.

The "new Azeris" (as the nouveau-riche are commonly

known here) rarely give interviews, so where their

money comes from is a matter for speculation. But less

favored Azeris have little trouble providing theories.

They say that the "transition" capitalism has created

boundless opportunities for black-marketeering that

were quickly monopolized by those with connections to

the most powerful family in the land. One of the most

lucrative enterprises has been oil smuggling, in

tankers that run to Georgia, Turkey, Ukraine, Russia,

and even to Armenia, earning millions of dollars in

revenues outflanking the controls on Azerbaijan's main

oil sales.

The best vantage points for watching the "new Azeris"

are the swank restaurants that line the main streets.

There, in glitzy interiors with marbled fountains, and

in alfresco settings around crystal-clear pools,

diners can choose from thick menus that offer European

and Caucasian specialties, and relax to live music. By

midnight, they return home to sprawling villas that

brood behind steel gates guarded by men with AK-47

rifles.

In places like these, an outsider instantly realizes

that Azerbaijan is a country of brutal and potentially

explosive social divisions. Among its eight million

people, a favored few have access to the most

extravagant luxuries. In general, the "new Azeris"

seem blithely indifferent to others' suffering in a

society where a vast majority of population have been

reduced to penury by the decade of capitalism.

In this atmosphere of dread, the self-indulgence of

those with favored positions resonates Bob Fosse's

1972 film "Cabaret," with its depiction of the

decadence in the 1920's Berlin that accompanied the

rise of Hitler's nationalsocialism. Much of the

decadence in Baku is out of sight behind the walls of

villas and palaces of the "new Azeris." However, for

any visitor spending a few weeks in Baku, it is this

contrast in lifestyles between Mr. Aliev's elite and

ordinary Azeris that seems to be the major

characteristic of Azerbaijan, .rt from the prevalent

comments in Western media about the alleged Caspian

oil wealth and strategic pipelines.

More troubling is the drastic decline in the ability

of the government to maintain even minimal levels of

public services and social welfare protection, not to

mention the kinds of benefits that the

pre-independence population enjoyed. Public education

has broken down, health care has deteriorated, meager

pensions have gone unpaid, and a relatively

egalitarian social structure has been destroyed. In

one of the most fundamental indications of decline,

expenditures on food have sharply risen above 70% of a

family income on average, compared with below 30%

before 1991.1

Ironically, in the "energy-rich" Azerbaijan, energy

shortages have become worse, affecting homes, schools,

hospitals and workshops. Water supply is severely

rationed. Only 10% of Azeri cities have a sewage

system. Worse diets and sanitation have helped speed

the deterioration in public health with the relapse of

epidemics long forgotten during the Soviet era.

Before independence, Azerbaijan was rightfully proud

of its extensive educational system. Approximately 90%

of the adult population had at least secondary and

more than 30% had college education. Today, Azeri

officials privately estimate that one-third of all

school-age children do not attend classes, helping

their parents to earn for living. Given the

government's minimal expenditure on education, the

disincentives of unemployment and corruption, poorly

paid teachers, decrepit and unheated schools, the

system has broken down completely.

If, as the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)

suggests, the education, new training and information

technology are the sources of growth, Azerbaijan's

prospects are appalling. The higher educational system

is equally chaotic with about 150 unregulated private

institutions. Patronage and bribery ensure that only

those with connections matriculate in the better

colleges abroad through several Western

government-paid programs. The quality of instruction,

student attendance and the curricula at Azeri

universities are extremely low and obsolete.

In his speech marking the eleventh anniversary of

Azeri independence, President Aliev trumpeted

Azerbaijan's economic achievements, citing that the

GDP over the last six years has increased by 68%.2 Of

course, since independence, Azerbaijan has suffered

such an economic collapse that even marginal increases

in economic activity can generate eye-catching GDP

growth. However, the recent report published by the

EBRD has estimated that the GDP of Azerbaijan in 2001

constituted only 44% of the GDP of Azerbaijan SSR in

1991.3

According to a World Bank assessment, 78% of

Azerbaijan's population live on less than one dollar a

day; the average income per capita (including the "new

Azeris") in 2000 was $618 or $1.7 a -4 A UNDP

report indicates an almost 80-percent poverty level of

Azeri citizenry, marking one of the lowest standards

of living in Europe, lower than in Bosnia, Albania,

Armenia, and ahead only of Georgia and Moldova, at the

time when stores are brimming with free-market

abundance in anticipation of the promised oil boom.5

The economic disaster in Azerbaijan is greater than in

the worst years of the Great Depression in the USA.

The gravity of human deprivation is exemplified by the

fates of Azerbaijan's second largest city of Ganja

where, out of the total population of 300,000, only

about 18,000 inhabitants officially have a job.6

The minimum monthly wage in Azerbaijan is 27,500 manat

($5.5). Laborers, if they find a job, are commonly

paid 100,000 manat ($20) a month. Average monthly

salary is 250,000 manat ($50). Teachers are paid

220,000 manat ($44). In contrast, administrative

assistants in foreign non-profit organizations earn

about $100, and those who work for profit-making

foreign companies make more. The average monthly

pension is 73,000 manat ($15, compared to $45 in

Russia).7

The contrast of prices to these wages is distressing.

In the new restaurants, a pizza costs 10,000 manat, a

fish or meat entree can cost 15-20,000. One glass of

beer, local or foreign, will cost 5,000. A hardback

book can cost 2550,000, and a paperback is 5-10,000.

Newspapers are sold for 1000 manat. Most people do not

have cars. They can afford the jitney bus (which has

replaced all regular city buses), costing 1000 one

way, or can buy the family's daily bread costing 1000

manat for a loaf. They can afford food sold by

villagers at the farmers' market or on street corners,

but are effectively excluded from the new supermarkets

with their expensive vast array of goods.

Where is the oil-export revenue? Reports of

presidential family, members of "the clan" and inner

circle stashing away millions of petrodollars into

personal foreign bank accounts are regularly released

by international watchdog groups as well as the

opposition press. There, not in Baku, is the

repository of the many "signing bonuses," "gifts" and

"fees" to facilitate business operations, as well as

of the outright bribes and kickbacks.

But the general public see little of this. What is

obvious to the people of Baku is the conspicuous

consumption by the "new Azeris:" expensive clothes and

casino gambling,8 fancy cars and opulent villas with

artificial waterfalls (while the water supply to

general public is limited to 2-3 hours a day),

outrageous tuition paid by the elite for their

offspring's private education abroad. A

top-of-the-line Mercedes is the ultimate status

symbol. Those who drive them pay little attention and

never yield not only to pedestrians, but to traffic

red lights as well, and park their vehicles on

sidewalks blocking the fearful pedestrians in full

sight of the indifferent police.

The whole picture of social inequality and blunt

lawlessness is aptly described by Bakuvians with the

Russian expression "bespredel" (unrestricted iniquity,

pandemonium). Azerbaijan is not merely an autocratic

state, it is a de facto oligarchy (or, strictly

speaking, plutocracy) of the rich protected by an

authoritarian regime. Remarkably, there is little of

the anger or resentment one might expect. There is

only resignation and sadness. "Things are terrible,"

people say, then add, "we'll have to see what

happens."

In these conditions, it is not surprising that

Azerbaijan's population is fleeing their independent

motherland physically and abandoning it mentally,

fairy tales of oil-boom prosperity notwithstanding.

Azerbaijan has suffered proportionally the largest

decline in population of all former Soviet republics.

According to the 1999 census, Azerbaijan's population

currently numbers eight million. Russian researcher

A.Arsenyev has claimed that the official results were

fabricated, and the country's current population

cannot possibly exceed four million.9 Indeed, the

leadership of Azerbaijan has a vested interest in

downplaying the extent of the outmigration and the

social discontent it implies.

The previous USSR census conducted in 1989 had counted

the population of Azerbaijan at seven million. In the

course of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict of 1988-1994, the

entire Armenian population of Azerbaijan, numbering

about half a million, were driven out. A similar

number of Russians, Jews and others left in the early

1990s. Dr. Arsenyev concludes that as a result of the

flight of non-indigenous population, Azerbaijan lost

no less than 1.2 million people.

But in addition, following the radiant "Deal of the

Century" signed in 1994, which has pledged billions of

dollars in foreign investment, millions of native

Azeris have also left their country, moving mainly to

Russia and Turkey. According to Russian statistics,

the number of Azeris resident in Russia has reached

2.5 million. Specifically, the Azeri population in

Moscow and its vicinity is now 1.2 million, compared

with 21,000 in 1989. The Russian scholar estimates

total emigration of Azeris in recent years at no less

than three million. He thus deduces that, allowing for

modest natural increase, Azerbaijan's population has

shrunk by half during the decade of independence.

Leaders of opposition parties charged the government

with inflating the census figures to conceal this loss

of men and, in smaller numbers, women (who prostitute

themselves in the Persian Gulf emirates). Young men

starting around age 20 are fleeing the republic. There

are no official statistics on this problem since the

government denies it exists. But everyone has a story

of a relative or acquaintance working in Russia or

Turkey, and fewer in Europe or America. They send

money home (about $2 billion annually, twice the size

of state budget)10 when they can, but have no plans to

return until "things get better." Privately,

intellectuals worry about the future of Azeris as a

nation: "The women are alone in the countryside; there

are no men in some villages."11

Both Armenia and Georgia have also lost one million

people to Russia each. It is paradoxical to watch how,

instead of moving away from their former colonial

master after gaining national independence, millions

of Caucasians are moving now into Russia, voting with

their feet for economic reintegration with the power

which their leaders are still blaming for all their

perils and for conspiracy to undermine their

independence. Among them are thousands of pauperized

and disillusioned intellectuals whom I saw ten years

ago leading crowds and shouting anti-Russian slogans

in central squares of Baku and denouncing in firebrand

speeches the very Russia where they today seek refuge

and relief.

Even more ironic is to observe by contrast the

dramatic transformation of their antagonists (and our

new "friends") - the formerly pro-Moscow local

communist honchos and the omnipresent KGB types, who

are nowadays mostly successful businessmen engaged in

the "global economy." Their leaders are calling for

the expansion of NATO to cover Transcaucasia against

the "Russian imperialism" in almost the same cliches

which they had been using a decade ago to denounce the

"American imperialism."

The aforementioned social woes are only the tip of the

iceberg of horrendous problems facing this little

republic with great oil revenue ambitions. It can

smash the Caspian oil concessions at any time

regardless of the double-standard criteria by our

businessmen and politicians. Verily, the real life,

ignored by our policymakers, is more grotesque than

any fiction, as we have learned from the September 11

tragedy.

INSTITUTIONALIZED CORRUPTION

"Never ask a 'new Azeri' where he made his first

million," advised an old friend at the foreign

ministry in Baku. Ten years of chaos allowed many

opportunists to get rich quick. Some did so honestly;

but most cheated and swindled fellow citizens, bribed

and purloined from the state or small investors. That

era is coming to an end. Some former officials and

"businessmen" who lined up their pockets are now in

jail or exile, but many more of those formerly on the

take are walking free. In this new brave world of

Azerbaijan, why question too closely how some people,

many of whom, the conflict of their official and

commercial interests notwithstanding, are now

ministers, ambassadors, generals, judges, party

leaders, members of parliament and other pillars of

Azeri society, made their early fortunes?

Illegal business has infiltrated all levels of

government and is inseparable from the state. The

state has become privatized by clientalistic networks;

it, along with the legislature and the political

opposition, has become a means for realizing private

interests. When corruption persists at the top, it

percolates throughout the society: people expect to

pay and receive bribes, and that culture of corruption

becomes institutionalized. Azeris are fond of saying

that corruption is so endemic that the country would

come to a stop without it. American foreign policy

does not address this problem in Azerbaijan where it

pervades every nook and cranny.12

Neither the Russian, nor Western understanding of

corruption apply to the Azeri pattern of kleptocracy:

it is not a chaotic profiteering, where anybody can

grab anything, for it is tightly controlled. The

institutionalization of corruption has evolved, as I

found out in Azerbaijan, into two intertwined systems:

1) the distribution of bribes through the chain of

superiors; 2) the buying of lucrative positions

through payments to top officials.

1) For example, a customs controller ordinarily gives

75% of his illicit profits to higher executives. His

supervisor keeps 25% and passes the rest on to the

next level, and so forth. The border guardsmen extort

their cut directly from local smugglers in return for

turning a blind eye. Captains at each of the border

crossing points have to pay a flat monthly "tribute"

of $7,000 to their top brass in Baku who have

appointed them.13

Shopkeepers pay regular cuts to local police "for

protection" and payoffs to all inspecting officials,

from fire marshals to tax collectors. Such a system

leaves no room for Russian-style racketeering as it is

substituted by officials performing the same function.

In his excellent report disney about the oil rush

and total corruption there, American journalist

J.Goldberg asked average Azeris a simple question:

why, in spite of all that graft, there was no Mafia in

Azerbaijan? A local businessman explained: "When

corruption comes from the state, there is no need for

Mafia, the state itself is the Mafia."14

2) Almost all government jobs in Azerbaijan come with

an unwritten price tag. (As well as many high-wage

positions with international companies operating in

Azerbaijan, which are obtained by locals for

bribes).1S The higher the official's potential for

bribe taking, the higher the price will be. Positions

in law-enforcement bodies like the interior ministry,

prosecutor's office, and the judicial, tax and customs

services, as well as most national and local executive

positions, are all considered desirably ripe with

Изменено 8 июля, 2004 пользователем ay_kz

[Terekemeler]

Ну и что? Экономическое положение в Польши не лучше, разве что они европейский эйд намного больше получают и... воруют его не меньше чем здесь. А положение в соседней Грузии лучше вообще не говорить... А чего вы хотите?! Скучаете по Аз.ССР? Кто виноват, что в СССР была деградированная экономика: газ продавался в Аз.ССР по ценам в сотни раз ниже мировых, а помидоры и цветы, выращенные в парниках на этом почти бесплатным газе, продавались в Россию по ценам намного выше мировых. Абсурд неправда ли? А когда все стала возвращаться к правилам мировой экономике, все естественно стало "не так" - зачем теперь России продавать газ ниже европейских цен?! Вот и не продают, вот и стало рушится сельское хозяйство в независимом Азербайджане. И дело не только в отсуствие дешевого газа, нет свободного рынка для реализации, нет денег для новых технологий. В результате сельское хозяйство развалилось и сотни тысяч (или как у нас говорят миллион) сельчан стали дешевым трудовым ресурсом мигрирующими в Баку и в Россию. Для того чтобы исправить положение, нужно провести кардинальные экономические реформы, выработать свою национальную концепцию экономики, а не латать все еще советскую экономику и ждать инвестиций. Нужно жить по средствам, а у нас так не принято - желание жить на широкую ногу не позволяет смотреть правде в глаза. Скажем, пора давно отказаться от амбиций развивать нефте-химическую промышленность - Азербайджан не сможет потянуть содержать, не говоря уже развивать советскую хим.нефть инфраструктуру. Посмотрите на Сумгаит - свалка хим.заводов, раньше обеспечивала треть СССР своей продукцией, а теперь свалка, потому что больше некому продавать азербайджанскую хим.продукцию, а у нас вот уже 10 лет горланят, мол вот японцы заинтересованны, вот немцы хотят вкладывать... вот уже десять лет как "вкладывают", ну там какую-нибудь установку отремонтируют японцы, правительство хлопает в ладошки, мол вот смотрите Сумгаит поднимается на ноги...

Естесвенно Азербайджан причисляют к третьим странам, через пару десяка лет, когда интеллектуальные ресурсы тоже иссякнут в стране, мы сами себя будем причислять к этим странам. Видити ли у нас нефть есть... в Боливии она тоже есть и добывают ее намного больше чем в Азербайджане, и от этого Боливия не перестала быть бедной страной третьего мира. У Японии или Швейцарии вообще нет ресурсов для экспорта, не говоря уже о нефти, хотя одни из самых богатых и развитых стран в мире.

[Mars]

Ну и что? Экономическое положение в Польши не лучше, разве что они европейский эйд намного больше получают и... воруют его не меньше чем здесь. А положение в соседней Грузии лучше вообще не говорить... А чего вы хотите?! Скучаете по Аз.ССР? Кто виноват, что в СССР была деградированная экономика: газ продавался в Аз.ССР по ценам в сотни раз ниже мировых, а помидоры и цветы, выращенные в парниках на этом почти бесплатным газе, продавались в Россию по ценам намного выше мировых. Абсурд неправда ли? А когда все стала возвращаться к правилам мировой экономике, все естественно стало "не так" - зачем теперь России продавать газ ниже европейских цен?! Вот и не продают, вот и стало рушится сельское хозяйство в независимом Азербайджане. И дело не только в отсуствие дешевого газа, нет свободного рынка для реализации, нет денег для новых технологий. В результате сельское хозяйство развалилось и сотни тысяч (или как у нас говорят миллион) сельчан стали дешевым трудовым ресурсом мигрирующими в Баку и в Россию. Для того чтобы исправить положение, нужно провести кардинальные экономические реформы, выработать свою национальную концепцию экономики, а не латать все еще советскую экономику и ждать инвестиций. Нужно жить по средствам, а у нас так не принято - желание жить на широкую ногу не позволяет смотреть правде в глаза. Скажем, пора давно отказаться от амбиций развивать нефте-химическую промышленность - Азербайджан не сможет потянуть содержать, не говоря уже развивать советскую хим.нефть инфраструктуру. Посмотрите на Сумгаит - свалка хим.заводов, раньше обеспечивала треть СССР своей продукцией, а теперь свалка, потому что больше некому продавать азербайджанскую хим.продукцию, а у нас вот уже 10 лет горланят, мол вот японцы заинтересованны, вот немцы хотят вкладывать... вот уже десять лет как "вкладывают", ну там какую-нибудь установку отремонтируют японцы, правительство хлопает в ладошки, мол вот смотрите Сумгаит поднимается на ноги...

Естесвенно Азербайджан причисляют к третьим странам, через пару десяка лет, когда интеллектуальные ресурсы тоже иссякнут в стране, мы сами себя будем причислять к этим странам. Видити ли у нас нефть есть... в Боливии она тоже есть и добывают ее намного больше чем в Азербайджане, и от этого Боливия не перестала быть бедной страной третьего мира. У Японии или Швейцарии вообще нет ресурсов для экспорта, не говоря уже о нефти, хотя одни из самых богатых и развитых стран в мире.

Я не думаю, что экономика была деградированной. Деградлашдырылмышдлар. Просто в голову нам эту мысль вбили путем элементарных махинаций и все. Дело в отсутствии понимания происходящего, а значит понимания своего истинного достоинства. Все-таки тот кто один день был свободен никогда уже не станет рабом(страной третьего мира)

[nickel chrome]

Имел удовольствие лично общаться с Аликом Расизаде - это был один из людей которые действительно хотели что-то сделать для Родины, а именно, идея средней школы по американским методам принадлежит ему. Как обычно, где деньги, там "свои" правительству люди, а Алик, как честный человек был просто "невыгоден". Последние десять лет Алик Расизаде живёт в США.

[Mars]

Имел удовольствие лично общаться с Аликом Расизаде - это был один из людей которые действительно хотели что-то сделать для Родины, а именно, идея средней школы по американским методам принадлежит ему.  Как обычно, где деньги, там "свои" правительству люди, а Алик, как честный человек был просто "невыгоден".  Последние десять лет Алик Расизаде живёт в США.

Во-первых при обновлении зараженного компьютера вирусы не исчезают.

Во-вторых еще не известно лучше ли американская система образования. По крайней мере Америка живет не благодаря своей системе образования, а за счет притока мозгов.

[nickel chrome]

Приветствую Марс. Реплику о вирусах и компьютере не понял. Касательно "нашего" и "ихнего" образования - по соседству была целая тема посвящённая этому вопросу - наше образование отстаёт как в базовом, теоретическом, так и в материальном аспектах. Об этом тоже Алик писал:

Before independence, Azerbaijan was rightfully proud

of its extensive educational system. Approximately 90%

of the adult population had at least secondary and

more than 30% had college education. Today, Azeri

officials privately estimate that one-third of all

school-age children do not attend classes, helping

their parents to earn for living. Given the

government's minimal expenditure on education, the

disincentives of unemployment and corruption, poorly

paid teachers, decrepit and unheated schools, the

system has broken down completely.

Но речь была не совсем об этом, а о том что Азербайджан сползает на уровень третьих стран - с этим тезисом, напротив, я не согласен. Азербайджан уже "успешно" спустился на этот "уровень" и гордо там "сидит" к нашему всех глубокому сожалению...

С уважением, нх

P.S. США действительно очень умело использует способности иммигрантов, но в то же время, смешно было бы полагать что Америка выезжает только за счёт этого - не могу посчитать сколько высокообразованных людей видел среди них, специалистов высочайшего класса, недаром американские MBA котируются во всём мире, даже у нас, "самых - самых..."

[Sadix]

P.S. США действительно очень умело использует способности иммигрантов, но в то же время, смешно было бы полагать что Америка выезжает только за счёт этого - не могу посчитать сколько высокообразованных людей видел среди них, специалистов высочайшего класса, недаром американские MBA котируются во всём мире, даже у нас, "самых - самых..."

Посмотрите последнйи пост пожалуйста

http://forum.bakililar.az/index.php?showtopic=8700&st=80

Но речь была не совсем об этом, а о том что Азербайджан сползает на уровень третьих стран - с этим тезисом, напротив, я не согласен. Азербайджан уже "успешно" спустился на этот "уровень" и гордо там "сидит" к нашему всех глубокому сожалению...

Дело не в системе образования - дело в отношении к нему со стороны госдарства , точнее конкретно управляющих государственными вопросами чиновников.

[Stracker]

Статья кажись 2002 года. Ее в каком то америкоском журнале недавно перепечатали.

[ay_kz]

Статья кажись 2002 года. Ее в каком то америкоском журнале недавно перепечатали.

Journal of Third World Studies Spring 2004. Vol. 21,

Iss. 1; pg. 191, 29 pgs

тут полная версия

http://www.kubhost.com/~kubkz/article.php?sid=6325

[Stracker]

ay_kz

Я в курсе впервые эта статья была напечатана в 2002 году

Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East

http://www.cssaame.ilstu.edu/issues/22/

сильно сгущены краски даже для 2002 года.