Yerevan diaries: Vivacell vs. Beeline

As you might have expected, my first choice of mobile phone provider in Yerevan would have been a Vivacell. I respect Ralph Yirikian, and posted few times about his charitable activities.

That’s what I did at first. I got my sim card from Vivacell. However, as I will be using my phone not only for calls/sms but also for Internet, the quality of the latter is obviously one of the important factors to determine my choice. Unfortunately, after few hours trying to get Internet mobile access via Vivacell, I gave up. It was too slow, I was effectively unable to use gmail or facebook. So... I went to Beeline, as I remembered from my past experiences that I was reasonably (for Armenian standards) satisfied with their mobile Internet. And yes, Beeline’s was much better this time too. Far from perfect, of course, but at least I now have a relatively OK-ish mobile Internet.

Sorry, Vivacell...

Armenia: Lack of leadership

Personally, I do have the highest respect towards many Heritage party senior representatives, although do not share their prevalent negative attitude towards rapprochement with Turkey.

The problems and mess this party is in nowadays (its founder Raffi Hovhannisyan’s quitting Armenian parliament, expelling some of its prominent members from the party) are problems connected with the lack of leadership.

Having an image of the most honest politician in current political field in Armenia, Raffi failed to realise himself as a leader. And I am saying this with great sadness, as I did put big deal of hopes in him in past.

I was reading some comments on Facebook from my friends and friends of friends, and this comment caught my particular attention. It’s made by an extremely bright person from Yerevan, who came to my attention recently when intelligently fighting displays of homophobia on Armenian sector of Facebook.

Both him and the leaders of ARF should have rejected their mandates a year ago. They awaited too long observing the reaction of constituencies at the Protocol first, resigning next. Too much opportunism shows that Serge's policy has worked - first he lured them in, relaxed them down and then brought them to a shock. In terms of real politik, Serge is, thus, the one with leader's skills. The rest do not deserve to be called an opposition.

Too harsh? May be. But there is some truth in it.

You know what. You want to see what the REAL leadership looks like, do not bother looking inside Armenia (although Ralph Yirikian, head of Armenian mobile operator Viva Cell could be a rare excellent example), do not even bother looking through British politics. Look a bit further. Listen to and watch Obama’s healthcare reforms speech he delivered last night.

Head of Armenia mobile operator VivaCell Ralph Yirikian moves to support HIV education/awareness programmes, calls for tolerance

“Because we care!”

Whenever I go back home Yerevan, I always hear stories about Ralph Yirikian, General Manager of mobile operator company VivaCell, one of the most prominent businessman (and philanthropist) in Armenia. Astonishingly, all stories I hear about him are positive. One would expect to hear lots of ‘dirt’ about the businessman of such a caliber in Armenia. One would be wrong. Yirikian, perhaps, one of those exceptional business personalities in Armenia who managed not only to succeed in his business but earn respect of the population. Well deserved, I must add, as proved by his very latest actions and statements too.

Not only Yirikian moves to support HIV/AIDS related education and awareness programmes but also he calls for tolerance towards HIV-positive people which is essential for any such initiative to have a chance for success. This is important for developing a more tolerant towards vulnerable groups and minorities environment in Armenia too.

As they say, “VivaCell is more than operator”. I have to agree with this statement. They proved it in past, they proved it with this step again.

If only Armenia have more businessmen like Yirikian, we would have healthier (not only in medical terms) and more open society. I hope Yirikian’s attention to vulnerable groups and minorities will not stop here, evolving more groups, including LGBT Armenians. My respects for now, Ralph.

For more details - see Unzipped: Gay Armenia

*In photo (via Lragir.am) - Ralph Yirikian did a blood test for HIV before signing a Memorandum.