Halfway down the Danube

Congratulations on the move!

They love kids? The Armenian population pyramid is the weirdest thing I've seen. It implies big families --- very big families --- up until 15 years ago, when they suddenly decide to stop having children.

Other places were rather more gradual. It's strange. So I wonder if it's temporary post-Communist blues or Something Deeper. Anyhoo.

Off to the Philippines in a week, a place where people have certainly not decided to stop having children.

Springtime in the Caucasus!!

Glad that the "uprooting and resettlement" is going smoothly

What type of trees are those on your lawn?

Sounds and looks great. We might just have to come visit, after the cruise and the Boards, of course. And after I figure out what to do with the rest of my life... I'll trade Doug some diaper liners and sushi for the pomegranate tea. :-)

Just so you know, your laptop is in delivery hell right now. I will be driving out to Laurel to get it tomorrow morning....

What a pleasant-looking place to live; I should by now, after Prague and Budapest and Bucharest, have lost the identification of 'post-Communist' with 'nothing but concrete squalor', but it's still there hissing away at the back of my mind.

Certainly to be added to my list of destinations, as I cross Europe one (or, I suppose, perhaps two; maybe even three) steps ahead of the frontier of the EU. Is the Armenia-Georgia border open?

The Cascades look gorgeous! I too will bring stuff -- smoked habaneros, maple syrup, haw flakes -- in exchange for pomegranate tea and the view.

Noel, I wonder if Armenia's population pyramid has been adjusted for emigration?

Noel, Carlos:

Yep. TFRs in Armenia used to be quite high until the massive shocks of the late 1980s and 1990s, aggravated by the huge wave of emigration that hit particularly people of child-bearing age.

Gads. I'm so embarrassed. For some reason, (probably an errant post by Doug here or there that I misread), I seriously thought that you were moving to Albania...lol

It seemed to be in your neck of the woods and it made sense that that was were you were going on the other side of Kosovo...but No...Armenia is a whole different place on the map. (gulp!)

Thanks for the links...it looks fascinating and the house truly is lovely. I hope that you find much happiness there.

(as a side note, and since it is late at night and I'm feeling particularly honest, so don't let this offend...but Claudia, you've got to be a heck of a wife. Picking up and moving from here to there, putting down roots, picking up again, making a new home as I know you will....well, that takes ...fortitude. Albania would have been different, but at least in my mind's eye, Armenia seems way out there. I'm impressed, and my respect level for you and Doug has been kicked up a notch).

Do keep us informed of life's little passing fascinations.

Best Wishes,

Traveller

I bet a nickel that while the tea may be good, it couldn't hold a candle to a litre of Santal Rodie.

The population pyramid will get gobsmacked by emigration ... and lo, there's a hole in the 20-34 age group. But there's also a hole in the 50-59 age group. 2000 - 59 = 1941. Ah, so we know what that's all about. But then again, we also now know what the missing hole 25 years later is also about --- the people not born in the 1940s didn't have children later. So I need more data on this emigration thing.

As for the TFRs, well, emigration alone shouldn't affect them. TFR's are calculated as age-specific rates, so unless only fertile 20-somethings emigrated it won't be affected.

In short, it seems that something besides emigration happened around the time that the Soviet Union fell apart.

Much of the country was destroyed by an earthquake in 1988.

Then in 1991-2 the economy collapsed as the USSR fell apart.

Then in 1992-4 they had a full-on shooting war with Azerbaijan. Thousands of civilians dead, tens of thousands of refugees, and all the trees disappearing from streets and parks because there was no oil or gas and people needed to live through the winter.

Net: between 1988 and 1994, per capita income dropped by roughly 90%.

In relative terms, in Armenia, 1988-94 was worse than 1941-5.

Doug M.

Ah. At the risk of sounding trite, that would qualify as "something."

Then again, why hasn't the birthrate bounced back? It has been ten years. Any ideas?

Noel

Have Doug bring extra pomegrante tea for the Jackson Street gang. We could use some sinking into chairs not to emerge for long periods of blissful time...

Claudia, Doug

Congrats on the nice house and what looks to be a relatively trouble free move.

yours,

L

Good luck with the move!

Interesting to view at your country with eyes of foreginer.

Regrds
A.