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Azerbaijan is rich – now it wants to be famous (2013)
- jessaustin 9y agoThis needs an update: https://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/azerbaijans-dependence-on-oil-prices-is-bad-for-the-governme https://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/azerbaijans-dependence-on... http://www.infoaz.org/new/index.php/en/manset-eng/8076-hazhi-ibrahim-nehramli-is-in-a-depression-the-khazar-islands-prozhedzt-is-zhoinzh-to-fail http://www.infoaz.org/new/index.php/en/manset-eng/8076-hazhi...
- jpatokal 9y agoThe promotional video mentioned is beyond parody: https://youtu.be/u9InW0nbi0U https://youtu.be/u9InW0nbi0U Among many other gems, it's narrated by a guy with a strong Borat accent and actually used the words "lobster-shaped".
- drewrv 9y agoIt also actually used the words "great success".
- e40 9y agoHopefully they didn't do the same thing Dubai did and not install a sewer system (Dubai has since corrected that, but not before it impacted beach hotel business).
- solnyshok 9y agoSewage from Baku goes right into the sea since ancient times.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- clamprecht 9y agoThey've been hosting the Formula 1 race for a few years now. An expensive, but probably effective way to show the world that you exist. I'd never heard of the country before F1.
- Swizec 9y agoThey're part of Eurovision/Eurosong. That's the only place I've ever heard of them. Also their name as pronounced by our commentators kinda sounds like a joke country that doesn't actually exist, but everyone is in on the joke and letting them compete. That's probably why Azerbaijan is going to stick in my memory forever. Even if I have no idea wherw it is on the map.
- lathiat 9y agoI agree this is the same way I found out about the country, was remarking about this just the other day actually.
- luma 9y agoThis year's Azerbaijan Grand Prix turned out to be the most exciting race in several years. It certainly left an impression on fans of the sport.
- gyc 9y agoAnd where they managed to become a bit of an Internet meme by plastering absurdly self-congratulatory "Well Done Baku" and "Baku Welcomed Us All" signs around the circuit.
- prodmerc 9y agoAzerbaijan is not rich, wtf.
- thedarkproject 9y agoExactly, I can't understand how you got downvoted. Sweden is rich, Switzerland is rich, Luxemburg is rich. But Azerbaijan? Since when do natural resources imply wealth? By that logic, Venezuela would be rich too. Distribution of wealth in Azerbaijan is catastrophic. A nation's wealth should be measured by how well off its poorest citizens are, not its richest. Also, the GDP per capita of Azerbaijan indicates anything BUT rich.
- e2e4 9y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazar_Islands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazar_Islands
- valeh 9y agoI am from Azerbaijan, and I can say that having natural resources doesn't make a country rich. In fact, resource-rich countries usually end up poor.
- charlesdm 9y agoThe only reason why the country isn't rich is because all the gains from those natural resources are being siphoned off to fund the lifestyle(s) of corrupt public officials. Nothing more, nothing less.
- throwaway2048 9y agoNot only corrupt public officials, they end up in the coffers of large corporations too.
- jacquesm 9y agoThis actually has a name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse
- valeh 9y agoIt happens when a country doesn't have enough developed institutions, and finds out that they have natural resources. Having money in the country gives comfort and freedom to public officials, and they try to stop the development of those institutions or completely destroy them. As a result, it leads to lack of democracy which itself leads to lack of economical growth. In case of Azerbaijan, the country started to export its petrol just right after getting its independence from the Soviet Union. At that time it was a new country, and didn't have any proper institution. In general, it is an unfortunate situation which is extremely hard to fix.
- int_19h 9y agoAzerbaijan seems to have done a better job utilizing their resources to boost the economy than most other ex-Soviet countries (including Russia, even), just looking at its economic growth since independence.
- deepsun 9y agoAzerbaijan is #1 on the list of shadow economies, whopping 67% of GDP.
- NARKOZ 9y agoEconomically it is the most normal country in the world: https://qz.com/970508/azerbaijan-is-the-most-economically-average-country-in-the-world/ https://qz.com/970508/azerbaijan-is-the-most-economically-av...
- konschubert 9y agoI skimmed the article and saw nothing where it compared Azerbaijan's economic sector composition with the average world's economic sector composition. The article picks out a few numbers weher Azerbaijan hits the average very well. But it seems to ignore others.
- krebby 9y agoI was in Azerbaijan in 2012 for Eurovision. One thing that was abundantly clear was the enormous gap between the excitement of the locals for foreigners and how few foreigners actually showed up. The Azeris saw it as an opportunity to make their mark on the world stage and spared no expense (or human rights violation, or animal rights violation) to make the event spectacular. Baku is full of me-too projects like the 2nd tallest flagpole in the world (behind Tajikistan and now Saudi Arabia), the flame towers (one of which was broken to the point of uninhabitable) and the mentioned Khazar Islands which build off the concept of Dubai's Palm Islands but nobody seems to want. The sad thing is there is actual amazing culture and interesting architecture in Azerbaijan. But the modern stuff is just atrocious.
- grizzles 9y agoDid something happen to this project? The khazarislands.com website is blank and avestaconcern.az website only partially loads, with the slideshow images 404ing in the console.
- solnyshok 9y agonever built anything beyond welcome sign and a website. went bankrupt about 2 years ago