Contemplative analysts and Mehman

And then he told me:
“Do you know, where all our problems come from?”
“Where from?” I wondered. “I really don’t know”.
– We have no opposition at all.
– No, we do have, – I said, – they are in jail. Some of them have been released.
– You see, the opposition is fragmented.

We drank beer.

And then he told me that we had no journalism and provided an example of Mehman’s screwup with a bus driver, when he has had a go at the poor driver with no obvious reason. It was a real screwup. The video was inappropriate.

Who is Mehman 

And then he talked about Mammadov and Ibrahimov, those, who made a graffiti on Aliyev’s monument and were sentenced to 10 years each.

– They are idiots, – he said.
– Why? – I wondered.
– They should have done it differently. So that nobody could have found them. They should have prepared for it.

And also, he knew all the Russian news: that this person was arrested and that one emigrated.

He also said, there was a lack of normal journalism in our country. And he was absolutely unaware that Khadija had been freed a year ago.

It’s not a ‘typical’ invented story, it’s a real man, a good friend of mine.

He is a contemplative analyst, since it’s more comfortable, like wearing old shabby slippers. He neither reads the local print media, nor does he attend political campaigns and lectures.

He just understands intuitively, through complex conclusions, that there is no opposition, there is no journalism.

There are also others, who go even farther, realizing that ‘if not us, then who?’, that there is ‘no alternative’.

Some people wonder, why there are no great scholars, filmmakers, singers after all. As a matter of fact, the entire indomitable spirit of the nation was spent on creating analysts. There are local Sun Tzus and Clausewitzs, Fukuyamas and Huntingtons, wandering in the city, sitting in the restaurants and on the net. The people, who know for sure how it things are done. Grand theorists and great thinkers, despite all efforts of TV and Education Ministry.

Shuddering at the very mentioning of the president’s name, replacing it in discussions by ‘He’, ‘First’, ‘Chief”, intimidated, humiliated, hiding in the cellars, those Gryffindor’s mentees would like to have at least a small occasion for self-respect.

A contemplative analyst’s position allows, to a certain extent, to respect oneself, holding oneself aloof from the process.

The lack of open discussions and transparency in decision-making is the best pabulum for a contemplative analyst, for his logical constructions, as comfortable and cozy as the aforementioned slippers.

When Mehman was finally jailed, everyone recalled that he was the government’s hireling and a provoker, concluding that ‘sending him to prison was a right thing’. Why? He didn’t think of his family.

It has turned out that there are so many people in Azerbaijan, who in such cases suddenly show concern for the political prisoners’ families. Or who, all of a sudden, unambiguously realize that he is a provoker, amidst lack of evidence and the aforementioned transparency in the authorities’ decisions.

Or those, who supported Savchenko, and, at the same time, were unaware that Khadija had been released a year ago.

It’s comfortable to know for sure that those who are blogging are provokers, that they go to jail on purpose, that they rally for money, ‘Take our word for it! We know how things are done, we weren’t born yesterday.”

And it’s high time to start talking about it right now, when a person has found himself in jail.