Reorganization

There have been a few shakeups in Azeri regulations lately. The first is a new exam for teachers: they will need to pass tests periodically to prove they still know what they are talking about. On paper, that looks pretty good: there are plenty of teachers who have only attained their positions because they bribed their way in. Across the board, it's easier to yell at the kids to cover for your own inadequacies in teaching.

But in practice, this really probably means nothing more than a new source of bribes for the bureaucrats in the Education ministry. If teachers can bribe their way through the first test, why shouldn't they be able to do so for any tests thereafter?

But sometimes it's not even as subtle as this. Witness new changes for taxi drivers in Naxchevan:

Having decreed the demolition of a market on the outskirts of Naxicevan deemed to be an eyesore, thereby depriving thousands of people of their livelihood in a region where unemployment is already high (see "RFE/RL Newsline," November 6 and 9, 2007), the republic's authorities have now imposed new regulations for an 1,000 private taxi drivers, day.az reported on November 10. Taxi drivers will henceforth only be issued licenses for the use of two models of Russian-made automobile no more than three years old, or for foreign automobiles up to 10 years old. Drivers must re-register their vehicles and obtain special new license plates.

A young man once told me, "In Azerbaijan, we have everything, just not money." Corruption is at the top of the list of reasons why.