The Misleading Thoughts

I woke up one morning,  being welcomed by my laptop wanting to be opened to my Facebook Home Feed. As some might know,  Facebook is a social network that serves to reconnect or for some to keep track of each other’s lives, but for me  it’s just a place to see what people are thinking and feeling, in other words – being a very opinionated observer. As I opened my Facebook Home Feed,  I quickly scanned through the statuses, which varied from “Ай Азербайджан! Скучаю!” (Ay Azerbaijan, I miss you!) to some complaining about our motherland and our culture, which got me thinking about the lack of respect.

I came upon a few articles written about how living outside of Azerbaijan is causing people to feel the “freedom” and have more “taste” in life and actually I have to disagree. Some might find this article quite intense, but I already surveyed a couple of Azerbaijanis living outside of Azerbaijan, and they have agreed with me with what I’m going to write  next, so read on.

Some have argued before that the freedom given elsewhere other than Azerbaijan is beyond the freedom Azerbaijan gives, in terms of mentality and also what you can or cannot do or wear in the city. An article written in 1news.az a couple months back by a female journalist, stated that the people living in Baku are living for the people, not for themselves. Walking in pajamas in the city of Baku, smoking a cigarette, and showing public affection in public is beyond unacceptable where it’s perfectly fine to do so in Canada. Another young  blogger stated that the “fashionable” clothes sold and worn in Germany, could never be sold nor worn in Azerbaijan due to the fact that no one would buy them and the lack of fashion taste.

My main conclusion in this article is that for some people, the “weather” has actually caused them to think like two year olds, instead of mature human beings that they are – harsh, I know.  The problem here is that the freedom given in, for example, Canada is too much in which even random naked men could come up to you on the street, where people could do drugs right in front of you not giving the latest care in the world. I mean, I might be super harsh but I’m stating the truth. In Azerbaijan unlike Canada, people care about others and themselves, such as their reputation, the first impression, what people would think of you and so on. To walk around, let’s say in pajamas, is thought of walking around in home wear, as if you don’t care about anything, that kissing in public is not acceptable because they are thinking of the children and the families that might be watching.  The values of the two nations in these examples are shown quite boldly. While countries like Canada value freedom, Azerbaijan values respect and care to the community around an individual. We can’t get too ahead of ourselves thinking that Azerbaijan is still going by “old-fashioned” mentality, but indeed it’s really not.

Azerbaijan’s modern progress includes the way people dress. Every day, my friends upload hundreds of photos of themselves and of others, dressed like models, wearing the latest brands just like the models and icons we see wearing on the cover of various fashion magazines, such as Vogue. After looking at those photos, I always feel the need to do some more shopping! Yet again, the concept of progress is visible. Sure enough, not only Azerbaijan has the progressive side of the fashion taste, but also other countries that we think do not. We must remember that the two dynasties of the world, Canada and the United States of America are not the main countries who bring some food to the table, metaphorically speaking.

Let’s be honest, people will be people and have their own opinions but at least have some respect from where you come from, or for the people who do miss back home. This past week, again on Facebook, I kept reading statuses about how people miss the simple streets of Baku, the small towns, and etc; which is quite the contrast of what was written above. For example, a PhD student in Moscow, Lala Karimli wrote “Mom, you don’t understand how much I miss the streets of Baku, the yellow taxis, the morning wake-up calls of “Malina var, malina!”  and even the simple Boulevard filled with families and friends. I miss Baku. I miss you, Mom!” and Adik Aliyev, a student in Toronto wrote the following a year back when he couldn’t visit home, “Tак хочется сейчас оказаться там. По Ичери Шехер погулять, на Даг Устю парк пойти, посмотреть на Каспий, на Гыз Галасы. Открывать окно утром и слышать как дети во дворе играют и кричат что то на моём родном языке. Хочется в мехеллю свою попасть и на скамейке перед домом сидеть семечки грызть” (I really want to be there. Walk by Old Baku, go to Dag Ustu Park, look at the Caspian Sea, at the Maiden Tower. Open the window early morning and hear how children play outside and scream something to one another in my  motherland language. I want to go to my community and sit on the bench and eat sunflower seeds.) and a second year student in London, England, Gulnara Iskandarova wrote “A lot of girls might die to hear the British talk every day, but I’d die to be in Baku hearing the people talk with different town accents.”  I’m pretty sure if I look more careful, I could find hundreds more statuses dedicated to our city, our country, our home!

I leave off with one note: Azerbaijan, I miss you and love you, just the way you are!