Monday, February 21, 2005

Mitch checks his own links, Vol. 1

For those of you who missed my not-all-that-engaging post about "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", it featured a ha-ha witty link from the words "Prisoner of Azkaban" to yes, the President of Azerbaijan. I file from home using a Mozilla Firefox browser, which couldn't actually read what was at www.president.az, and which meant that I was taking it on faith that the President of Azerbaijan's website was a) really the President of Azerbaijan's website, and b) mildly entertaining.

So using IE 6.0.2 at work, I've done the investigating for you and found this illuminating interview transcript on President Ilham Aliyev's website:

PRESIDENT ILHAM ALIYEV GIVES AN INTERVIEW TO "ROSSIYA" TV CHANNEL'S "GOOD MORNING, RUSSIA" PROGRAM


The year 2005 is declared a "Year of Azerbaijan in Russia". Since January 5, the "Rossiya" TV channel's "Good Morning, Russia" program has presented to TV-viewers New Year congratulations from the leaders of CIS and Baltic states. The program's January 8 edition began with an interview with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

REPORTER: Good morning, Ilham Heydarovich. Do you believe that all the wishes made during the magic New Year days would certainly come true?

ILHAM ALIYEV: No, to be honest, I don't believe in that.

REPORTER: Why not?

ILHAM ALIYEV: For a wish to come true, several factors are should be taken into account. First, the wish must be realistic. The second, you have to do your best for it to come true. No matter, whether you make your wish at night, on the eve of the New Year or early in the morning, if you really wish to reach your goal, and provided that the goal is not a fancy but something real, then any wish can be realized.

REPORTER: If no a secret, what does the President of Azerbaijan dream of?

ILHAM ALIYEV: Unfortunately, the post of president leaves too little time for dreaming. I have wishes, aspirations, the goal to do my best for Azerbaijan, as an independent state, to be further developed and strengthened, for the people live better, for the country to turn into a modern, economically and politically powerful state, and occupy a stronger position in the world. This is my goal as a President, and my responsibility the people. And I am happy that there is a consensus on this question within our society. And Azerbaijan is moving forward with confidence in this direction.

REPORTER: Mr. President, how do you value the last year form the stand[point of Azerbaijan -Russia relationship?

ILHAM ALIYEV: I can even mention the fact, which I think is very indicative. In 2004, we outstripped the number of air flights from Baku to Moscow and back recorded in the soviet period. I remember, there was only one flight per week 3 - 4 years ago. Today, however, there are, I guess, 8 or 9 flight to Moscow alone, not counting those to other Russian cities. That ordinary people, businessmen and politician visit each other is one of the major indicators of our successful cooperation. We are satisfied with development of the bilateral relations between Russia and Azerbaijan, and attach a really great importance to them.

REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. We are grateful for giving us your time and responding to our questions.


So what I'm trying to figure out is why President Ilham Aliyev doesn't believe all his wishes are going to come true? Is it because they're not realistic, or is it because whether he made his wish at night, on the eve of the New Year or early in the morning, if he really wished to reach his goal, and provided that the goal was not a fancy but something real, his wish might still not be realized?

I don't know -- it's something I can think about on my flight from Baku to Moscow next week.

3 comments:

Carol Davidson said...

He forgot to mention that it's no fair wishing for more wishes.

You really headed to Russia? If so, have fun, be safe, drink.

P. S. I don't check your links, but now I feel some quality control may be necessary.

Anonymous said...

Can I just interrupt here to note that this is the first time I have ever posted a comment on a blog.

Skeeter W.

Anonymous said...

oops, I forgot to include my actual comment which was that this interview is very reminiscent of the way google translates foreign language web sites (maybe that is what it is). I was noticed this because recenty I was trying to find information on the Mexican Football League and I couldn't find any good english language sites. So I used the translate function on a few Mexican ones. This provided not only some information on Mexican football but also the entertainment of the translations. I recommend Google's translation of http://www.futbolmundial.com.mx

I also found that Univision's site is very hard to use becasue in addition to being in Spanish it includes some amazingly annoying pop-up adds (of course since I don't know the Spanish for close I face more of a challenge). Generally I think non-english speaking and non-US residents have to put up with more annoying stuff as the English sites I visit also tend to sport some very intrusive features.

Well that got rather long for a post on a month old commentary that may never be seen.

Oh Well. Go Necaxa.

Skeeter W.