BY GAREN YEGPARIAN
Sometimes undesirable outcomes cross everyone’s mind. Here are five of mine.
What if the oligarchic circles in both Armenian republics get their act together and REALLY launch a counter-revolution? A coarse course instead of velvety vision! It’s not very improbable. They may not currently have direct control over the levers of power within the government, but the people working there, at all but the highest levels, are the same as before (it can’t be any other way, they’re the bureaucrats, the technocrats, the people who know how to get the actual work done). The oligarchs could easily still have leverage over these people. They worked together for the last three decades. They know each other. They may have loaned money to people in need. They may be owed favors. Heck, we saw how easily people sold their votes in the last election, what would keep them from jumping to the oligarchs’ side if they thought there was more to be gained on that side of the current political divide? I really hope I’m wrong on this and am fretting over nothing.
What about plastics? Some people are mocking the actions of some jurisdictions which are banning plastic straws, to varying degrees. The problem of plastics for human civilization is very real. Some people just don’t seem to understand the depth of the problem or are blinded to it by other, ideological considerations, let’s call them the denialists. They are the ones whose derisive response may one day lead to a nasty outcome. Despite years of public education and effort, the bulk of the plastic produced on the planet is used once then goes into a landfill or ends up in the ocean where it wreaks ecological havoc. I fear that one day, some very clever biologist or geneticist is going to develop a bacterium that eats plastic. Don’t laugh, there’s already some kind of bacteria that consumes petroleum and is sometimes used on oil spills. What are plastics made from? Petroleum! While this might be a solution to the problem of plastic waste, these bacteria could easily get around and start “eating”