Half Way

It seems that all of the ex-pats that I run into have 1 of 2 attitudes toward Baku: either the glass is half full or half empty. It would be easiest to side with the latter, as the city is a mash of shanties, 6-story apartment buildings in the midst of disrepair and a plethora of taller buildings that are just shells because all work stopped on them when the world-wide recession hit.

It takes no effort to look at the numerous half-finished buildings and see only ruins, but a guy in construction told us that as the economy recovers, work will once again pick up, which would not only make the place look better, but would help the high unemployment rate. As Baku is the largest and most metropolitan city in Azerbaijan, the residents deserve something better than half-way done. They pushed out the Soviets just over 20 years ago and now they just have to keep pushing forward.

So, I'm trying to adopt the more difficult train of thought, that the glass is half full. It takes a bit of fortitude to see Baku as a city on the verge of something grand. It would be a shame and a disservice to see Baku end up a city of half hopes and half promises.


This is just an example....there are too many of these "shell" buildings to count