TBLPOD5dec2013

Shevy hater, Kiev sympathy demo, miscarriages of civil justice comission on hold, Unesco on Kvevris, Gharibashvili on Misha’s debt, econ council, PACE’s knickers in a twist, Bacho gets off, EBRD and Tbilisi RR tracks, Ilia hates Local Gov law, pres $, Anti-Semetic nuts, Saganelidze bolts, Volsky Dream pol sec, Vashadze thinks mayor, Reintegration becomes Reconciliation, budget says deflation, Corruption rank 51 to 55, Ilia invites Kirill, Georgian Putin puffery book appears, Chela minaret back, GPB spots, wind and Mushroom Patch problems, Lords on Justice House, new bldg in front of Raddison, Genocide movie, new liberty charter, Shalakho chatter, breadwinners

5 thoughts on “TBLPOD5dec2013

  1. The MEME this week comes from the signing of the DCFTA agreement with the EU. Apparently, Economy Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili and the European Commissioner for Trade Karel De Gucht signed the document while musical variations of two songs played in the background: “Suliko” and “Shalakho”. Shalakho is a supra song and some people thought it was inappropriate for the event. Euro-Integration Minister Aleko Petriashvili jokingly commented that it was Misha who chose and left the music before retiring. Link: http://goo.gl/iXiZEP

    THINGS TO READ

    An article by Thomas de Waal about Georgia after Misha and BI or as he calls it a country “after the Titans.” The author describes the current situation in Georgia and mentions that two relatively inexperienced men are occupying the two top offices. He compares the situation to countries like Bulgaria and Romania in the 1990s. Link: http://goo.gl/47pCve

    An Article posted on Demuri-Kratia.LiveJournal.com called “Advice to aspiring dictators – how to pretend to be a true democrat” , which the author sent to me. The author, pretending to be Misha, advises aspiring autocrats to “tell outrageous lies”, give in kind bribes to potential allies abroad in the form of expensive vacations, create a fake opposition party and “be unlike other autocrats” among other tips. It is sarcastic and droll.

    BuzzFeed.com’s article “The Che Guevara in the Caucasus” which tells the story of Georgian MP Givi Targamadze. Russia accuses Targamadze of being a Georgian Che Guevara, who under orders from Misha planned to perform terrorist attacks. Misha and senior members in UNM have admitted for the first time that part of the Russian story is true: Targamadze did meet with activists on Misha’s orders in Lithuania and Belarus. However, they claim Targamadze’s recommendations were not the nefarious things the Russians accuse him of. For instance, Targamadze told activists to smear the Russian security services’ headquarters with Soviet catnip so that Moscow strays would mark it as their territory—a trick which he used under Shevardnadze. Link: http://goo.gl/B56U9L

    TI Georgia’s new report “Businessmen in Politics and Politicians in Business” which focuses on the revolving door between politics and the private sector and the risk of corruption. Link: http://goo.gl/FMhlT2

    A post in ISET’s blog by Nino Abashidze and Florian Biermann about the heavy pollution due to car traffic in Tbilisi and the costs Georgians pay for their automobile. The number of cars in Georgia increased by more than 60% between 2006 and 2012. The authors give some advice as to how to improve the situation—including incentivizing people to enter the city with public transport instead of using their private cars and enhancing alternative forms of mobility, such as carpool lanes for busses and marshrutkas. They also recommend more green areas in the city. Link: http://goo.gl/nFHGBq

    An article by Londa Beria in DFWatch.net about gypsies in Georgia and problems with their official numbers and registration. The author says that gypsies don’t believe that elections will improve their life. Usually, the Roma don’t participate in elections because they don’t have IDs. The government doesn’t have a special program for gypsies which makes it hard to involve them in the political life of the country. Link: http://goo.gl/igLrv8

    And Putin’s Power Grab: First Armenia, Now Ukraine by Will Cathcart in Buzzfeed that says Russia is getting more aggressive and details how it is doing that in the neighborhood as well as the pushback. Link: http://goo.gl/dJoQab

    ANNOUNCEMENTS

    On the 7th of December, the 2013 International Women’s Association Georgia Winter charity Expo will take place from 10 AM until 6 PM at the Sheraton Hotel. As in previous years, art will be sold, there will be a raffle, book stands and a Children’s play room. For additional info visit IWA.ge

    If you’re in portland and looking for some great georgian food, go to KargiGogo, the Georgian food cart pod. They sell Badrijani, Lobiani, Khinkali, Khachapuri, and more. Tell your Portland, oregon friends about it. For more info, go to kargigogo.com, or look up @KargiGogoPDX on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

  2. I think the Patriarchate’s main concern with local self-government is that it may give separatist sentiment amongst ethnic minority populated regions in Georgia’s south a larger forum, and potentially result in conflict.

    Personally, I think such separatist sentiment is very limited and that carefully implemented local self-governance will probably enhance national cohesion rather than damage it. The Patriarchate’s fears are probably shared by many elements of the general public so the government needs to explain the benefits of its initiative better to the grass roots.

  3. The House of Lords thing is from 2012, it was a question given to the peer directly by the London-based PR guy for Misha. Less said about it the better…

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