One thought on “TBLPOD11aug2016”

1. The MEME this week is a video of judoka Lasha Shavdatuashvili defeating Russian judoka Denis Iartcev on the opening day of the Olympics–which just happened to be the 8th of August, the anniversary of the August War. Shavduashvili won the bronze, Georgia’s first medal at the Rio games. He won the gold at the 2012 games in London. Link: http://bit.ly/2b87RX8

   THINGS TO READ

   Chai-Khana shows us St. Nino’s Monastery in Samtskhe-Javakheti. The piece is part of a series on start-ups and innovative small businesses in the South Caucasus. The nuns at St. Nino’s specialize in making cheese; they make 16 different kinds, including an aged blue cheese. They also make honey, chocolate, and enamel works.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2aInrI1

   Social Science in the Caucasus takes a look at shrinking public support for democracy. In 2015, only 15 percent of respondents felt that Georgian politics were going in the right direction; it was 35 percent in 2013. Also, more and more people think they’re being treated unfairly by the government.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2biybCh

   EuroMaidanPress has a piece on the roots of the 2008 war. There’s still disagreement about whether Russia had begun its invasion of South Ossetia by the time Georgian troops attacked Tskhinvali on the night of August 7th; Tom De Waal, for example, maintains that Russia didn’t invade until the next morning. But as this article points out, Russia had been secretly moving soldiers across the border since August 2nd, violating their peacekeeping mandate.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2biwUKc

   The Center for European Policy Analysis looks at the aftermath of the August War. They call Russia’s strategy in Georgia and Ukraine grab, stab and hold. Russia starts by grabbing territory, then negotiates a peace settlement from a position of strength, then uses its position to gradually redefine the borders.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2aLKfWJ

   Lincoln Mitchell writes in Slate about Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and how it is damaging American foreign policy, and American allies. In his view, Trump’s bromance with Putin provides ammunition for uncritical anti-Russian voices in America, so that people calling for a less-confrontational relationship with Russia will be associated with Trump and dismissed as Kremlin stooges. On a more basic level, Trump is turning ignorance into a virtue, so American political discourse is being dumbed down in general.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2aNeW41

   The BBC has an interview with Guka Tavberidze, the Georgian founder of the UK-based company Savse. The company launched in 2013 and has made about 13 million dollars over the past year–selling healthy fruit smoothies based on recipes by Tavberidze’s mother. In Georgian language, Savse means full of goodness.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2b9SIIV

   The European Fund for Southeast Europe publishes a study it did on financial literacy in partnership with the National Bank of Georgia. The study found that members of the public have an intermediate understanding of finance. They have a decent grasp of concepts like interest, risk and reward, and inflation. However, Georgians have a low awareness of financial products and most have only short-term financial goals.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2aCHhZI

   The Institute of War and Peace Reporting has a good recap of recent popular unrest in Yerevan which is now being called the July Crisis. Protests were inspired by an armed group’s takeover of a police station. They show that a lot of people are angry with the authorities, and because the public feels like there are no political mechanisms for influencing government, they take to the streets.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2aYbDBW

   BuzzFeed picked up a story about the Vake Swimming and Fitness Club, which instructed women not to use the pool while they’re menstruating. Some of the club’s members are very upset about what they consider a misogynistic policy. The club responded that it’s a hygiene issue: they’ve found tampons in the pool in the past.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2b0FcF1

   Paul Rimple writes in Culinary Backstreets about Kakhelebi, a restaurant on Kakheti Highway that specializes in roast goat. They focus on being flavorful over being filling and serves fresh-baked pita bread instead of tonis puri.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2biydu3

   Damir Marusic discusses in The American Interest the failed assassination attempt of Igor Plotnitsky, head of the Russian-backed Luhansk People’s Republic in Eastern Ukraine. It’s not certain who was behind the attempt, but Ukraine put its forces on high alert in case Russia is planning a new major attack. Marusic thinks it unlikely that Russia would risk a big operation now, as they prefer to gradually tighten the screws on Kiev. Also, he thinks it more likely that Moscow was behind the assassination attempt than Kiev was.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2bh84bB

   NATO releases a video called Georgia’s Unresolved Conflict, which explains the 2008 war and its aftermath, especially the difficulties faced by IDPs. It provides an especially good description for people who don’t much about the war.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2aLLc1w

   Reply ↓