2 thoughts on “TBLPOD25may2017”

1. The MEME this week is a video by the Culture Trip about the Katskhi pillar, a 131-foot natural stone formation in Imereti that has a thousand-year-old church built on top. A monk, Maxim Kavtaradze, has lived on top of the pillar since 1993.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2rIzSQ0

   THINGS TO READ

   Social Science in the Caucasus has a guest blog post written by Hans Gutbrod, who looks at air pollution in Tbilisi. Voters care deeply about the issue–in a June 2016 survey by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers, air pollution was the infrastructure problem most likely to be cited by Tbilisi residents. It’s also an issue for people of all ages. Now that the public opinion data is well known, voters should push for stronger action against air pollution, and politicians should respond accordingly.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2s6jIwC

   Writing for OC-Media, Dmitry Stateynov covers so-called ghost towns in Abkhazia, places that have been de-populated since the war of the 1990s. He pays particular attention to villages in upper Kuarchal District which were once thriving and multi-ethnic but are now pretty much empty. In 1989, about 43,000 people lived in the district, which was home to a booming coal mining industry. Now, the population is only around 16,000. Some villages are totally abandoned, and those who still live in the area are almost exclusively ethnic Abkhaz or Russian. Stateynov visits the village of Akar-mara, where most of the remaining residential buildings are crumbling with just a few families left living in them.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2q3beFQ

   Also in OC-Media, Jackie Rousseau has a blog post about sexual assault in Tbilisi, an issue that we all know about but that still gets too little attention. Rousseau brings up some examples of the commonplace nature of sexual assault and harassment, but the real point is this: men, even well-intentioned men–are woefully ignorant about the problem. In order for Tbilisi, Georgia, and other communities and countries around the world to respond to the problem, men have to face up to how pervasive it is.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2qYlcLs

   Igor Torbakov for EurasiaNet investigates Russia’s disappointment with US President Donald Trump, a man they expected to treat Russia as an equal partner on the international stage. The ongoing scandal surrounding the Trump campaign’s dealings with Russian officials and his subsequent firing of FBI director James Comey have erased any political window of opportunity for Trump to conciliate Russia, and President Trump clearly hasn’t made Russia a high priority. In the words of Konstantin von Eggert, a Russia analyst quoted by the author, Trump has insulted Russia in the worst way possible: by ignoring it. The visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Washington only made matters worse when Lavrov made widely-reported jokes about the Comey scandal.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2r7QP5V

   Variety recaps episode three from season six of Veep, which is set in Georgia. In the episode, Selina, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, is sent to Georgia as an election observer. The election is an utter mess, but it’s really a satire of American democracy, not Georgian. Selina agrees to go to Georgia in hopes that “this international shit” will help her sell her political memoir, and she really doesn’t care who wins, so long as she gets a good photo op out of it. However, the caricature of Georgia is pretty crude: the election is between Nikolai Genidze, a professor of poetry, and President Murman, a brutal dictator who employs torture and death squads. Watch the episode and let us know what you think.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2qtcP7f

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2. The Krik beer is the best that’s available in Georgia as far as I’m concerned and aware. The pale ale is quite good, and the IPA and APA are pretty good as well. Not a fan of darker beers in general, so I leave reviews to others.

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