One thought on “TBLPOD13oct2016”

1. The MEME this week is a photo of a woman in a wedding dress casting her vote on the 8th of October. The photo was taken by Ketevan Kardava.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2dP1Kx9

   US Citizens are encouraged to vote in the Presidential Election on the 8th of November. Those living in Georgia can easily register and mail a completed ballot. Check out Vote.org for more information, and encourage your friends and relatives living outside the US to vote. The below link to the website of the US Embassy in Georgia also has a lot of good info.
   Link: https://georgia.usembassy.gov/rm092116.html

   THINGS TO READ

   Michael Cecire writes for Foreign Affairs about the situation in Georgia going into the elections. He discusses the large number of options that voters had, a good sign for the country’s democratic development.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2e00WmV

   Agenda.ge publishes an interactive electoral map with detailed results from every district in Georgia.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2dM66T8

   Transparency International, the hardest-working NGO in the South Caucasus, publishes its assessment of the election process. They observed 300 precincts around the country, finding that things went smoothly except in Marneuli and near Zugdidi. They observed 80 procedural violations, though, and filed 10 complaints.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2dM7TYk

   Lincoln Mitchell publishes his post-election analysis. He says Otsneba’s victory came because of soft support from voters–people who weren’t particularly enthusiastic about them but looked around and decided that four more years of Otsneba was better than bringing the National Movement back or handing the reins to someone else. He also says the National Movement performed better than they could have hoped for.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2dV7QZN

   Luis Navarro recaps the election results for the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He discusses some of the changes that Otsneba might introduce if they get a constitutional majority. For example, they’ve discussed replacing the mixed system of proportional voting and majoritarian districts with a proportional-only system.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2e3Wq4k

   Giorgi Lomsadze profiles the Alliance of Patriots for EurasiaNet. He calls them a Russian tolerant party, not a pro-Russian party. But party leader Irma Inashvili is a vocal opponent of EU and NATO integration. They got six seats in Parliament, not enough to affect legislation but enough to spread their message, which is a conservative nationalist one. He puts some of the blame on the Free Democrats and Republicans, who could have counterbalanced the Patriots if only they had worked together to pass the 5 percent threshold.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2e3X9lS

   The New York Times Style Magazine profiles Tbilisi’s avant-garde interior designers. They focus on Nata Janberidze and Keti Toloraia, who share a studio in the Old Town. They’ve created an eclectic style that combines traditional Georgian styles with Roman, Persian, Ottoman, Russian, and Soviet influences.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2dmKhJc

   The Independent interviews Georgia-born, London-based singer Katie Melua, who has a new album out this week. Her album is called In Winter. She talks about the mental breakdown she had in 2010, saying that in the long run it helped her focus less on ego and more on making music.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2e87aD4

   Our Santa Barbara correspondent Jonathan Kulick tipped us off about a piece that Forbes in running about Georgia’s economy. Over the past four years, half-a-million people have moved up past the national poverty line, and it’s grown on average 5 percent per year since 1991, that’s including the bad years of the 1990s.
   Link: http://bit.ly/2eckKkP

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