The Tbilisi Blues

The Blog Has Moved

2012-01-05T16:57:00.003+04:00

It's a new year, there's new wine, a new attitude (maybe) and so Tbilisi Blues has moved to a new site, in the hopes I might be inspired to be more active on the blog thing.So for those of you who care to follow the happenings of the action town, you can click HERE and we'll see you around. Happy New Year and all the jazz.

How Georgian Parliament Votes

2011-11-14T18:34:00.003+04:00

In 2003, I was an election observer during the notorious parliamentary elections that provoked the revolution that disposed President Eduard Shevardnadze. I saw a man vote twice while an observer said to him, "Hey! You can't do that!" He looked at her and replied, "You don't understand, the first time was for my wife. She is ill and couldn't come."During the Shevardnadze regime, parliament

Don't Step On My Blue NATO Shoes

2011-11-14T10:37:00.005+04:00

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen came and left, patted Georgia on the back for all its democratic achievements and its contribution to the war in Afghanistan and then said, but you haven't done enough yet to be part of our club.What exactly does it take to qualify for membership into NATO?Two decades after the transition from communism, democracy fragile. As the country makes further

Live from Bidzina's

2011-11-02T13:35:00.014+04:00

I was 30 minutes late, the last hack to enter Ivanishvili's grounds. I expected to be turned away at the door, but a security guard verified my credentials, presented me with my pass and passed me on to the security check, who passed me on to the next guy, and so on, until I was in a Jetson-like atrium full of journalists.This was multi-billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili's fifth interview in his

Tycoon Blues

2011-10-18T11:12:00.006+04:00

Georgian billionaire, Bidzina Ivanishvili has announced his plans to pit his business expertise and his 5.5 billion dollar bankroll against the Saakashvili government in the 2012 parliamentary elections.The news hasn't been so well received by authorities...Ivanishvili said that he wants to be Prime Minister and that he can transform the country into a democracy that will surprise Europe in two

Pankisi Blues

2011-10-04T12:48:00.002+04:00

The Pankisi Gorge is back in the news — but this time not for harboring Chechen militants. In a display of Georgian overkill, witnesses say about 25 masked officers arrested English teacher Shorena Khangorshvili for possessing heroin on Sept. 16 as she was walking out of a pharmacy in Akhmeta. The incident risks destabilizing a defensive and traumatized community.Read more: http://

3 years after the Russian-Georgian War

2011-08-12T16:24:00.004+04:00

(Liana Lazarashvili inside her damaged house in Gori, Georgia. Photo: Justyna Mielnikiewicz) It's been three years since the Russians cut the country in half, fire bombed the Borjomi National Park to be spiteful and allowed South Ossetian militia to loot and raze Georgian villages to the ground. Russian president Dmitri Medvedev signed a peace agreement with French president Nicolas Sarkozy,

HIV/AIDS treatment Abkhazia & Georgia

2011-07-24T01:05:00.000+04:00

Here's a link to a story I did with Giorgi Lomsadze about HIV treatment in Abkhazia and how some people come to Tbilisi for treatment too, which is a sign that the two sides can put politics aside for humanitarian reasons.

IT DIDN'T HAVE TO HAPPEN THIS WAY

2011-06-02T14:18:00.008+04:00

@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section(image lifted off www.globalnews.ca)I was standing under the eave of the Rustaveli cinema with other journalists hoping, like them, that there was safety in numbers and the riot cops, who were on their way,

Rockin out in Abkhazia

2011-04-30T20:52:00.006+04:00

Nobody makes money playing the guitar in Abkhazia, Georgia's breakaway territory, but that doesn't keep people from rockin out. I was in Sokhum(i) last week and was invited to a 3 band concert in a Soviet era "House of Culture" in a village on the outskirts of town. It's great to dig how strong the spirit of rock and roll is in a place that has been totally isolated from the rest of the world for

Nino Burjanadze’s Zombie Apocalypse

2011-03-16T12:43:00.008+04:00

"Zombies don't read. They ain't hooked on phonics. So give it a rest."- Griffin, House of the Dead 2: All Guts, No Glory (2005) @font-face { font-family: "Times"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times

Chokha Love

2011-02-22T23:13:00.004+04:00

“When you love your chokha, you love your country. When you love your country, you love your traditions,” expounded 60-year-old Rezo Sulava, a leader of the All-Georgia Chokha Society.The Chokha is the Georgian national costume, a garment some consider sacred and others see as an old-fashion relic of the past. Justyna and I did a story about this surprisingly controversial set of threads for

Our friend, Somalia

2011-02-07T12:49:00.008+04:00

(nerdnirvana.com)As of January 6th, Georgia has established diplomatic ties to:A country mired in a civil war for over 20 years;number one failed state in the world;no central government control over most of the country's territory;the world's most famous piracy hot spot;life expectancy - 50 years (men), 53 years (women);1.1 million displaced people (IDPs) since 1988;no permanent national

January Blues

2011-01-25T11:14:00.003+04:00

Here's a link to my piece in The Moscow Times about the ironic fate of veterans of the Abkhazia war, who seem to be more valued dead than alive. image lifted off www.rferl.org

Holiday lights

2011-01-03T19:08:00.010+04:00

David the taxi driver is not the brightest light on the Christmas tree, so to speak. Two days in a row he asked me what I thought of the holiday lights strung along Rustaveli Avenue as if he was looking for a consenting negative opinion.“They’re nice,” I said. And I meant it this time. Last year when we went through the same ritual, my first answer was non-committal as I had aesthetics in mind

Sanguine Russia

2010-11-10T11:14:00.007+04:00

(17/30 Russian journalists whose murders remain unsolved)Anatoly Adamchuk is latest Russian journalist to be beaten just short of death, raising the number of attacks against journalists to 32, according to the Glasnost Defense Foundation. The attack comes two days after Oleg Kashin, of Kommersant, was brained by two assailants in an attack which mirrors the 2008 assault of Mikhail Beketov, who

Svaneti Blues

2010-10-20T12:18:00.018+04:00

(wikimedia.org)There used to be a time not long ago at all when the only people that dared to venture to the high mountainous region of Svaneti unescorted were the gutsy or the oblivious. Svaneti was as notorious as the Pankisi Gorge in terms of criminality, the only difference was Pankisi was home to a Chechen-Georgian Interior Ministry cartel while Svaneti was a homogeneous enclave run by local

The Tbilisi Jazz Festival Blues

2010-09-30T20:09:00.017+04:00

(Duke Ellington & Johnny Hodges lifted from www.kalamu.com)I grew up to the sounds of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and of course Louis Armstrong on reel to reel tapes my father played in his bulky portable player after long days at work and on weekends. His collection of 78s were his pride and joy, only since my mother was a stickler for tidiness they had to be

Mouths Wide Shut

2010-08-27T23:56:00.015+04:00

(lifted off www.image.com)Today, the Georgian NGO Coalition for Justice released a press statement calling for greater consideration for the rights of the displaced by the international community, reminding us that 400,000 IDPs were forced from their homes and communities by Russia since 1993. The press release, however, failed to mention that IDP rights are also threatened in Tbilisi.Seven

Those Lucky Internally Displaced People

2010-08-17T11:31:00.015+04:00

www.pollsb.comLast Friday, exactly two years to the day Ossetian irregulars "cleansed" the Tskhinvali region of its last Georgians while Russian troops consumed the spoils, the displaced were again expelled, only this time it was by Georgian authorities who gave them 7 hours to pack up and leave their shelter.“A coincidence,” said Maka Esaishvili, NGO and donor officer of the Ministry of

Sounds of The Caucasus, NYT

2010-08-06T12:01:00.005+04:00

A plug for my favorite photographer in a NYT slideshow about Georgian polyphonyAnd, the story by VIVIEN SCHWEITZER

Negro is not niggardly and the best offense is defense

2010-07-29T01:00:00.019+04:00

(lifted off www.alephbet.com)I just visited civil.ge to catch up on some local news and see the president has tasted a bit of his own shoe leather.Remember the Washington DC mayoral aide David Howard, who had to resign for saying the word "niggardly" when referring to the tight budget he would have to manage? Fortunately, this is Georgia where even losing a war with Russia won't make a president

Dinner of Champions

2010-07-16T03:26:00.022+04:00

Back before the fall of Shevardnadze, I went to do research on a story about Chidaoba, traditional Georgian wrestling. It was mid-winter and the Federal Wrestling Association building was predictably unlit and unheated, but dozens of wrestlers steamed the hall with body vapor and broke the chill. The faded cement walls and patchy wrestling mat looked like they had sucked the balm out of every

Identity theft Azerbaijan style

2010-07-01T00:49:00.005+04:00

A real Eldar Namazov “As long as this corrupt regime fails to leave the scene, we will stick together,” said a man named Eldar Namazov. But he had no idea how some things would stick.I came across a hilarious story by comrade Ali I'd like to share about the virtual cloning of the former aid to Big Daddy Heidar Aliev and current opposition guy, Eldar Namazov.(image lifted off www.bizimyol.az)

The Twittering president of Russia

2010-06-24T13:11:00.008+04:00

Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, was in my home state yesterday doing some overt corporate spying in Silicon Valley in an effort to recreate кремниевой долины in a Moscow suburb and “diversify” beyond the gas and oil exports that have made the country rich.While caressing a new iPad at Stanford, Dima told an audience that every American company he talked to expressed an interest in investing

Civil registry blues

2010-05-30T10:23:00.008+04:00

There’s about a dozen women sitting behind a glass partition with sections for passports, civil registration and the like. Although new and improved, the room was not designed to comfortably accommodate the human cattle that herd in and cut in front of each other to get their bureaucratic papers straightened out. My mission was to obtain my daughter’s birth certificate; simple enough in theory,

Christians against Christ

2010-05-07T08:59:00.011+04:00

"There has been a great sucking sound coming from some people who say they are Christians. The sound is that of their brains being sucked out of their heads and then being replaced with the hot air of illogical rhetoric," says Don Koenig in his rant against Christian patriots in America.These religious nutbags are everywhere friends, in Georgia they are called the People's Orthodox-Christian

Bullshit inspired by bullshit

2010-05-02T10:49:00.011+04:00

"A free press can of course be good or bad but without freedom it will never be anything but bad." Albert Camus.They’re discovering in the USA how much fun Saakashvili can be off the cuff. Confronted with that ever-nagging question about freedom of the press in Georgia, even in L.A., Misha blurted, “that’s total bullshit!” to some “naive foreigner,” Jeffery Gedmin, president and CEO of Radio Free

Notes from the road: Haikastan 2003

2010-04-23T10:06:00.004+04:00

On the eastern outskirts of Tbilisi, near Lilo bazaar, concrete barricades in the middle of the highway bottlenecked traffic to a crawl. This was where the largest organized crime ring in the country extorted money from random people by simply pointing a baton at a given car and ordering it to the side of the road. These law enforcement officers then invented infractions, which were settled on

Lelo 2010

2010-04-10T17:36:00.004+04:00

lelo 2010 - pjrMy buddy Robinzon, a taxi driver and recovering lelo participant, says that you can't understand what lelo is until you see it with your own eyes. But even then it's hard to believe.Lelo is an Easter Sunday ritual that occurs only in one village in the western Georgian region of Guria and involves drinking, struggling over a 35lb. ball, more drinking, eating and then commemorating

Justyna Milenikiewicz's slide show

2010-03-27T21:20:00.001+04:00

(I updated the bad link) A plug for my favorite photographer's latest slide show for Eurasianet about ethnic North Caucasians in Turkey.

Boner of the Year

2010-03-14T00:55:00.009+04:00

I heard a story about a TV Rustavi-2 journalist, who during the August 2008 war, had a sign with the name of a village from the conflict zone in the trunk of the car. She planted the sign in some rural spot near Tbilisi and broadcasted a live shot from "the conflict zone." The best part was that she bragged to her fellow Rustavi 2 colleagues about how clever she was to fake a story and they

The Winehead Blues

2010-03-05T14:31:00.001+04:00

Back in the good ol' Shevardnadze days when diesel generators were a common part of the aural Tbilisi landscape, I went to the Tbilisi main bazaar, Bazroba, for wine without my roommate Zaza’s help for the first time. Dusk was falling and I tried to imagine the Bazroba Zaza had described of the early 90s, when the only people down there at night were crazy guys with Kalashnikovs.You think Bazroba

The Compulsory Military Education Blues

2010-01-21T12:41:00.007+04:00

Compulsory military education strengthens our defense! The Georgian educational system sure does look different when you are an expecting parent. That $180 dollar a month salary that teachers make (nearly ½ the national average working wage) looks a hell of a lot more like what it really is – a downright travesty. That’s 45$ a week to teach our children reading, writing and ‘rithmetic. Or 9$

The Ugly American Social Syndrome (UASS)

2010-01-09T19:32:00.004+04:00

The Ugly American slammed the ashtray on the bar and shouted repeatedly: “Are you serving here or are you talking?” The veins on his neck were pumping, bestowing a beet-redness to his otherwise pink face. The American was big, inebriated and used to having his way.Misha, the bartender, turned around and asked the man to wait one moment but that only poured gasoline onto the Ugly American’s

New Year's Eve Blues

2010-01-07T19:11:00.006+04:00

For the rich and unimaginative, the Radisson Hotel was the place to be on New Year’s Eve in Georgia. The 300$ a head banquet room, that had once been the site of a kiosk stand just a few years ago when Abkhazian refugees occupied the former hotel, was filled to capacity with 30-something year old Georgian men puffing on their annual New Year’s Eve Cuban cigars, while their luxuriously dressed

Season's Greetings From Georgia

2009-12-24T11:28:00.006+04:00

The holiday season in Georgia means eating piglets and drinking October’s grape harvest. It means New Year’s on Rustaveli swigging champagne from the bottle and dodging fireworks aimed at your face. But above all, the holidays mean experiencing family intimacy on a level totally obscure to those from the West, whose holidays often mean having to be with the family, or in other words, experiencing

ABKHAZIA, SOUTH OSSETIA - 4 / WORLD - 188*

2009-12-16T20:59:00.019+04:00

Abkhazia and South Ossetia just scored another point in global recognition of their independence, as Nauru, the world’s smallest nation, has jumped on the little red bandwagon with Venezuela, Nicaragua and Russia, raising the number of countries that recognize the separatists' sovereignty to four.A couple weeks ago, Abkhaz Foreign Minister, Sergei Shamba, said they were looking to get recognition

Nasty Neighbor Blues

2009-12-09T11:48:00.006+04:00

When Robert Frost said good fences make good neighbors he wasn’t lying. Of course he wasn’t the first to say that. Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang said the same thing when he started building his chunk of the Great Wall and the practice continued right up to 1961 when Walter Ulbricht put up the barbed wire fence, which ameliorated into a wall and created two neighborly Berlins. I know all about

Snake Oil Blues

2009-11-26T09:06:00.006+04:00

My friend Sam co-penned a story for the Wall Street Journal about a British company that had its steel mill in Georgia seized by the government and sold off to a dubious Georgian firm. Meanwhile, Georgia's Prime Minister, Nika Gilauri, is in England to convince everybody what a great place Georgia is to invest in.Read the article HERE

Working Man's Blues

2009-11-19T09:28:00.009+04:00

A few months back, the Mayor of Tbilisi, Gigi Ugulava had a little celebration in Vake Park to honor the city's garbage men by awarding them with applause and new uniforms. One sanitation engineer, however, was not there. He did not want to spend the only day off he had had in months to hang out in the park with a bunch of garbage men, so he came to our house."We work seven days a week now," he

Russia's Hidden War by Evan Williams

2009-11-16T11:50:00.004+04:00

It's a story well known in the Caucasus - How Russia uses terror to control its republics. Reporter Evan Williams goes to Ingushetia for Dateline and discovers how innocent civilians are being kidnapped, tortured and murdered by Russian security forces.You can watch the entire story straight from

The scum dogs of the caca press

2009-11-10T20:46:00.002+04:00

When it comes to bad journalism there are the low-rent lice like Rezonansi newspaper that will publish slanderous pieces under the guise of a paid ad, which they claim to have no editorial control over, and there are the ignominious cockroaches like Rustavi-2 TV, which goes by the motto "if you can't find the news, then invent it."There is another category of purulent curs, which plummets off the

Gambler's Blues

2009-11-07T11:45:00.004+04:00

Sofia Mizante c/o eurasianet.orgThis summer, Russia closed down all casinos and gaming parlors and exiled them to Siberia. Armenia has also passed a law moving casinos to regions far from the capital. Meanwhile Azerbaijan and Turkey forbid legalized gambling. A few years ago in Abkhazia, a developer tried to open a casino to a backlash of civil disapproval. Gambling, the public said, would only

Orthodox Blues

2009-11-04T22:35:00.011+04:00

"Everything bad in man is only accidental." Father GabrielLenin Square was packed to capacity during Tbilisi’s May Day celebration of 1956*. Two gigantic portraits hung from the Executive Committee of the Communist Party building; one of Stalin and the other Lenin (3 months after Khrushchev’s denouncement of Stalin). At the height of the commemoration, Stalin suddenly burst into flames, followed

Dental Chair Blues

2009-10-19T16:07:00.014+04:00

Rati hipped me to my first Georgian dentist shortly after I arrived in the country. His cousin spoke English and she drilled in a storefront around the corner from the school we worked at. Rati's teeth weren't exactly pearly, but the filling I needed was in the back of my mouth where no one could see it and I had procrastinated long enough. "She has all the latest equipment," he assured. The

The Knucklehead Brigade

2009-10-18T11:49:00.025+04:00

Among the minions of nutters on the net with misguided notions of last year's war over South Ossetia, are the photo savants, who behind their computers, can judge whether a war image has been faked or staged. Most of these conspiracy theorists are neither photographer nor journalist and therefore know nothing about optics and perspective, let alone what a war zone or humanity is like.The iconic

Substance and Reality Revisited

2009-10-09T12:20:00.009+04:00

(image lifted off rottentomatoes.com)Back in August I questioned which version of the Russian-Georgian war over South Ossetia Hollywood action director Renny Hartlin would portray. While we knew Georgia wouldn’t let anybody in the country to shoot a pro-Russian film, the question was, would it be Hollywood’s or Georgia’s version, and the answer of course is “both.”Razzie winning director Renny

London Mayor's Aid Runs Over Georgian Man: Will he keep his promise?

2009-10-07T18:10:00.014+04:00

On August 27th, Tariel Ivanishvili and his friend Nikolaz Gwenitadze were about to cross the Batumi-Tbilisi highway to buy a pack of cigarettes in the village of Nakhshirgele, just outside Kutaisi when Kulveer Ranger, transportation aid to London Mayor Boris Johnson, hit Ivanishvili on a BMW motorcycle and sent him flying into the highway where two other motorcycles ran over him.When the story

Batumi's Playground for Adults

2009-09-30T19:18:00.010+04:00

Good luck finding a good watering hole in Batumi, Ajara's grand Black Sea port city. There was a pleasantly sleazy little pool hall a few years ago but it has since vanished. There are, however, several stimulating plastic table cafes along Gogabashvili Blvd, just across the street from the harbor, that serve cold cheap beer and girls.Some time ago, I stumbled into one of these places for a cold

Notes from the Theater of Life archives

2009-09-28T12:27:00.005+04:00

Instead of going to the ticket window and being told that tickets for the Tbilisi-Baku train had been sold out, I went straight to the conductor of wagon 3 and arranged a berth from him directly.“Where you from?” he asked.“Chicago.”“Yes, I’ve seen it on television… England?”“No, America.”He lit my cigarette and we filled the gaps between puffs with small talk before he popped the inevitable

Gali, One Year Later

2009-09-22T22:30:00.002+04:00

Greetings from the Galiwood Hills, the story should be. Here's last week's Eurasianet story about that bright lights, big city of Gali.

Abkhazia, one year later

2009-09-05T14:41:00.003+04:00

Abkhazia celebrated the first anniversary of Russia’s 2008 recognition of its independence with its borders guarded by Russian soldiers and its seaside resorts packed with Russian tourists...You can read the rest of last week's story HERE

Showcase: Neighborly Hatred. photos by Justyna Mielnikiewicz

2009-09-04T09:51:00.002+04:00

Justyna’s Caucasus project is the result of documenting nearly 10 years of life around her. It is not a mere collection of “decisive moments” caught while traipsing around the region but is a compilation of decisive stories, captured in each image, which together tell the larger Caucasus story. The quality of her work is a testament to her deep understanding of the vast complexities that comprise

Signifying Mud

2009-08-25T12:37:00.004+04:00

One year after the Russia-Georgia war and the scum is still floating on the top. In some cases, it is still rising.The Russian prosecutor general's office is now claiming that “soldiers from Ukraine's regular defense ministry detachments and at least 200 members of the UNA-UNSO nationalist organization took part in the armed aggression against South Ossetia."This accusation has come one year

The Postman Blues

2009-08-16T20:31:00.004+04:00

In our neighborhood of Zemo Vera the postman never rings twice, he just waltzes into our crib and says “dobry dien, dobry dien.” Most often than not I am either rinsing the suds off my body at the time or privately philosophizing in the porcelain isolation chamber. His timing is impeccable. His kisses (yes, kisses) reek of garlic and/or vodka and although I always offer my cheek as tradition

Substance and Reality: Hollywood on the South Ossetian War

2009-08-05T10:42:00.008+04:00

The director that brought us A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, The Adventures of Ford Fairlane and Die Hard 2 announced he is already casting for a low budget “art film” about the 2008 South Ossetian war. What we don’t know is which version of the war Renny Harlin aims to present.In March, a Russian produced version of the war, Olympus Inferno, has an American entomologist and Russian journalist

Joe Biden on the Good Foot

2009-07-27T13:59:00.006+04:00

Back in 1999, James Brown came to Tbilisi with the message to "Get on the Good Foot" and performed a concert people still talk about today. Last week, another JB arrived with a message that people may not talk about 10 years from now, but is highly significant for its timing and place.US Vice President Joe Biden came to reaffirm “We stand by you.”For Georgians, it was a much welcomed dispatch, as

Dniepr Blues

2009-07-21T10:28:00.012+04:00

(Khevsureti Pass)Early last August, Beso and I put a borrowed plate on my bike, loaded the sidecar with gasoline, chacha, our sleeping bags, half a dozen cans of sardines, and at Beso’s suggestion, 5 kilos of potatoes.“Why the potatoes, Beso?”“We might get hungry,” he replied.Beso walks like a cowboy for a reason. His beat to hell Dniepr is not just his means of transportation

Relativity

2009-06-09T10:23:00.004+04:00

Three Georgian English teachers were passionately talking politics during a coffee break. Saakashvili had to go, they said. And as usual, I asked who should replace him."Alasania," one teacher said."And what has he proposed?" I asked.She answered by explaining what was wrong with Saakashvili."So if suddenly Saakashvili disappeared, everything would be fine?""We'd have elections," she responded."

"Merrily We Roll Along"

2009-06-03T13:38:00.026+04:00

"Our “radicalism,” if that is the right word, is intended to end the instability our country faces rather than exacerbate it." Nino Burjanadze, from the National Interest.It’s been relatively calm in Tbilisi. The first tomatoes of the season have arrived, as have the strawberries and cherries. The opposition released Freedom Square from occupation, but is still holding a portion of Rustaveli

The Finacial: The Georgian Economy Under Saakashvili

2009-05-28T10:09:00.003+04:00

Saakashvili's record economic growth a myth?Saakashvili's western democratic principles PR fluff?Georgian citizens mislead, cheated and abused by their government leaders?Irakli Rukhadze and Mark Hauf explain why they think so many people continue to be out on the streets, despite ineffectual opposition leaders, in this piece from The Financial.

Airbag Nation

2009-05-26T21:11:00.014+04:00

People filed into the Boris Paichadze National Stadium from all over Tbilisi. Unlike the sour grapes that had been standing on Rustavli Avenue for the past month, these people were smiling and light-hearted, at first.One man in his 50s walked by and gave me the wooden eye treatment, stopped, deliberated for a moment, came back and let me have it."Where are you from?""America.""Bandits," he said.

The Devil Makes Them Do It

2009-05-25T17:11:00.007+04:00

Last week I walked into the best Chinese restaurant in Tbilisi and it was empty.“Where is everybody?” I asked the waiter.He shrugged his shoulders and said business has been bad the past few weeks, since the opposition blocked Rustaveli. Other businesses in the area are reportedly suffering similar losses.That doesn’t seem to concern the opposition, who blame everything on the Saakashvili

Justyna Mielnikiewicz

2009-05-14T16:23:00.007+04:00

I just watched a retro clip of Misha's head bashing party from November 7, 2007, when cops destroyed photojournalist Justyna Mielnikiewic's camera. Shortly after watching her camera smash to bits about a minute into the clip, you can hear her expressing herself clearly.Justyna has finally gotten around to adding some images to her blog, which I recommend ya'll check out.(from this month's demos)

Madness or the Art of Thinking Big?

2009-05-13T18:11:00.005+04:00

(These people want change. PJR)You are the president of a small nation with a population half the number of the city of Chicago’s. You engaged your nation in a war with Russia, which was lost in 5 days. The only thing keeping the country economically alive is the billions of dollars western countries donated before the great global economic depression. Thousands of people want your resignation

It's Not Who You're For

2009-05-12T15:24:00.003+04:00

(Nino Burjanadze, left; Irakli Alasania, 2nd from right. PJR)“What do you think, Misha will go?” asked David the cabbie.“No,” I replied.David is from Kakheti, the birthplace of wine. He makes his living driving his Ford around Tbilisi, sleeping on couches and sometimes in his car. He delivers his earnings to his family in Kakheti every weekend.“What are they saying in Kakheti about these

Back in The Normal

2009-05-09T14:48:00.014+04:00

“So what’s the situation like in Georgia now?” I was asked in Amsterdam last week.“Well, some opposition leaders have organized street protests to demand the resignation of the president, a bunch of people are blocking major roads, traffic is now a major drag, Russia has amassed troops along the new borders and I don’t know, things are pretty normal,” I replied.“Normal?”“Yeah. Street protests and

It's called lelo and is only played in one village in Georgia

2009-04-29T18:26:00.004+04:00

(photo: Justyna Mielnikiewicz)"You can't play it with a hangover and you can't play it sober," said Shukhuti villager, Lena Xvinoishvili. Same thing applies to writing about it....There is no referee, because there are no rules. There are no time-outs and no limit to the number of participants, although children are discouraged. <

Protest update 4/25

2009-04-25T10:51:00.009+04:00

I was out of town for the weekend and when I got back, whatever I had brought back, kept me home for a couple days, so I haven't been out to check out my favorite Tbilisi past-time: watching protests.To compensate for their dwindling number of attendees, the opposition has blocked off key streets with big metal "jail cell" boxes, that are supposed to have people in them for maximum effect, but

South Ossetia Diary

2009-04-21T23:59:00.004+04:00

We Tbilisi based journalists cannot enter Tskhinvali, South Ossetia from Georgia. We must go to Moscow and get Russian press accreditation and travel several thousand kilometers south, which makes you wonder what this whole South Ossetian independence thing is all about.Even before the war South Ossetia was a difficult place to report from, as we were nearly always appointed a minder to shadow us

Who is Giorgi Targamadze?

2009-04-17T12:03:00.012+04:00

Everybody that hates Saakashvili is out in the streets, or at home or work sympathizing with the opposition. Or they are just waiting for the next presidential elections. But Giorgi Targamadze, the leader of the Christian Democrats and parliamentary minority is busy trying to convince the “radical” opposition to be a bit more realistic. Standing and sleeping in the streets demanding the

Tbilisi Protests Are Not Good News for Georgians Near South Ossetia

2009-04-15T23:23:00.004+04:00

"We're afraid here. We sleep in our clothes. We might have to leave at any moment," says Givi Lapach, a Ditsi villager.No water, no electricity, no work and occasional handouts from the Red Cross, he says. Such is daily life in Ditsi and other villages like it along the South Ossetia border region. But it could be worse. You can see the ruins of the Georgian village of Eredvi in South Ossetia

Salome II: Mirror Mirror

2009-04-14T21:02:00.005+04:00

I'd really like to sympathize with the opposition, but these people must understand what a grave responsibility they bear when talking to thousands of tired and angry people. If you are a leader, people depend on you to guide them. If you don't know what you are leading them towards you have no reason to be sitting in the chair.Salome Zourabichvili, and all the other opposition leaders, have run

Grechikha ( Buckwheat): Levan Gachecheladze

2009-04-14T02:18:00.011+04:00

(AP photo, lifted off www.daylife.com)The other day I went to the Marriott for some opposition meeting press conference sleeper. I turned the corner in the hall and a barrage of cameras were rolling, lights baring. "Why are they taping me?" I turned around and saw no one. I stepped forward, looked back. "What the fuck?" Lights, camera, action. What to do? You shouldn't waste the tape. I danced. I

Protest update

2009-04-12T12:44:00.004+04:00

Well, Misha did not step down and the opposition started a civil disobedience action which amounts to blocking the road and protesting in front of the public (state) TV station in addition to a simultaneous protest in front of Saakashvili's presidential home, where demonstrators chuck carrots and cabbages over the fence and call the president a "scared rabbitt." Yesterday they released a live

The revolution will not be televised

2009-04-09T19:49:00.012+04:00

motivated protestersI was looking as forward to these protests as I was my next visit to the dentist. But sometimes journalism resembles an actual job and you have to go with the flow, regardless.I had to run home and file my story before the opposition gave the president an ultimatum to step down in 24 hours or else... or else.... or... um... they

Mass protests in Georgia aim to unseat Saakashvili

2009-04-09T11:20:00.002+04:00

A coalition of 13 Georgian political opposition parties will take to the streets of Tbilisi Thursday to stage open-ended demonstrations aimed at unseating President Mikheil Saakashvili, whom they accuse of betraying the promise of 2003's "Rose Revolution," building a personal dictatorship, causing mass impoverishment, and leading the country into a disastrous war with Russia last summer.More HERE

Salome Zourabichvili: A non-Dip's Dip

2009-04-04T13:56:00.013+04:00

In an April 3rd op-ed in the NY Times, former Georgian foreign minster Salome Zourabichvili shreds Saakashvili and his government and calls for a “fresh start.” Taking her grievances at face value Saakashvili looks like a despot, which he may or may not be, depending on your point of view. But there are a few things people should understand.The pre-Saakashvili government was a failed state and

Georgian - Russian Rugby Diary: Pt. 2 The Match

2009-03-30T09:48:00.005+04:00

var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));try {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-8124957-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}The Georgian national team had been psyching themselves up for days. Two days

Georgian rugby photo essay by Sophia Mizante

2009-03-28T11:26:00.005+04:00

var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-8124957-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview();My pal Sophia has a great essay.

Georgian - Russian Rugby Diary: Pt. 1 Welcome to Mariupol

2009-03-25T11:26:00.017+04:00

var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-8124957-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview();(image lifted from www.ukrlady.com)The plane touched down on the rutty tarmac of Mariupol domestic

WOULD YOU BUY A USED CAR FROM THIS MAN?

2009-03-20T17:52:00.011+04:00

var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-8124957-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); (image lifted from 4rights.blogspot.com)As opposition members scramble to define exactly what

Zhvania said:

2009-03-17T13:09:00.011+04:00

From a Zurab Zhvania lecture, 2002-2003.."Several weeks ago, during my visit to the US, I discussed Georgian problems with Mr Brzezinski, a friend of long standing. His comment was telling in many ways:"“Compared to other east European counties, your main problem is your unbelievable inability to compromise with each other, your inconceivable fragmentation. You prefer to waste your time scheming

Unification: Abkhazia and South Ossetia

2009-03-06T11:39:00.002+04:00

Justyna sent me a link to a very good slide show by Russian photographer Valery Nistratov. Please take the time to check it out - he understands the tragedy deeply.

Georgia's Eurovison Entry: A Real Winner

2009-02-20T12:51:00.009+04:00

"A disco approach to conflict resolution." That's what Misha Saakashvili told Matthew Collin of the BBC while shaking his booty to the the playback of "Sunny" performed by an incarnation of Boney M in the South Ossetian village of Tamarasheni in the autumn of 2007.Tamarasheni no longer exists since South Ossetian marauders burnt it to the ground during August's war, but Georgia hasn't given up on

Georgia's Iron Lady Nino Burjanadze: Nie Ryba, Nie Miaso

2009-02-19T15:50:00.008+04:00

var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-8124957-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview();(image lifted from www.medianews.ge)Former Speaker of Parliament of Georgia, Nino Burjanadze is

Congratulations to Justyna Mielnikiewicz!

2009-02-13T16:41:00.006+04:00

var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-8124957-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview();Justyna Mielnikiewicz for The New York TimesJustyna just won 2nd prize in "People in the News Stories

Georgians Capture Russian Soldier and Force Him to Eat a Big Mac

2009-01-28T11:25:00.007+04:00

var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-8124957-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview();Alexander Glukhov, in captivity. (image snatched from Reuters)It's a case of they said we said.

Russian Allegations against Georgia of Genocide and Other War Crimes

2009-01-26T10:17:00.009+04:00

var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-8124957-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview();My last time in Abkhazia, everybody talked about the 2000 civilians the Georgians murdered and the

Bakuriani, if you dare

2009-01-11T15:32:00.009+04:00

(lifted off www.travelclub.ge)Two years ago I had vowed never to return to Bakuriani in winter, but then I never imagined somebody would someday pay me to go. What is more, they would put me up in a room in the newly built Hotel Tbilisi and feed me three times a day. All I'd have to do is play 2 ½ sets of music every night for a week during the post New Year holidays.Bakuriani is a resort town

The Georgian Holidays

2008-12-30T22:19:00.009+04:00

(Pirosmani)Barbaroba, or St. Barbara's Day, which falls on December 4th, may or may not mark the beginning of the holiday season. If it does, it's because it is the first feast of the month. You see, Georgians exploit any possible opportunity to indulge in the joie de vivre of eating and drinking big, and as New Year's Eve approaches, the intensity of satiation increases. While a family may

The Georgian Army

2008-12-18T09:40:00.009+04:00

Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili inherited a non-army when he came to power in 2004. Ranks were sold, soldiers were underfed,under-equipped and under-trained."In my two years of duty (1995-97)I fired my gun twice. We had no bullets," my friend Beso says. "For two years, all we did was march." On a salary of about 3 dollars a month, Beso was expected to buy his own uniform.When Saakashvili

THE FILM FEST FOLLIES (or "why my jacket got ripped")

2008-12-10T14:25:00.010+04:00

The 9th annual Tbilisi International Film Festival kicked off with a bang this year, and I mean “kicked” in the very literal sense.Last week I went to see the new Bond flick, in English. Sometimes a Sunday night with a bucket of popcorn at the cinema is the perfect remedy for any ailment – all the more so if the film happens to be mindless, plotless garbage. Or in other words, in Tbilisi we take

SHOWBIZ

2008-12-09T15:11:00.004+04:00

He was wearing a tie as classy as his pointy shoes. It was too dark to see the dandruff on his shoulders but I did notice he had a blotchy dermatological condition. His name was Gari and he was just another manager of yet an another exclusive Tbilisi nightclub.Gari was not jacked up on crank, he just talked like he was. We showed up at 7 for a sound check and waited an hour for the sound man to

Me and the 800 lb Gorilla

2008-11-22T17:42:00.020+04:00

var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-8124957-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview();About the time the August war with Russia had made the back pages of the papers and all the world's

FOX NEWS and the war

2008-11-13T18:34:00.005+04:00

var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-8124957-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview();Leave it to Fox News to get it WRONG.After Russians moved into Gori and blocked off the "Sukhumi

Circassian girls

2008-10-31T23:11:00.006+04:00

Funny what you come across searching for the history of North Caucasus religion..."Circassian beauties, or "Moss-haired Girls" as they were sometimes known, reflect a curious legacy of racial stereotyping and sexual titillation. Racial theories of the mid 19th century held that the people living in the Circassian mountains near the Black Sea were examples of the “purest stock” of the Caucasian

ANZOR FREED

2008-10-27T18:03:00.003+04:00

Anzor Sharmaidze, the guy collared for killing CIA operative Freddie Woodruff 15 years ago, has been freed. This comes a little more than a week after Andrew Higgins' WSJ story on the closed case.Read his followup piece HERE.

McCain wins the other Georgia

2008-10-22T09:37:00.008+04:00

(image lifted from http://forums.military.com)It's totally understandable really. In a country with a street named after George W Bush, you can't really expect it to pull for a democrat. You can also look at it another way.In 1997 Georgia received a measly $700,000 from the largest U.S. military aid program, Foreign Military Financing (FMF). Although the number rapidly increased to a respectable