Blogs
Time for USAID to Open Up
Time for USAID to Open Up
28 March, 2013
USAID is a part of the US government that gives out money in poor and mid-income countries around the world. In Georgia, it just granted a Washington (or actually Bethesda) based company a million dollars a year to evaluate Georgia's USAID projects over the next five years. This seems crazy to me. Leaving aside better ways to do this, there are plenty of companies in Georgia who could do this job. Wouldn't a firm based in Georgia be better able to evaluate the effectiveness of these programs than a group of former senior USAID managers based along the Beltway in Washington? These evaluations are secret, or at least very well hidden. In fact USAID is less transparent than most parts of the Government of Georgia. A more open conversation would be a good thing for Georgia and for USAID.
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Politicized Funds
Politicized Funds
28 March, 2013
Today we have a sea of registered non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Georgia. Yet, the reader will agree that actually, only the slim percentage is functioning. Few NGOs, which depend on foundations and business circles, have managed to find respective niches and perpetual funding from various donors. It goes for years. I won’t continue.
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Cyber Espionage
Cyber Espionage
28 March, 2013
Advanced malicious software can collect sensitive, confidential information about security and national defense centers in any country of the world and then uploading it to some of command and control servers.
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The Problem With the Civil Service
The Problem With the Civil Service
21 March, 2013
I remember Shevardnadze's time when there were two types of civil servants. The first were ones whose position allowed them to make some money, they usually purchased their positions. They were the ones who needed to make decisions that could some how affect people's lives. For example the anti-monopoly commission would make money by not investigating monopolies. Tax inspectors would make money by not investigating tax fraud, traffic police would make money by....well, asking for it. And people in the passport offices would make money by deciding to move a little faster than they would if they weren't given any money. The rest of the civil servants would work or not, show up or not, some had died years ago but still got paid.
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Society, Politics and Bicycle
Society, Politics and Bicycle
21 March, 2013
When the matter concerns a law or its adoption, politics is always involved. I was told these words a few days ago in the tete-a-tete meeting by one of the esteemed ambassadors accredited in Georgia. I cannot help but agree with these words. Any legislative act is adopted by the country’s parliament and the process necessarily involves going through a political mincing machine. Yet, I think there is one “but” there.
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Li-ion Heart
Li-ion Heart
21 March, 2013
What Are the Differences Between Cell Phone Batteries? Cell phone batteries drain power based on how much you use the device and which features you have enabled. OEM, or original equipment manufacturer, batteries differ from non-OEM batteries mainly Chinese .
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Consensus, Discussion and Trust
Consensus, Discussion and Trust
14 March, 2013
I am in Sweden now and the concept of consensus is so deeply imbedded in society here, it is easy to see in simple day to day life. Politically many votes in parliament, perhaps most tend to be symbolic because disagreement tends to be worked out before the fact. There is a general tendency for two or more sides to smooth over their differences and move towards a compromise policy.
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Privacy of correspondence, hack-zone and the public Internet
Privacy of correspondence, hack-zone and the public Internet
14 March, 2013
Let’s stop putting the kibosh on e-mail public Internet providers and search engines. While working from home, I immediately thought: Oh, I can see it now. Somebody jumped on the inbox and hacked all private and confidential information.
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Pirates and Platforms
Pirates and Platforms
07 March, 2013
For the last few decades the traditional right left spectrum has less and less meaning in world politics. And yet the worlds newest political movement has not yet made it to Georgia.
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Blessed will be the Righteous...
Blessed will be the Righteous...
07 March, 2013
AS Percy Bysshe Shelley, major English Romantic poet and political activist has noted, the most pernicious mistake ever made in the world is the segregation of political science from morality.
This seems to be the underlying intent of Mr. Bidzina Ivanishvili in his new political venture and something that he clearly applied throughout life in his business and personal matters. An individual is defined not only by what he does, but how he does it.
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GJ Editor's comment
Funny Habits
01 August, 2013
Last week, I started giving these hints and tips to my foreign friends and the tourists and my compatriots too because I don’t want them to be overly surprised and embarrassed when they inevitably come across those habits of ours while they have to do with this culture (look for the first 10 tips in previous issue):
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2015 Lamborghini Ganador Future Concept Design
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Georgian Dream puts Democracy at risk - Vice-President of European People’s Party
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Akaki Asatiani evicted from his own house
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Caught on camera: apparent police brutality
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Obamas show off new pet Sunny
US President Barack Obama and his family have acquired a second Portuguese water dog, Sunny.
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