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):
25 July, 2013
This one is a kiss-off piece of mine for the time being, but it will be continued in the next issue of GJ. Not enough room in one article! I would love to remind those who are from various foreign countries, either visiting or working in Georgia in certain missions or browsing the Internet in pursuit of some information about Georgia, that we Georgians have many funny habits which they need to take into consideration while they have to do with this nation. Some of those habits are so nasty that I am starting hating myself when I imagine them being part of my manners and character. By the way, these tongue-in-cheek, but seriously intended hints and tips need to be heeded by my wonderful compatriots too. So, heads up, my friends!
18 July, 2013
Main direction of contemporary man’s thought and the most optimal model of modern human behavior would probably be compatible with our shared and mutual happiness in a small place like our good old earth, but we do not exactly know what that shared and mutual happiness could mean in actuality. By the most educated presumption, human happiness might have more components and prerequisites than we can possibly imagine, but some of those ingredients are clearly salient – good health, freedom, independence, strong chance of survival, elevated standard of living, peace, longevity, rich and happy household, the self-expression opportunity, talent put into practice, ability to travel and see the world, power of positive influence on the surrounding reality, etc. How about membership of a nation in NATO and the European Union? Could that serve as a reason for human happiness of an average national?
11 July, 2013
If wrong is done, it should be punished because justice is justice is justice. As Teddy Roosevelt had once put it, ‘no man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man’s permission when we ask him to obey it’. I wish these golden words were true in Georgia. The secret of our future success and prosperity might very well be buried in the depths of this simple but eternal wisdom. You see, Americans have achieved the inculcation of this irrefutable truth in their society’s everyday life. To a considerable extent, though! Why can’t we do the same thing in this country? The answer to this question might need volumes to be fully written up. Alas, the political and juridical tradition in Georgia does not allow the chance.
27 June, 2013
Georgia is presently caught between hammer and anvil. Hammer would be the doubting West (Europe & America) and anvil is the long-cherished truth, pursued by this Nation. Hopefully, the space between them is narrowing – at a nerve-wracking measured pace though. The recent change of hands in government, as painful as it usually is here, has triggered the whole series of arrests in the country, which as a matter of fact is nothing unexpected or unusual either. And the history as well as the modern world abounds with analogies of the sort. The previous Georgian government which was nursed, matured and made active in compliance with lofty Western ideals was certainly perceived by the world as a ‘beacon of democracy’.
20 June, 2013
They say that Georgia’s capital city Tbilisi is an elegant conurbation. Would it not be fairer to say as much as it only having a chance to be elegant? Ancient town with beautiful landscape, fairy-tale-kind-of looks by night, river flowing right through it, hills around, and all that sort of thing... but behold - what weird eclecticism in style! Tbilisi is nothing terribly outstanding, speaking architecturally – a couple of attractive avenues aligned with more or less eye-catching and curious buildings with a history of no more than a couple of hundred years, several older shrines of various denominations and mostly, the soviet-type residential buildings, strewn around in the ugliest possible way all over the place.
13 June, 2013
Wars never end! Nothing is helping – previous experience, current deterrents, future catastrophes – nothing! In the modern era of nanotechnologies, quantum mechanics, universal cellular communication and internet unification man remains the same bloodthirsty warmonger it has always been. Instruments change – attitudes don’t! We go to wars even if we think that this might be stupid, even if we know in advance that the result could be deplorably futile, even if we are sure that the sacrifice will not be worth it. Georgia has its troops in international anti-terrorist missions, which means that Georgia is at war somewhere with somebody.
06 June, 2013
I could not believe my years and eyes, sitting in front of my TV and watching one of the local political shows on Channel Two, during which my favorite political observer, analyst and commentator Ramaz Sakvarelidze — a certified psychologist into the bargain — unabashedly and pronouncedly stated that the Georgian government has long been suffering from an utter absence of intellect. Wow! I have never heard before such a precise description of our governing style. The author of this daring but fairly balanced description has definitely hit the bull’s eye! The description deserves our attention because it sounds true and was presented to our public with a huge pain in the heart – I noticed that pain in his manner of speaking and the doleful expression in his eyes.
30 May, 2013
We the Georgians love venting our political feelings in the street. A street-oriented political life is what makes us feel alive and kicking. Street has its unequaled charm and magic, and power too, used when political concerns and pains have to be gotten off our aching chests. As a matter of fact, we as a nation are politically more natural in the open air than indoors. We are suffocating inside an edifice even if its air is conditioned. We breathe better in the street – the political oxygen is better felt and taken in there. Streets make us feel more liberated where democracy seems healthier and more feasible. Streets are free from governmental duress, cultural conscience, social restrictions, economic plight, political inequity and intellectual responsibility.
23 May, 2013
We are used to handling minor social rifts as well as major political chasms in Georgia, but this does not mean that we are handling them right.
16 May, 2013
Using the word ‘abortion’ has always been considered an indecorous turn of the tongue in this culture: good moms and dads would feel uncomfortable, for instance, if their well-bread kids used this ‘impolite’ word publicly; a prim and prudish teacher would tell off a certain loutish student provided the word was used freely when at school; a lady of self-respect would goggle her eyes in indignation at an uncouth admirer if the unfortunate guy blurted out that ‘swearword’ incidentally. Why? Was there something so terribly unpleasant about the word? Could be, but no longer is this the case in Georgia! This recent Easter, Georgia started not only using the word publicly and unreservedly, but has embarked on discussing the abortion extensively.
09 May, 2013
Lado Gudiashvili is the 20th century eminent Georgian painter. He is this Nation’s pride and wealth, whose outstanding legacy is lovingly praised by the entire contemporary Georgia and treasured in our hearts and minds forever.
02 May, 2013
All my friends and relatives know that McDonald’s is not my favorite place to have my appetite quenched at because fast food in general is not what I would die for.
25 April, 2013
Level of education as such, including its content and quality, always leaves a lot to desire whenever and wherever in the world this education is taking place. Education is never enough and it is never satisfactory, never completely up to the point and never fully compatible with the requirements of time.
18 April, 2013
Most of the tools for making money have already been invented by man. Probably! Well, some of these tools come and go, but some are so strong and proven that they persistently stay in place almost for good. Cooperatives make exactly this kind of an instrument for generating income. Using the now obsolescent Soviet type of vocabulary, it was called CEKAVSHIRI in the Georgian language, meaning Central Union of Consumer Cooperatives.
I like it when things look and sound funny because the things which look and sound funny entertain me greatly. The other day, one of my routine errands to run real quick was purchasing a couple of kitchen utensils which would take care of my cat’s gastro-intestinal well-being. I could have bought the desired gear somewhere in town, but I had decided in favor of shopping out of town, just for a change – who knows what other useful trinkets I could come across while shopping in a big place like the Lilo Mall, a couple of kilometers away to the East form the Tbilisi International Airport.
