EU Tables Decision on Visa-Liberalization for Georgia
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facebook.com/ georgiatoday Issue no: 849 • JUNE 3 - 6, 2016 • PUBLISHED TWICE WEEKLY PRICE: GEL 2.50 In this week’s issue... NATO on Georgia’s Mind, Before Warsaw Summit POLITICS PAGE 4 The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep POLITICS PAGE 5 CBRN Science and Consequence Management World Congress Opens in Tbilisi FOCUS BUSINESS PAGE 7 ON A NEW AGE OF EMPIRES Igor Girkin, a former commander and CoE: Georgia self-declared defense minister of Ukraine’s Failing to separatist Donetsk People’s Republic, has offi cially announced the creation of an Control ultra-nationalist political party PAGE 3 Illegal Internet Content EU Tables Decision on Visa-Liberalization for Georgia SOCIETY PAGE 9 BY NICHOLAS WALLER Explore the Humble Talent Who Respects Mistakes in Art he European Union on Wednesday delayed a decision on CULTURE PAGE 12 implementing its visa liberalization regime Tfor Georgia until the bloc receives Robbie Williams Entertains additional guarantees from Tbilisi regarding migration issues, EU del- Tbilisi egation sources told journalists. CULTURE PAGE 15 According to the Reuters news agency, EU envoys in Brussels dis- cussed the deal with the Georgian delegation but were unable to come FIFA or not to an agreement as key members FIFA, that is the Germany and France opposed an immediate implementation of the Question program. Continued on page 2 SPORTS PAGE 15 GEORGIA TODAY 10 SOCIETY JUNE 3 - 6, 2016 Pride is All Very Well, but a Sausage is a Sausage: Ogden on Tolerance Source: www.comfortablyhungry.com might become irate if a gay man was bothering me OP-ED BY TIM OGDEN the way Turkish men bother my wife on Facebook, or if people were keeping meat away from me, but what people do in their personal lives should be henever Georgia makes the up to them, and if they want to have a rally celebrat- international news and people ing whatever it is they do, well...good luck and have ask me why I live in Georgia, I fun, chaps, but I’m off for a steak and a pint with know that my expression the wife. changes and I begin to look like Tolerance doesn’t mean endorsement or active WMichael Bay enduring an support, it just means interview about his latest putting up with things. awful fi lm; cringing, yet Georgians claim they defi ant. I assure them are tolerant, but as with that Georgia is a fi ne their understanding of place to live, really, concepts like victory, their despite what they may have defi nition of the term is some- heard...and what they have heard what different to ours. Providing things will universally have been something nega- aren’t on public display and done in private, tive. they are prepared to grudgingly put up with The fabled stories of Georgian hospitality them; however, if something too out of the and friendliness matter little and less when mainstream is too visible, a problem arises. the only thing that people associate with Geor- Fairly obvious conclusions, you’ll agree, but gia is an attack on a vegan cafe; likewise, the the government needs to crack down on all tales of the Georgian warrior spirit will raise this quickly. Georgia’s visa liberalization pros- eyebrows when so many Georgians turned up to pects are already on the rocks due to EU migra- violently assault the anti-homophobia rally a few tion fears, but incidents like this are not going to years ago. help. The stereotypical perception of Eastern (One thing that Georgian men don’t seem to Europeans in the West is far from positive, and understand is that being Georgian doesn’t neces- it’s surprising how often stereotypes fi nd their sarily make them tough. I’m prepared to believe it way into infl uencing higher authority. about Georgian boxers, rugby players and soldiers, The fallout from the attack on the vegan cafe is but not about hordes of young men who are only just as concerning as the act itself. Residents of the brave when they are many and their targets are neighbourhood rallied behind the aggressors - they few and unlikely to put up much of a fi ght; as much being ‘normal’ Georgians – but worse yet, so seem- as I support the rights of vegans and gay people, ingly did the police. I recall mentioning in an ear- they’re not groups one associates with fi ghting lier article my high opinion of the police in this prowess: try attacking a group of Royal Marines country, but my perception has been damaged by or the Cuban boxing team, why don’t you?) this and another recent incident in which two I’m not disturbed by violence in itself; as I men- friends of mine – an Englishman and an American tioned in these pages a few weeks ago, England is – were confronted by a knife-wielding Georgian. far worse for street fi ghts than Georgia (or any- The police were called, but on arrival they didn’t where else, for that matter). A brawl and a stabbing seem to care too much about the fate of two for- are par for the course for the UK these days, and eigners, with one telling my American friend ‘This it’s accepted as being normal; however, acts of vio- is Georgia’. I’m not sure if he was just trying to do lence like the attack on the vegan cafe or on the a Gerard Butler impression from ‘300’ or if he was anti-homophobia rally are frightening because they sincere, nor am I sure which of those is the most are far from mindless. worrying. I personally have little understanding of vegans. As ever, the horizon of my word limit has loomed. Beef, eggs and bacon are far too good to be neglected, I shall fi nish my thoughts next week and deal with and after all, we only live once, so the vegan life- whatever else comes to light over this incident. In style is something I believe I am biologically inca- the meantime, friends, stay tolerant. And I never, pable of attempting. The truth is, I don’t particular ever imagined I’d say that. care what they do providing it doesn’t affect me. I Headline quote by Terry Pratchett. Author of World’s Best-Selling Book on Georgia in Conversation at Prospero’s uthor of Lonely Planet’s ‘GEORGIA, ARMENIA and AZERBAIJAN’, John Noble, will be in conversation with Peter Nasmyth (author of ‘Walking in the Caucasus, Georgia’) at Pros- Apero’s Books to celebrate his new edition, published May 2016. The Lonely Planet series of country guides are the most widely read in the world and the Georgia edition is Prospero’s Books best-selling book. Just about every tourist visiting to Georgia will either have their own copy or have consulted one. John Noble, who has written guides to a number of other countries for Lonely Planet, says that Georgia is his favourite country to describe and recommend. The book sells most of its copies in international bookshops around the globe and is often the only available printed information on the country. We are lucky that he has chosen to make a special trip to Tbilisi to launch his latest book. This event will be of interest to anyone interested in Georgia’s future as a tourist destination. It is free and open to all. 6.30pm Monday 6th June, 2016 Prospero’s Bookshop, 34 Rustaveli Avenue, Tbilisi Contact: [email protected]. Phone (995 32) 292395 GEORGIA TODAY JUNE 3 - 6, 2016 SOCIETY 11 A Tale of Two Tonys BY TONY HANMER e meet at last. The author of the great Bread and Ashes and the long-serving weekly GT column- ist who has made Georgia his home country of greatest dura- Wtion. He brings a small group of fellow Brits and a Georgian guide to Hanmer house for a night, dur- ing the course of which I am able to interview him. Tony Anderson fi rst came to this country in 1989, so, two years before I arrived in the USSR. He has made roughly twelve visits here, so obviously the place has made a lasting impression and continues to draw him back. His wife, the well-known painter Lucy Willis, is currently showing an exhibition in the UK including some works from her only trip here with him. Mr Anderson’s longest trip here was the one which resulted in his writing Bread and Ashes, in 1996. It took him primarily through Svaneti, Racha, Khevsureti and Kazbegi, and involved getting mugged in Svaneti (where else, in those years?) and losing all his money to the thieves. T’was also the time when the entire Svaneti road was desper- ately bad, all the way up from Zugdidi, even in Mestia town itself. Fond memories for us both! as possible. At the moment he is at the fundraising He was also connected with a theater group in stage, and I wish him much success, with a vested the UK, and arranged an exchange with the Rustaveli interest, it must be said. Such fi nds as this book are Georgian theater company before Gamsakhurdia’s a rare delight. election, the huge crowds on Rustaveli Avenue Another project of Tony’s, when he isn’t accom- inspiring him to make the Bread and Ashes walk panying tourists here on special custom tours, is “to understand it all”. Georgia became one of his the compiling and editing of a book on British life’s main themes, and he has also been a director travellers to the UK from the Middle Ages to the of the British-Georgian Society and run FOARIG, present.