American Studies Periodical

International Black Sea University

Faculty of Humanities Direction of American Studies

2nd Edition

American Studies International Research Conference Materials

Tbilisi

2009

Chief Editor: Prof. Dr. Tamar Shioshvili, The Dean of the Faculty of Humanities International Black Sea University

Computer and Editorial Assistance: Tamar Karazanishvili, M.A., Secretary of the Faculty of Humanities International Black Sea University

SECTION I: Education and Social Issues

TAMAR SHIOSHVILI

The Black Presence in American Life Today ...... 6

IRINA BAKHTADZE

Changing Higher Education in the Twenty-first Century – A Culture of Change ...... 12

IRMA MESIRIDZE

The Scope of Multicultural Education ...... 15

TAMAR KARAZANISHVILI

Funding American Higher Education: University Policies and Student Aid Programs ...... 20

BETUL AYSE SAYIN

Voice of America: American English ...... 25

LELA ABDUSHELISHVILI

Adult Education: Do Trends in the America Foreshadow Trends in Georgia ...... 29

VALERI MODEBADZE

The Importance of the Formation of a Common Civil Identity for a Polyethnic State ...... 33

NINO CHACHANIDZE

Making a Research (American Experience) ...... 39

NINO FARIZOVA

Echo of the Invisible World – Endangered Native American Languages ...... 43

SECTION II: United States – Georgia

ELENE MEDZMARIASHVILI

Peculiarities of Waves of Georgian Emigration to the North America ...... 50

NINO IAKOBISHVILI

The Most Democratic Country’s Undemocratic Exercise – Death Penalty in the U.S...... 58 3

IRMA GRDZELIDZE, NINO PKHAKADZE

Gender and Language Variations (English and Georgian Languages) ...... 63

SOPHIO KHIDASHELI

Influence of the American Pop Culture on Georgia ...... 65

TEONA LAVRELASHVILI

The Evolution of USA Security Policy and Contemporary Challenges ...... 69

SECTION III: History, Art, Economics

EDWARD R. RAUPP

The Coming Collapse of the US Dollar ...... 75

TAMAR KEINASHVILI

Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy: Two Very Different Times, But Two Very Similar Men …………………………………...80

TATIANA PAPIASHVILI

Global Financial Crisis in Georgia and in … Georgia ...... 83

DADUNA KHUTSISHVILI

The Bush Doctrine and the Relationship between Reagan’s Foreign Policies ...... 88

NICHOLAS MAKHARASHVILI

Strategic Management in PR Practice ...... 94

DAVID APTSIAURI

An Impact of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2009 on the US Economy

(Some Basic Trends, Statistical Facts and Observations) ...... 101

GEORGE SHADURI

The Structure of American Blues ...... 107

NINO GAMSAKHURDIA

Martin Luther King as a Milestone in the American History ...... 111

NINO ESITASHVILI

PR Technologies and US Presidents ...... 114 4

KHATIA CHELIDZE

Jazz Age ...... 119

SECTION IV: Literature and Women’s Issues

TAMAR KOBESHAVIDZE

The Problem of Communication of the Reader and the Author in

Pyhchon’s Novel “The Crying of Lot 49” ...... 123

TAMAR CHEISHVILI

Recyclopedia: Harryette Mullen’s Award Winning Poetry Collection ...... 129

TAMTA TSKITISHVILI

Women’s Role Increase in the US in the 20th Century ...... 133

BAIA KOGHUASHVILI

American Romantic Essay ...... 140

SECTION I: Education and Social Issues

The Black Presence in American Life Today

TAMAR SHIOSHVILI*

America has permanently fixed attention on its lingering racial crisis. According Prof. Orlando Patterson1, “What is strange, however, is that, in the current ‘90s rhetoric of race, the pain exceeds the gain.” About two decades ago conservative view among blacks at practically all points in political range was, that relations between races were disruptive, be it the left, concentrating on the political neglect of the destroyed ghettoes, or the right, disapproving the abuses of affirmative action and unsuccessful government policies. According Prof. Orlando Patterson, both subjectively and by certain objective standards 1990s were among the best and worst of times, at least since the ending of Jim Crow laws for the African American population. American scholars of 1990s were considering it, paradoxical, that it was precisely the considerable success of America’s experiment in integration that made it almost impossible for a black Americans to recognize what they had achieved2. This lack of gratitude, in turn fueled white resentment.

On the one hand, there is no denying of the fact, that in absolute terms, African Americans, on average, are better off now than at any other time in their history3. The civil rights movement effectively abolished the culture of post-juridical slavery, which reinforced by racism and legalized segregation, had denied black people the basic rights of citizenship in the land of their birth. They are now very much a part of the nation’s political life, occupying positions in numbers, and importance that go well beyond mere ethnic representation or symbolic gestures rather than the effective action. Quite apart from the thousands of local and appointed offices around the country (including majorships of some of the nation’s largest cities), blacks have occupied positions of major national importance in what is now the dominant power in the world – as governors, senators and powerful members of Congress chairing major congressional committees, and as appointed officials filling some of the most important offices in the nation, including that the head of the most powerful military machine on earth, Colin Powell phenomenon that is phenomenal.

* Prof. Dr., Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 6

SECTION I: Education and Social Issues

The author of the article Prof. Dr. Tamar Shioshvili as a Fulbright scholar meeting Colin Powell in Washington D.C., 2004, Department of the state.

For the first time, a black man was seriously considered for the nation’s highest office, with this strongest support coming from people with conservative vies on race. It would be ridiculous to dismiss these developments as purely symbolic. What they demonstrate, beyond a doubt, is that black is no longer a significant obstacle to participation in the public life of the nation. What is more, blacks have also become full members of what may be called the nation’s moral community in cultural life. They are no longer in the basement of moral discourse in American life, as was the case up to about fifty or sixty years ago. Until then blacks were “invisible” men “in the nation’s consciousness, a truly debased ex-slave people. America was assumed to be a white country. The public media, the literary and artistic community, the great national debates about major issues, even those concerning poverty, simply excluded blacks from consideration. No longer. The amount of the achievement of the last fifty years in American race relations can not be overstated. The black presence in American life and thought today is seriously penetrated. A mere 13 percent of the population, they dominate the nation’s popular culture: its music, its dance, its talk, its sports, its youth’s fashion; and they are a powerful force in its popular and elite literatures. A black music, jazz, is the nation’s classical voice, defining its civilizational style. So powerful and unavoidable is the black popular influence that it is now not uncommon to find persons who, while remaining racists in personal relations and attitudes, still have surrendered their tastes, and their viewing and listening habits to black entertainers, talk- show hosts and sit-com stars. The typical Oprah Winfrey viewer is a conservative white lower- middle-class housewife; the typical rap fan, an upper-middle-class white suburban youth. The cultural influence of so small and disadvantaged minority on the wider society that has so severely abused it, finds few parallels in the history of civilization. Closely related to the achievement of full political and cultural citizenship has been another great success of the post-war years: the desegregation of the military between 1948 and 1965. The extraordinary progress made in eliminating all formal discrimination; and a good deal of informal prejudice in promotions, has made the military, especially, the Army, a model of successful race relations for the civilian community. With more than 30 percent of Army recruits and 10 percent of its officer corps black, the Army, stands out in American society as the only arena in which blacks routinely exercise authority over whites. Most of these developments were helped along by another evolution in black life; the rapid growth in school enrollment and achievement at all levels. In 1991 the proportion of blacks aged 25 to 34 completing high school almost caught up with whites: 84 percent compared to 87 percent.

SECTION I: Education and Social Issues

The record is far more mixed, and troubling, in the case of higher education. After rapid growth in college completion during the ‘70s, the numbers full of considerably during the ‘80s, especially for black men. The long term effect has been that, while the proportion of blacks competing college gas grown from 2 percent in 1940 to almost 12.8 percent in 1994, this is only about half the white completion rate of almost 25 percent. African Americans, from a condition of mass illiteracy fifty years ago, are now among the most educated persons in the world, with median years of schooling and college completion rates higher than those of most Western Europeans. One might find this statement a shocking exaggeration. It is not. It only sounds like an overstatement when considered in light of the persistent insistence of the community that the miseducation of Black Americans is the major source of their present dilemmas. The rise of a genuine black middle class over the past quarter of a century is another cause for celebration, although no group of persons is less likely to celebrate it than the black establishment itself. The term: “black middle class” once referred to those black persons who happened to be at the top of the bottom ring: Pullman posters; head waiters, successful barbers, small-time funeral parlor owners and the like. Today the term “black middle class” means the segment of the nation’s middle class which happens to be black, and it is no longer dependent on a segregated economy. These are without doubt the best of times for middle-class African- Americans, who own more businesses and control a greater share of the national wealth than at any other period. At the most conservative estimate, they are between a quarter and a third of the black population, which means between 8 and 10 million persons. It is a mistake to overemphasize their shaky economic base, as is routinely done. Almost all new middle classes in the history of capitalism have had risky economic starts. The important thing to note is that the confidence, educational resources and, most of all cultural capital to find a more secure place in the nation’s economy. As mentioned above, ‘90s were among the worst of times since the ending of Jim Crow laws for the African-American population. According to the news statistics the lowest third of the African American population – some 10 million persons live in direct poverty, while the lowest 10 percent – the so-called underclass – in a progressed stage of social, economic and moral disintegration. Thirty-one percent of all black families, including around a third of all African-Americans, live in poverty. In 1994, 46 percent of all black children lived in poverty, about three times that of white children4. Their parents and other adult caretakers underwent depression – level unemployment. The general unemployment rate for blacks was 14 percent, more than twice that of whites (6 percent). The other hard aspect if the dilemma is the growing of children born to female children with little or no social or economic support from biological fathers. The resulting abusive mal-socialization of children by mothers who were themselves abused and mal-socialized is at the heart of the social and moral chaos in what is called the underclass. The situation is one of complete social anarchy and moral nihilism, reflected in the casual devaluation of human life. Kids and young adults kill for sneakers, leather jackets, cheap jewelry and drugs; worse, they kill for no other reason than having been discouraged by a wrong look or misstatement. Linked to this a moral pathologies: the high drop-out rate in high schools, the epidemic of drugs and crime resulting in a very high imprisonment rate. However, the condition of the bottom third should not obscure the extraordinary achievements of the upper to thirds of the black population or the progress made in race relations over the past fifty years. However, many black leaders’ disregard these hard-work achievements.

SECTION I: Education and Social Issues

This strange tendency to more loudly complain about troubles of blacks, the better it gets, can be understood as a paradox of desegregation. When black and whites were segregated from each other there was little opportunity for conflict. The two groups lived in largely separated worlds, and when they did come in contact their interactions were structured by the derogatory etiquette of racial relations. The system may have worked well in minimizing conflict, as long as both groups played by the rules, but it was a disruptive arrangement for blacks since it condemned them to inferior status and excluded them from participation in the political life of their society and from nearly all the more desirable opportunities for economic advancement. Desegregation meant partial meant partial access to the far superior facilities and opportunities open previously only to whites. Hence, it entailed great improvement in the condition and dignity of lacks. All this should be terrible obvious, but it must be mentioned; that according scholars it is precisely this obvious improvement that is so often implicitly denied when we acknowledge the inevitable consequences of desegregation, namely that as individuals conflict is bound to increase. Whites outnumber blacks eight to one, and this simple demographic fact has enormous social significance often unnoticed by whites. However, numerous polls have shown tremendous change in white attitudes towards blacks over the last forty years. For example, the number of whites who hold racist beliefs, measured by unfavorable attitudes toward misagenation, integrated housing and job equality, has declined from a majority in the ‘50s to a quarter of the total population today. For whites this is real progress, but even with only a quarter of all whites holding racist beliefs, it remains the case that for every black person there are two white racists. There is another noteworthy point, the vast majority of blacks will rarely come in contact with 75 percent of whites, who are tolerant, for simple socioeconomic reasons5. More educated, more prosperous and more suburban, the tolerant three-quarters tend to live exactly where blacks are least likely to be found in the expensive suburbs. On the other hand, it is the least educated and most prejudiced whites who tend to be in closest proximity to blacks. Furthermore, the behavior of the tolerant three quarters of this, and their attempts to improve the condition of blacks, tends to intensify racist feelings among the whites most likely to come in contact with blacks. Of special concern is the behavior of law-enforcement agencies. The typical big-city police officer is the white person with whom the typical lower and working class black person mostly comes in contact outside the workplace. Unfortunately, white police officers tend to come from precisely the working-class urban communities most likely to be hostile to blacks. At the same time, their profession brings them into contact with the most lawless members of the black community, continuously reinforcing their prejudices. The result is that the typical white police officer holds all blacks in suspicion and treats them in a manner that constantly threatens their dignity. Middle-class status makes some difference, but only in well-defined social situations. It can sometimes even be a disadvantage. In unprotected contexts – driving on the highway, visiting a white suburban friend, or caught in some minor traffic or other violation – they are likely to find themselves specially targeted by white police officers and detectives. What exists, then, is a serious mismatch in racial perception of change. Most middle-class whites feel, correctly that things have gotten much better not only in the objective socioeconomic condition of blacks but in their improved attitude. The typical black person perceives and experiences the situation as either having not changed or having gotten worse.

SECTION I: Education and Social Issues

The experience of Massachusetts is typical. Bu all objective criteria this is one of the most racially liberal areas of America. Not only was it the first state to elect a black U.S. senator, but its current two senators are among the most liberal and pro-black in the Senate. And, yet among blacks of all classes, the Boston area has the reputation of being one of the most racist parts of the country. Many African Americans, put off by its racist image, still refuse to move to the area. As for neighboring city of Boston, such as Cambridge (arguably one of the most racially liberal cities in the nation) black colleagues insist they would rather go back South than settle anywhere near Boston. To make matters worse, the hostile reaction of a small proportion of whites hurts a large proportion of blacks. A small but active number of whites can disproportionately influence the perception of all whites. A formerly oppressed group’s sense of outrage at what has been done to it, increases the more equal becomes with its former oppressors. In part, it is the result of having a greater voice- more literate and vocal leadership; more access to the media and so on. But it also comes from the formerly rejected group’s increased sense of dignity. The slave, the black person living under Jim Crow laws administered by vicious white police officers and prejudiced judges, were all obliged, for reasons of sheer survival, to accommodate somehow to the system. One form of accommodation was to expect and demand less from the racist oppressors. To do so was in no way to lessen one’s contempt, even hatred and loathing (abhorring), for them. Indeed, one’s diminished expectation may even have been a reflection of one’s contempt. It has often been observed that one of racism’s worst consequences is the denial of the black person’s humanity. What often goes unnoticed is the other side of this twisted coin: that it left most blacks persuaded that whites were less than human. Integration, however partially began to change all that. By dis-alienating the other, the members of each group came, however reluctantly, to accept each other’s humanness. Increasingly exposed to the conflicts that result from integration, whites may rebel against affirmative action and other programs that bring them face to face with black anger. But resegregation is neither plausible nor desirable. Instead, whites, who dominate America’s powerful institutions, must address the roots of black rage by committing to black America’s socioeconomic advancement. But, despite this imperative, according scholars of ‘90s, a painful truth emerges from the comparative sociology of group relations: except for those in which a minority constitutes the elite, the burden of racial and ethnic change always rests on a minority group. Although both whites and blacks have strong mutual interests in solving their racial problem, though the solution must eventually come from both, blacks must pay the major role in achieving this objective – not only because they have more to gain from it but also because whites have for less to lose from doing nothing. It is blacks who must take the initiative, suffer the greater pain, define and the offer the more creative solutions, persevere in the face of obstacles and paradoxical outcomes, insist that improvements are possible and maintain a climate of optimism concerning the eventual outcome. Or, to paraphrase Martin Luther King, it is they, and often they alone, who must keep the dream of a racially liberated America alive. And it happened, on January 20, 2009 Barack Obama took the presidential oath of office, becoming the 44th president and first African-American leader of the United States, that many see as a milestone in U.S. history.

SECTION I: Education and Social Issues

References:

1. Orlando Patterson, “The Paradox of Integration”, Culture, Communication and Conflict (Simon and Schuster Publishing, MA, U.S.A., 1998) : 96.

2. Roger D. Abrahams, Talking Back (Rowley, MA : Newbury, 1976) : 9

3. Roger D. Abrahams, “Positively Black” (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1970): 42.

4. Virginia H. Young, “Family and Childhood in a Southern Negro Community”, American Anthropologist 72, 1970: 269.

5. Thomas Kochman, “Black and White Styles in Conflict” (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981): 34-35.

SECTION I: Education and Social Issues

Changing Higher Education in the Twenty-first Century – A Culture of Change

IRINA BAKHTADZE*

America has been increasingly involved in the process of higher education change for the last hundred years. The transformation of the universities is a continuing process which started long time ago, its nature and culture has gone through substantial modifications and emerged in a new form in the beginning of the twenty-first century. How will it respond to ensure appropriate learning in a new epoch? The reforms in education are not merely an option; rather, they are almost always inevitable dictated by the developing society. The worldwide rush to enhance higher education is driven by different forces and different motives. The aims of the reforms are to ensure higher quality of education, raise accountability of the universities, cut education costs, and enhance teaching-learning process in order to meet the demands of labor market. Competitive advantage in the global economy is seen as dependent upon having a well-educated workforce. As technology, competition and social upheaval transform the world at the accelerating pace, so higher education is increasingly seen as crucial in producing an adequately educated population. Primary goal of the university change should be transforming of the learners so that they are able to take initiative, work with independence, cope with new realities, and at the same time, become the leaders in the rapidly changing world. What are the modern challenges of the twenty-first century education reforms? What has to be changed – the form or content, the mold or insight? Who should initiate the reforms – politicians, leaders, society, or government? What are modern strategies of change implementation? Should it be imposed from above or will it hail new, acting leaders from the grassroots and rely on partnership and mobilization? These and more questions are raised to find out the changing culture of the ongoing reforms. US government is committed to expanding further education in order to generate greater economic prosperity via a “learning society”. This interest was reflected among social scientists and educationalists. By the late 1990s there were claims that teachers, lecturers and educational administrators were suffering from innovation fatigue and that consolidation would have been preferred to get more radical change. Many teachers felt that there should be at least a temporary rest from educational change. There was an obvious call for a new culture of change. Education, being at the heart of the government, is for the benefit of the many, not the few. Though, surprisingly, equal opportunities are suppressed by hidden government policies favoring a diverse range of opportunities. The result of this policy is often an increasing range of different types of colleges producing outcome of rather controversial quality. Main target should be not the institutions or structures, but rather the standards of education which will embrace all interested parties – the government, society, and market. Globalization, technological advances, mobility of the society and rapidly changing society models have made the world more dynamic where the people feel less biased towards traditional culture and group-shared beliefs. The world is perceived as a kind of “laboratory” where different approaches are “tried out”. Public awareness towards the change has raised and it is becoming a necessary part of every day life. Alongside with the new mentality, the culture and the ecology of approaches have been also changed considerably. Contemporary theories and management models being offered by education specialists provide theoretical background for

* Prof. Dr., Faculty of Humanities, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 12

SECTION I: Education and Social Issues anticipated reforms. Hot debates in scientific journals, at conferences, institutions and classrooms are groundbreaking and directed towards smooth promotion of the new ideas. In the result, a new “wave of change” is not considered by overwhelming majority as “accidental” or “devastating” phenomenon. Rather, it is viewed as a positive action undertaken for the future improvement and personal success. This innovative psychological approach widely opens the door and leads the change to success. Human resources – teachers, lecturers, professors, administration and staff play key role in implementation process and it is their right to be well- informed concerning the future changes. We have just described a new pattern of relationship between the reform initiators and those who assume it, where the first is not viewed as aggressive force trying to promote innovations for some subjunctive, unjustified or particular political reasons, and the latter does not feel itself as a victim of another experiment. I would refer to the endless chain of the reforms in Georgia, carried out in school and higher education in the 1995-till present, when grassroots changes has occurred. All the changes were imposed from above - from the Ministry of Education of Georgia. They were supported neither by society nor by teachers and professors, and the reason to this was a lack of information. Discussions round the anticipated changes were not held, education specialists did not provide adequate theoretical background or proofs; new ideas were constantly being floated by the people who did not have to manage change on a daily basis; teachers’ qualification did not meet the demands of the changing reality and the government could not offer training or retraining opportunities to raise their awareness, or ensure adequate understanding of the needs of the reforms; policy of the reforms have been changed a few times, with each new minister. (There have been four ministers of education for the last seven years). We do not claim that the reforms carried out by Georgian government were not much- needed or timely, but the culture and ethical issues in the process were violated. When change is brought by the education leaders, college managers, teachers, and their faithful partners who are well-informed about the needs of the reforms, they put aside their fears, hesitations, prior beliefs and are ready to venture an established level of their power, leader’s positions, even prestige, in order to respond to the growing demand of a new world, to meet the needs of the students and the labor market. Change has become a part of new lifestyle for the new generation. The most intellectual part of the society, academic staff is more open to transformations. An external pressure exercised for a long period has given way to internally induced change. The academic staff is now more inclined to create change by themselves, and therefore, increases reform success. The leadership style has also changed considerably. The dictatorship in leadership is changing gradually and is substituted by encouragement and building consensus among faculty members, administrators and trustees. Important changes in the human resource management politics that have been widely acknowledged play a crucial role in the culture of change. The approach to the staff is participatory who is willing to introduce change for the benefit of the recipient, as well as his/her own success. More attention should be paid to leadership culture in Georgia. The government will be more successful if it focuses on encouragement of the academic staff and its active involvement into the ongoing processes. The nature of reforms is also viewed in a different prism, namely, the surgery type changes which have been dominated until recently is now being replaced by smooth reconstruction. Gradual shift to a new reality is less painful and it is more inclined to consider the human factors. This approach seems to be more ethical and effective if taken into consideration its long lasting nature. In the result of our studies we have come to the conclusion that the above mentioned surgery-type approach to Georgian reforms have significantly affected its successful implementation, leading to in some cases, to the unpredictable outcomes. Education reform is a process where the errors are not to be made on the basis of hasty decisions and abrupt actions.

SECTION I: Education and Social Issues

In the management of higher education the uniform approach worked by the top management is more likely to be replaced by restructuring within the context of institutions heritage. The policy and culture of the institute plays a key role in the decisions taken in the process of restructuring and enhances the quality of change. Since the majority of the universities are basically hierarchical institutions, the collaborative approaches are supported and managed by the administrators and faculty. It decreases the resistance and enhances the ecology of reconstruction. As it is in the case of Georgia, changes in higher education seem to be very painful, because the traditions, mentality, culture, experience, historical heritage have not been taken into consideration while imposing the schemes of changes, which were copied from abroad experience. Change process is rather controversial, long and painful. It has been to be worked out in all four areas: rational, social-interactional, psychological and political. It requires development of working consensus on the urgent need to restructuring. Restructured institution does not emerge at one time; rather it is implemented in series of phases that evolve over time. It is highly recommended to create a powerful initiating group which will coordinate the actions and carry out the strategic plan of the reform, as well as direct assessment procedures. One of the most crucial rules in the successful implementation is the public relation, which is supposed to prepare the ground for the anticipated change, find supporters who are committed to change and who would support it until it comes into being. This implementation team also establishes demonstration projects and clear general timetables, so that people can have much necessary control over their lives. International expertise should be used widely in planning, monitoring and assessment. Culture of change has undergone through thorough transformations, more attention is paid to the human factors and ecology, to the smooth and trouble-free implementation schemes, leadership style has been adapted to the new reality, where each staff member and academic person involved in it is viewed as initiator of the change. New challenge of restructuring is that it should enhance the quality of student learning and promote the idea of learning as transformation. The key to quality improvement lies in empowering academic staff to undertake a process of continuous quality improvement in relation to student learning. Georgia as well as other former Soviet Union nations will have to consider the culture and ecology of the 21st century reforms which will make it more successful and respond more effectively to the political, social and psychological changes.

References:

1. Finn, Chester, Jr, and Rebarber, Theodor. (1992) Education Reform in the ‘90s.New York: McMillan Publishing Company. 2. McKenzie, Janet., (2001) Changing Education: A Sociology of Education Since 1944. London: Prentice Hall, an imprint of Pearson Education. 3. Guskin, A.E., (1996) Facing the Future: The Change Process in Restructuring Universities. An article In Change Magazine, July/August 1996. Publisher: American Association for Higher Education. pp 27-31. 4. Brown, J.S. and Duguid, P., Universities in the Digital Age. An article In Change Magazine, July/August 1996. Publisher: American Association for Higher Education. pp 11-19.

SECTION I: Education and Social Issues

The Scope of Multicultural Education

IRMA MESIRIDZE*

With the growth of a global economy and the mass migration of workers, issues of diversity and multiculturalism are becoming a major concern to the world. Cultural intersections in culturally mixed societies often result in clashes among differing cultures when they come into contact. A study of the intersection of cultures, cultural differences, and cultural domination provides a framework and basic concept for understanding issues in multicultural education. This article will examine the general outlines of the multicultural education, define its meanings and discuss three categories of programs that comprise the typology of the multicultural education. The following problems are raised in the article: How does multicultural education respond to the changing demographics of the United States? How to bridge the gap between the culture of the family and the culture of the school so that children of immigrant and dominated families do not have to suffer the pain and shame?

Multicultural Education The demographic, social, and economic trends have important implications for education (Banks & Banks, 2001). It is also important to consider the fact that the U.S. students are becoming increasingly diverse. The issue of multicultural education is of paramount importance in the twenty-first century (Banks & Banks, 2001). Multicultural education was originated in the 1960s in the wake of the civil rights movement as a corrective to the long-standing de facto policy of assimilating minority groups into the "melting pot" of dominant American culture (Sobol, 1990). Carrying the legacy of the 1960's and 1970's, a period of profound social change when the people of the United States were forced to reexamine their cultural heritage, multicultural education has emerged in the 1990's to address the educational needs of a society that continues to struggle with the realization that it is not monocultural, but is an amalgamation of many cultures. Fortunately, the concept that cultural differences enrich, rather than diminish, our society is increasingly acknowledged. It is the suppression of cultures that weakens the society. The ongoing discourse and practice of multicultural education is an effort to mine the possibilities of plurality through education. In a democratic, multicultural society all children must be educated about the multiple strands of the past that have created the webs of the present. For example, African American students must learn about Asian Americans and Latino Americans, all of whom need to understand the journey of Native Americans, and vice versa. European Americans should study the past and present relationships of European Americans to people of color, the history of privilege and resistance in the dominant culture, and all students should understand the dynamics of social class.

* Assist. Prof., Faculty of Education, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 15

SECTION I: Education and Social Issues

Multicultural education is intended to decrease race, ethnicity, class, and gender divisions by helping all students attain the knowledge, attitudes, and skills they need in order to become active citizens in a democratic society and participate in social change (Valdez, 1999).

Defining Multicultural Education Multicultural education relates to education and instruction designed for the cultures of several different races in an educational system. This approach to teaching and learning is based upon consensus building, respect, and fostering cultural pluralism within racial societies. Numerous definitions of multicultural education have been proposed or espoused by scholars, researchers and organizations over the past 30 years. To assist researchers, teachers, educators, and parents in understanding and implementing multicultural education, the National Association for Multicultural Education defines multicultural education below. Multicultural education is a philosophical concept built on the ideals of freedom, justice, equality, equity, and human dignity as acknowledged in various documents, such as the U.S. Declaration of Independence, constitutions of South Africa and the United States, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations. It affirms our need to prepare student for their responsibilities in an interdependent world. It recognizes the role schools can play in developing the attitudes and values necessary for a democratic society. It values cultural differences and affirms the pluralism that students, their communities, and teachers reflect. It challenges all forms of discrimination in schools and society through the promotion of democratic principles of social justice. The goal of multicultural education is not only to teach children about other groups or countries. It is also to help children become accustomed to the idea that there are many lifestyles, languages, cultures, and points of view. The purpose of multicultural curriculum is to attach positive feelings to multicultural experiences so that each child will feel included and valued, and will feel friendly and respectful toward people from other ethnic and cultural groups (Dimidjian, 1989).

Typologies of Multicultural Education Multicultural education, however, cannot be all things to all people. Clearly, multicultural education, as practiced in the United States, takes many varied forms. The multicultural education typology presented here is comprised of the following programs that can be divided into three categories, according to their primary emphasis.

CONTENT-ORIENTED PROGRAMS Content-oriented efforts are the most common and immediately recognizable variety of multicultural education. Their primary goal is to include content about different cultural groups in the curriculum and educational materials in order to increase students' knowledge about these groups. According to Banks (1994), these programs have three goals:

 to develop multicultural content throughout the disciplines;  to incorporate a variety of different viewpoints and perspectives in the curriculum; and  to transform the canon, ultimately developing a new paradigm for the curriculum.

As Sleeter and Grant (1993) state such programs often take the form of "single-group studies"; common examples include black, ethnic, and women's studies programs.

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STUDENT-ORIENTED PROGRAMS As Banks (1994) notes, while curricular programs attempt to increase the body of knowledge about different ethnic, cultural, and gender groups, student-oriented programs are intended to increase the academic achievement of these groups, even when they do not involve extensive changes in the content of the curriculum. According to Sleeter and Grant (1993), many of these programs are designed not to transform the curriculum or the social context of education, but to help culturally or linguistically different students make the transition into the educational mainstream. To do this, these programs often draw upon the varied linguistic and cultural backgrounds of their student bodies. Banks (1994) outlines four broad program categories:

 programs that use research into culturally-based learning styles in an attempt to determine which teaching styles to use with a particular group of students;  bilingual or bicultural programs; language programs built upon the language and culture of African-American students; and  special math and science programs for minority or female students.

As a result of this variety and because they attempt to help students make the transition into the mainstream many student-oriented programs can be viewed as compensatory in nature.

SOCIALLY-ORIENTED PROGRAMS These programs seek to reform both schooling and the cultural and political contexts of schooling, aiming neither simply to enhance academic achievement nor to increase the body of multicultural knowledge, but to have the much broader impact of increasing cultural and racial tolerance and reducing bias. According to Banks (1994), this category of program encompasses not only programs designed to restructure and desegregate schools, but also programs designed to increase all kinds of contact among the races: programs to encourage minority teachers, anti-bias programs, and cooperative learning programs. As Sleeter and Grant (1993) describe it, this type of multicultural education emphasizes "human relations" in all its forms, and incorporates some characteristics of the other two program types; that is, it can entail curricular revisions in order to emphasize positive social contributions of ethnic and cultural groups, while using research on learning styles to enhance student achievement and reduce racial tensions within the classroom.

Conclusion With the world movement of labor and capital the cultural clashes will probably increase. The continued intersection of cultures will heighten the debate over multicultural education. While some programs focus on individual students or teachers, and others are much more "macro" in scope, these ideals are all, at their roots, about transformation and social empowerment.

 Every student must have an equal opportunity to achieve to her or his full potential.  Every student must be prepared to competently participate in an increasingly intercultural society.  Teachers must be prepared to effectively facilitate learning for every individual student, no matter how culturally similar or different from her- or himself.

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 Schools must be active participants in ending oppression of all types, first by ending oppression within their own walls, then by producing socially and critically active and aware students.  Education must become more fully student-centered and inclusive of the voices and experiences of the students.  Educators, activists, and others must take a more active role in reexamining all educational practices and how they affect the learning of all students: testing methods, teaching approaches, evaluation and assessment, school psychology and counseling, educational materials and textbooks, etc.

Multicultural education harbors a place for a multitude of voices in a multicultural society and a place for many dreams.

References:

1. Banks, J.A. & Banks, C.A.M. (2001). Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives (4th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

2. Valdez, A. (1999). Learning in Living Color: Using Literature to Incorporate Multicultural Education into the Primary Curriculum. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

3. Sobol, T. (1990). Understanding diversity. Educational Leadership. 48(3), 27-30.

4. Sleeter, C. E., & Grant, C. A. (1993). Making choices for multicultural education: Five approaches to race, class and gender (2nd ed.). New York: Merrill.

5. Banks, J. A. (1994). An introduction to multicultural education. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

6. Dimidjian, V.J. (1989). Holiday, Holy Days, and Wholly Dazed. Young Children. 44(6) 70-75.

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Funding American Higher Education: University Policies and Student Aid Programs

Abstract

TAMAR KARAZANISHVILI*

Higher education is a key that opens doors of opportunity for people. Education gives people more chances to be successful in future life, pursue dreams, accomplish great things, and make a real contribution to community and country. Government is responsible to provide an opportunity and therefore, to provide financial support for those who continue their studies in higher education. Government is also responsible to guarantee the high quality of education for each citizen. In the US, some people cannot afford and do not have enough money to pay and receive the same quality education as others do. Inequalities still exist at certain level. Furthermore, not all students who have admission from the universities are financially viable to continue their studies because of lack of finances. Thus, various types of student financial aid have developed in the country such as: Federal Aid Programs, students' loans, grants, and different foundations that are provided by the US government to assure equal opportunity and student rights. The US government, through various student aid programs, has tried to solve the payment barriers and increase student enrollment rates in universities. Federal government has its own policy for higher education funding and provides various programs while states set out their own standards and have much more responsibilities in controlling education in states than the federal government has. Also various foundation organizations play important role in funding American higher education. Tuition in American universities is very high, and not all students can afford to pay the cost of education. Such a big number of Student aid Programs has helped many students to continue studies and accomplish their goals. University of Georgia in Athens - public university - is a good example which provides students with various types of aid programs such as student loans, grants, scholarships, and work-study programs. In addition, there are various types of foundations that support the excellence of American higher education, and people who want to have equal education. Nowadays, much more students are assisted financially and more foundations, grants and loan programs are established to provide equal education opportunity. The article raises the problem of financing student aspirations to receive higher education.

* M.A., Faculty of Social Science, Direction of International Relations and Politics, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 19

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Funding American Higher Education: University Policies and Student Aid Programs

TAMAR KARAZANISHVILI*

Education is very important for each person, because it gives people an “access” to the bright future. During this difficult economic period, education is becoming more necessary than ever. Knowledge not only makes job placement easier, but also provides much needed financial security. Nowadays, it is almost impossible to support the basic living cost without a degree. Education makes us more perspective and successful citizens, and builds a healthy atmosphere for future generation. Education is the main aspect government should think about, because it needs productive members of society. An educated workforce is an essential precondition for rapid economic development. Education is a rapidly growing business in the United States. Education is one of the most important items in governments’ budgets. The combined spending of local, state, and federal governments exceeds $380 billion annually in the United States. “Give and return” method should be emphasized by both sides. Governments' duty is to satisfy their citizens’ aspirations who pay taxes for various services and have rights to receive equal education. Revenue sources are important basis for funding higher education.1 The primary sources of revenue for the federal government are income taxes and Social Security taxes, while property taxes support most of the funding that local government provides for education. Although in the United States equal educational opportunity is protected under the Fourteenth Amendment, it is not very easily achievable goal, because inequalities in income, education, employment still exist at a certain level. Thus, both government and citizens have main responsibilities to solve those problems and build democratic nation. Equality of Opportunity, which is part of American Dream, was the US government’s main goal to be achieved from the early years. In the past, inequality and segregation existed in education upon race, religion, and ethnic diversities. Until the twentieth century, the federal government gave very little financial assistance to American students, and inequality in education was higher than it is today. The Morrill Land Grant Act of 18622 was a major boost to higher education in America; it created many land-grant universities across the country. The demand for education increases from generation to generation in America. Americans show great interest in education. Secondary education in the United States is provided mainly by government, with control and funding coming from three levels: federal, state, and local. But education has its expenses, prices of tuition fees increase and not everyone can afford to be well educated. Furthermore, not all students who have admission from the universities are financially viable to continue their studies because of lack of finances. Tuition fees vary between courses, institutions, and whether the students are resident or international; tuition prices range from $5000 to $30 000 per year. For resident students, tuition costs are about $9000, and for international students are over $20 000. But financial aid is widely available. Today, federal student aid programs are the largest source of student aid in America. These programs provide more than $100 billion a year in grants, loans, and work-study assistance. Eligibility for federal student aid is based on financial need and on several factors: student should be a US citizen or

* M.A., Faculty of Social Science, Direction of International Relations and Politics, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 20

SECTION I: Education and Social Issues eligible noncitizen; demonstrate financial need; have a high school diploma or a General Education Development (GED) certificate, pass a test approved by the U.S. Department of Education, and meet other standards established by the state that the Department approves.3 The financial aid administrator at the college determines for what the student is eligible. Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is the main source of financial aid for college students in the United States.4 The FAFSA - student aid is used by federal and state governments, and higher education institutions to establish a student's eligibility for various types of financial aid in the country. Gradually, the number of aid programs and foundations are increasing in America. The main sources of funding are: 1. The endowment – Many institutions were founded with large gifts or money. 2. Alumni and corporate giving – Every university, public or private, has an office which seeks gifts. Graduates of the university are regularly invited to contribute; wealthy trustees often give. 3. Grants – Numerous private foundations pour large amounts of money into higher education – from $8 to $9 billion annually. They may fund a special program, a new building on campus, or research effort. 4. Auxiliary services – the university manages lodgings, bookstore food service, parking lots, athletic events, and numerous other services from which it gains revenue. As education requires time, money, and effort, and students sometimes need help for paying their tuition fees, and other expenses the Department of Education in the U.S. offers a variety of student financial aid programs which includes grants, work-study, and loans. Most common grants are: 1. Federal Pell Grant - financial aid for low-income undergraduate students. Amounts can change yearly. For the 2008-2009 school year, $16.2 billion is available for Pell Grants, and the maximum grant an individual student can be awarded is set at $4,731.(The other federal and nonfederal sources might be added also).5 2. Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG) - awarded to undergraduate students with exceptional financial need awards; ranges from $100 to $4,000 a year. For the 2008-2009 school year, the program has been funded at $757 million. 6 3. Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG) - awarded to first year students - up to $750, and second year students - up to $1,300. 7 4. National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant (National SMART Grant) - Up to $4,000 for each of the third and fourth years. 8

Higher Education Grant Programs 2008-2009 Academic Year Maximum Average Number of Funding Level Grant Grant Recipients Pell Grants $16.2 billion $4,731 $2,945 5,578,000 ACG $440 million $750/$1,300 $787 559,000 SMART $260 million $4,000 $3,291 79,000 SEOG $757 million $4,000 $756 1,419,055

Various types of student financial aid have developed in the country such as: Federal Aid Programs, students' loans, grants, and different foundations that are provided by the US government to insure equal opportunity in higher education. All students are eligible for federal student loans. Nearly $ 70 000 billion is spent for loans. Federal student loans, provided by

SECTION I: Education and Social Issues federal government, offer borrowers many benefits not typically found in private loans such as low fixed interest rates, income-based repayment plans, loan forgiveness and deferment options. Undergraduate student loans range from $3,500 to $10,500. Loan funding is managed by Department of Education, called Federal Direct Student Loan Program (FDSLP), and by banks, credit unions. Federal Stafford loans9 are provided for eligible undergraduate and graduate students. Student may borrow up to $2000 or more, interest rate is too low – 5.60%. Another type, Plus loans10 are low interest loans that parents can obtain to help pay the cost of education for their children, loans ranges approximately from $ 6,000 to $130,000. The other Consolidation loans11 allow student or parent borrowers to combine multiple federal student loans into one loan with one monthly payment. Many companies, businesses and labor or religious organizations have programs to help employees or members and their families pay the cost of American postsecondary education. For instance, Bill and Melinda Foundation12 is a charitable foundation (created in 2000) to help reduce inequities in the United States and around the world. Nowadays, the donations from the foundation each year amounts to over US$1.5 billion at a minimum. The scholarship amounts range over $4 350 to $ 9 700. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 200913 is the fact that the US government is trying to remove payment barriers and increase student enrollment rates in American universities; it was signed into law by President Barack Obama on Tuesday, February 17, 2009, and invested $90.9 billion in education to provide jobs, high-quality education and various aid programs. In America, tuition cost at a private University is typically higher as compared to a similarly reputable public university. A publicly funded institution receives direct capital or operating grants from provincial and federal taxes. A privately-funded institution relies on user- fees, private contracts and donations and endowment income to cover costs. A typical year’s tuition at a public university is about $5 000, but the tuition for outside state students is generally comparable to private school prices. In private universities annual tuition varies from $15 000 to $50 000. Additional fees such as room and board, can range from $6 000 to $12 000 per year. University of Georgia14 (UGA - public university), located in Athens, Georgia, is a clear example which draws American government’s goal in emphasizing equal opportunity and rights of students. Tuition cost for Georgia residents is $7 530 (total cost- $18 000) and for out-state residents it is $25 740 (total cost- $36 210). Not all students can afford to pay such amount of money for their education. Thus, university provides various aid programs for its students. The University has an Office of Student Financial Aid (OSFA) that helps students who need assistance in order to continue their education. Student financial aid at UGA can take the form of a grant, scholarship, loan, work, or a combination of these. For instance, Federal Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG) is only for first year of undergraduates and may receive up to the maximum $750 or for second year of undergraduates - maximum $1,300 award. National SMART Grant is for fourth year of undergraduates and may receive up to the maximum $4,000. Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (FSEOG) may provide up to a maximum $500 per fall and / or Spring Semester to qualifying undergraduate students. Law Enforcement Personnel Dependents (LEPD) Grants of $2,000 per academic year are awarded to dependent children of Georgia law enforcement officers, prison guards, or fire fighters who were permanently disabled or killed in the line of duty. Also UGA provides students with Federal Work-Study Program (FWS) - a need-based financial aid program in which university students work part-time on-campus. Students are paid on working hours and get not less than $1500. In 2008-09 the program, the university employed 388 students. UGA provides two federal student loan programs such as: the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program (Direct Loan) in which eligible students and parents borrow directly from the U.S. Department

SECTION I: Education and Social Issues of Education, and the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program in which private lenders provide funds that are guaranteed by the federal government. The UGA Foundation Fellowship is the University’s premier scholarship that provides an annual stipend of $14,500 for out-of-state students or $9,000 for in-state students. UGA Alumni Association Scholarship for academically competitive students offers annual $5,000 renewable stipend. The University of Georgia Foundation has amassed more than $500 million in assets, and provides more than $25 million to the university each year to support student scholarships, chairs and professorships, academic research and other programs. Columbia University in the City of New York, Manhattan15 is a private university. The average tuition cost at Columbia is $39 296 (total $54 789). The University’s educational financing options consist of federal, state, institutional and private sources of funds. In 2007- 2008, Columbia College named 406 scholarships, including 44 current use scholarships honoring over 600 students and stewarding close to 500 donors. On April 11, 2007, John W. Kluge made the largest amount ever given to financial aid at any university, $400 million pledge, designated for financial aid to undergraduate and graduate students. Work Study Programs are also offered at the Columbia University. Wages for work study jobs range from approximately $7.25 to $12 per hour, depending on the job and qualifications. Legal residents of New York State may be eligible for awards under the New York State Tuition Assistance Program. TAP Awards for dependent students range from $500 to $5,000. Awards for single independent students range from $500 to $3,025. Institutional aid at Columbia University may include scholarships, fellowships, assistantships, stipends and low-cost institutional loans. They can be awarded based on need and/or merit and can vary in amounts and availability by school. This institutional aid comes in the form of interschool fellowships – need- based awards. The annual amounts of these awards range from $1,000 to $5,000. Clifford and Siegfried Upton Scholarship is intended to benefit the children, adopted children, and step- children of the employees of Boston-based Houghton-Mifflin Company, its subsidiaries, or successor companies. The minimum amount of a scholarship is $1,000 for a school year. Vladimir and Olga Poder Fund - this fellowship is to benefit an Estonian-speaking students attending Columbia. The fellowship cannot be greater than $2,000 annually. Although higher education is expensive in America students enrollment rate increases in various institutions, and the number of applicants who wish to acquire higher education is also high. Opportunities of getting higher education in America have dramatically increased since 1960s. Very few organizations offered money for education funding, but gradually, government is addressing the problems effectively, and student aid programs has significantly increased in the country today. Therefore, few students who have admissions from the University are left beyond the university walls in the US. Incapability of students to pay the university payment is no more an obstacle which can not be overcome. Tuition cost in Georgia is considerably cheaper than it is in America, but it does not mean that all students who wish can afford to continue their studies. In Georgia the situation is quite different; tuition cost in private universities ranges over 3 000 GEL to 9 000 GEL, while in public universities the annual cost is over 1 500 - 2 500 GEL. Family monthly income ranges over 600 – 700 GEL, and hence, majority of students lack the financial resources to pay the tuition. Unfortunately, both Georgian private and public universities do not provide such a big number of student aid programs as American universities do. In Georgia, students are offered student loans to cover the tuition, but they do not differ from ordinary loans, neither in terms of interest rate nor in terms of length or payment, while in US student loans have lower interest rates, loan forgiveness programs, etc. For example, students loan in TBC Bank16 ranges from 300 GEL to 1000 GEL, or in Basis Bank17 - from 400 GEL to 10 000 GEL (depends on the salary), and annual interest rate is 24%. Georgian government offers grants to the students who

SECTION I: Education and Social Issues have been successful in national exams. Student may get 100%, 70%, 50% or 30 % grant for the tuition, depends on the result score student gets in exam. Georgian universities bear no responsibility in terms of providing any opportunities for students helping to cover the tuition, and also, they do not provide any intermediate role in financing or student aid programs while in US, university itself raises the question of financing for their students. Gradually, the tuition fees have been increasing in Georgia and citizens have greater problems paying for their children’s higher education. Therefore, special aid programs should be worked in both public and private universities to help students overcome their payment barriers in education. In addition, Georgian universities need to develop special offices, work-study programs or other facilities that would give students equal opportunities to get higher education.

References:

Books:

 Ulbrich H. H. (2003) Public Finance in Theory and Practice. Thomson South Western, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom, United States.

Internet Sites:

1. Ulbrich H. H. “Federal Government Revenues and Spending”, 2003:40

2. The Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862, http://www.pvamu.edu/pages/601.asp 3. Who is eligible to receive the federal student aid? http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/faq003.htm#faq003_1 4. What is FAFSA for? http://www.ehow.com/fafsa/# 5. Federal Pell Grant http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/PellGrants.jsp 6. Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG) http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/FSEOG.jsp 7. Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG) http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/NewPrograms.jsp 8. National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant (National SMART Grant) http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/SmartGrants.jsp 9. Federal Stafford Loan Program http://www.staffordloan.com/stafford-loan-info/ 10. Plus Loans (Parent Loans) http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/parentloans.jsp 11. Consolidation Loans http://loanconsolidation.ed.gov/help/aboutconsol.html 12. Bill and Melinda Foundation http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Pages/home.aspx 13. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Act_of_2009 14. University of Georgia in Athens http://www.uga.edu/ 15. Columbia University in the City of New York http://www.columbia.edu/

16. Student Loans http://www.tbcbank.ge/ge/private/loans/student_loans/

17. Student Loans http://www.basisbank.ge/private/loans/student/

SECTION I: Education and Social Issues

Voice of America: American English

BETUL AYSE SAYIN*

Language has always been one of the main characteristics of a country that reflects the culture, conveys the virtues and values, and speaks out the beliefs, opinions and feelings. Language functions as the voice of people who share common values more than others. Like all other countries, the United States has its own language, the voice of America: American English. According to common belief, American English is same as British English; their roots are same, they are grammatically similar and it is not worth to talk about American English as a different language. However, each language, after started to be used by different nationalities as a native language, carries different notions, begins to be oriented by the community it is used in. We see this difference not only in America, but English used in Canada also differs by being a blend of both American and British English. Each language with its new environment starts to be shaped in the community and enters into a historical stage. th American English can be traced back to 17 . When the English people started to have permanent settlements in 1607, in Virginia, they brought lots of things and one of them was the language, the Elizabethan English. The word “American” was adopted in 1780 for the first time in order to refer to the language. After that, the historical stage for American language starts in 1806 when Noah Webster, who wrote the first dictionary of America, used the word ‘American English’. He wrote `An American Dictionary of the English Language` in 1828 and stated that so as to win true independence from England, Americans need to invent their own language, related with English, but different from it. Later on, his demands and support helped this to work naturally; American English gained its independence and has begun to be the name of a variety of British English. Another scholar contributed for the clarification of the discrepancy between British and American English is H.L. Mencken with his classic work `The American Language`, in 1919. According to Mencken, American English was more vibrant, multicolored and innovative than its British equivalent. American English started to be shaped with the effect of historical reasons, geographical reasons and American character. American English began to gain new lexical items just after the colonial groups transmitted Native Americans’ words into the language to replace the unfamiliar words. American Revolution also affected the process of coining new words related especially with politics which are even now internationally used. Other reasons to look for new vocabulary are rising of capitalism, industrial development and some other similar events that changed the world. People emigrating from countries like France, Germany, Spain and Italy add new words to the language, too. Another considerable factor is the African American people from whom the language absorbs a lot of words such as Uncle Bob and Doctor Thomas. Linguistic development of American English was achieved by various ethnic strands: for example, bogus (African), juke-box (African American), cookie (Dutch), bayou (French), macaroni (Italian), geisha (Japanese), vigilante (Spanish), lutefish (Swedish), bagel (Yiddish). American English is more than the sum of inheritances from its input languages.

* M.A., Faculty of Social Science, Direction of International Relations and Politics, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 25

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American English shows differences in vocabulary, phonology, phonetics, pronunciation, spelling and to a lesser extent in grammar from British English. One of the main differences in pronunciation arouses from the usage of different sounds in the same word. A very common example for this is the /a/ sound used in British English that changed into /ae/ sound in American English (AmE) which is a broad A. In the example of the word class, we can examine this. While British people pronounce it is /kla:s/, American people say /klaes/.†The words banana, morale, half, java, etc. have the same difference. Another visible difference is in the ‘r’ sound. It is only pronounced in American English. The word ‘bar’ is pronounced as /ba:r/ in American English and as /ba:/ in British English. We also come across many differences in spelling. We mainly meet examples of an omitted vowel or consonant sound from the words. The words ‘Waggon’ and ‘Traveller’ in British English are spelled as ‘Wagon’ and ‘Traveler’ in American English. We can also show words “Neighbour” and “Colour” as an example for this omission which are spelled in American English as ‘Neighbor’ and ‘Color’. We realize that while the language expose to a change depending on the culture and environment it is shaped in, the differences reflect the way people have chosen for an easier way and American English has always been simpler than British English in spelling. This can be identified as a good reason for American English to be globally accepted and to be counted as the leading language with British English. American English has also a discrepancy with the tendency of using nouns as verbs. The words interview, room, advocate, exit, pressure can be counted as few examples of this. Many compound nouns have the form of verb plus preposition and they form phrasal verbs used as nouns like cookout, stopover, lineup, tryout, rundown, makeover, takeover, etc. Throughout most of American history, the dominance and status of English as the national language of the USA has been based on a consensus. Such a consensus had already emerged prior to the founding of the USA in the British colonies where the dominance and status of English had developed without centralized governmental planning. Now, under the light of this reality, English is the most common language in the U.S. and it is considered as the de facto language. Nowadays, it has been given official status by 30 of the 50 states in the U.S. Samuel Johnson in the preface of his dictionary says that language evolves independently of textbooks. American voice has also evolved with the effect of many nations, different languages but with the American values and traditions. Voice of multinational country has spread to the whole world with the role of the language and been accepted as a common language among other leading languages to the globe. English, as an international language, plays an important role on the world stage. Both American English and British English share this leading crown. There’s no need to say which is better. The important thing is to know the differences between two counterparts. Recently, American English is noticed as a separate language in the textbooks and identified with its own structure. American English has entered into our lives long years ago when it started its historical period. We embrace it with its own vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling and grammar. Now, it is both the voice of America and the voice of the nations living in a patchwork quilt.

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References:

1. "Canadian English." Brinton, Laurel J., and Fee, Marjery, ed. (2005). Ch. 12. in The Cambridge history of the English language. Volume VI: English in North America., Algeo, John, ed., pp. 422–440. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992. ISBN 0521264790

2. Edward Finegan, John R. Rickford, Language in the USA: themes for the twenty-first century, Ch. 1, Pg.3

3. http://www.bookrags.com/essay-2005/2/17/52125/9723

4. http://www.antimoon.com/how/pronunc-soundsipa.htm

5. Edward Finegan, John R. Rickford, Language in the USA: themes for the twenty-first century , Ch.17, pg.321

6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_English

7. http://www.bookrags.com/essay-2005/2/17/52125/9723

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Adult Education: Do Trends in America Foreshadow Trends in Georgia

Abstract LELA ABDUSHELISHVILI*

The aim of the article is to discuss trends in adult education in the USA, compare it with the Georgian context and make predictions about the future of Georgian adult education. In the 21st century since the world is in various stages of social, economic and demographic transition, changes are coming in almost every sphere, including education. Contemporary adult education in the USA takes many different forms: evening programs at colleges and universities, extension work, courses without credit, correspondence courses and distance learning programs. The increase of adult education came about as a result of technological, cultural and demographic changes in American society. The needs of the adult learner are different. The goal in adult education is personal development. Unlike United States, Georgia’s cultural changes have come more slowly, although recent events suggest that Georgia might now be entering a period of more rapid change. Events in the 1990s in Georgia suggest that changes similar to those in the USA have begun taking place in Georgia as well. Colleges and universities have been given far greater autonomy in planning their own curricula, and financial rewards are offered to schools that set up international programs and volunteer work programs, Adult Education Association of Georgia was established to raise the level of education of adult population in Georgia with the aim of its employment, increase of income and harmonious integration into new conditions of life. Changes that took place in the sphere of adult education in the USA were successful and similar trends are now in progress in Georgia which is the pre-condition for creating much better opportunities for adult population of the country.

* Assoc. Prof., Caucasus University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 28

SECTION I: Education and Social Issues Adult Education: Do Trends in the America Foreshadow Trends in Georgia

LELA ABDUSHELISHVILI*

In the 21st century the world is in various stages of social, economic and demographic transition. The emerging global economy is both competitive and interdependent. Changes are coming in almost every sphere. Education is no exception. Georgia is now entering a turning point in its history of education. For 70 years, we were under the Soviet Union system, and, therefore, followed the way where education was standardized and more universal. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the educational system was reshaped on the American or European model and the process is still going on. One important aspect in this process is focus on adult education principles. Adult education can be defined as the extension of educational opportunities to those adults beyond the age of general public education who feel a need for further training of any sort, also known as continuing education. Contemporary adult education in the USA can take many different forms. Colleges and universities have instituted evening programs, extension work, courses without credit, correspondence courses and distance learning programs. Adult education is also sponsored by corporations and private institutes. The field now embraces such diverse areas as vocational education, high school equivalency, parent education, adult basic education, physical and emotional development, practical arts, applied science recreation as well as traditional academic, business and professional subjects. Each year millions of Americans take such a course or program. At the local level, public schools have been active in furnishing facilities and assistance to private adult education groups in many communities. Community centers, political and economic action associations and dramatic, musical and artistic groups are regarded by many as adult education activities. Adult education was first recognized in the 1920s. It can be defined as the type of education different from that of traditional students. In his book “The Meaning of Adult Education” Edward Lindeman (1926) considers the education of adults to be different from that of traditional students. His emphasis on self-direction, experience and life-centeredness established the basis for andragogy, the adult educational philosophy popularized later by Malcolm Knowels, a key figure in the field of adult education. Andragogical methods rely on “facilitation” rather than “teaching”, self-direction rather than other-direction and life-centered rather than subject-centered study. Adult education became widespread in America only in the 1960’s. Its relative recent development results from numerous social trends: the general spread of public education, the intensification of economic competition with a resulting premium skills, the complexities of national and international politics demanding constant study, the simulating effect of urbanization, the opportunity offered by increased leisure time, and increased interest in educational activities on the part of many older men and women. The earliest American forms of adult education were the public lectures given in the lyceum and the Lowell Institute of Boston endowed by John Lowell (1836). In 1926 the Carnegie Corporation organized the American Association for Adult Education which later became the Adult Education Association for Public Continuing Adult Education. This group, through its research and publications, works not only to promote education as a lifelong learning process but also to systematize the methods and philosophy of the field.

* Assoc. Prof., Caucasus University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 29

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Federal funding and support for adult education have been provided through the Vocational Education Act (1936), the Economic Opportunity Act (1964), the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (1973), the Lifelong Learning Act (1976) and for a broad spectrum of learners by the Carl D.Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Act (1984). The office of Vocational and Adult Education, under the US Department of Education, administers grant, contract and technical assistance programs for adult education, literacy and occupational training. Most federal funding for these programs is administered through the states, counties and individual communities. Other major federal providers of adult education are the Department of Agriculture and Department of Defense. The increase of adult education came about as a result of technological, cultural and demographic changes in American society. Before describing these changes in detail, let’s clarify that adults and traditional post high school age students differ in that the former has benefited from years of life experience and then sought the academic education, while the traditional students first receive the education and then the life experience. Thus, the needs of the adult learner are different. Socialization, for example, plays a much greater role in the academic life of the traditional student, and, indeed accounts for much of the necessity for extended contract hours. Adults, on the other hand, are interested in cutting right to the essence of a topic and are capable of processing greater amounts of material even in much shorter periods of time. The goal in adult education is personal development. Technological changes: The main technological change was the postwar boom of television. The combined factors of constant education through television and people educated through secondary and tertiary education in their youth, meant that the general level of education in America increased rapidly in the post war years. Another technological change was the shift in American industry from primary and secondary to tertiary levels. As mid and post war production techniques became more sophisticated, the need for workers with higher level of education also increased. Cultural and demographic changes: The main cultural change in America that led to a rise in the number of adult students was the democratization of university education in the 1970ies. Universities offered open admissions, multicultural education and alternative modes of attendance and evaluation. One of the first non-traditional groups to take advantage of these changes was adults, and the numbers returning to campuses rose quickly. Besides, more women in the US sought tertiary education whereas 40 years ago, many Americans believed it unnecessary for their daughters to seek education beyond high school level, and tacit restrictions excluded African Americans from campus. Other cultural changes occurred in the 60s, when activist groups called for greater student involvement in administrative and curricular decisions, and when attendance patterns changed. The increase in part-time students was reported. Thus, US schools began providing a greater range of options in terms of residency and attendance requirements for traditional students, thereby making enrolment for non-traditional students more convenient. Unlike United States, Georgia’s cultural changes have come more slowly, although recent events suggest that Georgia might now be entering a period of more rapid change. For example, women and other minority groups are now getting greater access to the workplace. The salaries of young women and men are almost equal. There is an equal opportunity employment. Events in the 1990s in Georgia suggest that changes similar to those in the USA have begun taking place in Georgia as well. Colleges and universities have been given far greater autonomy in planning their own curricula, and financial rewards are offered to schools that set up international programs and volunteer work programs. In the 60s and 70s in America, the number of traditional students decreased by 16 % and US schools began offering programs for adult students. As a result, adult education expanded

SECTION I: Education and Social Issues rapidly and new teaching methods were developed. Andragogy has become the accepted approach. The American tradition of education philosophy is quite different from that of Georgia. I will examine those differences and make predictions as to what approach will prevail. The philosophy of education in America involves 3 main traditions:

a) Liberal education, which was mainstream until the 1920s b) The progressivist/humanist philosophies that followed c) Behaviorism, which has been the dominant philosophy for most of this country Methodological changes were eventually made in America but will they be made in Georgia? In Georgia teacher-centered pedagogy was very developed. So, it will be different for Georgian educators to give it up and adopt andragogy. However, unless this happens, the promise of continued education for Georgian adults will not come to be. One positive sign of adult education development in Georgia is the establishment of Adult Education Association of Georgia on November 20, 2004 with the support of DVV International, branch of Georgia – German Association of People’s Universities. The association is the union of organizations and persons working in the educational field. The mission of the association is to raise the level of education of adult population in Georgia with the aim of its employment, increase of income and harmonious integration into new conditions of life. Finally, let’s state that changing the learners to fit the educational structure would be possible if the learners were children but, they are not. The teachers will have to change. To make the change, teachers will have to be trained in andragogy and adult education methodology. The promise of adult education can only be realized through further education. Therefore, it can be stated that the changes that took place in the sphere of adult education in the USA were successful and similar trends are now in progress in Georgia which is the pre-condition for creating much better opportunities for adult population of the country.

References:

1. New Ways in Teaching Adults. Marilyn Lewis. TESOL Publications. 1997

2. Prospects and Trends in Adult Education. A Selection of Contemporary Writing in Project Work. Uwe gartenschlaeger, Heribert Hinzen (eds). “International Perspectives in Adult Education”. N 26. Institute for International Cooperation of the German Adult Education Association. 2001

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The Importance of Common Identity Formation for a Polyethnic State

Abstract VALERI MODEBADZE*

People identify themselves in many ways. This research deals with two different forms of identity: ethnic identity and civil identity. Ethnicity is viewed as a divisive concept. Ethnic conflicts are often generated by the promotion of pernicious, exclusive identities. Ethnic conflicts and wars can be avoided by encouraging individuals to adopt more benign, inclusive identities. This article stresses the importance of the development of supra-ethnic identities. Economic and political stability of the polyethnic country greatly depends on its ability to develop common identity for its multiethnic citizenry. Some countries tend to be more successful than others in the formation of common identity. We can take as an example USA, which despite of its multiethnicity successfully manages to construct a common identity for people of diverse ethnic origin. USA is often regarded as a “melting pot” of cultures. This term was invented in order to describe the process when the heterogeneous society gradually becomes homogeneous. USA has accepted many immigrants from many different countries and has managed to integrate them effectively into American society. The aim of this article is to explain the importance of the formation of common identity. It also explains why are some countries so successful in building a common identity whereas in other countries differences in ethnic origin and identity lead to brutal conflict. Community-building challenge and the challenge to create a common identity are one of the most serious issues facing many states of the developing world. The majority of states still face difficulties of creating common symbols and shared values & norms in order to attract the loyalties of their citizens and cause the population to identify more with the state than with their ethnic groups. Citizens prefer to identify more with their king group, ethnic group, religious group or with their historic homelands than with the state where they reside. Georgia faces similar challenges today. The process of creation of a common identity for the citizens of Georgia is a very complicated and difficult task because ethnic minorities do not perceive themselves as fully-fledged citizens of this country and are more loyal to their historic homelands than to Georgian state. Georgia’s population is divided along ethnic, religious and linguistic lines. Societies divided by ethnicity are less likely to reach co-operative solutions and live peacefully in a common political community. Georgian society has to make conscious efforts to create a “sense of unity” for all citizens of the country regardless their ethnic and religious belonging and unite people of different ethnic origin in a single political community. Priority has to be given to the development of supra-ethnic identities.

* PhD Candidate, Faculty of Social Science, Direction of International Relations and Politics, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 32

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The Importance of the Formation of a Common Civil Identity for a Polyethnic State

VALERI MODEBADZE*

People identify themselves in many ways. Before we start talking about the importance of common identity formation, we will look at the most basic ways in which individuals and groups define themselves politically. We will start with the concepts of ethnic and civil identity. One way that we identify individuals in society is by their ethnicity.1 Throughout recent history the concept of ethnic identity has received considerable attention. Increased interest in the ethnic origins and ethnic identity can be explained with individual’s instinctive desire to belong to a certain community or social group. Ethnic identity serves as a very important psychological function: it provides a sense of belonging to a certain group or sense of attachment to a particular place or geographical space.2 Everyone has a need of experiencing this sense of belonging to a particular group because human beings are “social animals”. The terms “ethnicity” and “ethnic identity” originated from the Greek word “ethnos,” which can be translated as “people” or “tribe.” Ethnic groups are often defined as a group of people who share common language, history, traditions, as well as a belief in common dissent. But it is not necessary that people should share all these things in common in order to form a common ethnic group. Ethnicity and ethnic identity is psycho-political construct. What distinguishes an ethnic group from any other group or collectivity is that its members regard themselves as members of the same ethnic group. Groups that significantly differ from each other, or have very few things in common, may believe that they belong to the same ethnic group. Similarly, groups that are physically quiet similar and share a lot of things in common, may believe they are descended from different ancestors and hence do not regard themselves as members of the same ethnic group. For instance, the Serbs, Croats, and Muslim Bosnians speak the same language and are similar in numerous other ways, but despite all these similarities, they still believe that they are different ethnic groups3. In this case religion is the basis of ethnic identity. In contrast to ethnicity which is generally assigned at birth, civil identity or citizenship is a purely political identity, which is not necessarily fixed by birth, but rather developed explicitly by states and accepted or rejected by individuals. Civil identity is more easily changeable than ethnic identity. Ethnic identities are harder to change since they are formed on the basis of common language, culture, religion, customs, which are hard to change. Individuals can easily change their citizenship from one state to another, they can also have dual citizenship or they might not have citizenship at all, they can be stateless persons. Citizenship & civil identity can be defined as an individual’s or a group’s relationship to the state; those who are citizens swear allegiance to that state, and that state in return is obligated to provide rights to those individuals or the members of that group.4 In contrast to citizenship or civil identity, ethnic identity is viewed as a divisive concept. Ethnic conflicts are often generated by the promotion of pernicious, exclusive identities. Conflicts are often manufactured by breaking a single society into numerous ethnic groups. Ethnic conflicts and wars can be avoided by encouraging individuals to adopt more benign,

* PhD Candidate, Faculty of Social Science, Direction of International Relations and Politics, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 33

SECTION I: Education and Social Issues inclusive identities.5 In order to create stability and order polyethnic countries should make some efforts to develop supra-ethnic identities. Economic and political stability of the polyethnic country greatly depends on its ability to develop common civil identity for its multiethnic citizenry. Some countries tend to be more successful than others in the formation of common identity. For instance, despite of its multi- ethnicity USA successfully manages to construct a common identity for people of diverse ethnic origin. USA is often regarded as a “melting pot” of cultures. This term was invented in order to describe the process when heterogeneous society becomes homogeneous. USA has accepted many immigrants from many different countries and has managed to integrate them effectively into American society. Why are some countries so successful in building a common identity for the citizens, whereas in other countries differences in ethnic origin and identity lead to brutal conflicts? The very process of defining oneself in terms of nation and ethnicity excludes others and divides the society on ethnic lines. One of the most important challenges facing countries worldwide is to build a common identity and a sense of belonging among the citizens. The incapacity of the state to build a common identity for its citizens can have severe political consequences.6 It can cause the emergence of ethnic and religious conflicts, as we have witnessed in various parts of Caucasus, as well as in other regions of the world. Building common identity is a very difficult and complicated process, but some countries manage to do it well. It is easier for the mono- ethnic countries to create a common identity and sense of belonging among citizens, than for the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional countries. Italy, for instance, has an ethnically homogenous population. Most states in the world do not have a homogenous population and in reality are not nation-states. Imposing a common identity is a serious challenge for a multi-ethnic and multi- confessional state. In contrast to Italy, Georgia is a multi-ethnic, multi –confessional and multilingual state and its population is sharply divided along ethnic and confessional lines. There are more than 100 ethnic groups residing in Georgia and speaking a variety of languages. Multi-ethnicity is a serious obstacle to nation-state building. Obviously, the challenges of building a common identity and common political community are much higher in Georgia than they are in mono-ethnic European states. Western European countries have transformed themselves into nation-states and nation-states are nowadays regarded as the most desirable way to organize a political system. The transformation of Europe into mono-ethnic nation-states did not happen accidentally and in reality it was a conscious effort of the European governments. They instilled a common national identity among the peoples they controlled. In order to achieve this goal they often carried out a wide range of reforms and implemented coercive activities by promoting a common language, a common educational system and common national political culture. The process of creation of the nation-state system was often harsh and complicated, but it produced a relatively stable Europe in which the inhabitants of most states have a strong sense of community.7 Many states in the developing countries face similar challenges. Community-building challenge and the challenge to create a common identity are one of the most serious issues facing many states of the developing world. The majority of states still face difficulties in creating common symbols and shared values & norms in order to attract the loyalties of their citizens and cause the population to identify more with the state than with their ethnic groups.8 Citizens prefer to identify more with their king group, ethnic group, religious group or with their historic homelands than with the state where they reside. Georgia faces similar challenges today. The process of creation of a common identity for the citizens of Georgia is a very complicated and difficult task because people have a very low degree of political or civic identification. Georgia’s population is divided along ethnic, religious and linguistic lines. 34

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Societies divided by ethnicity are less likely to reach cooperative solutions and live peacefully in a common political community. Ethnic and religious fragmentation and division on ethnic and religious lines are very often prime causes of violence and conflict. Ethnic nationalism is widespread almost in all countries of the Former Soviet Union, whereas in the West civic nationalism prevails. To replace ethnic nationalism with more civilized form of nationalism (civic nationalism) seems difficult at this moment. Individuals have very low degree of civic identification and prefer to identify themselves with their ethnic groups and historic homelands. In Western countries the term nationality refers to citizenship (civil identity), whereas in the countries of the Former Soviet Union. Nationality is defined according to the person’s ethnic belonging. Thus, in Western countries nationality is more inclusive phenomenon, whereas in the countries of the Former Soviet Union it is more exclusive and as a result, societies in Former Soviet republics are divided along ethnic lines. For instance, a man living in Georgia whose mother tongue is Kurdish can hold Georgian citizenship but his nationality would be considered as Kurdish. If the same person were born and grown up in the West, for instance in USA, his nationality would be American. Georgian society has to make conscious efforts to create a “sense of unity” for all citizens of the country regardless their ethnic and religious belonging and unite people of different ethnic origin in a single political community. Priority has to be given to the development of supra-ethnic identities. In order to achieve this goal ethnicity has to be replaced by some broader identities and people have to be unified on the basis of political identification, for instance civic identification. The creation of common myths, symbols, norms, values plays very important role in uniting the people in a single political community. The invention of these kinds of symbols, shared norms and values has a political end – to create unity. Each civilized state with its integration policies tries to promote the development of civil identity. The formation of civil identity does not mean the eradication of ethnic pluralism. People can maintain a distinct ethnic identity but at the same time develop civic consciousness and loyalty to the Georgian state. Identities are not mutually exclusive: A person can possess different combinations of identities (ethnic identity, religious identity, civil identity, etc.). For instance, many people in United States are Mexicans by ethnic origin (ethnic identity), Roman Catholics (religious identity), but they proudly declare that they are Americans, Citizens of United States (citizenship, civil identity). Common sense of identity binds ethnically diverse people together in United States. Despite ethnic, racial, linguistic and religious differences they share a common identity and have a high degree of civic identification, all of them regard themselves as American citizens. Even in the face of great ethnic diversity, radically different people in United States are bound together and form a single political community. Thus, common identity can be constructed even in the countries of diverse ethnic origin, where dominant ethnic groups are absent. One of the main factors that hinders the development of common identity in Transcaucasian republics is the emergence of ethnic conflicts and wars and also the intervention of outside powers in the internal affairs of Caucasian states. Russian divide-and – rule policy worsens the situation and leads to the escalation of conflicts between different ethnic groups. Extraordinary ethnic diversity of the Caucasus, which is populated by numerous ethnic groups and nationalities, provides favorable ground for outside powers for fostering ethnic animosities. Common identity reconstruction is impossible under conditions of intense conflict because once ethnic groups are mobilized for war, they will have already produced, and will continue producing social institutions and discourses that reinforce their distinctive ethnic identity and will oppose any attempts of transformation of their exclusive ethnic identities into inclusive civil ones. 9 Intense violence increases hostilities between the dominant nation and ethnic groups. It also creates atrocity memories, personal experiences of fear, mistrust, hatred, which lock people

SECTION I: Education and Social Issues into their group identity and prevents the development of the broader identity. In other words war hardens ethnic identities, divides society on ethnic lines and prevents the development of common civil identity. Ethnic conflicts and wars are very often generated by the promotion of exclusive identities. Outside powers, especially empires have often encouraged and some of them still encourage the development of exclusive identities, as fragmented societies are much easier to control than united and powerful political communities. Most states are made up of various ethnic and sub-ethnic groups. Therefore, supporting ethnocentrism and separatism often causes the emergence of brutal conflicts and breakdown of political communities. The division of India and the creation of the independent Muslim state - Pakistan in 1947 can be taken as an example. Another example is the attempt of Tsarist Russia to use sub-ethnic differences within the Georgian nation for the dismemberment of the Georgian state. For this purpose they invented a Mingrelian alphabet and tried to introduce teaching in the primary schools in Mingrelian and Svan languages. This plan failed because of the strong opposition from the Georgian intelligentsia belonging to the same sub-ethnic groups. Members of the Georgian intelligentsia realized that the implementation of this plan would have caused the complete disintegration of the Georgian state. 10 Similar plan was more successful in Abkhazia where generations of Abkhazs were raised according to Russian traditions and customs. This perfidious, anti- Georgian policy caused almost complete Russification of the Abkhaz and their alienation from the Georgian nation, with whom they shared a common historical heritage. If not this deliberate Russian intervention in internal affairs of Georgia, the construction of common identity would have been quiet possible, given that Abkhaz nobility had pro-Georgian orientation and church services were conducted in Georgian language in Abkhazia. Abkhaz nobles spoke fluent Georgian and for centuries kept Georgian customs and traditions. But Georgian language’s role was deliberately diminished in Abkhazia and generations of Abkhazs were brought up with a hatred for the Georgians. Soviet Empire, like its predecessor Tsarist Russia, continued anti- Georgian activities and prepared a fertile ground for internal ethnic conflicts in Georgia. Soviet policy in Georgia was to encourage ethnic differences. Soviet authorities promoted the development of a sense of political and ethnic distinctiveness among various ethnic groups in Georgia. This policy worsened inter-ethnic relations dramatically in Georgia. It also discouraged the building of common civil identity, formation of a single political community and transformed Georgia into a weak and fragmented state. Georgia’s weakness is the result of its multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multilingual nature and its incapacity to create a common civil identity for its multiethnic citizenry. Although multi-ethnicity is a serious obstacle to nation-state building (especially if it is the outside power’s interest to divide the multi-ethnic society), it does not always cause ethnic conflicts and wars, especially if different ethnic groups share a “sense of unity” and if they form an alliance on the basis of supra-ethnic identity. We can take as an example Dagestan, which consists of multiple ethnic groups and tribes, but despite of its multi-ethnicity it has become a united political community. Dagestan did not follow the road of ethnic division and did not experience fragmentation and division of its multi- ethnic society. According to Kisriev “this happened because the true structure of the political forces that have taken shape there was based not on ethnic affiliation but on clearer identities rooted in the traditional political structures, the jamaats.” 11 The jamaat is a form of organisation based on clan rather than ethnic solidarity, and local jamaats form alliances with their neighbours and, in some cases, confederations of alliances. Jamaat system may not work in other countries (what works in one society, may not work in another), but ethnic conflicts and wars can be reduced by encouraging individuals and groups to adopt more benign, inclusive identities.

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Political elites and leaders can make conscious efforts to unite people on the basis of broader identities that transcend the ethnic division, such as ideology, class, or civil loyalty to the nation-state. Long term-peace and stability can be achieved and ethnic antagonism can be eliminated if the opposing ethnic groups can be persuaded to adopt a larger identity and if they can be united into a single political community. Ethnic disputes can be eliminated if Georgian society will be united on the basis of common civil identity.

References:

1. Patrick H. O’Neil (2007), Essentials of comparative politics, second edition, New York, pages 44,45. 2. Andrew Heywood (1997), Politics, Bath, page 132 3. Gabriel A. Almond, G.Bingham Powell, JR, Russel J. Dalton, Kaare Storm (2008), Comparative Politics Today. A world view, New York, page 14. 4. Patrick H. O’Neil(2007), Essentials of comparative politics, second edition, New York, pages 49-51 5. Robert J.Art, Robert Jervis (2005), International Politics: Enduring Concepts and Contemporary Issues, New York, page 504. 6. Gabriel A. Almond, G.Bingham Powell, JR, Russel J. Dalton, Kaare Storm (2008), Comparative Politics Today. A world view, New York, pages 12,13. 7. Gabriel A. Almond, G.Bingham Powell, JR, Russel J. Dalton, Kaare Storm (2008), Comparative Politics Today. A world view, New York, page 8. 8. Patrick H. O’Neil, Ronald Rogowski(2004), Essential Readings in Comparative Politics, New York, pages 52-55. 9. Robert J. Art, Robert Jervis(2005), International Politics: Enduring Concepts and Contemporary Issues, New York, pages 503-,505 10. Revaz Gachechiladze(1995), The new Georgia:Space, Society, Politics, London. Pages(29,30) 11. Carter, Richard(2001)”Defying Prejudice, Advancing Equality-1: Minorities in central and eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union”, London: EveryChild. Available at: http://www.crin.org/docs/Defying_Prejudice_Advancing_Equality.pdf

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Making a Research (American Experience)

Abstract NINO CHACHANIDZE*

Making a research is always difficult for students especially when you are badly oriented. At KU teaching research isn’t only the work of a lecturer. It is the joint endeavor on one hand of a professor and on the ether hand of the several librarians in close cooperation with the Center for Teaching Excellence. CTE supports the lecturers, professor’s enthusiasm to realize their ideas through innovative syllabus-to apply it to the relevant class. The task was to evaluate the posters by Poster rubrics (Evaluating and Generating Ideas and Conversations From Posters). The title of the handout was “Talking about Topics and Turkey” the handouts were designed to help them understand how to use the information research process to: 1. identify a topic, 2 narrow the topic into a formulated focus 3. In the second part she spoke about the selection of the topic and again the emotional state: confusion, some anxiety, feeling good after selection a possible topic and anticipation of researching a possible topic. The third part was information requirements, here also was discussed the emotional state: doubt, uncertainty, confusion and at times threatening by information. Part five offered searching sources and part six concluded the information research process. It can be observed, that most distinctive feature of the abovementioned syllabus is the attention specifically given to the students’ emotional state during different stages of their work on research paper. The primary purpose of CTE is to build community among faculty members and to help them make student learning visible. Facilitate meetings with small groups of faculty members to find time-efficient and effective ways to improve student learning; Assist faculty with representing the intellectual work they do in teaching, including developing portfolios; Host workshops, conferences, and discussions forums on teaching and learning in higher education; Publish newsletters, research reports, and other works on scholarship of teaching; Meet individually with faculty and institutional staff who want discuss any facet of teaching and student learning. It was my advisor’s Prof. Cheryl Lester’s course: “Intro to current Issues and research in American Studies”. I had a chance to attend and watch how the recommendations from the Center for Teaching Excellence were realized step by step. Having fulfilled 3 stages at CTE: preparation to teach, advancing your teaching and documenting it you are at final one - this is the creation of an electronic portfolio on CTE web and in this way the lecturer is making her teaching visible.

* Lecturer, Rustavi Independent Institute, Rustavi, Georgia. 38

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Making a Research (American Experience)

NINO CHACHANIDZE*

Making a research is always difficult for students especially when you are badly oriented. I remember my diploma paper and my work full of obstacles and my advisor who did the greater part of it. In 2006/07 I visited the University of Kansas as an exchange scholar of JFDP in the field of American Studies. There were many interesting things which deserve oversea scholar’s attention, they were new and made me think to compare my early years as a student and later my university teaching experience in Rustavi Independent Institute. At KU teaching research isn’t only the work of a lecturer. It is the joint endeavor on one hand of a professor and on the ether hand of the several librarians in close cooperation with the Center for Teaching Excellence. CTE supports the lecturers, professor’s enthusiasm to realize their ideas through innovative syllabus- to apply it to the relevant class. The collaboration of the course designer, of a librarian and CTE was very fruitful and reached its peak at the symposium, at the poster session, where the students displayed posters of their research topics, and were ready to answer all the related questions i.e. to defend their writing. It can be noted that before they had experimental class session, where only the lecturer and students participated. The task was to evaluate the posters by Poster rubrics (Evaluating and Generating Ideas and Conversations from Posters). They were evaluated by a topic summary and self-reflection of researcher. The attendance of the librarian was very unusual for me, but at the same time very interesting. The title of the handout was “Talking about Topics and Turkey” the handouts were designed to help them understand how to use the information research process to: 1. identify a topic, 2 narrow the topic into a formulated focus 3. use the focus to identify keywords and concepts. During her talk she discussed what they were going to research, where she warned them that there might be some negative emotional state, for example uncertainty, unwillingness to be open to any and all ideas because it was too overwhelming, thoughts about topics could seem vague. In the second part she spoke about the selection of the topic and again the emotional state: confusion, some anxiety, feeling good after selection a possible topic and anticipation of researching a possible topic. And every part included the examples. The third part was information requirements, here also was discussed the emotional state: doubt, uncertainty, confusion and at times threatening by information. Part four was devoted to the formulation of a specific focus with the description of emotional state, example, selection of keywords to find research material. Part five offered searching sources and part six concluded the information research process. It can be observed, that most distinctive feature of the abovementioned syllabus is the attention specifically given to the students’ emotional state during different stages of their work on research paper. Besides the assistance, which the students had at the lecture, as we have already mentioned above there was the Center for Teaching Excellence and if any of Ku professor was eager to implement a new curriculum, he/she was welcome at Center for teaching excellence, which was led by Dan Bernstein, it was established in 1997. The primary purpose of CTE is build community among faculty members and to help them make student learning visible. In order to fulfill these purposes, they support faculty members and instructional staff in various ways:  Facilitate meetings with small groups of faculty members to find time-efficient and effective ways to improve student learning

* Lecturer, Rustavi Independent Institute, Rustavi, Georgia. 39

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 Assist faculty with representing the intellectual work they do in teaching, including developing portfolios.  Host workshops, conferences, and discussions forums on teaching and learning in higher education  Publish newsletters, research reports, and other works on scholarship of teaching  Meet individually with faculty and institutional staff who want discuss any facet of teaching and student learning Among many and various suggestions and help from the center I could observe in practice the new syllabus implementation in the process of teaching. It was my advisor’s Prof. Cheryl Lester’s course: “Intro to current Issues and research in American Studies”. This was mandatory in order to earn the bachelor’s degree. I had a chance to attend and watch how the recommendations from the Center for Teaching Excellence were realized step by step. Having fulfilled 3 stages at CTE: preparation to teach, advancing your teaching and documenting it you are at final one - this is the creation of an electronic portfolio on CTE web and in this way the lecturer is making her teaching visible. In conclusion, I can say that such aforesaid supportive activities as on one hand librarians helpful and encouraging lectures, their practical involvement and on the other hand CTE effort prepared the students for their best results.

References:

1. Syllabi from the University of Kansas in American Studies by the permission of Prof. Cheryl Lester www.ku.edu

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Echo of the Invisible World – Endangered Native American Languages

Abstract

NINO FARIZOVA*

The topic concerns the status of Native American languages in the United States from the viewpoint that they are dying languages and there need to be found the ways to preserve them. The title of essay – “echo of the invisible world” – from the very beginning gives hints about the whole drama of the story… “Invisible” is the key word here; the fact that they are sometimes called invisible minority in the United States cannot be denied, these people are trying to reach their voices to the rest of the world, trying to keep their treasure (culture, religion, languages) alive, but still their voices are the echo of the invisible world. The main idea of the essay is turning the invisible into the visible – preservation of the indigenous languages. 1. Generalization; presenting Native Americans and their languages The exposition opens up with the role of languages in general. It’s assumption that language is like a keystone for every society, especially for ethnic minority groups, because their languages is somehow the culture in the New World they live. The theme broadens with presenting Native Americans, the people from the Western Hemisphere, who by the time of first European arrival formed the nation of 40 million people speaking 1500 different dialects; nowadays there are approximately only a million Native Americans speaking 175 distinct languages. The Native languages should be classified geographically rather than linguistically. 2. The most widely spread native American languages: Cherokee and Navajo; The words borrowed from these languages Navajo is spoken by 150.000 people and Cherokee (Tsa-la-gi pronounced by Natives) is one of the most important indigenous languages, from the viewpoint, that there are no “r” based sounds in the alphabet and lot of their words are used in modern English nowadays. Many cities have an Indian word for name. 3. Pronunciation; specific letters in indigenous languages/similarities with Georgian and Russian Each Native American language has its different kind of pronunciation and the sounds “k”, “t”, “p”, “c” are followed by a glottal stop, typical for Georgian language. 4. Language – the way to survive and defeat the enemy Navajo, Apache and Cherokee were used for wartime communications by the U.S. military to avoid enemy make out some secret keys of military operations. Many Navajo even took part in the American navy during World War 2 as the transmitters of very important messages in their native language. 5. So ancient and such greatly developed in grammar! Some Native American languages have a stress accent like in English and others have an accent of rising and falling tones similar to Chinese. Native American languages are polysynthetic. In their language a sentence or phrase is expressed by one long word unit. 6. Categorization of Native American languages Indigenous languages of Americans are widely spoken in the South America to Alaska and Greenland. Categorization was made by Edward Sapir in 1929 (the names of the groups see in full essay) 7. Being overshadowed – the status of Native American languages in the United States.

*Junior student, Faculty of Humanities, Direction of American Studies, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 41

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Native Americans have been brainwashed for generations by English-only policy. Their languages are about three percent of the world’s languages presently. Out of those 175 languages in the U.S. only 11% is still being learned. 8. What should be done to preserve them? a) Overcoming barriers, getting closer. b) Establishing “tribal governments” c) Establishing communication centers/media d) Providing education e) Employment, job-promotion f) Developing trading/economics The U.S. government also enacts major federal policies that are to provide support for preservation of their language, traditions, culture. (Major legislative acts*) 9. The most important legislative acts. Sponsored by Senator Daniel Inouye, Democrat of Hawaii, the 1990 Native American language act is one of the most important indigenous language preservation bills. It emphasizes on: a) Native American language survival b) Student’s increased success/performance c) Student awareness of their culture d) Student’s community pride The second one is called The Esther Martinez Native American Language Preservation Act enacted by George W. Bush in December 15, 2006 as an award for Martinez’s efforts to preserve the Tewa language. 10. Closing section – Government and people involvement Much more should be done to preserve the unique language of tribal peoples in America; not only should the government be involved in this process, but ordinary people must also take an active part.

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Echo of the Invisible World – Endangered Native American Languages

NINO FARIZOVA*

Every language has its own neat sparkle of life. We are all members of a social group and members of society as a whole. People interact in many ways and it’s assumption that communication is the most common and important for understanding each other’s values as well as studying to respect other nations and races. Learning a language is learning a culture, thus learning to understand more people around us. Language is like a keystone for every society and especially for ethnic minority groups; because the language is the scope of their culture in the New World those people live. This assay, specifically, covers the status of Native American languages, from the viewpoint that they are dying languages and there need to be found the ways and put efforts to preserve them, because language survival is the essential issue for the nation to keep on existing. Indigenous Americans have rich history and diversity of the cultures. While Natives are still in the process of formulating their history today, their past can and should be a valuable tool for evaluating American history and are essential for understanding America in general. Indigenous influences have had a huge impact on the development of the United States and still have an important role in American life, in the past and up to the present. Native American languages were the languages of the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere and their descendants. By the time of the first European arrival to the New World about 40 million people spoke 1,500 different dialects; nowadays there are approximately a million Native Americans in South America and the West Indies, speaking 175 distinct languages; exactly Europeans led to extinction of those languages, but many of them are still in use today. The Native American languages should be classified geographically rather than linguistically, as they don’t belong to a particular linguistic family, like the Indo-European or Afro-asiatic languages do. Quite notable fact is that, Western Hemisphere has the largest number of distinctly different Native languages, forming even geographical divisions: North America (excluding Mexico), Mexico and Central America, South America and the West Indies. The most widely spread Native American languages in the United States is Navajo, spoken by 150.000 people and at some degree Cherokee too, however they are still considered to be “endangered languages” that can die out within the next generation. Going through the language differences and their peculiarities the latter is especially attractive; The Cherokee language does not contain any "r" based sounds. The word "Cherokee" itself, when spoken in the language, is expressed as Tsa-la-gi (pronounced Jah-la-gee by native speakers). Cherokee areas are considered to be Sothern states, Georgia and Alabama. Nowadays Cherokee tribes’ languages experience assimilation with modern English language; many words have been borrowed from the English Language, such as gasoline which in Cherokee is ga-so-li-ne. and it also happens vice versa, when we come across the words borrowed from the languages of tribes. There is even a town having an Indian word for name: "Nowata". The word nowata, derives from a Delaware Indian word nu-wi-ta meaning "welcome" or "friend". Other examples of borrowed words are ka-wi for coffee (by the way, compare it with our Georgian “Kawa”) and wa-tsi for watch… English has been enriched by such words as moccasin, raccoon, terrapin, tomahawk, totem, wampum from local North American languages; indigenous Mexican languages

* Junior student, Faculty of Humanities, Direction of American Studies, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 43

SECTION I: Education and Social Issues contributed such words, as chocolate, coyote, and tomato; from aboriginal languages of the West Indies we use barbecue, cannibal, hurricane, maize, and potato. Each Native American language has its different kind of pronunciation, there is no standard orthography, but most of them have the sounds that we hardly can find in English or in the most of European languages. The sounds “k”, “t”, “p” or “c” is similar to Georgian sounds. They are followed by a glottal stop. The sounds in one of the Native American languages – Lakota - are the same as in Georgian language, for instance PePela (პეპელა) (a butterfly); here, P isn't soft (the same is in Lakota language), and K>> Kaxeti (კახეთი) the sound is hard and not kind of a "Kettle"; the same is for "ta"; "co"--> (in Georgian raCHa - რაჭა) but not pronounced like "CHat" in English. Russian sounds also stand quite close to those p, t and k letter pronunciations (Tarelka (a plate), Pechenie (cookies), Kuritsa (a hen), however in Russian you can’t find "ch" (ჭ) sound (Lakota: "co"). Obviously the Native American languages have contributed numerous place-names in the United States. The European languages such as English, Spanish, and Portuguese, have borrowed a number of words from aboriginal languages and what is noteworthy, some aboriginal American languages, among them Navajo, Apache, and Cherokee were used for wartime communications in 1940s by the U.S. military to avoid enemy make out some secret keys of military operations. Many Navajo people even took part in the American navy during World War II as the transmitters of very important messages in their native language. Asia is usually believed as the original home of the Native Americans; however this concept isn’t still proved. There are lots of theories concerning this issue; one of them even admits that they belong to Sino-Tibetan linguistic family, to which belongs Chinese as well. According to the teaching of American religious denomination of Mormons, Native Americans (Indians) are descendants of two Jewish tribes - Nephites and Lamanites, which arrived to American continent unmemorable times ago. The Native American languages are greatly developed in their grammar. Some Native American languages have a stress accent like in English, and others have an accent of rising and falling tones similar to Chinese. Native American languages are polysynthetic; in their language a sentence or phrase is expressed by one long word unit. In a polysynthetic language, no clear distinction is made between a word and a sentence. For example, a series of words expressing several connected ideas, such as "I want to go to the forest," would be combined all together to shape a single word or meaning unit. The spoken languages were neither primitive nor simple, and many had grammars as complex as those of Russian and Latin. However, except the Mayans and their neighbors near the Yucatan peninsula, which used character or symbol system representing an idea or a thing, none of the native languages of America had a writing system until the arrival of Europeans. Another means of nonlinguistic communication among many of the aboriginal Americans was sign language, consisting of gestures with the hands and arms. Native American groups, regardless of speaking different languages still were able to communicate with sign language. Indigenous languages of the Americas are more widely spoken in the South America to Alaska and Greenland. The classification of Native American languages was made by Edward Sapir in 1929, arranging the numerous linguistic groups in six major unrelated linguistic families. There are Eskimo-Aleut, Algonquian-Wakashan, Nadene, Penutian, Hokan- Siouan, and Aztec-Tanoan; later three more were added Muskogean, Athabaskan, and Salishan. Native North American languages are about three percent of the world's languages presently. “Actually very few of the present generation know anything of the Indians, about their dignity and beauty of life. They are even called the 'invisible minority' in the U.S.” It 44

SECTION I: Education and Social Issues obviously means that these languages may soon die out. They are even included in so called “contact zone”. It suggests that different Native Languages must not be sent to the passive process, people should communicate through these languages to prevent them from disappearance. Native American languages suffered due to the dominance of English; besides not many books have been published about these languages and there aren’t many Native American internet websites that partly also leads to their extinction. it’s clear, people having previously great culture, now are losing their languages, because they have been brainwashed for generations by English-only policy and pressure in the schools to give up studying of their languages. “Many Americans are ashamed because of their behavior, that in the past they forced Native Americans to abandon their culture and language. Americans can’t erase what they did some centuries or even decades ago”. The most important aspect nowadays is that they have to learn from it to avoid such mistakes in the future. In our time there are many American Indian language and generally, culture preservation groups, providing assistance to “endangered languages”. Dennis Banks, a cofounder of the American Indian Movement, has probably done as much as anyone alive to advance American Indian rights. In his Metro Active “His Aim is True" Banks exclaims: “What we did in the 1960s and early 1970s was raise the consciousness of white America that this government has a responsibility to Indian people. That there are treaties; that textbooks in every school in America have a responsibility to tell the truth. Awareness reached across America that if Native American people had to resort to arms at Wounded Knee, there must really be something wrong. And Americans realized that native people are still here, that they have a moral standing, a legal standing. From that, our own people began to sense the pride.” The question arises; how much longer will these remaining languages survive? Out of those 175 languages in the United States, only eleven percent is still being learned. In Hawaii, until recently, practically no one under the age of seventy could still speak Hawaiian. Hawaii is the only state that has its own single native language, which before the U.S. entered the state, was powerful and prestigious. In Alaska there are only two languages still spoken, and 18 other languages with no children speakers. What does it specifically mean? Are Native Americans overshadowed? Are they becoming really “invisible”, being “nobody” among Anglo-Saxon white population or afro- Americans? Currently there are some Native American groups in the United States working to revive the languages of their peoples. There are an increasing number of such language-learning services as tribal classes, language camps, and local college courses in indigenous languages. The United States Government also provides Native language preservation bills from time to time, as the indigenous languages are still in danger of disappearance after the years of harsh colonial conditions of unfairness. What actually should be done? . At first particular barriers should be overcome. As we know most of Native Americans live isolated from major population centers. Most non-Indians admitted they rarely encountered Native Americans in their daily lives. While sympathetic toward Native Americans and expressing regret over the past, most people had only a vague understanding of the problems facing Native Americans today. For their part, Native Americans told researchers that they continued to face discrimination and mistreatment in the broader society. . Obviously, establishing trust is the key to success. Native Americans distrust the government of the U.S. To get the problems of indigenous people, one should talk to them not via some papers but there is a need of face-to-face interaction. Natives should be listened to and understood. What if the US government would establish “tribal

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governments”?! In this way they will be more comfortable with their own federal administration than the state one; . Native Americans aren’t “nobody” or “invisible” they do mean something due to their old and unique culture, history and beauty and diversity of languages. Sure, nowadays no Native American languages, art, ceremonies or religions are banned any more, but they need to be given a certain motivation. There should be communication centers and media also must be involved in this process, local Indian radio or TV should exist. . Indian unemployment still hovers at 40 percent. Obviously lots of works and efforts must be provided to permit Native Americans enter the labor force and let them feel being the rightful citizens of the United States. . One of the most important aspects is to make available good education to people who became diminishing minority. Their languages should be taught at schools. . Quite notable is also trading and economic situation; permanent trading ties should be established between Indians and the rest of the population. . The government should provide more chances to Native Americans to achieve high positions and occupations and to let them enlist in the United States national army. By serving in military forces they will experience the sense and obligation of defending their country, America; exactly this will also unite two nations on one land, engraving the sense of respect towards one another in their hearts. Nowadays, The US government also enacts major federal policies that are to provide support for preservation of their language, traditions, culture. The major legislative acts are: . Indian Removal Act of 1830 . General Allotment Act of 1887 or The Dawes Act . The Citizenship Act of 1924 . Indian Reorganization Act (1928) or the Meriam Report, "The Problem of Indian Administration.” . American Indian Religious Freedom Act (1994) . Native American Graves Protection & Repatriation Act of 1990, amended 1996 . Native American Languages Act of 1990, amended 1996 Sponsored by Senator Daniel Inouye, Democrat of Hawaii, the 1990 (1996) Native American Language Act is considered to be one of the most important indigenous Language preservation bills. It emphasizes on students achievement and educational opportunity that involves in itself the respect and support of their first language; the acts of suppression of Native American languages and cultures is against the United States policy of freewill for Native Americans. The bill also grants a Native American language the same academic credit through course work as a foreign language and fulfilling foreign language even in the institutions of higher education. The US government should support:

. Native American language survival, . Student’s Increased success and performance, . Student awareness and knowledge of their culture and history, and . Student’s community pride.

The former president of the United States, George W. Bush also put his efforts in protection of indigenous languages by the Native language preservation bill, called the Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation Act, enacted on Friday, December 15, 2006. It amends the Native American Programs Act of 1974 to authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services, as part of the Native American languages grant program, to make three-year

SECTION I: Education and Social Issues grants for educational Native American language nests, survival schools, and restoration programs.

The bill was enacted in commemoration of Esther Martinez, a Native language teacher and storyteller from New Mexico. She was killed in a car accident on September 16, just days after receiving a National Heritage Fellowship award for her efforts to preserve the Tewa language. By authorizing funding for language nests, language survival schools and language restoration programs, supporters hope to prevent the loss of additional languages.

In 2000, President Bush honored Navajo Code Talkers who served in World War II. Of the more than 300 languages spoken in the U.S. at the time of European contact, only 175 remain, according to the Indigenous Language Institute. By 2050, only 20 will be spoken with regular use, the organization says, unless efforts are taken to teach the languages to new generations.

"For many years, tribes were discouraged from speaking their native languages and now many languages have disappeared. This legislation will help ensure native languages are preserved, and passed on to future generation," said Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico).

The grants for the new programs as usually are distributed by the Administration for Native Americans within the Department of Health and Human Services. Moreover, tribes must work to ensure Congress and the White House to provide adequate funds to carry out the future bills. Eventually, why is the language preservation so important? Preservation of the language means preservation of one’s history too. The main obstacle about preservation of the Native American languages is that new generation doesn’t seem interested in their culture; they tend to speak English because it’s so popular all over the world. It isn’t even their fault; as they can benefit from modern languages more, they tend to forget their own. In order to maintain their language they should be taught to love their native languages from very young age. As they grow up in bilingual cultures, they will start appreciating it more and will find their native language not that difficult and useless. Languages unify people and make them distinct from other nations; without the native language, there is no culture, there is no identity. People don’t do anything to save their languages because they deny the fact of the language loss, by preferring to speak modern languages such as English, Spanish, or German. In this way they endanger their own language into extinction and one of the reasons why it happens is the painful process they went through, being punished at school for speaking their language and being educated with so much English from the colonial times. Denial is a key word. It represents the main barrier that obstructs the revival, and maintenance of Native languages. Much more should be done to preserve the unique language of tribal people in America; not only should the government be involved, but ordinary people must also take an active part in this process.

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References:

1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_languages_of_the_Americas

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee

3. http://www.lakhota.org/ALPHABET/alphabet.htm

4. Bibliography of Native Americans in the U.S. Military MASHANTUCKET PEQUOT MUSEUM AND RESEARCH CENTER (Archives & Special Collections

5. The Book of Mormon http://www.cogsci.indiana.edu/farg/rehling/nativeAm/ling.html

6. The national academies press Washington University Prof. Dr. Faust

7. Dimension of Native America: The Contact Zone by Franklin Nigh, Robin and Jehanne,

8. Teihet-Fisk Washington University student- Hannah Kaplan

9.http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/03.14.96/indian-9611.html

10.http://nabe.org/documents/policy_legislation/NALanguagesActs.pdf

11. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?tab=summary&bill=h109-4766

12.http://www.nysaaac.org/native_american_affairs.htm

SECTION II: United States – Georgia

Peculiarities of Waves of Georgian Emigration to the North America

Abstract

ELENE MEDZMARIASHVILI*

The paper deals with peculiarities of waves of Georgian emigration to the USA and Canada. It answers on the following questions: what were the reasons of each wave, what social strata emigrants belonged, and what other differences are among representatives of these waves, what are the peculiarities of each and, especially, the third, the last wave of Georgian immigration to the North America, what is the degree of their Americanization and what role does the Orthodoxy play in maintaining the national identity? On the basis of sources from Georgian archives, American and Georgian Statistical data as well as interviews with Georgian immigrants the author concludes that:  There were three waves of Georgian emigration to the North America: the first wave - 1910-20s, the second wave - after World War 2 and the third wave - 1990s.  Before regaining independence in 1918 the main reason of Georgian emigration was a desire to change for the better of social-economic status and the most of emigrants were representatives of the lower social strata. After sovietization of Georgia in 1921 there were political reasons of emigration and emigrants were the people from the high social strata who escaped from the communist dictatorship.  There were fighters on the side of Germany and former Georgian captives during the World War 2 among emigrants of the second wave who came to the US and Canada from the European countries.  The last third wave of Georgian emigration was provoked by social-economic reasons on the whole again. Among emigrants there were people, especially women, who were ready to get the most no prestigious and often humiliating jobs as well as high qualified specialists, representatives of creative intelligentsia and students who were eager to study in the best American universities and who did not come back to Georgia. There are a lot of illegal immigrants among them.  Descendants of the first two waves' immigrants Americanized completely, and the third wave' immigrants - partially.  Orthodoxy plays the most important role in the maintenance of national identity among the Georgian immigrants and in consolidating the immigration.

* Prof. Dr., Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 49

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Peculiarities of Waves of Georgian Emigration to the North America

ELENE MEDZMARIASHVILI*

The world migration processes always happened for a reason as they do today. Various kinds of conflicts, wars provoke masses of refugees and push people to migrate to neighboring or more distant countries from the conflict zones. Other political, social and economic problems, such as revolutions, economic crisis and many others, result in emigration. All these problems were not foreign to the XX century Georgia. Exactly this century was marked by three waves of emigration to the North America. Each of them had its own reasons. The composition of the emigrants differed in social, gender and age aspects, and in their level of education. Thus, immigrants of different waves differed in the quality of Americanization and the level of success they achieved in a new homeland. The goal of this paper is not to investigate the history of specific representatives of any of the waves of emigration. Georgian researchers G. Sharadze [1], R. Daushvili [2-11], R. Nishnianidze [12-15] and others [For example, see 8] have produced such studies. I will only try to answer several questions: what are the peculiarities of each and, especially, the third, the last wave of Georgian emigration to the North America? What are the differences in the social, gender and age composition of the emigrants? What is the degree of their Americanization and what role does the Orthodoxy play in maintaining the national identity? Unfortunately, no one has made a special study on all the topics listed above. But in American Studies in Georgia and in Georgian Studies several works have been compiled in which, besides the scientists named above, authors explore the lives of various Georgian immigrants in the U.S. [17-21]. Although we come across separate analytical articles [22-24], the issue of Georgian immigrants is quite unknown to American researchers. Nowadays there are no works in the U.S. and Canada which study Georgian immigration, though plenty of works are dedicated to the general, theoretical issues of immigration and to the study of such numerous Diasporas as Jewish, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese and so on. Maybe this gap results from the fact that the number of Georgians in the U.S. was quite insignificant during the whole XX century and that the Georgian immigrants who came from the Russian Empire and later from the USSR (after its collapse as well) were mostly regarded as Russians and not Georgians, whom the Americans didn’t know at all for a long time. Herewith, if we consider Columbus as the first discoverer of the American Continent, the Georgians were aware of America since its discovery. We claim this on the basis of the information that among the members of the Columbus Expedition, there were two Georgian brothers. This fact became known to us not a long time before, and it is the result of research made by Georgian scientists in recent years [see 25]. A special interest towards America developed in Georgia in the second half of the XIX century, and this fact is well reflected in the Georgian mass-media of that time. By then the image of America had been created that so much attracted Georgians and others to the Continent. Just in the 1860s the first Georgians appeared in the United States, although very rarely. And since the 1880s larger groups came into sight. Mainly these were workers from Racha (region of Western Georgia) who worked on the Seattle railroad construction and horsemen from Guria (the other region of Western Georgia) who became circus actors. So both groups participated in disreputable activities and filled the low social strata of the American society. Consequently, their gender composition was homogeneous: with a few exceptions, they

* Prof. Dr., Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 50

SECTION II: United States – Georgia were males. The majority of those, who stayed in the U.S., created mixed families and their descendants are entirely assimilated today. In this respect, the fate of the first generation of Georgian immigrants in Canada is very interesting. Because of the existence of an open boundary between the U.S. and Canada, the population moved easily from the border regions to Canada. The Georgians appeared in Canada from the very moment of foundation of Vancouver. The Georgian workers came there from Seattle and took part in the timber refinement and the construction of railroad. The number of Georgians in these two cities was permanently changing, because as soon as they accumulated the required amount of money, they returned to Georgia and newcomers took their place. They gradually settled in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Edmonton and so on. The Georgians viewed the U.S. and Canada as one geographic unit and called it “North America”. The Canadian Georgians and mainly the same Rachvelians had developed a specific system of mutual assistance, which made their adaptation easier. While they were living together in large families, they preserved their national identity. But in due course their unity was dissolved. Reproduced families separated and dispersed in various cities while searching for jobs. The following generations lost their mother tongue, the connection with each other and with the homeland. But as I know, many of them remember their origins until today. The most famous among Canadian Georgians is one of the pioneers of Canada Gold and Diamond extraction Dimitri Metreveli (Michael Mito) and his son August Mito, who was the owner of two large companies in this field. The constructor of the Canadian aircraft firm “Kaar and Foundry” Mikheil Grigorashvili and others are also famous. After the occupation of Georgia and its sovietization, that is, since the beginning of the 1920s, political refugees made up the principal flow of immigrants. They were mainly representatives of Georgian nobility and anti-Bolshevik political forces. Exactly these years are regarded as the first wave of immigration in the U.S. They came to the States mostly from Europe. This process was especially intensive after the Great Depression. Some of them arrived in America even from Manchuria after its occupation by Japan in 1932. Many of them took their families to the States. So there were women too. Some families were mixed, and in this case the assimilation of their posterity happened quickly. The number of Georgian immigrants in the U.S. didn’t grow significantly during the second wave, that is, after the end of the World War II. The Second wave was mainly composed of the Georgians fighting on the German side or prisoners of war, who did not or could not return home because of their political views. Some of them were the immigrants of the first wave living in Europe who mainly emigrated from Europe to America in order to improve their economic and social conditions. Most of them were men, who chiefly formed mixed families. By this time the number of Georgian immigrants was so insignificant that even in 1955 their number in the U.S. did not exceed 300 [see 11, p.11 (manuscript)]. Their second and especially third generations are already Americanized. Most of them managed to find their place under the American sun and contributed to the life of the new homeland [see 2-16 on the famous Georgian immigrants of this period]. By the 1960s Georgians of both waves turned into an important intellectual force. Due to their professions they gained prestige; some became members of the high society of America and deserved the trust and respect of their colleagues. The success of Georgian Americans resulted in the popularization of the Georgian issue. All of them circulated information on the past of Georgia, its culture, Communist occupation within their own circle. However, their circle was not wide (see the book by Niko Topuria!). The largest number of Georgians arrived in the U.S. and Canada with the third wave. This includes the period after regaining the Independence of Georgia, that is the 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century. Besides the fact that the borders became more open, the tough

SECTION II: United States – Georgia political, social and economic conditions of the country caused the largest wave of emigration in the history of Georgia. According to the latest data, during these years more than a million Georgians and citizens of Georgia of other nationalities immigrated to various countries in the world. Some of them came to the North America. The only official American primary source, that can help a scientist, interested in the statistics of immigrants in the U.S., is the annual statistical collections of the Commerce Department, the U.S. Economics and Statistics Administration which provides the data about the number of Georgian immigrants in different years. [26, p.10]. Though, the number of illegal immigrants is not available, and because of that it is impossible to find exact information on the number of Georgians in the United States. Unfortunately, we don't have data from Canada. Also, data on the immigrants’ gender identity is not available. Although, according to unofficial data, the percent of women among Georgian immigrants has rapidly grown [see 23 about details on this issue] According to this statistical source, the number of Georgian immigrants who have become the citizens of the U.S.A. with the force of the Refugee Act in the 1981-1990’s, is unknown. I think their number can be counted on the fingers, and basically, they are the so-called Georgian Jews and the members of their families. It is possible that they came to the U.S. via another country. From 1991 to 1996, the number of Georgians migrated to America, who received the U.S. citizenship, was 1834, in 1997- 425, and in 1998-100. The numbers are really insignificant, especially considering that between 1965 - 2000, 23 million immigrants arrived in the U.S.A., basically, from South America and Asia [28, p.275], almost the same number as during the 1880-1920’s (24 million), mainly from the Southern and the Eastern Europe, and from Georgia as well [29]. The biggest flow of immigrants occurred precisely in this period. So if we trust official statistics, in recent years the number of Georgian immigrants in the United States has gone down. But it is widely known that actually during the last decades the number of Georgians in the U.S.A. has not declined, but on the contrary, has sharply grown. But this growth, basically, comes from the number of illegal immigrants, who arrive in the country in different ways (for studies, temporal jobs, private or official visas, this or that program and so on.); they don’t come back, and they don’t have the US' citizenship. A similar tendency extends to other countries’ immigrants too [28, p.49; 30, p.182; 31, p.63]. It’s true that the Georgian Diaspora in the U.S. is very diverse at present, and the majority represents low social strata, but among last wave immigrants more than a few people have a high education. Despite this, their Georgian diplomas are useless in the States and Canada, and most of them hold low-paid and disreputable jobs. There is a lot of evidence supporting this fact. Unfortunately, some of the illegal immigrants are criminals as well. For example, in summer 2007 a famous trial was held which concerned the issue of illegal trading of weapons. Alongside with Americans, Armenians, Ukrainians, Georgians too were involved in it. [35]. Although some among the third wave legal immigrants belong to the middle class of the American society and some have entered the upper class. Mainly they are scientists, doctors, painters, actors. Many Georgian immigrants manage to adapt in American society using a great effort, but some are not even trying to do so. It is true that the first and sometimes the second generations of Georgian immigrants often preserved their national identity but at the same time they were especially loyal to their new homeland and became patriots of both. It is true as well that they view themselves as Georgians but they are also devoted citizens of the American state. Like other ethnic groups, in America Georgians fully recognize their obligations towards the country which gave them the chance to build a new life. One of the distinctive features is their religion, if they are Orthodox Christians. I think every Georgian who lives in the States and Canada and is not an atheist or of another faith, stays loyal

SECTION II: United States – Georgia to the Orthodox Christianity, not like Americans in general. An American Georgian may forget his language, not have a firm connection with the motherland, but he or she will preserve Orthodox Christianity. In this respect, being Georgian in the US and Canada means to be Orthodox Christian. The same might be said about Russians and Gregorian Armenians living there as well as Jews [see 40, p.807-808]. Thanks to their religious beliefs, the Jews regard themselves in a different way in America as well. Orthodox Christians, like other Christians do not have such feelings. Regarding the Jews, Judaism plays on the one hand the role of uniting and on the other hand of separating those from others while the Orthodox Christianity in such a liberal state as the U.S. only unites but does not separate. It often unifies Orthodox Christians of different origins. It doesn’t matter if a Georgian immigrant goes or does not go to a church. In case a Georgian loses Orthodoxy or for example, a Jew abandons Judaism, he can be finally considered as assimilated. This is what the American scientists Wendy Brown [41] and Herbert Parsen [42, p.196] think about the Jews. From this point of view, those immigrants of the first wave, who were not Catholics coming from the Southern Georgia or atheist Social-Democrats, might have been religious and they preserved Orthodox Christianity. Such were e.g. National-Democrats. The situation with the second wave immigrants was quite different. They had lived in Georgia during the Soviet times and grew up as atheists. So their children too were less religious. These people found themselves in an entirely different, liberal, pluralist environment, where the attitude towards confessions was completely tolerant. Consequently, such conditions, on the one hand, encouraged their assimilation and, on the other hand, the full religious freedom gave them the possibility to retain Orthodoxy in the case of mixed families (if the spouses were Russians or the Ukrainians). Despite the fact that the number of Georgian Orthodox Churches in America is very small, a large part of Georgians go to Greek, Russian or Ukrainian Orthodox churches. Specifically Georgian parishes represent the part of the Georgian immigrants who keep their ethnical identity at best. From this perspective, religion, that is, Orthodox Christianity is a kind of barrier on the way to Americanization just as it used to be a means of salvation for Georgians for centuries. If we consider the life of Georgians in the U.S. and Canada, we have to realize that during the 20th century some immigrants were trying to maintain Orthodoxy, celebrated religious holidays, invited (and still do so today) famous clergymen in order to perform this or that religious ritual. So, Orthodox Christianity plays the most important role in the maintenance of national identity among Georgian immigrants and in consolidating the immigration. Nowadays we can explain it by the fact that the Church is the only ideological means of consolidation also in Georgia. Georgia still has no other ideology. But if a person cannot manage to be Americanized, that is to integrate politically, socially and culturally into the American society, cannot learn English at an adequate level, he will never become a member of the upper class of this society. Maybe that’s why the number of Georgians among notorious Americans is insignificant? If a person does not know the language well, is not Americanized, he will not have full access to the rights and possibilities this country offers to its citizens. It is true that the borders are becoming more open and the possibilities for immigration to other countries increase, but for such a small nation as Georgia, it is undesirable to lose its citizens. Thus we wish to believe that in Georgia there will be no political, social or economic cataclysms which will force our citizens to immigrate to other countries, including even such “desirable” ones as the U.S. or Canada.

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References:

1. SaraZe g. amerikeli qarTvelebi Tvalis erTi gadavlebiT, Tb. 1992 2. dauSvili r. qarTveli mrewvelebi da gamomgoneblebi amerikaSi, Tb. 2002; 3. dauSvili r. qarTveli mrewvelebi amerikaSi, krebulSi àmerikis Seswavlis sakiTxebi~, V, Tb., 2008. 4. dauSvili r. qarTuli emigracia 1921-1939 wlebSi, Tb. 2007; 5. dauSvili r. qarTveli emigrantebi amerikis SeerTebul StatebSi, krebulSi àmerikis Seswavlis sakiTxebi~, I, Tb., 2002, gv.114-119. 6. dauSvili r. dimitri metreveli _ qarTveli oqrosmrewveli amerikaSi, krebulSi àmerikis Seswavlis sakiTxebi~, II, Tb., 2003, gv.79-82. 7. dauSvili r. qarTveli konstruqtorebi amerikis aviamrewvelobaSi, krebulSi àmerikis Seswavlis sakiTxebi~, III, Tb., 2005, gv.107-112. 8. dauSvili r. saqarTvelos damxmare amerikuli organizaciebi XX saukunis 20-ian wlebSi, krebulSi àmerikis Seswavlis sakiTxebi~, IV, Tb., 2006, gv.53-58. 9. dauSvili r. qarTuli emigracia 1939-1970 wlebSi (mzaddeba dasabeWdad); 10. dauSvili r. 47 qarTuli portreti emigraciaSi, Tb. 2009 (ibeWdeba); 11. dauSvili r. qarTuli diasporis istoria amerikaSi, Tb. 2009 (ibeWdeba) 12. niSnianiZe r. saqarTvelo samans aqeT da samans iqiT, w. I-II, Tb. 2005; 13. niSnianiZe r. Sexvedrebi, Tb. 2008 14. niSnianiZe r. givi kobaxiZis literaturuli memkvidreoba, krebulSi àmerikis Seswavlis sakiTxebi~, III, Tb., 2005, gv.388-393. 15. niSnianiZe r. mxatvruli saxismetyvelebis erTi aspeqti qarTul emigrantul poeziaSi, krebulSi àmerikis Seswavlis sakiTxebi~, V, Tb., 2008, gv. 16. maxaraZe irakli, CxaiZe akaki, uaild uestis mxedrebi, niumedia (NMT), Tbilisi, 2002. 17. javaxiSvili n. generali jon SalikaSvili _ aSS-is gamoCenili samxedro moRvawe (winaprebi, tradiciebi, dRevandeloba), krebulSi àmerikis Seswavlis sakiTxebi~, II, Tb., 2003, gv.199-204. 18. arvelaZe m. maxaTelebis sami Taoba amerikaSi, krebulSi àmerikis Seswavlis sakiTxebi~, II, Tb., 2003, gv.345-348. 19. qitiaSvili e. aSS-Si qarTuli diasporis zogierTi warmomadgenlis Sesaxeb, krebulSi àmerikis Seswavlis sakiTxebi~, III, Tb., 2005, gv.263-267. 20. zaaliSvili n. qarTvel mxatvarTa emigraciis pirveli talRa amerikis SeerTebul StatebSi (pirveli msoflio omidan `perestroikamde~), krebulSi àmerikis Seswavlis sakiTxebi~, IV, Tb., 2006, gv.369-376. 21. xuciSvili n. amerikaSi moRvawe qarTveli mxatvari _ eTer Wkadua, krebulSi àmerikis Seswavlis sakiTxebi~, V, Tb., 2008, gv. 22. vaSakiZe S. qiqoZe q. asociacia `kvalis` saqmianoba aSS-is qarTuli diasporas gaerTianebisa da saqarTvelosTan misi urTierTobis gaRrmavebis mizniT, krebulSi àmerikis Seswavlis sakiTxebi~, III, Tb., 2005, gv.124-127. 23. meZmariaSvili e. qarTveli imigranti qalebis problemebi aSS-Si, krebulSi àmerikis Seswavlis sakiTxebi~, V, Tb., 2008, gv.198-203. 24. qarTuli diaspora kaliforniaSi. krebulSi àmerikuli literatura da qarTul-amerikuli urTierTobebi~. amerikis Seswavlis sakiTxebisadmi miZRvnili III saerTaSoriso samecniero konferenciis masalebi. quTaisi, 2006, gv. 293-299. 25. CantylaZe g. qristefore kolumbisa da misi eqspediciis monawileebis Sesaxeb pireneisa da kavkasiis iberiidan, krebulSi àmerikis Seswavlis sakiTxebi~, IV, Tb., 2006, gv.149-154. 26. Statistical Abstract of the United States. The National Data Book. 120th Edition, 2000.

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27. U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Statistical Yearbook, annual; and releases. 28. Gary Gerstle. Immigration and Ethnicity in the American Century. In: Perspectives on Modern America. Making Sense of the Twentieth Century. Edited by Harvard Sitkoff, Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford, 2001.

29. U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, 2000 Statistical Yearbook of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. http://uscis.gov/graphics/shared/aboutus/statistics/yearbook2000.pdf. 30. Samuel P. Huntington. Who Are We? America’s Great Debate. Free Press, London, 2005. 31. Economist, 24 June 2000. 32. Steven A. Camarota, Immigrants in the United States, 2007: A profile of America's Foreign-Born Population, November 2007, http://www.cis.org/immigrants_profile_2007 33. Steven Camarota, How Many Americans?, September 2008, http://www.cis.org/node/765 34. BBC News, Center for Immigration Studies, 2007, November 29. 35. Stephen Steinlight, Ignoring problems of illegal immigration leads to exploitation, August 2008, http://www.cis.org/node/759 36. BBC News, March 5, 2007. 37. William McGowan, The 1965 Immigration Reforms and The New York Times: Context, Coverage, and Long-Term Consequences, August 2008, http://www.cis.org/NYT_immigration_coverage 38. Immigration '08, Online Debate Sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, http://www.cis.org/articles/2008/latdebate.html; 39. Stanley Renshon, Becoming American. The Hidden Core of the Immigration Debate, January 2007, http://www.cis.org/articles/2007/back107.html 40. Tony Smith, Ethnicity, Immigration, And The American National Community, February 2001, http://www.cis.org/articles/2001/back201.html 41. Laura Levitt, Impossible Assimilations, American Liberalism, and Jewish Difference: Revisiting Jewish Secularism// American Quarterly, Religion and Politics in the Contemporary United States, Edited by R. Marie Griffith and Melani McAlister, September 2007, Volume 59, Number 3, pp. 807- 832. 42. Wendy Brown, Regulating Aversion: Tolerance in the Age of Adentity and Empire (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2006 43. Herbert Parzen, The Passing of Jewish Secularism in the United States, Judaism 8.3 (Summer, 1959).

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The Most Democratic Country’s Undemocratic Exercise – Death Penalty in the U.S.

Abstract

NINO IAKOBISHVILI*

“He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first”

The capital punishment remains a controversial issue in the United States. Surprisingly, in a highly developed and civilized country as America is, the death penalty is an acceptable punishment. My presentation follows the death penalty history from it is very beginning in the U.S. and the rest of the world. The first established death penalty laws date as far back as the Eighteenth Century B.C. in the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon, which codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes. Today the U.S. is one of the very few industrialized countries in the world which continues to execute criminals. The first known execution in the territory now known as the United States of America was of Captain George Kendall, who was shot by a firing squad in Jamestown in December 1607. The history of the U.S. capital punishment begins in the colonies under the laws of their mother countries and was carried over into United States law and the law of most of the U.S. states and territories. Various methods have been used in the history of the American colonies and the United States:  Burning  Pressing  Breaking on wheel  Bludgeoning  Hanging  Electrocution  Gas chambers  Firing squad  The electric chair  Lethal injection Crimes subject to the death penalty vary by jurisdiction. Capital punishment is a controversial issue; arguments for and against capital punishment is based on moral, practical, religious, and emotional grounds. The debate over the death penalty centers around four issues:  Whether it is morally correct to kill;  Whether the death penalty serves as a deterrent;  Whether the penalty is being applied fairly across racial, social, and economic classes;  Whether the irrevocability of the penalty is justified considering possible new evidence or future revelations of improper conduct by the state.

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After thorough investigations about American death penalty I got interested in my own country’s jurisdiction. The death penalty was completely abolished in Georgia on the May 1, 2000.

* Junior Student, Faculty of Humanities, Direction of American Studies, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 56

Studying this issue thoroughly I want to conclude that the death penalty is an immoral punishment. Execution is murder not a punishment. “Our ancestors... purged their guilt by banishment, not death. And by doing so they stopped that endless vicious cycle of murder and revenge." According to Mahatmas Gandhi “An eye for eye makes the whole world blind”. Do we want to live in the blind world? If we don’t, don’t let the death penalty make all of us killers!

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The Most Democratic Country’s Undemocratic Exercise – Death Penalty in the U.S.

NINO IAKOBISHVILI* “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”1

The capital punishment remains a controversial issue in the United States. Surprisingly, in a highly developed and civilized country as America is, the death penalty is an acceptable punishment. It resists Americans’ strive for democracy, right to “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness”. The first established death penalty laws date as far back as the Eighteenth Century B.C. in the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon, which codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes. International death penalty trends are unmistakably towards abolition. Use of the death penalty worldwide has continued to shrink, and use of the death penalty has also been increasingly curtailed in international law. "The abolition of the death penalty is making us a civilized society. It shows we actually do mean business when we say we have reverence for life." Since 1990, an average of three countries each year have abolished the death penalty, and today over two-thirds of the world's nations have ended capital punishment in law or practice. International law prohibits the use of the death penalty for crimes committed by people younger than 18, yet the execution of child offenders continues in a few countries. Relatively few other developed countries in the world impose the death penalty. Japan and South Korea are the only established democracies in the world, other than the U.S., which still conduct executions. The execution rate in Japan is a small fraction of that in the U.S. Today the U.S. is one of the very few industrialized countries in the world which continues to execute criminals. The first known execution in the territory now known as the United States of America was of Captain George Kendall, who was shot by a firing squad in Jamestown in December 1607. The history of the U.S. capital punishment begins in the colonies under the laws of their mother countries and was carried over into United States law and the law of most of the U.S. states and territories. The methods of execution and the crimes subject to the penalty vary by jurisdiction and have varied widely throughout time. Some jurisdictions have banned it, others have suspended its use, but others are trying to expand its applicability. The states of the U.S. are distinguished by different aspects, for the greatest number of executions or either of abolition of capital punishment at all. The largest single execution in United States history was the hanging of 38 Dakota people convicted of murder and rape in the Dakota War of 1862. They were executed simultaneously on December 26, 1862 in Mankato, Minnesota. Capital punishment has been illegal in the U.S. state of Michigan since 1846, making Michigan's death penalty history unusual in contrast to many other states. Michigan was the first English- speaking government in the world to abolish the death penalty for all crimes except treason in 1846. In 1930’s executions reach the highest levels in American history - average 167 per year. Various methods have been used in the history of the American colonies and the United States:  Burning  Pressing  Breaking on wheel SECTION II: United States – Georgia

 Bludgeoning

* Junior Student, Faculty of Humanities, Direction of American Studies, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 58

 Hanging  Electrocution  Gas chambers  Firing squad  The electric chair  Lethal injection Historically, burning, pressing, breaking on wheel and bludgeoning (to strike or knock down with a bludgeon, a short, heavy club with one end weighted, or thicker and heavier than the other) were used for a small number of executions, while hanging was the most common method. Nebraska as well as other states also allows electrocution, gas chambers, hanging and the firing squad. The electric chair was the major method of execution during most of the 20th century; it had a special nickname: Old Sparky (however, Alabama's electric chair became known as the "Yellow Mama" due to its unique color). In 1977 Oklahoma became the first state to adopt lethal injection as a means of execution. Lethal injection nowadays is the most common method of execution. Executions are carried out in private with only invited persons able to view the proceedings. Crimes subject to the death penalty vary by jurisdiction. All jurisdictions that use capital punishment designate the highest grade of murder a capital crime, although most jurisdictions require aggravating circumstances. Treason is a capital offense in several jurisdictions. Other capital crimes include: the use of a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death, espionage, terrorism, certain violations of the Geneva Conventions that result in the death of one or more persons, and treason at the federal level. Capital punishment is a controversial issue; arguments for and against capital punishment is based on moral, practical, religious, and emotional grounds. The debate over the death penalty centers around four issues:  Whether it is morally correct to kill;  Whether the death penalty serves as a deterrent;  Whether the penalty is being applied fairly across racial, social, and economic classes;  Whether the irrevocability of the penalty is justified considering possible new evidence or future revelations of improper conduct by the state. Advocates of the death penalty argue that it deters crime, is a good tool for prosecutors as it improves the community by making sure that convicted criminals do not offend again and provides closure to surviving victims or loved ones. They consider that no prison has been able to prevent murderers from killing again. However the death penalty gives closure to the victim's families who have suffered so much. Besides, justice is better served. Capital punishment provides a deterrent for prisoners already serving a life sentence. Although opponents of death penalty argue that the possibility exists that innocent men and women may be put to death, many convicted murderers are later found innocent, and have been pardoned, advocates set against this statement DNA testing experience. By the means of DNA testing science can now effectively eliminate almost all uncertainty as to a person's guilt or innocence. Although there is great chance of prisoner parole or escape, that can give criminals another chance to kill. Opponents argue that the death penalty does not deter, does not save money, and that capital punishment cheapens human life and puts government who take guilty lives on the same low moral level as criminals who have taken innocent. It is barbaric exercise and violates the "cruel and unusual" clause in the Bill of Rights. Besides it sends the wrong message: why kill people who kill people to show killing is wrong. They see useful alternative of death penalty in the life imprisonment, because it is a more effective deterrent. They argue that other countries (especially in Europe) would have a more favorable image of America. As it is already mentioned there is great chance to execute innocent people. There are many example of SECTION II: United States – Georgia

execution of innocent people and among them the case of David Gale. The later was a titular college professor and active opponent of capital punishment, whose life was turned upside down when he was falsely accused of raping a student. He was fired from his job and eventually put on death row for the brutal murder of a colleague. Between the years of 1973 – 2002, one hundred innocent people have been exonerated from the U.S. death row prisoner. How many innocent were not so lucky? Is not it better to allow a guilty person live then the innocent die? What’s more, mentally ill patients may be put to death; Persons who have committed offenses due to states of mind or behavior caused by a brain disorder require treatment, not punishment. “Where is the justice in killing a sick human being?" The answer is: there is none. The execution of those with mental illness or "the insane" is clearly prohibited by international law. Dozens of prisoners have been executed despite suffering from serious mental illness. It is the premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the state in the name of justice. It violates the right to life and is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. There can never be any justification for torture or for cruel treatment. It is also claimed that the financial costs of a complete death penalty case exceed the total costs of a lifetime of life imprisonment. Besides, it’s notable that, statistically, in the countries without death penalty, the average crime rate is substantially less than in countries that support it. The case of Allen Lee Davis can be used as an example of cruelty or justice of death penalty. Davis was a monstrous figure - having murdered a pregnant woman and then her two children, aged 5 and 9. His execution called into question the usefulness of the electric chair as an inhumane method of execution. Specifically, he bled from the nose; was burned more severely than most executed in the electric chair, has been partially asphyxiated by his mask, and has been screaming of pain. An inquiry by the State of Florida determined that the execution was humane, but it continued to raise questions. Maybe advocates of the death penalty will have the following arguments to justify the deed: after execution there was less threat to the community to become the following victims of the murderer; the death penalty gave closure to the victim's families who have suffered so much, and justice was better served. But for the opponents of the death penalty to execute the murderer was inadmissible. Opponents of death penalty call into question of Davis’ mental health. They consider, mentally ill people should be treated. For the opponents of the death penalty life imprisonment of Davis without the possibility of parole was a realistic alternative of death penalty. After thorough investigations about American death penalty I got interested in my own country’s jurisdiction. The death penalty was completely abolished in Georgia on the May 1, 2000. The last capital punishment took place in 1995, in Georgia, by single shot to the back of the head. Whilst the death penalty has been abolished in Georgia, it is still retained in the internationally unrecognized separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. There is only one exception, women who are pregnant at the time when the crime was committed or at the time when the sentence is pronounced cannot be sentenced to death. However, sometimes they misused and disobeyed the rule in Soviet Period (where the capital punishment of pregnant women was also forbidden), like the case of the so called “flight guys”, when the pregnant woman was forced to abortion in order to take her to death row together with her pals. Though, finally they have not sentenced her to death, but cruelty towards her and her friends (all of them have been sentenced to death) who have accompanied her in a plane hijack was extremely brutal and inhuman. We assert we live in the civilized world. But we forget that death penalty is a threat to the civilized society. Studying this issue thoroughly I want to conclude that the death penalty is an immoral punishment. Execution is murder not a punishment. “Our ancestors... purged their guilt by banishment, not death. And by doing so they stopped that endless vicious cycle of murder and revenge." Murderer has the same right to live as their victims do; as God gave SECTION II: United States – Georgia

them life, He should cease it from them when the time comes. When we kill those murderers, we become murderer ourselves. I reckon killing for killing is much more brutal and wicked exercise. According to Mahatmas Gandhi “An eye for eye makes the whole world blind”. Do we want to live in the blind world? If we don’t, don’t let the death penalty make all of us killers!

References:

1. Yeshua of Nazareth (Jesus Christ) interrupting a public execution of a woman for adultery. John 8;7,(NKJ).

2. “Life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness”.

Jefferson, Thomas. Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. 10, April, 2009

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life,_liberty_and_the_pursuit_of_happiness

3. "The abolition of the death penalty is making us a civilized society. It shows we actually do mean business when we say we have reverence for life.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Religious Leaders.10, April, 2009 http://dpquotes.awardspace.com/index.php?n=40&p=10

4. “I have to wonder: Where is the justice in killing a sick human being?" Sister of Thomas Provenzano. The Execution of Mentally Ill Offenders.10, April, 2009 http://www.amnestyusa.org/death-penalty/execution-of-mentally-ill/page.do?id=1101135

5. “Our ancestors... purged their guilt by banishment, not death. And by doing so they stopped that endless vicious cycle of murder and revenge." Euripides, Orestes (408 B.C.) Essay/Term paper: The death penalty. 11, April, 2009 http://www.dreamessays.com/customessays/Law/9101.htm

6. “An eye for eye makes the whole world blind”. Mahatma Ghandi. Nyctophilia.net: peace & anti-war quotes. 11, April, 2009 http://www.nyctophilia.net/peacequotes.html

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Gender and Language Variations (English and Georgian Languages)

Abstract

IRMA GRDZELIDZE* NINO PKHAKADZE* *

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* Assoc. Prof., Akaki Tsereteli State University, Kutaisi, Georgia. * * Assoc. Prof., Akaki Tsereteli State University, Kutaisi, Georgia. 62

Gender and Language Variations (English and Georgian Languages) IRMA GRDZELIDZE* NINO PKHAKADZE* *

When we look at the linguistic behavior of men and women across languages, cultures and circumstances, we will find many specific differences. Linguistic sex varieties arise because language is closely related to social attitudes. Men and women are socially different in that society that lays down different social roles for them and expects different behavior patterns from them. Language simply reflects this social fact. What is more, it seems that the larger and more inflexible the differences between the social roles of men and women in a particular community, the larger and more rigid the linguistic differences tend to be. Georgian culture, and accordingly the language inherited the special attitude to both sexes. It is caused because of the geo-political location of Georgia and its long and difficult history. Georgia is on the border of Europe and Asia, simultaneously the values of both worlds are close to it. For Georgian mentality “the cub of a tiger is equal, despite the sex”. This was said by the famous Georgian poet Shota Rustaveli in 12th century, when the country was ruled by King Tamar, one of the most successful kings of Georgia, who was a woman, though instead of the Queen people called her the King. (This was probably because, still the strength and bravery was considered to be man’s priorities.) In spite of this equality the special respect was given to both sexes as we have mentioned before. Though the head of the family was always the man who took care of the family and who used to say the final say. In highlands of Georgia daughter-in-law was not allowed to call her father-in-law by name. This lasted nearly till today. Traditions and culture is by all means reflected in the language, in different levels of it, on semantic, syntactic or pragmatic level. At first we are going to discuss semantic level of the language. Georgian language has agglutinated nature, which is characterized by morphological affixation. To start with, in Georgian language, as well as in Georgian mentality and outlook, the differentiation is made between human being and the rest of the world, rather than between sexes. That is why in Georgian language, the contrast in class-categories was made according to vin/ra who/ which categories. The same phenomenon is observed in English language, where it refers to all living and non-living things, accept the human being. (Though in English she/he differentiation is also observed). Morphological affixation is used to express differentiation of the origin of human being and thing. vin? kaxeli. ra? kaxuri (Rvino). eli-Eexpresses the origin of a human beng, ur-i expresses the origin of a thing. In old Georgian this categories were differentiated in nouns as well as verbs and they had special affixes. m-was used to define human, s- (or d-, r-, l-, b-) was used to define a thing: megvipteli; daTvi, batkani, sisxli. Nowadays these affixes became part of the root, or they lost their original function and sometimes derived new ones. As we have mentioned before there is no sex differentiation in grammatical categories of Georgian language, neither in verb, nor in noun, or in adjective.

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* Assoc. Prof., Akaki Tsereteli State University, Kutaisi, Georgia. * * Assoc. Prof., Akaki Tsereteli State University, Kutaisi, Georgia. 63

In the XIX century when Georgia was invaded by Russia there was an attempt by Anton Katholicos to express sex via affixation, like:mTavari-mTavrina; mefe-mefa, Tavadi-Tavadina. It was an influence by Russian language where grammatical category of sex is seen nearly in every part of speech. Though this attempt was not successful and the language did not adopt it. Though explicit, categorical grammatical or even lexical marking of speaker gender is not the norm. Instead, we usually find differences in the frequency of certain things (words, or pronunciations, or constructions, or intonations, or whatever), especially when the circumstances of utterance are taken into account. The difference is observed on lexical level. The male and female animals are given different names, like: nezvi-taxi; Zu-xvadi; dedali- mamali and so on. The same phenomenon is observed in English language: Animal Male Female Bear boar sow Bird cock/stag hen Bison bull cow Cat tom pussy Deer buck/stag doe Though we may say that in English language, expression of sex has more varieties than in Georgian language. No affixation is seen in Georgian while referring to male or female human beings, while in English we observe this phenomenon: Actor - actress; Hero - heroine; Widow - widower Like English, Georgian language has a semantic pattern -women (qali) which may be added to the word to make sex differentiation. So in this context we find similarities in these two languages. eqimi qali-women doctor; gamyidveli qali- saleswomen We may observe that some borrowings from English frequently occur in Georgian. For example: _biznesmeni-biznesvumeni an biznesleidi (From businessman-businesswoman, or business lady) _stiuardesa (From stewardess; Stewardess is the only word referring to flight attendant in Georgian language, the image of the flight attendant is mostly connected with a woman and probably that is why the language adopted only stewardess and not steward). _medda-medZma (From Russian language) Some special emphasis should be made on words which may be differentiated according to sex features: violet, rose, tulip (ia, vardi, tita) can be used to describe a women: iasaviT nazi- tender as a violet; vardiviT mSvenieri_ beautiful as a rose This descriptions always refer to a woman. In Georgian the names of the flowers are also the women’s names – ia, vardo, enZela. On lexical level differentiation can also be made on using different lexical units and the frequency of using them. SECTION II: United States – Georgia

All of us have different styles of communicating with other people. Our style depends on a lot of things: where we're from, how and where we were brought up, our educational background, our age, and it also can depend on our gender. Generally speaking, men and women

talk differently although there are varying degrees of masculine and feminine speech characteristics in each of us. But men and women speak in particular ways mostly because those ways are associated with their gender. A number of stylistic differences between female and male speech have been observed or claimed. Women's speech has been said to be more polite, more redundant, more formal, more clearly pronounced, and more elaborated or complex, while men's speech is less polite, more elliptical, more informal, less clearly pronounced, and simpler. It has often been observed that (other things equal) female speech tends to be evaluated as more "correct" or more "prestigious", less slangy, etc. Men are more likely than women to use socially-stigmatized forms (like "ain't" or g-dropping in English). On the other hand, women are usually in the lead in changes in pronunciation, typically producing new pronunciations sooner, more often, and in more extreme ways than men. The styles that men and women use to communicate have been described as "debate vs. relate", "report vs. rapport, or "competitive vs. cooperative". Men often seek straightforward solutions to problems and useful advice whereas women tend to try and establish intimacy by discussing problems and showing concern and empathy in order to reinforce relationships. This general phenomenon is seen in Georgian and in English languages. Georgian language does not possess the letter /f/, though many girls use it now in Georgian words instead of /p/, their /d/, /t/ and /r/ sound more British today rather than English, while boys adopt the whole words easily. It should be mentioned that the differences occur when they are children.  Girls are more encouraged for using elegant language;

 Rough talk is discouraged in little girls than in little boys, in whom parents may often find it more amusing than shocking. In terms of conversational patterns, it has been observed or claimed that women use more verbal "support indicators" (like mm-hmm) than men do; that men interrupt women more than they interrupt other men, and more than women interrupt either men or other women; that women express uncertainty and hesitancy more than men; and that (at least in single-sex interactions) males are more likely to give direct orders than females are. For nearly all of these issues of stylistic and conversational differences, there are some contradictory findings, and it seems that one must look closely at the nature of the circumstances in order to predict how men and women will behave verbally.

SECTION II: United States-Georgia

Influence of the American Pop Culture on Georgia

SOPHIO KHIDASHELI*

Popular culture (commonly abbreviated as pop culture) is the prevailing vernacular culture in any given society, including art, cooking, clothing, entertainment, mass media, music, film, sport, literature, style, and so on. Popular culture often contrasts with the more exclusive, even elitist “high culture”, that is the culture of ruling social groups, and the low or folk culture of the lower classes. The earliest use of “popular” in English was during the fifteenth century in law and politics, meaning “low”, “base”, “vulgar”, and “of the common people”. From the late eighteenth century it began to mean “widespread” and gain in positive connotation. In early times the source of the pop culture was folklore or the same folk culture. For today pop culture is equated with mass culture that is seen as a commercial culture, mass produced for consumption, and spread by mass media including TV, movies, recorded music, literature, etc. By 1950s American pop culture has expressed itself through nearly every medium. Jazz, the Blues, Rock’ N’ Roll, Rap, Hip-Hop; “Sex, Drugs, and Rock’ N’ Roll”; Elvis Presley, Merlyn Monroe, Aerosmith, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Beyonce; Gone With the Wind, Indiana Jones, Superman, Twilight; Mickey Mouse, Sponge Bob Square Pants, The Simpsons; Lost, Heroes, etc. – these names, genres, and phrases have had an enormous influence not only on the United States but in the rest of the world. If two centuries ago Americans worried about foreign influence on their culture, now American culture has become everyone’s second culture. Of course, Georgia is not an exception. After the World War II between the United States and the Soviet Union, the “Iron Curtain” emerged. During this period, everything American was under a ban in the Soviet Union, but in Georgia the wish of Americanization was so strong that the American pop culture became an underground culture. In 1960s Georgian youth were already strongly influenced by the western values and American pop culture. In 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s the liberalization of all aspects of life starting from Khruschev Threw created a possibility for the evolution of various forms of non-formal, underground, and dissident art, still repressed, but no longer under the immediate threat of GULAG labor camps. By these years Georgians have started to carry jeans, to chew chewing gums of the American origin, to drink Coca-Cola, to listen to jazz and to dance under rhythms of the Rock' N ' Roll, etc. and all it has been made more openly. Shortly, American pop culture began crossing Georgian borders. In 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the “Iron Curtain” broke down and people from ex-soviet republics, and Georgians among them, start to travel in the West. The myth of the Soviet Union about the United States was defeated by the myth of American Dream. American influence became more intensive and it has reached the present face when you can find American roots almost in every sphere. Let’s talk about the main spreaders and influencers of the American pop culture: Hollywood, television, and recorded music. By 1990s Georgian society began forgetting Soviet movies and replaced them with the productions of the American myth machine, Hollywood. Of course, these movies were and still are brilliant ways to advertise and market the U.S. pop culture.

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For example an average Georgian watches American film that creates a stereotype of the American. S/he likes it because in his/her consciousness everything American is “cool”. S/he starts acting like the movie heroes do, or even tries to solve his/her problems as it was done in

* Junior student, Faculty of Humanities, Direction of American Studies, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 66

movie, etc. But the problem is that usually Hollywood creates a wrong stereotype and sometimes it has a negative influence on people and in this case on Georgians. For example there is lots of crime, violence, sex, and things like these in American movies that have a negative effect on people and especially on youth. It can be said that exactly this influence is one of the many reasons of increasing crime rate in Georgia. Of course there are some movies from where we can study something useful, for instance, from the historical or biographical movies. So, nowadays, high per cent of Georgian population is under the influence of American movies, that is the part of the American pop culture. And this influence has both sides: negative and positive. But how do people watch these movies? American films account for 90 per cent of the box office in Georgia. But if people cannot visit cinema, there is no problem because they can watch the same movie on either Georgian TV channel because nowadays every Georgian television shows at least four Hollywood movies a day. Also there is another, more modern way of watching a new American film: internet that is also one example of the American pop culture. You can download any movie from Georgian web sites for free, or even watch without any download. So, there are no limits in spreading American films in Georgia. As I mentioned above, Georgian TV channels are showing American movies, but these are not the only American productions. Majority of Georgian TV programs are the versions of the American ones. Let’s take as an example “The Night Show” which appeared on Rustavi 2 in 2003 and is still very popular among Georgian public. This format exists from the 50's of the 20th century and is very successful in the United States. The format is known as "the late-night talk show”. Or, let’s take the U.S. game show The Moment of Truth of which Georgian analogue we will see very soon on Georgian TV channel. Also there are lots of reality, humorous, musical, intellectual shows; political talk shows, etc. that are remade versions of American ones. But also one part of Georgian society is influenced not only by the remade versions of the American TV shows but also by the original ones because today, by the cable television, it is possible to watch at the world and, of course, the U.S. TV channels such as: CNN, MTV, and so on. Also television with radio, internet, CD and DVD records help American pop music to be spread overseas, in this case in Georgia. Of course, Georgia has always had a pop music of its own style but American pop music could have a strong influence on it and on the whole Georgian society. Until 1990s American music, like jazz , Rock’ N’ Roll, or Disco, of course, had influence on Georgian music but not as strong as from ‘90s when the styles of American music such as Rap, Hip-Hop, Rhythm and Blues (R & B), Soul, etc. appeared in Georgian music. Georgian musicians start remaking American songs in Georgian and composing new ones in American style. New Georgian pop singers and bands emerged in newly-born Georgian show business. Very soon Rap and Hip-Hop music became extremely popular among Georgian listeners and Georgian rappers came into sight. Popularization of Rap influenced not only the music but also the style of clothing. For today Georgian fans of Rap, and not only they, wear big, Hip-Hop style trousers, baseball caps with famous American MLB teams’ logos on them like the New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, Red or White Sox, etc. Together with the recorded songs, musical videos i.e. clips appeared as well, that were taken in American style. But in recent years, popularity of Georgian pop music and activity of Georgian pop musicians decreased and nowadays Georgian public is fully involved in listening to American music and watching American musical clips. Georgian musical channels and radios SECTION II: United States-Georgia are concerned on American pop music. If you ask to Georgians who are their favorite singers, the majority of them will name American performer. But in musical field the U.S. couldn’t have full influence because incomparable and unique Georgian folk music remains untouchable.

Besides of these influences, American popular culture had its impact on almost every sphere of Georgian culture. Let’s take as an example American tradition of fast food that is very popular in Georgia. The document is the American fast food king McDonald’s that was opened in Georgia in 1999 and because of its enormous popularity it was followed by two new ones. Also in recent years fast food kiosks, selling hot-dogs, fried potatoes, sandwiches, and even Georgian Khachapuri, became popular. It’s impossible not to mention the real American Coca-Cola, the favorite refreshing drink of the Georgian society that has become an inseparable attribute of Georgian traditional “supra”. To discuss all influences of the American pop culture on Georgia it needs moths and hundreds or thousands of pages, but it can be made in a conclusion that American pop culture has become the second culture for Georgia. How could the U.S. pop culture influence Georgia so much? Of course the main reason is that Georgian society allowed the U.S. pop culture to cross Georgian borders. There was a strong wish of Americanization. Maybe this wish was caused because of feeling of protest against the Soviet Union; maybe because of the misunderstanding between Georgia and Russia, the U.S. was a symbol of freedom and democracy; maybe because everything forbidden is more interesting. Today Georgian society is split into two. One part, especially people of older generation, thinks that American pop culture has a negative influence on Georgia, that it takes our identity away. The opinion of another part, mostly youth, is that this culture gives us the feeling of freedom, frees us from complexes, and so on. From my point of view, it is sometimes necessary to allow other cultures to enter your own one, because periodically the latter needs to be renewed. And, in its turn, this renewal is needed for the development of the society. But we should not lose our identity and we must always remember about what our prime culture is. Summarizing all the above-said, the objective truth is that nowadays Georgian society is largely Americanized.

References:

1) http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/popular_culture 2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_culture 3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_the_United_States#Popular_culture 4) V. Silogava, K. Shengelia; History of Georgia, Caucasus University Publishing Tbilisi 2007 5) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_the_Soviet_Union 6) http://nightshow.ge/about.htm

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The Evolution of USA Security Policy and Contemporary Challenges

Abstract 68

TEONA LAVRELASHVILI*

Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy - Sir Winston Churchill

We can not deny that individual, national, or international security is immensely substantial for the humanity. Due to the complexity of the concept, security studies were not developed until 1980s and only few ideas and theories were proposed by the scholars. But later security became very prominent and central for the states, as the world is getting global, interdependence and more complex. Especially security of the big states is vitally important for the rest ones. We will try to overview the evolution of USA security policy and also will refer to the modern period with the new challenges. First of all we should note that security encounters the everlasting problem called “Security Dilemma”-which means that one can not be safe even if state is reinforcing. The term “National Security” is applied in USA political spectrum only after the WWII. E.R. May considers that the evolution of USA national security could be divided into 4 historical periods: 1. XVIII 90s – XIX 70s; 2. XIX 70s - XX 30s; 3. from the beginning of WWII-60s; 4. from the 60s till today. The priorities of security were different in these periods. They were relevant to the existing problems (we will review and analyze them in paper). USA always examined its security in close connection with other states. Some expert asserts that this is “internationalism” After 90s, the security of USA became central and caused the great interests. Due to the new political climate (end of the cold war, collapse of the Soviet Union, new distribution of power) the security police of America was to change. Different experts were suggesting various possible ways for forming the policy. The majority of them believed that USA should pay more attention to its internal problems. The essential part of security evolution should be considered acts of terrorism in New-York and Washington. In 2002, the new concept of security was legalized in USA, where the main enemies of state were considered not the armies or navies, but the perilous technologies made by mankind. There are seven basic dangers which should be immediately addressed (We will analyze this concept in the paper). In 2006, the new concept was developed, where the national security priorities are emphasized. It is clear that modern world faces number of challenges, but security problems will never perish, until the humanity exists. This is certainly vitally important which shapes the world’s politics. Nowadays, when globalization became evident - giving rise to the global problems, and interdependence of states are obvious, the security of big state - America is core element for the other states’ security. In this paper we will examine the evolution of USA security policy and current changes or initiatives, which affect the whole framework of political climate. We will try to analyze whether USA security policy rightly addresses the modern changes, and how it will be resulted in the near future.

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The Evolution of USA Security Policy and Contemporary Challenges

* Junior student, Javakhishvili State University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 69

TEONA LAVRELASHVILI*

Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy- Sir Winston Churchill

One of the most debated and a key issue in the field of International Relations is how to define security, whether individual, national or international. Due to the complexity and ambiguity of the concept, security studies were not developed until 1980s and only few ideas and theories were proposed by the scholars. However, nowadays security problems are very prominent and national governments do their best to seek the internal and external security in order to assure existence and development. On the edge of 21st century, when world became interdependent and more complex, when globalization covered almost all the spheres of human activity and when challenges themselves challenged us, security of the big and powerful state became highly essential. Hence, the evolution of security policy of the world so called hegemony - USA is deeply interesting. The term “National Security” is applied in USA political spectrum only after the World War II. E.R. May considers that the evolution of USA national security could be divided into 4 historical periods: 1. XVIII 90s –XIX 70s; 2. XIX 70s - XX 30s; 3. from the beginning of WWII-60s; 4. from the 60s till today. In the first period, the priority of US security policy was the security of national borders, and it was maintaining the close links among states. However, after the Monroe Doctrine, the borders were protected, but the security priority remained as US internal safety and unity of the country. The priorities of US security policy in the second period were social peace and avoiding the class conflicts within the states. We have to note, that before the beginning of the WWII US foreign policy was not global, it was developing dynamically and oriented on the internal affairs. As J. Spanier said, the historical tradition of USA was isolationism. In the third period, US security policy extended considerably and covered the security of “the rest free world”. US took the responsibility to protect the democratic world against communism. It can be said that the goal of the US national security policy for nearly forty years was the containment of the Soviet Union by all possible means. After the WWII (in 1947) the national Security Council was created, which started working out the special secret instructions, including containment for the future plans, needless to say, that in these documents, “measures” for SU were greatly emphasized. Truman Doctrine was very essential part of US security policy evolution process. It was announced in March 1947, and this was the start of containment policy. Containment was designed to circumscribe Soviet expansionism in order to (1) save the international system from a revolutionary state, and (2) force internal changes in the SU. Containment policy was a desired condition in US-Soviet relations. It was a geopolitical rather than ideological or military strategy. Its ultimate objective was a stable and peaceful international system. In the fourth period, the new era started after 60s, when nuclear and rocket-powered weapons have been developed. The security of not only the US but of the whole world became central and vital. At the same time, the priority was economic welfare and containment of communism as well. In the early 1960s, the American superiority declined. This stipulated the SECTION II: United States-Georgia deterrence strategy. Deterrence means discouraging an adversary from taking military action by convincing him that the cost and risk of such action would outweigh the potential gain. The

* Junior student, Javakhishvili State University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 70

concept of flexible response was formulated. It means the increase of conventional war capabilities. The formation of the global alliance system continued. The US signed bilateral agreements with South Korea (1953), the Republic of China (Taiwan) (1954), Iran (1959), Pakistan (1959), and Turkey (1959). In 1954 South East Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) was created. In 1959 the US became a member of Central Treaty Organization (CENTO). But in the 1991, the major threat of the US - the SU - simply disappeared. The US was left the only superpower. There are no large specific military threats facing the US. The US national security policy must be changed, and it is changing. The problem is that there is no clear consensus in the US over the threats to the security and economic well-being of the state. The special characteristic of US security policy was that it always considered its policy with the connection of other states. Some scholars called this “Internationalism” which was useless after the end of the cold war, and US should adjust the security priorities to the national interests. In July 1969, the Nixon Doctrine was declared. There were three major points that: (1) the US will keep all of its treaty commitments; (2) the US will provide a shield if a nuclear power threatens the freedom of an allied nation; and (3) the US will furnish military and economic assistance when requested in accordance with treaty commitments. At the same time the more serious doubts about Mutual Assured Destruction strategy (MAD) arose. Early in 1974, President Nixon signed National Security Decision Memorandum (NSDM)-242. This was the shift of emphasis away from the MAD strike options in the strategic war plans toward more limited and flexible options designed to control escalation and neutralize any Soviet advantage. In the beginning of 90s, after the containment policy, scholars proposed, that the concept of US security policy should have two basic aims: economic independence and support for the democratic processes in the world. Also the great attention should be paid on technological progress, improvement of personnel’s quality. Experts suggested 3 reasons why democracy was important for the US national security: 1. Democracy till is the best form of governance, 2. The more democratic world is, it is more friendly circumstance for US, 3. The more democratic world is, the more peaceful world we have. “What is good for democracy, the same is for USA”. After the changes of 90s, the security priorities of US were considerably according to the reality. 1. Strengthening the national security by means of military forces; 2. Hastening the economic resurrection of the state; 3.Supporting the democratic processes outside the state. In 1981, Ronald Reagan assumed office. His administration began to pursue much more anti- Communist policy. The keys to the Reagan foreign policy were to be: military and economic revitalization, revival of alliances, stable progress in the Third World, and a firm Soviet policy based on Russian reciprocity and restraint. In March 1983, President Reagan announced Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), also known as “Star Wars”. The US shifted the focus from offense to defense. The new strategy suggested a profound shift in US nuclear strategy away from reliance on offensive missiles to deter an attack - that is, from dependence on MAD, which Reagan deemed “morally unacceptable.” Gorbachev’s ‘Novoye Myshlenniye’ or New Thinking in international affairs was first spelt out at the Geneva summit with President Reagan in October 1985, when they agreed in principle to work towards a Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty to cut their nuclear arsenals in half. The real agreement was reached at the Washington summit in December 1987. The US and the SU signed the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and formalized their SECTION II: United States-Georgia commitment to a 50 per cent reduction in strategic offensive arms. “The signing of the INF Treaty signaled an end to the New Cold War.”

Then followed the Malta summit in December 1989, where President Bush and Gorbachev recognized common interests in maintaining stability in the midst of revolutionary political changes and were even explicit about accepting each others legitimate security interests and role in preserving European security. The end of the Cold War solved one great problem for the US - the nuclear threat from the Soviet side was eliminated. But it caused a series of other problems. “The Cold War ended with the US and Britain in recession, the Japanese stock market tumbling by 40 per cent, with the wealth of Germany devoted to the rescue of its reunited compatriots, and the world poised for war in the Persian Gulf. With the collapse of the Warsaw Treaty Organization (WTO) and the dissolution of the SU after the failed coup, August 1991, the US faced another problem - the lack of a coherent American foreign policy. There is no clear consensus in the US over the threats to the security and economic well-being of the US. Bush administration’s emphasis was on prudence and pragmatism. The Bush record of six military interventions in four years is remarkable. In the invasion of Panama (Operation Just Came) in December 1989, the Persian Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm) in January and February 1991, and the intervention in Somalia in 1992 (Operation Restore Hope), the US was motivated by the desire to impose order in the international system. But neither the foreign nor the defense policy of the Clinton administration is yet well defined. Through the 1992 presidential campaign, Clinton emphasized the following new priorities for the post-Cold War American foreign policy: (1) to reline foreign and domestic policies; (2) the reassertion of “the moral principles most Americans share”; (3) to understand that American security is largely economic. He also campaigned for the restructuring US military forces. The new military force must be capable of: (1) nuclear deterrence; (2) rapid deployment; (3) technology; and (4) better intelligence. As the president, Clinton directed Secretary of Defense Les Aspen to conduct a review of military requirements. In September 1, 1993, the Clinton administration’s first defense planning document named “Bottom-Up Review” (BUR) was announced. The BUR identifies four major sources of danger to US security: (1) aggression instigated by major regional powers; (2) the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; (3) the failure of former communist states to make a successful transition to democracy; (4) a failure to maintain a strong and growing US economic base. Recently, one more danger has been added: “transnational threats.” The BUR offers a force structure oriented around three general missions: (1) waging two “nearly simultaneous” major regional conflicts (the two-MRC requirement); (2) conducting peace operations; and (3) maintaining forward presence in areas where the US has vital interests. The BUR accords significant weight to maintaining the overseas military presence of US forces in sizing America’s post-Cold War force structure. The plan is to retain roughly 100,000 troops in Europe and some 98,000 troops in East Asia. The BUR received a lot of criticism since it was announced. “There is no logical flow from the “top” - political guidance based on the imperative to protect US interests in a new security environment - to the “bottom”, i.e., planned forces The other problem that “there are grounds for suspecting that the force structure selected for the late 1990s is geared more to meet fiscal goals than strategic ones.” The evolution of US security policy was highly influenced by the 11 September terrorist attack in 2001 that made Americans to review their priorities and strategies. In 2002, the new security concept was legalized, where clearly was indicated, that US was threatened not by armies or navies, but by the technologies made by the men. In this SECTION II: United States-Georgia document the main danger was considered the global terrorism. Also regional conflicts are very careful issues.

In March 2006 new concept was announced in which the traditional values of the state are emphasized. The most perilous danger is considered fighting against global terrorism. Priorities are also resisting the globalization challenges, supporting the spreading of democracy all over the world, contributing the settlement of regional conflicts, and of course, improvement and strengthening of national security institutions . As a conclusion we presented how the evolution of US national security priorities developed. The security concepts were relevant to the global challenges across the globe. We assumed that US security policy was characterized with specific traits, however it acquired the great importance, when US claimed defending the whole world and taking responsibility to prevail democratic values. We believe that the security policy will remain as the most careful issue, where decisions should be made in a rational way, especially if it concerns to the big states. As the future of small states, is dependant to their policy.

References:

1. Williams, Ph., ‘U.S. Defense Policy’, in Baylis, J., Booth, K., Garnett, J., and Williams, Ph., Contemporary Strategy. Volume 2: TheNuclear Powers (2nd. ed. New York: Holmes and Meier,1987), pp.28-55 2. Foerster, Sch., ‘The United States as a World Power: An Overview’, in Foerster, Sch. and Wright, E.N. (eds.), American Defense Policy (6th. ed.Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1990) pp.165-187 3. Rondeli, Alexander, “International relations”, second edition, Tbilisi, 2003 4. Korb, L.J., ‘The United States’, in Murray, D.J. and Viotti, P.R. (eds.), The Defense Policies of Nations (3rd. ed. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1994), pp.19-56 5. Trachtenberg, M., ‘American Policy and Shifting Nuclear Balance’, in Leffler, M.P. and Painter, D.S. (eds.), Origins of the Cold War: An International History (London: Routledge, 1994), pp.107-122

SECTION III: History, Art, Economics

The Coming Collapse of the US Dollar

Abstract EDWARD R. RAUPP*

The United States dollar has long been considered the standard against which other nations’ currencies could be measured. As a result, most nations of the world have maintained a substantial portion of their reserves in dollars. After a sustained period of reckless financial behavior in public and private institutions in the United States, with little effective regulation on that behavior, the dollar finds itself in a perilously, and possibly permanently, weakened condition. Attempts by the Federal government to increase exports have had little or no success in their intended objectives but significant unintended consequences on the value of the dollar and on consumers’ ability to continue what has become increasingly revealed as a flaw in the American character, an overwhelming propensity to consume at the expense of saving. The American economy has been weakened temporally and structurally. Prospects for the recovery of the dollar are, at best, weak. No one administration and no single set of actions can restore what has been lost. The egg that was Humpty Dumpty has been broken, and no number of kings’ men or of kings’ horses will be able to put Humpty Dumpty together again. About the best that American leaders can do is to invest in those projects that increase long-term productivity while taking actions to achieve a healthy balance between spending and saving. The road to even partial recovery will be long and hard.

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* PhD President, Batumi International University, Batumi, Georgia. 74

The Coming Collapse of the US Dollar

EDWARD R. RAUPP*

If there is any bull market in 2009, it may be the market for articles about the “collapse of the United States Dollar” (For example, see the dollar collapse, 2009). The bottom has not yet been reached. In the seven months beginning in March 2009, the dollar has lost 15 percent of its value compared to a global basket of currencies. While the causes of the dollar’s decline have been well documented (e.g., see Raupp, 2008), the potential consequences are less well understood. This paper outlines some of those consequences.

The Dollar as a Historically Strong Global Reserve Currency Every nation’s central bank (e.g., United States Federal Reserve, Bank of England, National Bank of Georgia) keeps reserves against the need to settle its international obligations. For example, if Georgia imports more goods and services than it exports – and it does – then it must at the end of the day settle its deficit by transferring some of its reserves. In order to be acceptable to receiving nations, reserves must be “hard”; that is, they must be valued and be able to be traded in markets around the world. Examples of hard reserves are gold and currencies of strong economies, e.g., U.S. dollar, Euro, Japanese yen, Swiss franc, or British pound sterling. In the past, conventional wisdom held that the safest reserve currency was the U.S. dollar, as the U.S. economy is the largest in the world and, as the saying goes, “The United States is not going to go bankrupt.”

A Likely Scenario Let us suppose that a nation has a substantial part of its reserve assets in United States dollars. Let us further suppose that the nation’s government is unfriendly to the government of the United States. Whether out of irrational animosity toward the United States, or out of rational concerns for the conservation of the value of its stock of reserve assets, such a nation may decide to sell off its dollars and buy another currency, e.g., the Euro. The sale and purchase will increase the supply of dollars, making it weaker by driving its price down, and increase the demand for Euros, making it stronger by driving its price up. Continuing the scenario, imagine what a second nation, perhaps similarly antagonistic toward the United States, might do. Observing the value of its dollar-denominated reserves declining as a result of the first nation’s market action, albeit by a small percentage, it may follow the initiating nation by selling off its dollars before their value declines further and buy Euros before their value rises much more. Given the start of the sell-off of dollars by these two nations, it would be irrational of other nations to hold on to their dollars. We have now a classic example of the game of “Chicken” or, more appropriately, what has come to be called “Shubik’s Dollar Auction.” In the game of “Chicken,” two drivers speed headlong toward each other. The first one to swerve or jump out of the car is called “Chicken”). You don’t want to be called “Chicken,” but you also don’t want to be killed. Martin Shubik’s Dollar Auction is an example of game theory in which a one-dollar bill is offered to a group of bidders at an open-outcry auction. The game has only two rules: 1. (As in any auction) the dollar bill goes to the highest bidder, who pays whatever the high bid was. Each new bid has to be higher than the current high bid, and the game ends when there is no new bid within a specified time limit. SECTION III: History, Art, Economics

* PhD President, Batumi International University, Batumi, Georgia. 75

2. (Unlike at Sotheby's!) the second-highest bidder also has to pay the amount of his last bid – and gets nothing in return. You really don't want to be the second- highest bidder. (Poundstone, 1992, pp. 280-282). Poundstone notes, No matter what the stage of the bidding, the second-highest bidder can improve his position by almost a dollar by barely topping the current high bid. Yet the predicament of the second-highest bidder gets worse and worse! This peculiar game leads to a bad case of buyer's remorse. The highest bidder pays far more than a dollar for a dollar, and the second-highest bidder pays far more than a dollar for nothing. To bring home the point more clearly, it makes no sense for a nation to be next to last – or last – to sell its dollar reserves. Indeed, it makes sense to be the first – or, at the very least, to be among the earliest – to sell and then to get out of the game. The consequence is that the dollar collapses with increasing acceleration as most, if not all, of the nations dump their dollars.

Keynes was Right Although there is some debate about its authenticity, this comment of John Maynard Keynes seems appropriate in considering the current position of the United States dollar: Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose. (Cited in Hein, 2002) In an earlier paper (Raupp, 2008), we noted, The clearest signs that the U.S. economy is in decline may be seen in (1) the GDP growth rate, which is at or below zero; (2) the debt condition of the nation, its consumers, and its corporations; (3) the depreciation of the U.S. dollar; and (4) the deficit in the current account balance. The decline of the dollar accelerated during the period 2001 – 2009, under an administration that believed that a cheaper dollar would improve the competitive position of American businesses vis-à-vis those of other nations. The dollar plummeted, but the balance of trade was largely unaffected. One reason is what economists call the “J-Curve.” While theory suggests that exports will rise (along with GDP) in response to a weaker domestic currency, the reality is that a substantial amount of trade will have already been agreed to long before the devaluation of the currency. Since the agreement is typically in the shipper’s currency, it takes more dollars to meet the terms of the trade, thus deepening the deficit even further. The depreciation of the dollar is strongly related to the fundamental strength of the United States economy as a whole, and that economy has been in decline for the past decade. A clear sign of a declining American economy is found in its trade deficit, the largest by far of any in the world. American Economic Alert (2009) shows a second-by-second ticker of the United States trade deficit, which now exceeds $500 billion for the first ten months of 2009. At the end of the day, when American buyers have purchased more than they have exported, there must be a settling up. If other nations will not buy American goods – and it is clear that they are not – then the settling must be done in hard currencies or gold. It is becoming increasingly likely that China, Japan, and other nations with a trade surplus against the U.S. will, at some point in the future, insist on payment in other than dollars; moreover, if the settlement is in dollars, it is a safe bet that those nations will quickly put those dollars on the market and trade them for a stronger currency or gold.

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Prospects for the Future of the Dollar In a word, the prospects are bleak for the strength of the United States dollar. If the “doomsday scenario” introduced in this paper becomes a reality, American consumers will face soaring prices not only of final goods and services purchased abroad, but also of goods and services in which intermediate products come from abroad. Not only will German and Japanese cars be more expensive, but so will American cars that use imported steel, glass, and electronics. While the previous administration was a notable failure in fiscal stewardship, the current administration cannot alone restore what has been lost. The egg that was Humpty Dumpty has been broken, and no number of kings’ men or kings’ horses will be able to put Humpty Dumpty together again. This is not to say that American leaders are absolved of their responsibilities. What they can and must do is to invest in those projects that increase long-term productivity while taking actions to achieve a healthy balance between spending and saving. This will not be easy. Federal government borrowing for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a bloated arms budget, create little wealth, and, moreover, they crowd out those projects that hold the promise for long-term, healthy growth. Winding down that borrowing, either through reduced spending or increased taxes, requires decisions that involve enormously controversial and heated political processes. Passing legislation that provides incentives to save would be a step in the right direction of seeking a healthy balance between spending and saving, but those incentives would have to be strong enough to overcome the national character flaw that manifests itself in regular orgies of spending in the great American shopping malls. The road to even partial recovery will be long and hard.

References:

1. American Economic Alert. (2009) Trade deficit. Retrieved October 13, 2009, from http://www.americaneconomicalert.org/ticker_home.asp. 2. Hein, P. (2002). Keynes was right. Retrieved October 12, 2009, from http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/hein6.html. 3. Poundstone, W. (1992). Prisoner's Dilemma. New York: Doubleday. 4. Raupp, E. R. (2008). Decline and fall of the American economic empire. Tbilisi: The University of Georgia. 5. The dollar collapse. (2009). Retrieved October 12, 2009, from http://www.the-dollar- collapse.com.

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Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy: Two very different times, but two very similar men

Abstract TAMAR KEINASHVILI*

The two most discussed assassinations out of the four within the position of the United States President are that of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. There are many similarities between the two and there are also some differences. There are many similarities associated with the assassination of Lincoln and Kennedy. They were both assassinated on the same day, and the men that were caught for the crime were born a century apart from each other and they were both killed before their trials. A difference between the two men is that Lincoln was poor and worked his way to the top and Kennedy was born into a wealthy family in which his father was a large political figure. Both men had different struggles but they were similar in many ways. Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 and was raised in a log cabin in Kentucky until he was seven. In 1816, he and his family moved to Indiana. Lincoln was raised in a farming family and with no ambition for education. He went to school long enough to read and write and then stopped attending school so he could work on the farm. Both natural parents raised Abraham until 1818 when his mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln died. In 1819 Abraham's father, Thomas, married a woman named Sarah Bush. By this time Lincoln was nine years old and very capable of taking care of himself and the farm. John F. Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917 in Massachusetts. Unlike Lincoln, John F Kennedy was raised in a fairly wealthy family. His father, Joseph P. Kennedy was the ambassador to Great Britain during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was very well educated, and in 1940 he graduated from Harvard University with the honour of winning note with the publication of Why England Slept which was an expansion of his senior thesis on Britain's lack of preparation for World War II. Then in August of 1943, as commander of the U.S. Navy he became a war hero by rescuing several crewmen after the boat was rammed by a Japanese destroyer. Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy each began their political careers at an early age. Abraham Lincoln ran for the Illinois legislature in 1832 when he was just 23 years old but he was unsuccessful. However, two years later, he was elected to the Lower House for the first four successive terms as a Whig until 1841. Lincoln was married to Mary Todd Lincoln on November 4, 1842. In 1847 to 1949 Lincoln served as a member of the United States House of Representatives where he opposed the Mexican War. In 1854 there was a Kansas-Nebraska Act presented before Congress which would open lands previously closed to slavery to the possibility of its spread by local opinion. Lincoln strongly opposed slavery and viewed it as immoral so when the act passed in 1854 Lincoln was losing interest in politics. In 1856 he joined the newly reformed Republican Party and two years later campaigned for the Senate against Douglas. Lincoln appeared with Douglas in seven debates. This was his first considerable national fame. However, he did not win the Senate seat. The democratic holdovers in the upper house elected Douglas. John F. Kennedy became involved in politics after World War II. In 1946 he was elected to the U.S. Congress, representing a district in greater Boston. He was a democrat and served three terms or six years in the House of Representatives. In 1952

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* Junior Student, Faculty of Humanities, Direction of American Studies, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 78

Kennedy was elected to the U.S. Senate. In 1953 Kennedy had barely missed being picked as the Democratic Parties candidate for Vice President. In 1860 Lincoln was elected President and in 1960 Kennedy also was honoured with the position of President of the United States. Both Lincoln and Kennedy had Vice Presidents with the last name of Johnson. Kennedy was the youngest man elected to President and the first Catholic. Both Kennedy and Lincoln were second children and they both lost their son while serving as the President. Abraham Lincoln's secretaries' name was Kennedy and Kennedy's secretaries' name was Lincoln. Finally we come to the most interesting similarities between Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. Not only were they both assassinated while in the most honourable and prestigious position in the United States, but there are many similarities within the structure of the assassinations and those involved. First of all, Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy were both elected for the term in which they were assassinated, and that took place on Nov. 8th, 100 years apart from each other. President Lincoln was assassinated in 1863. On hundred years later in 1963 President Kennedy was also assassinated. Both presidents were shot on Friday, in the head from behind and both Lincoln and Kennedy's wives were present at the time of the shooting. John Wiles Booth was the assassinator of Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Booth shot Lincoln in the Ford Theatre, and was found in a warehouse later that evening. The assassinator of John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, shot Kennedy in a Ford Lincoln Continental, from a warehouse, and was found later that day in a theatre. Lincolns' assassinator was born in 1839 and Kennedy's was born 100 years later in 1939. Both Booth and Oswald were known by their full names and both were murdered before their trials. There have been four presidents that have been assassinated. Along with Lincoln and Kennedy, James Garfield and William McKinley were also assassinated as presidents. Lincoln and Kennedy are the two that are the most similar and are missed and talked about the most out of the four. Both men were heroes of their time and both were greatly respected and revered by most of the nation they led. Although Lincoln was born into poor home and Kennedy was born into the political world, they were able to accomplish many great things while they were in office. They were both re-elected for another term but were then killed on November 8th exactly one century later. Although these men are dead they are still greatly missed by those who loved them.

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Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy: Two Very Different Times, But Two Very Similar Men

TAMAR KEINASHVILI*

* Junior Student, Faculty of Humanities, Direction of American Studies, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 80

In 1860 Lincoln was elected President and in 1960 Kennedy also was honoured with the position of President of the United States. Both Lincoln and Kennedy had Vice Presidents with the last name of Johnson. Kennedy was the youngest man elected to President and the first Catholic. Both Kennedy and Lincoln were second children and they both lost their son while serving as the President. Abraham Lincoln's secretaries' name was Kennedy and Kennedy's secretaries' name was Lincoln. Finally we come to the most interesting similarities between Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. Not only were they both assassinated while in the most honourable and prestigious position in the United States, but there are many similarities within the structure of the assassinations and those involved. First of all, Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy were both elected for the term in which they were assassinated, and that took place on Nov. 8th, 100 years apart from each other. President Lincoln was assassinated in 1863. On hundred years later in 1963 President Kennedy was also assassinated. Both presidents were shot on Friday, in the head from behind and both Lincoln and Kennedy's wives were present at the time of the shooting. John Wiles Booth was the assassinator of Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Booth shot Lincoln in the Ford Theatre, and was found in a warehouse later that evening. The assassinator of John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, shot Kennedy in a Ford Lincoln Continental, from a warehouse, and was found later that day in a theatre. Lincolns' assassinator was born in 1839 and Kennedy's was born 100 years later in 1939. Both Booth and Oswald were known by their full names and both were murdered before their trials. There have been four presidents that have been assassinated. Along with Lincoln and Kennedy, James Garfield and William McKinley were also assassinated as presidents. Lincoln and Kennedy are the two that are the most similar and are missed and talked about the most out of the four. Both men were heroes of their time and both were greatly respected and revered by most of the nation they led. Although Lincoln was born into poor home and Kennedy was born into the political world, they were able to accomplish many great things while they were in office. They were both re-elected for another term but were then killed on November 8th exactly one century later. Although these men are dead they are still greatly missed by those who loved them.

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Global Financial Crisis in Georgia and in … Georgia

Abstract

TATIANA PAPIASHVILI*

The epicenter of global financial crisis has been formed in the United States. Summarizing the origins of the US current financial crisis, economists declared that the main reason was the weak response of the government on every stage that caused lost of trust. Till the end of 2008, it seemed that transition economies were immune. Specifically, in Georgia till the beginning of 2009 the optimistic expectations were especially strong because of huge foreign direct investment (FDI) flows and the billions of dollars of foreign aid. But in the globalized economy no one can be immunized against financial contagion. From the US virus of financial crisis has spread throughout the world economy and the financial crisis of “American Georgia” has reached “Post Soviet Georgia”! Financial crisis affects all transition countries in two possible ways – directly as a financial shock (contagion) thought direct financial channels such as banking system and indirectly as spillovers or thought second-round effects such as trade and trade prices; foreign direct investment and equity investment; remittances; aid; other official flows. The first symptoms of the global economic and financial crisis have declined in volume of FDI, and as a result, a decrease in GDP has appeared in Georgian economy since the second half of 2008. Unfortunately, till now Georgia has had no special anti-crisis program. Generally, the program should be based on international experience and be national. Particularly, anti-crisis program should include measures seeking to stimulate consumption while supporting local producers and exports. The specific characteristic of Georgian economic growth model is its heavily dependence on FDI. In 2008, FDI flows decreased and reached just 78 percent of previous year level. In Q1 2009 compared to the last year’s corresponding period FDI flows decreased by 4.3 times. Key point of Georgian antirecessionary program is to restore the confidence of foreign investors and to attract new FDI into the country. Despite the double-whammy of war and worldwide recession, the perspectives of recovery in Georgia are optimistic because of (a) positive recovery trends in China, Japan and India; (b) very attractive geographic location of the country; (c) absent of credit domestic bubble; (d) huge financial aid that Georgia has received.

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* Prof. Dr., Faculty of Business Administration, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 82

Global Financial Crisis in Georgia and in … Georgia

TATIANA PAPIASHVILI*

Introduction It is now a recognized fact that the epicenter of global financial crisis has been formed in the United States. The virus of financial crisis has spread throughout the world economy from the United States. Activity in emerging, developing, and transition of economies is slowing abruptly due to lags in the contraction of the US’s and Europe’s import demands, a sharp increase in energy and commodity prices and other factors gave them a temporary reprieve. It seems now that this immunity has ended. How has the global financial crisis affected the Georgian economy? Is there any sign of recovery? What should be the key points of antirecessionary program in Georgia? These and other questions are going to be discussed in this article.

The origins of global financial crisis The causes of the crisis have by now been widely analyzed and dissected1. The expansion of 2002-2007 began with a bang – the bursting of the US tech-stock bubble in 2000- 2001, which had a substantial wealth effect on American households. To minimize the duration and depth of the ensuing recession, the Federal Reserve (Fed) aggressively eased monetary policy. It lowered either the Fed funds rate or the discount rate 27 times between January 2001 and June 2003, with the funds rate falling from 6.5 percent to 1.0 percent over that period.2 Low interest rates stimulated rapid growth in credit. Accompanying rises in house prices further fuelled credit growth, especially through mortgage lending. In the US, subprime market mortgage lending, to households without the essential means to repay loans, took on huge proportions - about $1.3 trillion was lent in subprime mortgages.3 As a result, the mass non payment began that caused serious challenges for the banking sector. Higher housing prices fueled a consumption boom, and the Fed continued expansionary monetary policy kept the US economy awash in excess liquidity. At the same time, there were high levels of financial innovation on Wall Street, driven by a search for higher yields in a low-interest-rate environment. Much of this innovation was carried out by firms whose activities were not regulated, and other new instruments were too complex to be effectively regulated. As a result, policies tended to advocate for deregulation of financial markets. As put by Paul Krugman4, the innovations of recent years—the alphabet soup of C.D.O.’s and S.I.V.’s, R.M.B.S. and A.B.C.P. — were sold on false pretences. They were promoted as ways to spread risk, making investment safer. What they did instead—aside from making their creators a lot of money, which they didn’t have to repay when it all went bust— was to spread confusion, luring investors into taking on more risk than they realized. By the summer of 2007 increasing defaults on mortgages and growing numbers of foreclosures in the US signaled that the subprime market was in crisis. House prices and financial stock prices started to plummet. This reduced the value of household wealth in the US by trillions. The solvency of a number of well known international financial institutions was threatened by these defaults and the drops in house and stock prices. From September 2008, the US government began to nationalize some firms and banks5. This resulted in widespread financial panic, with large-scale selling of stocks. The banking industry in the United States was wiped out. Therefore, as P. Krugman declared, “the main reason of crisis aggravation is the weak response of the government on every stage that caused lost of trust and gave stimulus to crisis”. 6 SECTION III: History, Arts, Economics

* Prof. Dr., Faculty of Business Administration, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 83

Other developed economies, EU countries first of all, faced the same adverse impact as when the internet bubble burst and other central banks also lowered rates. The American crisis has become the global one. Till the end of 2008, it seemed that emerging markets and developing countries as well as transition countries (TCs) were immune. Specifically, in Georgia till the beginning of 2009 the optimistic expectations concerning the future perspective of economic growth were especially strong7 because, first of all, of huge foreign direct investment (FDI) flows and the billions of dollars of foreign aid.8 The later has come into the country after the August war with Russia. But in a globalized economy, no one can be immunized against financial contagion9 coming from the United States. Virus of financial crisis has spread throughout the world economy. As most economists believe, financial crisis affects all transition countries in two possible ways10 – directly as a financial shock (contagion) thought direct financial channels such as banking system and indirectly as spillovers or thought second-round effects such as trade and trade prices; foreign direct investment and equity investment; remittances; aid; other official flows. The evidence of crisis is illustrated, first of all, by country’s GDP trend that causes unemployment level, standard of living, and other key macroeconomic indicators.

Overview of Georgian GDP trend The development of Georgian economic competitive status has been formed in the environment of transition period. But Georgian history of independence and transition was much more complicated than that of Baltic States, for example. War and de-industrialization combined to create complete economic collapse in 1990s when real GDP fell by about 70 percent11. Since 2003 the main direction of the Georgian government and society endeavourer has become the attraction of foreign capital, development of the foreign trade, successful cooperation with international organizations, and active participation in the regional amalgamations. 12 These initiatives had produced positive results as evidenced from international studies and evaluations13. One of the most remarkable economic results of these activities was the sustainable growth rate of GDP that was in double digits till 2008. The situation has become worth since the fall of 2008. Annual real GDP growth slowed to 8 percent in the first half of 2008, after having reached 12½ percent in 2007 and an average 9 percent in 2003–2006. With the double impact of the armed conflict and the global crisis, GDP contracted by 4 percent in the third quarter of 2008 and dropped further in the fourth quarter of the year, resulting in real growth of only 2.1 percent in 200814. In Q1, 2009, the downward trend of the GDP further deteriorated both in annual and quarterly terms. According to the most recent projections on June 1, Georgia’s economy will contract by 1.5 percent this year. 15 The picture is sadder if we compare the change in real GDP to the last year’s corresponding period (Figure1). Particularly, in the first quarter of 2009 real GDP falls by 5.9 percent compare to the last year’s corresponding period. Figure1. Change in real GDP compared to the last year’s corresponding period (%) in Georgia (2008 - Q1 2009)

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Source: Georgian Economic Review: Q1 2009, (2009), GEPLAC, p. 3 Thus, we may consider the statistics as the first clear sign of global economic crisis in Georgia. In another words, the financial crisis of “American Georgia” has reached “Post Soviet Georgia”!

The anti-crisis program in Georgia Till October 2009 Georgia had no special anti-crisis program. On October 6, Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili presented the Economy Liberty Act to the parliament. The major values of the act are “freedom, equal opportunities and merit.” 16 Thus, an anti-crisis program in Georgia is directly linked to further serious economic reforms towards the market economy. More specifically, a new proposal aims at further liberalization of Georgian economy following the principles of laissez-faire doctrine. The analysis and assessment of the act are special issues, but it comes without doubt that any anti recessionary program should be based on adopting the international experience as well as it should have national contents. In other words, anti-crisis program should include measures similar to those adopted by many TCs, seeking to stimulate consumption while supporting local producers and exports. National government has to subsidize or provide loan guarantees to companies having difficulties and even take a stake in some of them. The authorities also have to improve conditions for small and medium-sized companies, which create most jobs. Fiscal policy that includes tax cuts should be planned as well as improvement of tax collection by reduction of the size of the shadow economy. One of the specific characteristic of Georgian economic growth model is its heavily dependence on FDI flows. High level of foreign direct investment is needed to spur economic growth and to cover the country’s trade deficit. Figure 2 shows the change in FDI compared to the last year’s corresponding period (%) since 2008. Figure2. FDI in Georgia compared to the last year’s corresponding period (%)

Source: Own calculation based on data of the Department of Statistics of Ministry of Economic Development of Georgia.

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FDI flows rocketed up in 2007. In 2008, FDI decreased and reached just 78 percent of previous year level. In Q1, 2009, compared to the last year’s corresponding period, FDI fell by more than 4.3 times. Therefore, the key point of Georgian antirecessionary program is to restore the confidence of foreign investors in order to attract new FDI in the country.

Conclusion

The first symptoms of the global economic and financial crisis have declined in volume of FDI, and as a result, a decrease in real GDP has appeared in Georgian economy since the second half of 2008. The current economic crisis has some specific characteristics.

First, the epicenter of the crisis is in the developed countries. The crisis is unlike many of the previous 123 financial crises in that it comes as an exogenous shock and not because of inappropriate domestic policies of national governments of TCs, as in the past.

Second, economists and politicians have realized that a global crisis requires a global solution. The need for international cooperation has never been greater. But each country has developed a national program to meet the global recession.

Third, industrial countries have realized that to counter the global recession, they must provide developing countries with strong help to support their economic growth. Priority areas are strengthening social safety nets and protecting infrastructure programs that can create jobs while building a foundation for future productivity and growth, improving the climate for recovery and growth in private investment and finally, improving the stability and soundness of the financial system of developing countries and TCs. Forth, national governments of developing countries and TCs have to work against rising protectionist pressures and maintain an open international trade and finance system.

Fifth, the full recovery of Georgian economy directly depends on economic situation in the world economy. Georgian economy has “imported” the financial crisis through financial contagion and negative spillovers and now it has to import medicines.

Finally, despite the double-whammy of war and worldwide recession, in Georgia there is a base for optimistic prognosis that the country can make it through the downturn relatively unscathed because of (a) positive recovery trends in China, Japan, India, and other countries; (b) attractive geographic location of the country; (c) absent of domestic credit bubble; (d) huge financial aid that Georgia has received.

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References:

1. Barth, J. R. (2008), US Subprime Mortgage Meltdown www.hnb.hr/dub-konf/14-konferencija/barth.ppt.

2. Dirk Willem te Velde (October 2008),The global financial crisis and developing countries http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/download/2462.pdf

3. Effects of the Global Financial Crisis on Developing Countries and Emerging Markets: Policy responses to the crisis, INWENT/DIE/BMZ conference in Berlin, 11 December 2008 http://www.gc21.de/ibt/en/ilt/ibt/programme/megacities/media/gfc_velde.pdf

4. Felton, A., and K. Reinhart (2008), The First Global Financial Crisis of the 21st Century’. A VoxEU.org Publication. www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/1352.

5. Georgian Economic Review: Q1 2009, (2009), GEPLAC http://www.geplac.org/newfiles/GeorgianEconomicTrends/2006/GER%20I%202009(eng).pdf

6. Krugman, P. (3 December 2007), Innovating our Way to Financial Crisis’. The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2007/12/03/opinion/03krugman.html

7. Krugman, Paul (7 December 2008), Greenspan and the Bubble, "The New York Times", http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/29/opinion/29krugman.html

8. Lin, J. Y. (2008), The Impact of the Financial Crisis on Developing Countries. http://crisistalk.worldbank.org/files/Oct_31_JustinLin_KDI_remarks.pdf

9. Lin Justin (February 9, 2009), The Causes and Impact of the Global Financial Crisis: Implications for Developing Countries. http://www.iie.com/events/summary/20090209.pdf

10. Massimiliano Cali, Isabella Massa, Dirk Willem te Velde (November 2008), The Global Financial Crisis: financial flows to developing countries set to fall by one quarter http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/download/2523.pdf 11. Molly Corso (August 6, 2009), Georgia: Tbilisi scrambles as foreign investment shrivels http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insightb/articles/eav060809b.shtml

12. Naudé Wim (January 2009), The Financial Crisis of 2008 and the Developing Countries http://www.wider.unu.edu/publications/working-papers/discussion-papers/2009/en_GB/dp2009- 01/_files/80843373967769699/default/dp2009-01.pdf

13. Taylor, J. B. (2009),The Financial Crisis and the Policy Responses: An Empirical Analysis of What Went Wrong, NBER Working Paper 14631. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.

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The Bush Doctrine and the Relationship between Reagan’s Foreign Policies

DADUNA KHUTSISHVILI*

The Bush administration outlined several steps to thwart global terrorism after the tragic events of 9/11. This document was quickly labeled as the Bush Doctrine. Initially, President George W. Bush sought to develop a “distinctly American internationalism,” which implied a much narrower definition of the American national interest than either of President Clinton or President George H. W. Bush did. At first, President Bush’s priority was to refurbish America’s alliances around the world. But September 11, 2001, had a profound impact on the whole country and served as a watershed in congressional-executive relations on foreign policy. Some observers of foreign affairs compare George W. Bush’s foreign policy to Ronald Reagan’s achievements against communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, which was a good exemplar to follow against Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East. But there were so many differences between the issues these two presidents faced that it is hard to stipulate which differences may account for the divergent outcomes achieved in each case. Maybe the outcome is not visible yet as it is just a matter of time. After 9/11 the Bush administration issued the guiding principles for its foreign policy direction – The National Security Strategy of the United States of America – which declared that the fundamental aim of American foreign policy was to create a balance of power favouring freedom, where the phrase “distinctly American internationalism” remains, but it takes on a different meaning from the previous one it had at the beginning of the administration. To create such a balance, the United States would “defend the peace by fighting terrorists and tyrants . . . will preserve peace by building good relations among the great powers . . . [and would] extend the peace by encouraging free and open societies on every continent.”1 Seven courses of action were outlined in this document, promoting its fundamental goal to defend, preserve, and extend the peace and advance the nonnegotiable demands of human dignity. To achieve this aim the administration would rally nations and alliances around the world to defeat terrorism, address regional conflicts to reduce their impact on global stability, and focus on “rouge states” (or states that brutalize their own people, display no regard for international law, are determined to acquire weapons of mass destruction, sponsor terrorism around the globe, reject human values and hate the United States and everything for which it stands) and terrorists who might gain access to weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Moreover, this statement acknowledged that the United States possessed unprecedented and unequal strength and influence in the world and that this position came with unparalleled responsibilities, obligations, and opportunity. A brief summary of the courses of action outlined in the Bush Doctrine Aim: To create a balance of power that favours freedom and that advances the “nonnegotiable demands of human dignity” I. American actions for defending the peace:

 Strengthen alliances to defeat global terrorism and work to prevent attacks against us and against our friends.

* PhD Candidate, Faculty of Humanities, Direction of American Studies, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 88

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 Work with others to defuse regional conflicts.

 Prevent our enemies from threatening us, our allies, and our friends with weapons of mass destruction.

 Transform America’s national security institutions to meet the challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century. II. American actions for preserving the peace:  Develop agendas for cooperative action with other main centres of global power. III. American actions for extending the peace:  Ignite a new era of global economic growth through free markets and free trade.

 Expand the circle of development by opening societies and building the infrastructure of democracy.

Source: Abstracted from The National Security Strategy of the United States, September, 2002. The first three courses of action, in this document, focus on defending the peace against terrorists and rogue states. The administration would rally nations and alliances around the world to defeat them and any new adversary, but if necessary, the United States would act alone. The second course of action to defend the peace would be to address the regional conflicts in the world. The aim is that old rivalries should not be stirred up among the great powers. Moreover, the impact of regional conflicts should be reduced in order to maintain global stability. The United States would help to resolve these conflicts; however, the document made clear that there were limits on how much the U.S. could and would do: “The United States should be realistic about its ability to help those who are unwilling or unready to help themselves.” 2 The third course of action focused on rogue states and terrorists that might gain access to weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). The United States had to be prepared to deter terrorists from acquiring these types of weapons but if deterrence failed, it had to have effective consequence management against the effects of WMD. Thus, these three courses of action would contribute to preserving the peace, but the fifth course – developing cooperation with other centres of power – definitely focused on that goal. To promote a balance of power in favour of freedom, the United States would lead a coalition of America’s traditional allies, such as NATO (and an expanded NATO), Japan, Australia, Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines. Furthermore, Russia, China, and India would be included as well. For the cause of defeating international terrorism, the Bush administration was willing to submerge differences between the United States and the other countries. However, this section of the document fails to acknowledge the role of international organizations, save of NATO and the European Union. The forth course of action in the statement called for transforming national security institutions at home, with priorities to improve the military and the intelligence communities to defend the peace at home and abroad. Also to improve diplomacy and the Department of State, but emphasis was made more on “hard-power” rather than on “soft-power” ways to accomplish this goal.

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The sixth and seventh courses of action – igniting global economic and expanding the number of open societies and democracies – reflected the economic and political components of the administration’s foreign policy approach. It reaffirmed its commitment to global, regional, and bilateral free initiatives as the way to foster global economic growth and development. The administration also pledged to increase its development assistance to reform the World Bank and its activities to help the poor, and to increase the amount of funding in the form of grants, as opposed to loans. Furthermore, it would help poor countries to improve public health, education, and agricultural sectors. The phrase: “The option of pre-emptive actions to counter a sufficient threat to our national security” 3 was the most controversial statement in this document allowing the administration to act unilaterally if collective efforts failed. The Bush administration stated that “. . . in exercising our leadership, we will respect the values, judgement, and interests of our friends and partners. Still, we will be prepared to act apart when our interests and unique responsibilities require”. 4 But the statements, concerning pre-emption and the unilateral option, undermined the administration’s initial effort to produce a “grand strategy” against terrorism with broad support. Why was President Ronald Reagan a paragon of virtue for President George W. Bush? For the George W. Bush administration Ronald Reagan served as a model that deserved credit for bringing about the demise of the Soviet Union. The Bush Doctrine stressed unilateralism, the necessity of pre-emptive war to combat modern threats to security, and the spread of democracy – the issues advocated by neoconservatives in the Bush administration. What the Reagan administration had achieved against communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe was an exemplar to follow against Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East. David C. Hendrickson and Robert W. Tucker commented: “A direct line can be traced from Reagan to Bush in their common rejection of the traditional bases of international order” 5 – which means that international law and international organizations were abandoned. In addition, both administrations doubted the idea of containment: “A notable feature of the National Security Strategy 2002 is its repudiation of . . . containment.”6 Huge peace rallies were held against both presidents’ foreign policy approaches, but the history of foreign affairs of the former president was a good lesson for the younger President Bush. Like Reagan, Bush was convinced that democracy and American power could bring about dramatic changes in autocratic, anti-American countries. When President Reagan launched his campaign to undermine the Soviet Empire, Soviets’ military strength was approximately the same of the U.S. in early 1980s. Moreover, the U.S faced severe economic problems since World War II. So his political opponents were rather sceptical. But the outcome is known. If we compare the U.S. of 2002 (when President Bush declared his war on terror) with 1982, we will have totally a different situation. Contrary to that situation, the Bush administration’s country “…was indisputably the most powerful and influential state in the world; its economy had just experienced a very impressive period of economic growth, erasing budget deficits and supporting a military force that no state in the world could match.” 7 Thus, President Bush was sure that if Reagan’s country from a disadvantageous position could achieve its goal to end Communist rule in the Soviet Union, he also could undermine, with similar success, Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East and “help to install a series of democratic governments in the region to replace the various authoritarian regimes that have dominated it since the states there achieved independence.” 8

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Sympathetic and laudable analyses followed the Bush Doctrine. But after the war in Iraq dragged on, more pessimistic ones inundated the press. As A. Lieven wrote in 2006: “The Bush administration’s plan to bring democracy to the Middle East is now in ruins. . . . Now that the U.S. dream of combining democratization of the region with submission to Washington’s policies is dead, the U.S. too is faced with a stark choice: either to seek genuine compromise with key regional actors (implying Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran) or to be prepared to fight repeated wars.” 9 President Bush became very unpopular, but President Reagan also went through some periods of unpopularity as well. When President Reagan left office in early 1989, the Soviet Union still existed and the Berlin Wall was still in place. Though successful achievements were reaped by the following president, the credit should be given to President Reagan. Thus, it is possible that someday President Bush’s foreign policy endeavours will be appreciated positively, though it is hard to be sure now what kind of laurels he will be bequeathed in future. Perhaps, there will be a number of democratic governments in the Middle East someday and Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism will have subsided, and his policy to undermine al-Qaeda and autocratic regimes will be compared with the successful anti- Communist strategies of Ronald Reagan. Why success has not been achieved yet? Among many differences these two presidents faced, maybe there were some obvious ones. Namely: the Soviet Union with its Communist regime had been in existence for several decades when Reagan came into office, while Islamic fundamentalism and al-Qaeda had only recently appeared on the scene. Perhaps, Communism had lost all its sources and appeal by the late 1980s, whereas Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism were just full of energy and eager to show their willingness to defy all democratic countries. Beside these reasons, maybe there were some others: e.g. though President Reagan relied on covert military strategies in Afghanistan and Nicaragua, he used overt military force only once (in Grenada in 1983) unlike President Bush. The next could be that Islamic fundamentalism and autocratic regimes in the Middle East, the Bush administration encountered with, were less effective allies than the population of the Soviet Empire, where lots of people had long been bitterly anti-Communist, willing to establish at least functioning governments if not democratic ones immediately. But the situation in the Middle East was quite different during the Bush presidency. Though there were some factions and social groups who were opposed to current regimes and to the status quo, autocratic regimes of these countries eliminated them from any important political influence. But there were some who survived these regimes finding refuge within religious institutions which were not controlled by the governments. The outcome was (and is) that in all Middle East countries the only effective, anti-regime, anti-status quo elements and organizations were (and still are) religious in character and origin, or in other words Islamic fundamentalists. When the regime of Saddam Hussein was removed by overt American force, only Islamic fundamentalists of either faction (the Sunni and the Shia) were ready to replace the former government. Furthermore, when the Bush administration refused to deal with Yasir Arafat, and called for democratic elections within the territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority, the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas celebrated the victory – which was rather an undesirable result. These are the miscalculations that have to be redressed in future by the next president of the United States: President Barack Obama.

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References:

1. McCormick, J. M., (2009), American Foreign Policy & Process, (p. 216). Wadsworth Publishing, 5th Ed

2. The National Security Strategy of the United States, (Washington, DC: The White House, September 17, 2002), http: / / www.whitehouse.gov / nsc / nss / 2002 / ndex.html, August 23, 2008.

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid.

5. Hendrickson, D. C., and Tucker, R. W. (2005). “The Freedom Crusade.” National Interest 18: 12-22.

6. Nuruzzaman, M. (2006) “Beyond the Realist Theories: ‘Neo-Conservative Realism’ and the American invasion of Iraq.” International Studies Perspectives 7: 239-253.

7. Ray, J. L. (2008). American Foreign Policy and Political Ambition. p. 362. CQ Press.

8. Ibid.

9. Lieven, A. (2006) “Bush’s Middle East Democracy Flop.” Los Angeles Times, July 23. http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/latimes290.html (accessed July23, 2006).

SECTION III: History, Arts, Economics

Strategic Management in PR Practice

Abstract

NICHOLAS MAKHARASHVILI*

Everything you always wanted to know about PR but afraid to ask. The Problem of PR strategy and Role in the Organizational Structure as Part of the Management Team is still very important Public relations value to an organization has grown with technology because of the increased value of communication skills and an ability to predict and handle crises. A field that used to be considered discretionary in organizational management is now essential. PR is valued for its contributions. One is developing problem-solving strategies for the entire organization and helping to implement them through the PR department’s own efforts to integrate and coordinate its work with other organizational units.

Key words: Reengineering, publicity, facilitate, crystallize, trouble shooting, buzz, monitoring, corporate, walk away, nitty-gritty, participatory, merchandising, strategy, reporting, freshen up, hazards, scrutiny, profitable.

* Prof. Dr., Faculty of Business Management, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 93

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Strategic Management in PR Practice

NICHOLAS MAKHARASHVILI*

Role and Character of the Organization. To simplify the discussion, consider organizations falling into one of three categories: government, profit and nonprofit. Of course there are many variations in each of these. Dramatic differences are found in the level and branch of government, the profit-making organization that deals directly with consumers versus one that does not, the nonprofit organization that is strictly charitable such as a foundation versus one that provides services. There are some unifying characteristics. Government at any level is always involved with the public agenda because it serves a constituency. In democracies especially, it serves at the will of the people, which means power and politics are a part of all decisions. For profit- making companies, the key word is profit. The “bottom line” is always important because making money is the reason the company is there, and investors depend on getting some return. If the company is publicly held, there is a big difference, though, because of lows affecting the public obligations of these companies. If a company is a nonprofit it is subjected to the much scrutiny than either or the other two types because people have contributed out of trust alone, without any expectation of services or products in return. Violation of public trust always damages an organization, but especially nonprofits. The communication climate within each of these organizations is significant too. The communication climate is tied to top management style, rather than to the type of organization. Some top managers operate on a “need to know” basis and are reluctant to have open communication within the organization. They know information is power and want a tight hold on it. Other top managements want information shared throughout the organization so informed decisions can be made individually and collectively. Communication at the first extreme is very top-down, with little communication coming from employees back up. Policies are likely to be strictly enforced. In the open communication environment, information comes from internal dialogue facilitated in many ways by management. Employees are empowered to make individual decisions, and although they are expected to report these decisions, management supports them in taking the initiative. The communication climate is affected by the organization’s core values, usually set forward in its mission statement. The corporate culture comes from this, again traceable to top management. The corporate culture affects everyone in the organization. Even the lowest-level employees are likely told, “This is the way we do things.” What that may mean in a rigid communication system is “Don’t dare deviate.” In a looser one, it might mean “Go for it.” Internal public relations people, as employees, are most affected by the “tone” of management, but outside public relations practitioners working under contract are affected too. Even when a public relations firm has been hired at great cost, they may find it nearly impossible to get the information they need in a closed communication system. If they are going to do the job, they have to depend almost entirely on outside information. In a more open communication climate, they can bring outside information inside for verification, and they find employees in all areas accessible and willing to say what they think. Needless to say, booth planning and troubleshooting are much easier in that situation. The advantage the outside firm has, though,

* Prof. Dr., Faculty of Business Management, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 94

SECTION III: History, Arts, Economics comes from having more independence. Although no firm wants to lose a valued client, an outside firm can “Walk away” from a bad situation more easily than an employee can. Any public relations department’s development of an annual plan either for the organization or for the PR department has to start with the organization’s mission statement or organizational purpose. The way it develops from there often depends on the nature of the organization, but the elements of the public relations plan remain the same. One role of the public relations department is to assist with the evaluation of an organization’s mission. The PR department is responsible for organizing and planning the review. Mission statements set tone for the organization, establish its character and define the parameters of its activities. In addition to the mission statement, organizations write vision statements-descriptions about themselves indicating their self-image. These vision statements are the way the organization wants its various publics to see them. Additionally, some organizations have core value statements that suggest its ethics. Another statement you’ll find is an identifying statement that is objective in substance and just tells what the organization is and does. All these public statements guide what the organization sets forward as what it wants to accomplish. Publics and Organizational Relationships. Although the public relations department is not responsible for all of an organization’s projects, programs and activities, PR is source and resource for these, and has a concern because each involves relationships with different publics, an area that is PR’s responsibility. The relationships with different publics are what it gives an organization its reputation. The consistency of good long-term relationships with publics is crucial. Six components of a relationship are the major factors determining satisfaction, according to the work of PR researchers Linda C. Hon and James E. Gruing. These are:  Control mutuality;  Trust;  Satisfaction;  Commitment;  Exchange relationship;  Communal relationship While all are important, two deserve more explanation. Trust is founded in beliefs about the organization: in its integrity – that it will behave in a fair and just manner; in its dependability – that it will do what it says; and in its competence – that it has the ability to do what it says it will do. The notion of a communal relationship is more important in public relations than the idea of an exchange relationship. These aspects are measurable using agree/disagree statements, thus making it possible for management to get a more quantitative analysis of relationships with its various publics. Monitoring, Measuring and Reporting. Even when many activities and countless forms of communication occur within an organization, the public relations department usually occupies the best position for monitoring what is or isn’t happening and for evaluating how different publics are responding to various actions, messages and representatives of the organization. Dr. Grunig and the research team found 10 principles indicative of good management:  The PR management is strategic;  PR reports directly to senior management or is empowered by management;  The PR function is an integrated one with all PR function;  Mechanism exists to coordinate them; 95

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 The PR function is a separate management function;  The PR unit is headed by a manager, not a technician;  The two-way symmetrical model for PR is used;  A symmetrical system of internal communication is used;  The staff is comprised of Pr professionals who are educated is a body of knowledge, keep up with the literature and belong to professional associations;  There is diversity of gender, race and ethnicity in the PR staff;  An organizational context for excellence exists that means participatory, rather than authoritarian; Reengineering. Reengineering became a popular management innovation PR strategy for last 10 years. It also emphasizes the importance of “thinking big” and the need to sustain the drive for dramatic improvement through strong executive leadership. Reengineering is not Total Quality Management it is high-cost and high risk innovation pr strategy. Planning and Managing PR Work. Watching the global horizons for issue that seem to be developing is one of the most important functions of strategic public relations management. What a practitioner is looking for is something that could affect its products, one of its publics or its way of doing business. The PR person needs to notice first before the nugget of information becomes an issue around which public opinion has formed. A public relations practitioner can’t depend on catching each warning regardless of how sensitive that person’s antenna. So, PR people work with others in the organization to see the organization from their perspectives. Obviously the risk management division is helpful because they evaluate situations in terms of financial risks and insurance hazards. Marketing is always sensitive to competitive threats and new product challenges. Depending on the organization, research may be yet another place where issue can be identified. Finding the issue is just the beginning. After identification comes monitoring each of these issues has to be watched as its potential threat to the organization increases or decreases. The best management can hope for is some honest brokering with the different publics so even though one public is not willing to concede a position, at least it understands management’s position and is sympathetic enough not to actively oppose it. The best PR keeps top management aware of issues. If PR managers are not judicious in their notice to top management, when they see a really serious issue that could precipitate a crisis, management may consider their warning just another alert with no substance. Planning and Managing PR Work. Public relations’ role in developing an organization’s formal planning is significant. PR advisers help develop a mission statement for the organization – counseling on public and on strategies to reach objectives, as well as on environmental monitoring – as part of determining the organization’s one-year, five-year and 10-year goals and objectives. In addition, the public relations department must develop its own communication goals and objectives. Two additional roles fall to the PR department’s own responsibilities. One is hiring good public relations talent – full-time, part-time, interns and outside firms. Mentoring and nurturing is another role for internal people so they can be promoted. For outside PR assistance, the key is facilitating so the company is seen as a good one to work with. The other major PR department role is budgeting. In between this is the real job of developing and implementing PR work, planning strategies, solving problems and maintaining the department’s reputation in the organization as a strong communication source and resource. The PR practitioner’s role is different from the inside as opposed to coming in as an outside resource. Outside resources might be an advertising agency that works with public

SECTION III: History, Arts, Economics relations and marketing, and maybe merchandising and sales too if these are part of the organizational structure. The PR also calls on designers, artists and photographers and production people such as printers and audio and video companies. Although many of these capabilities are in-house, often there is a need to go outside. This is particularly true of audio and video, whether these are for employees or external audience. Another important outside resource is research firms. The reason is that research is very time- consuming, and most internal public relations staffs don’t have and can’t dedicate the time to do that well. Pr departments now allocate at last 6 percent of their budgets to research, and some go as high as 10 percent. Sometimes the research firm offers additional services such as media planning ad message distribution. If so, that is usually a part of the contract because of the synergies involved. The outside contractor may be a public relations firm that is expected, as an agency is, to offer research, planning, execution and evolution. Usually the firm has a specialty for which it is hired: crisis management, health communication, public affairs, investor relations or such. The firm reports to the public relations manager, but also has access to top management. The ability of the outside firm to work comfortably with the internal PR department is the key to success. The PR firm is usually willing to be flexible because this is a client relationship. However, the internal PR department has to be flexible enough to listen for challenging ideas and creative solutions to problems. An internal public relations department needs to have a clear view of its own mission and what it wants to accomplish. The internal staff has to set a timetable for activities, including deadlines and responsibilities, so its own activities can be monitored and kept on schedule. This is especially critical in an organization that has a complex approval process because delays can be destructive. PR is difficult to plan and manage because of high expectations, uneven levels of demand and the creative element. It calls for flexibility and entrepreneurship, often in environments that don’t reward either. Many public relations problems arise from the failure of public relations practitioners to manage an internal situation, and this often turns on lacking approval to do whatever is necessary to accomplish the job. Public relations people are involved in problem solving situations almost constantly, and a good many of the eventual solutions to these problems are arrived at by groups. Occasionally, these groups include some people from outside and some from inside the organization; but most are arrived at internally, with much of the effort being exerted by the public relations department or outside PR counsel to the organization. PR Departments as Source and Resource. Resources available in the public relations department are often needed by other divisions of the organization. PR can supply information on the organization’s publics, on the socioeconomic and political climates in which the organization functions and on media. Top management is not only level that counts on public relations for counsel. Many other units call on PR for some evolution of an event or issue, just as they count on them for technical support. PR is often the source for publications and presentations, It provides information for the organization’s Web site and its intranet. It sets policies for all communications, including use of the logo or corporate name to keep consistency in and control over the corporate image and to be sure the organization “speaks with one voice.” Externally PR provides news for all media, print and electronic, mass and specialized. The VNR’s (video news releases) may be done in-house too, although these are usually out sourced.

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Since an internal PR department has to handle its own budget and be accountable for how the money is spent, it has to cost out each of these PR activities, including some allocation of employee time. Knowing how to Manage Strategically. The expertise to play the manage role is closely tied to expertise in engaging in two-way practices. Department expertise or knowledge to play communication manager role: - Manage the organization’s response to issues - Use research to segment publics - Develop goals and objectives for department - Conduct evaluation research - Prepare department budget Managing and Working with PR People Internally, a PR department head is responsible for sound management. To manage PR people affectively, you must first recognize that they are creative people who work under continuous pressure and face criticism from all fronts for whatever they do. Next you must realize that they are individuals with professional attitudes that tend to make them more committed to their field than to the particular place where they may be working. Cultivating personal growth and keeping PR employees from getting bored with routine chores are challenges for PR managers. PR managers must also see that their employees learn the organization’s business thoroughly. In addition, they must see that their employees keep up with developments in their own field. Internal PR management also is responsible for hiring outside PR firms. Bids from the firms are based on their accounting structures. The cost of staff time spent on a project is measured in staff salaries, usually prorated to the nearest hour of time spent. A PR business incurs chargeable and no chargeable expenses can be charged to a client:  Meetings with clients to prepare account material;  Interviews, surveys and placement of materials;  Supervision of mailing and distribution of releases, photograph assignments, etc.  material prepared for the client;  Travel time, including going to and from client’s office, as well as time spent in off- hours with people;

No chargeable expenses include the following;  Keeping up contacts with media representatives;  Meeting with office Keeping and staff and other group conference related to PR business;  New business solicitation and preparation of materials for potential clients;  Professional activates such as seminars meetings and time spent on organizational/firm;  Leisure time spent away from home in hotels.

Externally, the PR firm itself another management issue, both for the PR department hiring it and the PR firm taking on the task of working for and with an internal PR department. For the internal PR people, hiring a firm means finding one the right size to do the job and with the right talent and experience to handle the project or problem. For the PR firm, looking at the client, the options are a small firm, a medium-size one or large one. Some small firms are really the offices of counselors who do strategic planning but little or no implementation. The small firm often does a lot of networking to accomplish a task

SECTION III: History, Arts, Economics because it doesn’t have a large staff. If a client essentially a planner and contractor, hiring out work to freelancers and other contractor workers. If a client represents too large a share of the small firm’s business, there is the real economic danger of losing the client. This sometimes affects judgment. There is more of a tendency to just please the client instead of doing what the head of the PR firm knows the needs to be done. The result is bad for both the firm and the client. Small firms have to be sure they are not taking on a task too big for them, and that they don’t become too dependent on a single client. A medium – size firm usually charges more then the smaller firm because it sets aside part of the profits to solicit new business. Sometimes a new businessperson is hired to just a generate new accounts. In that case the person often works for a commission and does not do much else for the firm except make pitches and write proposals. Large firms are generally organized into groups composed of people who have the special expertise needed to handle a particular client’s requirements. Larger firms normally have departments, such as media relations, that serve all groups. Groups usually make their own presentations, so the firm’s principals are less in demand by the client then they are in the smaller and medium-size firms. In all cases, what is important is a good fit between the firm and the client and most especially between the person servicing the account and the client contact. The Postmortem: nitty –gritty of Public relations is valued for its strategic contributions. One is developing problem-solving strategies for the entire organization and helping in implementing them through the PR department’s own efforts to integrate and coordinate its work with other organizational units. Next is-being attentive to issues as they emerge, monitoring them before they crystallize into public opinion and advising management how to handle the issues for a positive outcome to the organization. Bottom line: PR is the great equalizer when competing against larger companies with deep pockets

References:

1. Critical Perspectives in Public Relations Jacquie L’Etang. L. 1996. 2. PR and Communication Management by M Dozier and L. and J Gruning. NJ 1995. 3. Strategic Communication Management by J. White and L Mazur. W. 1995. 4. Understanding Mass Communication by Melvin L. Defleur -Boston 1998 5. Communication Mosaics, an Introduction to the Field of Communication. US 2004.

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An Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on the US Economy (Some Basic Trends, Statistical Facts and Observations)

Abstract

DAVID APTSIAURI*

The publication covers some basic aspects of the harmful impact of the world financial crisis of 2007-2008 on the development of the US Economy, including various reasons of the crisis and extraordinary measures adopted by the US Government, including the long term and short ones, in order to overrun this global turbulence. The brief analysis of new trends and updated situation over the mentioned topic can be considered as an important part of the article.

* Prof. Dr., Faculty of Humanities, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 100

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An Impact of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2009 on the US Economy (Some Basic Trends, Statistical Facts and Observations)

DAVID APTSIAURI*

The financial crisis of 2007-2008 has been called as the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression of 1930 s in the United States of America with its huge negative impact on overall global business environment and markets health status, failure of key businesses, job opportunities, decline in consumer wealth in the trillions of US Dollars.  It affected international political, humanitarian and security fields of cooperation, travel and cultural links, social life.

Some reasons of the crises

Reasons of economic origin  Growing of the housing bubble in the USA (peaked in 2005-2007)

Increase in loan incentives such as initial terms and a long –term trend of rising housing prices has encouraged the borrowers for more favorable conditions in future. But interest rates began to rise and housing prices dropped, refinancing became more difficult.

 A bulk of money came to the US consumers from the fast-growing economies in Asia and oil-producing countries (as it is known, the oil prices are bounded to the US Dollar). These huge contributions impacted the policy of the US Federal Reserve towards ease credit conditions based on low interest rates. The loans for mortgage, credit card, automobiles and etc led to enormous debts and finally to the mentioned housing bubble.

 The increasing role of financial institutions such as investment banks and hedge funds known as shadow banking system. Providing the credit resources as commercial banks they were not subject of the same regulations as banks (issued the loans above the burdens without necessary funds to compensate the debts).

 Commodity bubble (as an example, the price for oil rose from 50 to 150 US Dollars from 2007 to mid of 2008). This process leads to consumer spending into gasoline and stoppage of the economic growth in oil importing countries as wealth flows to oil producing states.

 The idealization of the credit based lifestyle for many individual consumers who are acting in free market community. The utilization of a standard system of credit benefits in most cases have been limited by personal comfortable consumption only damaging the harmony between the corporate and personal interests.

* Prof. Dr., Faculty of Humanities, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 101

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 Enormous disbalance between sectors of the US Economy reflected in updated Gross Domestic Product, where the share of the service sector is equal to approximately 80%.

 Current huge trade deficit between the USA and growing China also led to further disbalance in global financial relations.

 The weakening of the US Dollar as the major world currency touched the system of modern international economic relations

Reasons of non economic origin

 Global comprehensive crisis. According to some experts view, we witness the deeper crisis of capitalism as a system, example the GDP permanent decrease in Western countries since the early 90 s, less investments into real economy, priority of investments into the financial market that more profitable than capital investment

 Distortions of management of economy at national and corporate levels .Extra power of managers who decisively increased their influence on many aspects of business life.

John C. Bogle, expert of international economics pointed out: “Corporate America went astray largely because the power of managers went virtually unchecked by our gatekeepers for too long…They failed to keep an eye on these geniuses to whom they had entrusted the responsibility of the management of America s great corporations” (Bogle, John (2005), The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism, Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11971-8).

 The prioritization of own, personal interests of the managerial community (managers capitalism replaced by owner s capitalism. This model means that management operates for its benefits rather than for the shareholders).

 In many cases extremely high financial reimbursement for the top management of the leading corporations without real evaluation of contribution to the results of the activity. The managed earnings mainly focused on share price rather than the creation of real value.

 Increased number of corruption cases in top management of the leading western corporations took place in the beginning of the XXI century, that might be considered as not typical and new element in this group of business community.

 The weak contribution of the controlling agencies as the Auditing Companies, Corporate Management bodies, less effective supervision by the members of Parliaments and Governments, public community of banking and business sectors.

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 Unfair highly cost system of reimbursement for the corporate activity reports prepared by Auditing and similar agencies.

 Lack or decreased quality of analytic researches, particularly linked with the prevention of possible risks in all dimensions of business development prepared by the mentioned controlling agencies.

 The decreasing and less effective role of international financial institutions (World Bank, International Monetary Fund and etc) in timely determination, prevention and managing the threats for stabile development of global business cooperation.

 Disbalance in private and state role and participation in the running of the economy. In our view, the US Administration should enhance the state regulatory function in managing of vital sectors of national economy for the sake of sustainable growth of stability (in some cases paving the modernized way of a ,,New Deal,, concept of President F.D. Roosevelt )with understanding that free and liberal economy cements and will cement the national power of the United states.

 Impact of new risks for the global security (international terrorism, illegal trafficking and migration of labor force and etc) leads to a need of sharp increase of financial resources donated by the US and other Western countries Governments.

 Global environment is also a matter of particular attention and huge allocations of funds from International Community.

Some statistical data reflecting the crisis * The full package of the economic engine – consumption, business investment and government spending has declined * Between 2007 and 2008 the American customers lost an estimated average of more than 25% of their collective net wealth * Housing prices declined by 30-35% Total home equity in the USA valued 13 trillion US Dollars at its peak in 2006, had dropped to 8,8 trillion by mid 2008. Savings and investment assets lost 1,2 trillion and pension assets lost 1,3 trillion * The US GDP decreased in the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 by 6%. Unemployment rate increased to 9,5% by June 2009 ( the highest rate since 1983) * Bankruptcy or take over of leading banks in the USA and Europe (Lehman Brothers, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and etc) * As to the Brookings Institution estimates, since the rest of the world depended on the US economy as a source of global demand, with a crisis in this country and the increased savings rate of US consumers, declines in growth in other regions of the world have been extremely negative. As a result, in 2008 the GDP decline in Germany was 14,4%, in Japan15,2%, In the United Kingdom 7,4%, in the total Eurozone 9,8. By March 2009, the Arab world had lost 3 trillion US Dollars due to the crisis. Mexico s GDP dropped by more than 20%.

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Extraordinary anti crisis measures

Short term measures  Expansion of money supply ( the US Government decision) to stop unemployment, low salaries and possible deflation

 Activation of stimulus packages in order to help the private sector, particularly the banks. As to the US Government strategy 2 packages have been adopted with total amount of 1 trillion US Dollars for the years of 2008-2009.

 Credit freeze as emergency measure to make a stoppage in global financial crisis. The purchase by the Central Banks of Government debt and troubled private assets that was the largest in the world practice

Long term measures  New legal and institutional regulation of the relations between the Government and private financial and banking sector based on the enhanced role of the Federal Reserve System in this respect

 Enhanced consumer protection and cost effective regulation of so called shadow banking system with the following closure of the failed organizations

 Tailoring of the credit resources of the banks to the credit coverage opportunities of the clients

 Further separation of the commercial and investment banks

 Improvement of the quality of the management at all business levels adapting it to real needs of the growing economic development

Current trends, status of economic health and prognosis  The US Economy is still the leading one in the world, despite the problems. In our view. It has huge potential resources to overrun the crisis due to some fundamental reservations:

- extraordinary ability to react rapidly on the dynamically changing external and internal environment of national economic development

- steadily growing internal market and still high demand of the rest of the world on the US market opportunities

- concentration of one of the best structure of the world intellectual resources in all dimensions of political, public and economic life

- unique and rich experience of the resolution of various crisis cases

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- crucial role and responsibility in the regulation of the system of international economic relations and global security policy

 Some positive trends have appeared in 2009 and need the further promotion and support.

“The predictions of most professional forecasters are that the US Economy will end its decline before the end of this year and grow at least modestly in 2010. But there is still a lot of uncertainty about when the recession will end, when growth will recover or whether the financial sector is firmly on the road to recovery” - these observations by Martin Neil Baily and Douglas J. Elliot from the Institute on Business and Public Policy at Brookings expressed in the publication of the mentioned Institute -,,The US Financial and Economic crisis: Where does it stand and Where do we go from here?, p.3, June, 2009, in our opinion, are one of the best reflections of the current economic situation in the United states.

- Consumer confidence have jumped from critical previous levels;

- Stabilization of the volume of the industrial output in the second half 0f 2009 and slow rise of this indicator in 2010;

- The stock market prices have changed towards better performance, the cost of shares also have been increased, in particular in large companies;

- The move towards stoppage of the fell of Gross Domestic Product (from annual rate of 6,3% in the last quarter of 2008 up to 5,7% in the first quarter of 2009 has taken place. This is a minor, but important improvement of the microeconomic picture;

- The Banking sector, mostly, large banks have retained their ability to function at standard level thanks to prompt corrections in financial and management strategies and assistance from the Government;

- The rate of unemployment is still non favorable, high (9,4%).But extra measures have prevented from further escalation of the situation;

- The US Government elaborated and started the implementation of a special anti crisis national scale program that substantially contributed to the appearance of positive changes in economic and social life of the country. This trend is to be promoted and nurtured in future.

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References:

1. “The US Financial and Economic Crisis: Where Does it Stand and Where Do we go from here?” by Martin Baily and Douglas J. Elliot, Institute on Business and Public Policy at Brookings, June, 2009, USA.

2. “The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism” - by Bogle John, Yale University Press, 2005, USA

3. World Economic Outlook Update – Global Economic Slump Challenges Policies, International Monetary Fund, January,2009

4. ,,Recession in America ,, - The Economist, November 15,2007

5. ,,Revenge of the Glut,,- by Paul Krugman , the ,,New York Times,, March2,2009

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The Structure of American Blues

GEORGE SHADURI*

The blues is regarded as one of the peculiarly American sorts of folklore. It formed as a separate type of song in the second half of XIX century, and originated from so-called work- song – oral musical tradition of Negro slaves who had worked on plantations. Musically the blues is distinguished by the characteristic blues scale – the scale consisting of seven tones and featured by flatted third and flatted fifth – so-called blue notes, which create the mood of sadness, melancholy and experience of misery by a performer. Structurally, the blues consist of 12 bars. This is unusual for European forms of oral lore, which are featured by 8, 16, or 32 bars. For example, lets take the famous European religious hymn Amazing Grace: Amazing grace, how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found, Was blind, but now I see. ‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears relieved, How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed.

As we can see, in terms of poetic rhythm the ballad represents the mixture of iambic tetrameter (odd lines) and iambic trimeter (even lines). When musically performed, the ballad consists of 16 bars:

1 2 3 4 A- ma-zing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, ______I

5 6 7 8 once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. ______‘Twas

9 10 11 12 grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved, __ __ How

13 14 15 16 pre-cious did that grace ap-pear the hour I first believed. ______

If sung as a religious hymn or as a march (which both are possible), the musical rhythm is 4/4, that means that within each bar there are 4 units, from which the 1st and the 3rd (two of the

* Assist. Prof., Faculty of Humanities, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 107

SECTION III: History, Arts, Economics four) are stressed. This is peculiar for European musical tradition: the white listener claps his/her hands on the 1st and 3rd units of each bar (I underlined them in the table). The blues have rather different structure. The typical stanza of blues consists of three lines. From these three lines, the first two lines are identical (or the second one slightly modified), whereas the third line explains and complements the meaning/idea of the first two lines. Finally, usually these three lines must rhyme with each other. For example, let us take the first two stanzas of the famous Everyday I Have the Blues: Everyday, everyday I have the blues Everyday, everyday I have the blues So when you see me worried baby, you know its you I hate to lose

Nobody loves me, nobody seems to care Nobody loves me, nobody seems to care When speaking of bad luck and trouble, people do you know I’ve had my share (From The Norton Anthology of African-American Literature, 1997)

Performed musically, the blues are broken into 12 bars. The musical rhythm is usually 4/4 (i.e. there are four units in each bar, from which two are stressed). However, if in European music the rhythmic stress falls on the 1st and 3rd units, in Afro-American tradition the stress falls on the 2nd and the 4th units of a bar. Unlike the white listener, who claps his/her hands on odd units of a bar, the black listener claps his/her hands on the even units of a bar. During the band performance, this accent is made by the drummer. In the first stanza of the above-mentioned blues, I underlined all four rhythmic units of each bar, and made bold the stressed units. As we can see, the portions of the text can fall either on the odd or even units of the bar:

I II III IV Every day ______Every day I have the blues ______Every

V VI VII VIII day ______Every day I have the blues ______so when you

IX X XI XII see me worried people ___ __ you know its you I hate to lose ______

There is no rigid rule as to where to put the portions of the text, although an observer may observe some insignificant tendencies. Take another song, for example:

I II III IV

Love is so confusing ______There’s time I just cry ______

V VI VII VIII

Love is so confusing ______There’s time I just cry ______My

IX X XI XII girl went ___ away ______Oh , ___ I wonder why ______

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Finally, let us consider the example of the famous stanza from Langston Hughes’s The Weary Blues: I got the Weary Blues, and I can’t be satisfied Got the Weary Blues, and I can’t be satisfied I ain’t happy no more, and I wish that I had died (From The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, Vintage Classics, 1994, p. 50)

I II III IV I got the Weary Blues, and I can’t be satisfied ______Got the

V VI VII VIII

Weary Blues, and I can’t be satisfied ______I ain’t

XIX X XI XII happy no more, and I wish that I had died ______

The principles described above are, of course, valid here. The slight difference of the latter blues from the two previous ones is that its rhythm is 2/4, not 4/4, i.e. there are only two rhythmical units – the 1st and the 2nd. Still, and we can see it from the table, the musical/rhythmic stress (accented usually by the drums) always falls on the 2nd. American blues is a precursor of almost all forms of modern music, including jazz and rock. These latter expanded and developed the harmonic and rhythmic patterns embedded in the blues. However, they in their essence remain based on the blues, and it is probably the explanation why they find so many devoted admirers in the world of contemporary music.

References:

1. Sargeant, Winthrop, 1975. Jazz: Hot and Hybrid. New York.

2. Konen, Valintine, 1977. The Ways of American Music. Moscow.

3. Collier, James Lincoln, 1979. The Making of Jazz. New York.

4. Rampersad, Arnold; Roessel, David, 1994. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, Vintage Classics. New York.

5. Gates, Henry Louis Jr.; McKay, Nellie Y. 1997. The Norton Anthology of African-American Literature. New York.

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Martin Luther King as Milestone in the American History

Abstract

NINO GAMSAKHURDIA*

This article is about the life and work of the great leader of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, Martin Luther Kung Jr. He pursued the methods of nonviolent protest in the civil rights movement. His public speeches are widely known. Martin Luther King Jr. believed in the future success of the civil rights movement, appealing to all blacks for not giving up their fight against discrimination and segregation. In a way, Martin Luther King and other leaders paved the way for Obama’s acceptance as a national leader. Barack Obama has made Martin Luther King’s dream a reality. During the march in Washington, 25 years ago, in his famous speech, King declared that people would be judged not according the colour of their skin but of their character. Obama describes King to his daughters as a Person who laid a base of or freedom of generations, for their unquestionable citizenship and their dreams unbounded.

* PhD Candidate, Faculty of Humanities, Direction of American Studies, at International Black sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 110

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Martin Luther King as a Milestone in the American History

NINO GAMSAKHURDIA*

In November 2008, world faced the miracle. For the first time in the history, the United States of America has Afro- American as a president-Barack Hussein Obama. With this choice, this country proved that it really is a democratic, free and fulfilled. Millions of people, with tears in their eyes listened to Obama’s speech. I believe that it will be interesting to say few words about Martin Luther King Jr., about his role in the Civil Rights movement. Martin Luther King believed in the future success of the civil rights movement, appealing to all blacks for not giving up their fight against discrimination and segregation. In a way, Martin Luther King and other leaders paved the way for the Obama’s acceptance as a national leader. “The logic of growth means that the civil rights odyssey must move to new levels in which the content of freedom is security, opportunity, culture and equal participation in the political process”. B Martin Luther King, Jr., was born in the family of Baptist Minister. I will not be mistaken if I say that his public speeches are very famous, even legendary. His public speaking abilities developed slowly during his collegiate years at Crozer, where by the end of the third year, he made a powerful impression on public. Martin Luther King Jr. studied the teachings on nonviolent protest of Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi. King also read and heard the sermons of white Protestant ministers who preached against American racism. The Christianity played a fundamental role, on his views. In every speech he used paradigms from Christianity. However, King was tolerant toward the religious beliefs of others – Muslims, Judaists, Buddhists and etc. In 1957 King helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an organization of black churches and ministers that aimed to challenge racial segregation. King was elected as the president of these organizations. Consequently, he became highly influential there. King and other SCLC leaders encouraged the use of nonviolent direct action to protest discrimination. These activities included marches, demonstrations, and boycotts. The violent responses that directed action provoked from some whites eventually forced the federal government to confront the issues of injustice and racism in the South. Martin Luther King had connections with Northern whites that later bolstered his success at influencing public opinion in the United States. King’s closest adviser at times was Stanley Levison, a Jewish activist and former member of the American Communist Party. King also developed strong ties with leading white Protestant ministers in the North, with whom he shared theological and moral views. The members of Montgomery’s black community had complaints about their mistreatment on city buses. Many white bus drivers treated blacks rudely, often cursing them and humiliating them by enforcing the city’s segregation laws, which forced black riders to sit in the back of buses and give up their seats to white passengers on crowded buses. By the early 1950s Montgomery’s blacks had discussed boycotting the buses in an effort to gain better treatment—but not necessarily to end segregation.

* PhD Candidate, Faculty of Humanities, Direction of American Studies, at International Black sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 111

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On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a leading member of the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was ordered by a bus driver to give up her seat to a white passenger. When she refused, she was arrested and taken to jail. Local leaders of the NAACP, recognized that the arrest of the popular and highly respected Parks was the event that could rally local blacks to a bus protest. The leaders believed that a citywide protest should be led by someone who could unify the community. Martin Luther King was soon chosen as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), the organization that directed the bus boycott that lasted for more than a year, The Montgomery bus boycott lasted for more than a year, demonstrating a new spirit of protest among Southern blacks. King’s serious behavior and regular appeal to Christian brotherhood and American idealism made a positive impression on whites outside the South. Incidents of violence against black protesters, including the bombing of King’s home, focused media attention in Montgomery. In February 1956 an attorney for the MIA filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking an injunction against Montgomery’s segregated seating practices. The federal court ruled in favor of the MIA, ordering the city’s buses to be desegregated, but the city government appealed the ruling to the United States Supreme Court. By the time the Supreme Court upheld the lower court decision in November 1956, King was a national figure. In 1959 King visited India and worked out more clearly his understanding of Gandhi's principle of nonviolent persuasion, called satyagraha², which King had determined to use as his main instrument of social protest. It must be said that the major, fundamental goal of the civil rights movement of the early 1960s was an achievement that black America had never known: full legal equality. This period coincided with President Kennedy’s administration being in power. In the early 1960s blacks and whites were not treated equally. They did not hold many governmental positions. Blacks could not eat in the same restaurants, drink out of the same drinking fountains or use the same bathrooms as whites. They could not sit in the front seat of the buses. They lived in ghettos, while whites were moving into richer suburban areas. Most of the blacks had no chance to vote, they went to separate schools, etc. When Kennedy took office, in January 1961, during his inaugural address, he promised to fight against the racial discrimination He promised to end racial inequity. Kennedy appointed black people in many federal positions, strengthened the Civil Rights Commission. Kennedy selected five black federal judges. In the early 1960s King led SCLC in a series of protest campaigns that gained national attention. They joined local demonstrations against segregated restaurants, hotels, transit, and housing. SCLC increased the size of the demonstrations in an effort to create so much dissent and disorder that local white officials would be forced to end segregation to restore normal business relations. The strategy did not work in Albany. During months of protests, Albany’s police chief jailed hundreds of demonstrators without visible police violence. Eventually the protesters’ energy, and the money to bail out protesters, ran out. In May 1963 King and his SCLC staff escalated anti segregation marches in Birmingham (the most segregated city), by encouraging teenagers and school children to join. Hundreds of singing children filled the streets of downtown Birmingham. Police officers confronted activists with attack, dogs and firefighters, with high-pressure water hoses against the marchers. Scenes of young protesters being attacked by dogs and pinned against buildings by torrents of water from fire hoses were shown in newspapers and on televisions around the world. During the demonstrations, King was arrested and sent to jail. He wrote a letter from his cell to local clergymen who had criticized him for creating disorder in the city. In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” (1963, April 16th), King explains to them his own position:” Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere… Anyone who lives inside the United States can

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SECTION III: History, Art, Economics never be considered an outsider anywhere in this country”.³ Martin Luther King demands their activity and comments that “Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The urge for freedom will eventually come. This is what happened to the American Negro” 4 National reaction to the Birmingham aggression built support for the struggle for black civil rights. The demonstrations forced white leaders to negotiate an end to some forms of segregation in Birmingham. Moreover, the protests encouraged many Americans to support national legislation against segregation King and other black leaders organized the 1963 March on Washington, a massive protest in Washington, D.C., for jobs and civil rights. On August 28, 1963, King delivered his most famous speech “I Have a Dream”. Here, he demanded the justice for every person. Addressed black people, appealed them to continue their fight against injustice, but only with dignity. The year of 1963, was a beginning of a new era, of a time, when the promise of democracy would be fulfilled. “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”. 5 He believed that one day all people would be equal. This march announced a turning point in the civil rights movement and set the stage for the movement’s two most important legislative achievements, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In 1964 Martini Luther King Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize. In his lecture “The Quest for Peace and Justice” King says , that “ I experience this high and joyous moment not for myself alone but for those devotees of nonviolence who have moved so courageously against the ramparts of racial injustice and who in the process have acquired a new estimate of their own human worth”6. King believed that in the new era doors of opportunity are gradually being opened to those at the bottom of society. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are developing a new sense of “some-bodiness”. In the end, I would like to say that without Martin Luther King and other leaders, the black people would had to fight for a very long time just to receive essential rights. I am not saying anything about higher education, good jobs or politics. I will not be mistaken if I say, that these people paved the way to such brilliant politicians as Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Barack Obama. As for their culture, it attracts the attention of the world.

References:

1. The Last Steep Ascent, by Martin Luther King.Jr.1966 2. Satyagraha-passive resistance; the doctrine of nonviolent resistance originated by Mohandas Gandhi and used in the opposition to British rule in India. Microsoft Encarta Dictionary 3. The Letter from Birmingham Jail, by Martin Luther King.Jr.1963 4. Ibid. 5. I Have a Dream, by Martin Luther King.Jr.1963 6. The Quest for Peace and Justice, by Martin Luther King. Jr., Nobel Lecture, 1964

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PR Technologies and US Presidents

Abstract

NINO ESITASHVILI*

In my essay I wrote about increasing role of public relations in the life of American Presidents. On the example of Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Barack Obama, I tried to show the importance of public relations in political elections, nominations and during the presidency. Those three presidents used different strategies of image making and stirring up public opinion. Clinton Intervened with people more by visits and conducting polls, Bush tried to point out his opponents’ weak points and Obama coined up such emotional phrases as “changes” and “yes we can”, he also managed to create the largest web community and persuade people that he could change their life for the better. With the help of those examples I tried to demonstrate that public relation has become a machine that can bring success, boost image and increase Public support. One should only know how to use such efficient tool in the right place and at the right time. Public Relation encompasses important aspects such as phrases in relation to important issues, interviews or news releases, the news media; “yes, we can...”, “changes” - sounds like general goodwill to most people, Direct mailing, robocalling, advertising and public speaking, conducting polls, using web channels such as FaceBook, MySpace, LinkedIn and YouTube. Participating in debates and fueling up the society to participate in elections. Public Relation appears in our everyday life in advertisement, news, via internet and magazines. It has become an indivisible part of our life to make it faster and easier. In my research I found out that most of the participants of the survey I conducted, would advice their friends to use P.R. practices to improve their images; and they believe that public relations and politics are deeply connected with each other, which again speaks in favor of my argument about the increasing role of P.R in the life of American presidents.

* Research assistant, Faculty of Humanities, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 114

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PR Technologies and US Presidents

NINO ESITASHVILI*

The development of mass media, specifically the broad public availability of TV broadcasts, has significantly changed the way politics is conducted. The vacuum that existed between governments and electorate is now filled in by mass communication technologies; through TV and internet public can easily access information on a variety of issues that interests them. It becomes increasingly important for politicians to learn to employ mass media outlets to their own goals. P.R. is a newly emerged science with an ever-increasing potential for growth, and it should be carefully explored. Politics and P.R. have become inextricably intertwined. Main goal of the government is to administer their country in the best of their people’s interests. To be able to effectively do so governments should know what their people want, and good way to learn about people’s problems is to listen to them. Mass media in this regard is an important medium because it facilitates the communication between people’s aspirations and government’s actions. On the other hand citizens should be informed what their governments do. Unless they are informed about the policies their governments undertake they might think that their governments do not actually do much to advance their cause. To understand the increasing role of Public Relations in American politics we only need to carefully trace American president’s political career. Clinton, Bush and Obama are excellent examples of how skillfully presidents conduct public relations. Clinton was one of the first presidents, who sophisticatedly used P.R. techniques to restore his tarnished image. Accusation of perjury, public outcry, and inevitable procedure of impeachment all pointed in the direction of Clinton’s ignominious exit from politics. But Clinton came back strong, and popular as ever. The secret to his unexpected political resuscitation is his dexterous employment of P.R strategies. He knew exactly what he had to do to gain back public trust. Just when everybody started to consider him as political corpse he activated his P.R. apparatus and slowly but surely blazed his trail back to Capitolium and White House. His team was concerned with everything that had anything to do with Clinton’s image. They conducted researches even about such trivial things, as where it would be better for the Clinton family to spend their vacation. Clinton’s “image group” spent $18 million in advertisings on behalf of the president - a year before the presidential election. In a typical year, Clinton spoke in public 550 times, and he traveled around the country every fourth day. Equally important, the administration repeatedly interpreted its setbacks, whether in elections or on such policies as health care reform, in terms of its failure to communicate rather than in terms of the quality of its initiatives or its strategy for governing. Clinton was also blamed for having sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky, later termed as Zippergate. If Clinton had been proved Guilty he would not only have to leave office, but also be imprisoned for that. Clintons Spin doctors worked hard to restore his image. They used other presidents’ cases, which were not punished for the adultery, and brought dozen arguments about his role in United States and other countries. The Senate concluded a twenty-one day trial on February 12, 1999, with the vote on both counts falling short of the Constitutional two-thirds majority requirement to convict and remove an office holder. The final vote was generally along party lines, with no Democrats voting guilty. Some Republicans voted not guilty for both charges. On the perjury charge, fifty five senators voted to acquit, including ten Republicans,

* Research assistant, Faculty of Humanities, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 115

SECTION III: History, Art, Economics and forty five voted to convict; on the obstruction charge the Senate voted 50–50. Thus, P.R saved Clinton’s image one more time. Bush was another president who relied on public relations more than any other political figure. In his presidential campaign he used slogan “compassionate conservatism”, but as critics say he often used, abused and interpreted it in different ways. In his first presidential campaigns he promised people humble foreign policy with no nation building, Bush promised tax breaks for all, sometimes using the slogan "Whoever pays taxes gets a tax break". He also promised that he would help not only low income families but also small businesses with lower taxes. He was the initiator of no child left behind act, and he passed several environment protection acts. His presidency was marked with image-bruising flops and to cover all the loopholes he needed good campaign platform. After September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks in the name of piece and security, he decided to bolster national defense and increase the presence of US troops around the world. Bush signed the USA PATRIOT Act and created the Department of Homeland Security. He also created the Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC) and the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC). 9/11 terrorist attack played important role in Bush’s P.R. strategy. It gave him a chance to restore public acclaim. He promised people security and safety from future attacks. Bush's campaign launched its first major set of television commercials on March 3, 2004. Although these four spots (three in English and one in Spanish) contained no reference to Senator Kerry, two (one in English and the one in Spanish, both titled, "Safer, Stronger") generated controversy for their inclusion of four seconds of images drawn from the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, including the wreckage of the World Trade Center site, images of New York firefighters (the New York firefighters' union supported Kerry), and the image of a flag-draped coffin being carried out of the attack site. Bush did not officially announce the campaign slogan. However, Bush's campaign made several bus tours bearing de facto slogans. These include the "Yes, America Can" Bus Tour and the "Heart and Soul" Bus Tour, which used the slogan "Moving America Forward". The Republican’s later featured new slogan "A Safer World and More Hopeful America". Another slogan used was "steady leadership in times of change". For the re-election Bush’s core P.R. strategy was ideological conservatism. Members of the campaign team believed there were clear ideological differences between George W. Bush and John Kerry. Thy both described themselves as “centrists” but there was vast difference between these two candidates. Nucleus part of Bush’s campaign was to portray himself as a president who fought against terrorism, while John Kerry was much softer on terrorism issues. Bush’s team represented him as a "war President". Bush’s campaign was focused mostly on the weaknesses of the opponents rather than on ideologies. Kerry was very smart and he found the way to attack Bush by portraying him as a bad president; his slogan read “Anybody but Bush” and worked to stir public opinion against Bush. Bush and his group new that Minnesota would play important role during the elections, thus he made 8 unprecedented campaign visits to Minnesota. On April 26, 2004 he made first presidential campaign visit to Edina, Minnesota during which Congressmen Jim Ramstad presented The President with the book “Lest We Forget” by John C. Martin, a U.S. Civil War veteran and Department Commander of the G.A.R. First president who was given such honor was Calvine Coolidge. Many other factors influenced the outcome of 2004 presidential campaign. In November 3 around 2:00 p.m. John Kerry made a speech at Faneuil Hall, Boston, where he announced that he "cannot win this election." One hour later, George W. Bush declared that "America has spoken" and they had made a "historic victory." He said to Kerry supporters, "To make this

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SECTION III: History, Art, Economics nation stronger and better, I will need your support, and I will work to earn it." With 286 electoral votes, President George W. Bush won the 2004 Presidential Election. Barack Obama, current president of the United States, has launched one of the largest public relations campaign ever with his own presidential campaign. He employed all possible media outlets-internet, news coverage, advertising, radio, television, events and press releases. In his campaign he used very emotional phrases such as “change,” “hope” and “yes we can,” he motivated young generation to participate in the election and vote for him. Networks such as FaceBook, MySpace, YouTube, Digg and Twitter, and others contained the speeches of Obama. He divided his audience by age, race, gender and other demographic factors in order to reach all the citizens of the United States. As the first African American candidate for presidency who had big chance to win elections, Barrack Obama found supporters who were eager to finance his P.R. campaigns. As a result, Obama spent more money on advertising rather than any other US presidential candidate. Largely thanks to his generous supporters, Obama managed to purchase a 30-minute primetime block on CBS and NBC. The endorsement of such political leaders as Republican Colin Powellare, Hilary and BIll Clinton played a monumental role in his public relation campaign. When interviewed Oprah Winfrey expressed total approval of Obama’s candidacy. Critics say that Obama’s success was the result of the popular phrases “changes” and “yes, we can…”, while other candidates outdated phrases as “experience” did not seem attractive at all. He also managed to create the largest community of ‘friends” on websites such as FaceBook, MySpace and LinkedIn. His strategies were ground-breaking and his word of mouth movement very effective.

References:

1. Faragher J. Buhle M. Czitkom D. Armitage S. (1999), ‘A History of American People”. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. ISBN 0138414955. 2. Banks A, Miller G.(1998), ‘Political handbook of the world’. State University, New York, CSA publication. ISBN 0933199199.

3. Baker P. (2000) ‘The Breach: Inside the Impeachment and Trial of William Jefferson Clinton’ ISBN 0-684-86813-X

4. Grunig J, Hunt T. (1984) ‘Managing Public Relations’. (Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 6e.)

5. 1 UPDATE: Perspective from Cannes PR Lion Judges « digital CONSORTIUM Trackback on June 25, 2009 at 11:56 am

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Appendix A

Please answer the following questions, choose the right options: 1. What is your age? o Less than 17 o 17 to 29 o 30 to 39 o 40 to 49 o 50 to 59 o 60 to 69 o 70 to 79 o 80 or older 2. Have you ever had any kind of connection with presidential P.R campaign? a) Yes, I have. b) No, I have not.

3. How deeply do you think is Public Relations connected with politics? (Mark from lowest till highest values) Very low very high 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

4. Would you advice your friends to use P.R. practices to improve his/her image? a) Yes, I would advice b) No, I wouldn’t c) I don’t know

5. Please rank the importance of the following qualities in P.R. presidential campaigns? (Fill in your rank order using the numbers from 1 through four)  To visit as many states as possible.  To frequently participate in debates.  To give objective and accurate information to people.  To cooperate with media.

6. How would you evaluate Clinton’s 1992 P.R presidential campaign? Very low very high 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

7. How would you evaluate Clinton’s 1996 P.R presidential campaign? Very low very high 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8. Did existing scandals have negative affect on Clinton’s image? a) Yes, it did. b) NO, it did not have. c) I do not know.

9. Where did you get information about Clinton Lewinsky scandal? Newspaper Television Friends Radio Other. Pease list: I have not heard about it at all.

10. Do you think that two-way communication is beneficial for problem resolution for all sides? 1) Yes, I think so. 2) No, I do not think so. 3) I do not know. Thank you for filling out this questionnaire

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KHATIA CHELIDZE*

Jazz Age describes the period from 1912 to 1924 the years after the end of the World War I, continuing through the Roaring Twenties and end with the rise of the Great Depression… During this period Americans lived harder, faster than ever before .They innovated new history, style and way of life, meanwhile new sounds were brewing in New Orleans, the great American noise “Jazz”. Jazz was originally a slang phrase of the underworld with a meaning unmentionable in polite society…but now it appears to be firmly established as a member of that long list of American words in good social standing. Volumes have been written on the origins of jazz based Black American life-style. The early influences of tribal drums and the development of gospel, blues and field hollers seems to point out that jazz has to do with human survival and expression of life. “The New Orleans music” spread fast across the country. It had first called “Ratty Music”, “Get Bucket Music”, “Hot Music” but new people call it Jazz. Most authorities believed that the term, like the music, came from New Orleans from the Jesmine perfume allegedly favored by the cities prostitutes or from “jezzebela” common 19th century term for a prostitute. Jazz developed in the latter part of the 19th century from black work song, field shouts, sorrow songs, hymns, and spirituals whose harmonic, rhythmic, and melodic elements were predominantly African. European audiences have often been more receptive to jazz, and thus many American jazz musicians have become expatriates. The victor advertising copywriters said: “Spell it Jass, Jaz or Jazz –nothing can spoil a jazz band. A Jass Band is newest thing in cabarets, adding greatly to hilarity thereof you never know what it’s going to do next, but you can always tell what those who hear it are going to do they are going to “ shake a leg” .The jazz Band is the vary latest thing in the development of music… it will keep ordinary human dancers on their feet till breakfast time.” Those who play jazz have often expressed the feeling that jazz should remain undefined, jazz should be felt. “If you gotta ask, you’ll never know “said Louise Armstrong. Flappers and New American Women or women of 1920’s defied the convention of acceptable female behavior; they expressed their new freedom by cutting their hair, smoking in public, shedding their corsets, exposing their leg and other shocking behavior. The 1920’s clothes were much different than the clothes of today. People wore hats which were called “cloches”. Flapper look was innovated on 20’s. Flappers dressed in a risqué way, painted their lips, ringed eyes with dark pencil, wore scarves, rode in cars, kissed young men in public to whom they were not engaged, chewed gum, smoked, used slang words: “horsefather” meaning damn , “It is the cat’s Meow!” meaning wonderful. Flapper certainly did what their mothers and grandmothers had never done, they offended the older generation as it defied convention of acceptable feminine behavior Chicago police of the 1920’s even assigned to protect public morals, they made sure that the rules about the distance between the bathing suit and the bather’s knees were strictly observed. The Flapper was “modern “, traditionally women’s hair had always been worn long the flapper wore it short, or bobbed. Gabrielle “coco” Chanel didn’t invent the bobbed hairstyle for women, but in bobbing her own hair, the French designer popularized the fashion trend. It took less time to wash, dry and style Bobbed hair meant more leisure time for young girls. Gabrielle “coco” first began in 1920, from small hat- shop business but soon it grew into the house of Chanel in Paris. Women made news in 1921, the first Miss America held

* Junior student, Faculty of Humanities, Direction of American Studies, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 119

SECTION III: History, Art, Economics during this era by businessman in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In 1921 in fall only a few dozen girls come to Atlantic city to complete, nevertheless, they created a sensation. Margaret German was the very first Miss America. In the 1920’s the S shape were no longer in style (big bottom bustles which gave women’s bodies an S shape was called “The S style”). The ideal silhouette became straight and slim. So changed the Americans idea of how the beautiful women should look. In 1920 women began to associate beauty with thinness. During the jazz age motoring the car was socially acceptable. The car gave women freedom to go wherever they wished and without a chapertone. By the end of the decade, the image of Victorian womanhood had forever disappeared. Popular culture is one window through which we can learn about society. The conflict stereotype of women - and the ways those images both influenced and mirrored the change in women’s lives over the decades form a fascinating social history of the 20th century. “Jazz age “influenced as well men’s fashion .The beginning of the decade witnessed the end of World War I. Men returning from the war faced closets full of clothes from the teens, which they wore into the early 1920’s .During this time, the sequel suit, which had been popular since the mid eighteen hundreds, constituted appropriate “day” dress for gentlemen. The suite, colored shirts of putty and peach, blue-gray and cedar were worn. Shaped silk ties in small geometric patterns or diagonal stripes were secured with tie pins. Black Bowler hats completed the ensemble. The tail coat was considered appropriate formal evening wear, accompanied by a top hat. Straches white shirts with pleated yokes were expected with tail coat, although bow ties and shirts with white wing collars were also seen. Tuxedos were increasing in popularity but were not yet completely acceptable. Black patent –leather shoes were popular during this era and often appeared with formal evening wear. Casual clothing demanded two-tone shoes in white and tan, or white and black. Frigned tongues on Oxfords and Brogues were seen frequently .Lace-up style shoes were most in demand. “Knickerbockers”, later shortened “knickers”, were popular casual wear for the well- dressed gentleman. Variations of knickers included plus-fours, plus-six, plus-ten etc. The “Plus” in the term referred to how many inches below the knee they hung. Norfolk coats as well as golf coats were worn with Knickers. The coat sported large patch pockets, a belt, usually one button and often a shoulder yoke. Gentleman’s shoes or boot were the appropriate footwear to coordinate with Knickers. Al Capone and Lucky Luciano have created gangster reputation as rebellious, dangerous, and “well-dressed” criminal business men. Glamorous suits, bad men, were their recognizable style. Beautiful car, gorgeous woman, perilous reputation and guess what you’ve got? “a recipe for success and the romance of the criminal lifestyle. Alphonse Capone generally known as Al Capone or “Scarface” in the newspapers was born in Brooklyn, in the immigrant family, who came from Italy. At the age of 20, in 1919 he fled to Chicago and became one of the most famous U.S gangsters during the Jazz age, Alphonse was involved in illegal gambling, bootlegging (illegal alcohol) and prostitution. By the 1925 he was in charge of one of Chicago’s biggest criminal gangs. He was arrested many times over the years. After serving eight years in federal prison, Capone was released on good behavior. He died of Cardiac arrest at his estate on Palm Island just eight days after his 48th birthday. Gangsters remain a big reason that the mobster’s costume is so popular at Halloween parties all around the world. Name another figure who has had such a lasting impact on fashion and society as gangsters …

Events and innovations of Jazz Age/Roaring 20th We are still benefiting from many of the inventions of the twenties. The refrigerator was brought out of the dust during the Jazz age, it changed the convenience of the World today.

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Penicillin was discovered by accident in 1928 by Alexander Fleming. Doctors used the first samples of this antibiotic for World War II Soldiers. Penicillin is still used frequently to cure illness. Henry Ford and Alfred Sloan, symbolized the profound transformations that took place in American industry during the 1920’s. Ford had revolutionized American manufacturing by introducing that automate assembly line, by using conveyor belts to bring automobile parts to workers, he reduced the assembly tome for a ford car from 12. Americans in the 1920 were the first to wear ready- made, exact- size clothing. They were the first to play electric phonographs, to use electric vacuum cleaners, to listen to commercial radio broadcasts. In 1922, February 8 President Harding installed a radio in the White House. It was a big day in the White House, it was the hottest technology. Calvin Coolidge was first to broadcast from the White House and it was heard on 42 stations from coast to coast. Radio had played a big role in Coolidge’s victory in the 1924 presidential election. Radio also popularized music. During the jazz it became possible to drink fresh orange juice. In countless ways, large and small, American life was transformed during the 1920’s at least in urban areas, cigarettes, cosmetics, and synthetic fabrics such as rayon became staples of American life. Newspaper gossip columns, illuminated billboards, and commercial airplane flights were novelties during the 1920’s. Films really blossomed in the 1920’s expanding upon the foundations of film from earlier years. Most U.S film production at the start of the decade occurred in or near Hollywood on the West. Films varied from sexy melodramas and horror films, gangster/crime films first documentary films were take act. Silent Movies were another element though to fire the flappers’ old spirits, movies provided darkened surrounding for young people to cuddle. In early 1920’s almost 400 million people went to movies every week. Duke Ellington and his Cotton Club Orchestra were first who used jazz music and jazz musicians in film. It was cartoon film about flapper girl “Betty Boop” who introduced jazz music to the movies. One of the biggest events in 1920’s was the prohibition of alcohol. The prohibition included that alcohol was not to be sold or drank by anyone, some people didn’t agreed so they made places called “Sneakeasies”. They visited “Sneakeasies to drink without any police knowing, but some of these buildings were caught and everybody there was arrested. Also in the 20’s the first Trans Atlantic solo flight was achieved. Charlie’s first solo Trans Atlantic flight in 1927 made history. 20’s gave us Art Deco or in another words architectural and decorative-art style, popular during jazz age till now. It is characterized by highly stylized natural geometric forms and ornaments, usually strongly symmetrical. Outstanding American examples of Art Deco are the Chrysler Building and Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Some of the centuries’ and jazz age’s most significant artists, such as Pablo Picasso, Fernand Leger, Sonia Delaunay and Wassily Kandinsky, produced work in this style.

References:

1. http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/tbacig/studorij/is3099/jazzcult/20sjazz/race.html

2. http://www.squidoo.com/1920s-fashion-celebs-music#module11022360

3. http://www.jazzage1920s.com/ cliffedwards/ cliff.php

4. Goeffrer C.War and Ken Burns - “Jazz”

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The Communication problem of the Reader and the Author in Pyhchon’s Novel “The Crying of Lot”

Abstract

TAMAR KOBESHAVIDZE*

Thomas Pynchon’s novel “The Crying of Lot 49” raises endless problems concerning the exchange between the author and the reader in postmodern fiction. At first the story seems rather straightforward and the reader expects some denouement at the end. Indeed the story has no proper beginning, no proper development, no ending. It is also difficult to distinguish the narrators from the protagonist or from the authors. In postmodernist text the reader interacts with multiplicity of characters, speakers, thinkers to forget the author. In “The Crying of Lot 49” the reader seems to understand what Oedipa (the main character of the novel) feels or think, but the reader does not know how the author gauges her. The reader is locked up in his study; no one can help him, certainly the author anyway. Wherever he goes, whichever interpretation he does at the end of the novel he finds only the absence of closure. The reading brings out the best in us and gives us the illusion for a while of participating in the creative process. Pynchon’s novel is about novel-reading, process of reading, and the author and the reader play game of mirrors.

* Assoc. Prof., Akaki Tsereteli University, Kutaisi, Georgia. 122

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The Problem of Communication of the Reader and the Author in Pyhchon’s Novel “The Crying of Lot 49”

TAMAR KOBESHAVIDZE*

Thomas Pynchon’s novel “The Crying of Lot 49” raises endless problems concerning the exchange between the author and the reader in postmodern fiction. At first the story of the novel seems rather straightforward and the reader expects some denouement at the end. But reading or studying this novel he can’t reach any conclusion, as Tony Tanner explains: “It is a strange book in that the more we learn the more mysterious everything becomes. The more we think we know, the less we know we know” (9,56 ). The novel is not a detective story, as some critics have suggested, but a parody of Perceiver’s quest for the Holy Grail. Indeed the story has no proper beginning, no proper development, no ending. It is also difficult to distinguish the narrator from the protagonist or from the author. In more traditional fiction, the reader feels superior to the characters, and stands on the side of the narrator and author. The story follows a logical course and ends in a satisfactory denouement. In postmodernist text the reader interacts with multiplicity of characters, speakers, thinkers to forget the author. Frank Kermode explains: “To read a novel expecting the satisfactions of closure and the receipt of a message is what most people find enough to do; they are easier with this method because it resembles the one that works for ordinary acts of communication. In this way the gap is closed between what is sent and what is received, which is why it seems to many people perverse to deny the author possession of an authentic and normative sense of what he has said”( 5,85 ). Frank Kermode attacks the old theory of communication which for two thousand years was known under the name of rhetoric, a theory which was speaker-writer oriented. The receiver was in a position to get the information proposed by the sender. The linguistic model for the traditional tale is simply the well-structured sentence. In modern fiction, especially since Flaubert, the old theory of communication does not apply any more, the old principles of rhetoric break down. The text becomes not writer-oriented but reader-oriented. In “The Crying of Lot 49” the reader seems to understand what Oedipa (the main character of the novel) feels or think, but the reader does not know how the author gauges her. The reader is locked up in his study, no one can help him, certainly the author anyway. Wherever he goes, whichever interpretation he does at the end of the novel he finds only the absence of closure. The lack of closure of the story, the absence of denouement, makes it impossible to reconstruct the logic of the previous sequences. In fact, we can’t link three sets of structuring elements: the places, the men and the text. As Maurice Couturier notes:” Instead of story”, one could naturally say “Oedipa”. It is Oedipa who is tossed around like this, like the can of hairspray which has run amuck in Chapter 2. She cannot be a proper “subject,” to borrow Greimas’ terminology, since she does not even know what “ object” she is looking for”( 10,80 ). Oedipa Maas summoned to California’s San Narciso to inherit some property left her by the ex- lover, Pierce Inverarity. Immediately Oedipa finds herself overwhelmed by the size and complexity of Inverarity’s estate, and hopelessly imagines that she will never get Inverarity’s affairs straightened out. But when Oedipa is about to lose hope she meets an odd man who seems to have some ideas to help her. As the two look into the estate, coincidence after coincidence starts until Oedipa finds herself enmeshed in a global conspiracy where almost

* Assoc. Prof., Akaki Tsereteli University, Kutaisi, Georgia. 123

SECTION IV: Literature and Women’s Issues every person, place, and things she meets up with can be plausibly fit. She begins to feel like “the private eye in any long-ago radio drama”. Running around California, Oedipa tries to gather information about Tristero, the post system which has been in a state of degradation since the eighteenth century. The more information she gains about Trystero, the more confused and disorderly are her thoughts, pushing her to the point where reality and fantasy are mixed. The central question to this story, does the conspiracy exist or is Oedipa making it all up. From the very beginning, Oedipa collects information, tries to find any system in chaos, any solution of the mystery. On one level, Oedipa’s quest is a microcosm of each of our own lives: using the available information she creates a story about the way things really are and continually tests and refines it. Oedipa seems to find substantial clues in the oddest and most coincidental places, but the sea of information goes on coming. Oedipa is tossed around from place to place, from man to man, and from text to text. In the opening pages, Oedipa is in Kinneret with Mucho, her husband, but there is no text between them. The text appears when she leaves him for San Narciso, her husband writes her “newsless letter”. Mucho is saying nothing in his letter, except that he would like to have her back, because he needs her sexually and psychologically. When Oedipa returns to Kinneret at the end of Chapter 5 to consult her psychiatrist and she seems to have completely forgotten her husband but accidentally meets him .Mucho wants to tell her that he is pleased to see her but he is afraid that his words will be “overheard” on the air. After talking with her, he calls her “Mrs. Edna Mosh” for no particular reason. He is simply saying, in fact, that she looks different and does not bear his name any more. He also has changed during her absence as his boss will explain to Oedipa: “they’re calling him the Brothers N. He’s looking his identity, Edna, how else can I put it? Day by day, Wendell is less himself and more generic” (7,106). So Mucho plot could be summarized as: after her husband Oedipa calls herself Edna and leaves Kinneret for good, the characters drift away from each other and assume new identities, as if the story began each time. The process of interaction between Oedipa and her husband does not make them any closer or happier. It is destructive process which pulls them apart. In the course of the story Oedipa visits every place at least twice; she returns to Kinneret, she goes back to San Narciso, where she goes second time to the Scope, to Zarf’s bookstore...The places are more or less the same each time (except bookstore which has burnt down), but the men who are connected with them have changed: Mucho has lost his identity, Metzger has run away with a nymphet, Driblette has drowned himself, Zapf has moved. The time gap between two visits to the same place always brings dramatic changes. The only areas of certainty seem to be the text; Oedipa does not trust anything but the documents. Inverarity’s will manipulate Oedipa from the beginning to the end: it sends her to San Narciso, brings her to meet Metzger and the paranoids, and leads her to attend a performance of The Courier’s Tragedy. The play is the second important text in the book. Oedipa wants to discover the original text of the play to clean of all the additions added by Driblette and the various scholars. Her quest takes her to Zarf’s bookstore, to the home of specialist of Elizabethan drama, to the Lectern Press, back to the burnt bookstore, but not to Driblette since the actor is dead. Oedipa hopes that she may decipher the secret coded into Inverarity’s will thanks to the play. She hopes once she will discover the original text and will know for sure if Tristero ever existed and is still around. She will know that she has properly deciphered the message addressed to her through his will by Inverarity. Her quest is hopeless however: if she succeeds, she will lose happiness and contentment for good as she will know that her universe is being undermined by an adverse system. If she succeeds she fails, if she fails she succeeds. Oedipa realizes that she is within “the confinement of a tower”. This image appears when she sees a painting of Remedios Varo’s Bordando el MantoTerrestre in Mexico with Inverarity:”...in the central painting of triptych, titled

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‘Bordando el Manto terrestre’, were a number of frail girls with heart-shaped faces, huge eyes, spun-gold hair, prisoners in the top room of a circular tower, embroidering a kind of tapestry which spilled out the slit windows and into a void, seeking hopelessly to fill the void: for all the other buildings are creatures, all the waves, ships and forests of the earth were contained in the tapestry, and the tapestry was the world.” (7,13). Oedipa saw herself as the centre of the world: the girls are inventing the world with their hands and imaginations from their place of confinement. Some day, of course they will discover the circularity of the process: they can’t go on inventing the world without inventing themselves. The painting becomes revelation to Oedipa: “What did she so desire escape from? Such a captive maiden, having plenty of time to think, soon realizes that her tower, its height and architecture, are like her ego only incidental...” ( 7,14 ). In Berkeley, she will come across another painting which, according to David Cowart, represents a women who “opens one of a number of small caskets in a room, only to find her own face inside staring back at her” ( 2,24 ). This painting spells out the narcissistic fantasy – Oedipa is not really trying to refashion a world, as she claims, but rather to refashion the everyday world in her own image to feel free. Like her mythical model, Oedipus, she is struggling to remove all authority, even if it means tearing the world apart and making it unfit to live in. Oedipa is’ the devouring mother of pre-Oedipal fantasy” that Christopher Lasch portrays in The Culture of Narcissism (6,346). She fully deserves her name for she is a projection of all her men’s desires and frustrations, a reversed image of themselves which appears in the mirror. These paintings, along with their interpretations by Oedipa, provide an allegorical representation of the process involved in reading a postmodern novel like “The Crying of lot 49”.The reader is locked up in his study, like in the tower, and cannot expect any assistance from outside, certainly not from the author anyway. The reader doesn’t feel superior to the characters and can’t stand on the side of the narrator or the author. In this novel, he is absorbed by the story, like Oedipa, he is manipulated and can’t escape. Wherever he goes, whichever interpretation he offers, his hopeless move has been foreseen, just as every move of Oedipa had been foreseen by Inverarity or Tristero, or again the arrogant author. By the time we reach the end of the novel, we have thoroughly been contaminated by her paranoia. Our paranoia is precipitated by the absence of closure, of course. We love secrets, but we want to be sure that they can eventually be cleared. The reading brings out the best in us and gives us the illusion for a while of participating in the creative process. The reader has to follow along and try to find out clues and meanings in the novel. He first must clear Inverarity or Tristero secret and then can begin to make contact with the author. So in” The Crying of lot 49” the communication process begins with the reader. The reader invents the author in his own image as he reads and tries to make sense of the text. That probably explains why Pynchon’s novels have drawn so many commentaries for so many years. The reader seems to stand at the receiving end of the line and decipher sighs addressed to him by the author, but he is never sure if he deciphers them properly. Once Nabokov observed that” his best audience is the person he sees in his shaving mirror every morning” and Thomas Pynchon was a one-time student of Nabokov. So the reader senses that the author expects an ideal reader whom he can never match. In his attempt to become the ideal reader, the actual reader unconsciously invents an ideal author who looks very much like him. The new theory of communication can therefore be represented like this: Real Author - TEXT – Ideal Reader Real Reader – TEXT – Ideal Author As we see on the diagram, the author and the reader play a strange game of mirrors. The former writes for an ideal reader who looks very much like “the person he sees in his shaving mirror every morning”. The latter tries to be this ideal reader but instead projects the reflected

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SECTION IV: Literature and Women’s Issues image of himself, the ideal author. The line of communication is one-directional. Pynchon’s novel is about novel-reading, process of reading, there is only the metaphor of communication.

Summary Thomas Pynchon’s novel “The Crying of Lot 49” raises endless problems concerning the exchange between the author and the reader in postmodern fiction. The novel has no proper beginning, no proper development, no ending. It is also difficult to distinguish the narrator from the protagonist or from the author. In ”The Crying of Lot 49” the reader seems to understand what Oedipa ( the main character of the novel) feels or think, but the reader does not know how the author gauges her. The reader is locked up in his study, no one can help him, certainly the author anyway. Wherever he goes, whichever interpretation he does at the end of the novel he finds only the absence of closure. The lack of closure of the story, the absence of denouement, makes it impossible to reconstruct the logic of the previous sequences. In fact, we can’t link three sets of structuring elements: the places, the men and the text. The reader is absorbed by the story, like Oedipa, he is manipulated and can’t escape. Wherever he goes, whichever interpretation he offers, his hopeless move has been foreseen, just as every move of Oedipa had been foreseen by Inverarity or Tristero, or again the arrogant author. By the time we reach the end of the novel, we have thoroughly been contaminated by her paranoia. Our paranoia is precipitated by the absence of closure, of course. We love secrets, but we want to be sure that they can eventually be cleared. The reader has to follow along and try to find out clues and meanings in the novel. He first must clear Inverarity or Tristero secret and then can begin to make contact with the author. So in” The Crying of lot 49” the communication process begins with the reader. He seems to stand at the receiving end of the line and decipher sighs addressed to him by the author, but he is never sure if he deciphers them properly. So the line of communication is one-directional. Pynchon’s novel is about novel-reading, process of reading, there is only the metaphor of communication.

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References:

1. Banfield,Ann.Unspeakable Sentences. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London:1982

2. Cowart,David.” Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 and the Paintings of Remedios Varo”.Critique,1977:3

3. Gale, David. “The Quest for Thomas Pynchon”. Tatler, January, 1990:188.

4. Grant ,Kerry. A Companion to “The Crying of lot 49”. University of Georgia Press, Athens: 1994.

5. Kermode,Frank.”Secrets and Narrative Sequence”. Critical Inquiry, Autumn, 1980:1

6. Lasch,Christopher.The Culture of Narcissism. Warner Books, New York:1979.

7. Pynchon,Thomas.The Crying of Lot 49. Penguin Books,Harmondsworth:1974.

8. Shaub, Thomas. Pynchon: The voice of Ambiguity. University of Illinois Press, Urbana: 1981.

9. Tanner,Tony.Thomas Pynchon. Methuen,London:1982.

10. The Role of the Reader in Contemporary American Fiction, Ed.Gerhard Hoffmann. Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munchen:1989.

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Recyclopedia: Three Poetry Collections by Harryette Mullen

Abstract

TAMAR CHEISHVILI*

Harryette Mullen, a contemporary Afro-American poetess, earned degrees in English and in Literature from the University of Texas, Austin, and the University of California, Santa Cruz. Early in her career as a poet, she worked in the Artists in Schools program sponsored by the Texas Commission on the Arts, and for six years she taught African-American and other U.S. ethnic literatures at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Her books include Tree Tall Woman (1981), Trimmings (1991), S*PeRM**K*T (1992), Muse and Drudge (1995)—the latter three of which were collected into her most recent book, Recyclopedia (Graywolf, 2006) which received a PEN Beyond Margins Award. Though her work is driven by an obsession with wordplay, allusion, and popular cliché, it is also centered in a larger tradition of African American writing, with particular emphasis on representations of black women. Gertrude Stein functions as a key figure behind the prose poems collected in Recyclopedia, they are written in Stein's brand of linguistic play. Mullen is a language-obsessed poet, her early work owes a good deal to language poetry: it avoids lyrical self-reference and closure; it focuses on the material aspects of language; and it addresses social and political concerns through considerations of linguistics and the writing process.

* PhD Candidate, Akaki Tsereteli State University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 128

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Recyclopedia: Harryette Mullen’s Award Winning Poetry Collection

TAMAR CHEISHVILI*

The present essay deals with Harryette Mullen’s most recent poetry collection entitled Recyclopedia (2006) which received a Pen Beyond Margins Award. The collection includes three earlier books of poetry – Trimmings (1991), S*PeRM**K*T (1992), Muse & Drudge (1995). Before discussing this collection I would like to touch upon some contemporary trends in postmodern American poetry of which Mullen’s poetry is an indispensible part. Postmodern poetry in general differs from the earlier poetry in structure, rhythmic organization, lingual attitude; postmodern poems are more like prosaic texts rather than the poetry itself; their form is flexible and continuous to be less structured than in previous literary eras. Many modern poets eschew recognizable structures. Contemporary poetry avoids self- criticism and establishes itself as a single unified voice. Postmodern world presents a technological person divorced from an environment that he gamely attempts to “manage” or “condition”. Postmodern form responds to the conditions of the modern world. Postmodern world is aware of what has generally been perceived as the lapse of governing orders in our existence. The postmodern artist has little confidence in superhuman orders, and he/she will readily concede that whatever order may be apparent in the world is largely a projection of the human mind. The universe is ineffable. We are that much more inclined to disbelieve the fictions of its coherence. The postmodern theorist proposes an open structure that welcomes possibility, choice, and chance. The major social and cultural oppositions are: sequence vs. series, humanism vs. post-humanism, a hierarchical cosmos vs. an expanding universe, unity vs. recombination; logical vs. irrational, continuity vs. discontinuity. What matters in postmodern poetry is its altered expression and sensibility in tune. The complexity of postmodernism lies not only in the idiom of expression but also in the fact that the universe is seen in the grain of sand; and postmodern poet never shies away in endorsing what he/she sees as truth. . . . Harryette Mullen, a contemporary Afro-American Poetess, short story writer and a literary scholar was born on July 1, 1953. Born in Florence, Alabama, she grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and attended graduate school at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She lives in Los Angeles, California. Three important poetry collections brought together under one cover by H. Mullen is called Recyclopedia which shows the extraordinary development of Harryette Mullen’s career. These prose poems and lyrics bring us into collision with the language of fashion and femininity, advertising and the supermarket, the blues and traditional lyric poetry. Mullen’s influences have ranged from language poetry to the rhythms and playfulness of the black vernacular. Suffused with both politics and literary theory, Mullen’s language refuses to be weighed down by either. She frequently combines cultural critique with humor and wordplay as her poetry grapples with topics such as globalization, mass culture, consumerism, and the politics of identity. Critics, including Elisabeth Frost, have suggested that Mullen’s audience is an eclectic

* PhD Candidate, Akaki Tsereteli State University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 129

SECTION IV: Literature and Women’s Issues community of collaborative readers who share individual and collective interpretations of poems that may provoke multiple, divergent or contradictory meanings, according to each reader’s cultural background.1 If the encyclopedia collects general knowledge, the recyclopedia salvages and finds imaginative uses for knowledge. That’s what poetry does when it remakes and renews words, images and ideas, transforming cultural information into something unexpected. As Mullen herself puts it, “My poetry exists in part through interaction with communities of readers, writers, and scholars and also through dialogue with editors and publishers whose books and periodicals help to constitute such communities.” Trimmings and S*PeRM**K*T are serial prose poems that use playful, fragmented language to explore sexuality, femininity and domesticity. They represent a kind of response to Gertrude Stein’s simple yet elusive poetic prose. For years she had difficulty with Stein. After several unsuccessful attempts to read her, Mullen found an entry into her work through her story Melanctha in Three Lives. With her hard-won appreciation for Stein’s work, she was interested in her meditation on the interior lives of women and the material culture of domesticity, focusing on the objects that find their way into the home. Her idiosyncratic verbal “portraits” of hats, umbrellas, cups eroticize the domestic space to which women traditionally have been confined. Trimmings and S*PeRM**K*T correspond to the “Objects” and “Food” sections of Stein’s Tender Buttons. When Mullen wrote Muse & Drudge, she imagined a chorus of women singing verses that are sad and hilarious at the same time. Muse & Drudge, in a sense, is a crossroads where the blues intersects with the tradition of lyric poetry, as well as a text for collaborative reading and an occasion to unite audiences often divided by racial and cultural differences. Parts of this collection have been set to music by composers. While many readers perceive Muse & Drudge as a more insistently “Black” text than the other two, she has written all of these works from her perspective as a black woman, which she believes is no less representative of humanity than any other point of view. Though Mullen’s work is driven by an obsession with wordplay, allusion and popular cliché, it is also centered in a larger tradition of African American writing, with particular emphasis on representations of black women. G. Stein functions as a key figure behind the prose poems collected in Recyclopedia, they are written in Stein’s brand of linguistic play. Mullen is a language-obsessed poet, her writing owes a good deal to language poetry: it avoids lyrical self-reference and closure; it focuses on the material aspects of language; and it addresses social and political concerns through considerations of linguistics and the writing process. . . . In her interview with her colleague in the English Department at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Calvin Bedient, about her collection of poems,2 she thanks the opportunity given her to recycle books that had initially small audiences, combining Trimmings, S*PeRM**K*T and Muse & Drudge to provide Recyclopedia. Bedient the interviewer asks her colleagues if there is some Spanish in Muse & Drudge. “Yes”, she answers, “Spanish was a beautiful language. The Spanish is there partly because I associate it with people who were a part of my life. I use it in a political way, because I think we should all have more than one language. In this country it’s considered better to be monolingual than to be multilingual. Even not very well educated people speak several languages. Then Bedient asks her about a mongrel aspect: “As there are different registers of English. Do you think of it as a white/black text in

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SECTION IV: Literature and Women’s Issues some ways?” Mullen answers that “Mongrel” comes from “among”, “among others”: “We are among, we are not alone. We are all mongrels.”

References:

1. For instance, see an interview with Harryette Mullen Conducted by Elisabeth A. Frost. Contemporary Literature XLI, 3, 200. 2. Bedient, Calvin. The Solo Mysterioso Blues: An Interview with Harryette Mullen. Callaloo- Volume 19, Number 3, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Summer 1996.

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Women’s Role Increase in the US in the 20-th Century

Abstract

TAMTA TSKITISHVILI*

As it is said women are simply the foundations for the development of the society. If men are the engines, which run the world, women are the fuel in those engines. There is also a famous saying – “Behind every successful man there is a woman”. Majority of us share this idea towards women today but we all know very well, that it was not the idea that human beings shared even a century ago. Woman had to overcome a big trouble to prove to the world that they had the same and sometimes more abilities to succeed than men. Folk tales and romantic prose or lyrics were the only writings that mentioned woman until the 20-th century. The role also was very limited in the society. As the majority of the US citizens were migrated from the Europe, they shared the ideas of their European ancestors and they treated the woman the same way as in Europe. While writing the US constitution, the founding fathers that are also considered as the fathers of democracy mentioned nothing about woman. In the XVII-XVIII century, the white man was the only one who had all the rights and all the freedom. Industrial explosion in the last decades of the 19-th century gave woman an opportunity to work. As they started to work, they tasted independence provided by having their own money. The 19th-century drive to secure equal rights for woman arose in part as well educated woman involved themselves in their social issues. Led by two famous women, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan Brownell Anthony the first woman right convention in the New York town Seneca Falls was held in July 1848. Convention was soon followed by woman suffrage movement and besides all the struggles and many opposes, on fourth of June 1919 the nineteenth amendment of the United States Constitution was proposed to the legislatures of the several States on the Sixty- sixth Congress. It was declared, in a proclamation of the Secretary of State, dated August 26, 1920, to have been ratified by the legislatures of 36 of the 48 States. This amendment was the turning point of the American Women’s history. The modern woman working and trying to be equal with the man not only changed their lifestyle but their appearance and closing was also very notably changed. Those women were called flappers. The term flapper in the 1920s referred to a "new breed" of young women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to the new Jazz music, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. The flappers were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking, treating sex in a casual manner, smoking, driving automobiles, and otherwise flouting conventional social and sexual norms. Generally in the world women are called the weaker sex but the article above is a good prove that it is not quite right. The history proved that in cases of necessities woman shoved enough braveness and enough strength. She remained loving and caring mother but at the same time, she did well in being a strict and smart manager of a business.

* M.A., Faculty of Social Science, Direction of International Relations and Politics, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 132

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Women’s Role Increase in the US in the 20th Century

TAMTA TSKITISHVILI*

As it is said women are simply the foundations for the development of the society. If men are the engines, which run the world, women are the fuel in those engines. There is also a famous saying – “Behind every successful man there is a woman”. Majority of us share this idea towards women today but we all know very well, that it was not the idea that human beings shared even a century ago. Woman had to overcome a big trouble to prove to the world that they had the same and sometimes more abilities to succeed than men. Folk tales and romantic prose or lyrics were the only writings that mentioned woman until the 20th century. The role also was very limited in the society. As the majority of the US citizens were migrated from the Europe, they shared the ideas of their European ancestors and they treated the woman the same way as in Europe. From the foundation of the American nation until the 20th century women had no right to vote, serve in juries; freely use public accommodations, and so on. Women’s only duty was to take care of her family and the jobs they took was as a servant, babysitter or they followed the oldest profession in the world. They had no right to own private property or take important decisions even in the family. Even their dowry and the children were the property of the husband. In short, woman was a property of a man. While writing the US constitution, the founding fathers that are also considered as the fathers of democracy mentioned nothing about woman. In the XVII-XVIII century, the white man was the only one who had all the rights and all the freedom. During these times woman also had no climes to become equal to a man but the 20-th century changed everything… Industrial explosion in the last decades of the 19th century gave woman an opportunity to work. As they started to work, they tasted independence provided by having their own money. They moved apart from their families, freed from the influence of their man, as majority of them got the education woman started to have their own ideas and attitudes towards things. As they started to acknowledge with the law they saw that their country that was proud of its liberalism and democracy did not consider them as equal to the men and did not give them any rights and upon the whole never mentioned a word in the constitution. During the final decades of the nineteenth century, America’s urban growth and expanding industrial economy led to the creation of innumerable jobs in the private and public sectors. “For many white men with ambition, intelligence, and education, the choice of career was broad and the chance of success promising. For immigrants, for black, for poor youth of the farm, and for women, however, opportunities expanded in much more limited way. The barriers of ethnicity, race, sex, and inadequate schooling were formidable”.1 The 19th-century drive to secure equal rights for woman arose in part as well educated woman involved themselves in their social issues. Struggle for women’s rights began in parallel with the abolitionism of slavery. Therefore, this clearly states that the rise of the feminist movement was caused because of education. Getting educated woman started to wake up from the centuries sleep. They found that their abilities were quit equal as man and in some fields they did better than man. Led by two famous women, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan Brownell Anthony the first woman right convention in the New York town Seneca Falls was held in July 1848. I think

* M.A., Faculty of Social Science, Direction of International Relations and Politics, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 133

SECTION IV: Literature and Women’s Issues that this date can be considered as the birthday of the American Feminist movement. Later, in the 20-th century woman successfully proved, that they were as smart and talented as man. When man went in war, they occupied their places and led their work with the success. During the World Wars and great depression women showed the world that they could afford the family and the job with the same success as the man, even though all the time they were paid less than a half of the man’s salary. The term women's suffrage refers to the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending suffrage — the right to vote — to women. The movement's origins are usually traced to the United States in the 1820s.2 The answer to which country was the first to give women the right to vote in national elections depends on the definition of 'country' being used, and whether to count countries which no longer exist. Today women's suffrage is considered a right (under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women). In the 1890s the women’s suffrage, club, missionary, and social settlement movements emerged as significant political forces. Nevertheless for the most part, white women in these movements remained steadfast in their refusal to embrace their nonwhite counterparts. In 1980 the two major national women’s suffrage Associations, The National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association, merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). It was officially established in May of 1890. Thereafter NAWSA was reformed as the League of Women Voters, which continues in existence up to the present time. In the first half of the twentieth century, the United States of America emerged as the superpower country. “Economic and social reforms, gave workers and their families improved standards of living and African-Americans increasing hope that, at last, they could secure racial equality” 3 Exactly in this century began the women involvement in the society as never before. The XIX amendment that was ratified on 1920 gave women right to vote that gave them completely new status. For this time woman employments grew very significantly that was caused because of war and the improvement of the technologies. If the number of working woman outside the home was 4 999 000 for 1900 for the year 1920 this number increased up to 8 229 000. This means that in 20 years the number of working woman was doubled. President Harding (1921-1923) in one of his speeches gave a great attention to the woman role change in the United States of America. He admitted that much earlier than the World War I women were less and less obeying the rules of Victorian Society and they were very actively involved in social life. They were teaching at schools in colleges, working in the offices, shops, factories and time by time, they were becoming concurrent of the man. As the World War I started, it appeared that women could do everything and was the biggest power of labor force. Women were applying for all the jobs that were possible. They were constructing ships, working in factories. Women’s active involvement in work outside the home was good, but it also had bad sides as women had les and less time for their families and children. That was a huge problem because as a rule women’s first and the most important job and duty is to have children and to take care of their family. “Even though we have great schools and colleges nothing can replace the family and the mother”,4 Stated President Harding in one of his speeches. President, considering himself as an old-fashioned person, was for keeping traditional home relations but he also admitted that modern society was inquiring changes and people had somehow to obey and adapt to it. At this time notably was increased the role of women that were involved in stock market that was giving woman material independence. In some corporations’ woman were the owners of control packets. The percentage of paying taxes by woman was also increased. In one of the

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SECTION IV: Literature and Women’s Issues articles published in the magazine 1923 by Charles Holman. American women organizations were providing a list of inquire towards the Congress. The list consisted 11 points such as:

1. International Pease (with slogan “More legacies, less war”) 2. Children defense from the industrial work. 3. The case of minimal wages

This list also included the formation of the ministry of education, to open the federal prison for woman with good conditions; more federal involvement against narcotics; to improve the laws for the wedding and divorce, woman role increase in the family economics; and so on. According to the author of the article, the most radical movement of woman the “Woman National Party” was asking for the radical changes in the United States Constitution that was the equality of rights of American women and men. For that time, it was considered as the most radical inquiry. The conservative movements of women considered wrong and they were calling it an epidemic.

Even though government was for increasing the women’s role in the social life some of women inquiries were completely ignored. As women were occupying the places in the judicial and legislative branches they were asking the president to give them the places in executive branch and to admit women ministers of economics, agriculture and internal affairs. As for that time it was something very unusual of course their requirements were ignored. In this century appeared the terms: Feminism (According to scholars “Feminism” comprises a number of movements, theories and philosophies that are concerned with issues of gender difference, that advocate equality for women, and that campaign for women's rights and interests.” 5); and feminist (The term “feminist” appeared in 1910s to refer to someone favoring the full political, civil, and social equality of woman. Feminists believed that the main problem of woman inequality was that they were materially depended on man. They thought that it limited their opportunities) that was strongly developed afterwards.

Beginning in the mid-19th century, several generations of woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans considered a radical change in the Constitution. Militant suffragists used tactics such as parades, silent vigils, and hunger strikes. The records of the National Archives and Records Administration reveal much of this struggle. Besides all the struggles and many opposes, on fourth of June 1919 the nineteenth amendment of the United States Constitution was proposed to the legislatures of the several States on the Sixty-sixth Congress. It was declared, in a proclamation of the Secretary of State, dated August 26, 1920, to have been ratified by the legislatures of 36 of the 48 States. This amendment was the turning point of the American Woman history. “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation”.6 If not the President Theodore Roosevelt’s support it would be very hard to give the women voting right because until 1920 Congress and senate failed to admit the law several times. Now American women had a right to vote and it was really a great success for that time in the United States of America.

The modern woman working and trying to be equal with the man not only changed their lifestyle but their appearance and closing was also very notably changed. Those women were called flappers. The term flapper in the 1920s referred to a "new breed" of young women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to the new Jazz music, and flaunted their disdain

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SECTION IV: Literature and Women’s Issues for what was then considered acceptable behavior.7 The flappers were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking, treating sex in a casual manner, smoking, driving automobiles, and otherwise flouting conventional social and sexual norms. Flapper stereotype was largely a creation of journalists, designers, and advertisers. But like all stereotypes, it played a cultural role. Flappers had their origins in the period of liberalism, social and political turbulence, and increased transatlantic cultural exchange that followed the end of the First World War, as well as the export of African American jazz culture to Europe. In the United States, popular Contempt for Prohibition was a factor. With legal saloons and cabarets closed, back alley speakeasies became popular. Writers and artists in the United States such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Held Jr., and Anita Loos popularized the flapper look and lifestyle through their works, and flappers came to be seen as attractive, reckless and independent. Among those who criticized the flapper craze was writer-critic Dorothy Parker. She penned "Flappers: A Hate Song" to poke fun at the fad.

Flappers went to jazz clubs at night where they danced provocatively, smoked cigarettes through long holders, sniffed cocaine (which was legal at the time) and dated. They rode bicycles and drove cars. They drank alcohol openly, a defiant act in the American period of Prohibition. Flappers also began taking work outside the home and challenging a 'woman's place' in society. With time dance styles considered shocking, such as the Charleston, the Shimmy, the Bunny Hug and the Black Bottom were developed.

Flappers had their own slang. Their dialect reflected their promiscuity and drinking habits; "I have to go see a man about a dog" often meant going to buy whiskey, and a "handcuff" or "manacle" was an engagement or wedding ring. Also reflective of their preoccupations, they had many ways to say "fantastic", such as "That's so Jake" or "That's the bee's knees," or a more popular one, "the cat's pajamas." Many terms still in use in modern American English slang originated as flapper slang, such as "big cheese", meaning an important person; "to bump off", meaning to murder; and "baloney", meaning nonsense. Other terms have become definitive of the Prohibition era, such as "speakeasy", meaning an illegal place to get liquor and "hooch”, describing illegal liquor.

In addition to their irreverent behavior, flappers were known for their style, which largely emerged because of the musical style of jazz and the popularization of dancing that accompanied it. Called garçonne in French ("boy" with a feminine suffix), flapper style made them look young and boyish. Short hair, flattened breasts, and small waists accentuated the look. Despite all the scandal flappers generated, their look became fashionable in a toned-down form among even respectable older women. Most significantly, the flappers removed the corset from female fashion, raised skirt and gown hemlines and popularized short hair for women. Among the actresses most closely identified with the style were Olive Thomas, Dorothy Mackaill, Alice White, Bebe Daniels, Billie Dove, Helen Kane, Joan Crawford, Leatrice Joy, Norma Shearer, Laura La Plante, Norma Talmadge, Clara Bow, Louise Brooks, and Colleen Moore.

The flapper look required 'heavy makeup' in comparison to what had been acceptable. Flappers tended to wear 'kiss proof' lipstick. With the invention of the metal lipstick container as well as compact mirrors bee stung lips came into vogue. Dark eyes, especially Kohl-rimmed, were the style. Blush came into vogue now that it was no longer a messy application process. Originally, pale skin was considered most attractive. However, tanned skin became increasingly popular after Coco Chanel donned a tan after spending too much time in the sun on holiday – it suggested a life of leisure, without the onerous need to work. Woman wanted to look fit, sporty,

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SECTION IV: Literature and Women’s Issues and, above all, healthy. Boyish cuts were in vogue especially the Bob cut, Eton crop, and Shingle bob. Hats were still required wear and popular styles included the Newsboy cap and Cloche hat. Jewelry usually consisted of art deco pieces, especially many layers of beaded necklaces. Pins, rings, and brooches came into style. Horn-rimmed glasses were also popular. Without the old restrictive corsets, flappers wore simple bust bodices to make their chest hold still when dancing. They also wore new, softer and suppler corsets that reached to their hips, smoothing the whole frame giving women a straight up and down appearance, as opposed to the old corsets which slenderized the waist and accented the hips and bust. Without the added curves of a corset they promoted their boyish look, and soon early popular bras were sold to flatten and reduce the appearance of the bust. Flapper dresses were straight and loose, leaving the arms bare and dropping the waistline to the hips. Silk or rayon stockings were held up by garters. Skirts rose to just below the knee by 1927, allowing flashes of knee to be seen when a girl danced or walked into a breeze, although the way they danced made any long loose skirt flap up to show their knees. Flappers powdered or put rouge on their knees to show them off when dancing. Popular dress styles included the Robe de style. High heels also came into vogue at the time, reaching 2 inches high. Despite its popularity, the flapper lifestyle and look could not survive the Wall Street Crash and the following Great Depression. The high-spirited attitude and hedonism simply could not find a place amid the economic hardships of the 1930s. More specifically, this decade brought out a conservative reaction and a religious revival which set out to eradicate the liberal lifestyles and fashions of the 1920s. In many ways, however, the self- reliant flapper had allowed the modern woman to make herself an integral and lasting part of the Western World.

Generally in the world women are called the weaker sex but the article above is a good prove that it is not quite right. The history proved that in cases of necessities woman showed enough braveness and enough strength. She remained loving and caring mother but at the same time, she did well in being a strict and smart manager of a business. “A woman is a property of the man” _ in nowadays America you can be sent in the jail because of even saying this. Now nobody will be surprised if the woman initiates the relation with the man but just a century ago, it would be a good topic to speak about in American elite class meetings.

The role of progressive era woman is as much important as the role founding fathers. Those women partly formed American democracy, because there is no democracy in the country if someone is discriminated. Those women tried their best, fought until the end of their abilities, went against their families, friends and relatives, were sitting in jails, striking and organizing hunger strikes to make this world easier for women. They were among the leader reformers of the twentieth century. The role of American women – all who devoted their lives entirely to suffrage, civil rights, and public service, and those who just supported reformers acting on behalf of them contributed to the whole world and democracy. American women, who lived in 1920s (called the roaring twenties), were the one who tasted the freedom. The new American Woman was born at that time.

Besides those troubles still in XXI century a lot of women all over the world suffer, and are victims of discrimination and violence not only in undeveloped countries but also in Europe and America. Women still suffer from stereotyping their lives, are harshly discussed but anyway they know how to fight and the most important – they have right to fight. I think that it is every woman’s duty to take care of themselves and their rights not only because of their wish and better life but also in order to make this world much more democratic and free for their future generations.

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References:

1. Boyer, S. Paul, E. Clark Clifford, Jr., Joseph F. Kent, Neal Salisbury, and Harvard Sirkoff. (1996) the Edinburgh Vision. 3rd. Lexington, Massachusetts: D. C. Health and company 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_suffrage 3. Woman of influence. M. Betka; P. Malamud; Ch. McDonald; M.S. Neely U.S Department of state. Bureau of International Information Proggrams 2006 year. 4. America in 1920-s by 2008 year V. Kacharava. Pg 189. 5. http://feminism.eserver.org/ 6. http://www.nps.gov/archive/malu/documents/amend19.htm 7. http://www.geocities.com/flapper_culture/

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American Romantic Essay

Abstract

BAIA KOGHUASHVILI*

* Assoc. Prof., Akaki Tsereteli State University, Kutaisi, Georgia. 139

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American Romantic Essay

BAIA KOGHUASHVILI*

The American Romantic period of literature was simply an attitude or intellectual orientation that characterized many works of literature in America over a period from the late 18th to the mid-19th century. Like the writers who embodied it, it was a time where the people of America had a deep appreciation of the beauties of nature as well as a novel infatuation with exceptional literary figures; focusing on their passions and inner struggles. Writers of this era believed that the creative spirit was much more important than traditional writing procedures. America had been a country for approximately 75 years and was running out of wilderness to fantasize about. The writers of the time came from many different ethnic and religious backgrounds. Literature at this time was influenced by a combination of French, British, Spanish, German, and African folklore and truly placed an emphasis upon imagination as a gateway to a transcendent experience and spiritual truth. Because of the diverse cultural backgrounds of the American populace, and obsessive interest in folk culture occurred giving writers freedom to explore the exotic, the remote, the mysterious, the monstrous, the occult, and yes, even the satanic. In this period essay emerged as one of the leading literary genres. Such prominent literary figures, critics and thinkers as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Edgar Allan Poe expressed their attitude towards the ongoing literary and political events and their conceptual positions through their brilliant essays which are still considered to be the best examples of essay writing in American literature. The present essay will primarily focus upon the essayistic inheritance of Ralph Waldo Emerson as a paradigmatic example of American romantic essay as a genre. The significance of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essays for the development of romantic aesthetics can hardly be overestimated. Romantic ideas centered around art as inspiration, the spiritual and aesthetic dimension of nature, and metaphors of organic growth. Art, rather than science, Romantics argued, could best express universal truth. The Romantics underscored the importance of expressive art for the individual and society. In his essay "The Poet" (1844), Ralph Waldo Emerson, perhaps the most influential writer of the Romantic era, asserts: “For all men live by truth, and stand in need of expression. In love, in art, in avarice, in politics, in labor, in games, we study to utter our painful secret. The man is only half himself, the other half is his expression.” Due to Emerson’s creative efforts the development of the self became a major theme of American romantic essay; self-awareness a primary method. If, according to Romantic theory, self and nature were one, self-awareness was not a selfish dead end but a mode of knowledge opening up the universe. If one's self were one with all humanity, then the individual had a moral duty to reform social inequalities and relieve human suffering. The idea of "self" -- which suggested selfishness to earlier generations -- was redefined. New compound words with positive meanings emerged: "self-realization," "self-expression," "self-reliance." As the unique, subjective self became important, so did the realm of psychology. Exceptional artistic effects and techniques were developed to evoke heightened psychological states. The "sublime" -- an effect of beauty in grandeur (for example, a view from a mountaintop) -- produced feelings of awe, reverence, vastness, and a power beyond human comprehension.

* Assoc. Prof., Akaki Tsereteli State University, Kutaisi, Georgia. 140

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Romanticism was affirmative and appropriate for most American creative essayists. America's vast mountains, deserts, and tropics embodied the sublime. The Romantic spirit seemed particularly suited to American democracy: It stressed individualism, affirmed the value of the common person, and looked to the inspired imagination for its aesthetic and ethical values. Certainly the New England Transcendentalists -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and their associates -- were inspired to a new optimistic affirmation by the Romantic movement. In New England, Romanticism fell upon fertile soil. The Transcendentalist movement was a reaction against 18th century rationalism and a manifestation of the general humanitarian trend of 19th century thought. The movement was based on a fundamental belief in the unity of the world and God. The soul of each individual was thought to be identical with the world -- a microcosm of the world itself. The doctrine of self-reliance and individualism developed through the belief in the identification of the individual soul with God. The essay turned out to be the most suited genre to convey transcendentalist beliefs and doctrines. The Transcendentalists published a quarterly magazine, The Dial, which lasted four years and was first edited by Margaret Fuller and later by Emerson. Reform efforts engaged them as well as literature. A number of Transcendentalists were abolitionists, and some were involved in experimental utopian communities such as nearby Brook Farm (described in Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance) and Fruitlands. Ralph Waldo Emerson, the towering figure of his era, had a religious sense of mission. Although many accused him of subverting Christianity, he explained that, for him "to be a good minister, it was necessary to leave the church." The address he delivered in 1838 at his alma mater, the Harvard Divinity School, made him unwelcome at Harvard for 30 years. In it, Emerson accused the church of acting "as if God were dead" and of emphasizing dogma while stifling the spirit. Emerson’s essays are one of the most significant achievements of American romantic thought. His philosophy has been called contradictory, and it is true that he consciously avoided building a logical intellectual system because such a rational system would have negated his Romantic belief in intuition and flexibility. In his essay "Self-Reliance," Emerson remarks: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Yet he is remarkably consistent in his call for the birth of American individualism inspired by nature. Most of his major ideas -- the need for a new national vision, the use of personal experience, the notion of the cosmic Over-Soul, and the doctrine of compensation -- are suggested in his first publication, Nature (1836). This essay opens: “Our age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchers of the fathers. It writes biographies, histories, criticism. The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs. Embosomed for a season in nature, whose floods of life stream around and through us, and invite us by the powers they supply, to action proportioned to nature, why should we grope among the dry bones of the past...? The sun shines today also. There is more wool and flax in the fields. There are new lands, new men, new thoughts. Let us demand our own works and laws and worship.” Emerson loved the aphoristic genius of the 16th-century French essayist Montaigne, and he once told Bronson Alcott that he wanted to write a book like Montaigne's, "full of fun, poetry, business, divinity, philosophy, anecdotes, smut." He complained that Alcott's abstract style omitted "the light that shines on a man's hat, in a child's spoon." Spiritual vision and practical, aphoristic expression make Emerson exhilarating; one of the Concord Transcendentalists aptly compared listening to him with "going to heaven in a

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References:

1. Outline of American Literature. Revised Edition. http://usinfo.org/enus/life/artsent/oal/lit3.html

2. Outline of American Literature. Revised Edition. http://usinfo.org/enus/life/artsent/oal/lit3.html

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