5 years on from the rose revolution

the megobrebs round table yesterday began with the question ' what are you doing in georgia and what were you doing 5 years ago today?'.

the topics to then be discussed included, is it better than before the revolution, have the old cadres been turfed out or just replaced by a new vanguard, what has changed for the better, why has judiciary reform proved so difficult for georgia and was the confrontation with Russia inevitable.

Of course it was an interesting dicussion, especially illuminating on life before the rose revolution, which i hadnt known much about, being as i was just a 2nd year undergraduate at the time. Listening to those sitting round the room sharing their bios reminded me how much of a novice i am to georgian analysis. Ive only been here 9 months, but so much has happened already. Ive seen georgia display awesome signs of modernisation, economic growth and normalisation, but i have also seen corruption, political crises war and stagnation. Flickers of hope have been lit and I have seen the flame of modern woman extinguished in someone close to me. If so much has happened in 9 months, what on earth will the next 5 years hold for this incredible nation.

IN recent news... the georgian president travelled up to the conflict zone with the polish president at the weekend and was allegedly shot at in his motorcade from a s ossetian administrative border post. dunno what to say about that little publicity stunt except, what were they thinking? and when i say THEY i dont mean saakashvili, or his entourage, i mean what were THEY thinking, THEY being pres Kaczynski's security detail?? daft daft daft. What on earth would have happened if the polish president had been shot in Georgia?!

It is thanksgiving this week in the USA, and among the American community in Georgia of course. Im planning to attend some sort of thanksgiving gig. Traditionally this is the day when we should say what we're thankful for. British people dont have a thanksgiving, but I think we have something similar in November 11th, Remembrance Day. Oddly, on that day and on every day since I have been thinking about what Im thankful for, or to be more precise, reflecting on my enormous good fortune. Yes, August was not fun. September left a little to be desired. October i was both working hard and getting lost. But November has been brilliant. Georgia is going to see tougher times but the odd thing is that the longer I spend here the more thankful I feel for what I have, and where I am. Part of this is seeing people less lucky than myself, noticeably more so than before. Only a few steps from the ministry of foreign affairs that I passed today, where fancy mercedes' pull up to collect grey suited diplomats, elderly women, their faces wrapped against the cold, beg for a few tetri near the metro station. But the second part to this is I actually feel luckier than those in the grey suits, because firstly I somehow ended up living in this great and crazy place called Tbilisi, and secondly because I see those people, instead of looking past them.