today, EthnoFest in #Tbilisi (alas only realized it happening late afternoon), with plenty of great things you can get if you
-- enjoy #crafts
-- want to support local business, or
-- are thinking abt gifts already
Below some of my favourites. 1/n
This won the overall prize (congrats!!!) & was my favourite: fairly simple, evocative of #Tbilisi & #Batumi#architecture, nice #lighting addition somewhere in a flat, neat product. 2/n
The table cloths -- they really have established themselves as a product, I saw two companies, not entirely sure what the difference is. Here is Old Supra. 3/n
Weird Fishes -- one of the funniest bits, maybe not exactly a permanent fixture, but still what a fun idea. 4/n
wooden #toys! GeoStyle Wood Art. Nice, simple, modern stuff that kids may like. (In my view, all plastic import toys could be banned. The world wld be better for it.) 5/n geostylewoodart.mystrikingly.com
Zaza Gatenashvili Borjghali wooden boxes & crates. Gorgeous stuff. Great to see that craft still being practiced. 6/n
Igrika design, with Georgian letters, patterns, also cloth & tablecloth. 7/n facebook.com/igrika1/
Pachkoria family, ceramics, I have some of these already, nice design, cups, soap bowls, lots of stuff. 8/n homofaber.com/en/discover/di…
Funduki, who used to be (or are?) at Fabrika with slippers, in v nice design. They also have bags and other clothing. 9/n instagram.com/funduki/?hl=en
Many of these, btw, will be at IWA Xmas Bazar, early December, if you want to buy direct. Will share when know details.
And yes, nice to support local businesses. All of this supported by @TbilisiCity@usingeo@UKinGeorgia@EUinGeorgia & others. END
A tiny clique in charge of the ruling party has stolen Georgia's European future. They stole that European future in good part by bribery, intimidation, direct violence, and some manipulation of the voting process.
The tiny clique also took that future away by overwhelming many voters with their dystopian vision of the world -- a vision that has nothing to do with Europe.
Where the vote was comparatively free and fair, in parts of Tbilisi's capital, the opposition parties clearly won. 1/n
The evening of the vote, we could see two starkly contrasting realities -- two exit polls, sponsored by the opposition, that put the opposition parties clearly ahead. While I am cautious/skeptical about exit polls, these polls closely tallied each other.
You can of course believe that these efforts coordinated to represent a manipulated reality. I tend to believe that overall they likely represent the actual will of the people. 2/
there are several additional items re the plausibility of these exit polls. 1. Edison in the past seems to have gotten GD results fairly aligned. This chart is doing rounds in Georgia right now, showing actual GD results (yellowish) and Edison exit poll (blue). It is not to scale, but you see the big discrepancy is *now*. I quickly checked this also, and found similar results, see the screenshot.
2/ Edison tanked UNM in comparison to C4C, even though they are typically assumed to be funded by one of UNM's main donor.
The implementation rules of so-called transparency law in #Georgia have been released – I previously called it a “repress anyone you want law.” That is what it is.
what goes on in #Georgia right now is best described as a coup: "an unlawful seizure of power", in this case by a small clique under direct instructions from BI who in his paranoia has become a kind of Macbeth of the Caucasus. 1/
Constitutional order is sidelined to follow paranoid ravings and on April 29 we heard Macbeth in Tbilisi having his go at the ghost of Banquo, sitting in the empty chair. (BI's obsession is the spectre of Credit Suisse as global war party.) 2/ read:
As Stephen Jones put it, "In his April 29 speech before a crowd of state employees and citizens bussed in from Georgian provinces, Bidzina Ivanishvili [...], declared war against the Georgian people." 3/ eurasianet.org/perspectives-i…
one good person wrote he shared recent Jacobin article on the NGO law bc he found it refreshing & "offering a different perspective". Draws lots of Likes and Retweets.
If you don't know much else about #Georgia, you will read about "hyper-political NGOs". 1/
...and this will be a dominant feature stuck in your mind.
Yes, if you are a corrupt regime that has been massively robbing from people of Georgia, those who even merely *highlight* that fact are "partisan" & "hyper-political", and you will seek to eliminate them.
Here... 2/
you see just one such listing of the public allegations.
Let those numbers sink in: 30+ MPs, 30 ministers & deputies, 13 judges -- and that is what is known!
This is the good work of @Transparency_GE -- which the government is seeking to snuff out. 3/ transparency.ge/en/blog/allege…
sectors of all the countries we looked at.
There was zero politics to the claim at the time, there was just genuine reason to be proud, as @Transparency_GE @EPRC_Georgia @IDFIGeorgia had been real leaders (unprompted) when we first looked at them. 2/ @ISET_PI @PMCGofficial
There were some structural reasons for this -- Georgia was an enthusiastic member of @opengovpart from 2011. @g_kldiashvili from IDFI had led a (then) one-man insurgency, very successfully, for more open archives from mid-2000s (hating UNM, incidentally). 3/ @GilbreathDustin
yesterday at the #Tbilisi Art Fair -- ran into various friends, and saw some things I really liked.
Here the Hive, where various artists could showcase their work. 1/
here "Kobi", George Kobiashvili, with strong symbolism, and lots of detail, and a v expressive rendering of the figures. 2/
Maya Baratashvili, also fair young artist, born 1984, this already sold, "Being Liza", I found this evocative, the overall vibe. 3/