The Socio-Economic Situation

Talking about socio-economic issues, I wanted to give a general image about the situation in Georgia. According to the National Statistics Institute of Georgia the subsistence minimum in 2009 was about 129 GEL per person a month, which is about 75USD, while the Average Monthly Nominal salary is 534GEL (300 USD nowadays). Well I myself don't really think that the average salary makes 534GEL a month, I think it is even less in reality, but I hope I'm wrong. The unemployment rate was 13% and after the World Economic crisis it increased to 16%, which of course remains as one of the biggest problems in the county. You can notice it even walking along Tbilisi streets where you will find lots of beggars; actually they will find you themselves to ask for some coins. They are usually children, older people, disabled people, Gypsies and people in black clothes (widows) that either lost their children who could be able to help them or the children are too young and they have to somehow feed them, so there is no other way for them to make money to live other than begging. However, not all of them are out there because of poverty or inability to work. The reasons for people to beg are different. Some have to beg because of the mentioned above difficult social-economic situation, some lost their children and are not able to work anymore themselves, some are hired workers who are not allowed to manage funds they earn as a result of begging (mostly children coming from villages), some just prefer begging to working, and gypsies who are more like an organized begging institute, who sometimes even rent little babies from their parents and force them to beg.

Having such a difficult unemployment situation as a background, I've noticed another problem among my friends and other young people that they do want to get a good job with a good salary as soon as they are done with their bachelors, but they don't want to give anything out first, just want to get it right there right at the moment. All you hear from some of them is complaining about how all the organizations they have applied to for a job, require experience, and if nobody hires them without experience than how are they going to get any? Well there is still an option, when you see that your time flies and you are still doing nothing, maybe it is worth to start with volunteering and interning?! What they reply to you on this is; I have studied for four years and why should I waste my time working for free (wasting much more time doing nothing)! Yes, this is for free, but this will at least give you a chance to show yourself and gain some experience that will help you in getting a job later! I can speak about my own experience, a lot of young people have interned for Transparency International Georgia (NGO that I work for at the moment), many of us stayed and are now staff members participating in implementation of different projects, others with the help of gained experience including it into their CV could find jobs in other organizations.

We still get more and more applications for internship program from young people, this indicates that the attitude towards volunteering is changing. And I really hope that the socio-economic situation will improve too, as soon as possible!

Sex and The City

Recently I got across an interesting article about couples relations in Georgia, about it's conservative traditions, fairy tales and bitter reality. Thought about cases I know myself and recalled about 11 examples of my friends marriages, 7 of which ended up with a divorce and a child with broken family hardly reaching 1.6 year of age. Other four are successful so far, and I do hope it will continue that way. The average age of partners in these cases was about 19- 20 for girls and 21-22 for boys. The reasons of these kinds of early and unsuccessful marriages are different, some of them can be facts of unexpected pregnancy, that can partially be explained by lack of information about sex and contraception, as there is a some kind of taboo on sexual topic in Georgia, and youngsters that do have sex, don't pay proper attention to it. Other reason of abortive marriage can be love, which I would more call a passion (the one that fades away soon), when young people think they love each other and are ready to live the rest of their lives together, but as it turns out a bit later, they are completely different people that can't stand each other.

Why does this happen?
As I have mentioned in the earlier post, Georgia is an Orthodox country, where religion plays a huge role. As a part of Georgian Orthodox faith along with a Georgia's conservative belief, a woman can't have sex before marriage or as now it is called there is a virginity "institute" here. Tbilisi-based Caucasus Research Resource Centers survey showed that 77% of respondents think it is unacceptable for a woman to have sex before marriage. But this is changing as new modern and more open generation is on it's way. Meanwhile boys are encouraged to practice sex as soon as they reach puberty.The fairy tale part in this issues is how young people see a successful marriage, a handsome Georgian knight on white horse, beautiful children, belief in God and careless future, but this fairy tale mostly works different, instead they face a bitter reality which is not that easy and beautiful. According to this "institute" the only "legal" way for a girl to have sex is marriage, and sometimes unfortunately this marriage occurs not to be that careless and wonderful as it seemed to be for partners while dating and this young family falls apart leaving their little kids, that were born as a result of mentioned above "legal" sex, without a proper parental care. The divorce rate in Georgia according to National Statistics Office of Georgia in 2008 was 3 189 registered case while in 2000 it was only 1854 (different couples with different backgrounds, age and marriage duration are included in this data).

As the most accent in this issue is made on women, I wanted to separate them into three types, one - those who don't care about conservative traditions openly having sexual relations with their partners even before marriage, two - those who play by the rules of virginity "institute" willingly and do like it that way, waiting for the one and hopefully only , and three - those who play the game but cheat!

What can be cheating in this kind of game?!
Have you ever heard about virginity restoration? Hymenoplasty is what cheaters refer to when they decide to play the role of innocent girl in order to get married and have their own fairy tale, as being a virgin before marriage is important. One of this kind of places for plastic surgery for example can be the clinic of Iva Kuzanov that was opened in 2004, at first the surgery was not offered as there was no demand for it, however after he mentioned the possibility on television talk show more and more women requested hymen restoration, now he performs five to seven such operations per month.

I would say that traditions are important, as tradition is part of national identity that comes for ages. But sometimes this traditions can be playing a negative role as it sometimes interferes with simple principles of nature. Why not sexual relations be a private decision. Why not either playing the game by its rules or just not playing it at all! Anyway I hope our youth will think several times before making a very important step like creating a family because as a result children are suffering the most.

Gypsy Things

As I mentioned in first introduction post, I also planned to write about things that bother me, Gypsy things are one of those.

It was another ordinary business day, everybody was in a rush, I was one of those who fought a heavy traffic on Rustaveli avenue, which is the main avenue in the very center of Tbilisi. Thought the reason for the jam was as usual a presidential escort blocking the road, but no, something was happening, something was wrong, ah probably a bus managed to squeeze a taxi cab against another car again, this also happens a lot, never loved taxi drivers in the traffic flow, you would always expect some surprising maneuvers from them, something stupid, but the case seemed to be different this time, getting closer I noticed police cars, crowd and yellow tape saying "don't cross police line", what I saw behind the tape, shocked me, it really did! A girl about 7 years of age was lying on the ground without a move, nobody was even close to her anymore as she was not alive, a child, a little Gypsy girl without a breathe.



Photo by Lasha Ghughunishvili




Those Gypsy things... crossing roads back and forth with little kids, begging for money on the traffic lights, threatening to spit on you or do something nasty to you if you don't give them money, forcing children to beg, keeping them dirty, hungry, in cold, in rain, even in pain sometimes, just to make them look miserable, just to make them make money.

Overtaking a lane of cars standing on red light that has just turned green, I often faced a little Gypsy kid running out just in front of one of those cars. What do you want to do at that time? Just thank God you did not hit him! Those Gypsy things, that are putting in danger little kids, putting others to jail. Innocent child, innocent driver, but who is guilty then? I like the way police worked recently in Georgia, not taking bribes, giving tickets to those who violate, checking me for alcohol when i'm in a good mood driving back home singing, but what measures do they take not to have those Gypsy kids suddenly popping out in front of your car? Nothing, either they gave up on trying to do something with it or they've never tried. Can something be done about it?!

By the way, wanted to take pictures of them on the weekend, but couldn't, I guess they rest on weekends, neither I could find them today after six, decided to upload a picture found online.

Azeris and Armenians under one roof - Georgia

Just wanted to look over the Azerbaijani Armenian relations. After having attended several projects with Azerbaijani and Armenian participation, I noticed that relation between them are sometimes tensed. Nevertheless, some of them manage to make friends and continue there friendship on other neutral territories like Georgia. The reason to this kind of negative attitude towards each other between representative of this two nations is Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the territory that took thousands of lives from both nations.

Since the beginning of 1988, there is a continuous conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed area of Nagorno Karabakh. The conflict has led to over twenty thousands casualties and almost one and a half million refugees. The Azeris claim that Karabagh has always been under Azeri rule in known history; by contrast the Armenians advance the claim that Karabagh was originally an Armenian site of residence and that Azeri rule was illegitimate.

The attitude of the upcoming generation towards one another is under the influence of governmental propaganda, which can be nothing but enemies! On one of the seminars my friend from Azerbaijan was giving a presentation where she spoke about Social Media and blogosphere in Azerbaijan, frankly talking about all of those problems that exist in her country. After the presentation, she was strongly criticized by other younger Azeri participants led by an older team leader who thought it was not right to speak about negative things in their country, especially in front the audience where Armenians were present. She was publicly humiliated and called to be pro-Armenian, stupid girl that should be ashamed of herself.

Meanwhile in Georgia ethnic Azeri and Armenian citizens have quite different relations, I myself being the only Azeri in Russian school in Georgia, studied in multinational class, with Georgians, Armenians, Russians, Ossetians etc., shared one desk with Armenian classmate. We used to play together, study together, even let rewrite the test answers from each other, always having fun together, and be friends in need. Staying close friends even after graduating. We never had any pressure from our parents against each other, and had equal rights and attitudes in society. School is one of thousands examples where Azeris and Armenians work and make friends, as we are living in one country, under one roof called Georgia.

In addition I can say, there is no good or bad nation, there are good or bad people, in every single nation!!!

A son of two religions

Yep this post is about me

As you may already know Georgia is a Christian country, and most of the population (82%) practices Orthodox Christianity, Religious minorities of Georgia include Armenian Christians (3.9%), Muslims (9.9%), Roman Catholics (0.8%), as well as sizeable Jewish communities and various Protestant minorities. The feeling for Christianity is very strong here.

Talking about religion in Georgia I wanted to write how it feels to be a child of two religions, I’m child of a Christian (mom) and a Muslim (dad), but I’m Muslim. I’m Muslim not because when I was born somebody came up to me and asked which religion I wanted to practice, no! This was not a question that I was given an opportunity to decide on. I became a Muslim because my dad wanted me to be, even though he himself does not practice it as much, this was part of his family tradition and probably will be mine too. So this was the first and the last case of my parents misunderstanding in religious issue. Marrying each other nothing has changed neither for her nor for him. After the decision was made, everything has been flowing like a river. If you ask me which religion you like the most, it would be like asking a child who do you love more mom or dad? Hard to answer right?

In difference to other traditional Christian or Muslim families I did not have much pressure from parents to practice any religion. So I had a really good opportunity to see religion from a neutral position, seeing both religions from the side. And frankly I don’t see difference between them; they both teach us humanity, kindness, fairness, they both teach us to care about one another. For me practicing different religions is like talking about one thing on a different languages.

When people sometimes tell me, hey! You’re such a good guy; we should baptize you, they do not even understand that this could be hurting to hear! What? If I am not a Christian I can’t be a good guy or what? I can respond to that, but I better not! (It just would not be polite) I am what I am and I am not going to change just because somebody thinks I should I don’t really need somebody’s help in making choices in this question, I am Muslim so take it or leave it! I am not going to change because there is nothing to change! First of all I am a human being as all of us are, and if I was not being told all the time in my childhood that I am Christian or Muslim and not been pressured to practice any religion it doesn’t mean I’m bad or I can’t be good friend or boyfriend or husband or citizen or an employee. I just do not see it as a principle of my life. For me the most important thing is that a person is polite, well grown, kind, respective etc. If you don’t grow up your child well it wouldn’t matter for society whether he is Muslim or Christian. If you are criminal, being a representative of some religion will not make you a sweetheart.

I don’t really face many problems due to my religion in Georgia, but sometimes this fact causes a big surprise for some people. I mostly feel it when I start some relations with Georgian girl coming from a traditional family (and they have always been coming from such families), they never tell you directly but you can feel it, you can feel you are different, you can feel this is taken as a disadvantage of yours, you can be a cool guy, but still you will be different. And if she doesn’t care about it, her parents will and she will know about that and I will also get informed soon.

There are no other questions where my religion would be an issue, or an issue that I would care about in that question.

There is another advantage of being the son of two religions; our family celebrates twice as much religious holidays than any other! Isn’t that great? We have red eggs twice a year while others paint them only once!

Living in Georgia I feel myself different but, going to Azerbaijan I feel myself even more different. I’m some kind of an alien I’m different everywhere!

War... Huh... Yeah! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!

Briefly about the War in August 2008 and its consequences.


In august 2008 Georgia got involved in the war with Russia, ruining the plans of lots of people who had been looking forward to relaxing summer holidays. But ruined summer vocations are nothing in comparison to other troubles that even a one week long war can bring.

As a result we have more lost territories, about 22 000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and several hundred lost lives (about 500 people on our side as I know). These are lost lives of soldiers and civilians who also had families, friends, plans, hopes and dreams, dreams which will never ever come true anymore. Expressing our deep sorrow we realize that there is nothing that we can do in order to help those who passed away bravely fighting for our country. There is no substitution to their lives.

However, there are some people who still need our support - IDPs, people who in one day lost everything they had, except for their lives, which now became even harder than it used to be.

Shortly after the ceasefire Georgian government made a fast decision to build about 3 963 individual cottage homes across 13 different locations for those who managed to escape and ran leaving behind their own homes.

Tserovani, one of the IDP settlements close to Tbilisi (click to enlarge)


In such a quick response the government had to balance between three things: speed, cost and quality. According to the report by Transparency International Georgia, an average cost per home was approximately 19.700$ in total making 94.5 million dollars including related infrastructure costs. The budget for those cottages consisted of combination of loans from the World Bank and grants from European Commission.

Before the cottages were built, people were living in tents, the winter was stepping in and conditions were becoming more and more severe and unbearable. The cottages built in three month period, in December became homes for 13,876 individuals. Unfortunately the speed of building process negatively affected the quality of the houses. In a while people started facing different problems like leaking rain water from the ceilings, mold on the walls due to dampness, deformed floors, grass in the rooms and drafty windows and doors. More information concerning the quality of the cottages for IDPs can be found in a report written by Transparency International Georgia.

I hope that Georgian Government together with International and Local Organizations, will continue supporting these people, would that be financial support or voluntary human resource, help them starting new lives, help to overcome the difficulties that suddenly fell on their shoulders as a result of the war that brought nothing but tragedy to all parts that were involved in it.