Welcome back! The Daily Dispatch is our editorial take on the past day’s news. You can subscribe here to get it in your mailbox . Click to write to us! We’d love to hear your ideas and opinions. Giorgi Tskhakaia has been scanning the news for you.
FRIENDLY FIRE Ukraine and Georgia – two nations supposedly fending off the common foreign foe – are at loggerheads with each other – again. Former President Mikheil Saakashvili – in his new capacity as Ukraine’s reform czar – loves to yank the Georgian Dream’s chain. And he did it again, delivered a fervent plea to his customized (Georgian-language) Facebook audience, vowing to be “at the forefront of the battle” against the ruling party. His incendiary remarks amount to meddling in our private affairs by a foreign official (Saakashvili was stripped of his first citizenship in 2015), contended Georgia’s irked chief diplomat, before summoning Ukrainian envoy “to the carpet” as idiomatic Russian saying goes. Saakashvili is not an office-holder and thus he does not speak for the Ukrainian executive, subtly noted the Ambassador after receiving his ritualized and undoubtedly polite dressing-down. Having already recalled Georgian ambassador to Kyiv (again, Saakashvili’s appointment was the trigger) Georgian authorities have little ammunition left. We say, let diplomats do their job, and fight Mr. Saakashvili on a political stage, if you have to.
DISMEMBERED “TV Pirveli” newsroom – for a while considered as one of the most balanced in Georgia’s highly polarized TV field – is bleeding journalists. The latest to go were “Polit-Meter” talk show anchors Nino Zhizhilashvili and Vakhtang Sanaia. They said they’d bring their show elsewhere, without giving specifics. Georgia’s media scene is in a flux, as often before elections, with comings and goings whose reason is hard to pin down. “TV Pirveli” seems to be in the throes of the takeover by “TV Mtavari” team, as its former chief of newsroom came to TV Pirveli as the main producer.
TROUBLE AHEAD? Fear of the second wave of infections is gripping the nation, as new infections are popping up daily. Troubling the medics is that some of these infections can’t be traced to their source. Also, most unfortunately, increasing number of healthcare workers get sick. NCDC chief implores citizens not to drop their guard, warning that the virus – so far kept in check through rigorous policies – may spring into action again. “Let’s bear in mind – the more we ease up, the more rapidly will the virus spread,” PM chimed in eagerly. Surely, that’s easier said than done – as lock-down fatigue keeps mounting.
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Finally, PHOTO DU JOUR shows how bad it gets: a Municipal bus crammed with commuters in Tbilisi. Public transport system– far from being in mint condition – rapidly got overwhelmed after Covid-19 lockdown was lifted. No social distancing seems possible in such conditions. Tbilisi City Hall has pledged that new fleet of buses will soon hit the roads, but admits that won’t be enough to relieve the strain.
Number 24 Bus in Gldani, Tbilisi. Grabbed from David Meskhishvili’s Facebook account.
That’s full lid for today!
