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Recently, there has been hardly a day in Georgia that did not see heavy rainfall. Those rains have flooded us with some bad news, some good news, some almost news, and some actual floods. Miners arrived from Chiatura to seek justice and survival in Tbilisi (and seem to have largely succeeded for now). Violent attacks against government critics mounted. Georgia’s movie industry kept fighting for its artistic freedom.
And then, to save the day, the week, and the country’s EU future, the president took matters into her own hands and pardoned the jailed media boss Nika Gvaramia.
(As an aside, some of us truly miss good old times when good news was just good news and bad news was just bad news instead of “how-will-it-affect-our-EU-chances” news.)
And, of course, while Georgia’s pro-Europeans indulged in this unexpected (but much-awaited) joy, something bigger lurked in the shadows to steal the scene.
Here is Nini, and this week’s Dispatch, to tell you how we almost prospered overnight.
The Summer We Turned (Almost) Smart
If you want to know when something big will happen in Georgia, just buy a Tbilisi Open Air ticket, scrutinize the dates, and sit back to see what will interfere with your plans this time. Two years in a row, when Georgia’s biggest musical event made its post-pandemic comeback, something popped up to disrupt the rhythmic harmony of guitar and drum sounds on the first day of the three-day fest.
Last year, the EU decided it was the perfect timing to deliver its initial rejection of Georgia’s candidacy bid. How else could one meet such information if not with a big, hot Tbilisi rally? So Georgia’s young patriots were suddenly caught in a conundrum: attend the rally and fight for whatever little hope left for Georgia’s European integration, or go to the fest and pursue whatever little joy one has left in this miserable life.
Many falsely assumed they could have it all, and a big group of rallygoers headed to the festival place after the protest was over… only to get stuck for hours in the worst traffic and then spend the rest of their precious time wading through the deep mud (last summer was no less rainy). Yeah, believing that we can serve two masters has definitely been our most toxic habit for some time…
But the big event that was designed to distract from this year’s festivities seemed to only add to the harmony: “Putin’s Chef” thought it was the best day to cook his best dinner. And Georgians were happy to let him cook: social media was flooded with cheerful posts rooting for both sides to lose because Russia – the country’s biggest existential threat – seemed bent on eliminating itself through some bloody civil war.
And yet, how could the almost-coup deceive a country that has gone through an imitated war?
To those who don’t remember – in 2010, the pro-government (pro-previous-government) Imedi TV, decided one nice Saturday (because they always have to ruin our weekends, don’t they?) to remind the citizens of the real threat coming from the North, and put out a mock report claiming that Russians were advancing on Tbilisi. This, of course, only two years after the REAL war saw Russian tanks on Tbilisi’s further outskirts. As was easy to expect, many Tbilisites panicked. The intent of the misjudged show was quickly cleared up and things have calmed down. But the occasion did show Georgians that they were not so good at handling crises. Needless to say, we’ve done absolutely nothing with that information ever since (apart from cursing Imedi TV then OR now. That “two masters” thing again).
But even if your average Georgian may not have a good evacuation plan nailed to the wall, they most definitely have a plan or two on how to achieve overnight national prosperity should Russia suddenly get in a [recurrently] suicidal mood.
And yesterday that glorious day seemed to have very much arrived: the world was changing again. And us?! We were again failing to catch up! If only we didn’t have a government this bad to meet the winds of change! (or, perhaps, if only we didn’t have a poor national track record in making decisions every time those winds start to blow).
Political and social media discourse suddenly exploded into a contest of grand strategies, with calls ranging from the modest: summoning a national security meeting; to strict – closing the Northern border amid expected new waves of migration from Russia; to a clear overkill: restoring territorial integrity…
No worries, we never got the time to discuss the specifics of the latter plan. The civil war (or whatever that was) ended in Russia as abruptly as it began.
This time, the reason was on the side of the ruling party leaders who have not reacted to any of those calls and chose to follow the developments “calmly” (but were they calm, though? Some got the impression they were not really looking forward to an impending change in the Kremlin).
But Georgians aren’t going to let go of their optimism. Many believe something has moved in Moscow, and it’s only a matter of time till those changes materialize.
In a wider perspective, too, signs are emerging that people finally start having faith in a longer-term future instead of solely focusing on immediate survival. Yesterday, Georgia broke the record for the biggest attendance in a UEFA under-21 international championship match. Georgia co-hosts the cup this year, and so far, the national team of young footballers has delivered a stunning performance. That is all Georgian fans – hungry for success – need. The tickets to U-21 games are sold out.
Who knows, maybe the future is indeed bright? And, perhaps, if we didn’t get the coup we wanted, we can have a Cup?!
