There are consequences from a lack of unity and stability in a government, where the emerging chaos is employed for personal gain permitted by the absence of common interest and communal spirit. We in the UK have our own recent proof of this, and how thankful we should be for our eventual awareness, for our eagerness to repair, and for the smooth and rapid transfer of power inherent in our system. Hopefully with the change of government and the beginnings of a renewed focus on social justice, the chaos is now subsiding.
But considerable damage is already done, the UK’s divisions are large and in part ingrained and, through a mix of lingering apathy and outdated policy, much detriment continues to be evident in our ambition, our interests, and our concern for our environment. Where budgetary steps are now being made and are welcome, a leap in our self-motivation is now required. As always, we seek to rely on the hope that the next generation, the inheritors of our successes and failings, will find the ambition and the purpose to recover from what has been lost, be it our social goodwill or the mess of our environments, but rarely are we confident.
But considerable damage is already done, the UK’s divisions are large and in part ingrained and, through a mix of lingering apathy and outdated policy, much detriment continues to be evident in our ambition, our interests, and our concern for our environment. Where budgetary steps are now being made and are welcome, a leap in our self-motivation is now required. As always, we seek to rely on the hope that the next generation, the inheritors of our successes and failings, will find the ambition and the purpose to recover from what has been lost, be it our social goodwill or the mess of our environments, but rarely are we confident.
Spare a thought then for Georgia where, while the chaos is recognised by the many, the majority may or may not be in favour of still being governed by those whose interests are by no means entirely that of the country. (The question is at large while there remains doubt over the results of recent elections, but the outcome is likely to remain unchanged in the medium term.)
In Georgia the chaos is by no means new and makes ours seem plain sailing by comparison - the withdrawal of the Soviets in 1991, the vacuum filled with self-interests, the fragmentation of cultural identity, the hope of the 2003 Rose Revolution and the fluctuating consequences since, renewed incursions by a bombastic Russia - and from this is spawned an uncertain populace, economy and future, made manifest by the historic town of Old Tbilisi, once coherent and wealthy but slowly decaying, to the fascination of the tourists and the sorrow of the people.
In Georgia the chaos is by no means new and makes ours seem plain sailing by comparison - the withdrawal of the Soviets in 1991, the vacuum filled with self-interests, the fragmentation of cultural identity, the hope of the 2003 Rose Revolution and the fluctuating consequences since, renewed incursions by a bombastic Russia - and from this is spawned an uncertain populace, economy and future, made manifest by the historic town of Old Tbilisi, once coherent and wealthy but slowly decaying, to the fascination of the tourists and the sorrow of the people.
But if you search amongst the rubble of Old Tbilisi, past the propping steels, the drooping balconies and the broken panes, you find an entrepreneurial spirit, a reoccupation of the long abandoned, an infrastructure that comprises a laced web of power cables and ports, re-found chandeliers, recovered furnishings re-covered, richly framed cracked mirrors and carefully tended potted plants, a coffee machine, home-made delicacies and chalk boards that change with the availability of fresh produce. As often as not there is design being developed in one corner, craft for sale, WiFi for free, 1970’s soft rock from 1950’s radios in shanty street bars, students and young on-line budding entrepreneurs spaced quietly about roughly repainted rooms, intellectual conversations between huddled groups of youths gilded with piercings and tattoos, customers indistinguishable from the owner/servers.i
Despite the chaos of its context, the ruins of Old Tbilisi are home to a unity of entrepreneurial youth with a bookish casual faith in the ability of a quiet, respectful intellect to occupy and make a living from that which they have been left by the extraction of corruption. The infrastructure is shared ambition, an unquestioning social spirit, a hope in the future that would otherwise be lost. Let us hope that they succeed and, with the change of government in the UK and its revived focus on societal growth, that their fellows here are similarly motivated.
|
|
|
|
|
|
