Blogging the democratic revolution
TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, who helped lead the revolution that toppled the corruption-tainted regime of Eduard Shevardnadze, was killed early Thursday by an apparent natural gas leak, the ex-Soviet republic’s interior minister said. Get everything from Neeka here. For Georgia, they have definitely lost a good man. And since he was in the midst of negotiating deals with the separatist regions like South Ossetia, how will those play out now? UPDATE: Bill has more about why Georgia matter to America at his blog. Check that out. UPDATE: My senator, John McCain, has some words on…
I hadn’t mentioned it yet give the situation in Iraq, but Yushchenko and Saakashvili were nominated by Senators McCain and Clinton for the Nobel Peace Prize. I got the info via: Blog de Connard. I found it pretty interesting though, since McCain is my senator. I checked out his website and… sure enough. I thought that was pretty cool so I sent him a little e-gram telling him how pleased I was. Here’s the letter: Dear Nominating Committee: We are writing to nominate for the Nobel Peace Prize two men who have exhibited an extraordinary commitment to peace: Georgian President…
The Argus has a a nice, long post about the recent accusations by Russia that Georgia is not doing what it can to prevent terrorists from 1) entering Russia, and 2) stealing their vodka. In any case, I find myself agreeing with him.
It seems there is some rumblings over secrecy in Georgian privatization. And for good reason, because when this happens in third world countries, there tends to be large-scale embezzlement. Well, it happens at the UN too, but that’s another story… Some independent analysts disagree. The lack of public information–and public knowledge–about the sales underway can only complicate attempts to evaluate the government????????s performance, warned Dato Narmania, a privatization expert at The Association of Young Economists of Georgia. Yes. Transparency in government is very, very important, because it allows the people to not only make better decisions, but to give more…