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Georgian media venture underway
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Author: Interview by Liene Veide
A new venture between Georgia and other associations aims to help Georgian media outlets create sustainable businesses. It also aims to assist journalists in providing more in-depth coverage on issues affecting the country.
The 18-months long Media Strengthening Program for Georgia was launched on Jan. 20. The European Union is supporting a group of European and Georgian organizations in enacting a broad media development program in Georgia.
The program is funded by the EU’s Instrument for Stability, which aims to create stability in countries affected by crisis.
The program will be executed by four partners, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, IREX Europe, the Georgian Regional Media Association and the Civic Development Institute.
The strengthening program for Georgia wants to address the specific and current needs of Georgian media. Also, it will focus on local news and the latest developments in Georgia’s political and economic life.
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AIDS cases rising in Georgia
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Author: Story by Nikhil Khanna
The number of AIDS cases in Georgia has been steadily growing since 2004.
“Each [new] case [of AIDS] is followed by five new cases,” said Iza Bodokia, director of AIDS Patients Support Foundation, which has been working with AIDS patients for 13 years. They provide free treatment for AIDS patients.
In 2002, there were 95 newly reported cases of, compared with 385 in 2009. Significantly, the number of newly reported cases shot up from 63 in 2004 to 242 in 2005.
According to the AIDS Pathology Infection and Immunology Center, there are 2,243 registered HIV cases in Georgia. Male patients number 1,671 and female patients number 572.
Over half of HIV patients contracted the disease through sharing infected needles, 34 percent contracted the disease through unprotected sex, 2.5 percent contracted it through unprotected homosexual contact, 2.2 percent were children who received it after birth and 0.6 percent of the cases resulted from infected blood transfusion.
There are 791 confirmed cases in Tbilisi, 348 in Samegrelo, 304 in Achara, 287 in Imereti, 142 in Abkhazethi and 47 in Guria.
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New analytical paper should become ground for debates
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Author: Story by Nana Sajaia
Open Society Georgia Foundation presented to the public the “Constitutional Systems and Constitutional Processes in Georgia, Development Perspectives” analytical paper, prepared over a year by Konstantine Kandelaki, Davit Losaberidze, Iuri Tabutsadze, Zaza Rukhadze, Vakhtang Khmaladze and Zurab Jibghashvili.
The new publication discusses the essence of constitutionalism and principles of power distribution, describes world constitutional systems of state governance and constitutional process in Georgia from the 1990s until today. It also reviews the president’s current legislative rights and political parties’ roles in arranging the government. The paper discusses and proposes recommendations of how to improve the constitutional system in Georgia.
Moreover, the paper analyzes the constitutional process in post-Soviet Georgia and the current constitution in terms of power distribution principles.
Vakhtang Khmaladze, one of the report’s authors, says the publication serves two goals: educational and analytical:
“The constitutional process started in Georgia some 20 years ago, however, many are not aware of the notions of constitutionalism, separation of power, and self-government. Accordingly, not many people know what type of government would be appropriate for us. Through this report, we wanted to describe what those concepts mean to the public,” Khmaladze said.
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Mixed feelings on education reforms, university admission policies to change
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Author: Story by Nikhil Khanna
The Georgian government has introduced a new student curriculum for college entrance exams. The move is an attempt by the government to make the system of college admissions as efficient as possible. Both students and teachers alike are welcoming the reforms.
“There have been two major changes this year in the entrance exams structure,” said Maya Miminoshvili, head of the National Examination Center “Unlike the previous year, which held exams for three subjects, this year there will be exams for four subjects. And, from this year onwards the results of all four exams will be taken into consideration as far as government scholarships are concerned.”
Gigi Thevzadze, rector of Ilia Chavchavadze University, said the reforms are aimed to take education to a higher standard. He said that along with these reforms it is important for teachers to continue to advance their own knowledge in the subjects they teach.
Thevzadze said that it is the right time for teachers’ salaries to be revised.
Some opposition leaders have expressed doubts about the matter. They said that organizing and governing such widespread reforms in a short notice will not be easy and that it could create adjustment problems for both students and teachers.
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Development of technology and cheap distribution of information
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Author: Story by David Chaganava
Based on my thesis, with the development of technology and cheap distribution of information, citizens and members of the system in general have more access to knowledge: raw information from which they can draw their own conclusions.
Thus in the democracy which is established - or especially is becoming established- old methods of governance such as persuasion are out of date. If in the past governance involved persuasion (which I define as selection of certain points of view from possible variety, which is only manageable under circumstance where information is not distributed equally), today I argue that governance must be driven by the concept of identification (which I define as an inclusiveness for even small points of view throughout decision making, as open deliberation). I propose that this process is slower and more chaotic than persuasive methods, as there is more demand for deliberation between different, even controversial, points of view. But in the long run, it is more affective; participation is the basis for personal responsibility from the members of the system, which I perceive as a cornerstone of any strong democratic state.
The main condition under which a government of persuasion can exist is a misbalance of information, an accumulation of knowledge among small groups. Otherwise, how can one persuade the other if both have the same “amount” of information? Redistribution of knowledge is a process which started early on with the invention of alphabet and later the printing press. In their time, those technological inventions fostered the spreading of knowledge from small circles to the wider audiences and created conditions for decentralization, chaos, and the invention of first democracies and societies which demanded freedom. Today, we can argue that further development of technology is simply continuation of this process, as the more technology develops, the cheaper the access to knowledge becomes and the more difficult it becomes for systems to govern using old methods of persuasion. In these new conditions, systems must create free space where members will identify with each other. Under the rule of identification, participants must acknowledge the fact that with an equal knowledge of and access to information; all of them have a theoretical chance to be right or wrong.
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HRW’s Georgia Report 2010
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Author: Story by Louis-Antoine Le Moulec
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued its World Report 2010 on Jan. 20. The nongovernmental organization overviews major trends concerning Human Rights over the world.
As far as Georgia is concerned, the report focused on police violence, violations of law during the 2008 Russian-Georgian conflict in South Ossetia, the criminal justice system and media freedom.
Last spring, from April to June, opposition supporters were permitted by Saakashvili’s government to march through Tbilisi’s main streets. However, police used excessive force against demonstrators and journalists. The police department undertook different internal investigations and members of the government apologized for these acts, but no complete inquiry was conducted.
“What we are saying is that there’s a lack of comprehensive investigation, and none of them has been completed,” said Giorgi Gogia, Caucasus researcher for HRW. “In fact, there was no prosecuted, no punished, no banished, it means no conclusive investigation. Apologies from different officials are not enough, it should be the result of a justice process of investigation which leads to conclusions.”
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Annual oil awards
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Author: Story by Natalie Mchedlishvili
The Union of Oilproducts Enterprisers, Importers and Customers held its sixth annual awards ceremony last week, honoring companies operating in the oil sector. The event recognized companies that paid the biggest amount of taxes to the Georgian state budget.
The largest oil importer companies as well as business sector representatives, governmental officials, NGOs, diplomatic mission representatives and media all attended the massive ceremony, held at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel.
SOCAR Georgia Petroleum paid 162 million lari in taxes to the state budget of Georgia in 2009 and became the winner of the biggest taxpayer nomination. SOCAR Georgia Petroleum also won several other nominations including “The biggest investor in Georgia,” with 30,616,032 lari of investments reached, “The oil terminal with the best infrastructure,” “The network that has the best infrastructure” and “The best foreign oil company.”
The Vice Speaker of the Parliament Rusudan Kervalishvili was one of the honorary guests of the evening and she awarded several companies with the nomination, “The company that takes care of society.” Wissol Petroleum Georgia, SOCAR Georgia Petroleum, Lukoil Georgia and GT Group were all awarded with special diplomas for their continued efforts toward supporting social activities.
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Bank of Georgia awards students
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Author: Story by Natalie Mchedlishvili
The bank of Georgia announced the luckiest 20 students this month. Every three months, the bank selects 20 winners in three categories, including “The Most Active User,” for using the Visa in trade objects and service centers. Other categories include “The Most Generous User,” which goes to the student who spends the largest amount of money using the card, and “The most Foreseeing Student,” who saves the most money on his account.
Winners will get 100-lari awards over three months. In the next decade, another 12 students will be rewarded, and all in all, 80 students will be rewarded during the year. The bank already held the awards ceremonies twice last year. Forty card-holder students received cash prizes.
The Student Card was produced in March last year. The product is designed together with Tbilisi City Hall especially for students. Students living in Tbilisi have new privileges when taking the bus and metro. They have the opportunity to pay half price while moving around the city by bus or metro station. The owner of the card can do any banking operations using the student Visa card.
The Student Card is a regular one-year Visa Electron type of plastic card without contact application.
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