Caucasus first impressions
7 Nov 2019
Tbilisi, early january, 2019
Smells like the Soviet Union
even though they dont want to admit it:
the street dogs
I live in the periphery: grey boxes
still incompleted
On the streets
an oniric like language
does not disturb the peace.
In short:
I was selected to take part in a volunteering exchange program promoted by the EU in Tbilisi, Georgia, at the International Centre for Peace and Integration.
While in Great Britain the mighty parliament is still trying to figure out its own brexit-salad; in Italy we assist to the incipient of a disorganized and very italic “sovranism”; in Hungary, and Poland illed calls from a nostalgic and dark past are being resurrected.
The Georgian Republic represents the other side of the mirror: the last European bastion before entering the Ottoman or/and Persian Asia, saddled to the belly of a Russian empire ready to re asset its power projection in any given time.
Despite this geoexistential position The Republic of Georgia does not seem to give up so easily: it keeps working with temperance to be part, in a future, of the European condominium.
The very first impression one can get from this country is that the soviet spectre is still and unavoidably impregnated in the atmosphere: it is a developing country where poverty is widely present, many buildings in the center of Tbilisi are close to falling apart. On the other hand, the buildings on the outskirt of the city are half built or still under construction - I currently live in one of the latter - , recycling and environmental attitudes are non existent; on the streets old people, regardless of the season, either panhandle or are working long shifts into the deeps of night trying to sell any kind of merchandise of little to no value. It is also a country in which the exodus of its population is the big story never mention in tourist guides.
We discover that modern Georgia has kept its strong spirit from the past: it has a millenarian history, well develop eno-gastronomical traditions, a tolerant, kind and warmed heart population, willing to be helpful and make you feel fairly treated.
Is a country that excels beyond winemaking: it's the homeland of dynamic and sophisticated poets: Rustaveli, Galaktion, Alkhazishvili, Machavariani, VazhaPshavela - just to name a few: their poems are well known by heart by many youngsters and adults alike.
It is a predominant agrarian country graced by rich soils (Georgia literally means the land of the farmer); it is also an adrenalinic country to drive in.
Georgia, to a first fast analysis, is a country devoted to a practical approach on solving things even at the cost of appearing too rustical; the government has tried to simplify the bureaucracy and ease the entrepreneurial spirit of locals and immigrants, violence is virtually non existent, cash is predominant in the economy yet electronic payment is widespread: scattered around the city once can find payboxes, ATM like machines, in which is possible to do a plethora of transactions: top up the phone, pay the parking, top up the public transportation card, university tax payment, pay the utilities, call a cab, tourist info, take part in public auctions, even do online casino and sports betting.
Yet remains a country that is mutating its relationship with the past and reshaping its identity to its post-soviet pro european present. It is easy to note how the new generations are taking active part in this process of transformation: they desire to abandon the sovietic aurea, which despite its influence, has little to do with the modern times: its a country proudly nationalistic but not dangerously sovranistic.
Globalization and Europe are perceived as lunching paths in which to promote the georgian vision of the world: which from a Tbilisian point of view has to do with a very sophisticated musical scene.
The key verb to this new trajectory relays on sharing and tolerance: to enjoy life in its different forms and proposals: in this country pleasure of life are many - and not very different from others we can find anywhere else in other parts of the World but talked, written, gesticulated in georgian: an oniric language: full of inner poetry.
The rest of Europe seen from Tbilisi appears like an entity commited to curb any possibility of war, to seek into cultural diversity points of strenghts that will allow us to survive the sterility of a globalization only interested in homogenize cultural consumption thus deleting variety and beauty.
The very second impressions of Tbilisi, after long walks in the eclectic centre is that a nice method of battling populistic deviations it is to immerse yourself into the reality without trying to describe it too much.
Reality cannot be beaten but we can make it more likeable if it is wrapped in the cultural richness we received from better times: to transform without disturbing the harmony we have inherit from the past.