In America, “I’ll take my lane in the middle” is a figure of speech. In Georgia, it’s a way of life.
That is all.
Cross Town Traffic
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Category Archives: Life
Oh My.
As the BBC puts it
The new leader of the party previously headed by Austrian far-right politician Joerg Haider has admitted the two men had a “special relationship”.
Stefan Petzner told Austrian radio that Mr Haider, whom he met five years ago, was “the man of my life”. …
Mr Petzner has described feeling a magnetic attraction to Mr Haider.
“We had a special relationship that went far beyond friendship,” Mr Petzner said in an emotional interview on Austrian national radio.
“Joerg and I were connected by something truly special. He was the man of my life,” he added.
More in German, from the Swiss side of the border.
Petzner is 27 and had been named head of the party and its parliamentary group after the death of Haider, who was 53. After the broadcast, he remains head of the party, but Josef Bucher, 43, now leads the parliamentary faction.
A Moment of Blatant Self-Regard
Five years, one month and one day ago, A Fistful of Euros went live with its first posts.
Thanks to David, for getting the ball rolling and keeping it rolling; thanks to Tobias for keeping the back end running and the front end looking good; thanks to all of the writers; thanks to the commenters, for keeping us on our toes; thanks to the advertisers for keeping this little venture self-financing; thanks to the politicians and other public types for giving us such rich material to work with; and thanks to the readers, hope that you keep coming back for more.
It’s All About Me
One of the consequences of Montenegro’s split from Serbia was the country’s need for its own top level domain, following its departure from .yu and .cs. In September 2007, ICANN settled for .me, potentially setting up another odd, little-country bonanza like .tv and .to.
Miquel Hudin Balsa relates his experience playing around to get a tasty .me name. The process looks like it’s set up as much to monetize the connection to the English-speaking world as to actually get people in Montenegro registered. As for the assignment itself, 21 of a possible 26 dot-m-whatever combinations were already taken; Macau, Malta and Mongolia had already claimed some of the likelier candidates.
There’s a second-level academic domain like the UK has. I sure hope that some wag will name servers on it after Warner Brothers cartoon characters.
For the misanthropes out there, bad news. (Is there any other kind for misanthropes?) The registrar says that the domain bite.me “is a premium domain and has not yet been scheduled for release.”
The Fury of Gustav
It’s been a while since I mentioned it here, but I grew up in the southern part of Louisiana. Not terribly near the coast, but still way down south. Most folks have left the coastal areas now, and that’s a good thing. The next 12 to 24 hours are going to be very rough, as hurricane Gustav makes landfall somewhere near Houma, Louisiana. It’s not all that far from where Katrina made landfall three years ago this week. Though for levees, settlements, floods and homeowners, a small change can mean a decisive difference.
Hurricane Gustav at 1am Eastern Time on Sept 1, 2008.
For our readers who don’t have an immediate mental geography of the southern United States, the diameter of the red area (this a radar image, so the red indicates very bad weather conditions indeed) is about 200km. The top sustained wind speeds will be over 190 kph (about the speed that Mercedes was going when it made your car shake as it whooshed past on the autobahn), with gusts up toward 240 kph (good cruising speed for a TGV). Katrina is fresh enough in people’s minds that compliance with the evacuation call was very good, but this could still be a devastating storm.
Back in Tbilisi
We’re back after a happily uneventful, if hot and a bit long, drive from Yerevan. Went past one of the air bases that was bombed, and saw what looked like a burned field, but otherwise no damage visible from the public road.
The city itself is more difficult to judge, and I’ve been too preoccupied with personal things to manage to do anything like a general taking stock. Quick impressions: lots of visible police, some with submachineguns prominently held; traffic seemed lighter, but then again it’s mid-August; jets flying by at odd hours in the afternoon. Our corner grocery didn’t have any Parmalat milk; on the other hand, it did have pizza kits. Even under regular circumstances, consistency is not the strong point of the Georgian market. (Winter promises to be more interesting than I really wanted.) Our local swingin hotspot is swingin again, after a couple of very quiet days last week.
Down the street, work seems to be getting close to finished on a small office building. There was a night watchman, and a lot of leftover material was piled at the front so as to block the entrances that are still open. Is this a regular precaution, or are the builders worried about refugee squatters? There are said to be 60,000 refugees in and around the city, and lurid rumors about their attempts to occupy houses and other buildings. Lurid rumors are, in fact, something of a general commodity. Makes me more than usually skeptical.
The default screen on several ATMs that I saw was an appeal for donations to help people from the zones of conflict. A local mobile company was a major vector of organization for the patriotic rallies of this last week. Political mobilization in the 21st century.
We’re glad to be here.
Update: Forgot to mention: There’s a pretty widespread assumption among the internationals that a fair number of phone lines are, shall we say, shared. The three candidates for listening in can be transparently called the Hosts, the Neighbors and the Friends.
Russian Invasion of Georgia
Not all of the reports are consistent, but they are increasingly consistent: Russian forces have reportedly taken the central Georgian city of Gori, essentially splitting the country in two and occupying the main east-west highway. Russian forces are reported to be in Zugdidi, a larger Georgian town near to Abkhazia. Russian forces have reportedly taken a Georgian military base 20km outside the country’s main port, Poti.
Three days ago I could barely imagine that the Russians would attempt to capture Tbilisi. Now? O Georgia.
Questions for Radio Yerevan
Q: Hello Radio Yerevan, was it a good idea to leave Tbilisi on Sunday?
A: In principle, yes. Though it would be better if one of the vehicles in the caravan does not break down after the lunch break in northern Armenia.
Q: Dzien dobry Radio Yerevan, is it a good idea to have local talent repair a broken vehicle?
A: In principle, yes. Though this will mean many people looking over many shoulders, a lack of technical communication, and there are dialectic limits to what can be done on the scene.
Q: Jo napot Radio Yerevan, if the vehicle cannot be repaired on the spot, is it acceptable to have it towed to the mechanic’s garage?
A: In principle, yes, especially if all of the women and children have gone onward in another vehicle. Though it would be better if the tow rope would not break twice on the narrow mountain road. Also, overtaking is generally not recommended at this stage of development.
Q: Dober dan Radio Yerevan, is it permissible to leave the vehicle at the mechanic’s unmarked garage, at an unfindable location in a city you are unfamiliar with?
A: In principle, no. But there are not many other options at this point, are there?
Q: Laba diena Radio Yerevan, is it good doctrine to take a taxi to Yerevan?
A: In principle, no. The people’s transportation should suffice. However, the taxi provided by the people’s representative may be the least aggravating part of the whole journey.
Q: Bari or, Radio Yerevan. What are all these shops doing open after midnight? Is this the new party line?
In principle, no. The party line is to be found in the cafes and the dance clubs. Welcome to Yerevan!
And We’re Out of There
I’m writing this in advance, so things may change during the night, but my better half’s foundation made evacuation mandatory Saturday afternoon, so off we go. We’re on our way to Yerevan to see if things subside reasonably quickly. I hope so, as I really like Tbilisi and was enjoying settling in there. One way or another, we’ll be going back to a very different environment.
No More Days in the Life of Aleksander Isayevich
Aleksander Solzhenitsyn has died at age 89. Not much to add to all the obituaries, just my two kopecks’ worth that A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich was the most important book published between 1950 and 1975. Just when you think Solzhenitsyn is finished with his tour de force, the last sentence falls like a hammer blow.
Most of us are fortunate enough to live in countries that do not need their writers to become prophets and catalysts of change. He was not, and what he wrote helped to crack open the Soviet system. Russians will always be able to draw on his courageous example.