Monday, August 11, 2008

Georgia on My Mind

I once went to see the Georgian Dance Ensemble in Sydney and thought how wonderful and graceful the women were with their gliding dances and the men with their Cossack athleticism, yep, that's all I know about Georgia former USSR territory, not the one that Ray Charles sings about so swooningly. Watch it . . . don't skim



In an attempt to find out exactly what's going on, the Google Queen went into motion. I'm very cognisant of not taking what the press say as gospel. As far as I can fathom the pro-Russian separatist authorities in South Ossetia want independence from Georgia, which declared it's independence from the USSR in the early 90's. Many of the residents of South Ossetia were cut off from the north by the new border . . .east Berlin style . . .Georgia also doesn't care for them much because most have Russian passports and they've done a deal with Azerbaijan to have oil piped to them rather than go through the 'mother state' of Georgia . . .naive analysis it must be said and I'm happy to be contradicted . . . so, Georgia invades Ossetia to bring it into line, the Russians get pissed because they don't like Georgia (who are also keen on joining NATO and moving into the west) so the Russians activate the Migs and bomb the shit out of Georgia . . .have I got it right? Look at what local bloggers are saying

What is wrong with the world? Is this another conflict about oil? Why is George Bush even commenting on this? Excuse the vernacular but the sooner that man shuts the fuck up the better. I'm that angry about his ignorance. I've heard things on the news about a new cold war. For God's sake why do we do this to each other. Makes no sense. I once watched a doco on why humans fight. I couldn't find it, hey it's late and the Google Queen is thinking of sinking into a comfortable pillow. But this little devastating outburst in a remote Russian province, a country desperate to be accepted by the west looks to me very much like a grab for oil and another smaller country that wants it's liberty. Whatever happened to negotiation. Yet another excuse to explore alternative energy. What the hell would we fight about if oil was no longer an important commodity?

And yet again Ossetia and Abkhasia are not in the American spellcheck . . . it's a mad world and I am naive to think that if women ruled the world things might be better. We'd have a slap fight and eat chocolate and then get down to business and I'm damn sure it wouldn't involve launching rockets (except maybe with sun dried tomatoes and parmisan with a nice balsamic dressing)




I can't tell you how glad I am to live in the arsehole of the world

16 comments:

Ces Adorio said...

If it isn't because of oil they are fighting about, it is religion(Mindanao; India and Pakistan; Taliban), autonomy (Tibet; Taiwan), geography (Falklands), delusions of grandeur (Hitler; Aminajad and in Africa). Humans have been waging war since biblical times (if one believes in the Bible) or ever since they fashioned an arrow out of stone. It is in our blood to fight, we must fight to live, even if it means we all die. What puzzles me is the term "ethnic cleansing", what in the world does that mean? Is one's ethnicity less favorable than another? They just want to kill each other, that's all. Might be better than suing one another?

Thriftcriminal said...

Baino most of my family (on my mother's side) are women and you would not believe the fighting and factions that took place in that family. I believe it has nothing to do with gender and everything to do with the type of person that wants power. It's just that the traditional power mongers to date have been predominantly male. In fact 2 words: Margaret Thatcher.

In the mean time, people might actually be quietly making progress on the LENR front (that's cold fusion to you and I, but the negative press associated with that term means that Low Energy Nuclear Reaction is preferred for research purposes). Could be bollox, but here's hoping.

Anonymous said...

You people are going to love the post peak-oil world ...

Paddy in BA (Quickroute) said...

I think you have it pretty accurate and in the mean time the US is supporting Georgia with finances yet playing the delicate political game of not pissing off the Russians too much. I understand Russia has a significant military presence supporting the US presence in Iraq and the US don't want jeopardize that. All fun n' games for Dubya!

Anonymous said...

If girls ruled the world, you could sort it out with a pillow fight...but you would press the Kill the World button once a month !!!!

As for George Bush.. if i was Russia, I would say .. Who the fuck are you ???, go back to your country amnd look after those problems, we'll sort ours .. I don't get why he thinks he has the right to comment, threaten, intervern in ALL other countries ???

Megan said...

The Caucasus is associated with the Balkans in my mind because I think of both areas as always on the boil. You've got so many groups in such a small (to American eyes) space and they all seem to be incapable of a final reconciliation....

Gledwood said...

they're supposedly doing some sort of ceasefire now...

Gledwood said...

hey: have you ever seen Georgian writing?

(not Cyrillic: something far more exotic than that)

after Burmese I'd say it's probably the funkiest writing in the world...

Anonymous said...

It's all very sad. It looks to me like oil, too .. but what do I know?

Love the dancing. Cossack dance is very exciting, and I'm always stunned at how strong they must be to move like that. Impressive.

Anonymous said...

*Sigh*

It's a freaking mess, but I'm not suprised. It is a well proven theory that humans like to fight. We bicker and start wars over the silliest things.

The US along with a few other super powers have had secret operatives in Georgia meddling in their business. Georgia has been rife with strife since prehistoric times.

The next item to fight over will be "Water". We take it for granted, as long as it keeps flowing out of the tap. Won't you feel like fighting when no water flows? :)

Baino said...

Ces you're right of course. I wish I could find that documentary which discussed the 'need' for war. I'll keep looking. Ethnic Cleansing ha! It's like collateral damage . . .a sanitised way of looking at awful events and a horrible poke at ethnicity.

Thrifty, I dont really believe women would handle it better. Women in politics have to behave like men in order to maintain their political status. Cold fusion eh! Well they'd better come up with something . .

Notso: Well I won't be around for it but you might!

Quickie: I think that disturbs me the most. We (the US and her allies) support a nation one day only to posture and take the high moral ground the next. Trust me, nobody wants to piss off a Russian.

OK Moon, point taken, maybe we should insist on post menopausal leaders. I think Mr Putin may have said just that! "back in yer box chocolate!"

Megan, it's true. Been a hotspot for a while. We tend not to hear about insurgency in the former USSR. Nobody cares too much about these little countries until there's an explosion of sorts. I think the level of force used by the Russians was underestimated by the Georgians. Reminded me of the Jewish reaction to Lebanon a couple of years ago.

Gleds I'm sure they'll work it out. It's a vital link to the middle east apparently. The pipeline also feeds into Russia. Nope, not familiar with the writing, I'll Google it!

Jay, I don't know a lot about it really it just struck me as an easy alternative to actually uniting a small country that is entitled to it's independence (which it's had by default since 1992 anyway). Georgia just giving a quick backhander and the Russians going over the top in retaliation.

JD it seems we're happy to fight over anything these days and it causes me great disappointment I must say.

laughingwolf said...

ces nailed it, methinks :(

Kath Lockett said...

Great post, Baino and some really great comments here too. The myriad of reasons for war - great and small; nations and individuals will always sadden and puzzle me.

Oil, religion, jealousy, greed and, soon possibly, water. It all makes my head and heart hurt and I have no way of answering Sapphire's question, "Why are there so many wars?" in any meaningful way, because there is none.

Baino said...

Kath that's the saddest thing of all when a child asks questions like that . . I grew up still wondering. I hate that it is the human condition . . .I really don't like people much.

Anonymous said...

Baino,

If it was a choice between Bush and Putin, I'm afraid Dubya would win every time. Putin is a thug - read Garry Kasparov's stuff.

Don't be taken in by all the "peak oil" stuff from "the end of the world is nigh" brigade. Every last drop of oil was supposed to have been used up by the year 2000. The US has not touched its Atlantic and Pacific oilfields.

Baino said...

Ian interesting you should say that. My son did a project at Uni last year about renewables and frankly the evidence points to much oil everywhere . .We barely touch our own reserves, there's bucket loads in the Timor sea, Alaska, Arctic Circle . . .It has become a commodity for political bargaining but does not need to be so . .the US gets most of it's oil from Venezuela . .apparently we get more oil from the middle east than America!