A Police More Transparent in Georgia?

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crime, Georgia, police, reforms, tbilisi, vox pop

 

Police’s reform was one of the most important consequence of the Rose Revolution, in 2003. In every district of Tbilisi, as well as in regions, police stations have been completely renovated and are transparent.

By Mariam Jachvadze & Sopio Mgaloblishvili

Georgian police was long reputated as one of the most corrupted police in South Caucasus. After the reform in 2003, half of the police effectives were fired or putted into jail. Georgia now has 30 000 policemen after Rose Revolution.

The architecture is very symbolic : buildings are transparents, opened, with large windows. Completely made of glass, those buildings are supposed to prove that the democratical process in Georgia is open and transparent for everybody. Decreased percentage of corruption and crime are the main achievements Georgian government is proud of.

Compared with 2006, the confidence of local population in the police has increased to 70%. According to official statistics, over the last two years, the percentage of robbery in Georgia decreased with 43%, and murder with 17%.

BBC

Georgian Fashion Week 2011: Open To Europe

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blitz, cafebabel, fashion week, flash, glamour, hype, tbilisi, trendy

Between 13-16 October 2011, Tbilisi will be all blitz and glamour instead of rockets: designers, buyers, models and fashion hype gather in the Georgian capital for the second edition of fashion week.

By Guler Mehdizade and Ovsanna Bagumyan

‘The idea of a fashion week is certainly not new when you see the number of similar events organised all over the world,’ says Natali Samadalashvili, president of the Georgian fashion group and one of the initiators of the Georgian fashion week project (GFWP).

But frivolity might have been harder to implement in Georgia. ‘Organising fashion events, especially during an economic crisis, is difficult.’

The Anger Of Abkhazian Refugees

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abkhazia, council of europe, protests, refugees, tbilisi

By Mariam Jachvadze and Elvira Abdullayeva

Find A Husband For An Hour

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cleaning boy, housework, husband, macho, man, tbilisi, women

Beso Mchedlishvili © Aytan Alakbarova

It does not matter if you are married or not, the service ‘Husband For An Hour’ is for everybody. Behind this striky name, Beso Mchedlishvili, the Georgian owner of this company offers ordinary service of housework.

By Nino Gelashvili

“I chose the name to attract people. Name is the most important thing for a business. Now it’s a famous service in Tbilisi,” Mchedlishvili says. As he explains, there is no conflict between this title and so-called Georgian conservatism. Beso Mchedlishvili lived in Russia for 20 years. When he came back to Georgia he found out that mentality of society has changed : people became more tolerant. “When passers-by look at the sticker of my car, they are smiling,” he adds.

Job Description

Mchedlishvili himself repairs electricity, gas and water furniture, which costs 30 Gel (€13) per hour. “Sometimes, I do expensive jobs, but price is the same. This is the second reason why people are interested in my service,” said Mchedlishvili.

In Georgia, Disabled Shouldn’t Mean Stationed

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education, Handcapped people, Ilia State University, Public transport, Students, tbilisi, Tbilisi State University

Integration of disabled people in the rest of society is still a problem in Georgia. Mot of them do not have access to institutions and basing infrastructures, reinforcing their feeling of discrimination.

By Nana Tabatadze and Nino Gelashvili

Every day, Levan Areshidze, 22, uses ramps instead of the stairs. Because of his handicap, he had to quit academic education after finishing school. His mother says the basic reason why Levan did not study was the lack of adapted infrastructure in Tbilisi.

No official data

Levan is not the only person having difficulty to move herself in Georgia. However, officials and institutions have no idea about the number of disabled persons living in the country. A lack of statistics that shows that the problem of handicap and discrimination is far from being a priority of the Georgian institutions.

The NGOs working on this issue are managing round-tables and social activities with disabled persons, rather than acting against the lack of infrastructural projects.

Infratructure in the city

The problem number one for people with physical disabilities is public transport of the city, which is absolutely not adapted for people with wheelchair.

Although there are a number of over-ground bridges with ramps that were built over the last few years in the city, they remain useless: since they are too steep, disabled persons are unable to move on them independently.

Mother of a handicaped boy speaks about transport which is unavailable for disabled people.

“Our job is to interview liars all day long…”

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AFP, BBC, eurocaucasus, Foreign correspondent, Freedom of Speech, Le Figaro, Matthew Collin, Regis Gente, RFI, South Caucasus, tbilisi, The Guardian

Crossed interview with foreign correspondents in Tbilisi, Matthew Collin and Régis Genté, about South Caucasus, freedom of speech and their daily work.

Regis Gente

Matthew Collin, 47, is working in South Caucasus as a correspondent for Agence France-Presse (AFP). Living in Georgia for about 5 years, he used to work for BBC, Al Jazeera, The Guardian and the other mass media organizations.

Regis Genté, 43, lives in Tbilisi where he works since nearly 10 years as a freelance journalist, “without any tie”, as he likes to describe. His features and news about Caucasus and Central Asia came on air on Radio France Internationale and published in Le Figaro as in other French media.

-What are the main difficulties to be a foreign correspondent?

M.Collin and R.Gente © Arshaluis Mghdesyan

M.C.– Maybe working in the region which is not widely known in the rest of the world. Sometimes, it is also difficult to sell stories from here to European media. When it comes to international news, Caucasus is not the number one region in the world. At least less than other places, where events like war, riots or natural calamity happened.

R.G.-For me the most difficult is getting a very accurate background on the story I cover. For example, it is really interesting to understand who is lying, who is not lying. Our job is to interview liars all day long and to try to find the truth that lies behind. Of course, everybody is lying, also in Europe and Asia. But maybe it is more difficult to discover here, because we are less familiar with the mentalities or the context.The other difficulty is to replace any story I cover in South Caucasus into a wider global context. Sometimes I know I have an interesting story but editors in Europe don’t want it. Because they think it is too local and will not be interesting for our people. So I have to convince them, to replace it into a global context.

Tbilisi, second shots

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girl, pictures, religion, taxi, tbilisi

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©Nicolas Froehner

Tbilisi, first shots

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nice people, pictures, street style, streets, summer, tbilisi

This gallery contains 16 photos.

©Prune Antoine