frogblog » Georgia http://blog.greens.org.nz hopping along the corridors of power Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:34:36 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 The Georgia-Brazil power axis http://blog.greens.org.nz/2008/08/14/the-georgia-brazil-power-axis/ http://blog.greens.org.nz/2008/08/14/the-georgia-brazil-power-axis/#comments Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:43:16 +0000 frog http://blog.greens.org.nz/2008/08/14/the-georgia-brazil-power-axis/

An angry Russian beach volleyball player has refused to acknowledge losing to Georgia, claiming her rivals were really Brazilians in disguise.

(How do you disguise a Brazilian volleyball player as a Georgian volleyball player?)

Maybe Georgia should have spent more time recruiting Brazilian soldiers rather than volleyball players? Or better still spent more time playing volleyball and less time warring with a large superpower.

]]> http://blog.greens.org.nz/2008/08/14/the-georgia-brazil-power-axis/feed/ 5 95km http://blog.greens.org.nz/2008/08/12/95km/ http://blog.greens.org.nz/2008/08/12/95km/#comments Tue, 12 Aug 2008 04:55:19 +0000 frog http://blog.greens.org.nz/2008/08/12/95km/ I obviously haven’t been paying close enough attention.  I just found out the distance from Ergneti in South Ossetia to the Georgian capital Tbilisi is about 95 kms.  That’s like a war between Hamilton and Auckland with Pukekohe trying to breakaway from the northern Bombayians to join the Waikato. (South Ossetia has a slightly smaller population than Hamilton.) Now I know any proud Hamiltonian will tell you about the troublesome differences in culture and language that can develop over 100 kilometres, but tanks and warfare?

]]> http://blog.greens.org.nz/2008/08/12/95km/feed/ 17 South Ossetia http://blog.greens.org.nz/2008/08/11/south-ossetia/ http://blog.greens.org.nz/2008/08/11/south-ossetia/#comments Sun, 10 Aug 2008 20:48:07 +0000 frog http://blog.greens.org.nz/2008/08/11/south-ossetia/ You have to wonder who Georgia’s Mikheil Saakashvili had in his ear to think that attacking the separatists in South Ossetia was going to work.  Maybe he mistakenly thought the support he got from the US in recent years was cavalry rather than show ponies?  Maybe he though that nearly belonging to NATO was close enough?  If so it won’t be the first time that NATO has played a negative role in promoting international conflict. Maybe, as The Hive has suggested, this is less about nationalism than it is about gas and oil? (Nice work from The Hive by the way covering this conflict.  No Right Turn has a good analysis too.)

Georgia has had the bulk of the good will in the international media to date – probably because people in the West remember fondly Georgia’s Rose Revolution in 2003.  But that does not fairly reflect the shared desire by both sides to warmonger.

On the other side Russia has again shown that the five permanent members of the Security Council do not have the necessary balance and lack of bias to be exercising the role that they do.  Russia’s involvement in this conflict means that we cannot expect the United Nations to respond in the way that will save the most lives and lead to long term peace.  This is a shame because compromises like that give bodies with less democratic ideals, such as NATO, added legitimacy.  Which possibly brings us back to where we started?

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