Small Improvements

Little has changed in our situation since I last posted. There is still a state of emergency, the Peace Corps Volunteers are still of standfast, the opposition and authorities are negotiating back and forth. However, there are signs of improvement. It was announced that the emergency rules will be lifted at 7 p.m. today. Things are quiet here in Gori, but no doubt things will be interesting once the campaign gets into full swing.

Enough time has passed now that the Western media has begun to write analysis pieces on the recent events. While some of them are fairly accurate, its frustrating to see how much of the coverage lacks context and understanding of the country. It seems that some journalists, having last looked at Georgia in 2003, are now struggling to come up with a tidy new paradigm to explain what's been happening. If you're looking for coverage, the New York Times has been particularly detailed and, as far as I can tell, is the only American newspaper to be filing its own reports from Tbilisi.

Some links:
(of course, my previous disclaimers still apply)

NY Times - Challenger Named in Georgian Election
NY Times - Georgia to Lift Emergency, IMF Says Turmoil Damaging
NY Times - Georgia's Future Looks Like More of the Past
NY Times - Amid Turmoil, All Eyes Turn to Georgia's Patriarch . . .
BBC - Georgian tycoon "to contest poll"
BBC - Saakashvili defuses Georgia's crisis

That's all for now. I will write an entry very soon to discuss what I've been doing this whole time...