Civil.ge

1 week ago | civil.ge | Nini Gabritchidze

The Georgian interpretation of the American Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) took effect on May 31, amid widespread fears that the vague legislation would be used to further crack down on freedom of expression and association in the country. The law is an exact translation of the U.S. FARA document enacted in 1938. It mandates that those considered “agents of a foreign principal” register within ten days in a special FARA registry administered by the Anti-Corruption Bureau.

2 weeks ago | civil.ge | Nini Gabritchidze

“May the Saints of this day be with you,” a middle-aged man said into his phone as he sent his best wishes on May 17. About fifty meters from him, large crowds were marching toward Tbilisi’s Holy Trinity Cathedral to celebrate the “Family Purity Day.” The phrase the man was using is a greeting that Georgian Orthodox Christians exchange on religious holidays, and religious holidays have their saints. But who are the saints of May 17? Are they those who were martyred on this day?

1 month ago | civil.ge | Nini Gabritchidze

I first wrote about this large “lake” near my Tbilisi suburban apartment on May 7, 2023, in this Dispatch. A nearby construction had damaged the only road through the neighborhood, and created a tectonic depression that flooded with every rain, for days on end.

1 month ago | civil.ge | Nini Gabritchidze

“Where are the children?” – the question repeats in the famous poem by Besik Kharanauli. “They’re not here, there’s only wind,” the answer echoes. The poem, unusually rhythmic for the author who is considered a key figure in Georgian free verse, paints a chilling picture of a void and wasteland. Children who are nowhere to be found. The poem was written in Georgia’s dark 90s.

1 month ago | civil.ge | Nini Gabritchidze

Sometimes it feels like the only thing different about Georgian Dream supporters is that they just got tired of it all a lot sooner than the rest of us did. It is remarkable how much energy a lack of energy can have. Exhaustion, or the state of being drained of power, is still powerful enough to create discourses, build ideologies, poison with propaganda, transform worldviews, confront, destroy, hate, alienate, accuse, excuse, name and shame, or gaslight your former comrades into giving up.