SOCIETY
Tir es and Tic kets: R ec laiming Tires Tick Rec eclaiming the Side walks in Tbilisi Sidew
By Tamar Svanidze Citizens of the Georgian capital often complain that Tbilisi has become a city for cars, not for people, where sidewalks are used as parking spots and even, on occasion, as additional traffic lanes. Yet at the beginning of last week some young Georgians found a way to reclaim the city sidewalks. They laid out four tires across the pavement, filled them with earth and flowers and left a letter to neighboring shops asking them to take care of the flowers and water them. Later, the Guerrilla Gardening Movement in Tbilisi joined the effort to reclaim the sidewalks with the ‘flower tires,’ freeing said sidewalks for pedestrians. For their activities, members of the Movement were fined 150 Gel by police for ‘littering’ the city center with old tires. “Parking is not allowed in this area, and yet they [cars] are still parked here. We tried to impose a nice partisan order,” Guerrilla Gardening Movement wrote on their Facebook page. “We are going to appeal the fine imposed on us. It was not littering. We just placed tires; we did not litter the street. Chavchavadze Ave was selected as a venue because there was no parking allowed but cars are still standing [in the way of pedestrians]. As soon as we arrived and began our activity, five police crews stopped in front of us. We got the impression that this was an attempt at intimidation. Therefore, we intend to appeal,” Guerrilla Gardening Movement representative Nata Peradze told Liberali magazine. “Our first ‘Guerrilla action’ was on Chavchavadze Avenue and people meet
with this very positively. They also understand that sidewalks belong to pedestrians, not cars. For this uncontrolled parking Tbilisi is one of the worst cities for walkers and we should urge ‘free-for road culture’ where drivers follow the rules,” said Mariam Kanchaveli, member of the Guerrilla Gardening Movement. The Guerrilla Gardening Movement is not alone in fighting against violations of the rights of pedestrian free movement. There are even two Facebook campaigns, named “Introducing Shameless Drivers” and “Parking Gurus” (see Issue #741, 13.11.2014 of Georgia Today), which collect photos about serious violations of parking and traffic laws in order to name and shame bad parkers in online posts. Uncontrolled parking creates problems not only for pedestrians but also for disabled persons moving in wheelchairs as well as for people carrying children in strollers. Sometimes you need Spiderman’s power to squeeze through the narrow space left between cars parked on sidewalks. A private company named C.T. Park is the only business which aims to control parking areas on the Tbilisi roads, and has been doing so for several years now. The municipal government gave the company the right to implement Article 37 of the Georgian Law on Road Traffic and issue fines to offenders. “According to Article 37 of the Georgian Law on Road Traffic, parking a car on a sidewalk is prohibited except for cases where an appropriate sign is installed on the sidewalk and the relevant marking is present. It is debatable
whether the law should allow for parking on a sidewalk even as an exception but it is clear that a large majority of drivers whose cars are parked on Tbilisi’s sidewalks are violating the law even in its current wording,” Erekle Urushadze, researcher of Transparency International Georgia (TI) and a volunteer activist of the Guerrilla Gardening Movement, wrote in a blog for TI. The C.T. Park website announced that a car parked close to a sidewalk, on a road with a “No Parking” sign, is prohibited from doing so and is liable to have a fine imposed as well as having the vehicle removed to a pound. Civil activities just impulse changes, however to approve these changes requires the active involvement of the local government and the good will of the legislative body of the country. At the beginning of the year Tbilisi Mayor Davit Narmania discussed the achievements of 2014 and plans for 2015 with local businessmen and government officials, announcing that to fix the illegal parking problem on narrow sidewalks, Tbilisi City Hall will construct a multi-story car park in order to help ease traffic woes, as well as the issue of parking on the sidewalks. “There are many places with narrow footpaths where the parking of cars has created additional discomfort for pedestrians. I want to implement the relevant services to timely resolve this issue,” the Tbilisi Mayor noted in January 2015. Narmania highlighted that new parking system would be a competitor to City Park; the sole company to currently provide parking and similar services in Tbilisi. The Tbilisi Mayor pointed a finger at the previous government which had given permission for authorized people to park on more than 2,000 of Tbilisi’s sidewalks. Within seven months of this accusation, Tbilisi City Hall press office said that City Hall had canceled 300 parking places in central Tbilisi and at the same time the creation of new parking facilities was in progress. Further plans on how to create an effective mechanism to prevent the current chaos on Tbilisi roads and sidewalks is expected to be presented soon.
CULTURE
Films a bout Tbilisi, P ar about Par artt 1 By Tsiko Inauri/Focus magazine In this two-part series we will offer you five films that best depict old and new Tbilisi: the streets, human relationships, problems of its citizens, and their ideas. The first film recommendation we have for you was directed by Armenian Sergo Parajanov who lived and worked in Georgia, and which tells the story of ethnic Armenian poet living in Georgia, Sayat Nova. The Color of Pomegranates / 1968 Director: Sergei Parajanov Starring: Sopiko Chiaureli, Melkon Alekyan, Vilen Galstyan, Giorgi Gegechkori, Spartak Bagashvili, Medea Japaridze Genre: Drama, Biograpy, Music The film reveals the life of ethnic Armenian poet, singer and troubadour, Sayat Nova, who lived and worked in Georgia. It tells the story of the poet’s childhood, first love, old age and death. These events are depicted in the context of images from Parajanov’s imagination and Sayat Nova’s poems. Sopiko Chiaureli plays six roles, both female and male, and Parajanov takes part in almost every aspect of the film. “The Color of Pomegranates” was acclaimed as a masterpiece by Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard and Michelangelo Antonioni. Nevertheless, the Soviet state
The Color of Pomegranates / 1968
banned its screenings and Parajanov was sentenced to five years in a hard labor camp in 1973. Nowadays, The Color of Pomegranates is regarded as one of the best works of the 20th century, together with Kalatozov’s Jim Shvante (Salt for Svanetia, 1930). Tbilisi, I Love You / 2014 Directors: Nika Agiashvili, Irakli Chkhikvadze, Levan Glonti, Aleksandre Kviria, Tako Shavgulidze, others. Starring: Ia Sukhitashvili, Nutsa Kukhianidze, Giorgi Kipshidze, Ron Perlman, Malcolm Mcdowell, Sara Deaumon, etc. The film “Tbilisi, I Love You” is part of Cities of Love franchise (concept by Emmanuel Benbihy) that started with the film “Paris, Je t’aime,” released in
2006 and which became one of the most commercially profitable films in the series. “Tbilisi, I Love You” unites ten different novels and is a collection of various stories written and directed by natives of Tbilisi. We see the familiar city, recognized views, relationships that we are used to and real characters and stories. The world premier took place on 20th February 2014 and received the praise of critics. “Tbilisi, I Love You” was nominated at numerous international film festivals and Georgian audiences had the chance see the film in movie theatres. Check out the next three recommended “Tbilisi” films in next week’s Georgia Today.
JULY 17 - 23
17
“Don te R oad R ules” “Don’’t Viola iolate Road Rules” es Place in Tela vi Campaign Tak akes elavi
By Beqa Kirtava According to GeoStat, the number of road accidents reached an approximate figure of 6,000 in 2014, becoming the highest sum in 6 years. Thus it must come as no surprise that numerous governmental and non-governmental organizations are actively engaged in raising awareness of the general public with regard to this issue. On July 15, 2015 the National Department of Roads, in association with the Partnership for Road Safety and the World Bank, organized a special informative event in Telavi, within the framework of “Don’t Violate Road Rules” campaign. Many individuals including school students and actors of Telavi Theater took
part in the event, which was attended by the representatives of the National Department of Roads, the Georgian Police and local government officials. During the gathering booklets, containing information regarding road safety both for the drivers and the pedestrians, were given out to the attendees. Later the same day, another event was held to demonstrate the effectiveness and convenience of reflectors, which enables drivers to see pedestrians (equipped with those reflectors) from a distance of 150 meters. Those who took part in this event were given free reflectors. The National Department of Roads, the Partnership for Road Safety and the World Bank plan to organize many more such events in the near future.
CULTURE
Pla ywrite Inc kstar ter Playwrite Inc.. Using Kic Kickstar kstarter to Bring their P erf or mance Perf erfor ormance Model to Youth in Geor gia Georgia PlayWrite is hoping to take a giant, ocean-bounding step towards making their tried-and-true model available to youth everywhere, using the crowdfunding juggernaut, Kickstarter. This campaign will bring five remarkable women from Tbilisi, Georgia to Portland, OR this October to learn how to lead PlayWrite’s life-changing workshops for youth-at-the-edge. The country of Georgia has been wracked with violence since declaring independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, and young people are especially vulnerable to its effects. There are few resources to help them cope with their trauma, and PlayWrite wants to change that. Bruce Livingston, PlayWrite’s founder and Executive Director, developed a unique and highly successful 10-day playwriting workshop, steeped in recent research advancements in interpersonal neurobiology and experimental psychology. Serving youth-atthe-edge in Portland for over a decade, young playwrights use dramatic narrative to work through their own emotional conflicts toward healing and resolution. Livingston’s connection to Georgia emerged 2 years ago, but it is rooted in a relationship nearly four decades old. With two degrees in Anthropology, Livingston spent the 1970s teaching in Shiraz, Iran. One of his best students, Manouchehr Shiva, went on to become a Fulbright Scholar in Tbilisi in 2012. After watching Livingston’s TEDx talk on YouTube in June 2013, Shiva was convinced PlayWrite’s model would be of immense value to Georgian youth, and contacted his mentor, asking about replication. Excited by the possibility of taking PlayWrite, Inc. international, Bruce responded that it would take a team of passionate, smart and sensitive individuals with grit and perseverance to actualize this endeavor. Using Shiva’s Georgian network, a groundswell of over 240 individu-
als expressed interest in bringing PlayWrite to the region. After a year of in-depth discussion via email, FaceTime and Skype, it became clear that a the five-member team from the Georgian Centre for the Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT) and Social Change Supporters (SCS) is the right fit to replicate PlayWrite’s model. Last September, along with Program Director Lyndsay Hogland, Livingston went to Tbilisi to meet the GCRT/SCS team face-to-face and spent two weeks with them. After witnessing their work in Children’s Houses (like group foster homes, in which 10-12 children are in the care of 2-3 adults), Livingston and Hogland were confidant this partnership would be a success. “Elene, Tina, Anka, Nato and Sopo are incredibly talented, skilled, and savvy women, devoting their working life to bettering the lives of traumaexposed young people in Georgia. They function beautifully in American culture as well as their native Georgian culture, and are passionate about the chance to bring PlayWrite to their country.” This training is an endeavor that reaches beyond PlayWrite’s budget, so Livingston has turned to Kickstarter to raise the $28,789 needed to bring this venture to fruition. In accordance with Kickstarter guidelines, if the funding goal hasn’t been reached by July 29th, all pledges are cancelled and the project doesn’t move forward. Livingston is hoping to make an international appeal that supporting this project has the capacity to impact countless youth in a huge, life-changing way. To learn more about this project, visit tinyurl.com/Playwrite