Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, Institute of (ISEEES), Townsend Center for the Humanities
Thomas Goltz will be making a multi-media presentation on his latest book: "Georgia Diary: A Chronicle of War and Political Chaos in the Post-Soviet Caucasus." First released in late 2006 as the third part of his unplanned 'Caucasus Trilogy,' Georgia Diary is a fast-paced, boots-(barely)-on-the-ground exploration of the lynch-pin Caucasus country during its time of chaos 1991-2000, with a primary focus on the war over Abkhazia, the return (and ruin) of Eduard Shevardnadze and the eventual rise of Mikheil Saakashvili and his Rose Revolution of 2003 and its 'glorious' aftermath, when Georgia appeared to have lifted itself out of the post-Soviet morass and firmly situated itself within the matrix of western interests in the region, including the aspiration to become a full member of NATO. Then came the so-called ‘Olympics War’ with Russia of August 2008, when Goltz returned to Georgia at the height of the crisis, culling notes from players high and low to serve as the basis of a brand new, no-holds barred 20,000 word action and analysis Epilogue of the original book, to be released in paperback in February 2009.
Before returning to academia in 2006, Thomas Goltz spent some twenty-five years in the field as a journalist and has written for most leading US publications, including the New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal (as well as The Nation and Soldier of Fortune) His "Azerbaijan Diary"(M.E. Sharpe, 998/99) has been hailed as ‘essential reading for all post-Sovietologists.’ His second book on the Caucasus, "Chechnya Diary" (St Martins, 2003), is regarded as a classic exploration of the reality of war-correspondence, and how ‘the observer affects the observed.’ A memoir about his days as an itinerant actor in Africa in the late 1970s was issued as "Assassinating Shakespeare" (Saqi, 2006), and is now being considered as a possible film. Fluent or functional in German, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Russian, and Arabic, Goltz has lectured at most leading US universities and foreign policy-related institutes. Goltz is currently an adjunct professor in the Department of Political Science at Montana State University, Bozeman.
His web site is: www.thomasgoltz.com
Yesterday I was visiting a good friend. He is photographer and we spoke about motion galleries - more exactly about records combin with cutting photographies ... And than he had show me some examples ... and suddenly we found on the MAGNUM site the Georgian Diary by Thomas Dworzak .... great work!Artikel von Nino Haratischwili
Als ich in Tiflis in den Innenhof zu meiner Wohnung biege - es ist kurz nach elf und schon dunkel, ich war Zigarettenholen: unsichtbar, still, mit sich genauso still und unsichtbar bewegenden Menschen -, höre ich ein merkwürdiges Flüstern. Eine Schar von Frauen und Männern sitzt auf den Bänken und unterhält sich, aber in Georgien unterhalten sich Menschen normalerweise laut und gestikulierend, man hört sie aus zehn Metern Entfernung. Jetzt sitzen sie geduckt und flüstern. Man hört einzelne Wörter, in denen es immer wieder um das Gleiche geht: um Fassungslosigkeit, Ungewissheit. Die letzten fünf Tage haben die Gesten und den Tonfall verändert, ganz zu schweigen von der Verfassung der Menschen.
Ich habe das Gefühl, dass in Tiflis keiner mehr schlafen will oder kann. In den Höfen hat man kleine "Nachtwächtergruppen" gebildet, die den Schlaf der Kinder beschützen. Die Kinder liegen alle angezogen in ihren Betten, mit gepackten Taschen daneben: für den Fall eines Bombardements, für den Fall, dass sie fliehen müssen.
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Drei sächsische Bands besuchten im Verlauf des Jahres drei europäische Krisenregionen. Unser diesjähriges Großprojekt "Rock4Peace" war in allen Regionen ein Riesenerfolg, und die kreative
in old tbilisi
