ARTIKEL: Interessanter Gedanke von Matthew Collin - Wodka oder Joghurt? (caucasusreports.blogspot.com)

Matthew Collin schrieb in seinem Blog einen kurzen Artikel über die angebliche 129-jährige, Antissa Khvichava. Laut einem Beitrag der BBC lebt sie in einem Dorf in Georgien. Gezeigt wurde, wie sie Backgammon spielt und Wodka trank. Eine georgische Rundfunkanstalt nahm das auf. Über die internationalen Medien (BBC) wurde das dann weiterverbreitet.

Natürlich gab es immer wieder Nachrichten über die außerordentliche Langlebigkeit der Menschen in bestimmten Regionen, die später nach eindringlicher Recherche und Überprüfung widerlegt wurden. Es ist keine Überraschung, dass einige georgische Experten die Wahrheit diesers Beitrags bezweifeln. Matthew Collin weißt auf einen bewundernswert skeptischen Bericht von Molly Corso auf der Website Eurasianet hin.

Doch trotz der offiziellen Statistiken über die durchschnittliche Lebenserwartung in Georgien (75,3 Jahre für Frauen, 66,4 Jahre für Männer) hat die Region einen anhaltenden guten Ruf für die Erlangung eines hohen Alters. Selbst ein renommiertes Unternehmen warb damit für einen Joghurt in den USA. Matthew Collin postete ein Video, welches im Jahr 1977 gedreht wurde. Nach der Information, die kürzlich von der BBC verbreitet wurde, könnte ein Wodka-Hersteller Antissa Khvichava aufsuchen, um einen Clip mit ihr zur Förderung der Tugenden eines regelmäßige Einnahme von starken Alkohols zu drehen ....

english blog: caucasusreports.blogspot.com

ELECTRONIC MUSIC: APRIL 16th at G.U.R.U. club . ELECTRONAUTS AWARDS 2009. (komunamedia.blogspot.com)

This year the Electronauts’ award ceremony will be broadcasted on the net and on one of the major Georgian TV channels - IMEDI. The winners in various nominations, like: “Georgian club of the year”, “Georgian event of the year”, “Georgian DJ of the year” etc. will be chosen by “online community” and the experts- representatives of Georgian media and showbiz. This year we are adding a new nomination – “Georgian track of the year” The winner in this nomination will be chosen by merging of the votes of the “online community” and the votes from international jury (50-50 correlation). Here is the list of the international jury:

Pablo Daniel Sabetta (Jay West) Country: Argentina Occupation: Producer, DJ, Label Founder. Involved in: Candy Dealers
Sarunas Karalius (DJ Karalius, Ryralio DJs) Country: Lithuania Occupation: Producer, DJ, Label Founder. Involved in: Ryralio Records
Riley Reinhold (Triple R) Country: Germany Occupation: Producer, DJ, Magazine Founder. Involved in: TraumSchallplatten, Spex, De:Bug
Glen Nicholls Country: UK Occupation: Producer, DJ, Mix Engineer Involved in: En:Vision; Future Funk Squad
Andreas Rheise Country: Germany Occupation: Producer, DJ, Journalist Involved in: KREIDLER, la! NEU, BadFrench, Spex, APRIL
Matthew Collin Country: UK Occupation: Journalist, Writer Involved in: Books, Al Jazeera, Wired, Mojo, Time Out.
Thorsten Lütz (DJ Strobocop) Country: Germany Occupation: DJ, Producer, Journalist, Label Founder Involved in: De:Bug, Karaoke Kalk.
Christoph Braun Country: Germany Occupation: Journalist Involved in: Groove Magazine Sascha Kösch (DJ Bleed) Country: Germany Occupation: DJ, Producer, Journalist Involved in: De:Bug,
Michał Nogaś Country: Poland Occupation: Journalist Involved in: Radio Trojk

more:
komunamedia.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/elektronavtebi
www.myspace.com/gurunightclub
guruclub.mypodcast.com

G.U.R.U. club:
Event date / time: 2010 წლის 16 04, პარასკევი
19:00, Rustaveli Ave.12, Tbilisi, Georgia



more here (on the right sight): www.youtube.com

ARTICLE: Bruce Willis More Like Putin Than Saakashvili (themoscowtimes.com)

By Matthew Collin

Summertime in Georgia has eased by lazily without the grim prophecies of a renewed confrontation with Russia being fulfilled. But while the guns have generally remained silent, filmmakers have been keeping themselves busy with cinematic interpretations of last year’s firestorm. The latest attempt to offer the “truth” about the August 2008 war is a documentary called “Russian Lessons,” and unlike previous Russian-made efforts, it has been receiving some positive notices in the Georgian media.

This is partly because one of its directors, Andrei Nekrasov, is hardly a Kremlin apologist. (His last film was about the Alexander Litvinenko poisoning scandal). In contrast to the ludicrous battlefield thriller “Olympus Inferno” and the partisan documentary “War 08.08.08: The Art of Betrayal,” Nekrasov’s movie apparently provides “overwhelming evidence of a Russian imperialist plot,” according to Georgian television station Rustavi-2. In other words, it backs the Georgian interpretation of the showdown over South Ossetia.

more >>>

BLOG: Wie ist die Situation in Süd Ossetien? (caucasusreports.blogspot.com)

Russland versprach große Hilfsgelder für den Wiederaufbau und Wiederbelbung der Region. Doch die Nachrichtenagentur AP berichtete, dass einige frühere Offizielle Süd Ossetiens enttäuscht sind über die Nachkriegssituation, vor allem die "Tyrannei und offizielle Korruption" florrieren. "Was geschah praktisch ein Jahr nach dem Krieg? Nichts. Keine Wohnung wurde wiederaufgebaut, kein Geschäft geht seinen Gang" konstatierte ein früherer Sicherheitsfuktionär, der jetzt in der Opposition ist. Der Analyst Paul Globe beschreibt in der The Moscow Times, dass Süd Ossetien als ein Schwarzes Loch, ein gesetzesfreier Raum.

Der ganze Text (in englisch - by Matthew Collin) >>>

BLOG: Georgien gewinnt den Fashion-Krieg (caucasusreports.blogspot.com)

Das Benetton geschäft in Georgien war für einige Tage proteshalber geschlossen aufgrund der türkischen Initiative ein gleichnamiges geschäft in Suchumi, der Hauptstadt der separatistischen Region Abchasien zu öffnen. "Protest gegen die Eröffnung eines Geschäftes in Suchumi" konnte man in den Schaufenstern des Benetton-Geschäftes in Tbilisi lesen.

Abchasien ist eine separatistische Region Georgiens nach dem Bürgerkrieg inden frühen 90-igern; Russland hat es als unabhängigen Staat anerkannt. Die Georgier jedoch betrachten Abchasien als einen Teil ihres souveränen Territoriums.

Jedes internationale Investment ohne die Erlaubnis Georgiens wird kriminalisiert.

A statement said the company had reversed its decision to "decrease tension that would have nothing to do with a commercial firm".

Der ganze Text (in englisch - by Matthew Collin) >>>

ARTICLE: Georgia's Nato ambitions irk Russia. By Matthew Collin (english.aljazeera.net)

By Matthew Collin

Men in camouflage uniforms huddle around computers inside the command centre at Vaziani army base in eastern Georgia, getting ready for the start of the Nato military exercises.

While they work to install the communications systems, a commander at the base, Major Giorgi Kalandadze, welcomed Nato's presence as a show of support for Georgia after its defeat in the war with Russia in August last year.

But as he was speaking to Al Jazeera, a mutiny was allegedly being planned just a few kilometres away at another Georgian army base in Mukhrovani.

more >>>

Everyday Chaos in Tbilisi. by Mattew Collin >>>

VIDEO: Protests continue in Georgian capital- 02 May 09 (youtube.com)

Nearly four weeks after some of the biggest street protests in Georgia's recent history, anti-government demonstrators are continuing their call for President Mikheil Saakashvili to step down.

They have blocked the main streets outside parliament with hundreds of imitation prison cells, despite the government's offer on democratic reforms. Al Jazeera's Matthew Collin reports from the centre of the protests in Tbilisi.

BLOG: Bunny Business at the Presidential Palace. By Matthew Collin (caucasusreports.blogspot.com)

Some more notes on the current opposition protests here in Tbilisi, from my regular column in The Moscow Times:

Easter in Georgia: a time for church and family, not radical politics. Most of the opposition protesters who’ve been blockading the main street of the capital outside parliament for several days went home for the weekend, although they left their barricades in place to indicate that they had only taken a brief holiday from their efforts to oust President Mikheil Saakashvili.

more in this great blog "This Is Tbilisi Calling" >>>

REPORT: Citizen media and the Tbilisi protests. By Onnik Krikorian. (frontlineclub.com)

We've heard a lot about the use of social networking sites and services such as Twitter and Facebook by political activists in the past week, but opposition protests in Georgia have also shown that they are valuable tools in the hands of student and professional journalists alike.
As an editor for Global Voices Online, a site which monitors and aggregates social media and blogs, had it not been for an online project to report on the protests, as well as the presence of fellow Frontline Club bloggers, things would have been very different indeed.
Despite lagging behind Armenia and Azerbaijan in terms of the quality and quantity of blogs, the work of the GIPA Journalism School in Tbilisi, as well as that of Matthew Collin and Guy Degen, set new standards for the use of citizen media in the region during times of political upheaval.

full article >>>

VIDEO: Thousands rally against Georgian president - 9 April 09

Tens of thousands of protesters have rallied outside parliament in Tbilisi, Georgia's capital, demanding that the country's president step down.

Demonstrators believe Mikheil Saakashvili, the president, handled last year's war with Russia badly. His presidency is also being criticised as more like that of a dictator than the leader of a democracy.

Matthew Collin reports from Tbilisi (AlJazeera)
www.youtube.com/user/AlJazeeraEnglish

ARTICLE: Upstarts and Question Marks (frontlineclub.com)

By Matthew Collin: Thousands of slickly-designed opposition posters and stickers have been appearing on the streets of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, over the past couple of weeks, in the run-up to anti-government protests on April 9. Some of them blame President Mikheil Saakashvili for the disastrous war here last August; others (like this one, allegedly showing the Georgian leader with an American rock'n'roll masseuse) are simply intended to make him look like a fool.

full article >>>

more here >>>

Dr. Dot wrote that she stands in dictance to this news in Russian TV. Russia TV didn't ask her to use her footage ... more here >>>

ARTICLE: Saakashvili Gets Taste Of His Own Medicine. By Matthew Collin

Dining out in downtown Tbilisi has become a somewhat uncomfortable experience recently, at least for President Mikheil Saakashvili. The Georgian leader has been rudely interrupted twice while eating at restaurants in the capital over the past few weeks. His persecutors, a mob of rowdy students, have been harrying him as the opposition pumps itself up for mass demonstrations that they hope will force Saakashvili to resign.

full article >>>

ARTICLE: 'Hot Spring' of Protests Looming for Saakashvili (moscowtimes.ru)

10 March 2009, By Matthew Collin

Georgian forecasters have been predicting a "hot spring" as this country's latest political showdown approaches. On April 9, opposition supporters will return to the streets of Tbilisi, demanding the resignation of President Mikheil Saakashvili. They have called for his head before, of course, but he's still in office and with a mandate to govern until 2013. This time, however, it's a little different. Several high-profile former allies have deserted Saakashvili in the hope of winning the presidency themselves, and in recent weeks they've been making increasingly bitter accusations against their former leader.

full article >>>

BLOG: Information Warfare (frontlineclub.com)

A new report from the Committee to Protect Journalists is highly critical of the media freedom situation in both Georgia and Russia, accusing the governments of Mikheil Saakashvili and Vladimir Putin of establishing control over television broadcast networks to ensure that their messages drown out alternative viewpoints. "As different as these leaders may be, both have demonstrated intolerance to criticism and a strong desire to control influential national television," the report alleges. "Using strikingly similar tactics, both leaders have helped fashion uncritical television media that are supportive of their governments. The results were on display during the South Ossetian conflict, when television in each country portrayed the fighting in one-sided, one-dimensional ways." While a lot of television reporting in Georgia is pro-government, it's clear that there is much more open criticism of the authorities on national television than is ever allowed in Russia, or in most other former Soviet states. But the idea of a genuinely free and independent media has been slow to take root here. Georgia's radical opposition, for example, seems to believe that free media simply means more airtime for their opinions (they recently demanded that an entire channel be handed over to them), rather than any kind of independent scrutiny of politicians on all sides. Meanwhile, investigative reporting has been marginalised. Two independent studios do produce documentaries examining official corruption and miscarriages of justice, but they are not shown on national TV.

by Matthew Collin