Supporting Georgia
Oct. 6th, 2006 06:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fivemackGeorgia (on the Black Sea coast, rather than the Atlantic, and containing Lake Tabatskuri rather than Strom Thurmond Lake) is currently being thoroughly Frowned Upon by the Russians, who've set up quite serious economic sanctions against it (banning the import of its wines and mineral waters to start with, then cutting off flights, postal connections, and permission to send remittences home) on account of its temerity in arresting Russian spies on the grounds of espionage, and in attempting to join NATO.
I tend to have the naive belief that small democracies being Frowned Upon by large autocracies ought to be supported. On the other hand, there's essentially nothing imported from Russia that I buy (except for natural gas, but boycotting heating seems to be going a bit far); if I can't stop supporting the Russians I have to start supporting the Georgians, and, whilst a small democracy, Georgia is a lot bigger than I am, and I don't know how to go about supporting it. The most visible exports to the UK are Georgian wine and champagne; I wonder if Cambridge is big enough to have sellers of such things.
The other obvious approach is to visit: the country's gorgeous, though the Foreign Office advises against travelling there alone. Does anyone fancy Easter in Tblisi?
I tend to have the naive belief that small democracies being Frowned Upon by large autocracies ought to be supported. On the other hand, there's essentially nothing imported from Russia that I buy (except for natural gas, but boycotting heating seems to be going a bit far); if I can't stop supporting the Russians I have to start supporting the Georgians, and, whilst a small democracy, Georgia is a lot bigger than I am, and I don't know how to go about supporting it. The most visible exports to the UK are Georgian wine and champagne; I wonder if Cambridge is big enough to have sellers of such things.
The other obvious approach is to visit: the country's gorgeous, though the Foreign Office advises against travelling there alone. Does anyone fancy Easter in Tblisi?
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Date: 2006-10-06 07:02 pm (UTC)Georgia makes and exports excellent tea. Most of the "Russian" tea you used to see around in Cold War days was Georgian. You used to be able to buy it in Cambridge market, under the inspiring name of "Georgian tea". You'd like it. It's black tea that doesn't stew easily, so it's possible to have it strong without excessive tannin. You could possibly encourage large communal dining halls to invest in it, because it makes the only good urn tea in the world -- I discovered this on my trip to the Soviet Union in 1987. The random post-meal tea from huge samovars was always good, though clearly not fresh, and eventually I asked about it.
Their wine and champagne you might have to go to London for, though I can buy it in the Georgian deli up by Snowdon. There's also a Georgian restaurant there. Am I supporting the country if I eat there, or just some individual Georgians who left? I suppose if I eat there and drink their wine I am. I'll put them on my list of countries whose food I especially want.
It always cheers me, at times like this, to remember that my utter deprivation of grapes for winter after winter did eventually end apartheid, and my enthusiastic eating of Wensleydale cheese did save Hawes Creamery. Not just mine, of course, but mine too.