Can humor, and a masseuse, bring down a president?
Georgian youth protesters seize upon "Dr. Dot" in their battle against Saakashvili.
TBILISI, Georgia — If Georgia’s opposition succeeds in driving President Mikheil Saakashvili from office, they will have a buxom, effusive, celebrity masseuse partly to thank for it.
Images of the Georgian leader posing with “Dr. Dot,” a striking American massage therapist, have materialized throughout Tbilisi, part of the opposition’s campaign to force Saakashvili to resign through ridicule.
The photos are the work of “April 9” and “Ratom?” (“Why?”), two youth groups affiliated with protests that began earlier this month and which initially brought more than 40,000 to the streets of the capital.
Among his sins, the president is accused of launching an unsuccessful war with Russia — which resulted in tens of thousands of refugees and a loss of 20 percent of Georgia's territory — mismanaging the economy, veering towards dictatorship and generally behaving in an unhinged manner.
The two groups have employed for their purposes a variety of agitprop actions and images from other less-than-flattering moments from the president’s past — for instance a shot of Saakashvili (from a BBC documentary on the war) nervously chewing on his tie.
During the demonstrations crowds have taken to hurling carrots and cabbages and depositing one unlucky rabbit at the presidential residence. (“Rabbit” is slang for coward in Georgian.) “April 9” members perform street theatre where they smile idiotically and try to embrace anyone within reach — a parody of the president’s gregariousness — or hop around like bunnies.
A popular folk singer, Giorgi Gachechiladze, whose brother ran against Saakashvili in elections last year, launched a television reality program in which he has fitted a room to look like a jail cell (symbolizing the police state that he says Georgia has become) and refuses to leave until the president steps down. Demonstrators have now erected mock cages in solidarity with Gachechiladze at protest sites.
Whether such blunt (and admittedly often primitive) humor will find its mark is far from clear. Numbers have dwindled at the protests to just over a thousand. Some opposition leaders are now calling for dialogue with the government. And although Saakashvili’s popularity appears to have dropped significantly since last August’s war, many still support him, while others say that they prefer stability to any more changes at the top.
My dear I can give answers to all of your questions and arguments against the opposition rallies.
“No other civilized place does this [protests]”
Freedom of expression is the basis of the democracy; watch TV or read news reports and you will find out how often protest rallies are held in leading countries of the world …
“by sitting down and having talks and debates”
Please just remember how Saakashvili himself came to power.. why did not he sit down with Shevardnadze and did not talk how to act further on… he even could have big number of his supporter lawmakers in the parliament and he could have managed even to impeach Shevardnadze. But he preferred to topple him.
“The opposition doesn't even have a plan or an idea how to rule a country and like animals they march around chanting things.”
Most of the leading opposition parties do have their plans and strategies. Visit their websites. I am surprised at this question because Saakashvili himself has not so far showed any written plan – he only speaks – lab, lab, lab – and when time comes to ask him where are your promises then he says: look we have enemy – Russia – and only because of it we could not keep our promise. Sorry but when he was giving promises Russia was on the same place. Remember, Russia was our neighbour and it will not change its geographical place and when you say something you should always remember about that.
“Georgian president for ONCE respected by other world leaders”
Yes you are right, he was once respected but not any more!!!
“What would the opposition do when Russia's tanks went in? Just sit back "peacefully" and let Russia rape us?”
I have no doubt that it was Russia’s aggression but Saakashvili is responsible for putting his nation into the trap. Azerbaijan is ten times stronger than us with 15 times bigger budget, with better support [because of its gas and oil] but it does not put its nation into the trap. You think they are mad, they don’t want Nagorno Karabakh back, they have about 1 million refugees … but they keep quiet… just look the Cyprus issue is going to be reconsidered soon… after 30 years the parties express desire to solve the conflict.. but Saakashvili wants everything in one gulp, he was giving promises to return Abkhazia and South Ossetia in couple of years … Did not he remember that time that Russia was our neighbour? ??
“Would the EU and the US come to aid to other presidents with no allies and no respect?”
Don’t mix please. EU and US came to help not Saakashvili but the Georgian state. That is the main problem of Saakashvili and his supporters when they mix Saakashvili with the country’s statehood.
“Give people money and food? FROM WHERE?”
From the budget… the money should be spent in an appropriate way… not for bringing massage ladies at the state expense, not for bringing singers [Ruslana, Shakira, Adams] at state expense, not for building presidential residence of 1 billion USD worth….
“Saakashvili is passionate about Georga and its future and so far I Don't see anyone else worthy of presidency except him.”
Nobody is irreplaceable… only the dead …
“We need to put down our pitch forks like old farmers and start supporting our country like civilized beings. “
Oh, god, what a familiar sequence of words… I think you have picked them out from one of Saakashvili’s remarks while meeting with local farmers…
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