Toast to a Hero

We've just spent a couple of days chasing around Georgia with Mikheil Saakashvili's motorcade, watching him take his high-tech campaign for re-election to the provinces. In the town of Bolnisi, a middle-aged man was waiting patiently by the stage with a framed picture of Saakashvili meeting some American dignitaries. He was hoping Misha would sign it for him. He had also written a poem about his hero, and he wasted no time in reading it to us:

Oh, Misha Saakashvili!
The protector of the poor and miserable!
You are a rising moon, a piece of the Georgian sun
You don't need anything that doesn't belong to you,
You are happy with what you have

Oh, the one born of a Georgian mother,
Brought up with Georgian milk!
You will never be afraid of raising your voice,
Wielding the sword of Saakadze [Georgian hero] left and right

When you think about your country,
You have tears in your eyes
Oh God, give a long life to our hope,
Misha Saakashvili!

Our comrade, photographer Justyna Mielnikiewicz, was with us that day, and her excellent slideshow of campaign-trail images is featured on the Eurasianet website here.

"Misha is Cool!"

Mikheil Saakashvili has again been using the power of pop music as a political tool as he campaigns for re-election as Georgia's president. As well as a series of free concerts featuring some of the country's best-known musicians, there are also a couple of pop songs specially-written to boost his campaign. One of them, by a former singer in a Georgian boy band who's now a regional governor, comes straight to the point with its title: Misha Magaria - in English, Misha is Cool. Here are some translated excerpts from the lyrics:

A new day is starting, the sun is rising
Georgia is being built
We will not spare any effort for the homeland
We don't have a lot of oil, we don't have a lot of territory
But we have a great future ahead

Sometimes the sun shines, sometimes the wind blows
Sometimes we have problems, sometimes we are happy
No matter if the weather's good or bad
Misha is cool!

We will open the door to Europe and NATO
Georgia will become united
Our army will put its feet on our land
We are on the highway going to Sukhumi [capital of Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia]

Sometimes the sun shines, sometimes the wind blows
Sometimes we have problems, sometimes we are happy
No matter if the weather's good or bad
Misha is cool!

Blurred Vision

Journalists at the Georgian television station Imedi, which was raided and shut down during the civil unrest here exactly a month ago (see video), have returned to their desks. Imedi's management alleges that the security forces who forced the station's staff out with batons, tear gas and rubber bullets then went on to damage or steal millions of dollars' worth of TV studio equipment. The station, which is the main outlet for opposition views, is owned by companies run by two oligarchs: Rupert Murdoch (of Fox TV and News of the World renown) and Badri Patarkatsishvili (one of Georgia's richest men and an opposition candidate in upcoming presidential elections). The Georgian government says Patarkatsishvili was using Imedi as a mouthpiece for his attempt to overthrow the government. The Georgian opposition says the authorities were trying to silence freedom of speech.