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 Tbilisi celebrates its heritage with food, music and a giant wine press 
The annual Tbilisoba, a day to celebrate the capital, is a relatively recent event in a country rich with ancient tradition. Yet people have embraced the festival since its early days as a promotion of Soviet peasant life, taking to the cobblestone streets of Old Tbilisi to buy handicrafts, view the spoils of the season’s harvest and show off their chokhebi. (more)
Opposition urges thousands of Kutaisi voters to protest in the capital 
The United National Council drew thousands to a rally in Georgia’s second city on October 19.
Leaders of the ten-party opposition coalition met with locals in regional villages that morning before assembling in Kutaisi, where they exhorted discontented voters to go to Tbilisi for a promised mass protest on November 2. (more)
New parliamentary faction off to rocky start as hospitalized member resigns
A newly announced parliamentary faction will go ahead despite the surprise resignation of one of its founding MPs, Imedi TV reported Sunday evening. (more)
News in Brief
Little disagreement on foreign policy among Georgia’s battling politicians
A prevailing rhetorical tactic is to levy accusations of Russian sympathies, or even of doing Moscow’s bidding, against political opponents. The government points to ill-advised statements, in which some opposition figures blame Tbilisi for the results of Russian aggression, as evidence of traitorous intentions, or at least of the opposition wanting to turn back to Moscow’s orbit. (more)
MP says foreigners taking Georgian jobs
Deputy chair of the parliamentary Budget and Finance Committee Zurab Butskhrikidze, in an interview with the newspaper Sakartvelos Respublika, stated that about 90 000 new jobs opened up in Georgia in 2007—but a third of them were taken by foreigners. (more)
As government aid program begins, debate over how many Georgians need assistance
The government began distributing utilities vouchers last week to pensioners, teachers and Georgia’s “socially vulnerable.” (more)
Remittances equivalent to 20 percent of Georgia’s GDP, UN report says
Georgian migrant workers abroad send home the equivalent of 20 percent of the country’s GDP, according to a recent study by the UN Agricultural Development Fund, the newspaper 24 Saati writes. (more)
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Monday, October 22 , 2007, #201 (1468)
