Friday 29 October 2010

Monday 19 July 2010

facebook

Wednesday 24 February 2010

cinema without cinema


When the city’s planning department publicly presented a proposal to renovate Agmashenebli Avenue in January, they probably weren’t expecting the battle over architecture that followed. At issue were the plans for Tbilisi’s first movie theatre, the now defunct Apollo., specifically, the proposal to add an extra floor to the building
“The project showed that it was planned to add an extra floor to the buildings which considerably changed the building,” says Nestan tatarashvili, anarchitect, and head of the Art Nouveau Preservation Group in Georgia. As the name suggests, her group is vigorously in favour of protecting the city’s Art Nouveau architecture, of which the Apollo was considered a prime example. “Even in the world there are left only a few this kind of building,” claims Tatarashvili.
The group has had some success in changing the design options for the renovated movie theature. They immediately intiated a facebook campaign called “ Save cinema Apollo, which boasts nearly 2,000 members. Tatarashvili also met privately with city planners in February, and said she was assured by them that a new floor won’t be added.


This has made defenders of the original Apollo architecture quite happy. As one of them, the art critic Manon Liluashvili, says: “All this trouble proved to be very useful to Apollo’s future. As the Architects have promised that there won’t be done any alterations to the building. And no extra floor will be added to the building.”
The Apollo was opened in 1909and designed by the architect Ivan Kulich. The foyer and the hall were decorated by Italian painters. The premier of the first Georgian sound film was here ( “ shaqiri “ 1932 by leo esakia ) During the soviet period Apollo was renamed in Oqtomberi to honour the day of October’ssoviet revolution . In 1987 it was reconstructed and prepared for afilm festival. In 1990 the old name was returned to the cinema, and it hasn’t been used since

Sunday 31 January 2010

“Documentaries show life realistically,”



Lika Zakashvili enjoys watching movies. She doesn’t have a favorite genre. She just loves a well-made film. She does love documentaries and Zakashvili wants to shoot her own documentary films.

“Documentaries show life realistically,” she says.

Zakashvili received a bachelor’s degree in film critique at Tbilisi State University’s Art and Cinema Film Studies program. Now she continues her studies in journalism to learn writing specific to all fields, and how to analyze and criticize different issues. “I want to write about everything and own the knowledge of how to do it,” Zakashvili says.

“Balance in everything” – this principle of journalism is Zakashvili’s motto. But she says she can’t keep her emotions balanced. She is very sensitive. Seeing beggars causes Zakashvili to cry and sometimes her sensitivity makes her irritated.

She loves talking with all different kinds of people . Zakashvili is a good listener because she knows how good it feels when people listen to her. In fact, she hates being alone.

Zakashvili’s favorite place is Kazbegi because it’s an open place and makes her feel freedom. Sometimes she dreams about being a bird.

“I want to fly higher and higher,” she says.

Thursday 26 November 2009

what kind of sources the Government offers to help these women



In 2009 by the order of the President in the law about “domestic violence” were made some amendments .According to Article 14 the period of “Suspending Order” was increased from 3 months to 6 month . By this low victims of domestic violence get more protection from the Government . Since then women have talked about their family problems more openly and have more often called police for help . Because of this the role of police has increased .According to the information from Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia At nigh hours one from every four calls is connected with domestic violence . Though some cases show that methods used by the police still need to be improved and there is a lot to think about how to make the role of police more affective.
The respondent who wanted to stay anonym tells the part of her family story when she decided to stop her violent husband with the help of police .”Afther 15 years of living together I permanently became the subject of violence from my . Once I heard the information on Tv that a special law was passed against this kind of violence . During one incident I decided to call the police and ask for help .The police arrived and talked to my husband and made him to write a special letter where she promised never to do it again and they warned him that he would be arrested if he behaved violently towards me .After that I though that my husband would be afraid and I always repeated that I would call the police in case of violence . But when this happened and I called the police for help they appeared more loyal and told me the only thing they could do was to help me to leave the house “
About the same kind of problems talks Anti –trafficking and Anti-Domestic Violence Program Assistant Nino Chikhladze she says : “ People often come to our office with similar complaints. Recently the polices has issued less orders which give the victim protection within six month .We have kept statistics for several years and it shows that the orders issued this year are half of the number which was issued last year.
To explain this I asked a policeman but he avoided to talk about the reasons of decries of order numbers but he confirmed that police gets more calls connected with domestic violence .


Marina Chitaishvili says “ The order never solves the problem of domestic violence if we study the practice of prevention of Domestic Violence in developed countries we will see that this kind of orders are used only when the situation is very hard and all the other ways were tried .We must mainly work on prevention that means improving social and economic conditions of families .”
In 2000 a special center “The House ” for consulting women on subjects of domestic violence was established in Georgia . The Center has gathered a lot of experience on this problem. We have talked with the Psychologist of this house Nana Khoshtaria who says :” The family violence is a multi sided problem . We can’t demand from the police solving such a difficult problem as family relationships. Involving the police in family affairs may have a positive or a negative result in each case . According to our practice sometimes it makes the violent person more aggressive . but as there are cases when the problem has been solved by the help of police it means that the correct use of this low may be effective” .
In 2009 a special council was formed To make changes in this low. The document was worked out where the main strategy was looking for the ways of preventing domestic violence .This document meant founding rehabilitation centers not only for victims but also for violent people. there was also mentioned about preparing social workers . Though these recommendation were not fulfilled .The shelter for victims of domestic violence is just two small rooms on the territory of the “Shelter for Victims of Trafficking”. And the center for rehabilitation of violent people doesn’t exist at all .Which is very important according to nana Khoshtaria who says :“ To take the practice of the countries which are experienced in solving similar problems shows that the rehabilitation centers for violent people are essential because a violent person has just two options go to this center of to prison”.
The organization who worked on this problem in Georgia consider informing public on the subject as their main goal . Most women in Georgia don’t realize what domestic violence means . Many cases which are considered as domestic violence in developed countries Georgian women don’t take as violence because of traditions of our country.
Government and Nongovernment organizations which work on these problems together say that existing of this low is very important because domestic violence is one of the hardest problems in our county. They encourage women to fight against domestic violence but it is not clear what kind of sources the Government offers to help these women .

Tuesday 3 November 2009


Georgia has a high rate of domestic violence. Most cases of domestic violence are reported to the police. Approximately 60%of family violence victimizations were reported to police. Despite the act which was adopted by parliament of Georgia in 2006 year. The facts of violence didn’t decrease. Rehabilitation Centre for Victims of Torture “Empathy” was founded in 1996.since 1996 centre has successfully implemented number of projects but the sponsorship that Is made by local authorities is truly not enough for state rehabilitation centre for victims of torture and organization can’t manage to help every victim of violence. Research demonstrates that act which was adopted by parliament is not properly working.

Wednesday 28 October 2009

church-shops in Tbilisi

I live at Sabcho square .In the centre of the square is one big and old grocery and provision shop called “Gastronomi“. It is possible to buy almost everythings there and after last Monday you can even buy some orthodox icons there too . after this case I ruminate about this tendency why are so many church-shops in Tbilisi ? and is it necessary to trade icons at grocery shops like “Gastronomi”? I’ve seen some facts when customers were buying uncanonical icons in the street. All these incidents hint to one and the same thing: The Partiarchate of Georgia should take control over the trade of church-goods ( belongings). I think the problem is with people, population . Attitude of the people is careful, thus they aviod raising questions around this issue