Invest In Geogia

"Listen carefully, for it is a faint sound like a light wind in dry grass. It is the sound of a hundred thousand independent businesses "

David Lee

Georgia is a BUY.

If you are not invested, you are missing the point:

Whilst it would be an understatement to not to say that I am absolutely delighted to see the criminal former President of Georia put in a Georgian jail tonight, I was greatly saddened to see his stage grin as he slowly sauntered shackled into the police station, so brave in the face of the certainty that Georgia has a reformed and humane prison system.

I was elected as the President of the American Chamber of Commerce in 2008 and again in 2010. Although British, I quickly learned that the United States keeps a close eye on the political situation in Georgia, not least because then, as now, it is in many ways the poster child for the Eastern Partnership. I took over 2 months before the outbreak of a disastrous war that revealed the very serious defects of Saakashvili personality. He is a popinjay of international proportions. A smooth talking con artist with no obvious sense of shame or responsibility for the chaos his ego sows.

Over the 4 years as President, I was forced to watch our members lose their companies to a centralised team of Saakashvili insiders who became rich men by repeating again and again a simple but effective squeeze: A businessman is put in jail on Friday, he is threatened with rape, which will be videotaped and shown to his family unless he pays voluntarily into a special "fund" and relinquishes shares in his business. Only the most determined stayed the course. Strong men became withdrawn, literally losing weight and hair colour every time I went as President of Amcham to them in court. All were shackled, some shaking and close to tears.

He knows fullwell that the previous Justice Minister Thea Tsulukiani, long ago dismantled his torture apparatus and he no doubt expects that diplomatic pressure, egged on by an army of well paid lobbyists in Washington and Brussels, will ensure his release. Real politic suggests that this is inevitable, but it would not satisfy natural justice. They say here, that every family in Georgia has a man who was touched by his regime.

There is clearly no appetite for his return, and his party rarely make more than 30% in independent polling, but this may be sufficient to hold the title of main opposition party for a little longer. However, has no realistic chance of winning in an election and his party have been involved in serious street disturbance every year since he fled the country in 2013 after losing the election in 2012, when his systemic campaign of torture was leaked to the international media.

Whether he stays in jail or leaves, his only chance of a return to power is a coup or another revolution. A walk down the high street of any town or city will show you there is simply no appetite for this. Georgia is tired of poverty, tired of covid and tired of pompous peacocks like Saakashvili. The solution is clearly the coalition party system planned for 2024 parliamentary elections, the problem is that is not what Saakashvili wants. Like the sad addicts in the YouTube videos of Detroit today, Saakashvili is desperate for one more fix of total despotic power. Bow before me or bend over for I am your Lord. The American and European diplomats are burning the midnight oil to make sure this cannot happen.

I am an investor, and every since 2004 when I became the CEO of the largest Telco here, Magicom, I have followed the decision I made when I first visited in 2000. Georgia's 21st Century fundamentals are outstanding, (water, wind, soil and sun in rare abundance) and it is a good place to invest, whoever is in power.

So, the stage grin makes me seethe and I truly hope he has to stay in jail for a very long time. But he is essentially irrelevant. Wherever this silly man is, Georgia is caught in the combined gravitational pull or Europe and democracy and you cannot easily escape these forces. Over 80% of the population, an incredible proportion, want to be in the European Union. Georgia consistently and regularly receives outstanding diplomatic talent. The powers that be in the West appear to be using Georgia as the final testing ground before the top jobs in Moscow or Istanbul. This is a big advantage, particularly when combined with the tsunami of aid Georgia receives year after year from the USA and Europe. The diplomats and aid agencies know what they are doing and it is working. The fields have gone from the middle ages to drip irrigation in a decade. We are making electric cars and solar panels for export.

So, on the eve of another election, I am confident and bullish. You cannot buck the markets, as Margaret Thatcher famously said, and Georgia is a buy. Sleep well tonight Misha and enjoy yet another spell in the glare of the publicity you need and we bleed for. But tonight as you lay your head down on clean prison sheets after a shower and hot meal listen at the window, if you have one. Listen carefully, for it is a faint sound like a light wind in dry grass. It is the sound of a hundred thousand independent businesses, freed since 2012 from the fear of you, slowly growing and making this wonderful country finally prosperous once again. Sleep and dream, but know that when you wake tomorrow that you are but nothing at all. A simply novelty for a feral media and a band of aging carpetbaggers who follow you like Fagin’s orphans. We are building Georgia and walking steadily on the long road to Europe, stay out of our way.

Footnote: Saakashvili is in the same jail where his regime torured and raped men. He is claiming mistreatment. This extract is apropros:

"The majority of Georgia's nearly 13,000 prisoners, some 63 percent of whom are held on remand awaiting trial, face severely overcrowded, poorly lit, poorly ventilated cells that lack any kind of basic hygiene. In one facility, especially filthy basement cells that were closed down after being deemed unfit by Council of Europe experts in 2001 are currently in use again, apparently due to overcrowding. Overcrowding results primarily from the routine use of pre-trial detention, even for non-violent offenders. The Georgian government fails to provide appropriate conditions for suspects who should be presumed innocent: pre-trial detainees face particularly isolating conditions, with family visits for pre-trial detainees granted only with permission from an investigator, prosecutor, or a judge; even with the required permission, family visits may be arbitrarily denied. Pre-trial detainees are not able to correspond with relatives and have little or no access to newspapers, radio, or any other source of information. Detainees may be held in pre-trial detention from four months to over one year.

Both pre-trial detainees and convicted prisoners receive inadequate food or nutrition and often get substandard or no medical care. In these conditions they are at real risk of acquiring tuberculosis or other diseases. Most detainees also lack access to daily exercise and, in many cases, cannot leave their overcrowded cells at all for weeks or months at a time. In one facility visited by Human Rights Watch, detainees had not been allowed to exercise for over five months. Most detainees do not have regular access to showers and no access to work, education, or any other meaningful activity. Conditions of detention and the treatment experienced by detainees violate Georgia's own Law on Imprisonment, as well as international standards. There is a widespread and consistent gap between what is provided for in law and what is implemented in practice.

Ill-treatment of detainees has increased since December 2005. Some detainees reported being beaten regularly and severely or being subject to other ill-treatment and inhuman punishment. In some cases, the beatings and other inhuman treatment constituted torture. There is widespread impunity for such ill-treatment. Detainees have no access to an effective complaint mechanism and in some facilities have limited ability to communicate confidentially with their lawyers. Investigations into abuse are rare and those responsible for abuse are seldom held accountable.

This report is based on interviews with over 110 detainees during visits to six penitentiary facilities, as well as with lawyers, prison experts from domestic and international nongovernmental organizations, intergovernmental organizations, and government officials.

https://www.hrw.org/report/2006/09/13/undue-punishment/abuses-against-prisoners-georgia