Comments on: Where business meets geopolitics

By: Lance Hogben

Lance Hogben — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 08:31:36 +0000

What makes anyone think oil passing through Georgia will improve anything there? I don’t think history would support such a claim. And it figures Azerbaijan would suffer enhanced repression under the petro-pol regime; it’s corrolary to the syndrome. I expect nothing good to come of Georgia’s involvement in big oil, just further degradation of the political, social, cultural and environmental spheres under WTC NeoCon regime. Until little countries have some angle of their own to work, bandwagoning with the big dogs will only result in variously-tilted gameboards which invariably enrich the already-rich and further victimize the vulnerable. Where is the progressive movement in Georgia?

By: mari

mari — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 22:29:09 +0000

indeed at least relatively lessening Georgia’s energy dependence on Russia is extremely important for the country. there have been numerous instances in the past, when the energy companies admitted that cutting nearly all supplies to the country in the middle of the winter, leaving millions without heat and electricity, was a directive from Kremlin. under such dependence it’s no wonder that the government was willing to negotiate on anything to avoid the situation of people heading to the streets. this pipeline will certainly help Georgia’s stance in its relations with Moscow. and in this case the government seems to be willing to sacrifice some of Borjomi (both the national park and the mineral water).