adjara postscript

As a brief follow up to my earlier Adjara piece (which, I would note, was much maligned by the blogosphere's stealthy but sporadically vocal Adjaran lobby on etalkinghead.com), I can report that Aslan Abashidze did indeed escape back to Moscow, presumably to hang out with Luzhkov and Lutchansky. His dog, however, was not so lucky -- at least initially. Being a dog lover, though, I can report (via Moscow Times) that Aslan's 70kg puppy, Basmach, is now safely in Russia with his owner (though the latter is keeping a decidedly low profile).

And one hopes the Adjarans are enjoying their renewed Georgian citizenship. I wish them well.


Marc posted this at 27.5.04 | Permalink

the traditional warm german welcome

Scott MacMillan at Fistful of Euros makes an excellent point, to wit, that whilst all of the hoopla of EU accession has barely quieted down, "Old Europe" is busy suggesting economically regressive measures to their new colleagues to the East.

At a time when Germany and France are hardly economic models to follow (with massive marginal tax rates, high unemployment, low growth and significant -- though admittedly not American -- budget deficits), Gerhard Schroeder and his friends are all but mandating that new EU states such as Slovakia and the Czech Republic in effect lower their own economic standing to "catch up" with Europe. Raise taxes? Now?

If the EU biggies ever want to shed their heavy-handed image and turn the corner on their current economic woes, they will have to adopt a less paternalistic -- and indeed more laissez-faire™ -- approach.


Marc posted this at 27.5.04 | Permalink

iran: the friendly nation

Nick Kristof of the New York Times writes today about how friendly the Iranians are. This isn't the first time I've seen a piece like this, so I'm led to believe that it isn't simple propaganda. In fact, nearly every American journalist that goes there invariably comes back with stories of hospitality, friendliness and generally good feelings towards the United States. This despite the fact that the government is daily bashing all things American. The message of the piece is that maybe there is hope for relations between these two great countries.

What would it be like to have Iran as our only true ally in the Middle East?


Marc posted this at 6.5.04 | Permalink

dispatches from absurdistan: the battle for adjara

In the entropic post-Soviet world of screwed-up nations and politico-geographic mitosis, at least one place is perennially screwed up: the Caucasus.

Right at the edge of the Black Sea on the western side of Georgia lies a pathetic little piece of real estate called, variously, Adjara, Ajara, Ajaria, or Adjaria. Call it what you will, the diagnosis is the same: slightly batty ethnic leader with delusions of grandeur sees a power vacuum and goes for the gusto, all but declaring independence and thumbing his nose at the central government. In this case, the leader is named Aslan Abashidze and he's dissing the recently-installed government of neo-revolutionaries in Tbilisi, led by Saakashvili, who barely six months ago himself led a coup against Eduard Shevardnadze, who had himself (notice a pattern emerging?) prevailed around a decade earlier over the previous self-parody of a leader, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, who had himself taken power from the Commies in 1991. The Georgians clearly have their own ideas about democracy.

John McCaslin of the Washington Times did an excellent piece on Adjara for townhall.com in early April, noting that Abashidze is definitely taking advantage of being in power, decking himself out in designer threads and tooling around downtown Batumi (if there is such a thing) in a brand new Hummer. And he's also telling everyone in earshot that Saakashvili wants to dump him in the Black Sea in cement Cole Haans. Or words to that effect. Saakashvili insists that he only wants to lock Abashidze up. So what's a would-be tinpot dictator to do in order to save his people from the yoke of central government oppression? What any self-respecting revolutionary would do: blow all the bridges leading to the capital.

Mind you, Abashidze is the provincial governor.

But of course these things are rarely so simple as one lone freedom fighter (Abashidze) against a U.S. educated lawyer (Saakashvili). Not by a longshot. The Russians are also in on the game, siding in this case with Abashidze, because the Russians are deeply concerned about their own revenues from oil passing through the port. Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov came to Abashidze's defense in March, with notorious Russian mobster Grigory Lutchansky in tow. So the stakes are clearly high. Where's the Hummer dealership in Batumi, Aslan?

With such a delicate diplomatic issue coupled with regional tensions, you'd think that Saakashvili, with his nuanced grasp of logic and his Columbia law degree, would want to proceed carefully here, right? Not if you were a Georgian, apparently. Saakashvili ordered the Georgian Navy [insert cruel Post Soviet Ickystan joke here] to proceed with exercises on the Georgian coastline right near -- wait for it -- Adjara! He insists they have no intention of invading. Really.

How does this little post-Commie drama end? Will Aslan drive into the sunset in his Hummer? Will Saakashvili retire to Tbilisi following successful negotiations and start working on tort reform in the Georgian legal system? Will Yuri Luzhkov next run for mayor of Batumi?

Even if you somehow miss the end of this particular little Black Sea drama, have no fear. Something tells me there will be more.

(cross-posted to etalkinghead.com)
Marc posted this at 4.5.04 | Permalink

couldn't have said it better myself

David Carr of Samizdata does me one better in skewering the EU here.
Marc posted this at 1.5.04 | Permalink

welcome to the EU
cross-posted from etalkinghead.com

M e m o

To: New East European EU Members
From: “Old Europe”
cc: Malta, Cyprus
Re: Rights and Responsibilities

So welcome, friends, to the European Union. In a sense you never left, but those Soviets kept you from participating in the real affairs of The Continent for quite a while. But it’s good to have you back. When your celebratory hangover passes, we have a few things for you to think about:

The Economy. To be frank, we’re in dire straits. GDP growth has slowed to a virtual standstill from Rome to Amsterdam, and the strong Euro is making it harder to sell goods to the Scheiss-Amis (Les Americains). Plus which there are some of us (in places like Berlin, London and Paris) that keep exceeding the 3% EU budget deficit target; we’re really not anxious to start paying the mandatory fines. This is where we’re hoping you will come in. We know that many of you are in the upper-single digit GDP growth rates, and we’re hoping to invest in your countries once things are official (we’ll retain ownership and profits, of course, but your people can do the work). That’s fair, right?

Taxes. Quite frankly, we’re looking forward to a little more revenue. Portugal just hasn’t been pulling its weight since we let them in 18 years ago, and some of us have actually had to lower taxes recently to kick-start our economies (don’t tell Washington — they’ll claim it proves George Bush’s point). So you’ll be expected to raise your Value-Added Tax (VAT) to at least 15% in line with EU regulations and you’ll probably have to raise your income taxes as well to cover EU dues. Plus which there will be excise taxes, “sin” taxes, business taxes, etc. But don’t exceed those 3% deficit targets or we’ll have to fine you — and we mean it. Don’t worry too much, though; we’re all in this together. The average marginal tax rate in the EU is 42% compared to America’s 29% — we’re more socially compassionate.

Regulation and Cooperation. We know you folks have been used to authoritarian governments in the past, but we’re looking forward to introducing you to the real European way of doing things. First of all, we’ll send you copies of our regulations. Look for a lorry to arrive in your respective capitals sometime this week with the first shipment. They may seem arcane and difficult to follow, but believe us, it’s imperative that we regulate everything. Labor, commerce, shipping, security, civil rights, human rights, property rights, environment, you name it — we’ve got a regulation to cover it and more are on the way. So start reading. And another thing: we do everything here by committee. You’re going to have to be a little bit less contentious as members of the EU than you have been as new NATO members. Some of us who’ve been in both clubs for a while now have noticed that there are those among you who have delusions of grandeur. Remember that you’re the newbies here and that ceding a little bit of one’s sovereignty may be necessary for the greater good. And don’t try playing our members off against each other like Poland did with Spain last year against Germany & France; it may have worked then, but the larger and more important countries in the EU are wise to that game. Plus which there’s a new government in Spain which should be more, umm, cooperative.

Foreign Policy. Here’s where we recognize we have some work to do with you. We know in the past you were very close to the Americans, but you’re going to have to re-assess that. This means you in particular, Warsaw. The Americans may be our biggest market, but they’re also everyone’s biggest competitor, and we have to take measures to protect ourselves. This may mean additional tarriffs on American goods coming into the EU; be prepared to fall into line on that one because Washington will certainly fight it with some free-trade merde. You’re also going to have to learn to take some heat from Washington on this whole terrorism thing. We all know that the Madrid attacks were, honestly, an aberration; as long as we don’t stir up trouble with the Muslims they’ll leave us alone. The less we get caught up in Bush’s Crusade, the better. And another thing: when Colin Powell gets all twitchy about us continuing to trade with rogue states like Iran, Syria, Belarus and North Korea, remind him that we’re pursuing a “critical dialogue” policy; we’re arguing strenuously in favor of democracy, and we’re prepared to issue as many strongly-worded statements as necessary to back up our convictions. But we do have business interests — even that nasty little man Donald Rumsfeld can’t argue there.

Borders. We can't tell you what a relief it is to know that soon you'll be taking over border controls for the Eastern Front. It's been something of a drain on our resources lately (what with Bush's "Guerre contre le Terrorisme") and we'll be happy to know that you're taking care of it. Of course, you're going to have to upgrade all of your passport control facilities and border protection infrastructure to make sure the unwashed from Ukraine, Russia and the Caucasus don't get in. So get cracking; you've only got a couple of years until we make you members of Schengenland.

Once again, wilkommen and bienvenue to the EU. We’re looking forward to seeing you at the first Ministerial Plenary Session in Bruxelles in June. Do check out that great little cafe on the Grande Place — you can probably even afford it.


Marc posted this at 1.5.04 | Permalink