Read About W-N NP story on W-N Contact W-N and Map Invite to Wed1327 Wednesday Night Salon #1327 27 June Page 2 Introduction Lyda Letacq Dr. Andre Pasternac OWN Prologue: It was not only From Russia with Love and Information, but thanks to Udo Stundner OWN, we were joined by Nino Marshmania , a Rotary Club Ambassadorial Scholar. Nino has been studying Communications at Université de Montréal where her thesis topic is the Reconstruction of Georgia, and its national identity. She brought an intimate knowledge of her home country, The Republic of Georgia and the on-going conflict between the two countries. We live in a world of nations therefore it is important to have a national identity A national identity is shapeless, constantly evolving, more emotional than real, often hybrid and not always easy to create. Some view it as something to be constructed, while others look on it as virtually inherent. It is suggested that the principal unifying factors are common history, unique language and traditions, literature and, in some cases such as Georgia, which is Christian Orthodox, religion will also play a part. Others suggest that common cultural values - rather than shared heritage - are more important than ethnicity. www.flickr.com More of davidnicholson's photos tagged with Wed1327 Wed 1327 slide show On the other hand, promotion of national identity by governments has more often been used as a propaganda tool asserting to their people a special or unique quality that leads to wars and foreign aggression. At a time when many nations are seeking to clarify and even exalt cultural identity, others, like France are reconsidering the exclusive nature of an identity that has been long-established. Zinédine Zidane, Captain of the French national team - French icon or hyphenated national? Finally, among Wednesday Nighters, globalization is a strong influence. Many have multiple citizenships along with identities and prefer to think of themselves as citizens of the world. Georgia Legend has it that when God was distributing portions of the world to all the peoples of the Earth, the Georgians were having a party and doing some serious drinking. As a result they arrived late and were told by God that all the land had already been distributed. When they replied that they were late only because they had been lifting their glasses in praise of Him, God was pleased and gave the Georgians that part of Earth he had been reserving for himself. Georgia has many of the qualities inherent in the definition of national identity, including unique ethnic origins and language remain a mystery, but have been linked by some to the Basque. The language, which has two sub languages, has a unique alphabet, not related to Cyrillic. The history of Georgia is colourful and mentions of the country are found in Greek and Roman annals. It reached the state of nascent empire in the latter part of the 18th century. However, following a disappointing alliance with Russia forged under Catherine the Great, Georgia was annexed by Russia and within a year, the Tsar had abolished the Georgian Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti. Since then, with very brief interludes, Russia has regarded Georgia as an integral part of Russia. and relations have deteriorated particularly since the 2003 resignation of President Eduard Shevardnadze following the Rose Revolution, and the accession to power of a new pro-western generation. The new government has applied for membership in NATO. The country's location between Russia and Turkey with a 300km border on the Black Sea makes it a highly strategic and desirable asset to its northern neighbour. Today Russia exerts pressure on Georgia through control of flows of electricity and oil and its support of the two pro-Russian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. However the new pipeline carrying oil from the vast reserves from Azerbaijan goes through Georgia and will reduce the Russian threat. Russia There is a very educated population; young people in scientific/technical fields are well paid by previous standards (NOT in teaching), but still often work at 2 or 3 jobs. The younger generation believes that the country can function differently from the past, through flexing economic rather than military power (as has been the case with the oil exports through Ukraine and western Europe. In St Petersburg, one senses that money is not flowing, but Moscow is a pulsating, very expensive world capital. The rest of Russia is a black hole. The major concern is what happens after Putin. He is immensely popular, but does not have another mandate without changing the Constitution and it appears to observers that it is more likely that he will identify a successor who will follow his policies, and come back after 4 years. The Kremlin is anxious to do business with the former states of the Soviet Union, but at the same time the atmosphere is increasingly xenophobic, making for greater distrust of the move of countries like Ukraine, Poland or Georgia to open up to the West. Under the autocratic Putin, the economy has improved greatly and he has managed to instill a sense of order, people are working hard. Russian pride has been restored. The economy is booming. Gas & Oil are have been the economic engines, but now heavy industry is being rebuilt [Editor's note: State statistics agency RosStat released full first-quarter GDP data on June 14th. The main factors behind the 7.9% headline growth figure were a 23.2% rise in construction, an 11.8% expansion in manufacturing and a 9.1% increase in trade. Large gains were also registered for hotels and restaurants (13.9%), the wholesale and retail trade (9.1%), financial intermediation (9.9%) and transport and communication (7.9%). In the year-earlier period, GDP growth was 5% and in the fourth quarter of 2006 it was 7.8%.] Investment climate in Russia For smaller investors, it is essential to have large foreign partners, along with the necessary Russian ones, and the right people. Some large American and British institutional investors are ideal partners; they have the knowledge and the right contacts. Real estate is currently a good business in which to invest. There is still fear that highly successful projects part-operated by foreign investors suffer from Kremlin pressure tactics leading to confiscation. BP's experience is often cited, but not unique. There are two sides to the story - in cases like BP's, the Russians moved partly to ensure that foreign companies do not remove all the profits from the country. Russia desperately needs money to build and to repair the infrastructure and for this vast undertaking there is a requirement for not only foreign infrastructure investors, but also foreign expertise, especially new technologies. Europe is the most likely source of partners, especially in light of Russia's exports of gas & oil, however, as the economy improves in Russia, there will be more domestic consumption, leading to less export capacity, particularly without improved pipeline infrastructure. Which explains in part the recent emphasis on Russian sovereignty in the Arctic Westmount Schools Over the past year, several Westmount schools have benefited from the introduction of the Roots & Empathy programme which has proven to be successful in lowering levels of aggression in the classrooms and has been shown to increase children's' academic performance. Diana Thébaud Nicholson Editor dtnicholson@wednesdaynight.net Tel: +1 (514) 934-0023 Thursday 25 Apr 2007 To day NYT Podcast | Menu Radio Like the report of Mark Twain's death, reports of the death of radio –at least FM – are greatly exaggerated. Real estate Bulletin Board Canadian dollar is expected to decline against its U.S. counterpart. The economy See also JACQUES CLEMENT: Pages ON THE ECONOMY Previous Videos Notes by Herb Bercovitz OWN Editor: Diana Thébaud Nicholson OWN Radio, the long-lasting treasure intro Wed1327 | Wed1327 slide show Oil DTN OWN more Louise | DTN Diana Nicholson OWN slides | hands | all | & Louise 3-M slides | albums | all Jacques Clément OWN slides Gerald Ratzer OWN Note Wednesday-Night creates charts and follows stocks, including timely related financial news items, in which Wednesday Nighters are interested and in order to demonstrate a service that could eventually be developed and marketed. Wednesday Nighters are invited to participate and help to test the service. see Wednesday-Night.com Flip charts QUOTES of the EVENING from recent Wednesday Nights 2007 From #1327 invite It’s not a Bush problem, it’s an American problem. He is playing double or nothing. He is trying to shift the responsibility from the Coalition to the Iraqis New York City has more police officers than Iraq has troops More Quotes Short | Full List www.flickr.com This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from davidnicholson tagged with diananicholson. Make your own badge here. Diana Nicholson Past Quotes Best or All Mouse bio see Diana show hands | RJG | Album Herb Bercovitz OWN Galbraith imges his page See slides | Album and Art slides | Album W-N Links for #1327 a NewYorker Cartoon every 30 sec. see w-n Right Menu => Harper's Home 2007 Notes for #1327 Rex Murphy's Point of View index Menu to mitworld.mit.edu/ on-demand videos of significant public events at MIT. in RealPlayer Ex Thomas L. Friedman. While you were Seeping The World IS Flat Video length is 1:15:04. Stephen S. Poloz VP EDC Economics Weekly Commentary Beneath the Surface, Eroding Confidence - August 8, 2007 Global financial markets have witnessed a series of convulsions in recent weeks, whether in stocks, bonds or currencies. Many are describing it as a healthy correction, because some markets had risen too far, too fast – in other words, the bull run is intact, but taking a breather. Certainly, stock market investors do not appear to be overly concerned. Many have been picking up bargains during the sell-off, making the downdraft seem more symbolic than real. The U.S. S&P500 is still up on the year (about 4%), while Toronto’s TSX is up around 7%, by 18% when calculated in U.S. dollars. Emerging market stocks are off their peaks for the most part, China being the main exception, but so far the correction has been smaller than that of June 2006. Past issues | his WN page Commentary podcast. Wednesday-Night.com on Privacy Canadian dollar vs euro | Dow 30 w-n chart | TSX Fed Parties Stéphan Dion | Stevie Harper see also Wednesday-Night.com MedicalNotes Would you like to the Computer Box Click Here To Add Wed1327page2.asp To Your Favorites More Info About... Read Cookie for Site Please click here to see new/updated pages since last visit www.iedm.org/ coming Events Wed1326 report Wed1327 invite Wed1328 with David Kilgour invite The views above are neither those of the authors nor the owner of the website, but merely reflect discussions that took place on this evening