November 20: Revival Protest
The opposition is taking a break: they have gone home for the time being, and into the protest gap, the Revival party has bused into town several thousand, uh, protesters.
As you look down Rustaveli, toward the Parliament building, you can see the blocked road in the far distance.
Rustaveli is a parking lot once again. The buses in the background are full of "reaction police," government police who are there in case things get violent. Mostly they just sit and stay out of the cold. They have been very restrained throughout this entire event.
This crowd feels really different from the opposition crowd: more menacing somehow. This morning, on the way to work, I stopped by and they were playing loud, soothing music. No speeches, just music. I have heard stories that these are all off-duty policemen, which I can't prove one way or another, but they are mostly from Adjara, which is easy to prove since the dozens and dozens of buses are all from Adjara. When the opposition called for mass protests in front of the Parliament building, on the other hand, the current government blocked all the roads into Tbilisi, stopping anyone from entering the capital. Of course, when the government wants a support demonstration, people get paid to show up and the roads are always clear.
Today's hot scandal is the resignation of the director of Channel One, the official government television station. He resigned rather than comply with Shevardnadze's order to report only pro-government news. The dictator of Adjara, Abashidze, has his own captive television network: Adjara Television. They have been running infomercials explaining how Saakashvili is just like Hitler. (See Blog Entry) Adjara TV is always soothing, always, uh, just right.
Rustavi Ori (Rustavi two) is in the opposition camp, and the government has accused them of all kinds of dirty tricks: conducting exit polls which don't agree with the falsified election results (which inflamed public opinion!), running programming which is critical of the government, and openly discussing the miserable economic situation here. Hmpf. Shoot them all, I say.
On the other hand, Adjara Television is just right, calming and correct. They are broadcasting all the news from this pro-government protest. Fair and Balanced (TM) seems to be an apt description of their coverage.
These protesters have excellent sound equipment with big speakers mounted on buses. Their flags are also better, in my opinion, than Saakashvili's flags. The golden stars on blue make a moving impression, especially when contrasted with the really handsome Georgian flag, maroon, black, and white.
I think the National Socialists in Germany also had excellent design sense.
And so, it is staying peaceful. A friend told me that most of these people were coerced to be here: one guy was told that he would lose his job if he didn't go to Tbilisi, another story was of a guy paid 20 lari a day to be here, and others are here on assignment from the police forces of Adjara. I have no idea if any of this is true. How could I know?
But I am not lying when I say that walking through this crowd is a really different experience from walking through the other crowd. I am instantly recognizable as a foreigner here: I dress wrong, I look wrong, and my body language is wrong. I have a backpack on and I am carrying a camera. I stick out just like an American. The opposition crowd felt welcoming, glad to have me there.
This crowd stares at me and wants me to go to hell.