Saakashvili speaks with Al Jazeera - 15 Aug 2008

I've been frustrated by what I've heard in the media here on what is happening in Georgia, which tends to be repetitive, shallow, and lacking a sense of historicity. Georgia is a place I haven't paid a lot of attention to up until recently, but any changes in the role of Russia in the lives of its neighbors to the west attracts my interest. So this lengthy interview with President Saakashvili was quite fascinating to me. So was this BBC report about Ukraine extending a technological helping hand to the West, presumably for potential future Russian "adventures" (to use Sakashvili's language).

For a blogger recap of what's been going on, check out Shashalnikya on livejournal.

The latest episode of Italian xenophobia

"The reaction to the death of these children goes beyond anything that has happened before. The incident has exposed a long-held social realism in our country: that many working-class people think the Roma no better than animals, and the government is using this xenophobia to win votes and popularity. People are ashamed. The deaths of these girls has come to represent something more, perhaps a battle for Italy's soul."
-- Francesca Saudino, a campaigning Naples-based lawyer with Osservazione, a Roma rights organization, quoted in The Observer in an article on the recent (non)reaction in Italy to the deaths of two teenaged Romani girls on a beach in Naples