Who is Online

We have 283 guests and no members online

Central Asia

More Silk Road Adventures - The Caucasus - Independence Day - Tbilisi

Details
Parent Category: Travel
Category: Central Asia
Hits: 50472

Article Index

Page 18 of 29

Independence Day - Tbilisi

 

Back in Tbilisi the traffic was close to deadlock, made worse than usual by road closures around Georgian Independence Day. 

Although our hotel was not on a main thoroughfare, the back streets leading to it were not coach friendly, with impossibly tight corners and low hanging wires. So after one, almost failed, approach on arrival, from then on, the group went to and from the big bus in several minibuses.

This time not even the minibuses could make it so we went on foot. Our hotel was on an unprepossessing street but had turned out to be very comfortable and while vehicles were problematic it was only about fifteen minutes on foot to the city centre in one direction and to Liberty Square in the other.

 

See album See album
See album See album

Georgia Independence Day - Liberty Square and fireworks
That's St George killing a mythical foe on the post - the military have others in mind
Georgia, once in the Warsaw Pact, has sought membership of NATO - right on Russia's border
With 10 other former Soviet Republics it's a member of the NATO aligned, Orwellian titled: 'Partnership for Peace'. 
We've got you surrounded Putin! But we're friendly. Don't be so paranoid!

 

We also found some quite nice places to eat nearby.

 

See album See album
See album See album See album

A couple of the several Georgian eateries we patronised in Tbilisi
There are more images in the Georgia Album See more...

 

Now it was time to move on to Armenia. The coach took us to the border where we would cross to yet another coach, and another local guide, on the other side. 

 

See album See album
See album

Leaving Georgia to Armenia
There are more images in the Georgia Album See more...

 


 

 

No comments

Travel

South Korea & China

March 2016

 

 

South Korea

 

 

I hadn't written up our trip to South Korea (in March 2016) but Google Pictures gratuitously put an album together from my Cloud library so I was motivated to add a few words and put it up on my Website.  Normally I would use selected images to illustrate observations about a place visited.  This is the other way about, with a lot of images that I may not have otherwise chosen.  It requires you to go to the link below if you want to see pictures. You may find some of the images interesting and want to by-pass others quickly. Your choice. In addition to the album, Google generated a short movie in an 8mm style - complete with dust flecks. You can see this by clicking the last frame, at the bottom of the album.

A few days in Seoul were followed by travels around the country, helpfully illustrated in the album by Google generated maps: a picture is worth a thousand words; ending back in Seoul before spending a few days in China on the way home to OZ. 

Read more: South Korea & China

Fiction, Recollections & News

Are we the same person we once were?

 

 

 

I was initially motivated to write this cautionary note by the controversy surrounding the United States Senate hearing into the appointment of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court that was briefly called into question by Dr Christine Blasey Ford's testimony that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were both in their teens.

Kavanaugh is but one of many men who have come to the attention of the '#MeToo' movement, some of whom are now cooling their heels in jail.

Like the Kavanaugh example, a number of these cases, as reported in the media, seem to rely on someone's memory of events long past.  Yet as I will argue below after a decade or so our memories are anything but reliable.  After that time we should be respecting the accused's legal right to be presumed innocent, unless there is contemporary immutable evidence (diaries photographs and so on) or a number of non-colluding witnesses or others who have suffered a similar assault. 

Now in the news another high profile person has been convicted of historical sexual assault.  Cardinal George Pell has appealed his conviction on several charges relating to historical paedophilia.

There is just one accuser, the alleged victim.  A second alleged victim took his own life some time ago. The case was heard twice and in total 22 of the 24 jurors decided in favour of the alleged victim, despite the best defence money could buy.  Yet, as with the '#MeToo' movement in respect of powerful men, there is currently worldwide revulsion (see my Ireland Travel Notes) at sexual crimes committed within the Roman Catholic Church, such that a Cardinal is likely to be disbelieved, just as at one time a choir boy's accusations against a bishop or a priest would have been, and were, dismissed.

Both trials were held in closed court and the proceedings are secret so we have no knowledge of any supporting evidence. We do know that the two alleged victims were members of the Cathedral Choir and at least one other ex-choir boy also gave evidence. So justice may have been served. 

Yet I'm just a little concerned about the historical nature of the charges.  How reliable is anyone's memory? 

Read more: Are we the same person we once were?

Opinions and Philosophy

The Chimera of Clean Coal

The Chimera‡ - also known as carbon capture and storage (CCS) or Carbon Sequestration

 

 


Carbon Sequestration Source: Wikimedia Commons

 

Whenever the prospect of increased carbon consumption is debated someone is sure to hold out the imminent availability of Clean Coal Technology; always just a few years away. 

I have discussed this at length in the article Carbon Sequestration (Carbon Capture and Storage) on this website. 

In that detailed analysis I dismissed CCS as a realistic solution to reducing carbon dioxide emissions for the following reasons:

Read more: The Chimera of Clean Coal

Terms of Use

Terms of Use                                                                    Copyright