Petrol Protest: Etseri, Svaneti
Blog
A while ago, my wife and I added vehicle fuels to the list of things our shop would sell, out of the garage: petrol (benzini in Georgian) and diesel (solyarka in Russian). These I usually bought from the closest proper outlet, in Mestia, filling the 4x4 with 20L and 5L bottles totaling about 250L each run. The additions were very popular, and most people didn’t mind paying our marked-up price for the convenience of having it so close at hand. We tried, and mostly succeeded, to make this a cash-only thing, not extending credit for it. So far so good, although we also talked about a long-term storage solution particularly for the petrol, which is so volatile. A large metal tank?
All this abruptly changed last week, however, when I was away shopping for supplies in Zugdidi, 110 km away and Lali was thus home alone. A pair of drunk young locals drove up and asked for some petrol. Lali, seeing their condition, refused to sell. They got abusive; one of them threatened that he was quite happy to go to prison for what he’d do to her if she didn’t meet his demand. (Hmm, needed to complete his Svan “thief in law” education?) She countered by offering to call the police, and eventually they drove off, imprecations flying back in the wind. She did call the sister of one of them, who came down and got involved.
Once I returned that evening and heard the whole story, I put my foot down and said that we would simply stop selling these two fuels. For several reasons, the main one being that I’ve seen acquaintances up here dead from drinking and driving, been to their funerals, experienced the mess they leave behind in bereaved young families whose mothers are forbidden by custom from remarrying. Why should I be the one selling the petrol or diesel to any young man (they are legion) who seems bent on self-destruction if not worse? Let his death be caused elsewhere. He might still be able to buy what he needs from another source, and I can’t stop that, but at least my conscience will be clean. Not to mention that we’ll be free of the demands and threats, which can get pretty wild. We also have never sold any alcohol in the shop, for similar reasons. There, decision made: once it’s gone we’ll not get any more and leave it at that.
The new young village mayor also heard from Lali about our situation, and apparently a town meeting is to be heard as the first one since his inauguration, with a few different items on the agenda. Although I have been at a few of these and come away in despair at the kindergarten-level shouting matches into which they descended, I intend to be at this one too. Partly to see if anything has changed, and partly to say my piece, about which I am still thinking and praying for wisdom. I know what is needed, though the details are unpopular.
First, recognition that there IS a problem at all, viz. the uncontrolled drinking among young men, too frequently matched with driving and consequences. (Have I mentioned yet that almost none of the drivers in the village have… licenses?) Second, the determination to make a complete about-face, a permanent 180-degree turn from this destructive pattern, which likely can only be done with help. The word which is needed here is metanoia in Greek; monanieba in Georgian; and in English: repentance.
Tony Hanmer has lived in Georgia since 1999, in Svaneti since 2007, and been a weekly writer for GT since early 2011. He runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with nearly 1900 members, at www.facebook.com/groups/SvanetiRenaissance/
He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri:
www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti
By Tony Hanmer