La Dolce Vita

Op-Ed

I too have a dream that Georgia irreversibly goes down in history as the greatest demonstrations of freedom of enterprise, human liberty and unadulterated democracy, forever remaining a great beacon light of expectation for change for tens of millions of post-soviet hopefuls who were seared in the flames of lasting communistic prejudice and injustice.

I too have a dream that Georgia will never be defaulted on the recent promissory note to which every member of our society was to fall heir, refusing to believe that our bank of justice is bankrupt and unable to give us, upon demand, the riches of freedom and the security of fairness.

Now is the time in this country to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of once bitterly experienced injustice to the solid rock of national unity and political constructivism. Now is the time to make justice an absolute reality for the good people of Georgia. It must be universally remembered that it would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of this pivotal moment. 2020 is not going to be an end of good intentions, but a beginning of the overall national rehabilitation when we return to business as usual.

In the process of gaining our deserved and rightful place in the world history and its ongoing life, Georgia must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Just the contrary – Georgia has to be right and justified in every possible respect of its current existence and from the viewpoint of historical decision-making by its intellectual elite. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom and good life by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.

I too have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out of the true meaning of the universal creed of humanity so wisely and dexterously used once in history by the American founding fathers: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal’. I too have a dream that someday very soon we will sit down together at the table of brotherhood to discuss the ills and pains of this nation so that the cure is found at last. Thank God Almighty that we are free and ready to put our crucial act together!

My revisiting the King’s masterpiece was a sheer accident, and when it flashed in my mind that the brilliancy of its veracity could be tailored to our cumbersome reality, I took the risk . . . and then, cynically, I remembered the popular American song of the roaring twenties ‘I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream’. Yes, it is time to scream for La Dolce Vita if it could be gotten hold of with the help of dreams, screams and wishes. There are so many other dreams that come and go in my wistful mind, like some day in the foreseeable future, I open my eyes and the good news has that Georgia is a member of NATO and the EU, lost lands are back, and the dream triangle of friendship and cooperation amongst Georgia, Russia and America is working with pleasurable success, or I see the heavy traffic of bikes and scooters instead of the huge stupid SUVs in our streets, or dogs have not pooped in front of my gates, and the politicians are working on major issues of the day to raise the plummeting standard of living, and the high-ranking civil servants learn how to drive their own modest cars instead of residing in their chauffeured vehicles with darkened windows and loud horns, or the hateful TV stations give us some good news every once in a while, or the architects of the country learn what to build when and where, or the scores of panhandlers in town have jobs and homes.

But all of a sudden, all those T’s get crossed and I’s get dotted in a joke of my youth:

- Baby, do you want a candy? – a grownup man is asking a little boy promisingly.

- Yes, I do – answers the kid eagerly.

- I don’t have one – the answer sounds with vicious but unconscious cynicism.

That’s the way it goes!

By Nugzar B. Ruhadze

Image source: wtop.com