P4RT1C1P8!: Svaneti

I have now been to several village meetings in Etseri, Upper Svaneti, my home since mid-2012, and am getting a feel for how these things work at this smallest level of local government. The gatherings have all been about politics before elections, or about local planning and budgeting to the tune of some tens of thousands of Georgian Lari (at a rate of USD 1 = 1.3 to 2.3 GEL in the period noted). I was just an observing resident, and although my grasp of Svan is rather basic, my Georgian is much better. And in any case, with both languages being used, the general tone of each meeting, the body language, facial expressions and vocal expressions, spoke volumes. We have a long way to go to reach agreement on anything.

Recently, I have been investigating this thing called participatory democracy, specifically the budgeting side of it, because this has been an important part of some of the village meetings. We have this much money allotted to us for the year for infrastructure improvement, broken down to X amount for this hamlet, Y for that, and so on. Ideas, people?

Once, half-present, they could be distracted and persuaded to look up from their cell phones or stop their innumerable extraneous conversations, the "debates" began. But these almost instantly degenerated into an airing of past grievances carefully nurtured, and petty squabbles about the topic. There was no politeness shown to whoever was speaking, and it all had to be said at the same time, over the top of one another. Volume, rather than logic or sense, won out; but the hearts were lost in any case. Nothing was resolved, except that I expected to stay away in future, which for me was really an expression of hopelessness. What might I miss? Only this? Not much, then, and save myself the 1 km walk down and back up, and the frustration. I hated to think like this, but my inner optimist was facing severe challenge from the reality corner of the ring.

Participatory budgeting is being done all over the world, most successfully in Brazil, where it originated in the 1980s, in Canada, India, parts of Europe, and America. On scales huge to tiny, people are being enabled to get involved in how some of their municipal funds are spent, sometimes to the tune of tens of millions of US dollars or Euros. Why not us, too? The rich and the poor are doing it. We don't lack the technological knowhow or infrastructure; more the mutual trust, the conception that we need to put away those old hurts and move on for the greater good. Must we be so public with our inter-family grievances, anyway? Or is this typical of the people here, whose couple of hundred ancient stone watchtowers are often close enough to spit at or stone one another from?

Anyway, Etseri, the only Etseri in Georgia using the non-aspirated "ts", is a translation, not of anything in Georgian or Svan, or at least not only, but (also) of the Hebrew word for "help". It's even in the Old Testament of the Bible. This was an exciting discovery, one which I repeat to anyone who will listen. We do need each other, especially when we are neighbors, family, friends, living in one community, including the odd foreigner like me. My wife and I have been welcomed with open arms, a good deal of settling-in help, and not a little surprise that we would choose to live here, when Svans dream of Tbilisi or even Toronto.

I dream, on the other hand, of my fellow villagers rolling up their sleeves, banishing cynicism, and taking the chance which is actually offered them: to have and use a say in how a good chunk of their local budget is spent. To monitor it from start to finish, then re-iterate, noting past mistakes and improving the process each time, not giving up in disgust but using the little failures to build successes. This is my challenge to YOU. Are you up to it?

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 over 1300 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

Tony Hanmer