Georgian Politicians Brawl on Live TV
Those familiar with Georgian politics will be aware of the repetitive rhetoric, comments and events that appear to have become as deeply embedded in the national culture as honking car horns in gridlocked traffic.
Statements such as 'deepening cooperation with Europe' or 'expanding bilateral ties with China' have become as regular as they are meaningless to most, but more volatile aspects of Georgian political life also occasionally make an appearance, as in December 2014 when Parliament engaged in a brawl over who would be sent in delegations to international institutions.
While they perhaps perceived a free holiday as something worth fighting for, one suspects the international institutions were subsequently less enthusiastic over receiving Georgians after this display of what the charitable would call passion.
When taking into consideration Georgians' slavish devotion to tradition, it was not entirely surprising that the custom of politicians attacking each other was displayed once again yesterday when Democrat Vepkhia Gurgenishvili and Industrialist Polad Khalikov appeared on national television.
After Gurgenishvili had insulted Khalikov, the Industrialist hurled a pen at him. That prompted Gurgenishvili to navigate his way across the studio and launch a flailing assault. One hesitates to write 'they traded blows' to those accustomed to pub fights in Manchester and Birmingham with real punches thrown. The Georgian brand of violence usually includes pushing, awkwardly slapping and shouting about mothers seems rather vanilla in comparison.
The Industrialist bloc that Khalikov represents is an openly pro-Russian and pro-Stalinist party that believes that the oppressive days of the Soviet Union were, in fact, about as close to Utopia as Georgia is ever going to get.
Western culture and politics, with its free speech, human rights, liberty and progress, are not to be trusted in their eyes.
Yesterday's scuffle, however, did not seem to have been initiated by Khalikov. Indeed, in the video which has now gone moderately viral (though its view numbers still fall way behind 'cat walks backwards'), it is, in fact, Gurgenishvili who appears agitated as he wonders at the top of his voice what his opponent is doing there.
The deadly pen is then thrown.
To most people, maintaining a moral high ground over anyone who believes that Stalin somehow exhibited the qualities of Jesus, Washington and Rambo would be rather an easy task.
There would be no need to become agitated or aggressive; all one need do is refer the opponent to any history book written outside of Russia.
Even if in the face of calm reason did the opponent hurl a pen – or a stapler, even, though a brick might be pushing it – then one hopes that politicians might have the intelligence not to retaliate and let the man embarrass himself and his party on national television; any party that venerates Stalin naturally embarrasses itself every time it makes a statement of any kind, but showing it to be violent as well as woefully misguided could have helped it towards electoral ruin.
Descending to the level of Stalinists is more shameful than fighting on live television.
The upcoming Georgian elections set for October 8 have thus far gone largely uncovered in the mainstream Western media. On election day, itself, there will be no doubt a half-page article that will appear on the BBC discussing the results. But with the aftermath of Brexit and the more important elections in America the Western world's attention is elsewhere.
What this video has done is provide a few moments of light relief as the Western public shakes its head and smiles at the moronic behavior of these silly Georgians; in some ways, this has real potential to damage Georgia's EU aspirations.
Earlier this year, the Germans claimed that they did not want to liberalize visa regulations for Georgian citizens due to crimes committed by Georgians in Germany.
This was lampooned in Georgia (not without some justification), as the minuscule number of Georgians in Germany is not enough to even make a dent in Germany's crime scene; Berlin's excuses seemed especially weak due to the rise in crime committed by Syrian migrants.
When Europeans watch this latest video – a video showing public figures, supposedly some of the best specimens the country has to offer – engaging in a childish physical fight, enthusiasm for having more Georgians in Germany will wither and, ultimately, die.
By Tim Ogden
Edited by Nicholas Waller