Third World vs Batumi

In many ways Georgia is totally a third world country at this point. There are more unpaved roads than paved ones, the power goes out at fairly frequent random intervals, and it isn’t unusual in some parts of the country to go two weeks without running water (I, fortunately, don’t have the water issue because my family has a well)

One veteran TLGer told me that his village took a vote on which community improvement they wanted; the government was either willing to pave the road leading from the main road to the school or to improve the water system. The community voted for a paved road.

In a country where the citizens have to choose between paved roads and running water, it’s a little disconcerting to see cities like Batumi being built. Batumi has the rather futuristic-looking Radisson Blue and a Sheraton with a pricy restaurant observation deck overlooking the Black Sea. There’s the 20 story alphabet tower which is nothing more than a fancy casing for an observation deck, twenty hotel rooms and a bar, and soon they will be breaking ground for the Trump Tower. As for attractions there are fountains set to lights and music, a botanical garden, an exotic bird enclosure, a farris wheel, and a place to go trampoline bungee jumping.

They’re putting all of this stuff in to attract tourists, but what they don’t seem to take into account is that at least half of the non-Georgians in Batumi are being paid by their own government. They want wealthy Europeans to come, but what they’re really getting is TLGers spending the weekend out of their villages and we aren’t spending money, at least not any money they hadn’t given us in the first place. Even then we aren’t in the Radisson or the Sheraton, we’re in the hotel Illico ten blocks back from the beach wondering when the last time the towels were washed.

The fancy part of Batumi is a ghost town, yet the Georgian government prides themselves on Batumi like it’s nobody’s business. On their show, “Georgia’s got talent,” they show every contestant walking through some part of Batumi, past the hotels or the tower or the botanical gardens, as a way of saying “look, Georgian people, this is your beautiful country!” even though it isn’t. The Georgian people’s country is made of dirt roads, crumbling houses, and power outages.