That's right, Science for Peace. Security and Cooperation (OSCE). In the South Caucasus. Rings somewhat hollow right about now.
I've been posting items about the Russian-Georgian fighting on my other blog, Campanastan. Not much stuff about water in that conflict, although it certainly is about fluids. But I thought I'd fill in you WaterWonks on the situation.
As I indicated recently I had purchased a $2,000 non-refundable round-trip ticket to Tbilisi a few days before Georgia invaded South Ossetia and the Russians invaded Georgia. My South Caucasian and European partners and I had finally decided to go ahead with our 6-10 October NATO project meeting - South Caucasus River Monitoring - after hearing "rumblings" for weeks. But the airfares were going up. Smart move, eh?
Now it looks as though we'll go ahead with the meeting and I have redoubled my efforts to get a room reservation at my favorite hotel in Tbilisi. Since the concept of online reservations has not penetrated Georgia as well as the Russian army, I had been emailing the hotel since 30 July with no response. Faxes didn't go through, either.
So yesterday I picked up the phone and called, and got an English-speaking young woman. She said they had plenty of rooms, so I made the reservations for me and my two European colleagues.
The hotel is now quoting room rates in euros (95) instead of dollars (140). Can't say that I blame them.
I then asked her how things were. She laughed weakly and sighed, "We're bored with the Russians now. We want them to go home."
I can imagine.
But I doubt it'll happen soon.
I wonder if the Russians are trashing my colleagues' sampling and measurement sites. But that's the least of their worries right now.
"In Russia we had just two TV channels. Channel One was propaganda. Channel Two was a KGB officer ordering you to turn back to Channel One at once." --Yakov Smirnoff
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