Word: georgians
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Fate can be fickle. Georgian leader Zviad Gamsakhurdia made history eight months ago when he became the first person to win the presidency of a Soviet republic by popular election. It was a stunning triumph for the anticommunist nationalist, who had been at the forefront of Georgia's campaign to gain independence from Moscow. Gamsakhurdia's lead at the polls was so commanding -- he had 87% of the vote -- that few doubted his hold on power. Last week he made history again, this time in an ignominious way: he became the first elected President of a former Soviet republic...
...putsch leaders claimed that brute force was necessary to end Gamsakhurdia's brief, tyrannical rule. But they have set a dangerous precedent for the new republics. In overthrowing a popularly elected President, the Georgian rebels discredited the country's fledgling democratic institutions and opened the way for the kind of cyclical struggle between armed political clans that has hampered the growth of democracy elsewhere in the developing world. Says Soviet nationalities expert Paul Goble: "The idea that Gamsakhurdia is a fascist thug being replaced by liberals is nonsense." Not only is Georgia's own future clouded, but there...
...Georgian Military Council vowed to turn over power "in the very near future" to a provisional civilian government led by former Prime Minister Tengiz Sigua, a onetime Gamsakhurdia ally who was pushed out of office in a political squabble. But Military Council member Dzhaba Ioseliani, head of the anti-Gamsakhurdia Mkhedrioni, or White Horsemen, paramilitary squads, suggested that the timetable would depend on how quickly life in the republic returned to normal. "Power is now in our hands," he said. "Until things calm down and until democratic institutions take root, we will keep power...
...this has given Bradshaw what he calls "a nice income that I'd never dreamed of having." He is redoing the Georgian-style home in an elegant Houston neighborhood that he bought from his wife Nancy after their divorce 2 1/2 years ago, filling it with antiques, Indian artifacts and a collection of wizard figurines; his inner child, he says, is "fascinated by wizards." Shopping has become something of an obsession, and his tastes run to the opulent: his bedroom has purple wallpaper and a sleigh bed draped with a purple sari. He now has a second home: a Swiss...
Lithgow avoids reducing Ellard to a Georgian stereotype. His wide chewy expressions and drawly English lessons--"Bah-urd" for board, "Faw-Werk" for fork--are hilarious. But Lithgow also convinces the audience of Ellard's softness and struggle to learn the language he teaches...