Hey, I’m about couple of weeks here. HeidelbergCement, the company I work in offered me promotion and some work in Georgia where we’re building cement works. I like traveling and new places. So here I am here! I’ve heard that Georgia is ancient beautiful country with old tradition and fine culture. But to my disappointment I’ve found here just poverty and police outrage in the streets.In first week of my stay here local authorities closed Georgian company we cooperated with and brought it before court in few days omitting any prosecutor’s orders. Now their case is inquired by some sleepy man who hasn’t ever hurries. Seemingly poor people would languish in a overcrowded jail till doomsday. That was so weird for me.
But that was just a beginning. Some secretary of local authorities came to us and let us know that we should understand that 1 million 300 thousand lari is too small sum for such valuable license for mining of cement raw stuff. So we should ‘present’ some enormous sum to to the head of West Georgian region. That would be “grant for region development needs” they said. And there’s also common practice in Georgia when local leaders share president Saakashvili definite percent of such money aid or grant or what you call it.
This fact put me off being here once and for all. I would even refuse from promotion and would return to Germany. But that’s quite good money. Luckily Georgia is only part of my job. This is as good as working in some African tribe with wild wilful chieftain and absence of democracy.