A place like Georgia makes one realize how much we take for granted. For instance, the assumption that a country has one (or maybe two) names. This is Georgia, Gurcistan, Gruzya, or Sakartvelos, depending on which language you're speaking. It's also a common assumption that progress is linear - forward. I was once talking with Janvier about how Europe could have plunged into the Dark Ages and completely forget the technological accumulation of the Greeks and Romans. I see the exact same process at work in Georgia (and Armenia, but this blog is about Georgia): enormous factories; solid public services like asphalt roads, tram and trolley infrastructure, apartment buildings, bridges, bus-stop shelters, cable cars, funicular systems, hotels and government buildings, museums - all signs of an industrial and developed nation, and nearly all abandoned, disused
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