perceptions

and so i found myself in a geneva 5 star hotel with a much of business leaders from all over europe, as well as certain political figures of note (again, wondering how i got there!) i was, as usual, the token female, a role i am increasingly getting used to.
the times are tense and tough, and talks quickly went political. as usual, they centred around Georgia.
let me state again, i am not writing here to judge the situation or to say who is right or wrong in it, what interests me far more is the war of perceptions. I have long been obsessed with the way in which the media can drive public opinion, and how it functions and gets manipulated.
but in this case, i would say the situation was a bit of a no-brainer. i have already written about the media war surrounding Georgia. but now i have been able to observe the players up close, making the whole thing even more painfully obvious.
i ran into the Georgian prime minister, Lado Gurgenidze, and two of his colleagues, over croissants in the morning. What a smooth operator! the sad thing is, images, perceptions and first impressions do count, and you could not help but be impressed by this guy. He has degree from the US, speaks absolutely fluent and colloquial English. his accent is less noticeable than mine. furthermore, it is not just the fluency that hits you, it is the high level of sophisticated vocabulary and turns of phrase. and he wears nice tailored suits, good cologne, and is polite and well mannered. In a clintonesque way, he poured me coffee with a charming smile, and asked me questions about my position, even though i more or less must represent the enemy in his eyes. i found myself assuring his aides that of course i love Georgia, its wine and its people- oh, and the cheese of course! hardly what a representative of the Russian media should be announcing in public i am sure. later he did a presentation. again, everything was ultra-slick, with flashing graphics and high definition flow charts.
now you could of dismissed this as a one off exception...but then later on a delegate from MONGOLIA showed up and made a similar impression. this guy had an Oxford degree, equally fluent language and manners, and another nice suit. after his 30 minute presentation, i think we were all indeed prepared to believe that the future of Mongolia is bright.

now compare this image to the Russia delegates: poorly spoken, vulgar and crude, with thick accents and grammatical horrors. the men wore ill fitting suits and shirts with odd patterns. the one woman with them had badly died red hair and a bright blue suit on. The Georgians made no accusations of excuses, speaking instead about investment, economic growth and market reforms, the Russian delegates shrieked about the whole world being against them (while the government in Moscow decided to shut the stock market several times this week!!!) and accused Georgia of all kinds of atrocities.
and in doing so, they looked like fools. the georgians didnt have to accuse them of anything, they were their own worst advocates. it was painful to watch. in a room full of decision makers, you could almost read everyone's mind, seeing them writing off enormous cheques to tbilisi.
out in the hallway, one of the Russian delgates pulled me aside "these fucking Georgians, they are like monkeys dressed up in suits, and everyone is listening to them!" he continued to rant on, pointing out (i am sure correctly) that all the Georgians there were ultimately the off spring of Soviet elites, who had been to the best schools prior to 1991. "We made them who they are, they would have been nothing without us!" he barked. yes, i concede, he might be correct. but does that matter now?

the thing is, i have come across loads of Georgians who are semi-educated and practically peasants, and i know many well educated and sophisticated Russians. so why does every event like this end up the same way? it is not by any means an accurate reflection of inherent reality, it is a problem of representation of that reality. it is not just that the Georgians and Mongolians spoke perfect English (although that helped) it is that they behaved and spoke in a way investors (Swiss, German, French, British) understand and want to hear. many of the investors were themselves Russian born, but came to the event representing international banks, and were cringing as much as i was to watch their homelands official representatives.

i dont believe that Russia is necessarily on a fundamentally different planet, or that Georgians are somehow closer to "us the West." I think that the current Georgian leadership has a brilliant PR team, and the Russian leadership does not. the question here is- why? Russia has no shortage of people who could present a brillant image of their rich country and civilisation. Yet, their leadership seems to go for the crude goons everytime. If these leaders didnt care about world opinion, that would be understandable, but the hysteria suggested they do indeed care- and a lot. so i dont get it- why dont they get a slick PR team, get some well spoken guys in nice clothes and stick them behind the podium with a fetching smile? if they did, i am sure the perceptions of the situation would reverse radically.