honesty

I am increasingly thinking that Georgians are making a point of defining themselves against Russians. Most telling example: the police in Georgia don’t take bribes!!! I had heard rumours of this great transformation back when I still lived in Moscow. An acquaintance of mine who regularly travelled to Tbilisi assured me that the president had fired two thirds of the police force and given huge raises to those who stayed, on the condition they clean up their act. Some in the beginning pushed their luck and ended up in jail, and the message soon got out to the rest. Today on the streets you see a fair number of police, but unlike the Russian militsia, they do not seem to regard foreigners as walking banks. They appear polite and law abiding. On the autobahn, I was stopped once by the traffic police. The officer apologised for the inconvenience, checked the driver’s license, then saluted and wished us a pleasant journey on to the airport. I was shocked, but the driver assured me it was all normal these days, and I was just too used to living in Russia, “they will need 300 years to catch up to us” he announced proudly. Next came the tales of the war in August, when the soldiers were apparently stealing everything they could get their hands on, from shoes to toilet bowls, which reminds me of the stories older Hungarians used to tell me in Budapest….apparently stealing toilet bowls has long been a Russian soldier trademark- of it has become a self perpetuating myth of Russian soldiers at least. How much of this is true is of course anyones guess, but it is interesting to see what is valued here, and that apparently includes honesty…..