Under the Chestnut Tree

    Hubby and I wanted to open a bar and call it The Chestnut Tree Café, inspired by George Orwell’s 1984. It had to have this feeling of mock freedom in a totalitarian world – cameras by the entrance, Victory gin, recording devices. Scary bathrooms. 1984 quotes on the walls. We thought it would be funny.

    I came back from a remote village in mountains today. I visited a kindergarten there, a freshly renovated, clean and cute kindergarten. With young and motivated teachers. But despite the new toys, new trainings, kindergarten can't provide all the services it is supposed to.  A kid goes  to that kindergarten, just for 1 hour a day, and no one knows what to do with this kid. He does not play like other kids, he does not talk like other kids, he can't be managed like other kids.

    My colleague went to another village to discover family with several kids that have multiple disabilities. Epilepsy and blindness, intellectual problems and immobility, you name it, these kids have it. She saw one girl who has never left the bed in 11 years. Another one had puss coming out of her eye. The third one spent most of her days locked out on the balcony. These kids had conditions that could have been prevented but due to myriad reasons, they were denied regular healthcare.

    We spent some time talking about these cases. We felt responsibility crush us. We had to undo years of damage. 2 of us.

    Last night I watched the most ridiculous discussion on TV. Foaming, people were yelling that passing anti-discrimination bill will ensure homosexual teachers raping pupils.

    May 17^th is coming and this time around, nothing is happening. After 2 years of rallying, just silence.

    My friend and her family had to sit through a 2-hour rant that declared their daughter and sister abnormal.

    After moving forward, we came back the full circle and are seriously discussing (again!) whether gay relations should be allowed.

   Clergy walks in and out Parliament sessions as it pleases.

   A young female lawyer talking about elementary, school-book level democracy principles is hissed at by audience in the Georgian fucking Parliament.

   Georgian government gives away one of the oldest hospitals in the city to the church that systematically destroys and deforms anything of historical significance that falls into its greedy hands.

   Anti-discrimination law is chopped down, mutilated, raped and killed. Debates are still raging over the corpse.  Necrophils from all over the county try to kick the cadaver just one last time.

   We won’t open a mock-totalitarism bar in a totalitarian country. I don’t need a bar for that – I can just open the window.

Under the spreading chestnut tree I sold you and you sold me:
There lie they, and here lie we
Under the spreading chestnut tree

    P.S. the pic: clergy before walking out of the parliament. pic stolen from fb shares.