Buffs, Longhorns, BlueDevils

Dinner tonight with UN ex-military-peace-keeping envoys. Both here to mitigate, negotiate and pontificate with NGO (non-governmental organization) workers like me, the curiosities of the Russian, Abkhazian, Georgian "mess".

So here is the military-political-cultural scoop from as close as I will ever be to 'the source' in 100 words or less:
Russia set the stage by constructing railways in Abkhazia (and other activities) as early as last spring. Condoleza Rice, (remember her?) pleaded with the Georgians "don't take the bait the Russians are putting in front of you". The Georgians did not listen, and escalated minor skirmishes with the Russians in Abkhazia and South Ossetia late last summer. "These are Georgian territorities so stay away", Georgia said. Russia retaliated (all out nasty war as you recall) and made it appear as if the Georgians started the whole thing.
Georgia lost, against the Russian 'might'. Russia claims Abkhazia's independence, but really Abkhazia is dependent on Russia for economic, military and infrastructure development which is what Russia wants. Simple enough.
The curiosity according to UN lies in the lack of Russian accountability for their actions. No repercusions, no hand slapping, no sanctions from anyone (suggestions from the UN were banning them from the G8, freeze bank holdings.......).
Russian is likely to 'keep doing what they have been doing', ie keep areas such as Abkhazia and South Ossetia destabilized so that Georgia is unable to join NATO ( NATO will not allow any new members to be involved in border conflicts). This will ultimately collapse their ecomomy which was beginning to flourish prior to the war last summer.

In response to my question" how do you sort out the cultural curisosities, such as so many Abkhazians that are part Russian, part Georgian?".... like a cinnamon roll, once it is baked, it's hard to distinquish the individual ingredients.
The response was clever.
A few minutes before I posed the innocent question we talked about where we were from, sports, family and on and on......
Oleg, a Russian who immigrated to New Jersey with his family, went to the Air Foce Academy and now works for the UN and Mike, who grew up in Carolina, has a house and family in Hawaii and also works for the UN, said:
"So you say you are from Colorado but in truth you grew up in Texas, and if you had to choose you would choose the Longhorns over the Buffs in football, but really your allegences are with the Blue Devils in North Carolina, but for basketball". "Yes indeed" I say. Its sort of like that in Russian, Georgia and Abkhazia. A great big cinnamon roll. You want some?
We all self-define ourselves based on choices, and sometimes those choices are based on legacy or heritage or economic constraints and sometimes the choices are based on CHOICE alone. Some people have greater ability to choose because they CAN CHOOSE. Others self-define because they really don't know they have a choice, or they don't really have a choice because they are stuck with who they are and where they are economically, politically, geographically. A harsh reality in much of the world.

For me, the profound truth of who I am, who I can be and how my ability to choose and THAT I choose was made more clear tonight.

Choice, whether one can choose and then will choose often determines politics.
Hummmmm

Nighty night loved ones, g