Coverage of Georgia

Danyl at the Dim-Post is frustrated by the priority TVNZ One News gives to the Olympics over the Russian invasion of Georgia. He suggests TVNZ are so Olympics obsessed we might see this:

Wendy: Shock in the middle east today, as the Antichrist appeared in the sky over the ancient town of Meggido in Israel and declared himself ruler of the earth. The five mile tall radioactive dragon is currently engaging the US 82nd airborne in mortal combat. We’ll have that story for you in a moment, but first let’s cross live to Simon Dallow in Beijing.

Simon: Thanks Wendy, well, no medals for New Zealand as yet but American swimmer Michael Phelps . . .

A five mile tall radioactive dragon would be quite cool!

For those who do want to read more about Georgia, Nevil Gibson at NBR blogs on the history of the region and a breakdown of the players:

Abkhazians: Hate the Georgians and have their own language. They are more likely to be Muslim. Their land was ceded to Georgia by Stalin in 1931 (incidentally, the Soviet dictator was born in Gori, which is just south of Ossetia and is now under Russian control). Fought a civil war to resist a Georgian takeover after the collapse of the Soviet Union and now have a unrecognised independent “state.”

Ossetians: Speak an Indo-European language, unlike others in the region, and like the Abkhazians fought a civil war against the Georgians to achieve autonomy under Russian protection. The northern half of Ossetia is in Russia and the two parts are linked by the Roki tunnel, a popular smuggling route.

Mingrelians and Svans: Two groups of Georgians who speak different languages and live at the western end of the country next to Abkhazia.

Khevsurs: Have always been Georgians and speak Georgian. Are neither Christian nor Muslim.

Neither Christian nor Muslim? Hell they must be Jews then, so now we have someone to blame 🙂