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SOCIETY
GEORGIA TODAY JULY 9 - 15, 2021
BTU Hosts Int’l Conference Initiative 5.0 - Digital Economy and Pandemic TRANSLATED BY ANA DUMBADZE
O
n July 2, the University of Business and Technology (BTU), in partnership with the European Marketing and Management Association (EUMMAS) Academic Consortium, hosted an international conference ‘Initiative 5.0 - Digital Economy and Pandemic.’ The conference was attended by researchers from BTU and partner international universities, representatives of the public and private sectors, members of local and international associations and organizations, and other stakeholders. At the event, research presentations were conducted by researchers from local and international universities. Welcome speeches were delivered by BTU Rector Nino Enukidze and Prof. Dr. Mile Vasic, EUMMAS President. The following research presentations were delivered by BTU professors and foreign researchers: ‘Opportunities and Challenges of Digital Foreign Policy’ Khatuna Burkadze, Affiliate Professor at BTU; ‘Green Energy Opportunities - Business Model’ - Maia Melikidze, Affiliate Professor at BTU; Research: ‘Women in Tech: A Saga, Femtech and a Bright Future’ - Mariam Lashkhi, Affiliate Professor at BTU; Research: ‘Barriers and Challenges to the adoption of E-Health in Georgia’ - Nino Mikava, Affiliate Professor at BTU; Research: ‘Complementarity Perspective of Entrepreneurship Ecosystem’ Ani Vashakmadze, Affiliate Professor at BTU; Research: ‘Digital Trust Forming Process in Georgia’ - Tsotne Jgenti, Affiliate, Professor at BTU; Research: ‘Formation of Capital Market in Georgia
and its Integration Opportunities into International Financial Markets’ - Vakhtang Chkareuli, Associate Professor at BTU; Research: ‘Promoting a Startup Ecosystem in Georgia, Startup Status and Its Legal Regulation’ - Lado Sirdadze, Associate Professor at BTU; Research: ‘Have female entrepreneurs done better in COVID-19?’ - Maksim Belitski, Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of Reading (UK); Research: ‘Green Corrosion Inhibitors for Offshore Oil and Gas Structure’ - Casen Panaitescu, Lecturer, Head of International Relations
Office, Petroleum-Gaz University of Ploiesti (Romania); Research: ‘Impact of Social Media on the Higher Educational Sector with Reference to Indian Context’ - Shanmugan Joghee, Associate Professor, School of Business, Skyline University College (UAE); Research: ‘A Novel Approach to Conducting Business research after Covid-19: Incorporating Crisis Elements in the Study Frameworks’ - Pranav Kumar, Professor, Skyline University College (UAE); Research: ‘Implementation of Digital Enabling Technologies in the Manufacturing Industry’ - Manuel Rios de Haro,
Professor, University of Granada (Spain); and Dzintra Atstaja (Professor), Liga Atstaja (Mg.), Didzis Rutitis (Dr.) - BA School of Business and Finance (Latvia): ‘Cybersecurity Risks and Challenges in Remote Work under the Covid-19 Pandemic.’ The aim of the conference was to share international expertise and the latest trends, achievements or research results in all sectors that contribute to the development of the digital economy and digital governance in Georgia. Based on the University of Business and Technology Strategic Development Plan,
the University aims to participate in the development of Georgia's digital economy, integrate technology into various business sectors, promote sustainable development, and support the country's innovative ecosystem. To implement this plan, the University initiated Project 5.0, which integrates strategically important sectors for the country in the form of various studies, projects and events. These areas are: FEMTECH, MEDIATECH, LAWTECH AND LEGALTECH, FINTECH, EDTECH, AGRITECH, CULTURETECH, HEALTHTECH, GREENTECH, ENTREPRENEURSHIP.
Are We Seriously Losing Our Chance at Westernization? OP-ED BY NUGZAR B. RUHADZE
T
he LGBTQI life has both supporters and opponents in this country. Abortion has the same status, and feminism too, for that matter. The rest of the world is more or less balanced in this regard, by which I mean, people are not using their fists in their struggle to achieve goals, whatever those goals might be: They just use their tongues when they intend to put forward their principles and ideas. Here in Georgia, we don’t talk. We go physical forthwith when we are offered something that is not very much to our liking. I’ll try to explain it by means of analyzing our national oversensitive nervous system. We are herewith talking about the supporters of the Pride Movement in Georgia and their opponents. The Pride activists try to hold parades here once a year, in order to remind society that they want to enjoy life and human rights exactly as other people do, and they undoubtedly have reason for this. Throwing in the encyclopedic definition, a pride parade is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, nonbinary and queer social and self-accept-
ance, achievements, legal rights, and pride. We saw rather large crowds of people in the streets of Tbilisi over the last few days, either for or against the parade, but I strongly suspect that many of the supporters and opponents of the Pride Parade, including the journalists, don’t have even the slightest clue of how the English word ‘pride’ translates into Georgian, which means that they place themselves for or against something, despite
The no-man’s land. Photo by Mike Godwin
the content not being completely clear to them. This sounds like one of my little jokes but, you know, every joke has a grain of truth to it. And the grain is that some of us, be we LGBTQI supporters or opponents, need to be a little better versed in the roots of the situation. Nothing is simple here in Georgia. We are living in a totally different world compared to what we witnessed 30-40 years ago. Human life and our ability to reason about it has been drastically
accelerated by electronic information flow, within which we often get lost, not being able to tell right from wrong, or to answer questions like how much humankind in general gains from either supporting or opposing a small bunch of people who are only trying to tell the world that they don’t mean any harm; that, if nature calls, then the human effort to ignore that call is futile, so let them be who they are and want to be. But every coin has a flipside. The story
of humanity is long and complicated, and has accumulated certain stereotypes which are not easy to overcome as quickly as that, and there are people who want to continue living those stereotypes. The question is, do they also have the right to be that way? Perhaps novel attitudes and renovated interpretations of very old human habits and ways of life need to be introduced more gradually than is being done in our accelerated times! The situation is highly contradictory, but there is one undeniable truth about it. In our times of runaway spiritual and electronic development, violence has become totally irrelevant, and it is high time for all of us on our beautiful earth to substitute violence in general with something that is more humane, and that is, of course, intelligent discourse. Things like Human Rights, LGBTQI Life and Pride Parades are all Western phenomena, vigorously and hastily being planted nowadays in the Eastern world. The notion of the West is mostly associated with tolerance, patience, and benevolence towards anything that is innate to Homosapiens, but Westernization cannot happen quickly. It is a painful process and it needs a lot of education and understanding to be applied. Awareness of this might not be a universal panacea, but it could at least keep us safe from bruised faces and death threats.
