The New York Times ran an article about Lazika, the planned city near Zugdidi, on the Black Sea coast. It’s not the only attempt to build a new city from the scratch in the South Caucasus, as Azerbaijan has similar plans.

In recent years, many countries in Europe and the former Soviet Union have seen an explosion in university enrollment. During approximately 10 years (from 1999 until 2010) higher education enrollment increased by 64% in Central and Eastern Europe, 27% in Central Asia and South Caucasus, and 19% in Western Europe and North America.

This year, approximately 113 baby boys are born in China for every 100 baby girls; 112 boys per 100 girls in India, 111 in Vietnam. The looming social crisis stemming from the significant gender imbalance in the countries of East and Southeast Asia has been in the media spotlight for a long time.

Anyone who has seen an old American classic “Best Years of Our Lives” (1946) probably remembers the scene where one of the protagonists, Al Stephenson, a banker who just returned from the war in the Pacific, tells his incredulous colleagues: “Our bank is alive. It’s generous.

I have just heard that the French retail giant Carrefour is entering Georgia. This is good news. Carrefour is the master of combining low prices with high (or at least decent) quality.