DAS Colleen Graffy Meets with Prominent Georgian Alumni
U.S. Ambassador John Tefft hosted a working lunch for DAS Graffy with eleven prominent Georgian alumni of U.S. government educational and exchange programs. The alumni discussed ongoing reforms, upcoming parliamentary elections, and expressed their opinions on what impact U.S. State Department funded programs can have on the development of education, political culture, and free media in Georgia. Alumni spoke about their U.S. experiences and about what they have achieved as a result of their study in the U.S. DAS Graffy expressed her interest in organizing a summit of TV producers in Georgia to discuss how positive story lines introduced into soap operas and television shows can facilitate the development of civil society and political culture in Georgia.
The lunch was attended by alumni of the Muskie program and by graduates of the USG-funded Georgian Institute of Public Affairs and the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies. Attendance by diverse members of the Georgian political spectrum, from the head of the opposition Republican Party to government representatives, added a special flavor to the discussion. Former U.S. Ambassador to Georgia, Mr. Kenneth Yalowitz, attended the meeting and had an opportunity to comment on the breadth of changes he has witnessed in Georgia over the past 10 years. |
