News

Georgian Times Reports on First Trinity Forum in Georgia

The Georgian Times, a national English-language newspaper from the country of Georgia, has a news posting on an April Trinity Forum seminar in Tbilisi, the first in that country.

An excerpt is below, and you can find the full article here.

GT asked [TTF Europe Director] Jonathan Aitken about his opinion of the importance of leaders’ character for Georgia, which is making its image as a democratic country where human values are appreciated and respected. He replied: “Character is important in all countries. Perhaps it is particularly important in countries which are growing their democratic values. It is very important that leaders understand the importance of character. You can fool some of the people for some of the time with bad character, but in the end good character is what blasts, what makes great political leaders. So this is a very subtle subject.”

As he shared his opinion about Georgia’s problems and leadership characteristics, he went on to say: “Georgia is perhaps undervaluing its importance as a growing success story. Democratic values are taking root here. We have an economy which is growing here, we have a democracy which is getting stronger. And Georgia has many friends now – my country – the UK, US, and so on. Some things are slightly new to Georgia which has been an occupied country for a long time, and yet some of the great, everlasting values were planted here long time ago by kings, by Christian leaders. Georgia is a very old country, much older than Britain or the United States. So there are roots and seeds that perhaps have been underground for too long. And now they are growing again. There are dangers, too, and character and leadership will overcome those dangers.”

May 2007