Georgians are hoping their new president can deliver a rosy future, writes Deaglán de Bréadún, in Tbilisi.
Even on a slow day, Georgia is a colourful place, and there haven't been many slow days lately. But out of all the scenes and images from the last week that clamour for attention, there is one that stands out in my mind.
It is a woman standing outside the imposing parliament building in the capital, Tbilisi. Edging towards middle age, she was better, or at least more neatly, dressed than most of the people milling around her. Back home, you would mark her down as a teacher or a public servant of some kind, probably with an interest in politics or community work.
In her hand she held a red rose. As the traffic, including my own taxi, trundled noisily past, she just stood there in silent testimony and tribute to the Rose Revolution, which has changed the face of Georgian politics since last November.
Perhaps also she was thinking of other women who took a political stand outside the Parliament Building in April, 1989. In those days, Georgia was still part of the USSR, and Soviet troops used sharp-edged shovels to hack 20 peaceful protesters to death, mainly women and children, in full public view.
A large stone remembers the sacrifice of those women and children. It is smeared with the yellow wax of candles lit in their memory by members of the public.
On top of the stone this week there was a small posy of flowers: violets, not roses, because roses were probably too dear.
Georgians have big, generous hearts but extremely empty pockets. There is a popular curse in Georgia: "May you have to live on your salary." But such is the crisis in the state's finances that many public service workers have not received salaries for months and months.
There is a folktale that when God was parcelling out territory to the peoples of the Earth, the Georgians got fed up waiting and started to party. Seeing what they were up to, God joined in and had such a good time that the Georgians ended up with the land that had been kept aside specifically for the Almighty.
It's easy to believe the legend, given the beautiful mountain scenery, the wine, and all the country's natural advantages. But as with many other beautiful places (Colombia comes to mind), Georgia has been cursed with trouble, strife, conflict, civil war and corruption.
The most corrupt Irish politicians are like altar boys or girls compared with some of the "beauts" that have emerged in Georgia over the past decade or more. Presiding over it all was the silver-haired, distinguished-looking figure of Eduard Shevardnadze - a hero in the eyes of international public opinion during the fall of communism but a man with feet of clay to the younger generation of Georgian politicians.
The leader of that group, brandishing the torch of reform at the present moment, is Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's new president. Handsome and articulate, with a flair for the big occasion, he seems to be consciously modelling himself on John F. Kennedy. In his inaugural speech last Sunday he urged his people not to ask what the world could do for Georgia, but what Georgia could do for the world. Then at the end, in another Kennedy-like gesture, he plunged straight into the crowd to press the flesh. They are liable to shoot public figures even more readily in Georgia than the US and it must have been a nightmare for the new president's security detail. But he is clearly determined to be popular and there are huge expectations among the ordinary people that the Rose Revolution will make their lives better.
And life in Georgia is hard. The vast majority of the people are poorly dressed and struggling to get by on meagre incomes. A small minority have acquired the trappings of wealth, but not always by proper means. The latest-model automobile flashing past may have been acquired legitimately or it may have been stolen in the West. There is an extensive market in "hot" cars and the joke is that, not only can you specify what type of car you want stolen for you in Germany, you can even say whose car.
In addition to corruption, Georgia is facing major internal and external security problems, which are threatening the viability of the state. Three of its provinces have, to a large extent, seceded from the central government. There are also potential security dangers on its borders, principally the divide between Georgia and Chechnya.
As I write this, I am conscious that the electricity connection to my laptop computer, not to mention the light overhead, could fail at any moment. Power failures are part of everyday life and as you walk past the clothes shops on Gamsakhurdia Street in Tbilisi, you notice most of them have their own private generator purring away on the pavement outside. These machines are greatly prized and one careful shopkeeper had chained his generator to a tree.
The good news is that the Irish are here, not in quantity but in quality, and playing their part to make life better for the Georgians. For example, Dubliner Brian Cronly and his colleagues in the ESB's international division are heavily involved in reorganising the country's electrical system. Army officers Lt Col Joe McDonagh from Carna, Co Galway, Capt Laurence Egar from Cork, and Commdt Peter Marron from Dublin, among others, are monitoring the security situation, at the border with Chechnya and elsewhere, on behalf of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Cathy O'Grady from Greystones, Co Wicklow, is helping child victims of conflict as the regional co- ordinator for the Dutch-based humanitarian organisation, War Child, and Dr Mike McCarthy, an emergency and general physician, is plugging some of the many gaps in the Georgian health system through the International Medical Support Services company.
As with JFK in his time, there is much talk about the new president's "first 100 days" and how important it is for him to make the right decisions. He has to throw the book, legally speaking, at some corrupt remnants of the old regime. He has to send very clear signals that corruption, at whatever level, is no longer acceptable.
There have been encouraging reports that members of the police, instead of just pocketing the proceeds of on-the-spot fines, are now issuing receipts. A number of high-profile public figures have been taken in for questioning about alleged financial misdeeds. Mass protests forced Shevardnadze to resign over rigged elections last November and, now that a new president has been properly elected, people are preparing to go to the polls again to vote in a new parliament on March 28th.
Will the Rose Revolution bloom or wilt? The prevalence of Georgia's new red-and-white flag, which was also the banner of the protest movement, shows that a chord has been struck with the ordinary people. Saakashvili is only one of the new leaders: the speaker of the parliament, Nino Burjanadze, is an impressive figure in the Mary Robinson mould and the acting prime minister, Zurab Zhvania, is also widely admired. It is essential that all three pull together for the good of the country.
The presence at the inaugural of the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Cowen, on behalf of Ireland's European presidency, shows that the US and the EU are backing the new administration. But the Russians are Georgia's most powerful neighbours and a good relationship between Moscow and Tbilisi will be essential.
After all the strife and hardship of the last decade or more, it looks like God has decided to give Georgia a break, and the hope of a bright new day. A young hotel worker in Tbilisi said to me after the presidential inauguration: "It was a very busy day in the hotel but, for our future, it was a great day." Parents held their children aloft at the ceremony, to see the new president. The question is whether they will get the bright future that is promised to them, and whether their new leader will be allowed to deliver it.