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July 23, 2006

 

The land that time forgot

AA Gill
It was a communist state for nearly half a a century. Now it has organised crime and the worst-dressed teenagers in Europe. Will the world ever take Albania seriously?

In the unlikely event of your ever needing to know, Tirana’s international airport is called Mother Teresa. It is grimly typical that the Albanians named their runway to the world after a woman who devoted herself to helping people die; and after a Catholic from a country that’s 70% Muslim. Mother Teresa is the only internationally famous Albanian; all the rest are infamous.

As you walk across the tarmac, you might notice a couple of planes from Albatros Airways – there is, again, an Albanian inevitability in naming your planes after the only bird that is an international synonym for bad luck, and which doesn’t fly anywhere near the Adriatic anyway. 

Any sentence with Albania in it is likely to get a laugh. Albania is funny. It’s a punchline, a Gilbert and Sullivan country, a Ruritania of brigands and vendettas and pantomime royalty.

It is a tragic place. But just at the point in the story where you should be sobbing, you can barely restrain the sniggers. After all, Albania’s favourite comedian is Norman Wisdom, and that’s the place all over. It’s funny because it’s not funny. The capital, Tirana, is a rare place, blessed with both fascist and communist architecture. The competing totalitarian buildings strut cheek by cheek down the potholed roads, like an authoritarian tango in marble and concrete.

The Italians, who had the most sympathetic fascist architecture, built the futuristically classical university art school and government buildings, while the communists made the thudding celebrations of workers’ triumph and the grim warrens of piss-stained grey boxes for housing the triumphant workers in.

Parts of Tirana look like small southern Italian industrial towns, tree-dappled, lots of cafes, while other bits look like Gaza, ripped up and smashed stretches of urban exhaustion and collapse.

But none of that is what you notice first. The thing that catches your eye and holds it in a sticky grasp, like a child with a humbug, is the colour. The grim apartments and public housing projects have been painted with broad swathes of livid decoration. They look like a giant installation of West Indian scatter cushions.

The multicoloured building was the very, very bright idea of Tirana’s mayor. A man who the locals seem to think is suicidal and inspired in equal measure. When Albania’s peculiar version of hermetic communism finally collapsed, in 1992, the new man said that, though there was no money to change anything, seeing as they’d been living in monotone grindstone misery for 50 years, they might brighten the place up with a lick of paint. Apparently, they got a job lot of all the colours Homebase couldn’t sell in Cheshire and sploshed away. The result is both inspired and ridiculous, and very Albanian. Like a clown’s make-up, it draws attention to the crumbling, gritty face underneath.

In the span of one long lifetime, Albania has been dealt a full house of political, social and economic experiments. It started the 20th century as a subservient state of the Ottoman empire, then it became a playground for every Balkan and Adriatic neighbour. At one time or another, Albania had seven competing armies trying to grab lumps of it. Briefly it was an imposed German monarchy, then an ineffective Austrian protectorate. In 1913 the Treaty of London drew its borders to suit the conflicting demands of Serbia, Greece, Italy, Austria and Russia, which left over half of all Albanians living outside their own country, principally in Kosovo.

At the Treaty of Versailles, the Albanian throne was absurdly offered to C B Fry, an English cricketer who was supposed to be such a paragon of masculinity that he was photographed naked and flexing at Oxford, and ended up running a naval prep school of exemplary cruelty with a dykey, sadistic wife. And then they got King Zog.

You really couldn’t make up Albania’s history. Zog was Europe’s last self-made monarch, and a man who made Charlie Chaplin look serious. He favoured light operetta, white hussars’ uniforms and waxed moustaches, and cut a mean tango; he encouraged the Italians to come and build things like roads and cafes. The bad news was, the Italians were Mussolini, so Zog had to make a dash for it and ruled in the Palm Court at the Ritz.

Then the Italians lost the war and the partisans took over; which might have been a good thing, except they turned out to be run by Enver Hoxha, the weirdest of all cold-war communist dictators, a man of stern cruelty and fathomless paranoia, who decided that the only two allies he could trust should be at the opposite ends of the world. Albania’s only mates were China and Cuba, and it became proudly the only Maoist state in Europe.

Finally, long after everyone else had got a credit card and a mobile phone, Hoxha got cancer and died, and his unique chronic communism died with him. So Albania was welcomed out of the cold into the warm embrace of the free market. That should have been the good news, but of course it wasn’t.

There’s a park in the centre of Tirana that was built by the workers for themselves. They dug a great lake, built an amphitheatre, made a little zoo with a mad bear. You get in by walking through a homeless incontinent’s toilet, past the busts of madly furrowed Albanian heroes and the small, neat British war cemetery.

In shady meadows, men cut grass for hay and young men sit on tree stumps staring at nothing. Around the lake, men fish without anticipation; behind them, other men squat and watch. Fishermen-stalking is a feature of former communist countries. As a displacement activity, it’s about as complete a waste of a day as you can come up with. Old men sit in the sun and play dominoes. Their peanut-butter-tanned bodies are wrinkled and polished like old brogues. They sit on cardboard boxes in those distressingly skimpy second scrotums that the communist world still clings to as attractive swimwear; they grin through bomb-damaged teeth.

These are the flotsam and detritus of the train wreck of a command economy, their jobs and pensions just another cracking Albanian joke. A man who was once a history professor looks out across the water at the speculative illegal palaces being built in the people’s park and tells me how the good news of capitalism came to Albania. “We didn’t know anything about markets or money. Suddenly it was all new, all opportunity, all confusion. And then there comes pyramid scheme. You’ve heard of this ‘pyramid’? We put money in. They give you back many times more. You put that money back and much more comes. It was brilliant, this capitalism. Magic. Everyone did it. Maybe 70-80% of the country. People gave up their work to live on marvellous pyramid money. This was best two years of Albania’s life. Drink and food and laughing; everyone is happy. Everyone has cash and hope.” He stops and looks at the fishermen. “But it’s fraud. Everyone loses everything, not just their savings but their homes and farms, and they borrow and there’s no state to help. We have less than nothing; I lose my savings and my job. I don’t understand.

“You laugh. We were fools, yes, but what do we know of capitalism? It was a fairy story. And when it’s gone, people kill themselves, go mad, fight, scream and cry and want revenge. You understand Albanians have very, very… ” (he searches for the words) “… strong emotion.”

Albania was a nation of dupes waiting to be taken and they didn’t take it well. Everything you understand or think you know about Albania and Albanians needs to be seen in relation to how they got the way they are. After the pyramid scam, Albania sold the only thing it had left: its people. They handed out passports and waited. There are 4m Albanian citizens in the world – fewer than there are Scots. Three million of them live at home, the fourth quarter work abroad, and what they do is mostly illegal. Albania is the hub of the European sex trade, smuggling and pimping girls from Moldova and the Ukraine into the West.

It’s said they also run most of the illegal arms trade, the cheapest Kalashnikovs you can buy. They’re the Asda of mayhem. After years of being bullied, invaded, ripped off and lied to, the Albanians have grown very good at being frightening. They’re not subtle, they don’t deal in proportionate responses, controlled aggression or veiled threats. Albanians, I’m told, have taken over the crime in Milan – exporting organised crime to Italy beats selling fridges to Eskimos or sand to Arabs.

In the centre of Tirana there’s an area known as the Block. Under Hoxha this was the closed, salubrious preserve of party members, patrolled by soldiers, forbidden to all ordinary Albanians. Now it’s grown into the all-night trendy reserve of the young: cafes, bars and clubs have sprouted back to back along the crowded streets.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/articl...99-2271185.html

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Dy shkrime te Financial Times

Albania boosts corruption fight to aid EU bid
By Kerin Hope in Tirana
Published: August 17 2006 03:00 Last updated: August 17 2006 03:00
Albania will step up its fight against corruption and organised crime in order to boost its prospects of becoming an official candidate for membership of the European Union, the country's prime minister has said.

Western observers in Tirana welcome the crackdown but point out that the government has still to move against senior opposition politicians and leading business groups accused of having close ties with organised crime.
...

Konkluzioni; Premtime dhe propogande nga qeveria e Tiranes.



***Academics dish the dirt on UN's worst New York parking violators
By Mark Turner at the United Nations
Published: August 15 2006 03:00 Last updated: August 15 2006 03:00
Diplomats from countries with high levels of corruption, and those from countries that have a poor opinion of the US, are far more likely to commit parking violations in New York, according to a new study from Columbia and Berkeley Universities.
What they found was revealing, if not necessarily surprising. Diplomats from low-corruption countries, such as Norway, behaved "remarkably well even in situations where they can get away with violations", the study found.
Those from high-corruption countries, such as Nigeria, committed many violations, "suggesting that they bring the social norms or corruption culture of their home country with them to New York City".
From November 1997 to October 2002, the study found the 10 worst parking violators were Kuwait, Egypt, Chad, Sudan, Bulgaria, Mozambique, Albania, Angola, Senegal, and Pakistan.
...




Konkluzioni; Te korruptuarit dhe ata qe nuk e duan Ameriken e sjellin kulturen e tyre ne qender te NEW YORK-tu. Shqiperia ben pjese ne te korruptuarit.

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Kolonel Anastas Janullatosi, jashte nga Shqiperia!

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Demi real, leshkot dhe zoti Gill


C’fare do te benin amerikanet ne se dikush atje ne BBC do te thoshte se;-”Kush e pjerdh falmurin amerikan?- Do te gajaseshin se qeshuri.- Pse? Sepse nuk eshte e vertete.
C’fare beme ne kur dikush atje ne BBC tha se;-“ Kush e pjerdh flamurin shqiptar?- U hodhem perjete.- Pse? Sepse eshte e vertet.
Cfare do te benin amerikanet ne se nje Gill i Time online do te ironizonte Ameriken duke the se;- “ Eshte nje toke qe koha e harroi dhe qeverite jane organizata kriminale…? Do te qeshnin…
C’fare beme ne kur ky Gilli nga Skocia qe i vjen verdalle botes me fund si femrat dhe pa benevreke nen to tha se;- “Shqiperia eshte nje vend qe koha e harroi dhe qeverite shqiptare jane organizata kriminale…? U hodhem perpjete. Pse ? Sepse jane te verteta.
E huuu… kush pyet per Gillat…! Lavdi te Madhit Zot qe na ka bere me fat dhe midis nesh na ka hedhur disa legena…
Njerit ja thone Landi Hysa. Ai po pergatit masterin atje ne SHBA… Uaaaa, Sa i zgjuar…
Tjetri eshte Samiu i Milloshit dhe ky,” rrufete” ne drejtim te gabuar i leshon, andej nga Amerika. Tjetrit ja thone Goro. Ky Gorua eshte ambasador ne Angli, vendi nga leshohen gjylet ne drejtim te shqiptareve.
Midis nesh kemi dhe leshkon. Leshkua ka marre statusin e muhaxhirit qysh kur ne marrveshje me Ramiz Aline beri rolin e disidentit duke ja futur palles andej nga Franca per te “miren” e Shqiperise. Leshkua nuk foli kete rradhe sepse ishte shume i zene me idenditetin e shqiptareve. Ai ne fakt ka qene gjithe kesaj kohe kaq i zene sa nuk e ka vene re fare qe ai, identiditeti, eshte shnderruar ne femrat prostituta dhe meshkujt kriminele…
Leshkua gjithmone ka qene i zene, sepse do nje “Nobel” dhe asnjehere nuk ka gjetur kohe qe, me se te munde te perpiqej te ndalonte degjenerimin dhe shkaterrimin e Shqiperise...
Por le te flasim pak per legenat. Kur ne perpiqeshim te mbronim Vendin dhe vlerat, na quanin, komunista dhe patriote arkaike... Legenat nuk i pame asnjehere qe, furrine e tyre ta drejtonin tek shkaktaret e vertete te gjendjes se mjeruar te Shqiperise, politikanet dhe qeveritaret tane (vegla te serbit dhe grekut).
Cili eshte demi me i madh qe ju eshte bere shqiptareve; shkaterrimi i familjes, firmat piramidale, shkaterrimi i vlerave historike, shkaterrimi i karakterit te shqiptarit, instalimi i Janullatosit ne krye te kishes ortodokse, perndjekja e inteligjences, shkaterrimi i ekonomise, vrasja e Azem Hajdarit, zhdukja pa gjurme e Ukshin Hotit, kolonizimi i Shqiperise, greqizimi i Jugut te Vendit, vjedhja e votave, 1997-ta, ripersekutimi i te persekutuarve, shkaterrimi i arsimit, vrrasja e shpreses… apo shkrimi i burrit me fustan, zotit Gill?
Ka nevoje per pergjigje….?
Perse nuk u degjuan legenat dhe leshkot kur po shkaterrohej Shqiperia dhe po i behej dem real dhe jo imagjinar? Ne c’vrime ishin futur…?

Por le te bejme keshtu; leshkon ta bejme “President”, se i ka ngel merak qysh atehere kur ja futi Ramiz Alia. Samiun e Milloshit ta bejme “keshilltar” te leshkos.
Kete me master, Landi Hysen, ta veme “Minister te Jashtem”, ndersa ky Gorua le te “rri” ambasador, se na "duhet" edhe per dimer edhe per behar…

Marre nga http://vertet.blogspot.com

__________________
Kolonel Anastas Janullatosi, jashte nga Shqiperia!

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http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/20...ng-bribe-money/

 
December 7, 2006,  9:17 am
href="http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/12/07/if-youre-thinking-of-living-in-albania-bring-bribe-money/" rel=bookmark>If You’re Thinking of Living in Albania … Bring Bribe Money
By
Corruption is a problem the world over, but few countries rival Albania, according to a recent survey from Transparency International, a watchdog group. (Photo: Armando Babando/EPA)[URL="http://www.transparency.org/"]Transparency International, a Berlin-based corruption watchdog group, has released its 4th annual “Global Corruption Barometer” survey (a full PDF is available here) — essentially a global opinion poll of local populations aimed at gauging how exposed their lives are to an entrenched culture of official graft.

As one might expect, one of the principal impediments to development around the world is corruption.

“When basic services like electricity are denied to the poor because they cannot afford a small bribe,” said Hugette Labelle, Chair of the group, in the opening of the report, “there is no light in the home, no warmth for the children and no escape for the government from its responsibility to take action.”

The survey comes at the question from a variety of angles, but on this simple question — “In the last 12 months, have you or anyone living in your household paid a bribe in any form? — Africa tops the list regionally, with 36 percent of those surveyed answering “yes.” Moroccans, specifically, had the highest score — 60 percent saying they had paid bribes. Cameroon was not far behind, at 57 percent.

Asia and the Pacific looked comparatively better, with Indonesia delivering the worst score: 18 percent of respondents said they’d paid some sort of bribe. Meanwhile, perhaps undermining the charges of Fijian military commander Frank Bainimarama, who accused the country’s prime minister of widespread corruption before staging a coup earlier this week, the island nation had the second lowest corruption score in the region, with only three percent of the population reporting shady dealings — the same as in Canada.

But the biggest winner, or, loser, was not in Africa or Asia or Latin America. It was in Europe — Albania — where 66 percent of respondents said they have to pay out to officials to get things done. Elsewhere in Europe, the Czech Republic and Greece (both members of the European Union) and Romania (joining in January) all indicated that bribery was an established part of the system, with scores at or near 20 percent.

The United States? A squeaky clean two percent. And no, these things don’t count.

__________________
Kolonel Anastas Janullatosi, jashte nga Shqiperia!

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