Albania

EUROPEAN UNION A Story Without words

traveller one

traveller one - stepping stones A Lick and a Prayer

our man in Tirana Old House in Tirana

traveller one - stepping stones you Can Fool Some of the People

traveller one - stepping stonesIn My Neighbourhood

traveller one - stepping stones The Colours of Tirana

traveller one - stepping stones Madama Butterfly in Tirana

Albania during communism

Thursday, July 05, 2007
traveller one A Lick and a Prayer

I don't think I told you about my beautiful blonde Australian friend K and the medical treatment she recently received for a problem on her foot. She's working here in the health care sector as a consultant and therefor knows a lot of doctors and medical personel, so when she cut her foot quite badly she had a doctor check it out. Being somewhere in rural Albania at the time, the doctor quickly pulled out a bottle of Raki (an Albanian version of grappa) and poured it over her wound, an action which I am sure must have been painful. But the biggest surprise came when the doctor took her foot in his hand and proceeded to lick it clean!! I'm not sure if he really thinks that human saliva has antiseptic properties or if he just hated to see the Raki go to waste!

our man in Tirana House in Tirana

Probably the reason why this old building is in that shape can be either because there is no clear ownership on it (the complicated real estate ownership history in Albania), or because the inhabitants are waiting for a 'good offer' from the construction companies (in order to built a concrete monster there).

By the style of the roof and windows, they look very much like other utilitarian architecture that I saw in Serbia and Ex-Soviet Moldova. My guess about the time period when they were built would be between the 50's and 60's when we were in good terms with Yugoslavia and Soviet Union.

Tucked in behind the main streets in our neighbourhood are a few rows of old houses. I don't know when they were built, but I imagine that when they were new they must have looked well. Now they look terrible. When I first saw them I thought they were derelict, until I noticed the obvious signs of occupation like the washing hanging in the windows.

In an ideal world, houses like these would be sympathetically modernised and preserved. Or a good architect would design replacements that were in keeping with the style of the originals. But it's probably only a matter of time before they are demolished and replaced with another concrete apartment block.

June 05, 2007 traveller one
You Can Fool Some of the People

You Can Fool Some of the People.
Some of the time.
And that's why you produce incredible look-a-like products
and sell them in places like Albania!

Monday, February 26, 2007
traveller one In My Neighbourhood

I thought I'd share a few photos from around my neighbourhood.
Things that make life very interesting!

This is where we put our trash. This was taken right
after the trash was picked up and is a relatively clean
condition. A few hours later the bins were full and
laying on their sides. A small truck comes along early
in the morning with two men with their shovels. As I lay
in bed I often hear the scrape- scrape- scrape of
their shovels sorting the trash and tossing it into the
back of their truck. I have no idea where they take all
the garbage. We have no possibility for recycling (yet),
so everything is tossed here. Within minutes of putting
a bag of trash in the bin, you can count on someone coming
along and tearing it open, dropping everything on
the ground as they look for treasures. When I have a bag
of "good stuff", like old shoes or clothing, I just place it beside the bins hoping someone will be able to recycle it for me.

There a quite a few so-called "casinos" in Tirana.
I've never been in one but they usually look quite small
and dark. I'm not sure I'd want to go in. This sign made
us stop and go "hmmm". Open 25 hours? Interesting idea.
And doesn't it look ever so glamourous? A sexy woman,
a glass of champagne, colourful chips!

When we first moved here we noticed this interesting phenomenon.
This gentleman sits outside of the National Library, beside a phone booth.
Lots of people actually use phone booths here, but you need a telephone card,
which you might not have on you, so this gentleman sits there all day
with a card for you to use. You pay him for the time you use and I guess
he adds a small fee so that he makes a profit. But even more intriguing
is the desk phone on the right side of the man. Follow the line
and you can see it goes up behind the tree... and straight through
an open window of the Library! I wonderMaybe an Albanian
out there can give us some more information? who's getting the kickback here?

Near the old bridge I spotted this really imaginative display of knitting.
Someone has attached these colourful poles to the old tree and voila!
the beautiful handmade items are displayed very creatively.
These vests and socks must be very popular because they are really
the only knitted things I see around the city.

Another fabulous Balkan tradition is to hang a large doll
or stuffed animal on the top of a building as it is being
constructed. Here I suppose the home hasn't yet been
started because it was just hanging on an old tree trunk.
This cute guy is in really good condition! Most of the ones
I've seen are black with polution and almost unrecognisable.
I think these are used as a type of talisman to keep evil
away- like the Turkish "evil eye" charm.

The Colours of Tirana traveller one

We took advantage of the fabulous weather we're having today

and took a long walk through the colourful Tirana neighbourhood along the Lana river.

Here we found several painted buildings which were new to us!

Crisscross Blocks

Mondrian

Purple Camouflage Falling leaves and raising staircases

We heard a rumour this week that if Edi Rama (the current mayor) loses tomorrow's election then the new mayor has said that he will paint over all the colourful buildings with whitewash. I really hope this isn't true because these buildings make Tirana unique in the world and far more interesting than other bleak post-communist cities.

Edi Rama (Tirana's Mayor) Rama says Tirana is no longer a "transit station" .

When I became mayor of Tirana it was like entering a Kafka book and becoming a person in danger of becoming totally metamorphosed by the very heavy power of the past and of the total lack of authority and hope in the city.

Tirana was totally left behind and was very similar to a transit station in that everybody was thinking of how to escape.

It was the greyest, dustiest, most hopeless city ever imagined.

Every free piece of land was seen as a space to be occupied, so all the parks disappeared and every building was in like a permanent state of pregnancy because every building got bigger and bigger.

Whether it was cafes, restaurants, shoe-fixing stops - whatever. People that were in the middle of this sandwich they just transformed the balconies to create additional space which is why you cannot see two balconies that are the same in this city.

So there was an intense time of regaining the sense of the private space because nature which was beautiful was seen as the property of the enemy - the state.

So everything was ours yet nothing was ours, even our own self was not ours. The city became a catastrophe in terms of public spaces.

So when I was elected expectations were very high and people were fed up. So we started with colours.

I will never forget the first square metres of orange that appeared in the middle of the grey. People had never seen somebody taking care of a space that was not private.

Suddenly they saw some people painting a building at the entrance of Tirana and after ten years it was the first time people were discussing things about the city it was great, intense.

We started to demolish more than 5,000 illegal buildings alone from the river banks that you can see now.

We have moved 123,000 tonnes of concrete, demolishing more than 450 illegal buildings from one to eight floors.

There were many critics saying "ahh this is just façade, this is superficial, this is nothing, poverty is behind this façade", yes, but being poor does not mean that you have to be ugly.

On the contrary poverty should have a dignified face. Tirana is a woman and should be beautiful, should look towards the future.

So now we have to face all problems that reasonable big city has and to improve the quality of life.

Only six or seven years ago young people lived here as if at a transit station just thinking about the possibility to leave through whatever means.

Today Tirana is a place where young people have hopes and opportunities. Of course there not enough of either yet but we have opened a perspective which should be improved through the new politics of change.
traveler one

Monday, February 05, 2007 traveller one
Madama Butterfly in Tirana

Another great opera performance last night here in Tirana! Madame Butterfly is a lovely story that offers lots of possibilities for interesting costume and set design.

The Opera Company of Tirana has probably one of the lowest budgets of any opera company in the world, but oh what it does with its limited resources! I loved the curtain/screen that was on display when we entered the theater. It was simple but set the tone for this oriental opera.

Unfortunately my camera battery ran out during the opera so I was only able to catch these two shots, but I think the second one is quite good. This was my favourite scene of the night because of all the Japanese kimonos, umbrellas and the tea ceremony.
I have to commend the two lead singers for doing a wonderful job! I met Armando last month at a party and he was very strong as Lieutenant Pinkerton, and the young Albania female in the role of Madame Butterfly received a fabulous standing ovation. The scene stealer of the evening was the tiny young boy named"Trouble" who tried very hard not to wiggle while he had to kneel for a long, long time on the floor. Bravo!

traveller one STEPPING STONES

Albania during communism

(source: "Human Rights in the People's Socialist Republic of Albania" vy Minnesota Lawyers International Human Rights Committee, 1990)

Taken during the late 1980s. The photographer is unknown, but this kind of photo from Albania was very rare. A large crowd of people are waiting in line to get into a fruit and vegetable store. Next to it, is a store marked "Kinkaleri", a kind of mini-variety shop.

This photo is from the full-color album published in 1984 called "40 Years of Socialist Albania". Obviously it's a staged propaganda photo. The salesclerk joyfully gives change to a customer, and the picture is entitled "Cultured service" (Sherbim i kulturuar). It's apparent the store is not self-service, since customers are lined up at the counter waiting their turn. By 1984, even in the Soviet East Bloc, self-service supermarkets were more or less normal. It's also rather odd to depict a line of customers in a propaganda photo. My impression is that lines were so normal in Albania at this time, that it didn't occur to the photographer and editor not to stage the photo in this way. Above the shelves lining the wall are some colorful pictures of cans and jars, which are a bit more colorful than what is shown sitting on the shelves. There is also a rather long quotation from Enver Hoxha. Unlike other communist countries, Albanians could not buy scarce or higher quality items at collective farm markets. These were banned until the very last period of communist rule, and greatly restricted what citydwellers could obtain. MAPO (Magazina Popullore - People's Stores) was the only chain of department stores in the country, although each neighborhood had its own small state-owned food and specialty shops. This seems to be a larger food shop, probably in the center of Tirana.