Albanian Information

franksupa — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 05:33:11 +0000

I came across a great post from Kesse Buchanan at .dailycamera.com about albania and it really amazed me how other people describe albania.

Below is the blog article:

” After some time wandering around in Skopje, Macedonia, a gritty, communist-block like city that seems to be trying valiantly to redefine itself, I found myself stepping onto yet another bus into the night towards Albania. This was another country I was a bit nervous about, mostly because every single person I had spoken to told me not to go. To be fair, none of them had been there which is how I rationalized going despite the warnings.
Albania has long been a traveler’s blacklisted country and it is only recently that it has opened up its borders. Like for Kosovo, I wanted to be one of the first let into a country with such a torrid reputation. I was a little apprehensive on the bus because it was just two men (the drivers) and me. But it turned out to be great. I was able to spread out and sleep in the isle, and the men were really nice and despite not speaking any English, their hospitality was impeccable. They tried to buy me coffee or food at every stop and just seemed to look out for me.
I got off the bus dazed at 5 a.m. in Tirana, the capital. I had no idea where I was. Like Macedonia, Albania is trying to give itself a face lift by painting every single building a different color. We are talking Easter egg colors here by the way. It was the full giant Crayola pack, not the small one. Knowing very little English would be spoken, I had armed myself with as many Albanian phrases as I could manage. I certainly attracted stares walking down the street with my backpack, but I felt very welcome.
Transportation in Albania is absurd. There are no bus stops, just plots of dirt throughout the city where buses sometimes stop. They leave haphazardly and just to make it a little more fun, they like to mix it up by constantly switching the plot from which certain destinations will depart from. I asked a girl in Albanian where the bus to Saranda would be. She laughed at my awful Albanian then dropped everything, got out of line for the bus she was waiting to board, took my hand, and led me along the street. She spoke maybe 10 words of English, to my 10 of Albanian but we babbled at each other. It should have been awkward but wasn’t at all because of her warmth. Apparently the Saranda bus plot had changed recently. We got to where she thought it was and had to ask someone else. He promptly dropped everything to walk us to the new plot. Soon we had a whole crew of Albanians joining out team and detouring from their day on a mission to help me find the right bus. When we finally did they all shook my hand or hugged me goodbye. The bus driver took out his wallet to show me how much money I was to pay and he didn’t even try to cheat me. I went across the street to get some coffee while we were waiting for the bus to fill. The waitress patiently held up each kind of coffee and milk for me to make sure I got just what I wanted with unending precision. On the bus the only other English speaker, a 10 year-old girl with great English sat next to me. We chatted about things you could talk about with a 10 year-old, sweet Albanian girl. Each time the bus stopped people would try to buy me food. I decided I never wanted to leave Albania.
There might not be much English spoken but that was the adventure of it. I got by through hand gestures and writing down numbers or showing money or just blindly guessing, it was all tremendous fun. I thought it would be frustrating but it never was. People could see I was a foreigner and wherever I was, they would buy me coffee and try to communicate in any way that we could, or just stop to say hello and shake my hand.
Sadly, for all the kindness of Albanians, the majority of the countryside I was was not nice. All the old cars that didn’t make it to Kosovo wound up in Albania. The communist urban sprawl is appalling and even the rivers had the glazed sheen of oil coating them.
Also disturbing are the 700,000 concrete bunkers that are scattered everywhere. They are in front yards, fields, mountain sides, everywhere.
Later, an Albanian that had lived in Canada so he spoke English told me that the government had convinced them that the entire world was against them so they built all the bunkers. He said that the cost of building one bunker is equivalent to the cost of building a one-bedroom apartment. That’s a lot for a poor country.
The whole time I was in Albania, the hospitality was unending. Anyone who spoke any English at all wanted to come talk to me and seemed genuinely happy to share their country with me. Despite the challenge, or maybe because of it, Albania was one of the most rewarding places I have ever been. “

Posted in News Albania Tagged: Macedonia, Skopje, Tirana

former Serbian province of Kosovo

franksupa — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 05:30:41 +0000

Two events got 2008 off to a running start in the Balkans.

The first was the narrow victory of Serbia’s pro-democratic president, Boris Tadic, in early elections against an ultranationalist rival, Tomislav Nikolic.

The second was an independence declaration by the former Serbian province of Kosovo, where 1.8 million ethnic Albanians celebrated the end of their long wait for statehood.

Together, those February events appeared to mark a turning point for the former Yugoslavia — a break from the ethnically driven politics of the past, and a step toward greater integration with the West.

There were other signs of a growing political maturity, as well.

Slovenia, the EU’s only Balkan member, assumed the rotating EU presidency at the start of the year pledging a smooth transition for Kosovo and improved ties between Brussels and Belgrade.

In April, Croatia and Albania received invitations to join the NATO military alliance. (A third country, Macedonia, had its invitation blocked by Greece amid a lingering dispute over its name.)

And Radovan Karadzic — the former Bosnian Serb leader seen as an architect of the Srebrenica massacre and the siege of Sarajevo during the 1992-95 Bosnian war — was arrested in Serbia in July, after 13 years in hiding.

The so-called “Butcher of Bosnia” will now be tried at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. It’s a move some hope may bring a sense of closure to one of the grimmest chapters in the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

“His arrest is very important for the victims of the war and genocide in Bosnia,” says Senad Pecanin, the editor in chief of “Dani,” an independent Sarajevo weekly. “It obviously brings a kind of relief for them and their expectations of justice. It was late — his arrest was expected much earlier. But it was still a very important moment in the current history of Bosnia.”

Kosovo Fallout

As 2008 comes to a close, however, any steps toward reconciliation and stability seen in those early months have given way to a more muddled and volatile picture.

The focus of Kosovo’s debut as an independent state quickly shifted from the fireworks and jubilation in Pristina to mounting anger in Serbia, where officials refused to acknowledge the loss of a territory they consider the cradle of Serbian civilization.

Just days after the Kosovo declaration, Serb protesters angered by Western support for Pristina’s independence mobbed the streets of Belgrade, setting fire to the U.S. Embassy and attacking other diplomatic buildings.

Boris Tadic

The violence soon dissipated, only to be replaced by a bureaucratic affront, with Serbia blocking for nearly six months the transfer of administrative powers in Kosovo from the existing mission of the United Nations to EULEX, the new team run by the European Union.

Tiny Kosovo ends 2008 with dangerous divisions remaining between the Albanian majority and its Belgrade-backed Serb minority. A defiant cluster of EU states — Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Slovakia, and Romania — have yet to recognize the Pristina declaration, complicating efforts by Brussels to address the Kosovo issue with one voice.

Still, Peter Palmer, the Balkans project director for the International Crisis Group, says from Pristina that the transition is going “more smoothly than anyone would have dared to hope.”

“This is irreversible. There are those, of course, in Belgrade but also nonrecognizing states — Russia and five EU members — who have not accepted it. But no one else has put forward a viable alternative to Kosovo independence,” says Palmer. “It’s certainly true that things have not gone exactly as the recognizing states and Kosovo itself would have hoped. It’s not an ideal situation. But nevertheless, Kosovo independence is a reality.”

The Kosovo declaration had far-ranging ramifications, most notably in Georgia, where separatists in the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia cited Pristina’s example in making their own independence bids with full recognition from Moscow.

Within the Balkans, Kosovo’s independence was seen as reigniting old tensions. A number of ex-Yugoslav states stepped forward to recognize Pristina’s independence, to Serbia’s mounting displeasure. When Macedonia and Montenegro became the 50th and 51st states to recognize Kosovo, Belgrade denounced the move as a betrayal and expelled both countries’ ambassadors.

In Bosnia, Simmering Unrest

Bosnia-Herzegovina was the one state besides Serbia not to recognize Kosovo. That, however, did not prevent Milorad Dodik, the voluble prime minister of Bosnia’s Serb entity of Republika Srpska, from using Kosovo as a precedent he said could clear the way for a theoretical secession from Sarajevo.

That threat is part of a running nationalist feud between Dodik and his Bosniak rival, Haris Silajdzic, the Muslim member of the country’s tripartite presidency, who himself has called for the abolition of Republika Srpska.

The fragility of Bosnia’s power-sharing agreement, brokered by the international community in the Dayton peace accords in 1995, is serving as a reminder in Kosovo that Western-imposed solutions are not necessarily a fail-safe guarantee against ethnic discord — particularly in instances where Belgrade is intent on protecting the interests of the region’s Serbs.

The rising tensions have also sparked fears of a new regional war in multiethnic Bosnia — fears that James Lyon, a Balkans expert with the Democratization Policy Council, says the West should move quickly to counteract.

“If we see violations of Dayton, we may be seeing first and foremost violations of what is primarily a cease-fire, with the implications for that,” Lyon says. “Both sides are now accusing the other of re-arming. And if the Serbs are accusing the Bosniaks and the Bosniaks are accusing the Serbs of re-arming, then there’s probably a good reason to believe that there’s a grain of truth to the complaints of both sides.”

Lyon says part of the problem lies in the fact that the international community — and the EU in particular — has allowed Serbia to pursue with impunity its policy interests in neighboring states, often at the expense of regional stability.

Brussels is eager to bring Serbia — the biggest and most obstinate of the former Yugoslav states — into the EU fold. The result, says Lyon, is a kind of “Serbian exceptionalism” in the EU’s Balkans policy, whereby Belgrade is offered sweeter incentives and milder penalties than other countries making steadier progress toward EU membership.

Managing Belgrade

Brussels this year offered Serbia a Stabilization and Association Agreement, or SAA — a deal seen as a key step toward EU membership. Although Belgrade was not seen as falling short on some reforms required for an SAA, the offer was seen as placating Serbia for the EU’s nearly unanimous backing of Kosovo’s independence declaration.

Radovan Karadzic faces the UN court in The Hague on August 29.

Belgrade, in turn, handed over Karadzic, in a move that earned it near-instant praise from Hague and EU officials. But a handful of EU countries, particularly the Netherlands, say no more concessions will be forthcoming until Serbia arrests Ratko Mladic, Karadzic’s army commander during the Bosnian war and the top remaining Hague suspect still at large.

Serbia is not considered likely to produce such an arrest, however. Mladic enjoys the continued loyalty and protection of the Serbian Army. His testimony, moreover, could potentially reveal lines of command in operations like the Srebrenica massacre — something that could ultimately prove deeply damaging to the political and military elite in Belgrade.

There are high-profile issues, like Mladic, that demonstrate Serbia’s limitations as a viable EU partner. There are also more mundane ones, like Belgrade’s continued failure to bring its laws in line with Schengen visa standards that are highly desired by the Balkan public.

Then there is Tadic, whose Western backers watched with disappointment as his Democratic Party struck a coalition deal with the Socialists, the former party of deceased Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, after parliamentary elections in the spring.

“Tadic’s choice of coalition partner indicates very clearly that European integration is not necessarily as strong as he would like the West to believe it is in terms of his government’s priorities,” says Lyon. “He chose a very, very right-of-center party that is the party of Slobodan Milosevic. It’s a party that no one in their wildest dreams here in Serbia today would associate with being pro-European.”

Europe, of course, is not the only player in the Balkans. Many in the region hope the United States, preoccupied under the Bush administration by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, may redirect some of its attention to the former Yugoslavia when Barack Obama enters office in January, bringing with him a vice president and cabinet members who are well-versed on Balkan issues.

Challenges Ahead

And then there is Moscow, which in 2008 continued to wield considerable influence over the Balkans, serving as a kind of counterbalance to the West. Russia acted as Serbia’s booster in UN Security Council debates on Kosovo and continued a regional energy-driven spending spree.

But while Russia’s patronage has been largely welcome, some of the deals have sparked controversy in the Serbian government. Moscow’s plan to purchase NIS, Serbia’s state energy company, has divided lawmakers because the deal fails to guarantee an initial promise by Russia that its strategic South Stream pipeline would run through Serbia. Refusal to proceed, however, would almost certainly mean an abrupt end to Moscow’s support on Kosovo and other issues.

The question, however, may become moot if the global financial crisis ultimately sets back the Kremlin’s energy-expansion plans.

If 2008 was the year of Kosovo and Karadzic, 2009 may easily prove the year of economic meltdown in a region that still has some of the highest unemployment and poverty figures in Europe.

Adding financial instability to a region already riven by rising ethnic tensions may see the Balkans putting aside a vision of the future and returning to the problems of the past.

Posted in News Albania Tagged: koso, kosovo, kosovo army, kosovo news, kosovo war

Russia and Albania in the early 1990s

franksupa — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 05:28:25 +0000

Dec. 26 (Bloomberg) — Post-Communist capitalism was a rough business in places like Russia and Albania in the early 1990s, a Wild East where fraudsters and scam artists danced circles around the poor and the naive — the rest of the population.

Millions of people, many of them little old ladies, or “babushki’ in Russian, were bilked of their privatization vouchers, savings accounts and whatever cash they had stashed in pillows as a hedge against annual inflation rates of 1,000 percent or more.

Now, in the post-Bernard Madoff era, it is clear that financially uneducated Russians and Albanians have a lot in common with millionaires like filmmaker Steven Spielberg, whose Wunderkinder Foundation lost money in the New York financier’s alleged pyramid scheme.

As it turns out, poverty, ignorance and isolation aren’t prerequisites for falling victim to a pyramid, or Ponzi, scheme. All you need is to believe someone when they tell you they can double your money.

Who would know better than Sergei Mavrodi, the man behind MMM, Russia’s biggest investment pyramid scheme which collapsed in 1994, costing some 2 million Russians an estimated $1.5 billion?

Interviewed on Russia Today, a TV news channel, on July 11, 2007, after his release from four years in prison, Mavrodi scoffed at the idea that his scheme never would have worked in western Europe.

“Of course, it would work not only in Russia, but in any country,” he said. “If you give money away, who is not going to take it?”

Easier Pickings

The interviewer pressed on, noting that in France, or Belgium, systems are in place to stop such things. “Let me assure you, in Belgium, it would be even easier than here,” said Mavrodi. “Here in Russia, people are illiterate; it is difficult to explain things to them. People there understand things. I managed to do it, but I don’t know why nobody there does it.”

Well, it turns out they did do it in the West, right on Park Avenue. And as Mavrodi said, it worked even better with the financially savvy than it did with people struggling to stay afloat in a transition economy. Madoff has confessed that his “giant Ponzi scheme” may have cost clients as much as $50 billion, according to a Federal Bureau of Investigations complaint.

No-Frills Pyramid

The MMM scheme in Russia was more modest, although at its peak in 1994, it was considered the most brazen of its time. It ran an aggressive advertising campaign on television, featuring a character named Lyonya Golubkov, a bulldozer operator, who pitched the deal with a simple phrase, “Eto Prosto Yo-Moyo,” roughly translated as “It’s simply frigging awesome.”

This was a no-frills pyramid: those buying in were paying off those who were getting out, a loop that works as long as more gullible people join up.

There were dozens of such schemes, as Russians tried to figure out what to do with their privatization vouchers — a piece of paper representing their share of the national wealth, issued in October 1991 to 150 million people at a face value of 10,000 rubles, or about $25. A voucher’s worth plummeted almost immediately, as inflation took off, eating away at the value of the ruble and at people’s trust in the new capitalist era.

So it’s no wonder people went running after MMM, and other flim-flam investment schemes with names such as Revenge, or NeftAlmazInvest, literally translated as OilDiamondInvest, which as it turned out, had no investments in either.

Sude the Gypsy

In Albania, the pyramids appeared later, with even more devastating consequences for the national economy. By 1997, the amount taken from Albanians by at least 10 separate schemes had reached almost $1 billion, roughly two-thirds of the gross domestic product.

The meltdown began in November 1997 when a fund run by a 30 year-old former worker at a shoe factory, known only as Sude the Gypsy, stopped making payments. Other funds collapsed in rapid succession, rioting broke out, and the government collapsed.

Writing in 2000, Christopher Jarvis, then a senior economist with the International Monetary Fund, attributed the appeal of Albania’s schemes to “unfamiliarity with financial markets, the deficiencies of the country’s formal financial system.”

That’s not something Madoff’s investors can claim as an excuse. “In the end the best protection is just good judgment,” says Jarvis, now an adviser at the IMF. “If someone makes an offer that sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

The solution? Jarvis says the Madoff case, like the one in Albania, proves the need for constant vigilance and aggressive regulatory supervision.

So maybe the U.S. should check out how Albania got out of its mess.

This article was from : http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_bohlen&sid=awhS9sW3.FtA

Posted in Albania Tagged: Albania, Mavrodi

Albania hunger strikers

franksupa — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:19:52 +0000

More than 3,000 people protested in front of Albania’s parliament Monday, in support of 10 lawmakers on hunger strike in opposition to a draft election law.

The deputies have been on a weeklong hunger strike since last Monday to protest the election law changes which they say will keep small parties out of parliament.

Protesters at the rally chanted “This won’t pass” as they waved Albanian flags and held up protest banners.

The rally ended peacefully. Protest organizers called on the crowd to repeat the rallies in front of parliament every day.

“No one will force them stop their hunger strike and their defense of our right of the vote,” said Ilir Meta of the opposition party, Socialist Movement for Integration.

The hunger strikers remain in parliament. Supporters said they are becoming frail and expressed concern for one elderly lawmaker who suffers from diabetes.

Albania was invited to join NATO earlier this year and is keen to press ahead with voting reforms that are seen as necessary to further integration with the European Union.

But Albanians are also highly sensitive to changes in voting rules after enduring decades of oppressive Communist rule.

Small parties argue the proposed changes would exclude them from parliament by introducing a region-based voting system.

Several of the hunger strikers are members of a small Christian Democrat party that is in Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s governing conservative coalition.

Albania elects its deputies to the 140-seat parliament using a partial majority system. General elections are due next year.

Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which monitors democratic reforms in many former Communist countries, expressed mixed views over the proposed voting changes.

The OSCE in the past has criticized Albania for failing to hold elections that meet international standards. It said the new law requires “fine tuning.

source:emportal.co.yu

Posted in Albania, albania news, albania today Tagged: Albania hunger

Albania passes the new election law

franksupa — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:18:22 +0000

Albania’s two main parties passed an election code that they said would ensure the holding of free and fair elections next year, but minor parties complained it would work against them.

Deputies of the ruling Democratic Party and the main opposition Socialists cast 112 votes for the measure in the 140-seat parliament where 10 opposition politicians had staged an eight-day hunger strike to prevent its passage.

The European Union has made it clear to ex-communist Albania, which has yet to hold elections that meet international standards, that next year’s vote must be above criticism if it wants to join the 27-member bloc.

“This code will be remembered not only because it will ensure free and fair elections, but as a great example of political cooperation,” said Ilir Rusmali, a Democrat who was co-chairman of the commission that drafted the code.

The Democrats and Socialists said they had written a code based on the best European models without foreign tutorship well ahead of the election, a milestone for Albania’s 17-year-old democracy.

But minor parties believe the new regional system of proportional representation will greatly reduce their number of seats at next year’s general election.

After the law passed, Ilir Meta, one of the hunger strikers, warned of escalating the protest to restore the “sanctity of the vote”.

“This is a crime against the constitution and democracy,” Meta, unshaven and looking tired, told a crowd of protesters who chanted “Shame” outside the parliament building.

“You are approving the code of theft and are undermining the 2009 elections,” Nard Ndoka, a former ally of Prime Minister Sali Berisha, told parliament before ending his hunger strike.

In a rare show of consensus in April, the two main parties agreed to change an electoral system tainted by allegations of fraud.

Democrats and Socialists alike had been accused of fraud and exaggerated use of tactical voting under the previous system, usually aimed at boosting the seats of their small-party allies so they ended up with more powerful coalitions.

But the practice often backfired and led to instability, as small parties bargained for favours and slowed the pace of reforms, or switched allegiances in return for official posts.

“This code … can erase from memory the dark stories of vote trafficking that produced weak governments, which could be easily blackmailed,” Socialist deputy Fatmir Xhafaj said.

source:tvnz.co.nz

Posted in Albania, albania news, albania today Tagged: albania law

Albania Study Tour

franksupa — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 02:44:07 +0000

SNV/Albania Study Tour

SNV/Albania Study Tour

Peshkopi Municipality:

Tax Office, Public Information Office and Advisory Commission

Background

SNV/Albania, Diber Team has a contract with the Municipality of Peshkopi to provide a number of advisory services. Specifically, two advisory service objectives were drivers for this study tour: 1) establishing citizen advisory commissions on a neighborhood level; and 2) improvement of tax management system: collection, transparency and communication with citizens. Within these objectives a number of specific activities were planned; but in neither case, was a study tour initially incorporated into the activity work plan. As implementation of the work plans have occurred, adjustments have been made based on new opportunities and new insights gained from implementing a prior activity.

In this case, as the tax management objective/project was being implemented, we hired a consultant to assist on the technical and legal specifics of tax forecasting, collections, management and monitoring, enforcement, etc. Two interesting developments emerged from this activity. First, the consultant(s) were a team of experts. One from a municipality with very practical knowledge and experience.¹The other is an attorney from the Albanian Association of Municipalities, a national capacity building and lobbying organization for local municipalities. We found that by working together with this specific client (i.e.: Municipality of Peshkopi) that we could likely develop complimentary²and replicable advisory services, for other municipality tax offices throughout Albania.

The second development was that in Kucove, the municipality of one of our consultants, there is a very active Advisory Commission. This Commission has been involved in providing input on their taxes and budget. The consultant invited the Peshkopi tax office staff to come and see his operations in Kucove in more detail; and, he invited us to bring advisory commissioners along and he would ensure that they met some Kucove commissioners too. This second development is where the study tour idea began.

Another development arose independent of the above, from the networking that was taking place within AAM and the motivation of the Mayors of Peshkopi and Saranda. The Mayor of the Municipality of Saranda, invited the Peshkopi tour group to come and be guests in his town and to share with his staff our experiences with the Advisory Commission. (Saranda does not have a citizen advisory group.) In exchange, he and his staff would share their experiences/successes with tourism, a development area that Peshkopi wants to grow. t

¹This expert, the Tax Director from the Municipality of Kucove, is “heads above” all others in Albania. He is used by the U.S. Urban Institute as a consultant. Through his leadership and management, his office has increased tax revenue in Kucove by five times in approximately four years.

²Complimentary service: SNV advisors attend to process issues and community transparency. We also initiate the work based on demand and need known fromour local government networks and we can provide on-going support/advice in areas tha we have teams. The AAM provides the legal expertise and training. They also partner with us in terms of LGt networking. Finally, the Kucove expert offers the hands-on knowledge and various technical mechanisms to make tax office/administrative improvements.

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We confirmed the goals of the study tour with our client and agreements were made about sharing financial and logistical responsibilities of the tour. The goals were as follows:

1. To learn about how the municipality of Saranda developed a tourism office and how they are making progress.

2. To learn from the experiences of the Kucove municipality regarding taxes, tax systems, and how they made the changes. And, how the advisory commission participates.

3. To observe and learn about specific tax system administrative mechanisms, including software, forms and files.

4. To share and learn from the experiences of both municipalities (Peshkopi and Kucove) about the value and functioning of citizen advisory commissions.

General Description

The tour included two female advisors from SNV, the mayor of Peshkopi, Director of the Public Information Office, Director and Inspector of the Tax Office; and, 7 members of the Advisory Commission(s).³Except for SNV advisors, all participants were male. One female commissioner declined the day before. We traveled in one mini-bus and the municipality car, with two drivers.

The trip started at 4 a.m. from Peshkopi and began fairly uneventfully, making good time toward our first destination in Saranda. Just after the national park in Llogara, complete with photo opportunities with the tame deer/fauna, the mini-bus broke down. From this point on, we were continually behind on our schedule, about a half a day.

In Saranda, there was a dinner (hosted by the Saranda mayor & staff) and staff briefings from their mayor, Tax Director and Tourism Director. The location of the formal briefings were changed to the informal dinner setting, due to our delays and a power outage in Saranda just as we arrived at the Bashki. Much of the learning happened through dialogues and conversations around the table. Saranda had an equal number of staff participating in the dinner as we brought along and each sat directly across the table from one of us (even the English speaker, was across the table for Fuji.)

The following day, we toured the archeological site at Butrint and stopped briefly at the castle. The night before, at the dinner, the Mayor of Saranda was fairly insistent that we “take in” at least one of their tourist attractions before leaving. The group chose Butrint, which was not difficult since the Mayor arranged a private tour guide for us. Consequently, we missed our 3:00 meeting in Kucove that day but easily re-scheduled it for 8 a.m. the following morning.

In Kucove, we were greeted by the Deputy Mayor, the entire staff of the tax office and the Chairman of their Advisory Commission. Over coffee, we learned about the progress in Kucove over the past few years, including the changes in the tax system and the market. Back at the Bashki, the Mayor joined us and we moved to the City Council Chambers for our meeting. The meeting with the mayor focused on the Advisory Commissions, their role and value to democratic processes, and transparency.

After the meeting, we split up: the mayors met together, the tax office folks went to the tax office, and the others toured Kucove and went to the market. We all met at the market about an hour later. Here we got a tour and description of the changes there and spent time in the satellite tax office at the market.

³At this point, there are 10 neighborhood advisory commissions. Each has about 3 leaders (chair, vice and secretary-although not formally). Together, they make up about 30 members for the city-wide “advisory commission.” However, a city-wide structure has not been formally recommended or adopted.

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Photos were taken and gratitude exchanged (as occurred in Saranda too) and the trip rolled-on to Peshkopi, dropping off the SNV advisors in Fier. We needed to attend an SNV meeting.

Highlights of the Trip

Overall, the goals of the study tour were met. And where we may have fell short in terms of the time lost in actual meetings (particularly, in Kucova), was made up by other experiences, learnings, and professional growth!

Highlights from Saranda included:

􀂃 The professionalism of the municipality staff. The Peshkopi folks were very impressed by this and are still talking about it. We believe that they were role models for how people in public service can perform. Their pride in their community and their knowledge of their topics shined through in all of their conversations-they were great “ambassadors” for their community.

􀂃 The gender balance/statistics in Saranda municipality were also impressive. 45% of the staff are women, including the Chief of Staff, Director of the Tax Office and Director of the Tourism Office. The City Council is represented by 33% women and the Secretary of the Council is a woman.

􀂃 Peshkopi participants, particularly the advisory commissioners, were very honored by the Saranda mayor and staff. This increased their confidence and pride. Throughout the conversations, they listened to Saranda staff speculating and conceptualizing how to use an advisory group for their work in Saranda. (In the past, they have used experts in particular fields in ad hoc committees for advice.) We found this dynamic very interesting because it seemed that our Peshkopi commissioners were actually increasing their own understanding about their role, as Saranda folks speculated.

Highlights from Kucove:

􀂃 Here, our group heard very specific stories about citizen advisory commissions and they received advice. In many ways it was good that they already had their role “built up” in Saranda, because they engaged in rich dialogue with the mayor, deputy mayor and chairman of the Kucove Advisory Commission. They heard stories of how the Kucove commission evolved and matured over time, which is good ‘realistic-grounding’ for our members.

o They learned how they can and should gather input from citizens and give input to the municipality (both administration and council) on topics such as taxes and the budget.

o They were told that they need to go to the city council meetings and listen and learn or they will never start making an impact there. And that their role could and should evolve into being of value to the entire municipality and not just the mayor and his staff.

o They heard the mayor say that he listens to his commission and almost always does what they say-but not 100% of the time. However, he said that he knows that he cannot go against their opinions too often or he would be out of a job. Our members were impressed to hear such things.

o They discussed difficult things too, such as how to handle conflict within the community. Specific to Peshkopi’s current conflict, the mayor advised them to “make the issue more public.” He encouraged them to speak up and speak out about difficult topics and issues and to not shy away from conflicts. It was their role to ask the tough questions and demand transparency.

􀂃 The City Council Chambers/meeting room included chairs for the public (accommodating about a 30 person audience.) This generated a number of comments and ideas from our group.

􀂃 An unexpected highlight, for everyone, was the public market. They have a satellite tax office inside the market so the vendors can pay their tax conveniently and the inspectors can

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directly track/monitor as well. They showed us their impressive data related to tax collection and compliance, since they moved into the market.

􀂃 The market itself was also a source of pride for Kucove, and it gave a long-range vision to the tour group. It was clean, secure (locks for individual merchants well as the whole market,) and organized and consolidated in one location.

Overall:

􀂃 A major indictor of change and success, in our opinion, were two “speeches” from one of the more skeptical and extreme advisory commissioners. In Saranda, he “announced” to the entire group at the end of the dinner, that he was not of the same party as the mayor; but from what he heard so far, he was agreeable to keeping an open mind and he would try to understand what the mayor was trying to accomplish. At the end of the meeting in Kucova, he promised to the whole group, that when he returned to Peshkopi, that he would talk to his fellow opposition party members and try and get them to understand and support the establishment of the advisory commissions.

􀂃 On the return trip, the advisory commission concluded that it might be helpful if they added some members with some specific expertise. This could help with the quality of their advice and increase their overall knowledge. They discussed/are aware that there are many ways they could structure themselves in the future. Any new experts could be part of them (as members), or an appointed and specialized group(s) as needed. The mayor has given them the “freedom to choose,” (as this is still a mayor-initiated pilot). They decided to try and recruit new and motivated members and not to form “expert-only” types of groups because they believe that they have something very unique/important in the way they are organized as “average citizens from the neighborhoods.”

􀂃 In terms of taxes and tax management, there are so many things that could be implemented similar to Kucove. Any one of them would be an improvement. Our fear is that the changes needed are quite large and that Peshkopi’s tax office staff might try to do all of them and become overwhelmed. This is where our on-going coaching and advice is needed. Our continued workplan for “tax management improvement,” includes technical assistance for the tax office and also the community participation piece. With the latter piece, we will likely braid it with the advisory commission’s development, assuming that the advisory commission development remains on our long-term contract with the Peshkopi Municipality.

􀂃 We need to anticipate that tourism and economic development initiatives on the part of this client are “just around the corner.” The mayor was very excited about Saranda’s accomplishments and the advisory commissioners got a glimpse of what tourism can do for an area. We have opportunities to approach this in a manner that involves actors from all sectors. We need to capitalize on this opportunity because the community lacks experience in working together.

Recommendations for Future Tours:

􀂃 Do It! If you think that it might not be worth the effort, think again. Peer to peer exchange of information and knowledge is one of the best ways that humans learn. Also, the “unexpected” can occur and it may springboard the group toward their next/future goals. Finally, you don’t have to travel too far from home to learn from experiential stories and gain new ideas.

􀂃 Before the trip, have a “preparation meeting.” Review the learning objectives, discuss what you may see and hear, brainstorm some key questions, and recommend that participants consult others who may not be going on the trip to generate more specific questions.

􀂃 At the preparatory meeting, assign each participant a “job.” For example, to take notes; to summarize what they heard/saw (maybe during the bus ride between stops); to prepare for the next stop by reminding folks about who they will see, the questions they generated, how much time they have, etc.(the agenda keeper); to write a report afterwards; to give a

4

verbal report upon returning; or others. Or similarly, assign each person a meeting or part of the trip/tour to document (take the notes for the group). This is an example from another SNV study tour.

􀂃 Schedule a “return meeting” before leaving on the trip. This meeting can be somewhat social, maybe with picture sharing, etc. But, the main objective is to reflect and discuss learnings; to document the learnings; and to make decisions about what to do next. Next steps could include: preparing a more formal report to a larger audience; generating specific recommendations to another entity; taking actual action steps; or other. Since we did not have one of these scheduled, we are having many delays in trying to schedule one.

􀂃 Stay with the group all the way home. Of course you cannot always have the ideal calendar or schedule. But, another 7 hours together in a vehicle would have allowed more time to debrief the observations, reflect and process the learnings. This opportunity was missed by the SNV advisors; however, we trust/heard that some of this did occur.

􀂃 Anticipate that things take longer in a large group. Regardless of the breakdowns during our trip, everything (e.g.: lunch break) seems to take longer.

source:portal.snvworld.org

Posted in Albania, Albania Economy, albania today

Albanian building collapse

franksupa — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 01:27:37 +0000

The first victim, a 65-year-old woman was pulled out on Monday morning.

According to the Ministry of Interior, a woman and her 12-year-old daughter are still believed to be under the debris.

Emergency crews, firefighters and police launched a rescue mission after an apartment building where 30 families lived collapsed on Sunday.
So far four people have been taken to the local hospital.

“There is still hope that someone will be found alive,” said Alfred Olli, Albania’s head of Civil Emergencies Agency.

According to the Ministry of Interior, construction work on a new building at the base of the hill – where the apartment block is located – may have caused the collapse. The owners of the construction firm have been placed under arrest.

Speaking at the scene after arriving from Tirana, Prime Minister Sali Berisha asked for a thorough investigation.

“Those responsible should be brought to justice,” said Berisha, adding that for now the authorities were concentrating on the rescue operation.

Real estate has been booming in Albania for a decade. Price increases were fuelled by strong domestic demand, availability of mortgage loans, fast-flowing remittances from family members working abroad and a strong migratory trend from rural to urban areas.

Nowhere domestically has the economic buoyancy yielded greater change than in the property market, with the construction industry accounting for 47 per cent of overall economic activity in 2006.

However, the fast pace of growth, coupled with weak state institutions and corruption, has reduced oversight on constriction sites.

The local office of the watchdog group Transparency International stated on Sunday that the incident was the result of lack of regulations and weak enforcement of existing rules in the construction industry because of corruption.

The local media reported that the inhabitants of the collapsed building had continually complained about the construction and had even had filed a suit against the developers of the new building.

Morning shows in TV stations were filled with calls from people reporting similar situations.

Original article on Read more: http://balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/14651/

Posted in albania news Tagged: albania news

Three killed in Albania’s apartment building collapse

franksupa — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 01:24:02 +0000

TIRANA, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) — Three people were killed in Sunday’s apartment building collapse in a southern Albanian city, local media reported on Monday.

Rescue workers on Monday dug out three bodies from the rubble of the collapsed building in Gjirokastra, 225 kilometers south of the capital city of Tirana.

The victims are a 65-year-old woman, a little girl aged 13 and her 38-year-old mother, Albania’s TV network News 24 said.

The five-story building partially collapsed on Sunday morning. More than 20 people have also been injured in the collapse.

It was believed that the collapse have been caused by construction work on an adjacent apartment building. The chief of Gjirokastra’s city planning office and four people from the construction company have been detained in the case, police said.

source:news.xinhuanet.com

Posted in albania news Tagged: albania news

Albania pyramid schemes in 1997 scenario

franksupa — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:05:18 +0000

States throughout the Balkans are taking measures to reassure citizens that their bank deposits are safe amid fearful memories of the 1990s collapse of banking systems or failure of so-called pyramid schemes.

In response to growing tensions following the world financial crisis, the Serbian government announced on Monday it would guarantee deposits up to 50,000 euros (40,250 dollars), comparing to 3,000 euros until now.

Belgrade officials argue that Serbia has been largely preserved from any devastating effects of the world crisis.

Analyst Nebojsa Savic said it was good that the Serbian authorities reacted quickly and urged them to do their utmost to ‘calm down instability and prevent panic.’

‘Even the best financial systems would suffer serious problems if all clients withdrew their deposits at the same time,’ Savic said.

The Serbian government also decided to abolish tax on interest rate income until the end of 2009, as well as gains on shares and bonds until 2012. Croatia has taken similar measures last week, increasing banking deposit guarantee from 19,000 to 56,000 euros.

In Bosnia, the Central bank demanded the authorities to double a limit for the guarantee to 7,700 euros in a bid to win again the savers’ confidence in the local banking system.

In most of the countries emerging after the break up of former Yugoslavia, citizens were deprived from their deposits in early 1990s following the collapse of banking system.

Ever since the removal of the autocratic regime of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, Serbia has been repaying the debt to its citizens in annual instalments.

Acknowledging that people are worried, Serbian Central bank governor Radovan Jelasic described as ‘irresponsible’ those who tried ‘to compare the banking system in Serbia nowadays with the one in 1990s that took away savings from citizens.’

He said: ‘At the time, those were state-owned banks in which the government appointed its own people, decided on investments and has played with somebody else’s money, while today the banks in Serbia are owned by first-class investors who can not be ordered by the state where to invest the money.’

The governor insisted that the banks in Serbia ‘stand’ behind citizens’ savings, insisting that they were ‘liquid and solvent.’

He said: ‘Second in line is the central bank, which keeps 40 percent of all deposits, more than in any other state in Europe, and finally the state, which pays back old deposits and (gives) guarantee for new ones up to 50,000 euros.’

The governor urged the citizens ‘not to trust those who are playing with their emotions and memories of the past.’

In Montenegro, Serbia’s former federation partner which had seceded in 2006, the local press has given widespread coverage to people’s concerns about the latest financial crisis, remembering the collapse in the 1990s.

The authorities want urgently to pass a law that would guarantee both individual and enterprises’ banking deposits. The state will also guarantee inter-banking loans, Financial Minister Igor Luksic said.

In Albania, where collapse of pyramid schemes in 1997 led to an armed rebellion, Prime Minister Sali Berisha told AFP that the ‘deposits of the Albanians in banks working in Albania are safe.’

Pyramid schemes are investment or saving plans which offer high returns. But the returns are largely funded by newly deposited money. The schemes therefore depend on attracting ever more depositors and are unsustainable.

The International Monetary Fund’s office in Tirana said ‘there is not a single worrying sign at this stage’ in the banking sector.

The country was less integrated to the world’s economy and therefore ‘somehow a bit protected’ from the ongoing financial crisis, it said.

In Macedonia, Deputy Prime Minister Zoran Stavrevski urged citizens ‘not to be afraid’ as banks based in Skopje were ‘only a little’ affected by the world crisis.

source:thanks to business.asiaone.com

Posted in albania news Tagged: albania pyramid scheme

Albania looks to institutionalize key reforms

franksupa — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:01:15 +0000

At a ceremony today in Tirana, Albanian Minister of Finance Ridvan Bode and Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Deputy Vice President for Policy and International Relations Sherri Kraham officiated at a ceremony celebrating the signing of Albania’s second MCC threshold program worth over $15.7 million. This second, or Stage II, program builds upon the significant successes of MCC’s first threshold program with Albania and looks to institutionalize key reforms in public administration and judicial capacity building and to support anticorruption activities. Albania’s Prime Minister Sali Berisha, United States Ambassador to Albania John Withers and United States Agency for International Development Mission Director Roberta Mahoney also participated in the ceremony.

“It is a great pleasure to celebrate progress underway here in Albania, as we mark the successes of Albania’s first threshold program and the start of its second,” stated Ms. Kraham. “MCC is proud to sign its first Stage II program with the government of Albania and looks forward to creating a strong foundation for fighting poverty and stimulating economic growth,” Ms. Kraham added.

MCC’s threshold programs are designed to assist countries that are on the “threshold” of eligibility for the larger, longer-term Millennium Challenge Account grants, or compacts. Threshold program assistance is used to help countries address the specific policy areas for improvement indicated by their scores on 17 independent policy indicators in three categories — Ruling Justly, Investing in People, and Encouraging Economic Freedom. These policy indicators are central to the criteria and methodology for compact eligibility and are based upon reports by a wide range of respected international institutions and national data. Each indicator was selected based on its relationship to growth and poverty reduction, the number of countries it covers, its transparency and availability, its analytical rigor, and its objectivity.

MCC’s threshold program assistance signed to date totals $440 million in 19 countries: Albania, Burkina Faso, Guyana, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyz Republic, Malawi, Moldova, Niger, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Tanzania, Uganda, Ukraine and Zambia.

source : thanks to .isria.info

Posted in albania news

Albania is a secure country for investments

franksupa — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:53:38 +0000

TIRANA, Oct 22. (ATA). “Albania is a secure country for investments and government is determined to contributing for success of the business”, stressed on Tuesday Premier Sali Berisha, at the opening of the German-Albanian economic conference “Market perspectives in Albania. Energy – Environment – Construction”, which is holding its proceedings in Hotel Tirana International, with the participation of 80 German entrepreneurs.

Considering excellent the economic relations between two countries, Premier Berisha emphasized that Germans funds amount to 800 million euro, since 1998.

Expressing gratitude to German government and Chancellor Merkel for help given to development of our country, PM Berisha stressed, “German economic aid has been extraordinary in all fields and it has given a great contribution in transformation of Albania”.

The Premier added that the inauguration of big number of German investors projects is a testimony of the real success of German business in Albania”. In this framework, PM Berisha also mentioned the extraordinary important projects of southern energy ring.

Premier Berisha added that Albanian government has made great efforts for facilitation of fiscal burden and reduction of taxes, whereas the annual incomes have increased”.

Among other things, he said, “every year, we have sent in parliament a supplementary budget, whereas in the last three months, the government has collected 3.2 billion dollars more than the three previous years”.

Regarding corruption, Premier Berisha said, “in international reports, Albania ranks among the top 10 countries that have fought corruption”, but, he added, “corruption is like cancer, it has to be fought every day”.

According to head of government, “Albania is a small country in the map, but a country with great potentials. Albania has an incomparable tourist potential, “Switzerland with sea”, whereas mountains are waiting for investments to turn Albania into the most attractive Alps for mountainous tourism”.

Considering the Albanian economy as new and dynamic, Premier Berisha said that Albanian exports “Made in Albania” have increased by 42 %, annual inflation amounts to 2.7 %, whereas economic growth for first six month period is 11 %.

Referring to international crisis, Prmeeir Berisha said, “we are not detached from the universe, but I can say that banking system is stabilized”.

In his address, Premier Berisha focused on the criminality indicators, declaring that they are lower than the average of European Union countries”.

Whereas, Parliamentary State Secretary in Federal Ministry of Economy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Hartmut Schauerte stressed that economic conference is a testimony of the great interest of German investors in Albania and result of admirable progress of Albania, as well as consolidation of legal framework of Albanian economy, which is evident in last years.

Making evident the fact that German economic assistance is the highest per capita for Albania, Schauerte stressed that this has come as a result of tangible development of Albania and implementation of reforms against organized crime and corruption, as well as support of Albania government for foreign investments.

Schauerte said that this testifies that financial assistance for Albania has been fully merited. He stressed that there is a great interest of German investors to invest in Albania in the field of thermal energy generation, urban wastes processing according to EU standards, etc.

source: thanks to bsanna-news.ukrinform.ua/newsitem

Posted in albanian business Tagged: albania business, Albanian investments

Alternation of energy resources in Albania

franksupa — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:52:12 +0000

TIRANA, Oct 22. (ATA). Alternation of energy resources in Albania is necessary, Minister of Economy, Trade and Energy (ETE) Genc Ruli said at the German-Albanian economic conference “Market perspectives in Albania: Energy-Environment-Construction”, which was opened by Prime Minister Sali Berisha.

“Improvements have been made to the law “On concessions” in 2006, but alternation of energy resources are necessary in Albania, as currently 100% of these resources in the country are water resources,” Ruli said at the conference, which was attended by a large number of Albanian and German entrepreneurs.

“Albania has advantages in developing wind energy,” he said, stressing that the Albanian government “has given priority to the strengthening of inter-connection lines, whose building also enables power export to neighbouring countries.”

Referring to improvements and facilities in doing business in Albania, Ruli said: “The basic legal and regulatory guarantees, which are also found in foreign countries, have been established over the last three years.

“Albania has several competitive advantages, such as tax reduction, and the creation of the legal framework to set up a center in the form of “One Stop Shop” on permits and licenses is also being completed. This will further facilitate procedures for the business,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ruli said that work is underway also for the development of Albanian ports, considering this a very significant step to upgrade standards of infrastructure.

“We are conscious that problems on property titles still exist but we have approved creation of economic zones to facilitate building businesses in the country,” Ruli said, referring to the property title issue.

He added that three industrial parks were approved last September and that other parks were being studied.

The conference will continue for two days in Tirana and a number of government officials and business representatives are expected to read reports.

source: bsanna-news.ukrinform.ua/newsitem

Posted in albania today Tagged: Albania, albania engergy, energy resources in Albania

Kosovo nobel

franksupa — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 03:40:58 +0000

Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president awarded the Nobel peace prize for his mediation in Kosovo and a string of other conflicts around the world, said yesterday that Serbia would have no option but to accept the new Balkan state.

In his first interview with a British newspaper since being named Nobel laureate last week, Ahtisaari shrugged off the apparent setback to his work in Kosovo inflicted when Serbia succeeded in having its declaration of independence referred to the international court of justice.

The 71-year old also argued that it did not matter that the former Serbian province had been recognised so far by only 51 of the world’s 192 countries. That was less important than the economic clout of the nations that did recognize Kosovo, including the US and most of western Europe.

“It really doesn’t matter if Paraguay hasn’t recognised,” Ahtisaari said. “Well over 65% of the wealth of the world has recognized. That matters.”

Ahtisaari was commissioned by the UN in 2005 to find a compromise solution for Kosovo’s status as a way of ending the deadlock that followed the 1999 war and Nato intervention. His plan for supervised independence coupled with extensive minority rights for Kosovo’s Serb minority was rejected by Serbia and Russia last year. However, Kosovo – with western backing – declared independence in February.

Belgrade has vowed never to accept Kosovo’s sovereignty, but Ahtisaari said Serbia would have to relent if it wanted eventual European membership. “You can’t be poking the EU in the eye [while] saying you want to join EU,” he said.

He sent private messages to all parties soon after taking his role as mediator, that Kosovo’s secession was inevitable. “[I said] in light of what had happened in Kosovo, the return of Kosovo to Serbia is not a viable option,” Ahtisaari said. “So since March 2006 no one should have had any illusion what my plan was going to be.”

Russia furiously opposed Kosovo’s independence, and pointed to it as justification of its own recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, pro-Russian enclaves in Georgia. Ahtisaari rejected the parallel.

“We did Kosovo within the UN framework. In Georgia there was not even an attempt,” he argued. “You cannot go into an independent country and do whatever you like. Even if you are Russia.”

Ahtisaari was also involved in mediating Namibia’s independence from South Africa in 1989, and brokering peace in 2005 between the Indonesian government and separatists in Aceh. He said the secrets to successful peacemaking were research, having a clear strategy, and hiring staff who offer independent thinking. “You don’t need a single yes man,” he said. “You have to have colleagues who can challenge your own thinking.”

source:guardian.co.uk

Posted in albania news Tagged: Albania, kosovo, kosovo army, prishtina, uck

Montenegro Demonstrators Arested

franksupa — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:54:39 +0000

15 October 2008 Podgorica_Montenegrin police say they will charge 34 people in relation to rioting that broke out after an opposition rally against the government’s decision to recognize Kosovo.

The 34 men will be charged with “violent behavior”. The clashes left 37 people injured, including 26 policemen, police spokeswoman Tamara Popovic said. She accused opposition leaders of pouring oil on troubled waters by going ahead and organizing the rally.

About 10,000 people joined the protest in the capital, Podgorica, denouncing the decision of Milo Djukanovic’s government as a “stab in the back” to Serbia.

Protesters chanted “Treason! Treason!” and “Kosovo is Serbia!”, as opposition speakers gave Prime Minister Djukanovic a 48-hour deadline to annul the move, call a referendum on the issue, or call early elections.

That deadline expired at noon Wednesday. Nothing unusual took place in the Montenegrin capital after the deadline passed, though a parliamentary session and a special meeting between deputies and the Prime Minister was delayed for unspecified reasons.

Kosovo remains a sensitive issue in Montenegro, where about one-third of the population declare themselves as Serbs. Ethnic Albanians make up around 7 per cent of the population. Montenegro was also in a loose federation with Serbia until a referendum on independence in 2006.

Podgorica recognized Kosovo’s independence on October 9, leading Serbia to expel the Montenegrin ambassador.

Montenegro’s decision came just a day after the UN General Assembly voted in favor of a Serbian request for the International Court of Justice to render an opinion on the legality of Kosovo’s unilaterally declared independence.

source:balkaninsight.com

Posted in albania news Tagged: Montenegro

albanian banking will not lose money

franksupa — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:25:21 +0000

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) assured observers that Albanian banks would not suffer ill effects from the ongoing international financial crisis, as Albania´s banking sector lacked integration with the world economy, IMF representative in Tirana Ann-Margret Westin said.

“It is a fact that banks in Albania are not exposed to the so-called ´toxic´ financial instruments that have been the source of the crisis,” Westin noted. She advised the government to follow careful fiscal policies to guarantee investors it is capable of maintaining macro-economic stability.

Posted in Albania Bank Tagged: Albania Bank

Albania to leave prosecutors

franksupa — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:15:38 +0000

EU, US urge Albania to leave prosecutors to do job

The prosecutor’s office said it wanted Damir Fazlic, a Bosnian-British businessman, for questioning in connection with allegations first made in a newspaper of money laundering related to real estate deals.

Wednesday, 15 October 2008 10:08

The European Union joined the United States on Tuesday in calling on Albania’s government to stop interfering with independent prosecutors looking into possible government corruption.

Fazlic has denied the allegations.

The EU envoys said: “This may lead to undue interference and possible institutional conflict in the country.”

“We strongly call upon all, in particular the government, to respect the constitutional provisions and principles of good governance, including accountability to the law,” they added in a statement issued by the French embassy, the current EU chair.

EU ambassadors said they were troubled by “recent developments concerning the judicial system” after the General Prosecutor’s office said police refused its request to invite a man for questioning before he left Albania.

The European Union has told Albania it needs to do more to fight organised crime and corruption as well as foster democracy and respect the independence of institutions if it wants to advance its bid to join the bloc.

On Monday, the U.S. embassy voiced similar worries.

“All cases should be fully, completely and independently investigated without any outside interference or threats to prosecutors. Respect of all independent institutions is essential for a healthy democracy,” the U.S. spokesman said.

Fazlic flew to Tirana on a private jet last Wednesday and left one hour before his scheduled flight, and before prosecutors could catch up with him at the airport.

Berisha has defended the police action, saying prosecutors could not order officers to hold someone for questioning.

“Even if the worst enemy of the prime minister would have been stopped in this way, it would have been a big shame for the country,” Berisha told a news conference on Monday.

“I cannot have another opinion … when this gentleman happens tobe a friend of the prime minister, a man who has contributed to my election campaign. I also said he would be investigated to see if he has taken any money from public funds.”

Berisha came to power in 2005 promising to govern with “clean hands”, but his government has also been accused of corruption and two of his ministers have had their immunities stripped to be investigated for abuse of office.

After Prosecutor General Ina Rama asked her staff not to cave in to pressure after the row over Fazlic, Berisha said he would call in foreign experts to look into government corruption cases. His party said Rama could be investigated.

source: Reuters

Posted in albania news Tagged: Albania Economy, albania politics, albanian news

Albanian president visiting Boston

franksupa — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:55:21 +0000

albanian president boston,Alfred MOISIU usa visit

QUINCY — September 25 2008

Although Quincy is the City of Presidents, it’s not every day that it hosts a head of state.

On Saturday, Albanian President Bamir Topi will be at the Alba Restaurant on Hancock Street to have lunch and meet about 200 guests.

Restaurant owner Leo Keka, who emigrated from Albania in 1990, said when he heard the president wanted to visit his restaurant, he started researching the president’s political viewpoints and background.

“This guy is a very interesting president. I don’t think I’d host any other (Albanian) president here,” Keka said.

“Most of them are very bad, but (Topi)’s actually a good guy. …He’s really Westernized, which means a lot to us, because we grew up in a dictatorship.”

President Topi is in Massachusetts for the 100th anniversary of the Albanian Orthodox Church in South Boston. While he is in the area, he is visiting several local Albanian-owned businesses, including Anthony’s Pier 4 in Boston.

Keka said he has invited about 200 guests Saturday, both Albanians and non-Albanians, who have supported his efforts to raise money for Albanian causes.

In May, Keka held an event in his restaurant to raise $25,000 for five children from Kosovo who were badly burned in a propane tank explosion.

He said he is most excited to have President Topi recognize the hard work several of his friends have done to help Albanians.

“I try not to forget where my roots are. We never forget where we come from. I love to say, ‘Hey, I’m Albanian.’”

Posted in albania news Tagged: Albanian Boston, Albanian president, Albanian president usa, Albanian president visiting Boston, alfred moisiu

Kosovo Improved Relations with US

franksupa — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:51:09 +0000

Serbian President Boris Tadic says he hopes to be able to turn a new page in relations with the United States when a new U.S. president takes office – despite differences on Kosovo.

In an interview aired on VOA Serbian language television Tuesday, Mr. Tadic said Serbia cannot defend its interests in Kosovo without the United States having a different understanding of the issue.

But he said he does not expect Washington to change its position.

Mr. Tadic told the United Nations General Assembly that his government is asking the International Court of Justice to rule on what he called Kosovo’s “illegal and illegitimate” declaration of independence.

He later said on VOA that a favorable ruling would strengthen Serbia’s international credibility, saying Serbia is trying to solve the situation peacefully and diplomatically.

The General Assembly has agreed to debate whether to back Serbia’s request for a court ruling.

The United States and 46 other countries have recognized Kosovo’s independence.

source: voanews.com

Posted in albania news Tagged: kosovo, kosovo indipendence, kosovo news

Mr. Obama clarifies Kosovo policy

franksupa — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:50:01 +0000

Obama’s personal adviser, Richard Holbrooke, earlier this month visited the Republic of Kosovo, reiterating that “Senator Barack Obama will continue to support Kosovo in every possible way.”

US Senator Barack Obama, the democratic candidate for US President, has stated for the weekly Albanian-American newspaper Illyria that he strongly supports Kosovo independence and its democratic processes emphasizing that “as a President of the United States [he] will assist Kosovo develop a strong economy.”

The US Senator from Illinois by reconfirming his strong support for Kosovo independence has said that he will personally work on strengthening the sovereignty of the newborn nation, the Republic of Kosovo.

The statement by Senator Obama is the first public engagement to communicate directly with the Albanian-American community in the United States.

“Barack Obama supports the independence of Kosovo and its democratic process towards full sovereignty,” was said in the statement. “The United States must work assisting Kosovo in building a vibrant democracy, secured through law and order that guarantees all human rights.”

The emphatic statement, giving powerful support to the Republic of Kosovo by Senator Barack Obama who is running for US President in 2008, is the first attempt of Obama to clarify some of the ambiguous and misleading statements made earlier to the Serb media and organizations, and court instead the Albanian-American communities who reside in the most contested states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida, states that have determined the winner in the past two elections, and other ones such as New York, New Jersey, Texas, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.

Many Albanian-American Democratic voters were ambivalent about Barack Obama due to his absence from national American politics during the Balkan conflicts in the 90′s and dubious statements by various pro-Serbian media and think tanks that Obama could shift the American policy in the Balkans.

However, Senator Barack Obama on the day of the Kosovo declaration of independence, issued a statement expressing his genuine support for Kosovo independence and during one of the debates, in a follow up question, he stressed his commitment to defending Kosovo sovereignty from any possible Serbian aggression.

His running mate, Senator Joseph Biden, has been a long advocate of Kosovo independence and a strong supporter of the human rights of the Albanians throughout the Balkans.

Obama’s personal adviser, Richard Holbrooke, earlier this month visited the Republic of Kosovo, reiterating that “Senator Barack Obama will continue to support Kosovo in every possible way.”

Obama’s latest statements go further, expressing his support for Kosovo’s integration into the euro-Atlantic institutions by building an open and tolerant society that guarantees the rights of minorities and protects the important cultural and religious sites.

As President of the United States, Obama states that he is committed to work on “assisting Kosovo develop a strong and healthy trade, focusing on economic development and creating new jobs, and assisting the country to build a powerful infrastructure and energy system.”

In his statement, Obama also praises the “important achievements in Albania.” He congratulates Albania for the receiving invitation to join NATO and wishes Albania to become a member of the EU in the near future.

Senator John McCain, the Republican Candidate for US President, has already a proven track record advocating for Kosovo. Senator McCain has also expressed his strong support in assisting Kosovo build its economy and strengthens its democratic and sovereign institutions for all Kosovar citizens.

Source: emportal.co.yu

Posted in albania news Tagged: kosovo, kosovo indipendence, kosovo war, mccain, obama

The one and only Kosovo should become UN Member State – Albanian President

franksupa — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:47:04 +0000

24 September 2008 – Kosovo, which declared its independence from Serbia earlier this year, deserves to be a United Nations Member State as soon as possible, Albanian President Bamir Topi told the General Assembly’s annual high-level debate tonight.

In an address to the debate, Mr. Topi said any political, economic, military or diplomatic effort against Kosovo’s consolidation as a State “would be a hopeless attempt against the integrating processes towards NATO and the European Union.

“It would be a regressive move against foreign investments and progress which we need so direly,” he added.

Mr. Topi said “this new political, economical and social reality” that is Kosovo is an irreversible development, adding that formal recognition of it as a State “is to the interest of Kosovo, of Albania, of Serbia and of all its close and distant neighbours, of Europe and Mediterranean space.”

He said the independence move would help with efforts in the region to promote the rule of law, encourage long-term peace and stability and spur closer integration with the rest of Europe.

“The independence of Kosovo finally frees this part of Europe from the nightmare of war, of inter-ethnic conflicts, of ethnic cleansing and genocide; it fulfils and respects the free will of a people to break free from the political oppression, from historical injustices and inability to develop.”

The President noted that Albania was helping the people and government of Kosovo – where ethnic Albanians outnumber other groups by nine to one – to build a society that is genuinely democratic, secular and multi-ethnic.

He added that he was confident that the precise role of the UN peacekeeping mission to Kosovo, known as UNMIK, would soon be reconfigured to take account of the changed circumstances.

source: un.org

Posted in Albanian time Tagged: kosovo

Head of Albanian pyramid scheme arrested in Uruguay

franksupa — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:46:08 +0000

TIRANA – An Albanian sentenced in his absence to 16 years’ imprisonment for running a fraudulent pyramid scheme has been arrested in Uruguay, Albanian police said on Wednesday.

The collapse in 1997 of the country’s pyramid investment schemes led to losses of $2 billion worth of savers’ money and led to riots and anarchy.

“We have been informed by Interpol in Montevideo that the citizen Bashkim Driza has been arrested in Uruguay and is now under house arrest,” police said in a statement.
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Driza, 50, was tried in his absence in 2002 and received a 16-year sentence in 2002 for defrauding 304,240 people of 870 million leks ($1 million).

Police said he had been living in Uruguay, Chile and the Dominican Republic using Uruguayan and Dominican passports.

His scheme offered huge returns but had not invested in fixed assets like most of the other schemes that tempted Albanians to sell apartments, land and livestock to invest in them with the promise of huge sums of money.

Albania is trying to recover money the pyramid scheme operators deposited abroad, including 200 million dollars deposited in Greece by one of the schemes.

Between 2,000 and 3,000 people were killed in unrest that gripped the Balkan country for six months in the wake of the systems’ collapse in 1997 until an Italian-led European force restored order.

With files from Benet Koleka

source: canada.com

Posted in albania news Tagged: Head of Albanian pyramid scheme arrested in Uruguay

Albania Green Enviorment

franksupa — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:06:47 +0000

Albania green enviorment

A central biomass liquid, two wind farms and a marine of 1000 megawatts designed to connect to the transmission network, Italian green energy produced in Albania. The programagreement between the Italian government and the Albanian led the Group Marseglia to invest in Albania, in the region of Lezhe, for a project in the energy sector, which is’ expected to be presented to the Fair east on the initiative of the Region Puglia next Thursday ‘September 18. The project already ‘authorized by the Manager of the transmission system (Ost) and by energy sector regulator (Ere) Albanians, now and’ undergoing final approval by the Albanian Government. The initiative involves the construction of a power station fuelled by liquid biomass power of 140 megawatts with an investment of around 150 million euros and two wind farms power of 234 megawatts with an investment of almost 250 million euros for a total , Plants producing green energy, 400 million euros. In collaboration with Terna spa, the project is completed by the interconnection of networks of high voltage from Italy to Albania via submarine cables, laid for 300 km in the Adriatic Sea between the coast of Puglia and Albania for an investment of about 600 million euros . The total investment for the first project organized by the Albanian Group Marseglia, sara ‘and then about 1 billion euros. For inclusion on the Italian network of energy transported by submarine, Terna has identified a technical solution connection providing connection to the national transmission grid through a new power station sorting north of Puglia. And ‘being Terna entrustment to the task of executing the design, aimed also access permissions ministerial and regional authorities. The operation of the facility will require ‘the training of qualified technical personnel. For this and ‘planned a period of training of engineers and workers Albanians in Italy, in establishments Group Marseglia; after training will be integrated in their installations Albanians. (ANSA). ZG

Gianfranco Fini visits Tirana

franksupa — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:57:30 +0000

Tirana oh Tirana

Albania: the state visit to Tirana, the chairman of the House Gianfranco Fini defines”model” collaboration between the two countries on immigration.Fini confirmed Italy’s support to Euro-Atlantic aspirations of Albania. “A model of cooperation that could be proposed also to the countries of the southern Mediterranean” is the judgment that the chairman of the House, Gianfranco Fini has expressed on collaboration Italian-Albanian immigration, legality, security and combating crime.Fini played last Monday in Tirana his first state visit as chairman of Deputies to reiterate the country eagles of the strong support of the Euro-Atlantic aspirations of Albania and other Balkan countries. At its meeting in Fini with the premier Sali Berisha, with the President of the Republic of Albania, Bamir Topi, and the Chairman of Parliament Tirana, Jozefina Topalli, the Italian leader said that, on immigration, there have been “huge “Developments in relations between the two countries.”If we remember that projected the image of Albania during the period of massive and illegal landings and compare to that of today – said – you see that the situation has changed. There is a substantial zero landings in the channel of Otranto. This is done for the strong commitment of the Albanian authorities, but also because Italy did not ever miss economic support, friendship and cooperation, respecting immediately the agreement for joint patrolling the coast. “

Albanian

franksupa — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 05:17:03 +0000

The Arab countries aim to Islamism the Balkans starting from Albania. Under indictment “primarily” Suadi Arabia. The project for the construction of two thousand mosques in the country proceeds quickly: there are fears that Arabs speculums on poverty Albanian establish a fundamentalist fifth column in Europe
Party in 1996, today more than ten years since its launch is coming to an end the project, so dear to Muslim countries in Asia, led by Saudi Arabia, Islamism Albania, the poor southern state Adriatic sea which should be in the delirium of Islamic fanaticism the starting point for the “recapture” of Europe, a continent where the followers of Mohammed were largely driven out in the fifteenth century, especially on the Queen of Spain, and from where disappeared almost permanently at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the Balkans is one from the domain turkish. Taking advantage of poverty in the proverbial “Land of Eagles” in a subtle first, then increasingly the rich emirs of the Persian Gulf have begun to convince people Albanians to accept their certainly not used for purposes of charity but with a end clear: to be in Albania a sort of fifth column of Islam in his pilgrimage to conquer the Old Continent.
The war in Kosovo was paradigmatic in this sense: most of the so-called “patriots” Kosovars were financed the acquisition of weapons and their equipment with of Saudi princes who also financed the construction of the Great Mosque of Shkodra, now complete. The awards uncritical then made by most of the European Union to the new state entity has further encouraged Arab states that now, even using their secret services, are and the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina to end the existence of that nation, laboriously created after the Dayton Agreement. The Christian church, both Catholic-Orthodox greek that, having underestimated the problem is now aware of the danger and raised the alarm. It is no secret that among the advocates the growth of Islam in the Balkans there are several well extremists willing to lead the Holy War against the infidel West. In some countries of Central Europe, as in Slovakia and Romania this danger is this so well that the governments of Bratislava and Bucharest well have refrained from recognizing the independence of Kosovo. Even in Italy, despite the various parties of right and left have rushed to recognize the independence of Pristina is increasing awareness of danger, especially after that, with some blitz of Police (such as that over the past days in Bologna) was found that in our country citizens immigrants from various Islamic countries are conducting a work of proselytism aimed to train paramilitaries to be sent to Afghanistan or Iraq to carry out terrorist acts against Western troops there present. Some of those arrested had a history of guerrillas in Bosnia or Kosovo, although not ever been citizens of the former Yugoslavia or Albania. Many priests and nuns in the poor country that faces the channel of Otranto tell us that while among young Albanian women spreading a certain sympathy for Christianity, among men over 18 years the message of Islam is winning . Probably, however, because the Koran gives women a subordinate role in line with that under the kanun the medieval text of laws oral Albanian still followed in arrears villages campaign.
Release done and deprived of any sense of ethics from the dictatorship of Enver Hoxa, the Albanian population, in almost all atheist, is facing severe tests of simple physical existence and was by malicious message that came from Arab countries whose emissaries promised their money and wealth in exchange for the willingness to embrace Islam. Needless to say, many have fallen into the trap. Europe is now called upon to intervene decisively, permanently anchoring the wing Albania Western civilization and its principles. It is his own survival if not will one day find themselves Muslims under the walls of Vienna as already happened in the past.

Kosovo Indipendence Similarities

franksupa — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 05:12:08 +0000

Recent developments in Georgia and the possible similarities between the independence of Kosovo and those of South Ossetia and Abkhazia have seized the attention of the media and Kosovar Albanians in recent days. Immediately after the recognition of independence by the Russian authorities and statements on the parallelism between the two cases have taken the reactions of Albanian leaders in Albania and Kosovo, and the media have published editorials and analyses, which are found mainly on same wavelength trying to deny any kind of analogy.

The official position of Pristina was expressed publicly by the vice Premier Hajredin Kuqi. “As stated at the time of the proclamation of its independence, Kosovo is a generis case that can not serve as a precedent to none. Russia is acting according to a logic of the Cold War, “said Kuqi. The same position was taken in several press conferences by Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha, who, in addition to underline the fact that South Ossetia Abkhazia one hand and Kosovo are the other results of two different stories and not comparable , Used very harsh words to condemn the position taken by Moscow and its allies.

Berisha has reacted with disappointment as the publication of a long list of countries that have supplied arms to Georgia, which also included Albania. “Russia attacks and take advantage of the smaller countries,” said Berisha, inter alia, causing the reaction dell’ambasciatore Russian Tirana, Aleksandr Priscepov, who defined the position of Berisha as well as emotional, and not to be taken into account “, while” Russia wants to really improve its relations with Albania “. Criticism zealous Berisha has caused amazement and have been compared by more than one analyst as identical to those of Enver Hoxha of Albania when alone and isolated criticizing everything and everybody. While the Kosovar leaders were rather cautious in their statements, the Albanian premier has spoken on several occasions strongly against any possibility to compare the two cases.

In the first pages of newspapers and Kosovar Albanians appeared titles as “Kosovo is different”, “You can not compare Kosovo “, “Kosovo sui generis” and “No similarities.” The editorial published many of which included English-speaking media, aimed to demonstrate that Kosovo can not be considered as a precedent to the independence of separatist regions in Georgia. It is pointed mainly on finding similarities type only formal between the two cases, such separatism, the attack by Russia if the Russian-Georgian and by the Born in’99 in the case of Kosovo, or in recognition of a new state without going through the UN Security Council.

But were highlighted substantial differences with regard to human rights violations in Kosovo, which according to many, despite the allegations of Kremlin, were at a level much lower in South Ossetia, and about the legal past of Kosovo, with ‘ then abolished autonomy of Kosovo by Milosevic, other than the status of the Caucasian region. Much space was also given geopolitical importance of the Caucasus, which transforms the last move of the Kremlin in a geopolitical scope what happened in Kosovo.

The arguments were very similar between different analysts and politicians in Albania and Kosovo. “To support the independence of Kosovo were the major Western democracies, while in the case of the Caucasus was only Russia, a state that can not be called fully democratic,” says Bashkim Muça on the pages of Kosovar daily “Koha Ditore” without sparing a critical tone against dell’élite Kosovo for not having reacted appropriately to the events of recent weeks. “There is no parallelism between Saakashvili of Georgia and Serbia of Milosevic,” then Muça. With regard to the geopolitical aspect, the analyst argues that Kosovo “in Georgia will face two superpowers,” leaving that the importance of Kosovo in this field is not even remotely close to that of Caucasian region.

On the pages of the newspaper tirane “Shqip,” the analyst Albanian Kastriot Islami argues that Russia has exploited the case not Kosovo as a precedent, but as an instrument of revenge against all states that have recognized. “Probably there is some parallel between the intervention of NATO and that of Russia,” writes Islami, “but Saakashvili has no conscience on genocide or serious human rights violations, as Milosevic in’99.”

In several talk shows, went on air on TV Albano one more followed, many analysts have questioned whether with its recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia Russia does not have indirectly recognized the right of Kosovo to be independent. Someone commented that with the events in the Caucasus Russia has abandoned Serbia, showing indifferent to the interests of its small ally. “Russia no longer has an excuse with which to justify its positions on Kosovo” said Mentor Nazarko in the pages of “Shqip.” Same idea is also the opinion-Kosovar Lulzim Peci: “Now it became obvious that the support of Russia to Serbia was part of political game. Now Russia has lost credibility. “

In Albania and Kosovo was discussed a lot about the consequences of the eruption of Georgian question could have on recognition and further affirmation of Kosovo with the international community. In Albania does not lack those who fear a further slowdown in the process of recognition, or that this is even called into question, while in Kosovo are prevalsi optimistic tone and confidence in Western support. “We need to see if Kosovo Ossetia el’Abkhazia have the same weight geopolitical game on the table of great powers,” he commented about Mentor Nazarko.

In Kosovo, however, any similarities are thinking beyond the schemes discussed so far. During a conference held in the last day of August in Pristina, with the theme “Kosovo and Arab states”, Veton Surroi, known Kosovar analyst, commented: “In fact there is room for similarities, but not between Kosovo and Ossetia South. There is fear that what happened to Georgia with Ossetia, could happen in Kosovo with North Mitrovica. “

Albanian Forum Shqip

franksupa — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 05:05:18 +0000

This Albanian discussion forum gives you an opportunity to share everything in your life with the world. Share your experiences, your feelings, your knowledge, your likes and dislikes, your everyday struggles, neighbors you hate and your approaching exams. It provides you with Albanian discussion forum that will enable you to ask for and give answers to queries related to just about anything in easy, fast and effective manner. Just ask your question and let the answers find the way to them on the Albanian forum .

Click here to view this forum

Albania match after FIFA suspension

franksupa — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:08:28 +0000

UEFA postpones Albania match after FIFA suspension

NYON, Switzerland — UEFA has postponed Albania’s next qualifier for the U-21 European Championship after the country was suspended from international soccer by FIFA.

European soccer’s governing body confirmed Wednesday that no Albanian teams or officials can take part in any UEFA-organized match or event until the ban is lifted. Albania’s U-21 team was scheduled to play Greece on March 26, but the game was postponed until further notice.

FIFA suspended Albania on Friday because of what it called heavy political interference by the country’s government into the national soccer federation’s affairs.

FIFA said the Albanian government accused the federation of match-fixing and illegally seizing money from the sale of television rights to show matches.

Albania’s status will be discussed by UEFA’s executive committee at its meeting in Vaduz, Liechtenstein later this month.

“UEFA and FIFA hope to solve this conflict during the next two months, depending on the collaboration of the Albanian government,” UEFA said in a statement.

Visiting TIRANA : Information

franksupa — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:41:32 +0000

Visiting TIRANA : Information

tirana city, tirana albania,tirana capital city,tirana history

In 2004 the mayor of Tirana was awarded as the best mayor in the world for how he managed to change the image of the city. Tirana, the capital of Albania since 1920, is a fairly compact city and pleasant to turn feet that is dignified exit from the period of isolation imposed by the communist regime in power until a few years ago. Let us now, Tirana for so many ways is a rather ugly city where the historic centre of a time was cementificato by the communist regime harder and closed in Europe but is also a city quiet calm, orderly and well away from those images that that Sometimes you have in mind. However according to many visitors, Albania and Tirana you are doing a great leap forward. The capital is month after month, year after year rifacendo the trick. Of course it will take some time, but they are on the right track. Meanwhile, for those who love the nightlife Tirana offers discos, clubs, live music as rarely seen elsewhere.Tirana is a relatively new city when it was founded in 1614 by Sulejman Bargjini, a feudal lord in the region at that time. The city began to develop early eighteenth century. Most visitors begin their journey from the square Skënderberg, a beautiful open space in the city centre where the mosque in Ethem Bey built between 1789 and 1823 with a Clock Tower of 35 metres built in 1830 . East svetta Mount Dajti, 1613 m high, the market center deserves to be visited.
The National Historical Museum is the museum’s largest and most interesting of Albania, which is located near the Tirana International Hotel, with its 15 floors, is the highest building in the country. A huge mosaic titled Albania covers the facade of the building. To the east, the Palace of Culture has a theater, a restaurant, several cafes and art galleries. Its monumental architecture is clear Soviet influence. The entrance to the National Library is located on the southern side of the building. Faced rise the dome and the minaret of the Mosque of Ethem Mey, built in 1793, one of the most characteristic buildings in the city. The clock tower Tirana, built in 1830, is located beside the mosque.
At one time sull’alto marble plinth located between the National Historical Museum and the Central Bank in Piazza Skënderberg stood a statue of Enver Hoxha, with the end of the communist regime’s statue was removed and today the center of the square is occupied by a small moon Park. Along the river Lana, in a southerly direction, you can see the white walls oblique of what once was the Museum Enver Hoxha: today this building is occasionally used as an exhibition center and talk about convert it into a nightclub. From the top of the pyramid was removed the red star. Further south, along Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit, are ultra-modern Palace of Congress and the Archaeological Museum, which contains a fantastic collection of objects ranging from prehistory to the Middle Ages.
In Tirana, the accommodations are cheaper apartments rented by individuals or rooms at the local families. The cheap hotels once managed by the state were closed or restored and today engaged prices much higher. Even hotels apply new tariffs that are not affordable for those wishing to travel cheaply available. In Piazza Skënderberg and Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit there are many restaurants economy; throughout the city can find small bars.

HISTORIKU I MUZIKES POPULLORE SHQIPTARE

franksupa — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:26:05 +0000

HISTORIKU I MUZIKES POPULLORE SHQIPTARE

Muzika jone popullore eshte and lashte knows dhe vete jeta njerezore. Ajo paraqitet mjaft and larmishme it baze you rrethanave you jetes, kushteve historike dhe shoqerore you fiseve dhe you viseve tona. Maredheniet me popujt and tjere and kane pasuruar me teper kete folklor.
Kenget popullore nuk kane lindur they ere. Ato kane lulezuar sipas etapave you zhvillimit shoqeror, ekonomik duke pasqyruar aspektet and shumeaneshme you jetes if it popullit dhe vecanti you shtresave te te ndryshme saj, blegtorine, bujqesine, zejtarine, ritualet and ndryshme pranveres te, te festave you motmotit etj.
Kenget popullore ndahen it dy blloqe you medha qe jane kenget lirike dhe epika. Tek kenget lirike hyjne kenget and djepit, kenget and dashurise, kenget and dasmes, ritualet, kenget and kurbetit, kenget and nizameve (djem qe shkojne ushtare it Turqi), vajet dhe kenget and punes, kurse it epike hyjne kenget historike, legjendat, baladat dhe kenget and kreshnikeve. Kenget qe kendohen it krahinat it true you shkumbinit quhen kenge homofonike ndersa kenget and kenduara it krahinat poshte shkumbinit quhen kenge polifonike.
Cdo krahine ka kengen and vet karakteristike. Cdo ka fshat veta karakteristikat and it melodi.
Ashtu is kenga popullore edhe vallia popullore eshte and larmishme. Po keshtu dhe insturmentat popullore you cilat kane mberitur resulting sot is ciftelia, lahuta etj.
Nje nga vallet me te lashta eshte “Skifteri dhe Perllumbesha” and cila shoqerohet vetem me ritmin and 2 guralecave (Mirdite) apo Vallja and Shpatave and Malesise if Shkodres.

This is the first disc, published in 2000
Available from the record company
“Shtepia Botuese Eurostar” Tirana (Albania)
for more information
call 393335766506
or musica@ferdinandbjanku.it

This collection is meant as a contribution to the knowledge of Albanian culture and art, as it most ‘popular. For centuries until the beginning of the twentieth century songs and dance were the only form of art with which the people could express feelings and values and with whom, under the Ottoman domination, was able to defend its very existence and ethnic identity – National. The chants and songs from different regions and represent the whole truth and the richness of folklore Albanian still widespread in all parts of the country, so that there is no festive occasion, public or private, they are not played and sing popular music. The folklore is also one of the subjects of study in schools.

To listen to a song, select:

1.LULE BORE
2.LULJA MAJIT-KUR GJETHET BIJNE
3.PRAP ERDH PRANVERA
4.POTPURI KORCARE
5.KARAJFILAT QE KA SHKODRA
6.SYRI QERSHIA
7.POTPURI SHKODRANE
8.MOS MENDO (GJ. BJANKU)
9.S ‘KISHA NDERMEND (GJ. BJANKU)
10.KUJTIME (GJ. BJANKU)
11.SYT ‘AND YOU (GJ. BJANKU)

LULE-BORE
S. GJONI

TUJ T’KÈRKUMUN N’ARA N’KODER
TUJ PREKE LULET AND ME GJETH DORE
VEC NJI KOPSHTE TE VOGEL N’SHKODER
A TY T’GJETA LULE-BORE

Ref: JE JE POR VOGEL AND PLOT
TY T’KERKOJ A TASH SA MOT
TASH SA MOT A TY T’KERKOJ
ME TY JETE, T’LUM T’A ÇOJ.

EJA-EJA-LULE BORE
TY ME DO IF THURE KURORE 2 times (repeat)

PASH MA T ‘BUKUREN STIN PRANDVERES
PASH MBRETNESHEN DRANDOFIL
MOS T’JA FALESH TI KUJ EREN
IF FOR MU VETEM KE ÇIL.

Ref: JE JE POR VOGEL AND PLOT
TY T’KERKOJ A TASH SA MOT
TASH SA MOT A TY T’KERKOJ
ME TY JETE, T’LUM T’A ÇOJ.
EJA-EJA-LULE BORE
TY ME IF DOT THURE KURORE 2 times (repeat)

^ ^ INDEX

LULJA AND MAJIT
P. ASHIKU

NJE DIT’E BUKUR MAJIT TE HETOVA
M’SHEF’TE NDER GEMASH SHPESHTA NE NJE LULE.
DHE ME VUJTJE ZEMREN TE’KUNDROVA

DERI SA NJE DITE NE DORE TI MU PERULE.

POR TASH JE FOR MU, S’KE MA VLERE.
SE FLETE TUJA BUT FOR MU, S’KA ERE
TI S’JE LULJA E BUKUR, DIT’S MAJIT.
POR JE LULJA ZEMREN TIME, VAJIT.

TI S’JE LULJA BUKUR, DIT’S MAJIT.
POR JE LULJA VYSHKUN, N’ZEMER VAJIT.

ISHE TI BUT SEEKS NE TE TJERA,
VJOLLCE E BUKUR M’BUSHUR PLOT ME NGJYRA.
SE FLET’E TUJA T’BUKRA I MERR ERA.
SE KAÇ SHPEJT PRANVER, TE KA ARDHUR FTYRA. ____ _ 2 times

POR TASH JE FOR MU, S’KE MA VLERE.
SE FLETE TUJA BUT FOR MU, S’KA ERE
TI S’JE LULJA E BUKUR, DIT’S MAJIT.
POR JE LULJA ZEMREN TIME, VAJIT.

TI S’JE LULJA BUKUR, DIT’S MAJIT
POR JE LULJA VYSHKUN, N’ZEMER VAJIT.

^ ^ INDEX

KUR GJETHET BIJNE NE VJESHTE.
TANGO

KUR GJETHET MBIJN NE VJESHTE
ME DUKESH N’VAJ NATYR
BY TY S’MUNDEM ME HESHTE
SI GJETHI BAHEM N’FETYRE
And FTOFTE EDHE AND NGRIME
SI BORA NE KALLNDUAR
PO OF KJO KANGA EMI
ANKUESE THELL N’KRAHNUER

REF: TI M’KE BRAKTIS
KJOSHIN HARAM NDJENJAT AND MIJA
SE WIDTH DASHTNIS
TE LINDI N’ZEMER PA-BESIA
KE ME ‘U PENDUE POR ATHERE KA ME KENE VONE
And TUJ LOTUE
DOT ‘BIJNE NDER-RMEND DASHTNIA JONE

M’KUJTO KUR T’DAL PRANDVERA
O PUTHJE ME PASION
DHE FJALT AND YOUR PERHERA
KJO ZEMER SI DISHRON
PRA QE SE LULET RANE
TE ZVERDHUNA FOR MBI DHE
DHE KJO M ‘KUJTON ME T’ THANUN.
SE SA and PA-BESE TI JE.

TI M ‘KE BRAKTIS ETJ. ETJ.

FOR MUE LULET AND VERES
NUK KANE MA BUKURI
JANE VESHKE N’QOSHE T’PENGJERES
TE MJERAT NE SAKSI
AS LOTET NUK KANE TI NGJALLIN
JANE SHTERR LOT ‘And RINIS
VEQ KUR ME MERR MUE MALLI
The KENDOJ A DASHUNIS.

^ ^ INDEX

PRAP ERDH PRANVERA
Murrem Gediku

VASH ENGJELLORE
ZEMREN BUT MORE
TI IKE WIDTH AND S’DO TE KTHEHESH MA TEK NE
DASHUROVA SA, SA TA DHUROVA
KJO ZEMRA EMI, VEC FOR TY, GJITHMON TROKET.
SI MUND TE MOS KUJTOSH
SA BANE BE ME HERE.
SI MUNDESH, TE HARROSH
PREMTIMET QE ME DHE.
KUR BRIDHNIM NDER LIVADHE BLERTA,
TU LOZUN QESH’UN SI FEMIJ,
TI M’THOJSHE ME FJAL TE SINÇERTA
IF A, TE FALSHA LUMTURI.
GEZIMI’N AND JETES T’I BUT MORE
DH’E NE HARRES TASHTI ME LE.
NGA FTYRA DUKESH ANGJELLORE
POR N’ZEMER AKULL JE.

PRAP ERDH PRANVERA,
SI N’MOTE TJERA
MANARI I VOGEL, KODER N’KODER BLEGERON
ZOJÇTE CICEROJNE, ÇERDHEN N ‘DERTOJNE,
KJO ZEMRA EMI, VEC FOR TY, GJITHMON TROKET,
SI MUND TE MOS KUJTOSH
SA BANE BE ME HERE.
SI MUNDESH, TE HARROSH ,…. PREMTIMET QE ME DHE.

VERTETE I VARFEN A ÇELLOVA,
ME ‘NDOJ STOLI S’TE KAM GEZU
POR ME GJITHE SHPIRTE TE DASHUROVA
ZEMRE VEC TY, TA KAM DHURU.

TI VET ME IF THE LUMTURIA
S’FITOHET KURRE ME PAIA.
KUR ESHTE E PASTER DASHURIA
HARE AND GEZIME KA.

^ ^ INDEX

JAM JAM AND MIRE
Potpuri Korçare

BULEVARDI KORQES
KA VAJZA PA MASE
DALIN AND SHETISIN
PA LEJEN AND MAMASE.

Ç’VESHIN PALAÇETA
HIPIN BIÇKLETA
DHE JU THOJNE DJEMVE
HAJDE TU NGJAT JETA.
JAM, JAM I MIRE
S’JAM. S’JAME AND MIRE
DHE NE ‘JAM AND MIRE
JAM FOR VETEN TIME. 2 times

KUR VJEN BEHARI
Potpuri Korçare

KUR VJEN BEHARI
QESH QERSHI JA
VAJZA TE BUKURA
PAÇKAT PA T’PUTHURA

ANDEJ KENDEJ
KE-R-KO-JNE DJE-E-MTE
DUAN TE LOZIN-E
TE QE-E-SHI-NE 2 times

^ ^ INDEX

O ENGJELL … KORÇARE.

TE GJITHE FLENE
And QET ‘ESHTE KJO NATE.
KU VETMIJA
RRETH TEJE QENDRON,
DO T’KENDOJ.
N’ERRESIRE ME KITARRE,
YOU DO SHOHESH …
ATE QE TE DO.

YOU DO PLAKESH
DO IT THIHESH DELE,
DO SHURDHOHESH
DO KRRUSESH NJE DITE.
DO T’KALOJNE
TE EMBELAT PERKDHELJE
DHE BUÇETA …
ME LULE MOS PRIT.

REF. PRA EJA O ENGJELL ME QE-E-TESO,
And MJERA ZEMER
FORT SA ‘TE: DO … 2 times

STR.2. KU DO VESH
KU DO QE TE FLESH
ZEMER KU DO T’JESH
NGA DO QE TE VESH
WIDTH PREJ MEJE DASHNINE,
MOS HARRO
TJETER MOS KERKO
VEQ PREJ MEJE
And GJEN LUMTURINE.

REF. PRA EJA O ENGJELL
ME QE-E-TESO
And MJERA ZEMER
SA STRONG DO YOU … 2 times

^ ^ INDEX

KARAJFILAT QI KA SHKODRA

KARAJFILAT QI KA SHKODRA,
MEDET O KUND NUK JANE
GANXHE T’MDHAJA, GANXHE T’VOGLA,
ME ERE MBUSHIN DYNJAN, AMAN, AMAN.
ATO GANXHE S’M'I PREK’DORA,
MEDET O KAN ZIJANE.

DRANDOFILJA LYPTE HIJE,
MEDET OR ME ÇIL.
GJETHT I DALIN FIJE-FIJE,
MEDET O Ç’ERE TE MIR, AMAN AMAN.
S’GJENDET KUSH ME PERZI TU-E,
MEDET, MOI DRANDOFILL.
MARANGJYLI KAQ I BUKUR,
MEDET O POR S’KA ERE.
ME I’A PREK ‘GJETHIN ME PUPUL,
And GISHTIN TE GJITH NJEHER, AMAN AMAN
ME I’A PREK ‘GJETHIN ME PUPUL,
AMAN, DOREN Ç’TA THERE.

CARNATIONS FOR SHKODER
(Song SCUTATINA)

BELLE OF THE GIRLS SHKODER
SON LIKE A BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS
The RIEMPIONO AND AIR
OF THEIR FRAGRANZA
SON BUT FLOWERS
NONE THAT CAN FEEL.

^ ^ INDEX

SYRI SI QERSHIJA
Prek Jakova

SHKODREN FLAK FOR BULOJNE
AGIME T’REJA
MI PEMTE AND NALTA QESH
BALKONI I RI,
And MBLEDH SI ZGJY
MA T’AMLA MELODI
And N’FTYREN TANDE VASH,
VETON, PRANVERA.

Ref. SYRIN SI QERSHIA
N’FLAK AND NEZE DJALIN,
BUZEN GAZ AND BANE
PESH JA ÇOVE MADHIN.

MBI SHKO-O-DREN TO-O-NE
BU-U-ROJNE AGIME T’RE-JA-A.
ME LU-U-LE VI-LE-E-E,
PLOT DRANDOFI ME-I-LE.

KU-U-LLO-JNE SI MJA-A-LTA-A
PLOT DRI-I-TE DHE HI-I-JE.
And FTY-Y-REN TAN DE-VA-A-ASH
LU-U-LZON PRANVE-ERA.

Ref. SY-Y-NIN SI QERSHI-I-JA
FLA-AK QE N’DEZE DJA-A-LIN,
BU-U-ZEN GA-A-ZE BA-NE
EP-SH JA, ÇOVE MA-A-DHIN.

^ ^ INDEX

POTPURI SHKODRANE

HAJDE SHPIRTE OJ DRITE,
HAJDE SHPIRTI The IM
SE PA TY, TAN’E
ASHT-E E ZBRAZD GJITHNJI 2 times

OH’MOJ BUKUROSHE
SYNIN KUR TA PASH
RRUGES KUR KALOJSHE
DY, TRI FJALE TI THASH 2 times

HAJDE SHPIRTE OJ DRITE,
HAJDE SHPIRTI The IM
SE PA TY, TAN’E
ASHT-E E ZBRAZD GJITHNJI 2 times

OH N’AT FUSH T’MEJDANIT
SHKON AND VJEN DYRNJAJA,
SIELLE KRYET PREJ’XHAMIT
DIGJET FUKARAJA.

OH! MORI SHTAT-SELVI-JE,
SHIKJO NE QITABE,
FOL ME GOJ, NURIJE,
SE KE SHUM SEVAP-E.

O-HO-OHO, O-O-HO-HO-HO-O …
ASAMAN’MOJ LULJA ALLIT
ZE-MREN TIME C’MA KE PREK
PO T’BAJ BE’PASH SYT’E BALLIT
TJETER KUSH MOS TA RREMBEJ 2 times

O-HO-OHO, O-HO-HO-HO-O …

^ ^ INDEX

MOS MENDO ‘
Gjovalin Bjanku

U GENJEVA NE SYT TUEJ PLOT DJALLEZI
TASH AND NDJEVE. S’KISHE ZEMER FOR DASHTNI
FITIMTARE AND ÇUEN VEHTEN “JO TUJ FSHA”
And PENDUEME M’SHIRE TE FATIT KE ME RA

DOT ‘PENDOHESH POR AT’HERE KA ME KENE VONE
KE ME U VESHKE AND ME U TERUN PERGJITHMON
DOT ‘KERKOJSH NDONJI ZEMRES ME JU PSHTETE
And KE KOT SE Ç’DO ZEMER KA ME T’PYET PERJET.

MOS MENDO
SE DOT ‘KENDOJ BUT FOR TY-E
POR MENDO
SE PREJ ZEMRES TE KAM SHLY-E
DOT’A DIJSH IF FOR FAJIN QI BANE DIKUR
M ‘SHENTAS M’ IKE I RE TJERA KUJ N’KRAHNUER

JO-JO KURR
NUK DOT’KTHEHEM PRANE TEJE
DOT ‘AFROJ
NJE VAJZE TJETER PRANE MEJE
POR GUXIM
MOS TE KESH ME M’SHIKJUE NDER SY
JE FAJTORE
ASHT VONE FOR-ME – U KTHY FOR TY.

^ ^ INDEX

S’KISHA NDER MEND
Gjovalin Bjanku
VALZER

S’KISHA NDER MEND MA MET’KENDUE
SE TASH JE AND TJERA KUJ
POR ERDHA VEQ ME T’KUJTUE
KOHEN QI M’RRIJSHE M’KRAHNUER 2 times

SHUM PRANDVERA I KEM ‘KALUE
SBASHKUT ME TY TUJ SHETIT
AND IF YOU M’KE HARRUE
QYSH’SE VENDOSE ME M’IKE Idem

TI AT’HERE M’KE PAS’THANUN
DYSHIM MOS T’KESH N’SYT AND MI
VONE T ‘NJOFTA POR KURR S’KAM
ME I FALUN

DREDHIT AND SYVE TE ZI

^ ^ INDEX

KUJTIME
Gjovalin Bjanku
Bolero

KUJTIME
T ‘PRANDVERES A KURR SI HARROJ
ANDRRIME
PO TY ME OR VASH I KALOJ
POR TI QI M’KE DHANE BESEN
PSE NUK KTHEHESH MA N’DASHTNI
PSE And VRAVE ZEMER SHKRETEN
DHE AND TI NE VETMI

N’MES GJUMIT
A ERDHA TEK IT FOR ME FSHA
N’MES-NATE
NE GJUME PRAP NA BASHKE KEM ME U PA

PO T ‘THAME PSE ERDHA
PATA DESHIR
NATEN AND MIRE
NATEN AND MIRE

^ ^ INDEX

SYT ‘AND YOU
Gjovalin Bjanku

M ‘IKE WIDTH, POR DOT’ KUJTOJ
NE VETMI MOJ TUJ T’KENDU
KUR PREJ ZEMRES S’TE LARGOJ
SI TRATHTOJ DY SYT’E TU

DOT ‘JETOJ PO ME ANDRRIME
FOR AT KOHE QI NE KALUEM
KAM ME U PSHTET N’KITARREN TIME
ME SYT ‘ERRUN DHE T’LOTUEM

PO SA HERE QI KAM ME KENDU
TEK ‘DO YOU MEND JEN T’A ÇOJ
JO PA TY S’KAM ME VALLZUE
AS NDOJ TJETER S’PERQAFOJ

DO YOU PRES, DOT PRES SA T’KTHEHESH
ME GEZIM PRAP N’KRAHT AND MI
DHE AT’HERE PERHERE DOT ‘MBETESH
N’ZEMER T’IME T’ANE DASHTNI

Our popular music is as old as the very life of the people. It is colourful, depending on the circumstances of life, historical and social conditions of tribes and our countries. Relations with other peoples have enriched even more folklore.
The folk songs are not born by chance, are sbocciate following the stages of social and economic development, representing various aspects of life of people and especially those aspects related to agriculture, pasture, crafts and various rituals of spring, to the festivities etc. ..
The folk songs can be divided into two main blocks: the songs lyrics and songs epic. In the song lyrics can find ninnananne, songs of love, marriages, the rituals, elegie emigration, the songs of the so-called “nizam” (young men who go as soldiers in Turkey), plant and songs from work . The epic hand, is characterized by historical songs, legends, ballads and songs of heroes. The songs that have characteristics of the countries north of the river are called Shkumbin songs omofoniche. Instead, the songs of the South are polyphonic. Each zone has its songs characteristics and each country has specific characteristics melodic.
The dance is popular multiform as the song. The same can be said for popular musical instruments, which are used today, as “çifteti”, “lahuta” etc. .. One of the oldest dances is “The hawk and the dove” and is accompanied only by the sound of rhythm two stones (Mirdita). Antica is also “The Dance of Spade” in Scutari Mountains.

Albania Videos

franksupa — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:23:43 +0000

The music helps children of asylum in Albania

franksupa — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:21:10 +0000

The music helps children of asylum Breglumasi in Albania.

Thursday, April 24 at 20.30 in Rome in the Church of St. Paul within the Walls, Via Nazionale, the Musical Euphonium Association will hold a concert, with music by Claudio Merulo and Pier Paolo Cascioli, to support asylum Breglumasi, one of the neighborhoods on the outskirts of Tirana in Albania. The event Roman received the patronage of the Senate of the Republic.
The neighborhood of Breglumasi, arose as a result of internal migration of population, began after the collapse of the regime of the early 90s, so irregular and disorderly. This has resulted in difficult living conditions characterized by widespread forms of poverty, unemployment and crime, mainly because of lack of social services and, more generally, for lack of opportunities to the detriment of the social groups most at risk (children, young people and women). A Breglumasi, the VIS and the Salesians in 1994 have promoted the creation of a Social Centre, still the only multi-zone can offer the local community educational activities, educational, social and health care, cultural and recreational activities.
Asylum will host over 200 children and contribute to the improvement of living conditions of local people and will offer, with a view to preventing and social recovery of children and risk, relevant and effective responses to the growing phenomena of child deviance characteristic of suburban areas Albanian capital.
The evening organized by Musical Euphonium formed by young lovers of music and young musicians who care about the problems of peace and international cooperation and promotes the art and music among young people. In particular, pay attention to little-known artists, giving them the opportunity to become known by the general public.
The programme provides for the concert the group Sonos Ensamble directed by Dario Paolini, organ, Carmine Carmine, Philharmonic Carmine Farmmilne, Euphonium, Luca Della Corte, ballet, artistic director Pier Paolo Cascioli.

Albanain Aritists

franksupa — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:18:48 +0000

December 2004

* ALBANIA THE SURPRISE EDI RAMA (article on “Panorama” – nr.52 of 23-12-2004
When the revolution is’ penelli career with the mayor of Tirana – Edi Rama, 40 years, loves definisri artist. Painter, a former professor of fine arts at Tirana … click here

* Books: foreign authors for Albania
Avvinto by the Spirit of Caramel la Rosa. The witness of love of the priest Ettore Cunial in queto book of 2003 with Editor: Stilo .. click here
* The editors of the journal Telematics & Near New Age reported heading dedicated to the artist
Arben Idrizi here …
* Books
“The Bride of waters” by Gino Luka and ‘an interesting collection of fairy tales bilingual Albanian / Italian in which boys Italians and other cultures’ live’ the current base our school can find stimulating food for thought and discussion. .. click here

* “EIA EGNATIA” Show personal ARTAN SHABANI
Museo dell’Automobile Carlo Biscaretti di Ruffia “Turin – Italy
(www.museoauto.it) 21 October 2004 to 9 January 2005 … click here

* December 19, 2004
Palazzo dei Bergamaschi, org. by Art & Inves in two rooms, two exhibitions: “Bodies of the soul” and “Colors of the Mediterranean”. In the second room the young MILOT, Albanian artist, who, after their success at Maschio Angioino, presents for the first time in Rome the last work. A young talent who studied at Brera and is considered a great promise .. click here

* December 2004
Rrok Jakaj – A great pain for relatives and friends, a great loss for the Albanian art in the world!
. click here

* 4-10 December, 2004
Tirana – ALBANIA – INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL OF SHORT FILM by FAMA (Foundation Art & Media Albania) click here

* Monfalcone – December 7, 2004
Concert by the Quartet for Strings of the Tirana at 21.00 at the Auditorium of the Institute of Music A. Vivaldi, via G. Galilei 93 / A – Monfalcone. In Program Music by C. Zadeja, F. Schubert, P. I. Chaikowsky. Event organized by the musical “A. Vivaldi” of Monfalcone in collaboration with the Academy of Arts of Tirana (Albania), the Friuli Venezia Giulia, the Province of Gorizia and the Municipality of Monfalcone … click here

November

* Rome – 28 November 2004
The association of the Albanians “Iliria” organizes Theatre “Orion” (Rome) 10:30 hours – Concert with the participation of artists Albanians: Ferdinand Bjanku here ..

* “National League of associations and arberesh Albanians in Italy”

At the 2,150 th anniversary of the death of the Great King of Illyria, King Genzio, the upcoming November 2004, the “National League of associations and arberesh Albanians in Italy”, with the patronage of the Consulate General of the Republic of Albania to Milan, is organising a commemorative pilgrimage to the mausoleum that houses the remains of Genzio of Illyria.
click here …

* Genoa recalled Albert – Commemoration to Galata Museo del Mare.
Genoa – Monday, November 8, at the Galata Museum of the Sea held a ceremony to commemorate Albert Kolgjegja, the worker of Albanian nationality lost his life in the tragic collapse that occurred in the building Museo del Mare, on 8 November 2003 . click here ..

* Do ‘part of the series “Verbamundi” of publishing “Besa” the book “ALBANIA TODAY” with author Vito Lacirignola here ..

* The association Italo-Albanian “Friendship” during the celebrations in November: Concert, November 21, hours near the beach Rimini-Riccione … Info

* Zafina Vasa, art gallery, biography of the artist here

* 6 November 2004
Koncerto of Albanian singer and instrumentalist Ferdinand Bjanku in Rocca di Papa (Romaa) – Areas of Hannibal, at 16:00 hours. “The party of the people” a great activity that brings artists staged here …

October

* Throughout the month of October 2004 and ‘left open the exhibition “I love the art of small Albanian artist Jon Babatinca, in the sphere of Richview library – Toronto – Canada .. click here ..
* “Miss Albania in Italy”
The September 25, 2004, in Room 700 of ‘Auditorim Rome and’ was crowned the first “Miss” Albanians in Italy. It’s called Gentjan Totraku, 23 years, born in Lissus (Lezhe) … click here
* For collectors
It ‘been put on the market the book “History of Scanderbeg” Marin Barleti edition, published in the Italian language to age of the Venetian Republic, as far back as 1554. It is said that the book and taking very well, the cover in leather with the same old book here …

September

* The Association of Albanians in the Province of Rimini “ILIRIA” also this year in the second edition of the “Marathon of peoples” in Tirana in memory of the great Santa Albanian Mother Teresa ( “Mother Teresa Memorial Run”) here ..
* Under the patronage of the Province of Puglia, the town of Lecce and Section of Albanian to Rome. Celestini exhibited at Palazzo di Lecce September 12, 2004 the painter Artan Shabani. Expected participation of the Albanian writer Fatos Kongoli ….. click here
* Books
From libraries Italian a new book to read: Stigmate – Vrage with author: Hajdari Gezim here …

* EXPO
International exhibition in Madrid where the artist partcipa Albanian Alban Meka. International ArtExpo NONSTOP.MADRID.04 here …

* Music
Rock Arberesh – Peppa Marriti Band: “It is the nature of Arbëresh cheerful: love conviti and entertainment, and with ispecialità is dilettano de ‘their dances. They used to go hill swords in hand singing songs …”… You here

August

* Books
BY COUNTRY OF AQUILE – Publishing: Besa 204 pages hosting the works of great authors Albanians from KADARE, AGOLLI here …

* III edition of National Competition Journalistic on-line Lidhja Award 2004 “, promoted by the” Research Center Socio-Cultural G. Kastriota “, the magazine Italo-greek-Albanian” Lidhja “, and the International Library” A. Bellusci “Frascineto here …
* Artan Shabani – exposes the Palazzo del Capitano to BATHROOM OF ROMAGNA (FC) from Saturday until August 7 to Sunday, August 29. The Exhibition of art organised by ‘Department of Culture of Bagno di Romagna and sponsored by the Councillorship Culture in the province of Forli-Cesena in collaboration with the Galleria Pugliese of’ Art Florence here ..

* Authors foreigners:
Mario Rigoni Stern “share Albania” A year of war and two military campaigns in France and in Albania: the discovery of hunger, of sadness without a fight here because …
* Music
Spasulati Band – the genre of Spasulati and ‘certainly unique, sort of mixture of allegrissimo reggae-ska contaminated with the culture arbereshe and can’ be seen as a personal interpretation of patchanka, but in Albanian sauce (arbereshe) here ..

July

* July 21
FAMA (Foundation Art Media Albania) and Film Archive of Albanian organised “Tribute to Marlon Brando for” Viva Zapata “in environments AQFSH in Tirana (Albania) … click here

* Dance and Musicadal 21 to 24 July 2004
3 Edition “Porto San Giorgio in DANCING” Holiday / Stage Academy GISELLE Dance and Music with the patronage of the Municipality of Porto San Giorgio (AP) Italy ….. click here
* Italy – Venice: July 7 at Palazzo delle Prigioni at 19:00 – Shows Art Artan Shabani “Water and the Balkans’ in the sea of Venice” with the patroncinio Veneto Region, City of Venice and Embassy of the Republic d ‘ Albania to Italy here …..

* The Italian Anschluss. The war in Albania (1939-1945) “by Bernd Fischer, is a synthesis of six years are crucial for the history Albanian and Italian. The book takes as its starting his Italian occupation of the” Land of Eagles “, an operation intended to segnare.clicca here

* Painting
a new theme in the work of painter Ormira Lulani, naked women. A topic dealt with by almost all the painters but expressed with a different concept and in its original style …. click here

* “Three songs funeral for Kosovo”, Ismail Kadare ‘, three stories in 108 pages
Publishing: TEA (2003) On 28 June 1989 the Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic unleashed the nationalist offensive against the Kosovo Albanians. From that day began the dissolution of Yugoslavia. But the choice of that date was not random here …

June

* Music
The Opera “Evminidha” of Albanian composer Vasil Tole will be ‘performed at the opening ceremony of the Olympics to ATHENS – Greece, August 2004 … click here

* Fresh print:
The book highly successful “24 emperors Albanians to drive Rome” by Alban Kraja. Journalist, writer, political published, in addition to this book in its third edition, also: “Kosovo, the soppravivenza of a people”, “Skanderbeg – The campaign of Italy” and it ‘about to leave his new book ” Iliria, Arberia, Albania “click here …
* Books of the authors Albanians
Publisher: Longanesi. (2002) “The bridge to three arches” – Ismail Kadare ‘, novel
… We are in 1377. The fake epileptic crisis that takes a poor, Gielosh the idiot, on the banks of the river cursed, Uyana, originator of the construction of the first stone bridge in Albania here ..
* Books:
“History of Albania” – Nuncio dell’Erba – Pocket Cheap Newton, 100 pages. Historical of Albania, analysis of socio-economic crisis the company ‘Albanian in the 90s, the historical process here …

* Editrice “Corbaccio” adds in its series “Writers from all over the world,” the success of the novel by Albanian writer Ismail Kadaré
“The general dell’armata dead” … click here
* Ismail Kadare ‘and’ Born in 1936 in the south of Albania. Narrator, Poet and literary critic, more ‘times Candidate Nobel Prize. Among his many novels, published in Italy: General dell’armata dead, Who has reported Doruntina?, The City ‘Stone, The Palace of Dreams, The Drums of rain … click here

* Concerts singers of Albanians in Italy:
Calendar Tour Hysni (Niko) Zela) & Fanfara Tirana … click here

* IRMA LIBOHOVA Turne of Concerts in Italy

24 April 2004 concert in Rimini – for info … click here
25 April 2004 concert in Pesaro – for info … click here

* April 10, 2004
It was innaugurata at 17:00, w / or Limonaia of Villa Strozzi in Florence:
Exhibition of Painting Masters Silvio Loffredo and Artan Shabani, will present the artisti.Presentazione criticism by Prof.. Domenico Pugliese.Presenziera Ambassador of the Republic of Albania in Rome SE Prof.. Pellumb Xhufi. Click here

* April 3, 2004 – The artist Artan Shabani sets: in Italy, Cherasco – Palazzo Salmatoris (April 3 to 25) …. here

* March 30, 2004 – The artist Artan Shabani sets: in France, Strasbourg the Council of Europe in Strasbourg (March 30 to April 25) and other current exhibitions here ….

* March 20, 2004
At the ninth anniversary of the birth of ILIRIA – Rimini was’ held on March 20, 2004 hours from 14:30 a conference theme: the importance of culture in the process of integration among peoples during the conference were carried out also work on the birth of the first “National League of associations and arberesh Albanians in Italy”. Present the presidents of associations of Albanians and Arberesh … (click here)

* March 17, 2004-Vatican – The work of the young painter Albanian talent and success, Artan Shabani “Mother Teresa” and ‘was given to Pope John Paul II. In the ceremony of delivery of the artist was accompanied dall’Ambasciatore the Republic of Albania in Rome Albanian Rome prof.Pellumb Xhufi … (click here)

* March 8
Lek Pervizi and its activities’ artistic …. click here

* February 15
Under a draft Italian-Albanian front of the Theater “Migjeni” of Shkoder (Scutari), Albania, were planted in the new pine trees. On each and ‘was carved the name of un’attore … click here

2003

* December 14-January 6

EXPO 25th National Review (Italy) Format Piccolo – painting – sculpture – graphics
Center of Art and Culture Piovese. Join the review Alberto Saka
* December 12
SKANDERBEG – The campaign ITALY
the new book’s historical Alban Kraja (click here).
* December 11
The associations of Prov. Rimini Pesaro-Urbino and the Circle Skenderbeg organizzanoUNA GREAT EVENING
with the participation of the extraordinary troupe of artists Scutari (click here)
* December 3
CD with songs of Arberesh of South (click here)
* 1 to 7 December 2003
The International Festival of Short Films in Albania (click here)
* November 29
ASSOCIATIONS of Prov. Rimini and Pesaro-UrbinoORGANIZZANO for independence Albanian great evening
With the participation of extraordinary singers and humorists: Porto channel Riccione (click here)
* November 29
In newsstand these days the new book’s historical Alban Kraja (click here).
* November 20
In Exhibition in Paris from November 20 to December 5 to Galeri Racine, 35 works of painters Albanians: Artan Shabani, Ervin Hatibi, Adrian Dinners
* THE VOTE TO IMMIGRANTS? Born in RIMINI (click here)
* 15 to 23 November “I Pinocchio” Inauguration: November 15, 2003 17:00. Join the artist Albanian: Milot
* October 21 “MARATHON OF PEOPLES” (click here)
* November 8 to 20 – Show staff – Alberto Saka “Works of SAKA”
* October 31
Great Concert at the beatification of Mother Teresa European Association Students Albanians
19:00 hours – Theatre “Orion” – Rome Guests of honor: Drita Haxhiraj actress, singer Ferdinand Bjanku
* October 24
GJAKOVE – Expo staff painter Alban Meka

* October 19, “Marathon of Peoples” – 21 km (click here)

* September 10, PERSONALITY ‘
Nermin Vlora Falaschi – The woman who has dedicated his entire life to Albania and the Albanian cause (click here)
* September 4, Expo Staff Alfred Miloti Mirash – Napoli (Italy) (click here)

* 6 to 26 June, Praxis Gallery, Toronto (Canada) held
7th Annual Juried Exhibition, with the theme “Landscape-The Lasting Inspiration”(click here)
* 5 to 23 June Palazzo Serbelloni – Milan (Italy) Expo Staff of the painter Artan Shabani (click here)
* May 6 – 12 September, all ‘University’ Bocconi University, Milan (Italy) Expo collective “John painters Albanians” (click here)
* Virtual Gallery, “Art and War”, the guest artist Ormira Lulanaj (click here)

Albania Geography and Population

franksupa — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:13:07 +0000

Area: 28,748 km ²
Population: 3,135,000 (1/1/2005)
Density: 109 ab / km ²

Form of government: parliamentary republic
Capital: Tirana (343,000 inhabitants).
Other cities: Durres 99,500 ab., Elbasan 87,800 ab., Scutari 82,500 ab., Vlora 77,700 ab.
Ethnic groups: 98% Albanians, Greeks 1.8%, Macedonian 0.1%, others 0.1%
Neighbouring countries: SOUTH Greece, Serbia and Montenegro to NORTH, Macedonia to EST

Monti: Korab 2751 m, 2694 m Jezercë
Rivers: Drin 285 km (stretch Albanian total 335 km), Seman-Devoll 281 km, Vjosa 272 km (stretch Albanian)
Lakes: Lake Shkoder 148 km ² (Part Albanian total 370 km ²), Lake Ohrid 120 km ² (Part Albanian total 363 km ²)
Islands: Sazan 6 km ²
Climate: Mediterranean – Continental

Language: Albanian Tosco (official), Ghego Albanian, Greek
Religion: Islamic 84%, 9% Orthodox, Roman Catholic 6%, other 1%
Currency: Albanian Lek

Albania Health Situation

franksupa — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:07:16 +0000

Health Situation

The public hospital medical facilities are still very weak while some private health facilities are higher level than public, even though they are still able to make interventions.

The public hospital medical facilities are still very weak while some private health facilities are higher level than public, even though they are still able to perform more complex. The sanitation situation is precarious because of open-air sewers, water infiltration in the network than sewer, low supply of water and the malfunctioning of waste disposal
It is satisfactory finding medicines in major cities, which are mainly imported from Italy, Greece and Romania. We recommend, however, to address the larger pharmacies and always check the expiration of medicines before the purchase.
There are still frequent, although declining gradually, cases of hepatitis, gastroenteritis, salmonellosis, tuberculosis, meningitis.
It is recommended, and then, after consulting doctor, vaccination against these diseases.
For any repatriations health emergency is a need to address at the Italian Embassy in Tirana (emergency number compatriots, active H24: 355.4.274900). You are strongly advised Finally, to conclude, before undertaking the journey, medical insurance, to include, in addition to coverage of medical expenses, including the possible return air health or transfer in any other country.

Warnings

It is recommended that:
Drink only water and bottled drinks without adding ice,
Not to eat food and raw minced meat,
Always wash and disinfect fruits and vegetables before consumption.

Albania General information

franksupa — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:05:03 +0000

Documentation required for entry into the country:
A passport or identity card valid for foreign travel

Travel abroad of minors: the legislation on travel abroad of children varies depending on the …

show the contents

Documentation required for entry into the country:
A passport or identity card valid for foreign travel

Travel abroad of minors: the legislation on travel abroad of children varies depending on the national provisions. It is recommended to gather information updated at embassies or consulates in the country accredited in Italy, to its Police and your travel agent.

Since entry: not necessary for citizens of European Union countries in possession of identity card and upon payment of the fee for entry.

Currency and customs formalities: It is not allowed leave the country carrying with them sums that exceed the 20,000 U.S. dollars or their equivalents. For the insurance of vehicles is not valid green card Italian entry in the country, directly to land or maritime border, you must take out insurance temporary Albanian with a company whose average cost per car for 15 days is about 50 euros.

Passengers with animals (dogs and cats)
There are no specific regulations or quarantine is planned for the importation of pets. However, it is necessary a certificate of good health. It is not requested any payment.
Vaccines are not always available. It is recommended that visitors who are planning to import an animal in the country to check before departure that all vaccinations are up to date.

franksupa — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:52:41 +0000

Quiliano. Two young Albanians were arrested by the carabinieri of Savona while travelling on board a car to Valleggia. During an ordinary control, men dell’Arma have the document given to them by one of two non-was false. At that point Ermil Mucai, 27 years, devoid of residence permits, tried to flee but was immediately blocked. It ‘been arrested for breach of the law Bossi – Fini and false proof of identity. His compatriot, GR, 28 years, was terminated because he was driving the half with a false licence.

Albanian In Italy

franksupa — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:49:23 +0000

In Italy the Albanians have entered very well and there are no particular problems.” This was said today in Rome Msgr. Rrok Mirdita, president of the Episcopal Conference of Albania during a meeting of bishops Albanians with the Fondazione Migrantes. The inclusion of Albanians in the Italian Church – said Don Pasquale Ferraro, coordinator of pastoral care of migrants Albanians – was “particularly cured with a pastoral sensitivity that has been increasingly affinandosi.” P. Gianromano Gnesotto, director of the Bureau for the pastoral care of migrants of Migrantes, recalled that the Albanians, with about 380 thousand people, are in third place for presence, with “a success regarding the paths of integration.” “We are working here and in Albania, for a common cause, is fighting a peaceful battle on two fronts closely linked together here and across the Adriatic,” said Bishop then. Piergiorgio Saviola, director general of the Foundation Migrantes. For Msgr. Saviola to the “Summit of our attention and our pastoral work is the desire that their migration experience becomes an experience of the Church, thanks to the many services on charitable and welfare plan, to facilitate their integration in Italy.”

Holland vs Albania – Albania soccer

franksupa — Sat, 17 May 2008 03:11:07 +0000

90+1Van Nistelrooy (Netherlands) scores!

88 Van Nistelrooy (Netherlands) is cautioned by the referee.

87 Cana (Albania) is dismissed.

87 Sneijder (Netherlands) fouls.

87 Sneijder (Netherlands) is booked.

84 Sneijder (Netherlands) has a shot blocked.

83 Bulku (in) – Bogdani (out) (Albania)

82 Van Nistelrooy (Netherlands) misses the target.

77 Melchiot (Netherlands) gives away a free-kick following a challenge on Bushaj (Albania).

76 Melchiot (Netherlands) takes the corner.

75 Sneijder (Netherlands) has a shot blocked.

74 Bushaj (Albania) is adjudged to be in an offside position.

72 Melchiot (Netherlands) commits a foul after challenging Bushaj (Albania).

71 Melchiot (Netherlands) is shown a yellow card.

69 Haxhi (in) – K. Duro (out) (Albania)

66 K. Duro (Albania) fouls.

65 K. Duro (Albania) is cautioned by the referee.

64 Van Nistelrooy (Netherlands) has a shot blocked.

63 Beqaj (Albania) makes a save.

62 Van Persie (Netherlands) has an effort on goal.

58 Beqaj (Albania) makes a save.

58 Melchiot (Netherlands) has an effort on goal.

57 Van der Vaart (Netherlands) misses the target.

54 Beqaj (Albania) makes a save.

54 Sneijder (Netherlands) has an effort on goal.

52 Van der Sar (Netherlands) makes a save.

51 Van der Sar (Netherlands) makes a save.

51 Cana (Albania) has an effort on goal.

49 Van der Vaart (in) – De Zeeuw (out) (Netherlands)

48 Van der Sar (Netherlands) makes a save.

47 Bogdani (Albania) has an effort on goal.

46 Bushaj (in) – Kapllani (out) (Albania)

– The second half begins.

– The referee blows for half-time.

45+3Babel (Netherlands) misses the target.

45+2Dallku (Albania) is booked.

45+1Kapllani (Albania) is flagged for offside.

44 Sneijder (Netherlands) gives away a free-kick following a challenge on Curri (Albania).

43 Van Persie (Netherlands) has a shot blocked.

42 Sneijder (Netherlands) commits a foul after challenging K. Duro (Albania).

41 Sneijder (Netherlands) misses the target.

39 Kapllani (Albania) fouls.

38 Van Persie (Netherlands) is shown a yellow card.

32 Kapllani (Albania) gives away a free-kick following a challenge on Van Persie (Netherlands).

32 Kapllani (Albania) is cautioned by the referee.

30 De Zeeuw (Netherlands) misses the target.

27 Van Persie (Netherlands) commits a foul after challenging Mukaj (Albania).

26 Sneijder (Netherlands) has a shot blocked.

25 Beqaj (Albania) makes a save.

25 Sneijder (Netherlands) has an effort on goal.

24 Van Persie (Netherlands) fouls.

24 Bogdani (Albania) delivers the free-kick wide.

23 Ooijer (Netherlands) gives away a free-kick following a challenge on Kapllani (Albania).

22 Beqaj (Albania) makes a save.

22 Van Nistelrooy (Netherlands) has an effort on goal.

21 Curri (Albania) commits a foul after challenging De Zeeuw (Netherlands).

19 Van Persie (Netherlands) strikes a free kick into the wall.

19 Lala (Albania) fouls.

16 Bouma (Netherlands) has a shot blocked.

12 Van Persie (Netherlands) strikes a free kick into the wall.

12 Kapllani (Albania) gives away a free-kick following a challenge on De Zeeuw (Netherlands).

11 Ooijer (Netherlands) commits a foul after challenging Cana (Albania).

10 Bogdani (Albania) has a shot blocked.

7 Kapllani (Albania) has a shot blocked.

7 K. Duro (Albania) delivers the corner.

5 Van der Sar (Netherlands) makes a save.

5 K. Duro (Albania) takes the corner.

4 Sneijder (Netherlands) misses the target.

2 Van Nistelrooy (Netherlands) misses the target.

– The match is under way.

Adelina Berisha

franksupa — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 01:05:20 +0000

Adelina Berisha Music Videos

Best Hotels in Albania Tirana

franksupa — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 04:49:54 +0000

Find Hotels in Albania Tirana

Famous Albanians

franksupa — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 04:40:17 +0000

Mother TERESA
Gonxhe Bojaxhiu

August 27, 1910 – September 5, 1997

Mother Teresa has dedicated all her life full of sacrifices to the benefit of the poor, banished, the sick, those who have no sanctuary and are deprived of love. She has always attested to the power of fraternal friendship by so encouraging the true human and social development”

BEATIFICATION OF MOTHER TERESA
“COME, BE MY LIGHT”Sunday, 19 October 2003, St. Peters Square, Rome

checkFull(“post-” + “919975730629100758″);

Enver Hoxha (1908-1985)

Enver HOXHA (b. Oct. 16, 1908, Gjirokast’r, Alb.–d. April 11, 1985, Tiran’), the first communist chief of state of Albania. As that country’s ruler for 40 years after World War II, he forced its transformation from a semifeudal relic of the Ottoman Empire into an industrialized economy with the most tightly controlled society in Europe. Hoxha, the son of a Muslim cloth merchant, studied at the French lycÚe at Kor�’ and reportedly also at the American Technical School in Tiran’. In 1930 he went on a state scholarship to the University of Montpellier, France, and then from 1934 to 1936 he was a secretary at the Albanian consulate general in Brussels and studied law at the university there. Returning to Albania in 1936, he became a teacher at his old school in KorcÔ. In 1939, when Italy invaded Albania, Hoxha was dismissed from his teaching post for refusing to join the newly formed Albanian Fascist Party, and he opened a retail tobacco store at Tiran’, which became headquarters for a communist cell. After Germany invaded Yugoslavia in 1941, Yugoslav communists helped Hoxha found the Albanian Communist Party (afterward called the Party of Labour). Hoxha became first secretary of the party’s Central Committee and political commissar of the communist-dominated Army of National Liberation. He was prime minister of Albania from its liberation in 1944 until 1954, simultaneously holding the ministry of foreign affairs from 1946 to 1953. As first secretary of the Party of Labour’s Central Committee, he retained effective control of the government until his death. Albania’s economy was revolutionized under Hoxha’s long rule. Farmland was confiscated from wealthy landowners and gathered into collective farms that eventually enabled Albania to become almost completely self-sufficient in food crops. Industry, which had previously been almost nonexistent, received huge amounts of investment, so that by the 1980s it had grown to contribute more than half of the gross national product. Electricity was brought to every rural district, epidemics of disease were stamped out, and illiteracy became a thing of the past. In order to enforce his radical program, however, Hoxha resorted to brutal Stalinist tactics. His government imprisoned, executed, or exiled thousands of landowners, rural clan leaders, Muslim and Christian clerics, peasants who resisted collectivization, and disloyal party officials. Private property was confiscated by the state; all churches, mosques, and other religious institutions were closed; and all cultural and intellectual endeavours were put at the service of socialism and the state. As ardent a nationalist as he was a communist, Hoxha excoriated any communist state that threatened his power or the sovereignty of Albania. In 1948 he broke relations with Yugoslavia and formed an alliance with the Soviet Union. After the death of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, for whom Hoxha held a lifelong admiration, his relations with Nikita Khrushchev deteriorated until Hoxha broke with him completely in 1961. He then forged close ties with China, breaking with that country in turn in 1978 after the death of Mao Zedong and China’s rapprochement with the West. From then on, Hoxha spurned all the world’s major powers, declaring that Albania would become a model socialist republic on its own. In order to ensure the succession of a younger generation of leaders, Hoxha in 1981 ordered the execution of several leading party and government officials. Thereafter he withdrew into semiretirement, turning over most state functions to Ramiz Alia, who succeeded him upon his death.

ZOG I – KING OF THE ALBANIANS

Ahmet Zogu

AHMET ZOGU
ZOG I – KING OF THE ALBANIANS
1895-1961

Ahmet Bey ZOGU (b. Oct. 8, 1895, Castle Burgajet, Albania–d. April 9, 1961, Suresnes, France), president of Albania from 1925 to 1928 and king from 1928 to 1939. Though able to manipulate Albania’s internal affairs to his own advantage, he came to depend heavily on Benito Mussolini’s Italy and was eventually ousted by the Italian dictator on the eve of World War II. Siding with Austria during World War I, Zog thereafter became a leader of the reformist Popular Party. He held ministerial posts from 1920 until he was forced into exile in June 1924, but he returned with Yugoslav assistance in December, was elected president on Feb. 1, 1925, and was proclaimed king on Sept. 1, 1928. Zog ended a period of postwar political turbulence, and Albania enjoyed relative tranquility under his regime. He began a fateful association with Italy in 1925; a loan in that year was followed in 1926 by a treaty of friendship and security and in 1927 by a 20-year defensive military alliance between the two countries. Mussolini made Albania his bridgehead to the Balkans, and by 1939 Italy controlled the country’s finances and army. Zog tried but failed to break that hold from 1932 onward. On April 7, 1939, Mussolini finally made Albania into a protectorate; Victor Emmanuel III became king, and Zog went into exile. His hopes of returning after the war were disappointed by the establishment of a communist republic under Enver Hoxha in 1945. He formally abdicated on Jan. 2, 1946.

GJERGJ KASTRIOTI – SKENDERBEG (1405-1468)

Gjergj (Albanian: George) Kastrioti was born in Kruja from Gjon Kastrioti, lord of Middle Albania, who was obliged by the Ottomans to pay tribute to the Empire. To assure the fidelity of local rulers the Sultan used to take their sons as hostage and bring them up in his court. Gjergj Kastrioti attended military school in the Ottoman Empire and was named Iskander Bey which in Turkish means Lord Alexandre.

He was distinguished as one of the best officers in several Ottoman campaigns both in Asia Minor and in Europe, and the Sultan appointed him General. He even fought against Greeks, Serbs and Hungarians, and some sources says that he used to maintain secret links with Raguse, Venice, Vladislas of Hungary et Alphonse V of Naples. Sultan Murat II gave him the title Vali which made him the General Governor of some provinces in central Albania. He was respected everywhere but he missed his country.

In 1443, during the battle against the Hungarians of Hunyadi in Nish (in present day Serbia), he abandoned the Ottoman Army and captured Kruja, his father’s seat in middle Albania. Above the castle he rose the Albanian flag, a red flag with the black double-headed eagle, the present-day Albanian flag, and pronounced to his countrymen the famous words: “I have not brought you liberty, I found it here, among you”. He managed to unite all Albanian princes at the town of Lezha (League of Lezha, 1444) and united them under his command to fight against the Turks.

During the next 25 years he fought, with forces rarely exceeding 20,000 against the most powerful army of that time and defeated it for 25 years. In 1450 the Turkish army was led by the Sultan Murad II in person, who died after his defeat in the way back. Two other times, in 1466 and 1467, Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, led the Turkish army himself against Skenderbeg and failed too. The Ottoman Empire attempted to conquer Kruja 24 times and failed all 24 of them.

Skenderbeg’s military successes evoked a good deal of interest and admiration of the Papal state, Venice and Naples, themselves threatened by the growing Ottoman power across the Adriatic. The Albanian warrior played his hand with a good deal of political and diplomatic skill in his dealings with the three Italian states. Hoping to strengthen and expand the last Christian bridgehead in the Balkans, they provided Skenderbeg with money, supplies and occasionally with troops. One of his most powerful and consistent supporters was Alfonso the Magnanimous (1416-1458), the Aragone king of Naples, who decided to take Skenderbeg under his protection as vassal in 1451, shortly after the latter had scored his second victory against Murad II. In addition to financial assistance, the King of Naples undertook to supply the Albanian leader with troops, military equipment as well as with sanctuary for himself and his family if such a need should arise. As an active defender of the Christian cause in the Balkans, Skenderbeg was also closely involved with the politics of four Popes, one of them being Pius II (1458-1464) or Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, the Renaissance humanist, writer and diplomat.

Profoundly shaken by the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Pius II tried to organise a new crusade against the Turks; consequently he did his best to come to Skenderbeg’s aid, as two of his predecessors Nicholas V and Calixtus III, had done before him. This policy was continued by his successor, Paul II,(1464-1473).They gave him the title Athleta Christi.

For a quarter of a century he and his country prevented Turks from invading Catholic Western Europe.

After his death from natural causes in 1468 in Lezha, his soldiers resisted the Turks for the next 12 years. In 1480 Albania was finally conquered by the Ottoman Empire. When the Turks found the grave of Skenderbeg in Saint Nicholas church of Lezha, they opened it and held his bones like talismans for luck. In 1480 the Turks invaded Italy and conquered the City of Otranto.

Skenderbeg’s posthumous renown was by no means confined to his own country. Voltaire thought the Byzantine Empire would have survived had it possesed a leader of his quality. A number of poets and composers have also drawn inspiration from his military career. The French sixteenth-century poet Ronsard wrote a poem about him and so did the nineteenth-century American poet Longfellow. Antonio Vivaldi, too, composed an opera entitled Scanderbeg.

Skenderbeg today is the National Hero of Albania. Many museums and monuments are raised in his honour around Albania, and among them the Museum of Skenderbeg in his famous castle in Kruja.

Bibliography:

Noli, Fan S.: George Castrioti Scanderbeg, New York, 1947

Logoreci, Anton: The Albanians, London, 1977.

Albanian Tourism

franksupa — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 04:35:55 +0000

Albanian Travel Guide

Holland vs Albania – Albania soccer

franksupa — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 21:09:25 +0000

90+1Van Nistelrooy (Netherlands) scores!

88 Van Nistelrooy (Netherlands) is cautioned by the referee.

87 Cana (Albania) is dismissed.

87 Sneijder (Netherlands) fouls.

87 Sneijder (Netherlands) is booked.

84 Sneijder (Netherlands) has a shot blocked.

83 Bulku (in) – Bogdani (out) (Albania)

82 Van Nistelrooy (Netherlands) misses the target.

77 Melchiot (Netherlands) gives away a free-kick following a challenge on Bushaj (Albania).

76 Melchiot (Netherlands) takes the corner.

75 Sneijder (Netherlands) has a shot blocked.

74 Bushaj (Albania) is adjudged to be in an offside position.

72 Melchiot (Netherlands) commits a foul after challenging Bushaj (Albania).

71 Melchiot (Netherlands) is shown a yellow card.

69 Haxhi (in) – K. Duro (out) (Albania)

66 K. Duro (Albania) fouls.

65 K. Duro (Albania) is cautioned by the referee.

64 Van Nistelrooy (Netherlands) has a shot blocked.

63 Beqaj (Albania) makes a save.

62 Van Persie (Netherlands) has an effort on goal.

58 Beqaj (Albania) makes a save.

58 Melchiot (Netherlands) has an effort on goal.

57 Van der Vaart (Netherlands) misses the target.

54 Beqaj (Albania) makes a save.

54 Sneijder (Netherlands) has an effort on goal.

52 Van der Sar (Netherlands) makes a save.

51 Van der Sar (Netherlands) makes a save.

51 Cana (Albania) has an effort on goal.

49 Van der Vaart (in) – De Zeeuw (out) (Netherlands)

48 Van der Sar (Netherlands) makes a save.

47 Bogdani (Albania) has an effort on goal.

46 Bushaj (in) – Kapllani (out) (Albania)

– The second half begins.

– The referee blows for half-time.

45+3Babel (Netherlands) misses the target.

45+2Dallku (Albania) is booked.

45+1Kapllani (Albania) is flagged for offside.

44 Sneijder (Netherlands) gives away a free-kick following a challenge on Curri (Albania).

43 Van Persie (Netherlands) has a shot blocked.

42 Sneijder (Netherlands) commits a foul after challenging K. Duro (Albania).

41 Sneijder (Netherlands) misses the target.

39 Kapllani (Albania) fouls.

38 Van Persie (Netherlands) is shown a yellow card.

32 Kapllani (Albania) gives away a free-kick following a challenge on Van Persie (Netherlands).

32 Kapllani (Albania) is cautioned by the referee.

30 De Zeeuw (Netherlands) misses the target.

27 Van Persie (Netherlands) commits a foul after challenging Mukaj (Albania).

26 Sneijder (Netherlands) has a shot blocked.

25 Beqaj (Albania) makes a save.

25 Sneijder (Netherlands) has an effort on goal.

24 Van Persie (Netherlands) fouls.

24 Bogdani (Albania) delivers the free-kick wide.

23 Ooijer (Netherlands) gives away a free-kick following a challenge on Kapllani (Albania).

22 Beqaj (Albania) makes a save.

22 Van Nistelrooy (Netherlands) has an effort on goal.

21 Curri (Albania) commits a foul after challenging De Zeeuw (Netherlands).

19 Van Persie (Netherlands) strikes a free kick into the wall.

19 Lala (Albania) fouls.

16 Bouma (Netherlands) has a shot blocked.

12 Van Persie (Netherlands) strikes a free kick into the wall.

12 Kapllani (Albania) gives away a free-kick following a challenge on De Zeeuw (Netherlands).

11 Ooijer (Netherlands) commits a foul after challenging Cana (Albania).

10 Bogdani (Albania) has a shot blocked.

7 Kapllani (Albania) has a shot blocked.

7 K. Duro (Albania) delivers the corner.

5 Van der Sar (Netherlands) makes a save.

5 K. Duro (Albania) takes the corner.

4 Sneijder (Netherlands) misses the target.

2 Van Nistelrooy (Netherlands) misses the target.

– The match is under way.

Add, Submit site URL Free Albania

franksupa — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 00:44:48 +0000

We provide a free link submission.

Click the link below to add your site :

Add, Submit site URL Free Albania

Outsource Spreadsheets Management

franksupa — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 20:22:15 +0000

Budgeting spreadsheets management too often shown as the solution to personal money management problems. Budgeting spreadsheets and worksheets are a poor way to handle your finances that are a time consuming way to get poor results. You don’t want to spend unnecessary time collecting and entering information. Your time is valuable, as so are your efforts. You want the fastest time to enter and update your information, without compromising any details.

Create budget, expense spreadsheets

Track, monitor cash flow, expenses

Make necessary changes

Reports detailed management

Data entry calculations

Make observations

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Outsource Database Maintenance

franksupa — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 19:17:22 +0000

The need for a complete database maintenance management system is nowadays without question. The increased plant and equipment reliability that such a system offers is a crucial factor in not only increasing production but also decreasing maintenance costs.

An overall reduction in maintenance cost

A database of equipment reliability management

An assurance, that as the database is built up, there will be retention of the valuable experience and knowledge of relevant maintenance matter

Accurate life cycle asset management

Compare performance with selected best-practice operations

Basic wall charts

Basic spreadsheet, database handling

Integrated asset management system

Maintenance planning management

Directing and controlling maintenance

Management of shutdowns

Recording and reporting maintenance

Analysing and optimizing maintenance

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Client Account Administration Outsourcing

franksupa — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 18:38:12 +0000

The Client Account Administration is responsible for building, managing and supporting the day to day data entry duties of financial services or any type of needs you have, and to assist in the growth of you fast working environment, specifically to ensure that the accounting expertise is of a high standard in the team.

Manage the project which the client has engaged to deliver, and ensure we are meeting their expectations around our service delivery

Ensure projects are delivered on time and on budget, and to problem solve to meet clients expectations

Source potential new clients for administration and financial services, gain insight into their particular needs, and help to develop an appropriate response where services may be of benefit.

Ensure the clients financial reports are accurate and of a high standard, and be able to explain them to the client.

Be completely familiar with the circumstances of the client’s activities, programs and staffing, and to be a support to the client’s director and appropriate Board member in understanding the financial reports.

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Outsource Appointment Scheduling

franksupa — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 16:09:43 +0000

Resolve complex appointment scheduling problems and communicate with service providers to ensure the efficient implementation of an appointment system.

Maintain professional appointment scheduling system.

Receive requests for appointments.

Ensure correctness of data and financial status and updates information and records attendance.

Change appointments and arrange follow up appointments.

Interact with patient service agencies eg transport, interpreter etc to ensure appropriate service for patients.

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Outsource Timesheet, Expense Management

franksupa — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 15:33:41 +0000

Expenses can be paid daily, monthly, and quarterly and can be very time consuming process. Here is where we come in, we help companies, small business owners eliminate or reduce the time and cost for processing expenses. In today’s demanding market, each penny must buy value.

Analyze line item details not available on accounting reports.
Analyze this difficult to control area of spending from the comprehensive to individual user’s expense reports, and smooth individual receipts that create those expense reports.
Provide details of all non chargeable expenses by any type of grouping or in detail by cost centre, employee, expense type etc.
Present details of non billable expenses on chargeable engagements grouped or in detail by any combination, cost centre, employee, expense type etc.

Timesheet management

Timesheet management is a process that is generally passed at operational management rather than at a payroll administration level. In order to easily and successfully allocate this liability, however we can deal with the stress.

Reduction of timesheet manipulation
Eliminate manual processes and minimization of human error
Improve of staff confidence and efficiency
Provide for practical control over payroll costs
Provide control over indirect costs connected with managing these costs

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Outsource Budget Monitoring

franksupa — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 02:15:38 +0000

As outsourcing consultants we will see all the proposed budget changes that may have been reallocated throughout the year on all areas of operations and help to improve budget monitoring. Our goal is to continue monitoring the budget and improve the position for the remaining financial year with a view to balancing the budget.

Advice on Economic and Fiscal Strategies
Recommending an appropriate fiscal strategy
Recommending appropriate microeconomic reorganizations
Advising on fiscal implications of industrial relations
Recommending tax and revenue policy
Forecasting economic variables
Budget formulation and assessment of agency proposals
Conduct strategic reviews
Develop, support and implement reforms
Manage and coordinate the Budget process
Manage Budget aggregates
Year Budget monitoring, control and reporting
Coordinate preparation of the Budget Papers
Implement asset management policy and supporting agency compliance
Monitoring compliance with agreements on projects with major Government

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Albanian Information

former Serbian province of Kosovo

Russia and Albania in the early 1990s

Albania hunger strikers

Albania passes the new election law

Albania Study Tour

Background

1

General Description

2

Highlights of the Trip

3

Recommendations for Future Tours:

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Albanian building collapse

Three killed in Albania’s apartment building collapse

Albania pyramid schemes in 1997 scenario

Albania looks to institutionalize key reforms

Albania is a secure country for investments

Alternation of energy resources in Albania

Kosovo nobel

Montenegro Demonstrators Arested

albanian banking will not lose money

Albania to leave prosecutors

Albanian president visiting Boston

Kosovo Improved Relations with US

Mr. Obama clarifies Kosovo policy

The one and only Kosovo should become UN Member State – Albanian President

Head of Albanian pyramid scheme arrested in Uruguay

Albania Green Enviorment

Gianfranco Fini visits Tirana

Albanian

Kosovo Indipendence Similarities

Albanian Forum Shqip

Click here to view this forum

Albania match after FIFA suspension

UEFA postpones Albania match after FIFA suspension

Visiting TIRANA : Information

HISTORIKU I MUZIKES POPULLORE SHQIPTARE

Albania Videos

The music helps children of asylum in Albania

Albanain Aritists

Albania Geography and Population

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Albanian In Italy

Holland vs Albania – Albania soccer

Adelina Berisha

Adelina Berisha Music Videos

Best Hotels in Albania Tirana

Famous Albanians

Mother TERESA Gonxhe Bojaxhiu

August 27, 1910 – September 5, 1997

Mother Teresa has dedicated all her life full of sacrifices to the benefit of the poor, banished, the sick, those who have no sanctuary and are deprived of love. She has always attested to the power of fraternal friendship by so encouraging the true human and social development”

BEATIFICATION OF MOTHER TERESA “COME, BE MY LIGHT”Sunday, 19 October 2003, St. Peters Square, Rome

checkFull(“post-” + “919975730629100758″);

Enver Hoxha (1908-1985)

ZOG I – KING OF THE ALBANIANS

Ahmet Zogu

AHMET ZOGU ZOG I – KING OF THE ALBANIANS 1895-1961

GJERGJ KASTRIOTI – SKENDERBEG (1405-1468)

For a quarter of a century he and his country prevented Turks from invading Catholic Western Europe.

Skenderbeg today is the National Hero of Albania. Many museums and monuments are raised in his honour around Albania, and among them the Museum of Skenderbeg in his famous castle in Kruja.

Bibliography:

Noli, Fan S.: George Castrioti Scanderbeg, New York, 1947

Logoreci, Anton: The Albanians, London, 1977.

Albanian Tourism

Holland vs Albania – Albania soccer

Add, Submit site URL Free Albania

Add, Submit site URL Free Albania

Outsource Spreadsheets Management

Outsource Database Maintenance

Client Account Administration Outsourcing

Outsource Appointment Scheduling

Outsource Timesheet, Expense Management

Timesheet management

Outsource Budget Monitoring

Mother TERESA
Gonxhe Bojaxhiu

BEATIFICATION OF MOTHER TERESA
“COME, BE MY LIGHT”Sunday, 19 October 2003, St. Peters Square, Rome

AHMET ZOGU
ZOG I – KING OF THE ALBANIANS
1895-1961