In the land of the double headed eagle, and Mercedes Benz

Have spent this week conducting testing in Albania, the country just west of Macedonia. While close geographically and in some ways culturally, Albania is a slightly more "western" country than Macedonia, I'd actually wager to say. High mountains separate the countries, but once one is over those the land is quite different. Albania is largely flat from what I've seen, a country at a lower altitude and thus with a warmer, more Mediterranean climate. It's coast is the Adriatic, but with the country extending quite far south--just across from Greece's Corfu--it is rather ClubMed!

But it's more than the seaside, it's also the fact that Albanians have used the sea and their close proximity to Italy for most of the last century (and before) to migrate there for work or a new life. There is in fact an Albanian speaking minority in Italy, the Arbereshe. They are the result of centuries of immigration to southern Italy, but since the 1930s when Mussolini occupied Albania to the present, the country has looked to Italy for its western influence. And it shows.

I've learned this week that far more people than I imagined speak Italian here, and several of the students who I tested have been to Italy (saw their visas in their passports). Italian food and style are everywhere. The capital, Tirana, particularly espouses this. Its grand palm tree lined boulevards and Italian architecture make one wonder whether they're still in the Balkans. There are excellent cafes, restaurants, bakeries; and people just seem more stylish.

The phenomenal thing about Albania is that 25 years ago it was an isolated, communist country of half-starved people who were forced to abandon religion for the sake of worshiping their insane despotic leader, Enver Hoxha. Hoxha was particularly interesting because of his apparent paranoia. He didn't want to be a part of Yugoslavia (no surprise), but had close ties with Soviet Russia for some time. He then broke off those relations and established strong relations with China. Chinese women were brought here, and students could study Chinese (just as they did Russian for quite a while--nearly every post-WWII generation individual I've met this week has said they spoke Russian, having studied it in school.) Anyhow, all well that he had such relations, but he wasn't very good at maintaining them, and from what a colleague here told me, he had a propensity for killing off his ministers and political acquaintances periodically and imprisoning anyone else deemed a threat or spy (including some of those Chinese he'd brought over when times were good). He didn't want anyone getting too close to him, or threatening his power. Further, he feared invasion so built thousands of these little concrete bunkers throughout the country. When one crosses the border from Macedonia, for example, they line the road in the mountains above.

What's really interesting today is that even though Hoxha died (a rich man) in 1985, his wife is still alive and lives here in Tirana. Further, their stolen wealth has made them one of the richest families in Albania, owning businesses and land. Apparently they even put the current prime minister into power, Sali Berisha. (He's been here before though--was the first "democratically elected" president after the fall of communism, then got back into power in 2005 as PM. Sounds very Putin like, in fact...)

So what's really fascinating about this country? It's gone from an isolated authoritarian regime where most everything was produced here (and that was little--many people were nearly starving, waiting hours daily for bread, milk, rice) to this quite well to do land of fancy looking people, clothes, and cars. Speaking of the cars, it is, as one person I met this week said--"where Mercedes come to die". These are mostly stolen from W. Europe (one will be hard pressed to find many dealerships around), but I'd seriously say that 50% of the cars on the road are Mercedes. And there are A LOT of cars on the road (traffic's a nightmare!)

I think what's really interesting is how and why this explosion of development has occurred. It seems that (and what was explained to me) the isolation of communism and Hoxha resulted in this hyper development due to people seeking out all the things they'd been deprived of for decades. They thus went from abject poverty to a rather decent standard of living, but in so doing abandoned for some time many things that were Albanian. Seeing several western, non-Albanian names this week with our students (Jack, Jessica, Robert, Maria Kay, etc), my colleague told me how people just wanted to have something new. She said she felt bad for the generation born after 1991, because their identity was and is in severe flux. How they live compared to their parents and grandparents...it can't even be compared. With a market flooded with goods from around the world, people traveling as well (albeit with still quite a visa regime), and major summer tourism these days, the country is another world compared to the Balkan hinterland is was just a decade or two ago.

For better or for worse, I depart tomorrow. Back east to Skopje for testing there in a week's time. This trip though has made me excited for my visits to Bulgaria and Bosnia. I don't have much time to be a tourist, but by just being in a country, hearing and using the language, and having conversations with some locals, you can pick up a good feel for how things are.