193-ish Is Getting a Makeover

193ish is going to be re-tooled, revamped, and will come back better than ever on January 1, 2007.

Albania Hearts America!

Wow!! Who knew? I knew Albania was my new favorite country for a good reason:


Albania Ready to Show Bush Some Serious Love in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Why Won't Anyone Pour Their Heart Out to Me?

Well? Why not? As you may have assumed, I never did hear back from Assan or his daughter about Afghanistan. And, after e-mailing Albanian Students International for some candid thoughts on Albanian pride, I've also received no response! An e-mail to an unnamed UCSD professor who has visited Albania and advised the country on its electoral politics was returned by a lengthy, useless response best summed up like this: "Sorry, I don't know anything about Albania...I only visited once." Ridiculous; you advised these people on their elections and you can't speak one sentence about the quality of their civic involvement or level of national pride?

Hmm..must think of someone else to bug. Maybe somebody out there will see the potential value in sharing their feelings for publication on a blog that exactly two people read...

Ringing True?

A quote floating around these days via the self-inflating, patriotic e-mail chains I receive from my dear grandma is the following, which is always attributed to former British PM Tony Blair, in reference to the U.S., but seemingly never confirmed: "A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in and how many want out."

I do not particularly care whether or not he said it (although a lot of people on Snopes do, if you're curious), or who first proffered this thought; however, I do think that it is uniquely applicable to Albania. In 2001, UNICEF co-sponsored a survey of Albanian youth; the results found that nearly half of young people plan to emigrate from Albania to another country. I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that if you were to ask American kids ages 9-17 about living abroad, they would be nearly unanimous in assuming that thought would be followed by something along the lines of "for a semester." Albanian youth want to leave the country for good to make their way in life, and that's troubling-- especially for a country with religious freedom, not at war, and unshackled from communism for over 15 years.

Apparently, a lot of people want out of Albania; meanwhile, not many want in, either. Albania's tourism industry is nascent, at best.

The irony of this is that Albania possesses so many of the qualities that make Greece and Italy, main attractions for both young Albanians and international tourists alike, so desirable. Its Ionian and Adriatic coasts are apparently beautiful, ideal settings for posh resort towns; it boasts Greek & Roman ruins--the very features that people travel to Greece and Italy to see-- in Butrint, and the 2,400 year old Castle of Rozafa in Shkodra; it even has ski-worthy mountains in the north! All of these potential attractions of course, are hampered by the country's rampant crime and lack of a national road system or even unified traffic laws and driver's education.

I suppose that after so many years of oppression, both literally and culturally, some Albanians just want a fresh start. Rather than "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," perhaps their theory is, "If our country is broke, why not go next door where everything is fixed and has been for years?" It's got to be frustrating to feel surpassed by the rest of the world.

Over the past few hundred years, Albania missed out on the rest of Europe's Renaissance when the Turks invaded; went from forced conversions to Islam (the country is 90% Muslim, mostly secular) to being declared the first officially atheist country (according to its former Communist dictator, "the religion of Albania is Albanianism"); would not have been a country were it not for President Woodrow Wilson's inspired intervention upon Italy, Britain and France's plans to partition Albania amongst its neighbors after WWI; suffered through what is commonly described as the most repressive Communist regime ever, establishing a legacy of non-reward for hard work or accomplishment that has proved difficult to overcome; and took in half a million fleeing Kosovars in the 1990s.

Perhaps the city of Baltimore's waste-of-half-a-million-dollars-in-consulting-and-marketing-fees new slogan would be best applied to Albania: "Get In On It." Hopefully somebody, whether internal or external, will decide to do just that.

Besa

An interesting point demonstrating the depths of Albanian pride is the concept of besa. Besa, loosely translates to mean "keeping the promise," or "faith" or "trust." It is inextricably related to the Albanian sense of honor. Each individual must entrust his promises with his own besa; if someone breaks besa, then he is seen as unsalvageable, inhuman.

Now, I realize that this seems a little primitive. At first reading, I thought that this was nothing more than an attempt to "sum up" Albanian culture; a simplification of an outdated tradition that nobody really places a whole lot of value in anymore. Like saying Irishmen are rowdy, or the South is racist, or Native Americans lived in teepees; a general description garnered from another era. But, in Robert Carver's The Accursed Mountains, the author notes his surprise at being wrong:

"I had read all of this, but couldn't yet comprehend that it was a living reality, rather than some arcane piece of folklore...I came to understand that it was in fact besa which, in the absence of any real law or authority, made everyday existence in Albania possible (p.9)."

So far, this book has been an incredibly pleasant surprise. I was prepared for it to be dry and dull, but given the lack of easily accessible Albanian literature (and, it seems, the lack of people studying Albania-- neighboring Kosovo gets all the international news attention, while Croatia's blossoming tourism receives all the praise), it was the most interesting-looking item in the library catalog. Turns out, it's really quite a gem, very easy to read, and filled with nuanced cultural observations interwoven with historical context and plenty of philosophical questions.

Granted, this book was published in 2000, based upon the author's visit in 1996; who knows, perhaps besa is dead and done with these days except for amongst the elder population. In a young democracy such as Albania, culture and society are sure to be shifting, simultaneously grappling with the past with grabbing for the future.

Skenderbeg Is My Forefather, Hear Me Roar!

Alright, so falling behind schedule on only my second country wasn't part of the plan. But, I am back, armed with a respectable wealth of knowledge about the tiny, fascinating country we know today as Albania.

In at least three of the sources I researched, the authors mentioned the fact that Albania is about the size of Maryland. Random, but relevant, and if they think it is worth noting, then I sure do, too. Unlike Afghanistan, I knew virtually nothing about Albania when I started looking for quality sources. So, I thought it prudent to start out at a very basic level, with a children's book, actually. Simply titled Albania (by Mary Lee Knowlton) and featuring lots of pictures, this book was probably written for middle schoolers and provided the perfect foundation of knowledge to better understand Albania.

I don't think I could have asked for an easier assignment than to discover the pride of Albania. This is a fiercely proud state; in fact, it would even be accurate to say notoriously proud.

Albania sits at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and the West. For centuries, it has been “a patch of land that people from north or south, east or west, felt entitled to pass through on their way somewhere else.” It has been ruled by the Romans, Greeks, and Ottomans among others.

It was the Ottoman Empire's attempt to overtake Albania that particularly fueled and solidified a sense of Albanian nationalist pride. From 1443 to 1468, a hero named Skenderbeg led a small force of Albanians against Ottoman armies upwards of 100,000 men. For 25 years, until his death, Skenderbeg held off the Turks and shaped Albanian pride and identity in the process in what is recognized as an incredible feat of dedication, resistance and belief in one's cause.

Kaddo Bourani

I know I'm supposed to be done with Afghanistan-- a girl's gotta move on to Albania sometime, right? However, I feel compelled to put in just two more cents!

Last year, my friend Jessica and I went to The Helmand, a classy Afghan restaurant in Baltimore. I still think about that meal! We shared a wonderful appetizer, called kaddo bourani, which is pan-fried and baked baby pumpkin seasoned with sugar and served with a garlicky yogurt sauce. A few months ago, I was delighted to find this recipe for kaddo bourani. I tried to use canned pumpkin instead of the specified fresh baby sugar pumpkin, which is a pathetic shortcut. Amazingly, it was still delicious, which is a testament to the innate brilliance of this dish!

You know what, I've never seen a casual Afghan restaurant. And I sure haven't seen any that resemble the vast multitudes of Chinese carry-outs and Mexican taco stands. Does this speak to Afghans' incredible pride in their culture? Not trying to infer too much here, but just a thought...

Another item of note is that the owner of The Helmand, Quayam Karzai, is the brother of Afghan president Hamid Karzai!

Hmm...I just read that there is another restaurant called The Helmand. This one is located in San Francisco, and its owner Mahmoud Karzai also claims to be the brother of Hamid. Curious and curiouser....