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Albania has gone off the boil,
Albania is in now.
The images of boat people invading the piers of Durrës or Vlora
harbours, of runaways crowding on the gangways of the ships leaving
for Italy and Greece have been removed from our memories and banned
from our screens.
In 1997, the Albanians, who had just freed themselves from the yoke
of one of the most archaic communist tyrannies, sank into the
economic and political chaos, and they couldn’t help looking beyond
the horizon, beyond some thousand sea miles, towards a near, and
nevertheless far, Europe, where their hopes lay.
To put an end to the country’s insurrectional state, the UN sent
over, at that time, almost 6000 soldiers ; the humanitarian
organizations rushed to help an economically depressed population
and the international institutions took part into the infrastructure
reconstruction: transports, energy and completely devastated plants.
Today, apart from some spotlights upon misery, corruption and all
sort of traffics, Albania no longer catches the attention of the
media. We also face this quite paradoxical situation: after getting
out of the isolation in which ENVER HOXA’s regime constrained it and
breaking every links with their neighbouring Yugoslavia, the URSS
and China, Albanian society, more open than we often think, suffers
from a sort of banishment which is generally reserved to the so-called
“not highly recommended” countries.
I’ve been hanging around Albania – « the furthest of our
neighbouring countries » - for 4 years, and I’ve always felt welcome,
almost expected, I could say.
Geographically, the country is not big, its surface being as large
as Belgium’s…
But it’s not a place to travel fast, since neither the mountains nor
the roads, here and there, are suitable for it. Narrow steep
mountain or coast roads; everywhere there’s an invitation to
discover both the historical and cultural heritage and the beauty of
the landscape; hospitality is always a well-run tradition.
What about tourism then ? Albania is the new El Dorado for those who
have recently and massively exploited the adventurous and genuine
potential of Croatia and Montenegro coasts. The destination is
undoubtedly charming, providing that you don’t fall into the
estrangement appeal of life style difference and that you reject the
clichés of the exoticism of underdeveloped countries.
As far as me, I refuse to look at Albania with an eye of systematic
pity or die-hard nostalgia of a double-take humanist photography.
But there is no rose without a thorn in this country, of course. And
this is the picture of buildings whose brand new ground floors
contrast with upper stores still, although we don’t know how long
for, in shreds
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