The American is a monthly magazine published in Italy for US and other English speaking expats. Their June 2006 issue included this lengthy story on Tirana.
I was watching Top Channel last night, first the news, then Fiks Fare. According to them Tirana's citizens now have a choice not only between Rama and Olldashi, but also between Rama and Rama. A minor right-wing faction, Parti 'Balli Kombetar' , submitted papers to the election authorities registering their candidate, Akile Rama. The people on Fiks Fare got hold of the papers and sent a reporter and camera team to the address listed for Mr A Rama. After much ringing of the bell the gate was reluctantly opened by a middle-aged woman who refused to speak to the reporter and tried to close the gate on her. Back in the studio Saimiri and Doctori - the two presenters of Fiks Fare - revealed that Mr Akile Rama was 73 years old, in hospital, and did not know he was now a candidate for mayor. They also compared two documents - the papers submitted on his behalf, and a genuine document he had signed. The signatures were not even remotely similar. There was an interview with the lea
Comments
"Until Rama, Tirana had few automobiles, many unpaved roads, and less than 100 street lights. Elected in 2000, he imported Italian products and French ingenuity to adorn now-flourishing boulevards. He erected a hip concrete-and-glass district (its center is called Blloku, or “The Block”) near the once-off limits villa of dictator Enver Hoxha, the disciplinarian plutocrat who for four decades isolated himself from his capital and his country from the world."
It is not hard to write a good article about Tirana and one can do that without being biased. Start with the government (central and local), follow it with the foreigners (foreign NGO employees would be a good idea here), then with a couple of quick conversions at Blloku and then wrap it up with common people at Lapraka, Qyteti Studenti or the edge of the city next to Dajti. Very simple, top to bottom.
Incompetent, lazy, imbeciles :(
Ll.