Walking through some wasteland near the lake, which also serves as a dumping ground, I saw some books abandoned with the rubbish. Normally I wouldn't wish this on a book, but after a closer look I understood.
On Saturday, we were at the Rogner meeting with an expat friend who was leaving Tirana. It was breakfast time, and as our friend was finishing his tea the breakfast room started to fill up with over-dressed (or under-dressed) young women wearing blue sashes. These were the contestants for the Miss Globe 2007 beauty pageant being held in Tirana tonight at the Palace of Congresses. High heel boots and mini-skirts - or in a couple of cases micro-skirts, or possibly just belts - have never struck me as obvious breakfast attire, but the girls seemed happy enough tottering and wobbling around with their tea and toast. I'm not sure why they were wearing their sashes - perhaps in case they forgot which country they came from. As we were leaving they were boarding a large coach which I had seen a number of times around the city in the last few days for their next trip. I'm not sure how some of them made it up the steps, or how they managed to sit down, but perhaps these are the ki...
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Ok, I understand that they don't want to deal with the past anymore, but throwing away any book is a sin. Afterall, it's a part of our past and history and we should learn from our mistakes not be in denial. At least keep them in a library from reference.
It's tragicomic. I don't think that throwing away "any book" is a sin. There are plenty of books that are pure garbage. And most of Enver's repetitive propaganda fit that description.
Take the book Alwyn has photographed. "Historia e Partise Punes se Shqiperise". That book is not the true history, but it's what Enver wanted people to be perceived as history, hence it's pure garbage, and deserves to rot away.
nice catch Alwyn!
When are you leaving the land of eagles anyway?
Ohh you should have seen my fathers bookcase a few years back.
He had volumes of them, I think there are about 12 volumes (Works) in total. Turned out a bit useful (the actual pages, not the content) in the end because I perfected the "art" of paper plane making.
Even now at 23 I'm a true expert on paper planes!
Anon If you click on 5265 (now 5265-1) you'll see the original. I've played with contrast and sharpness a bit. It's 3.4 MB so it might take a few moments to load.
I think we should preserve all points of view. You can analyze and study Enver's technique so that we won't be fooled again.
THese books are certainly kept at the reference library...I think what Alwyn has photographed was the throw-away collection of some family/person.
It is actually interesting to read a few passages from some of them (especially the ones bearing the name "Enver Hoxha" as the author). When reading them, if you can get past the obvious propaganda, one can sort of disect the passages to find some historical trueth. Not that anything printed in them was true, but only saying one can find out how the party perceived certain individulas and how they reacted after each split with each superpower etc etc. Whats always amazed me is that Hoxha himself was credited with 100 books, most of them coming after 1978-79. Sadly as most people know, he was so inadequate after that time, that he could barely attend party meetings, let alone write books. No doubt most if not all of them were shadow-written, and I think a few of them by good writers too. For example "Titistet", or the "Titoists" in English, is full of historical passages and half-trueths. I doubt Hoxha himself could have written a 400 page book so elequently all the while being in charge of the party and state!