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Tirana Gets Real

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.

Comments

Anonymous said…
That article is written by someone who knows close to nothing. I stopped reading after this paragraph that makes Rama into the importer of automobiles and builder of blloku:

"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."
3:35 pm
Anonymous said…
Where the hell did they get this info? I hate people who take a quick look at Tirana from Tirana International and then proceed to write a 3 page article based on random collections of what others have written.

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.
4:06 pm
Anonymous said…
I meant to write "conversations" not "conversions", let's not get into the whole religious theme :)
4:07 pm
The PC said…
I couldn't finish it either. Aside from being utterly pretentious and grossly misinformed, it was so condescending that made me throw up a little in my mouth.
8:20 am
Anonymous said…
As someone who wants to know more about Albania I quite liked it. Unfortunately there are not enough articles on Tirana and Albania in English and most outsiders know very little about the country. Those who criticise should write some articles to give what they consider to be a truer picture of the people and places.
12:50 pm
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