Skip to main content

Getting Ready 2

People have been busy over the last few days putting up more signs and posters and banners for President Bush's visit. The Pyramid now had an illuminated welcome sign on top.

A small but significant change has been made to the banner over the entrance. See if you can spot the difference between the banner as it is now in the picture above and as it was a few days ago.

Posters proclaiming the message Proud to be Partners have been appearing across the city and a huge version of this was being put together when I passed the University in Nene Teresa Square yesterday.

Today the Citizens Advocacy Office released the results of an opinion poll regarding the Bush visit. According to this poll, the two areas where people expect the visit to have a positive impact concern the final status of Kosova (61.7%) and Albanian membership of NATO (71%).

The President himself touched on both of those issues in his television interview with Andi Bejtja of Vision Plus. There is a English transcript of the interview on the White House website. You can also see the interview, dubbed into Albanian at YouTube.

I've been doing my own informal and unscientific polling by asking Albanian friends what people they know think about the visit. Most of these are younger people and the most common response is that they don't really think about it much at all.

On the one hand the President is welcome and they don't intend to take to the streets in protest; on the other hand they aren't planning to line the streets waving Albanian and American flags either. They see the visit as being all about politics and politicians, and don't believe it will make any difference for them personally.

I have no data to back this up, but I get the impression that this is a fairly accurate reflection of how ordinary younger people view these events.

Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
As an Albanian American I feel extremely proud to see my president visit my home country.I do not care about the opinion polls here and those in Albania. President Bush is not on a private visit. He is on a state visit, as president of the United States, and to me it means a lot. It's an event! Too bad I didn't know beforehand that he was going to visit Albania. Otherwise, I'd have wanted to be there. More as a personal fulfillment, something that is special, really special, especially after having lived in two different worlds, and finally having seen my Albania make a real U-turn, belatedly. But, better late than never. And also for a second reason. June 10th is special for Albanians in Kosova and all of us in the U.S. and U.K.
Sounding sentimental? I have a million reasons for that.
1:20 am
The PC said…
Hmm. there are no words to describe the revulsion I feel at the sight of Bush. As an American he terrifies and embarrasses me. As an Albanian, it makes me sad that a visit by this dimwitted bastard is such a big political event.

The only thing I expect from this visit would be maybe some attention on the status of Kosovo.

About the flag; what's up with the flag?
6:52 am
Anonymous said…
the stars were moved to the right so that it does not look "dipped" anymore!! What a relief!
Still, I'm of the opinion to rotate it horizontally and to use more American flags than Albanian.
2:32 pm
Anonymous said…
to the left I mean
2:41 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Albania and the Perils of the 21st Century

Another article on religion in Albania appeared yesterday. Patrick Poole, writing in the American Thinker , argues that Saudi funding for the construction of mosques and the training of imams is a threat to Albania, since these mosques and imams reflect the fundamentalist interpretation of Islam dominant in Saudi Arabia.
34 comments
Read more

Kamëz Part 3

For those who want a lengthy detailed report into the election there will, undoubtedly, be a range of them to chose from. In the meantime, here are my brief reflections on the last few weeks. At the heart of the problems around this election is the unwarranted influence of political parties on all aspects of the electoral process. Every institution responsible for organising and facilitating the election is under the control of political parties. The Electoral Code itself was heavily revised only days before the original date for the elections and only weeks before the actual date (Law 9676 13 January 2007). It was these revisions, specifically Article 181/2, that created the overly complicated identification requirements that caused so much confusion, and undoubtedly disenfranchised some voters. Let's be clear though: these revisions were not designed to protect the interests of the electorate. They were drafted primarily because the political parties do not trust each other. The ...
27 comments
Read more

Big in Albania

Ask me how much I knew about Albania before coming here and my list would be a short one: Enver Hoxha, bunkers and Sir Norman Wisdom. I have no idea when or how I acquired this extensive body of knowledge, but the association of Norman Wisdom with Albania was by far the most interesting part of it. I remember watching Norman Wisdom's old films on British television. My parents were fans of his wholesome, slapstick comedy, but apparently missed the ideological significance of Pitkin's relationship with Mr Grimsdale. Pitkin, the downtrodden and oppressed representative of the workers, triumphed every time over his capitalist oppressor, Mr Grimsdale - and he got the girl. It took a theorist of Hoxha's insight and profundity to discern this deeper political message. It always seemed tremendously unlikely, yet the story of Sir Norman's fame in Albania has been reported in worthy sources like the BBC , the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph . According to the Guardian, when Wi...
22 comments
Read more