Skip to main content

Weekend Reading

The IPS news agency have published more articles on Albania. A couple of articles look at the relationship between tourism and the environment. Another looks at the similarities between Albania and other countries in the region. Then there is an interview with Jozefina Topalli, Speaker of the Parliament and lastly a piece on Tirana.

Elsewhere, the IHT reports that attempts to elect a President are still going nowhere. Also going nowhere is the power supply situation with long blackouts anticipated in September. In the Southeast European Times Robert Austin suggests that the longer term outlook may be brighter following the appointment of a new director of KESH, Xherxh Bojaxhi.

I can confirm Austin's claim that Bojaxhi takes to the field with his staff since he turned up to read my electricity meter last week. (It's not that I'm special. It's just that the day before I had refused to allow his staff to do so on the perfectly reasonable grounds that none of them had any identification.)

Finally, BIRN reports that President Clinton has accepted the invitation to visit Albania and may be coming here as soon as early autumn. I hope you didn't throw away your flags and hats.

Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
Thanks for the update about the election of President. I try to follow the issue by reading Albanian newspapers but everything is so confusing in the way they report.

Your blog has become a daily read. Sort of an unofficial Albanian News Agency (where is ATSH website when you need it?).
6:40 pm
The PC said…
it's funny that "bojaxhi" showed up to read your meter. you know, because of the name.
5:28 pm
olli said…
Lolers - I'm afraid I don't understand. Can you explain?
10:15 am
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dy Rame Per Tirane

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...
4 comments
Read more

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

Only Way is Up

Chatting with a taxi driver while back in Belfast a few months ago, he was intrigued when I told him that I was living in Albania. Did I think it was worth investing in property there, he enquired. Not unless you're prepared to risk losing your money, I replied. By the end of the journey he was considering Bulgaria instead. Despite the risks, some people are starting to invest in Albanian property. The Daily Telegraph reports on Ian Warburton who recently spent 29,000 GBP (around 40,000 EUR) on a one-bedroom apartment in a new development in Tirana. "Given its location, I don't see how it can fail to work," he said. The development is called Terra Nova and the apartments are being actively marketed as an investment opportunity by Barrasford and Bird , a UK property company. Here is their sales pitch for Albania: Albania shares the same stunning coastline as Croatia and Montenegro. However, Albania has better weather and prices are about a quarter of those compa...
15 comments
Read more