The Frosina Information Network Blog

This blog has moved

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:12:00 +0000

This blog is now located at http://frosinainfo.blogspot.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://frosinainfo.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default.

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:03:00 +0000

Hospitalized Albanian children need translators in New York

Dear Friends,

After successful life saving cardiac surgery of the first two children from Kosova at Children's Hospital Boston, the third child in need of cardiac surgery is in the process of coming to Schneider Children's Hospital in New York. Her name is Anisa and she is 5 years old. Her surgery is scheduled in early May.

This is a program of Gift of Life International, which offers cardiac surgery with the help of more than 50 Cardiac Surgery Departments across the United States, to children of the world who live in countries that don't have cardiac surgery services. The surgery is offered completely free of charge for the patients.

We have founded Gift of Life Kosova (GOLKOS) based in Prishtina as a functional structure to coordinate the process of selecting, screening and preparing patients prior to their departure to the United States.

However, children and their parents don't speak any English and we would need Albanians of goodwill who would be able to offer some translation during their free time while this child and her mother are here for heart surgery.

We had 8 volunteer Albanians from Boston area last fall who helped tremendously via verbal translations the two children from Kosova while they were at Children's Hospital Boston. Gift of Life branches and Rotary Clubs involved with Kosova children have issued letters of recommendation and support for our volunteer Albanian students who have assisted our patients, which letters have had a very positive impact as proof of community service and volunteer work when Albanian students wanted to apply for degree programs and scholarships in American Universities.

As volunteer work for patients in need is highly valued and appreciated, and our patient and her mother would need translation help, I would like to invite all those Albanians that live in New York close to Schneider Chidren's Hospital, 269-01 76th Avenue, New Hyde Park, New York 11040, to offer some volunteer verbal translation services at their convenience for Anisa and her mother when they come for surgery in early May.

Learning from our experience with the two children already operated and returned to Kosova, in the process of helping our patients that come for life saving surgery through Gift of Life program, everybody is welcome to contribute and that contribution is most appreciated. However, organizational, business or personal promotions, social marketing or other ways of advertising through our Gift of Life program are strongly discouraged, as it is in violation with the ethical frameworks that Rotary International maintains and in violation of HIPAA protocols our hospitals here in the U.S. are enforced by law to respect. And this is very important for us to be able to bring more children from Kosova for heart surgery in the months and years to come.

I would appreciate if you would forward this email to our Albanian organizations and Albanians of goodwill in New York area and urge Albanian students and people of goodwill to give their volunteer services at their convenience through verbal translation for this patient and her mother. As soon as they contact me I would be happy to put them in touch with Gift of Life Branch in New York that is in charge for the care for Anisa.

I also want to thank once again the 8 Albanian volunteers from Boston area who did a wonderful job translating for our two patients, Endrit and Beqir last fall in Children's Hospital Boston.

I want to thank all of you for your help and consideration for our children from Kosova going for life saving cardiac surgery here in the United States.

Warm regards,

Dr. Gani Abazi

_______________________________
Gani S. Abazi, MD, MPH
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Neurosurgery Department
Children's Hospital Boston & Harvard Medical School
Address:
300 Longwood Avenue, Hunnewell 2,
Boston, MA, 02115, USA
Email: g_abazi@post.harvard.edu
gani.abazi@childrens.harvard.edu

Symposium on Fan Noli at Boston University

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 17:48:00 +0000

FAN S. NOLI, A DISTINGUISHED SCHOLAR, STATESMAN, RELIGIOUS LEADER AND ALUMN

In remembrance of the 45th anniversary of his passing, Noli will be recalled through the memories of his contemporaries and from archival documents.

Panelists:

Iris Mile, Boston University, Class of 2012 (Chair and Moderator)

Very Reverend Arthur Liolin, Albanian Orthodox Archdiocese

Van S. Christo, Frosina Information Network

Diane Marie Prift, Ass. Clerk Magistrate, Suffolk Superior Criminal Court.

Dr. Gjon Buçaj, VATRA Federation

Agron Alibali, University of Massachusetts in Boston

At BU’s Sargent College SAR 102, at 635 Commonwealth Ave. on Monday,
April 26, 2010, at 4:00 PM.

Sponsored by the Boston University Albanian Students Club and the VATRA Federation.

Please RSVP with Iris Mile at irismile@bu.edu or 516.784.0410

Parking is available at a variety of lots on Commonwealth Ave.

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:28:00 +0000

DRITAN PRIFTI LECTURE AT HARVARD CANCELLED

The Kokkalis Program at Harvard has just posted the cancellation notice below:

Due to dramatic restrictions on European travel caused by the presence of a volcanic ash cloud, next week's Kokkalis Program events have been cancelled. This applies to both "Seeing it like a Citizen: Bosnian Municipal Leaders on Building Peace and Prosperity" (April 19th) as well as H.E. Dritan Prifti's lecture on April 21st. Please look for our next newsletter for more information about Kokkalis Program Events.

Sincerely,
The Kokkalis Program

American conducts Albanian National Orchestra

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 16:00:00 +0000

I received a telephone call from the American conductor, Brian Asher Alhadeff, who contacted me after locating Frosina on the internet. In a nutshell, Brian will be conducting the Albanian National radio and Television Orchestra in Tirana from April 22 through May 2nd.

As Brian has stated below, before departing for Tirana, he rather urgently needs information and Albanian language translation assistance about Cesk Zadeja,the eminent Albanian classical music composer who was the the father of Albanian classical music and the single person in Albania who did so much to stimulate the compositions of Albanian classical music by others!

You can reach Brian directly at brianalhadeff@gmail.com so please offer much-needed assistance to him as soon as you can!

***

My name is Brian Asher Alhadeff. I am an American conductor living in California. From April 22 through May 2 I will be guest conducting the Albanian National Radio and Television Orchestra in Tirana. The concert will feature the Howard Hanson 2nd Symphony, Jean Sibelius Violin Concerto, and Three Symphonic Sketches by the Albania composer Cesk Zadeja. Part of my activities while in Albania will be to give a lecture at the American Embassy and possibly at the Tirana International School. My lecture will focus on "Nationalism in 20th Century Music" because all of the composers in my concert lived in the 20th century and represent America, Finland, and Albania. Here is my problem - while there is plenty of information on Howard Hanson and Jean Sibelius, all of the information I can find on Cesk Zadeja is in Albanian. Can you help me with some translations? Also perhaps you may know some people who have more information about Zadeja beyond the following two sources...

ARTICLE #1: From the actual program of the concert I am conducting:

Çesk Zadeja “Artist i Popullit” (1927 - 1997)

Kompozitori Çesk Zadeja është një nga figurat më kryesore të muzikes shqiptare. Vepra e tij, e frymezuar nga vlerat e kultures shqiptare, perfaqeson bazen e profesionalizmit mozikor shqiptar.

I lindur në Shkoder, ku edhe mori mësimet e para muzikore në shkollën françeskane, në vitet 1942-1943 vijon studimet muzikore në konservatorin “Santa Cecilia” të Romës për ti përfunduar në konservatorin “Çajkovski” të Moskës, ku u diplomua për kompozicion në vitin 1956.

Ai ka dhënë një ndihmese të rëndësishme në krijimin e Ansamblit Shteteror të Këngëve dhe Valleve Popullore (themelues dhe udhëheqës artistik - 1957); krijimin e Konservatorit Shteteror te Tiranës (1962); udhëheqjen artistike të Teatrit të Operas dhe Baletit; pedagogjinë e kalses së kompozicionit dhe teorisë së muzikës. Nën drejtimin e tij janë pregatitur shume emra te rëndësishëm kompozitoresh si T. Harapi, K. Laro, L. Dizdari, Gj. Kapedani, Th. Gaqi, A. Krajka, A. Peçi, I. Shehu etj. Veprimratia teoriko-shkencore e Zadesë shrihet në fushë e muzikologjisë, përmes atrikujve të shumtë që trajtojnë qështje të krijimtarise, gjuhes muzikore dhe të folklorit, dhe njëkohesisht duke qënë udhëheqës shkencor i shume diplomave. Firmën e prof. Zadeja e mbajnë shumë drejtime dizertacionesh, reçensione, studime teorike, botime e seri të plota punimesh shkencore.

Krijimtaria e Zadese është e shumtë dhe prek të gjitha gjinitë muzikore si sinfonia, muzika skenike, muzika e dhomës, muzika vokale, instrumentale etj, si dhe një numur i madh përpunimesh e krijimesh të këngëve e motiveve popullore. Krijimet e tij: Simfonia nr.1; baletet: “Delina”; “Shqiponja sypatrembur”; “Lumi i Vdekur”; “Vajza e qytetit të gurtë”; shumë skena e valle koreografike, koncerti për piano; sonata për violinë, kantata, rapsodi e overtura; muzikë filmash e shumë vepra të tjera, bëjnë pjesë në fondin tone muzikor.

Çesk Zadeja është vlerësuar për veprimtarinë e tij të spikatur me titujt: Urdheri i Punes Klasit I (1954), Artist i Merituar (1961); Urdheri N. Frasheri Klasit I (1970), Docent (1970), Artist i Popullit (1975); Cmimi i Republikes (1979), Profesor (1995); Anëtar i Jashtëm i Akademisë së Shkencave dhe Arteve të Kosovës (1996), etj. Ai ka vendosur personalitetin e tij në të gjithë universin muzikor shqiptar, duke qënë kështu krijues dhe prezantues i shpirtit dhe produktit më të lartë të historisë së artit muzikor shqiptar.

ARTICLE #2: From Wikipedia

Çesk Zadeja lindi më 8 qershor të vitit 1927 në Shkodër, dhe vdiq më 15 gusht të vitin 1997 në Romë. Mësimet e para i mori në vendin e lindjes, në shkollën françeskane, ku krahas mësimit të përgjithshëm, merr dhe njohuritë e para të muzikës. Ka qenë anëtar i korit të Kishës Françeskane që drejtohej nga kompozitori i shquar Padër Martin Gjoka dhe më vonë nga Filip Mazreku e Prenk Jakova. Që në vegjëli në qytetin e lindjes u angazhua në grupet amatore. Herët shfaqi talentin e tij dhe si nxënës 14-vjeçar studion në Accademia di Santa Cecilia në Romë, Itali, te kompozitori Umberto Semproni.

Me ardhjen e sistemit komunist, në vitet 1946-1947 punon në Radio Shkodra si përgjegjës i departamentit muzikor, kurse pas dy viteve shërben në ushtrinë e atëhershme deri në vitin 1951. Në vitin 1949-51 e kryen shërbimin ushtarak si dirigjent në Ansamblin Artistik të Ushtrisë.Çeskun e dërgojnë në Moskë për studime muzikore - dega e kompozimit në Konservatorin Petar Iliç Çajkovski të Moskës, në klasën e profesorëve dhe kompozitorëve M.I.Cukalli, Bogatyrieff dhe Tchullaki. Me të kryer studimet, si student i dalluar kthehet në Shqipëri dhe në vitet 1957-1962 emërohet udhëheqës artistik në Ansamblin Shtetëror të Këngëve dhe Valleve Popullore të Tiranës, i cili sapo ishte formuar e ku Çesk Zadeja zhvilloi një aktivitet të dendur si krijues dhe organizator i jetës edhe ashtu të vobektë muzikore. Është njëri prej formuesve të shumë institucioneve muzikore si dhe drejtues i tyre, siç janë: Konservatori (sot Akademia e Arteve) ku punon si pedagog plot tri vite 1962, e më pastaj emërohet si udhëheqës artistik në Tetarin e Operës dhe Baletit deri në vitin 1966.

Në vitet 1966-1972 është kryetar i degës së muzikës në Institutin e Lartë të Arteve (Akademia e Arteve) dhe në vitin 1972 është kompozitor në profesion të lirë. Prapë në vitin 1973-1979 udhëheqës i artistik në Teatrin e Operës dhe Baletit, kurse në vitin 1979-1990 del në profesion të lirë, për t’u kthyer në vitin 1993-1994 pedagog në Akademinë e Arteve ku jep kompozicionin dhe muzikologjinë. Profesor Zadeja është kompozitor që paraqet në universin tonë kombëtar figurën më të madhe krijuese që është emblemë e vërtetë kombëtare, i cili kalon në mit, sepse potenciali i tij krijues e bën këtë personalitet të shquar dhe doajen të muzikës bashkëkohore shqiptare, i cili kohërisht i takon brezit të parë të kompozitorëve tanë të shkolluar, duke i vënë bazat e muzikës klasike që merr përmasa të gjera si nga aspekti i trajtimit të materies muzikore e formës, ashtu edhe nga aspekti i melodisë, ritmit dhe stilit. Si pedagog ka dhënë vite të tëra kontribut të jashtëzakonshëm dhe shumë të çmuar.

Shumë kompozitorë që janë bartës të aktiviteteve muzikore sot në Shqipëri kanë diplomuar te kompozitori Zadeja. Ata sot zhvillojnë aktivitete të shumta dhe shumë programe të shkollave shqiptare muzikore janë të punuara, të redaktuara dhe të mbikëqyrura prej tij. Nëse shohim listën e të diplomuarve, do të vërejmë se sot kreu i krijimtarisë muzikore përbëhet nga kompozitorët e diplomuar te profesor Zadeja e disa prej tyre nuk janë më në gjallë. Por kontributi i tyre ka qenë i madh, si janë, bie fjala, Tonin Harapi, Kujtim Laro, kurse sot krijojnë Thoma Gaqi, Agim Krajka, Limoz Dizdari, Shpëtim Kushta, Kozma Lara, Aleksandër Peçi, Sokol Shupo, Ali Spahiu, Arian Avrazi, Ferikal Daja, Vangjo Nova, Fatos Qerimaj, Isan Shehu dhe dhjetëra të tjerë, janë krijues që luajnë një rol të rëndësishëm në jetën muzikore sot në Shqipëri.

Influenca e krijimtarisë së Zadesë ishte e madhe te një sërë krijuesish të tjerë që ndiqnin rrugën e këtij krijuesi, sepse veprimtaria e Zadesë në lëmin e kompozimit në tërësinë e saj ka qenë dominante, superiore dhe udhërrëfyese për gjeneratat, të cilat i ka mësuar si pedagog në Akademinë e Arteve të Tiranës. Vizitat e shpeshta të kompozitorëve tanë dhe anasjelltas na sillnin informacione të shumta për krijimtarinë muzikore, jo vetëm të Zadesë, por edhe të shumë krijuesve të tjerë, për të cilët as që kishim dëgjuar ndonjëherë.

--
Dr. Brian Asher Alhadeff
Opera - Symphony - Ballet
American Musical Theater

www.brianalhadeff.com
brianalhadeff@gmail.com

714.856.5663

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 15:38:00 +0000

Here's an interesting notice from Agron Alibali, himself a former lawyer in Albania and the recipient of a Master of Laws Degree from Boston University. What with the growing number of current Albanian-American lawyers and those graduating from the various law schools in New England, the formation of the organization and network that is being proposed is both important and proper!
***

ALBANIAN AMERICAN LAW ASSOCIATION

A group of Massachusetts Albanian American lawyers and law students along
with Judge Robert N. Tochka are in the planning stages of launching the first
Albanian American Law Association. The major goal of the Association is to
assist law students and lawyers of Albanian descent by forming a social and
professional network. The Association will sponsor social/networking events
and offer continuing legal education programs for members and the
community. The Association also plans to create a mentoring program where
established attorneys will give advise and support to younger members.

If you would like to participate or would like more information, please email us
at albawasscn@gmail.com or join us on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000941765578

If you know of someone who might be interested please feel free to email us
their contact information.

A Health Care Plan for Albania

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 01:58:00 +0000

For s long time, I have been hoping that some professional and humanitarian-oriented company - or a consortium of small organizations - would take the initiative to propose - and eventually implement - a meaningful and fair health plan that would provide comprehensive health care to those poor people of Albania who truly need and deserve it.

Needless to say, I was thrilled when a friend - knowing that I was of Albanian origin - thought to send me the Presolicitation health care plan proposal from USAID, titled "Enabling Equitable Health Reforms in Albania." This represents a vital first step in the formulation of health care that would cover not only the poorest, but eventually all Albanians as befitting a nation that will one day become a member of the European Union.

I urge you to pass this information along to any organization that may be interested.

***

Title: Enabling Equitable Health Reforms in Albania
Sol. #: 182-10-018
Agency: Agency for International Development
Office: Overseas Missions
Location: Hungary USAID-Budapest
Posted On: Apr 08, 2010 11:37 am
Base Type: Presolicitation
Link: https://www.fbo.gov/spg/AID/OM/BUD/182-10-018/listing.html

Barbara will be a judge at an Internationa Festival in Korcha!

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 21:08:00 +0000

I have never met Barbara Tzetzo Gosch, an Albanian who lives in Wisconsin, in person, but we have become friends via the internet. I was delighted - and, I must confess, a bit envious - to receive her great news below that she would serve as a judge at one of the events at the upcoming International Monodrama Festival that will take place in May in the city of my birth, Korce, Albania.

Barbara has promised an update for the Frosina Blog after she returns to America. Ataway Barbara! Break a leg!

***

I am most pleased to be invited to the International Monodrama Festival in Albania. The dates are from May 16th to May 21st of 2010. As a member of the International Albamono Jury, I will be part of a committee that judges actor’s monologues which will be approximately (45) minutes. Participants are primarily from Balkan and Eastern European countries. This experience will take place in Korce, where my parents were born, which makes the event all the more meaningful. I don’t know if others realize this, but during the twenties, I was told that Korce was viewed as a “Little Paris.”

This will be my second trip to Albania. In 1995 after seeing a tour listed as “Revolution by the Book,” which was posted in Liria (an Albanian-American newspaper no longer published) I helped dedicate the first free library. This took place in scenic Pogredec and was a marvelous adventure.

I want to thank the Organization Committee and the Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sports of Albania, which has worked hard to produce this exciting cultural event now entering its 5th year. Special appreciation also goes to these individuals, Dhimiter Orgocka (Director of Albamono 2010) Spartak Koroveshi (Coordinator with artistic teams) and Angelo Kondili (Coordinator for foreign guests).

Looking forward to seeing and hearing unique theater presentations, enjoying connecting with artists abroad, and writing about my experiences. State tuned.

Barbara Tzetzo Gosch

Gezuar Pashket / Happy Easter

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 16:15:00 +0000

To all our Albanian and non-Albanian friends

GEZUAR PASHKET

HAPPY EASTER

Jane and Van Christo

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 19:30:00 +0000

Kadare's Novel to Become Film ?

I always enjoy posting the interesting, unusual, and informative tidbits that I pick up from the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) such as the one below describing a novel by Albanian author Ismail Kadare that will be made into a film.

To know more about BIRN, I suggest that you visit BalkanInsight.com

***

Kadare’s The Palace of Dreams to Become Film

Tirana | 01 April 2010 |

Iranian born and New York-based acclaimed artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat told IndieWire in a recent interview that she is working to transform the novel of Albanian writer Ismail Kadare into a movie.

“I have been very interested by another novel written by Albanian author Ismail Kadare, called “The Palace of Dreams”; this film will be made in English, and it will be most likely filmed in Eastern Europe,” Neshat said.

According to Neshat, the novel can serve as an allegory related to Iran in the way in which it could capture the way the ‘ruling party,’ the ‘state’ tries to control people’s imagination, even their dreams.

“I sense there are ways to explore the absurdity, the vicious fantasticism that threatens us today,” Neshat said, adding that: “With “The Palace of Dreams” I see a beautiful parallel in Albanian’s dark history and struggle with communism and the Iranian plight with the Islamic revolution.”

First published in 1981 in Albania, where it was banned, "The Palace of Dreams" unfolds as a parable about an all-controlling dictatorship that monitors even the subconscious lives of its citizens.

Ismail Kadare was born in 1936 in the southern town of Gjirokastra, near the Greek border. He first studied at the University of Tirana in Albania, and later at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow.

During half a century of Stalinist rule in Albania his works attacked totalitarianism and the doctrines of socialist realism with subtle allegories.

A perennial candidate for the Nobel Prize for literature, his novels and essays have been translated into more than 40 languages and have been awarded with the Booker International Prize for literature and the Prince of Asturias Prize, among others.

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:44:00 +0000
Dritan Prifti to speak at Harvard

Below is a list of interesting speakers being presented by the informative Kokkalis Program at Harvard.

Note, especially, the talk on April 21st by Albanian government official, Dritan Prifti, who was, himself, a former graduate student at Harvard!

***

Seeing it like a Citizen: Bosnian Municipal Leaders on Building Peace and Prosperity

MONDAY, APRIL 19
1:00 p.m.
Vlado Alilović, mayor of VitezMuharem Grabus, president of the Vitez Municipal Council and the Vitez SDA Municipal Board
Zdravko Krsmanović, mayor of Foča and founder of "Nova Socijalistička Stranka"
Obren Petrović, mayor of DobojNye AB, Taubman Building (5th floor), John F. Kennedy School of Government, 79 John F. Kennedy St., Cambridge, MA
Space is limited: please RSVP to ilyana_sawka@hks.harvard.edu.

A Lecture by Albania’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Energy
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21
4:15 p.m.
H.E. Dritan Prifti, minister of economy, trade and energy of Albania; MC/MPA ‘00
Weil Town Hall, Belfer (ground floor), John F. Kennedy School of Government, 79 John F. Kennedy St., Cambridge, MA

The Kokkalis Program also brings the following events to your attention:

The Roma and their Plight in Europe and Beyond: A Visual Exploration of the Roma in Europe and the United States
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 317:30 p.m.Jud Nirenberg, contributing writer, Romani Politics in Contemporary Europe
Cabot Lecture Hall 7th Floor, Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford, MA

Co-sponsored by Mediation Way and the Fletcher School (European Affairs Society; Fletcher Youth Initiative; International Negotiation & Conflict Resolution Club). For more information, contact gonca@mediationway.org.

It’s Easy Being Green: Prospects for the Green Party in Germany and Europe
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7
6:30 p.m.Cem Ozdemir, co-chairman, Alliance 90/The Greens (German Green Party)
Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University, 27 Kirkland St. at Cabot Way, Cambridge, MA

Co-sponsored by the Boston Eric M. Warburg Chapter of the American Council on Germany, the German-American Business Council of Boston, Inc., and the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies. Reservations recommended: RSVP to Ellie Falk by Monday, April 5 at efalk@acgusa.org or (212) 826-3636.

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:19:00 +0000
Albanian Folk Tales / The Serpent

This story has been found extant and still flourishing in popular narrative in both Italy and the Himalayan region of Asia. Choosing a version which is geographically in between, below is a Balkan one collected in Albania.

***

The Tale of the Serpent

There was once a hunter who, while passing by a quarry, noticed that a serpent was trapped by a large stone or rock.

The snake called out when it saw him: "Please help me, lift the stone."

The hunter answered: "I cannot help you because you are likely to devour me."

The reptile asked again for aid, promising that he would not eat the man.

And so the man released the snake. It immediately made a movement towards him, as if to attack.

"Did you not promise not to eat me, if I let you go?" the man asked.

The snake said: "Hunger is hunger."

"But," said the hunter, "if you are doing something wrong, what has hunger to do with it?"

The man then suggested that they should put the matter to the adjudication of others.
They went into some woods where they found a hound. They asked him whether he thought that the snake should eat the man, and he replied:

"I was once owned by a man. I caught hares, and he would provide me with the very best meat to eat. But now I am old, and I cannot catch even a tortoise, so he wants to kill me. Since I have been given evil in return for good, I claim he should eat you."

"You have heard," said the snake to the man, "That is the judgment."

But they decided to take three pieces of advice, not one, and continued on their way. Presently they met a horse and asked him to judge between them.

"I think that the serpent should be allowed to eat the man," said the horse. It continued: "I once had a master. He fed me for so long as I could travel. Now that I am feeble and cannot continue my duties, he desires to kill me."

The serpent said to the man: "We now have the unanimity of two judgments."

Further along, they came cross a fox. The hunter said: "Dear friend, come to my help! I was passing a quarry and I found this huge serpent under a stone and almost dead. He asked me to release him. I got him out, and yet he now wishes to eat me."

The fox answered: "If I have to give a decision, let us return to the place where you met. I have to see the actual situation."

They went back to the quarry, and the fox asked for the rock to be placed over the serpent, to reconstruct the situation. This was done. He asked: "Is this how it was?"

"Yes," said the serpent.

"Very well," the fox told him, "You shall now stay there until the end of your days."

***

-- Taken from WORLD TALES, Collected by Indries Shah. Submitted to Frosina by Jim Gregory

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:54:00 +0000
Retired Albania Submarines Up for Sale

Tirana | 05 March 2010 |

Russian Whiskey Class Submarines

The Albanian government announced on Thursday that it has put up for sale as scrap metal two retired Soviet made submarines – once the glory of its navy fleet.

The Albania navy once had four Soviet built Whiskey class submarines docked in the Pashaliman base in Southern Albania.

The subs were donated from the Soviet Union in 1958, three years before Albania withdrew from the Warsaw Pact and the Soviets abandoned the Pashaliman base.

Officially the submarines were retired in 1998, after they were looted a year earlier following the anarchy caused by Albania’s Ponzi scheme crisis.

Apart from the two subs that have gone on sale, one of the submarines sank in the Pashaliman base in 1997, while the remaining ship is to be transformed into a naval museum.

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:00:00 +0000
The WWO and Ms. Kosova/2009

I was intrigued by the following announcement by The World Water Organization
and the fact that Ms. Marigona Dragushi, Ms. Kosova/2009, will make a special appearance at the upcoming "Drinking Water for Haiti" Concert at the Lincoln Center in New York.

Read on...

***

Dear All,

The World Water Organization (WWO), in line with its humanitarian mandate, has been effectively engaged in many ways to provide drinking water to the needy Haitians following the recent devastating earthquakes in their country.

As part of this humanitarian endeavor, a group of South Korean artists, led by Prof. Dr. Hai-Kyung Suh, one of the world's most renowned Pianist, is going to perform a concert at the Lincoln Center in New York for the benefit of the Haitians in need of drinking water, entitled: "Drinking Water for Haiti". This event will begin by a Special Appearance of Ms. Marigona Dragusha, Ms. Universe Kosova 2009 / Second runner up Miss Universe 2009, who is the World Water Organization Goodwill Ambassador. Meanwhile, His Excellency Ambassador Waheed Waheedullah, the Architect and the Desinger of the Peace Process and Independence of Kosova will also be in attendance. For detailed information on this event, please visit our web site at: theworldwater.org or explore the following links:
http://theworldwater.org/

http://www.theworldwater.org/WaterForHaitiArtists.htm

Tickets for this event shall be purchased from the Lincoln Center either in person or on line through the above-mentioned link.

Looking forward to having the pleasure of your attendance.

Thank You,

The Executive Board,
The World Water Organization

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:51:00 +0000
Here's a very worthy cause announced by Mark Kosmo* that everyone -- Albanian or non-Albanian -- should support!

***

Medical help for Albania

Please see the attached links for more information regarding the work in Albania of Dr. Kenneth Leavitt who is Chief of Podiatry at New England Baptist Hospital here in Boston. Dr. Leavitt will be returning to Albania in May, and MAAS/BESA has been asked to help publicize his efforts and also to help raise money. The focus if his efforts are to:

1) Help expand the Department of Orthopedics at the Mother Theresa Hospital; and
2) Perform additional surgery on an Albanian boy (Gerti Kaziu) so that he can walk normally again.

We hope that this will help plant the seeds for additional cooperation in the future in Albania in cases where we can help in the health field. Donations are welcome, as explained in the attached links. Please forward this email to others working in Albania and/or in the medical profession who might be interested to help.

http://maasbesa.org/files/gerti_kaziu_albanian.pdf

http://maasbesa.org/files/gerti_kaziu_english.pdf

*If you don't already know who Mark Kosmo is, please know that Mark is an activist who has done much for the Albanian community in Massachusetts. For example, Mark was very instrumental in forming MASS/BESA some time ago that has become an umbrella organization consisting of several Albanian-oriented groups.

To learn more about MASS/BESA, contact Mark directly:

Mark Kosmo
617-372-0931 (phone)
617-262-2340 (fax)
markkosmo@yahoo.com

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:51:00 +0000
Free or Low-cost info from U.S. Government

Since I founded Frosina some 15 years ago, I have made it a regular practice to produce and post ADVISORIES to Frosina's website www.frosina.org that would provide a wide range of useful data for Albanian and other immigrants arriving in America. Just below is the most recent Frosina Advisory offering valuable information - much of it Free - about America, health, and other matters of interest and assistance to newcomers.

***

A Frosina Information Network Advisory
_______________________________________________________________

WINTER-2010 Consumer Information Catalog
Free and Low-cost information from U.S. Government

Albanians and other newcomers to the USA should be aware of the
WINTER-2010 Consumer Information Catalog from the U.S. Government Printing Office that provides data about Americana – Health – Cars and other useful info.

Almost 100 booklets are free of charge (except for a $2.00 service fee to accompany an order) with other costs beginning at 50 cents and up per booklet. Shown below are only a few of the new WINTER-2010 listings along with costs for the new booklets. Multiple copies of some FREE titles are also available – call toll-free 1-888-878-3256 for more information.

1. Welcome to the United States: A Guide for New Immigrants 101T ($10.00)
This comprehensive guide contains practical information to help immigrants deal with everyday life in the United States, as well as a basic introduction to the U.S. system of government. It also gives new immigrants TIPS on how to get involved in their new communities and exercise their rights as citizens or permanent residents. 122 pp. 2007 USCIS

2. The Constitution of United States & Declaration of Independence
100T ($2.75) Learn more about the foundations of our country’s freedom with the full text of both historic documents. 48 pp. 2006 HOUSE

3. Consumer Action Handbook 568T (FREE) Use this updated guide to get help with consumer purchases, problems, and complaints. Find consumer contacts at hundreds of companies and trade associations; local, state, and federal government agencies; national consumer organizations, and more. 172 pp. 2009 FCIC

4. High Blood Pressure 623T (FREE), Pap Tests 599V (FREE), Mammograms 548V (Free), Cell Phones 509V (FREE), Medicine and Pregnancy 600V (FREE), Buying Contact Lens 543V (FREE), Birth Control Guide 598V (FREE)

5. Buying a Used Car 301V ($1.50), Nine Ways to Lower Auto Insurance 305V ($1.50)

View Catalog listings by punching in Federal Citizen Information Center at www.pueblo.gsa.gov. Mail your order to: FCIC-09D, PO Box 100, Pueblo, CO 81002, or go Internet: order publications online, and save the $2.00 service fee!

Phone: Call toll-free 1 (888) 8PUEBLO to place an order M-F 6 am to 8 pm ET _____________________________________________________________________________________
The Federal Citizen Information Center (FCIC) was established to help Federal agencies and departments develop, promote, and distribute useful consumer information to the public. One of the ways to do this is by publishing a new Consumer Information Catalog four times a year. Each quarter, FCIC searches out the best new consumer publications and reviews those already listed in the Catalog for accuracy.

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:01:00 +0000
Book Review: Rescue in Albania

I had never met Harvey Sarner in person but we became good friends via the telephone and postal mail. As a result of our long distance association, it was my pleasure and good fortune to collaborate with Harvey on his book "Rescue in Albania" depicting Albania's heroic salvation of Jews during the Holocaust. Because I had turned over my own research files on that same subject to Harvey, and because I reviewed and corrected the galleys of the book before it was printed, Harvey graciously designated me the co-publisher of his "Rescue in Albania."

After Harvey's death, in my capacity as co-publisher, I was pleased to authorize a Croatian language translation of "Rescue in Albania" that was subsequently published as "Spas U Albaninji" by an Albanian intellectual group in Zagreb.

Regrettably, our original book "Rescue in Albania" is no longer in print, but I believe you can find another version of it online.

I had asked the eminent British Albanolog Antonia Young to review "Rescue in Albania" that appears below:

***

Rescue in Albania: One hundred percent of Jews in Albania Rescued from Holocaust

Reviewed by Antonia Young

Sarner's hardback book is a revision of his pamphlet, The Jews of Albania (Brunswick Press, l992. 44p. plus photographic plates) which he wrote with Joseph Jakoel and Felicita Jakoel. Both publications give a brief history of Jews in Albania and emphasize their exodus in l99l. The later work concentrates on possible reasons for the exceptional situation of Jews in Albania during the Second World War in that not a single Jew was taken to any of the Nazi concentration camps. This accounts for the extraordinary fact that by War's end there were more Jews in Albania than before, due to an influx of Jews fleeing from other countries c not only surrounding countries, Yugoslavia and Greece, but also from further afield, Germany and Austria for example (p. 32c3). Initially Albania was seen (as, more recently, it has been seen by Asians) as a loophole into other parts of Europe. However, as the Nazi stranglehold over each European country tightened it became harder for Jews in transit through Albania to find another destination.

Sarner discusses the extremely tolerant situation between all religions of pre-War Albania, one which has brought frequent comment and citation of the phrase of the publicist and writer Pashko Vasa (l825c92) "The religion of Albanians is Albanianism". This phrase was also used by Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha to disclaim Albanians' need for any religion and the justification for his proclamation of Albania as the world's first atheist state, implemented l967c90. Hoxha's atheist stance placed people practicing any religion as equally culpable. Hence anti-Semitism did not exist in Albania.

Central to Sarner's history is Josef Jakoel (l922c9l), spiritual head of the Jewish community in Albania, whose perseverance in his faith managed to prevent the very small Jewish community in Albania from completely losing touch with their roots and with each other although travel even within Albania during the Communist period was extremely limited, and the few Jews were scattered between Tirana, Durres, Vlora and Shkodra.

In l990 it was possible for the first time since the War for Albanians to leave their country even for short periods. By this time Jakoel was too sick to undertake investigations abroad on behalf of Albania's Jewish community. His daughter Felicita was chosen and left for Greece to make contact with the Jewish Agency and continue on to Israel, despite this entailing her visiting a country with no diplomatic relations with Albania. She was able to set in motion the exodus of Albanian Jewry to Israel which came about in l99l when 300 "Jews" left for Israel (some were gentiles married to Jews c a situation which the small isolated Jewish community had come to accept).

A second important theme of Sarner's account is the story of Albania's "Righteous" (those non-Jews identified and honored by the State of Israel as people who risked their lives to rescue Jews during the Holocaust). Sarner gives details of some of these people and families (Moslems and Christians) who housed and hid Jews, some for years; he remarks on the extraordinary generosity of those hosts, their refusal to accept recompense and their ungrudging giving even in situations of extreme danger. Not only were Jews offered hospitality by individuals and families; the Albanian government also heeded the code of honor for guests and refused to obey the command of the Italian occupies to expel all foreign Jews, and even provided a small stipend for needy refugee families (p. 40). Sarner himself was impressed by the indelibility of the Albanian code of honor when interviewing members of a family who each confirmed the importance of a guest's life before their own (p. 50); "there are no foreigners in Albania, there are only guests", he was told (p. 63). The author finds the key to this universal care and protection for the Jews in the roots of Albanian civilization: the priority given to The Guest.

This has also been observed by Dr. Kazuhiko Yamamoto in his research where he likens Albanian reverence for guests to the Japanese Guest God. In both societies honor is at stake should there be any question that any guest, for any length of visit, is not given the very best care and attention. This is also at the root of the Kanun (the set of laws codified by the l5th Century nobleman Lek Dukagjin, and strictly adhered to this day). These oral laws were finally written at the turn of the twentieth century. Several sections specify the correct conduct of a host. Article XXXI (b) notes that a woman may be shot in the back for betrayal of hospitality.
Legend also has it (p. 8) that 2,000 years earlier a shipload of Jews destined as Roman slaves, but shipwrecked on Albanian shores received traditional hospitality. These would have been the builders of a synagogue whose remains Sarner claims were found at the ancient Illyrian port of Dardania (p. 9).

Sarner's informative slim volume gives a brief history of Albania, a few current statistics, a short bibliography, a useful map (p. 30) showing the four Albanian vilayets within the Ottoman Empire (until l878) (explaining the strong Albanian links with the Jewish community of Janina), and some interesting photographic illustrations. One can ignore several minor typographical errors, but Sarner cannot claim Miranda Vickers as a Jew by naming her Martha in his bibliography!

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:43:00 +0000
The Albanian Nastradin Hoxha

When I was a young lad and began to “stretch the truth” after my mother would ask where I had been or why I was late getting home, she invariably shook her finger at me and called me in the Albanian language: "Nastradini!" She had recognized that I was, sometimes, a teller of tall tales. But, it wasn't until I became much older that I realized what it was she meant by calling me "Nastradini."

The fictional Albanian "Nastradini" or "Nastradin Hoxha" folktales stem from the real life character of Nostradamus, a 16th century French apothecary and reputed soothsayer, who published collections of prophesies that have since become famous worldwide. As his legend grew, Nostradamus metamorphised into a legendary, satirical figure known under a variety of names throughout the Middle East and Central Asia. He was eventually brought to Europe as Nasreddin Hodja by the Ottoman Empire and became well remembered for his amusing anectdotes. Much of Nasreddin's actions have been described as illogical yet logical, simple yet profound. The messages of Nastradin Hoxha can be best described as conveyed by a method of profound simplicity. Here’s an example:

Budalla! (Fool!)

Once, a philosopher had an appointment
to match his wits with Nastradini
to see who was the master.
He prepared himself single-mindedly
the way one does - for this encounter;
and he was all set; but of all things,
when he came to call, he found no one home.
In supreme high dudgeon,
he pulled a big chalk from his pocket
and marked Budalla!
on the door, and stalked off.
When Nastradini came home and saw
What the philosopher had done,
he hurried off to his house.
“I ask your forgiveness,”
said Nastradini to the philosopher,
“for not finding me at home when
you came to see me.
I had forgotten our appointment
until I saw you had written your name
on my door.”
xxx

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:15:00 +0000
On political parties in Albania

Talks between Democrats and Socialists in Albania to resume?

It quickly became evident that after the downfall of communism in Albania in 1990, the two new major political parties - Democratic and Socialist - would have problems working together to form a government serving the best interests of its citizens. Each party - Democratic or Socialist - worked very hard to make it clear that it had the only agenda to produce an effective government. No matter which party came into power, it was invariably attacked - and often heatedly - by an intransigent opposition party eager to thwart or otherwise disrupt any agenda of the ruling government by obstruction, personal attacks, and even boycott.

Regrettably, after 20 years of democracy in Albania, its political leaders have never learned, or wanted to learn, the art of give-and-take so prevalent in other democracies, that is, compromise, negotiation, persuasion, reasoned debate, pleading, or whatever else was needed to produce a productive dialogue that would create and advance a bi-partisan political agenda on behalf of Albanian citizenry.

It was - and, unfortunately, continues to be - the bitter, personal animosity and antagonism always in great evidence between the two leaders of each party that filters down through its membership as each leader demonizes the other - Nano vs. Berisha / Berisha vs. Nano, and, currently, Berisha vs. Rama.

So read below, BIRN's latest take on Albania's President Bamir Topi's most recent attempt to get the two political rivals simply talking - never mind, working - with each other...

***

OSCE, US Back Albanian President Bamir Topi in Crisis Talks
Tirana | 11 February 2010 |

The OSCE and US have voiced their support for Albanian President Bamir Topi in his role as mediator in the talks between the opposition and government, which aim to solve the country's ongoing political crisis.

In a meeting with the president on Wednesday the OSCE head in Tirana, Robert Bosch, said that his organisation “would be ready to provide assistance to restart the parliamentary political life in Albania.”

Topi announced in a statement on Tuesday that he had called for talks to be held between Prime Minister Sali Berisha and opposition leader Edi Rama.

“The United States fully supports the efforts of President Topi and the Council of Europe to mediate the ongoing political impasse and we commend Topi’s leadership in overseeing the discussions between government and opposition,” the US embassy in Tirana said in a statement on Monday.

“We believe this process offers an important opportunity to resolve without further delay the current political stalemate and we call on all parties to avail themselves of this opportunity,” the statement added.

The messages of support aim to strengthen Topi’s position before the talks, which are being held to solve the political gridlock that has gripped the country since the end of the June parliamentary elections.

However, the two archrivals have continued to exchange jibes, accusing one another of being unwilling to compromise while holding firm in their entrenched positions on how to deal with the investigation of the June 28 parliamentary elections.

Led by Rama, the Socialist opposition has boycotted parliament since the new session began in September, claiming that the government’s alleged fraud was to blame for their electoral loss.

The Socialists have conditioned their return to parliament on a recount of the electoral ballots of the parliamentary poll.

Although declaring his openness to a parliamentary investigation of the election, Berisha has stubbornly rejected the possibility of a recount. He argues that the opposition has exhausted all legal options and that he cannot override the judicial process.

The boycott has poisoned the political climate in the country and brought to a halt the functioning of the assembly, which requires more than a simple majority to pass EU accession related reforms.

OSCE, US Back Albanian President in Crisis Talks
Tirana | 11 February 2010 |

Bamir TopiThe OSCE and US have voiced their support for Albanian President Bamir Topi in his role as mediator in the talks between the opposition and government, which aim to solve the country's ongoing political crisis.

In a meeting with the president on Wednesday the OSCE head in Tirana, Robert Bosch, said that his organisation “would be ready to provide assistance to restart the parliamentary political life in Albania.”

Topi announced in a statement on Tuesday that he had called for talks to be held between Prime Minister Sali Berisha and opposition leader Edi Rama.

“The United States fully supports the efforts of President Topi and the Council of Europe to mediate the ongoing political impasse and we commend Topi’s leadership in overseeing the discussions between government and opposition,” the US embassy in Tirana said in a statement on Monday.

“We believe this process offers an important opportunity to resolve without further delay the current political stalemate and we call on all parties to avail themselves of this opportunity,” the statement added.

The messages of support aim to strengthen Topi’s position before the talks, which are being held to solve the political gridlock that has gripped the country since the end of the June parliamentary elections.

However, the two archrivals have continued to exchange jibes, accusing one another of being unwilling to compromise while holding firm in their entrenched positions on how to deal with the investigation of the June 28 parliamentary elections.

Led by Rama, the Socialist opposition has boycotted parliament since the new session began in September, claiming that the government’s alleged fraud was to blame for their electoral loss.

The Socialists have conditioned their return to parliament on a recount of the electoral ballots of the parliamentary poll.

Although declaring his openness to a parliamentary investigation of the election, Berisha has stubbornly rejected the possibility of a recount. He argues that the opposition has exhausted all legal options and that he cannot override the judicial process.

The boycott has poisoned the political climate in the country and brought to a halt the functioning of the assembly, which requires more than a simple majority to pass EU accession related reforms.

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:27:00 +0000
Kokkalis Program on Kosova at Harvard

The Kokkalis Program would like to invite you to the following event:

Kosovo Two Years After Independence: Accomplishments and Challenges

MONDAY, MARCH 1
4:15 p.m.

Alex N. Grigor'ev, executive director, Project on Ethnic Relations
Shpetim Gashi, senior program officer, Project on Ethnic Relations
Fainsod Room (L324), Littauer Building, Harvard Kennedy School

For more information, please visit http://www.hks.harvard.edu/kokkalis

On Communism in Albania

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:49:00 +0000
I was honored by being asked by Harvard Club Member Roxana von Kraus to speak on the subject of "Communism in Albania" at a presentation of the award-winning Vaclav Havel Documentary Film at The Downtown Harvard Club in Boston on February 18, 2010. I have posted my talk below. Since, as I have stated in my opening remarks, I am not an authority on that subject, I invite viewers to the Frosina Blog to post their own Comments or first-hand experiences of life under that repressive communist dictatorship in Albania.

***

On Communism in Albania
Van Christo

At the outset, let me state that I am not an authority on the subject "Communism in Albania" but I can share with you some of my firsthand impressions of life under a communist government in that country.

After some 33 consecutive years of applying for a visa to visit Albania, the land of my birth, I was finally successful in 1981 so, accompanied by my wife, Jane, and our then 4-year old son, Zachary, as part of a closely supervised tour group of Albanian-Americans, we traveled throughout Albania - from Shkodra in the North to Saranda in the South. And here are some of my perceptions:

After we arrived in Tirana, I was immediately struck by the grimness of seemingly unfinished, yet inhabited buildings where we saw block after block of apartments that appeared to be of poor construction. And, after visiting the apartments of several relatives, we were astonished to learn that water and electricity in the apartments were available only a few hours each day, so in their kitchens and bathrooms, we saw bottles and jugs full to the brim with water. In many cases people had to rise as early as 3am to get as much water as they could before the supply was shut off, generally before 4am.

The electricity was sporadic and during the winter, families frequently went to bed shortly after sunset as there was no heat, and no light with which to cook, eat or read.

There were few shops, and many of them had very little to buy. For example, if a shipment of shoes came into a shop, people converged in a frenzy to buy whatever they could lay there hands on.

Also difficult to watch were the long lines of people, assembling as early as 5am, waiting to purchase milk on a first-come-first-served basis only to see the disappointment on their faces when the milk supply ran out. Indeed, my wife and I along with other members of our tour group quickly noted how difficult life was in communist Albania.

After the communist government of Enver Hoxha was established in Albania in 1945 at the end of WWII, diplomatic relations between Albania and America soon broke off, and ties between the Albanian communities in the USA and Albania ended. Travel between the two countries was prohibited, at first, by the communist government, and later by the USA. Private telephones in Albania were forbidden (as was the ownership of automobiles) and the only communication that existed between Albania and America was the exchange of heavily-censored mail. And, then, letters from America were delivered first to Yugoslavia and then-rerouted by the Yogoslavs to Albania.

In 1957, small Albanian-American tour groups, closely supervised, were finally permitted to visit Albania. They were happy to visit their motherland after almost 30-40 years of separation. And what did they see?

Instead of dirt roads, outhouses, and other primitive living conditions in Albania (because of its almost 500-year subjugation under the Ottoman Empire), they saw, instead, tall, multi-storied apartment buildings with indoor plumbing, asphalted roads where none had existed before, schools, a university, hospitals, clinics, libraries, and then, a few years later, even a "skyscraper" hotel in the center of Tirana, and other eye-openers that were to the American-Albanian visitors unbelievable achievements. When the tour groups returned to America, they related with some enthusiasm to the Albanian communities the positive changes that had occurred in Albania. To them, the before-and-after contrasts were dramatic. Quite naturally, a few of those American-Albanian enthusiasts were immediately - and unfairly - labeled communist sympathizers to be scorned for touting the wonders of a brutal communist dictatorship

Now, I want to contrast the life experiences of those first Albanian immigrants who came in numbers to America in the 1920s with the more recent arrivals. As I was growing up, I was always intrigued that when Albanians met each other on the streets of Boston, they invariably ended their conversations with the nostalgic expression "Mot, ne Shqiperi - next year, in Albania."

Yet, when after 45 years of an absolute dictatorship, Albanians from Albania began coming to America in 1990 after the downfall of communism, of the thousands that I have spoken to, their comment was almost always "We escaped from Hell.”

In our family, my nephew’s grandmother and grandfather were imprisoned for being dissidents. His grandfather was tortured, died in prison, and buried in some unmarked grave, and, Nona, his grandmother, was let out of prison after two years because she held an Italian passport. Jane and I were pleased to be able to help sponsor our nephew’s family including Nona to come to the United States in 1997. It was gratifying to see Nona spend her final years (she died in 2008) in a free Democratic country.

I will never forget Nona's descriptions of life in a brutal communist prison, and her life in Albania afterwards. For Nona, and many others, Albania was Hell!

***

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:29:00 +0000
Was Alexander the Great really of Albanian(Illyrian) origin?

A Frosina infobit

Alexander the Great / Leka e Madhe

Sir William Woodthorpe Tarn, of the British Academy, regarded worldwide as having written the definitive work on Alexander the Great, states in the opening paragraph of his book Alexander the Great that "Alexander certainly had from his father (Philip II) and probably from his mother (Olymbia) Illyrian, i.e. Albanian, blood!"*

During Rose Wilder Lane's visit to Albania in 1921 resulting in the publication in1923 of her book Peaks of Shala, she heard the following rather extraordinary rendition of Albanian oral history about Alexander the Great from an Albanian elder:

"There was at that time two capitals of the united kingdom of Macedonia. There was Pela, between Salonika and Manastir, and there was Emadhija**, the old capital, lying in the valley which is now Mati (a high, fertile plateau north of Tirana, near the coast of northern Albania - ED).

"Alexander's father, Filip the Second had great houses in both Pela and Emadhija, and before Lec i Madhe was born, his mother left Pela and came back to the original capital, Emadhija. It was there that Lec i Madhe was born, and there he lived until he was out of the cradle and rode on a horse when he first went down into Pela to see his father who came from the city to meet and see his son for the first time.

"Filip the Second was very proud of his son, and his pride led him to the one great foolishness of a good and wise king. He said that he would make Lec i Madhe king of the world, and that was well enough, but he thought to be king of the world a man must be more learned than he himself. Whereas all old men who have watched the ways of the world know that to be strong and ruthless will make a man powerful, but to be learned makes a man full of dreams and hesitations.

"In his pride and blindness, Filip the Second sent to Greece for an Albanian who had learned the ways of the Greeks, and to that man he gave the boy, to be taught books. (The Albanian's) name was Aristotle, and he came from a family of the tribe of Ajeropi, his father having gone to a village in Macedonia and became a merchant there. Being rich, he sent his son, who was fond of thought rather than of action, to learn the Greek ways of thinking. And it was this man who was brought by Filip the Second to teach his son."***

* P 1, ALEXANDER THE GREAT, W.W. Tarn, Beacon Press, Boston, 1956
** "Emadhija" means in Albanian "the great city"
*** PP 184, 186, 187, PEAKS OF SHALA, Rose Wilder Lane. Harper Brothers & Publishers, New York & London, 1923

Other nationalities , of course, have long laid claim to Alexander the Great as one of their own - most notably the Macedonians and the Greeks. However, as cited so authoritatively in the opening paragraph of Tarn's book, Alexander the Great can be rightfully identified as an Albanian.

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:55:00 +0000
The Corfu Incident

During the Cold War, it had been stated many times in the media and elsewhere that mines in the waters in the Corfu Straits that damaged two British destroyers killing 44 Royal Navy sailors had been laid by the communist government of Albania's Enver Hoxha. That was the common, accepted belief, so for that reason, some one and a half tons of gold bullion stolen by the Axis powers from the Albanian Central Bank during the 1939-45 war had been held by the Bank of England. After WWII ended, most of the gold bullion was returned by the UK to Albania.

What I find both intriguing - and puzzling - is that the mines actually "might have been laid by Yugoslav naval forces."

Please read on...

**

The Corfu Incident
Britain returns Albania's gold in 1.3 million (Pounds) deal

By Tim Butcher, Defense Correspondent
The Daily Telegraph, 28 October, 1998

A diplomatic impasse dating from the start of the Cold War will end today when one and a half tons of gold worth around 12 million Pounds and held for fifty years in the Bank of England is returned to the government of Albania. Britain blocked the gold's return until Albania accepted responsibility for the death of forty-four Royal Navy sailors killed in 1946 when two destroyers hit mines in the straits between Corfu and Albania.

After lengthy diplomatic negotiations since Albania's communist dictatorship ended in 1991, an agreement was reached to return the gold for payment to Britain of compensation. The bullion, stolen form the Albania Central Bank by the Axis powers during the 1939-45 war, had been held in the Bank of England since 1945.

At a private ceremony scheduled to be held today in the Foreign Office in Whitehall today, representatives of the Albania Central Bank will receive a document giving them title to the gold. The Albanians will hand over to the British government a warrant for 1.3 million Pounds compensation. Veterans of the 'Corfu Incident' criticised the exchange as the compensation was one-tenth of the 13 million Pounds awarded to Britain by the International Court of Justice in 1951.

"The sum sounds pretty paltry when you think of the loss of the two ships, of forty-four lives and fifty years of pursuing the claim," said Sir Donald Golsing, the joint chairman of the National Car Parks who was a seventeen-year old signaller on a cruiser accompanying the two damaged destroyers. "But I suppose fifty years is a long time and honour has been done if only to allow Albania to continue its slow reform towards a democratic country."

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said the principle of liability has been accepted by Albania, which has a weak economy that is developing slowly. "The government has great sympathy with the families of those who suffered in the incident but they did receive compensation from the British government shortly after the incident."

The issue of the Albanian bullion, known as King Zog's gold after the last Albanian monarch, has soured relations between Britain and Albania since the incident involving the two ships, Saumarez and Volage. Albania dismissed British claims that the mines were illegal and there was some evidence that they might have been laid by Yugoslav naval forces. But a hearing at the International Court of Justice in the Hague supported Britain's clams and awarded compensation.

The gold was part of a large cache of Nazi gold held in the Bank of England but administered by a joint commission consisting of Britain, France, and America. While the commission returned vast sums of gold to nine claiment countries such as Austria and Luxenbourg, Britain blocked the Albanian claim until the issue of damages for the Corfu incident were settled.

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:10:00 +0000
Kokkalis Program Executive Education

February 1, 2010

The Kennedy School’s Kokkalis Program on Southeast and East-Central Europe is pleased to announce an exciting Harvard educational opportunity in Europe!

Leading, Innovating and Negotiating: Critical Strategies for Public Sector Executives is a Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) executive education program which takes place in Athens, Greece from 31 May – 3 June 2010. We request your assistance in recruiting participants, and ask that you to share this information with senior public sector officials from SE Europe who play a key role in the strategy and functioning of their organizations, and encourage them to apply (application deadline is 26 April 2010).

The program is a unique opportunity to learn from Harvard faculty who are luminaries in their fields. It will offer instruction in the following areas:

- Negotiation and Conflict Management, taught by Dr. Brian Mandell (Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Chair of the Negotiation Project, HKS)

- Innovation, taught by Dr. Elaine Kamarck (Lecturer in Public Policy, HKS)

- Leadership, taught by Roderick Kramer (Visiting Professor of Public Policy, HKS; William R. Kimball Professor of Organizational Behavior, Stanford Business School)

For further information and application instructions, please visit the HKS Executive Education Web site. Eligible individuals are encouraged to apply as early as possible to secure a place in this program as well as limited full-tuition and lodging scholarships.

Sincerely,

The Kokkalis Program

frosinainfo@gmail.com (Van Christo) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:03:00 +0000
Mayor of Tirana, Edi Rama, at Harvard

Edi Rama, the Mayor of Tirana, Albania, was an accomplished artist long before he entered politics. Utilizing his unique style and creativity, Rama transformed the outside walls of grim, Stalin-era buildings in Tirana into huge and colorful abstract paintings that are a wonder to behold! Rama also planted thousands of trees, bushes, and flowers throughout Tirana enabling people to enjoy beautiful scenic vistas as they strolled along the city's long and wide boulevards.

I know, because my wife, Jane, and I personally enjoyed those wonderous Rama creative spectacles first-hand when we visited Tirana a couple of years ago!

Edi Rama is a truly interesting, multi-talented individual so here's an excellent opportunity to see and hear him up front!

The Kokkalis Program would like to invite you to the following event:

MONDAY, JANUARY 25
4:00 p.m.
Dialogue in Cultural Diplomacy and Urban Transformation: Mayors Edi Rama and Antanas Mockus
Nye ABC, Taubman Building (5th floor), Harvard Kennedy School
Moderated by Professor Elaine Kamarck, lecturer in public policy, Harvard Kennedy School

Co-sponsored with the Cultural Agents Initiative and the Public Diplomacy Collaborative. Open to the public; no registration required.

Recognized as two of the world’s most creative and innovative leaders, Antanas Mockus, former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, and Edi Rama, mayor of Tirana, Albania, will visit Harvard to share their insights on the role of creativity, culture and the arts in transforming cities and nations.

Mockus and Rama have been revolutionary in their use of what may be termed “artistic acupuncture” in Bogotá and Tirana to promote reform, good governance and civic engagement. From the use of pantomimes to ridicule traffic violators in Bogotá, to attacking drab communist facades in Tirana with bold and irreverent color, Mockus and Rama have used art and alternative practices as tools of cultural persuasion, civic transformation and empowerment. The results have been transformative in ways never seen before in their societies.
For more information, please visit: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/kokkalis

If you cannot attend this lecture in person, you may still watch it live by streaming from this link.

http://iopforum.harvard.edu:8080/ramgen/encoder/live