Today, when I learned about the possible return on Mr. Ylli Pango to the political and academic life my first reaction was: “what the ….” !

I feel sick and I stand on my opinion that he should not be allowed to reenter the political and much less the academic life of this country. I’ve heard plenty of sad stories where this person has abused his position and authority and am truly disappointed by the court’s decision to acquit him of any wrong doing with regard to the scandal that was widely reported in the media about one year ago. Well, one thing is for sure, the court’s decision is obviously subjective and does not clear the dirt-level moral standing that this person represents.

My hope is that if the decision is made for him to return to the academic life, that students would rise to oppose this decision by boycotting classes and other types of peaceful and democratic forms of protest.

We just have to start saying “no” to immoral behavior and abusive conduct of such people. This is my stand on the issue.

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Today was probably the only day that it will ever snow in Tirana for the whole winter. I took some pictures just to document it for my self. Hope you enjoy it as well.

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Today I got a SMS on my cell saying:

Congratulations, your cell phone has won 500,000 paunds in the onging Nokia UK prom. For claims Email: coordinatior.nokiaprom@live.com or call +447024038551

Well, being acquainted with different scam schemes I went directly online and searched for “Nokia UK Promotion Scam” to immediately find out that this was another old trick which is now expanding in Albania as well. Read the rest of this entry »

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If you have not heard about this story yet, then I’d encourage you to read more about it and follow it up. Original story appeared first on Balkan Insight: Investigation: Son’s Search For Father Uncovers Albanian Mass Grave – by Gjergj Erebara

Excerpt:

“Years after the collapse of the Stalinist regime, many families of Albanians executed by the communists are still desperately looking for the bodies of their relatives. Read the rest of this entry »

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While most of Europe has been experiencing a very cold winter, here in Tirana the winter has been rather mild. Only these past few days the temperatures have gotten below the freezing point during the night. The snow is always held back by the mountain ranges surrounding the city and it rarely snows in. Only back in 2003 it was a rather colder winter where it snowed for a couple of days, just enough to make a small snowman.

In fact for several years now the cold has rarely shown its bite and I suppose people like it that way. However, though not scientifically proven, every time the winter has been like this the summer seems to have gotten hotter. At least that is my impression.

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The New Year’s Dinner tradition continues to be one of the major times of the year when Albanians like to eat a lot and gorge themselves on all sorts of foods and drinks. Though it has diminished somewhat, I have to admit that this is true in my family as well. But most importantly, recently I’ve come to realize that some of the eating has another, more sentimental value to it.

My Dad and the Turkey

The other day my parents went out to do some New Year’s food shopping, and upon my return to the house I discovered that they had bought a large 7 kg turkey. As I looked at the massive amount of poultry meat that my dad was cleaning, I became even more cognizant of the painful fact that someone would have to consume it all somehow, though not me! So, respectfully, I asked my dad to explain how the turkey would be consumed since I was not planning on eating it, nor where the other members of the family, as far as I knew. Read the rest of this entry »

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In the past few weeks I’ve had a couple of people write to me to ask about the costs of living in Albania. While, I am not the expert in this case I did a little bit of research to put together some information on the living costs for a single person living in Tirana. In needs to be said that Tirana is the capital and the main city in Albania to do business. About 90% of all major enterprises are based here, while over 80% of foreign companies are here as well, according to the Tirana Municipality site.

Based on several estimates this is a summary of major annual expenses in USD for a single person living in Tirana.

I need to stress that these are not the most accurate estimates, since I only spend very little time putting them together, so with your input, suggestions and corrections I would like to update them.

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