From okv-dc at iom.int Wed Sep 5 11:35:29 2001 From: okv-dc at iom.int (OKV-DC Wash DC) Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2001 17:35:29 +0200 Subject: [Alb-Educ] Out-of-Kosovo Voting program Message-ID: <4BA9DDF31DE2D41199CC00508BE745452EB337@WASEXCHANGE> Dear subscribers, The International Organization for Migration is happy to inform you that the Special Representative of the Secretary General and Head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) announced Kosovo-wide elections for November 17, 2001 to elect a 120-member law-making Assembly. To vote in the November elections, every eligible voter must either apply to register or confirm registration from last year by completing a new registration form. Registration began 30 July and ends 8 September. IOM-OKV sent to all applicants from last year personalized registration materials to be completed and returned to IOM-OKV Vienna. As we are making every effort to reach all potential voters, we ask your important support to help inform potential voters. This year, generic registration forms and information may also be downloaded from our website at www.okvoting.org. For further information or application materials, applicants form the USA and Canada should either take advantage of our website or call our IOM Washington office at our toll-free number at 1.866.819.5158 or contact us by e-mail at okv-dc at iom.int. Sincerely, Henrike Lehnguth Head of Voter Information Office Out-of-Kosovo Voting (OKV) IOM Washington, D.C. Toll-free phone#: 1.866.819.5158 Fax#: 202.862.1879 From okv-dc at iom.int Fri Sep 21 14:55:35 2001 From: okv-dc at iom.int (OKV-DC Wash DC) Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 20:55:35 +0200 Subject: [Alb-Educ] Press Release: Out-of-Kosovo Voter Registration Deadline Saturday Message-ID: <4BA9DDF31DE2D41199CC00508BE745452EB357@WASEXCHANGE> Dear list-member, Please find the following press release, Sincerely, Henrike Lehnguth Head of Voter Information Office Out-of-Kosovo Voting (OKV) IOM Washington, D.C. Toll-free phone#: 1.866.819.5158 Fax#: 202.862.1879 IOM: Out-of-Kosovo Voter Registration Deadline Saturday VIENNA, 20 SEPTEMBER - The International Organization for Migration (IOM) urges all potential voters living outside Kosovo to register before this Saturday's final deadline in order to be eligible to vote in November's Assembly election. Registration closes at 1800 hours on Saturday, 22 September. The deadline applies to both the in-person and by-mail registration procedures run by IOM's Out-of-Kosovo Voting programme (IOM-OKV). Registration centres in Serbia and Montenegro will close their doors at 1800 on Saturday, while all mail and faxed applications from all other countries must be received by IOM-OKV by 1800 Saturday. With two days remaining, IOM-OKV recommends that applicants in by-mail countries send their applications by fax. Applications should be sent to: IOM-OKV OF 609, A-1040 Vienna, Austria FAX ++ 43 1 503 15 33 or 503 0853 or 504 5763 Vienna Helpline: ++43 1 503 1511 or 1509 Registration centres in Serbia and Montenegro, operated in conjunction with local Commissariats for Refugees, have registered nearly 90,000. Applicants in all other countries continue to register by mail. Special IOM-OKV offices in Albania and Macedonia offer in-person assistance to potential voters filing by-mail applications. The Vienna headquarters has registered approximately 19,000 persons outside Serbia and Montenegro. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which is organising the elections, called on IOM to run the Out-of-Kosovo programme. Registration began on 30 July. The registration is for the 17 November Assembly election in Kosovo. Registration was extended by the OSCE from 8 until 22 September, based on strong interest. OSCE has indicated there shall be no further extension. For more information, contact Henrike Lehnguth, Head of Voter Information Office, IOM-OKV Washington at toll-free number 1.866.819.5158 or okv-dc at iom.int From mg558 at columbia.edu Sun Sep 23 10:19:21 2001 From: mg558 at columbia.edu (Mithat Gashi) Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2001 10:19:21 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [Alb-Educ] Edu in Albani In-Reply-To: <4BA9DDF31DE2D41199CC00508BE745452EB337@WASEXCHANGE> Message-ID: Over a year ago, the World Bank gave money to Albania to reform and assist the country's edu programs. See the press release. Does anyone know whether these projects have accomplished anything. REFORMING EDUCATION IN ALBANIA WASHINGTON, May 11, 2000The World Bank today approved a US$12 million equivalent (SDR 9 million) credit for an education reform project in Albania. The project will support the Ministry of Education and Sciences in the planning and management of the delivery of educational services and strengthening its accountability to stakeholders for that delivery. The project has the following five components: ? Policy Design, Management, and Improvement of the Education System. This component will fund the strengthening of the generic functions required for the Ministry of Education and Sciences to improve the education sector: policy analysis and strategic planning, financial planning and management, human resource management, and the design, implementation, and monitoring of specific educational reform programs. ? Education Management Information System. This component builds on the school mapping database completed under the Bank's first education project in Albania and will be managed by a newly-established department within the Ministry of Education and Sciences the Center of Information and Statistics. ? Assessments and Examinations. This component builds on the activities begun under the Bank's first education project in Albania and will fund the development and conduct of examinations and assessments. ? School Rehabilitation. This component will fund the development of building and design guidelines for schools and furniture and the rehabilitation of about 35,000 school places, or about 5,500 schools. ? Textbooks. This component will fund procurement of textbooks, using international competitive bidding to reduce the costs and increase the quality of textbooks being purchased by the government; and publishing textbooks for the new curricula in vocational/technical education as a trial for privatizing publishing. The total cost of the project is US$14.88 million, including US$2.88 million from the Government of Albania. The credit will be disbursed on standard IDA terms, repayable in 40 years, including a 10 year grace period. From mg558 at columbia.edu Sun Sep 23 10:28:30 2001 From: mg558 at columbia.edu (Mithat Gashi) Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2001 10:28:30 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [Alb-Educ] Arvanites Message-ID: (This Book Review originally appeared in the August/1995 issue of LIRIA) Book Review ARVANITET By Irakli Kocollari Published in the Albanian language by Albinform, Tirane, Albania. (May be purchased from Rexh Xhakli, 3235 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY 10468. $10) Reviewed by Dr. Arben Kallamata 1992 Neiman Fellow at Harvard University and 1994 Fulbright Scholar at Boston University Albania is a nation rich in history but, regrettably, not in historians. Over the last two centuries, Albanians under the Ottoman Empire were forced to maintain a low profile while a more modern Albanian culture was beginning to take shape. The role of Albanian historian was first assumed by writers, patriots, and important nationalistic figures such as Naim Frasheri and Fan Noli who each wrote versions of the history of Skanderbeg, Albania's 14th century folkhero, to revive the patriotic spirit in Albanians and to remind the world of just how much Western civilization owed to that small nation. It was only in the past five decades that certain attempts were undertaken to develop an historical synthesis of Albania but even these activities were greatly controlled by the rigid isolationist policy of the former communist government. It is only now, at the end of the 20th Century, that Albanian historians are free to fill the void, to accomplish a duty to the motherland by providing the world with the truth about Albania's culture, history, and development. The 1994 book, Arvanitet, by Irakli Kocollari about the Albanians of Greece, is an attempt to objectively condense and present in concise form a vast array of documents, citations, travelers' diaries, previous historical research, archives, etc. that deal with this considerable portion of the Albanian nation (about 3 million according to a Greek publication cited by Kocollari: Ethnos, I kathadhos qe o robs tu sti dhiamorsfosi tu eleneki kratu, P. 14, V. Rafailidhis, May 5, 1986). In an attempt to delineate their history in Greece, Kocollari endeavors to provide answers to a range of questions such as: why are the Albanians living in these parts? How came they there? What was the reaction of the Greeks to the Albanians? What happened to the Albanians during the course of centuries, and how were they able to survive assimilation for such a long period of time? To answer these and other questions, Kocollari has researched and made use of a very rich and extensive bibliography where one can quickly perceive the paucity of Albanian historiography - out of 55 authors and publications listed and quoted by the author, only 8 are Albanian, the rest are Latin, British, German, and, mainly, Greek. I believe this has produced a two-sided effect: One side, the positive one, clearly shows that everything written in the book about the Arvanits (Albanians) of Greece cannot really be disputed since the evidence is abundantly and undeniably supported by the large number of cited Greek authors, historians, archeologists, and scientists. This is especially critical when describing a large Albanian population and its important contribution to the history of Greece. Evidence is provided that Greece, through the Arvanits, was able to throw off the Ottoman yoke because most of the distinguished figures of the Greek Revolution were Albanians: Marko Bo?ari, Foto Xhavella, ?elo Picari, Zylftar Poda, Karaiskaj, Kollokotroni, Shahin Qafezezi, Gjon Leka, Rrapo Hekali, Tafil Buzi, Hodo Leka, and, especially, the well-known woman who is considered one of the most outstanding heroes of Greek history, Laskarina Bubulina. These represent only a few names out of a long list of brave Albanian men and women who left their deep marks in Greek history. However, there is another side to this saga derived by seeing Albanians through the eyes of foreigners and that is the author's overemphasis of Albanians as superb fighting machines at the expense of their other noble qualities. It certainly cannot be denied that Albanians have always distinguished themselves as a brave and courageous race and as a people forced by history to preserve their fighting spirit and to keep their arms handy for their own self-preservation. However, there are other important Albanian qualities that Ko?ollari should have stressed in the book: Albanians boast not only of their reputations as fighters, they also boast of their culture, epos, legends, costumes, music, laws, art, architecture, writers, and civilization. Albanians are proud to have given to the world names like Jan Kukuzeli and Nikete Dardani both of whom set the foundations of the most cultivated Christian religious music. In point of fact, Kukezeli composed the "Te Deum" (God, We Love You) perhaps the oldest known written religious music sung by church choirs all over the world. Albanians are also proud that they produced extraordinary artists and painters such as Onufri, Selenicasi, and Zografi whose mural paintings and frescoes adorn monasteries and churches all over the Byzantine Empire -- Constantinople, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, and Albania. And that they've produced architects such as Sinan who designed the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, and Karl Von Gega , who designed the famous Semmering railway system in Austria and Germany that became the model for all of Europe. Yet, of the 230 pages of Arvanitet, Kocollari devotes only a few pages to non-military aspects of the Arvanits, and only one chapter, the last one, is dedicated exclusively to their Albanian culture. That is much too little for that portion of Greece's population that gave so much to the Greek nation. One of the rare examples that Ko?allari does cite is the opening of the first Greek school in Greece in 1821. Referencing a Greek scientist, A. Vakalopullos, as well as an authentic document signed by graduating students of that Greek School, Ko?ollari presents the astonishing evidence that of the 8 students in the first class, either 4 or 5 were Albanians: "Among the eight names...there are the names of four Albanians and, maybe, even of a fifth one, about whom we are not quite so sure - Kostandin Apostoli from Permeti, Jani Anastasi from Kelcyra, Jani Athanasi from Vithkuqi, Vasil Xhelio, the Fratarian, Jani Zoi from Zagoria (we are not able to certify if it is Zagoria of Gjirokastra or Zagoria of Janina)." pp.172-173. In all other aspects, however, I believe that Ko?ollari's Arvanitet is an important contribution to the general body of knowledge about the Albanians of Greece. It is well-written in clear and simple language, and the author avoids the danger of falling victim to a chauvinism and nationalism faced by anyone who undertakes the responsibility of writing about minorities in the Balkans. The book displays an admirable objectivity and carefully cites Greek authors and scientists as sources for every "delicate" moment. It also advances the concept that the two nations of the Greeks and the Albanians have almost always lived together in peace that they understood and respected each other, and that they believe that both give-and-take are needed to become truly good neighbors. There is no need to create artificial conflicts between Greeks and Albanians, as certain politicians on both sides have done, and that, in the end, both nations will surely find a way to live together in peace. From mg558 at columbia.edu Sun Sep 23 10:30:26 2001 From: mg558 at columbia.edu (Mithat Gashi) Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2001 10:30:26 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [Alb-Educ] albanian grammar in a sketch Message-ID: see this website http://www.eirelink.com/alanking/modals/documents/do-g-alb.htm