[Albanians-Today] Albania: North-South Chasm Widens

[Mentor Cana]

http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200408_512_4_eng.txt

Albanian: North-South Chasm Widens

As investment and tourism trickles into southern towns, the rural
mountainous north feels abandoned.

By Suele Musta in Tirana (BCR No 512, 20-Aug-04)

Hile Gjon Peraj, 43, raises eight children in Fierza in virtual darkness, as
her little house in the Tropoja region of northern Albania has no power
utilities.

A relative killed Hile's husband, Gjon, a few years ago in a conflict over
property.

Hile struggles to raise her children - whose ages range from two months to
18 years - on a monthly social security payment of 30 US dollars, a few head
of cattle and fruit and vegetables grown in the outside yard. A salaried job
is out of the question. "The state farm I used to work for no longer
exists," she said.

Metres from her house, 78-year-old Mani is equally hard up. His children
emigrated long ago to Italy and he and his wife live on the money they send
back. Only nature has been good to them, he says, ruefully, "It gives us
something to eat in the summer and wood to burn in winter."

In Albania's mountainous north, many families live in almost medieval
poverty, their condition a testament to decades of neglect, under-investment
and, now, mass migration to the towns to cities.

"The youth have left the north," said Halil, a former teacher from the small
town of Puka. "There is nothing left for them here. There is no work and no
entertainment."

Rural migration to the cities is not confined to the north of Albania.
According to Tirana's Institute of Statistics, Albanian demographics have
changed radically in the last few years, as the rural population surges into
urban areas, seeking work and higher education.

The best educated have moved in greatest numbers. More than 70 per cent of
all high-school graduates have headed for the capital, Tirana, according to
findings of the statistics institute. Others leave the countryside to try
their luck abroad.

The north has suffered most from this change, partly because of a lack of
new, public and private investment, in what was always a remote region.

According to Tirana economics expert Genc Ruli, investment in small business
in the north is 30 per cent less than in central and southern parts.

The infrastructure is also in worse shape. The only important new investment
on the horizon is a planned highway running from the port of Durres to
Pristina in Kosovo through Milot, Puke and Kukes.

Detailed information on the north's social problems is hard to come by in a
country where reliable data is scarce. But a ministry of labour and social
affairs official told IWPR he believed the average rural inhabitant in the
north earned about 80 dollars a month, compared to 130 in the centre and
south, where tourism is better developed, and where many have boosted
earnings through working in neighbouring Greece.

According to studies conducted by the UNDP, only 45 per cent of the active
labour force is working at all in the region of Shkodra, the north's largest
city. There, emigration is still the main route to an income.

Edmond Dragoti, a psychologist in Tirana, says people leave the north not
only because of the geographical remoteness but because successive
governments have failed to come up with policies that promote its
integration into the rest of the country.

Traditional blood feuds are both a symbol and a factor behind the region's
continuing backwardness.

Many of those whose families are engaged in blood feuds are locked into
their homes, while their children are isolated and cannot attend school.
According to the National League of Conciliation, an NGO dealing with these
disputes, more than 500 families in Shkodra are effectively confined to
their homes, fearing revenge killings.

The strength of this backward-looking phenomenon is partly attributed to the
old clan-based system of popular justice, known as the Canon, or code of
Leke Dukagjini.

But poorly functioning institutions and worsening economic conditions are
also behind the resilience of Leke's canon in the north. "The blood feuds
are increasing because of poverty and growing unemployment," Lulzim Nekcaj,
an analyst from Shkodra, told IWPR.

Adem Shehu, a Tirana historian, says the north was always a region apart.
"Historically, there has been a big difference between the north and the
south of the country," he said, adding that the latter always retained its
economic and cultural lead, as it became the base of great landowning
families, many of whom developed strong economic and social ties to the
West.

When many southerners emigrated to France and the US in the early 20th
century, these ties grew stronger. In the north, only Shkodra developed
similar ties to the West, Shelu said.

Fadil Kaja, a writer based in Shkodra, says the north always had immense
natural and human potential, but the ruling southern elite did not draw on
it. Although most of the country's minerals and other natural resources lie
in the north, they were not developed.

The north has had its positive moments in history, however, especially in
the 1920s and 1930s, during the reign of King Zog, whose family came from
Mat, in the north. During his reign, a conscious effort was made to improve
the north's infrastructure, by constructing bridges and a regional airport.
Northerners were given more access to government and especially army posts.

But the communist revolution after the Second World War saw these efforts
reversed. Enver Hoxha, Albania's long-time, post-war communist leader, was
from the south and favoured southerners with most government positions.

According to the Tirana-based Institute For The Integration of Former
Political Prisoners, most of those jailed for political reasons were from
the north, where anti-communist resistance was fierce in the mountains.

The communist era did see the construction of several giant hydro-electric
power stations while other big state industries brought jobs to the north.
But after communism collapsed, most of the latter went bankrupt, leaving
thousands of people unemployed.

The transition to a market economy has merely accelerated the exodus of
people from the north to Tirana and central Albania.

Besnik Aliaj, director of Development And The Habitat, an NGO based in
Tirana involved in legalising illegally-built houses built in Tirana by
northern migrants, says this huge movement has often not benefited the
migrants much, as they end up living in unsafe houses that lack most
necessary services.

Azgan Haklaj, a member of parliament from the northern Tropoja district,
says migration is the only way people can improve their lives. "Coming to
Tirana is an important positive development for them," said Haklaj, pointing
to greater job opportunities.

Miri Hoti, chancellor of Shkodra university, however, warns of the danger
posed by the brain drain from the north, "Such a massive movement of people
has two different sides to it. It brings relief, because there are less
people left to look for the few jobs available, but it is also taking away
the cream of the city.

"Government and civil society need to think of incentives to keep
intellectuals and good professionals here."

Several international organisations, such as the World Bank and other
western development agencies, have begun to focus on the north, to counter
some the region's problems.

Diplomats from Britain, Norway and several other western countries have
recently paid visits to see it first hand. One of the biggest development
projects in the area is being funded by UNDP, aimed at disarming the local
population and clearing mines from the border zone with Kosovo. "It is one
of the most important projects for us," said Prel Ndoca, the head of the
commune of Has. "We are getting rid of weapons and also receiving funds for
constructing schools and roads for the community."

But while some progress is being made in the north, most observers believe
the region will only have a chance of prosperity when the country acquires
stronger links with Europe, which is something the whole of Albania is
looking forward to.

Suela Musta is a journalist on Top Albania Radio.