From albboschurch at juno.com Mon Feb 3 10:35:43 2003 From: albboschurch at juno.com (albboschurch at juno.com) Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 11:35:43 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Enivornment/Ecology in Albania: A Case Study at Harvard Message-ID: <20030203.113548.1364.16.albboschurch@juno.com> Albania: A Case Study at Harvard's Busch Hall Friday, February 7 at 10 am. See attached -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: Elinor_Bajraktari at ksg04.harvard.edu Subject: Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2003 11:22:42 -0500 Size: 2009 URL: From aalibali at yahoo.com Tue Feb 4 07:49:49 2003 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 04:49:49 -0800 (PST) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Shekulli Message-ID: <20030204124949.23006.qmail@web11503.mail.yahoo.com> ?Diskriminim n? konsullat?n greke n? Kor??? Raimonda Moisiu Rmoisiu at aol.com I mir? i lig nuk ka si vendi yt. Amerikan?t thon?: "East or west, home is best?. Un? jam nj? emigrante shqiptare n? Shtetet e Bashkuara. Q? nga shtatori i vitit 2001 e deri n? shtator t? vitit 2002, erdha dy her? n? Shqip?ri. N? shtator t? 2002 vura re shum? ndryshime, sidomos n? Tiran?. Jan? b?r? p?rpjekje p?r ta zbukuruar e sistemuar, pavar?sisht se ka ende shum? pun? p?r t? b?r?. Qytetin tim, Kor??n e gjeta me 24 or? uj?, por dritat vazhdonin ende me at? ?menun?? e vjet?r. M? duket se Shqip?ria dhe shqiptar?t po jetojn? koh?n e dy ekstremeve. Un? pash? n?p?r rrug? makina luksoze me shumic? (n? USA nj? benz kushton 60 mij? dollar? dhe shum? rrall? ta z? syri), dhe gjithashtu lyp?s e njer?z t? veshur keq e t? paushqyer me shumic?. Sidomos keq, e ndjeva veten n? dyert e konsullat?s greke, ku shkova bashk? me v?llain tim. Nuk e kam ndjer? veten m? ngusht? kurr? n? jet?n time. Ndoq?m t? gjitha procedurat sipas rregullit q? ata k?rkonin. Paraqitemi p?r t? marre viz?n, dhe k?tu arrin kulmi kur nj? person q? punon n? konsullat? dhe ?sht? nga qyteti i Kor??s fillon e b?n ndarjen n? musliman?, n? ortodoks?, n? ?oben?, e n? t? krishter?. Duke par? emrin dhe mbiemrin tim (un? muslimane q? n? vez?t e n?n?s) m? pyet: ?far? lidhje ke me Presidentin? I them se nuk kam lidhje farefisnore ?sht? krejt nj? rast?si, m? b?n p?rs?ri pyetjen se ?far? jam muslimane apo ortodokse, se nuk mund ta dalloj nga emri dhe mbiemri q? ju kini. I p?rgjigjem e stresuar dhe e revoltuar n? t? nj?jt?n koh? se jam muslimane dhe jam krenare, por nuk po e kuptoj k?to lloj pyetjesh. K?t? s'kam p?r ta harruar kurr?. T? gjith? thoshin se konsullata greke n? Kor?? q? kthyer n? nj? minier? fitimi p?r disa persona q? b?nin ligjin aty. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Tue Feb 4 07:49:58 2003 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 04:49:58 -0800 (PST) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Shekulli Message-ID: <20030204124958.23024.qmail@web11503.mail.yahoo.com> ?Diskriminim n? konsullat?n greke n? Kor??? Raimonda Moisiu Rmoisiu at aol.com I mir? i lig nuk ka si vendi yt. Amerikan?t thon?: "East or west, home is best?. Un? jam nj? emigrante shqiptare n? Shtetet e Bashkuara. Q? nga shtatori i vitit 2001 e deri n? shtator t? vitit 2002, erdha dy her? n? Shqip?ri. N? shtator t? 2002 vura re shum? ndryshime, sidomos n? Tiran?. Jan? b?r? p?rpjekje p?r ta zbukuruar e sistemuar, pavar?sisht se ka ende shum? pun? p?r t? b?r?. Qytetin tim, Kor??n e gjeta me 24 or? uj?, por dritat vazhdonin ende me at? ?menun?? e vjet?r. M? duket se Shqip?ria dhe shqiptar?t po jetojn? koh?n e dy ekstremeve. Un? pash? n?p?r rrug? makina luksoze me shumic? (n? USA nj? benz kushton 60 mij? dollar? dhe shum? rrall? ta z? syri), dhe gjithashtu lyp?s e njer?z t? veshur keq e t? paushqyer me shumic?. Sidomos keq, e ndjeva veten n? dyert e konsullat?s greke, ku shkova bashk? me v?llain tim. Nuk e kam ndjer? veten m? ngusht? kurr? n? jet?n time. Ndoq?m t? gjitha procedurat sipas rregullit q? ata k?rkonin. Paraqitemi p?r t? marre viz?n, dhe k?tu arrin kulmi kur nj? person q? punon n? konsullat? dhe ?sht? nga qyteti i Kor??s fillon e b?n ndarjen n? musliman?, n? ortodoks?, n? ?oben?, e n? t? krishter?. Duke par? emrin dhe mbiemrin tim (un? muslimane q? n? vez?t e n?n?s) m? pyet: ?far? lidhje ke me Presidentin? I them se nuk kam lidhje farefisnore ?sht? krejt nj? rast?si, m? b?n p?rs?ri pyetjen se ?far? jam muslimane apo ortodokse, se nuk mund ta dalloj nga emri dhe mbiemri q? ju kini. I p?rgjigjem e stresuar dhe e revoltuar n? t? nj?jt?n koh? se jam muslimane dhe jam krenare, por nuk po e kuptoj k?to lloj pyetjesh. K?t? s'kam p?r ta harruar kurr?. T? gjith? thoshin se konsullata greke n? Kor?? q? kthyer n? nj? minier? fitimi p?r disa persona q? b?nin ligjin aty. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Tue Feb 4 07:50:34 2003 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 04:50:34 -0800 (PST) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Fwd: [EURO-LEX] Hauser Research Scholar Fellowships 2003/2004 Message-ID: <20030204125034.77256.qmail@web11507.mail.yahoo.com> Apologies for cross-postings! The Global Law School at NYU is offering full funded Fellowships (Hauser Research Scholars) for academics at the beginning of their career. The Fellowships are in the amount of 25,000 US Dollars. Hauser Research Scholars are expected to be in residence at NYU during the academic year. Application details for 2003/2004 may be found on: http://www.law.nyu.edu/programs/globallawschool/research.html as well as at http://www.jeanmonnetprogram.org. Best regards, Webmaster -------------------------------------------------------------- EURO-LEX info: list object and policy, subscribers, countries, subscribe/signoff procedures, list archive, searches, contact. Send a mail to listserv at listserv.gmd.de, text = info euro-lex -------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Tue Feb 4 07:52:16 2003 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 04:52:16 -0800 (PST) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] CFA: Wodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, East European Studies Message-ID: <20030204125216.23378.qmail@web11503.mail.yahoo.com> EAST EUROPEAN STUDIES WOODROW WILSON INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR SCHOLARS NOTE: An individual may apply for only one category of support per fiscal year. JUNIOR SCHOLARS TRAINING SEMINAR East European Studies of the Woodrow Wilson Center and the Committee on East European Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies are soliciting applications for the sixteenth annual training seminar for junior scholars in East European studies, to be held August 8-11, 2003, at the historic Wye Conference Center on the Chesapeake Bay in southern Maryland. These scholarships are available only to American citizens or permanent residents. All domestic transportation, accommodation, and meal costs will be covered by the sponsors. Graduate students enrolled in a doctoral program at an American university who have completed all requirements and research for the Ph.D. except the dissertation (and scholars who received their Ph.D.s in 1999 or later) in any field of East European or Baltic studies are eligible to apply. Russia and the Soviet successor states are excluded. Participants will present their research, discuss the works of other junior scholars, and exchange impressions of the state of the field with a group of senior scholars. The application must include: a completed application form (which may be downloaded from www.wilsoncenter.org/ees); a curriculum vitae (which must include social security number, institution where degree is expected or was received, title of doctoral dissertation, and name and department of doctoral advisor); a single page, single spaced statement of the work you wish to discuss, either the dissertation or another project; and one letter of recommendation from Ph.D. advisor Completed applications must be received by April 15, 2003. SHORT TERM GRANTS (one month duration) With funding provided by Title VIII (Soviet and East European Research and Training Act), East European Studies offers short term grants to scholars having particular need for the library, archival, and other specialized resources of the Washington, D.C. area. This program is limited to American citizens (or permanent residents) at the advanced graduate and postdoctoral level and to an equivalent degree of professional achievement for those from other fields. Short term grants provide a stipend of $100 per day for one month (for a maximum of $3,000). This program requires visiting scholars to remain in the Washington, D.C. area and to forego other academic and professional obligations for the duration of the grant. No office space, however, is provided. Topic of research in social sciences or the humanities is limited to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (including the Baltic states and the former Yugoslav nations, but excluding the countries of Russia, Ukraine, the NIS states or Germany except in a strictly comparative format). The applicant must submit a concise description of his/her research project, a curriculum vita, a statement on preferred and alternate dates of residence in Washington, D.C., and two letters specifically in support of the research to be conducted at the Center. Members of the East European Academic Council review applications at regular intervals throughout the year. Closing dates are December 1, March 1, June 1, and September 1. Applicants are notified approximately four weeks after the closing date. CONTACT INFORMATION Please direct all inquiries to East European Studies. East European Studies One Woodrow Wilson Plaza 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20004-3027 Tel: 202-691-4000 E-mail: ees at wwic.si.edu Website: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/ees/ ******************************************************************* East European Studies The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars One Woodrow Wilson Plaza 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20004-3027 tel: 202-691-4000 fax: 202-691-4001 www.wilsoncenter.org/ees Located in the Ronald Reagan Building Federal Triangle Metro Stop (Blue/Orange) Lines ******************************************************************* ______________________________________________ Balkan Academic News Post Messages to: balkans at yahoogroups.com Contact Owner at: bieberf at gmx.net Subscribe: balkans-subscribe at yahoogroups.com Unsubscribe: balkans-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com Homepage: http://www.seep.ceu.hu/balkans/ Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. > ATTACHMENT part 2 application/msword name=AAASS Grant Announcements - Jan.rtf --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Thu Feb 6 07:38:14 2003 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2003 04:38:14 -0800 (PST) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Important Funding Opportunity - please distribute Message-ID: <20030206123814.94059.qmail@web11501.mail.yahoo.com> GRANTS- Soros Supplementary Grants Program 2003-2004 The Network Scholarship Programs of the Open Society Institute- Budapest is pleased to announce the Soros Supplementary Grants Program, academic year 2003-2004. The program was created to assist citizens of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and Mongolia who are pursuing advanced study within this region but outside of their home countries. The goal is to support cross-cultural, intraregional student mobility as part of the Open Society Institute's overall efforts to strengthen the academic network within and among these countries. The Soros Supplementary Grants Program 2003-2004 offers grants to: I. Standard eligibility students of the social sciences, humanities, and fine and performing arts who have already arranged for part of the costs of their study to be covered. II. Special needs students: - Roma - refugees - people seeking political asylum - displaced (forced migrants). Awards are offered for one academic year only and will be granted in amounts ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. Awards are available to undergraduates and post-graduates enrolled at recognized institutes of higher education outside of their home country or permanent residence and in one of the countries listed below [see website]. Participating countries are all Central Asian countries Application deadline: April 15, 2003. You can download application form at: http://www.osi.hu/nsp/ For more information on eligibility criteria and application details please contact the appropriate scholarship program coordinator at the national foundation in your home country. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Sat Feb 8 09:24:49 2003 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 06:24:49 -0800 (PST) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Fwd: [balkans] CfP: Islamic Culture in the Balkans Panel, MESA, 6-9.11.2003, Anchorage Message-ID: <20030208142449.48091.qmail@web11506.mail.yahoo.com> Dear colleagues: We are in the process of putting together a panel on different aspects of Islamic culture in the Balkans, historical and contemporary, for the next Middle East Studies Association conference (to be held in Anchorage, Alaska, November 6-9). So far, three panelists have signed on and we are hoping to attract one or two more. Anyone interested to contribute to this broadly defined theme is welcome to join. Because of a rather tight deadline (Feb 14), please submit a 300-400 word abstract directly to me at no later than February 10. You can obtained detailed information on the 2003 MESA annual meeting at Regards, amila buturovic .................. Amila Buturovic Associate Professor Division of Humanities and Religious Studies York University 4700 Keele St Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada ______________________________________________ Balkan Academic News Post Messages to: balkans at yahoogroups.com Contact Owner at: bieberf at gmx.net Subscribe: balkans-subscribe at yahoogroups.com Unsubscribe: balkans-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com Homepage: http://www.seep.ceu.hu/balkans/ Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Mon Feb 10 09:36:01 2003 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2003 06:36:01 -0800 (PST) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] CfA: Public Interest Law Fellows Program, Columbia Message-ID: <20030210143601.74375.qmail@web11506.mail.yahoo.com> Call for Applicants** PILI/Justice Initiative Public Interest Law Fellows Program Columbia University School of Law (2003-2005 Session) Columbia Universitys Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI) and The Open Society Justice Initiative (formerly the Constitutional and Legal Policy Institute), are pleased to invite applications for the Public Interest Law Fellows Program. The deadline for applications is March 15, 2003. The program will select five lawyers from Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus (the region) for two years of study and practical work experience. One slot in the program is specifically designated for womens rights advocates, one slot for disability rights advocates, and one slot for a Roma rights advocate, with the two remaining slots undesignated. Criteria for selection will include the experience of the applicant, the applicants potential to contribute to the development of the human rights or public interest law field in the region, and the suitability of the applicants proposed role in the nominating non-governmental organization (NGO). Applicants must have a minimum of two years relevant work experience outside of law school. Preference will be given to applicants under 35 years of age. Minorities, especially Roma, are strongly encouraged to apply. Selection decisions will be made by May 1, 2003. The Fellows will reside a total of one year in the US, consisting of one semester of study at Columbia University and two three-month internships. Fellows will return to their home countries after the first year, where they will spend at least one year working with their nominating NGO on human rights/public interest advocacy on a non-profit basis in such areas as providing legal services, strategic litigation, campaigning for reform, and human rights training/education. Upon their selection, Fellows will be required to sign an agreement with the Justice Initiative and Columbia University according to which he/she will commit to two years in the program; the first year to be spent in the US and the second year in his/her home country working with the nominating NGO. The Justice Initiative will cover the cost of a round-trip coach airfare to the US and provide each Fellow with a monthly stipend for a period of up to 12 months, a textbook allowance, and medical insurance for a year while in the US. The amount of this stipend is carefully calculated to cover the expenses of one person in the US for the period of one year. The Justice Initiative will also pay a local salary during the second year that is equal to an amount determined to be similar to equivalent work by the nominating NGO. This amount will be provided to the nominating NGOs in the form of a grant. Please note, the Justice Initiative and PILI cannot provide any financial or logistical assistance for accompanying family members, including securing suitable family housing. Moreover, Columbia University requires evidence of financial support for accompanying family members. In the 2002/2003 academic year, this amount was equal to $700 a month for an accompanying spouse and $350 a month for each dependent child. Providing proof of the requisite financial support for accompanying family members will be the responsibility of the applicant. Program Description The Open Society Justice Initiative (formerly COLPI) is a new international legal program of OSI. Based in New York and Budapest, the mission of the Justice Initiative is to contribute to the consolidation of open societies through the development of legal policies and practices grounded in the rule of law and the protection of human rights. The Justice Initiative aims to provide intellectual leadership to law reform efforts by combining practice and legal advocacy with the accumulation and dissemination of knowledge in its areas of core concern - national criminal justice reform; international justice; freedom of information ad expression; anti-corruption; equality and migration. In each of these areas, the Justice Initiative seeks to contribute to the evolution and application of substantive law, and the development of legal capacity. Justice Initiative conducts its activities in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, Guatemala, Haiti, Mongolia, South, Sout hern and West Africa, and Southeast Asia. The goal of the Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI) is to advance human rights principles through assisting the development of a public interest law infrastructure in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus. PILI is supported by the Ford Foundation, the Mott Foundation, the UK Department for International Development, the European Community, and the Soros network of foundations. The Public Interest Law Fellows Program is one of PILIs core activities. Fellows will be expected to arrive in early August in order to participate in US Legal Methods and Problems, an intensive course that starts prior to other classes and provides an academic orientation for lawyers from civil law countries. In the first semester of the program, Public Interest Law Fellows participate in a non-degree program in which they audit 3 to 5 courses at Columbia Law School. As auditors, Fellows do not participate in exams and do not receive grades or credit from the law school for completing a course. All Fellows are required to participate in a seminar taught by Edwin Rekosh, Executive Director of the Public Interest Law Initiative. This seminar  which pairs Fellows with a select group of full-time Columbia students  provides a practical-oriented overview of law reform issues confronting the legal systems of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus from an interdisciplinary perspective, with an emphasis on democracy-buildi ng, civil society, and enhancing the promotion and protection of human rights. Each Fellow will be expected to propose a project relating to human rights or other public interest law issues, which will be the subject of research and collaboration by teams formed with other students in the seminar. The project should be related to the needs and priorities of the applicants nominating NGO, but may change over the course of the semester based on the input of other students in the seminar. Ideally, the result of the seminar will be a project plan that can be further modified during the remainder of the year to fit the particular needs of the NGO. In the spring and early summer, Fellows participate in two three-month internships at human rights, legal services, or other public interest law organizations in the New York area. To the extent possible, internships will be selected according to Fellows particular interests in the area of human rights and public interest law. More information about the Public Interest Law Initiative can be found on the Internet at: www.pili.org. More information about Columbia Law School can be found at www.law.columbia.edu. Application Procedure Applicants must submit the following: - A completed program application form - A nominating letter from an indigenous NGO in the region describing the need for having a lawyer working in the organization and contractually committing to the Justice Initiative to hire the applicant for at least one year after he/she returns from the US. The nomination letter should also indicate a monthly salary rate, inclusive of all income taxes, social security and other wage-related payments payable by the individual or organization, that will be offered to the applicant by the NGO in the event that he or she is selected for the program (the salary amount is provided to the NGO by the Justice Initiative in the form of a grant). - At least one recommendation from an individual outside the nominating organization - A project proposal that he or she would like to work on during the first semester of the program, ideally with practical significance to the nominating NGO. (Some past examples include: developing a strategic litigation strategy to address discrimination against women in the workplace; drafting a model mental health care law with a detailed implementation strategy; establishing a legal aid program, and promoting freedom of expression and religion through litigation and public education.) - Information on the nominating NGO and additional recommendations are also encouraged, although not required. The electronic submission, via e-mail, of application materials is strongly encouraged although materials may also be submitted via facsimile or through regular mail. INCOMPLETE APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED. If an application is submitted without one of the required components, it will be disqualified unless the applicant can justify why he/she cannot obtain the needed information. The DEADLINE for receiving applications at PILI is March 15, 2003. For more information and application forms, please contact Julie Heaner Plavsic, Fellowship Program Manager, 435 W. 116th St, Mailcode 3525, New York, New York; tel: 1-212-851-1060; fax: 1-212-851-1064; e-mail: jplavs at law.columbia.edu. An application form can also be downloaded from PILI's website at www.pili.org ______________________________________________ Balkan Academic News Post Messages to: balkans at yahoogroups.com Contact Owner at: bieberf at gmx.net Subscribe: balkans-subscribe at yahoogroups.com Unsubscribe: balkans-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com Homepage: http://www.seep.ceu.hu/balkans/ Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Mon Feb 10 09:39:02 2003 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2003 06:39:02 -0800 (PST) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Libra te rinj Message-ID: <20030210143902.39168.qmail@web11503.mail.yahoo.com> "Zones of Conflict; US Foreign Policy in the Balkans and the Greater Middle East" by Vassilis K. Fouskas has just been published by Pluto press, London (Seven chapters-List of Abbreviations-Two maps-Bibliography-Index-182 pages. ISBN: 0 7453 2029 5 paperback and 0 7453 2030 9 hardback - www.plutobooks.com). The book offers a sustained analysis of US policy objectives after the Cold War in the Balkans, Central Asia and the Middle East. It also looks systematically at the hegemonic antagonism between key EU states, Russia, China and the US for the strategic control of Eurasia and its oil and gas producing zones. Praises for the "Zones of Conflict" "Finally, an excellent counterblast to Zbigniew Brzezinski, written with verve and intelligence", Donald Sassoon, Professor of Comparative European History, Queen Mary, University of London "An interesting interpretation of US policy in what the author describes as the Eurasian region of the Balkans and the Greater Middle East", Stevan K. Pavlowitch, Professor Emeritus of Balkan History, University of Southampton "Thanks to the 'Zones of Conflict' we have a refreshing new interpretation of post-Cold War American foreign policy that challenges basic assumptions of the American foreign policy establishment", Van Coufoudakis, Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus, Indiana, University-Purdue University, Fort Wayne and Rector Intercollege, Nicosia, Cyprus "[Fouskas] is looking at both an interesting and under-theorised part of the world and the role of the US within it", Ray Bush, Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Leeds The author, Vassilis K. Fouskas, is the founding Editor of Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, Senior Research Fellow in European and International Studies at Kingston University, London, and a Leverhulme Fellow (2002-03). --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Wed Feb 12 21:40:10 2003 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 18:40:10 -0800 (PST) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Fwd: Events at Harvard Message-ID: <20030213024010.68816.qmail@web11503.mail.yahoo.com> War In Iraq: Regional Repercussions and the Impact on American Foreign Policy A panel discussion, including... Professor James Walsh Belfer Center for Science and International Affair Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University Wednesday, February 19, 2003 6 PM Discussion John F. Kennedy School of Government Taubman Building Cambridge, MA Free and open to the public Space is limited and reservations are required. Please call (617) 542-8995 ext. 112 or e-mail wac at worldboston.org to reserve a space. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Mon Feb 17 09:16:35 2003 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 06:16:35 -0800 (PST) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] FELLOWSHIIP IN ALBNANIAN STUDIES Message-ID: <20030217141635.33766.qmail@web11504.mail.yahoo.com> One TEACHER/FELLOWSHIP in ALBANIAN STUDIES 2003-2004 The School of Slavonic and East European Studies(University College London) and the British Embassy, Tirana, invite applications from academic specialists in history, politics, economics,sociology, linguistics, anthropology, ethnic and minority studies, gender studies, or cultural studies for a one-year teacher-fellowship sponsored by a UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office Chevening Scholarship and the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, tenable from 1 September 2003 to 30 June 2004 at the School in London. Full job specification and the application form are available on http://www.ssees.ac.uk (staff vacancies). Applications should be made in duplicate using the form provided to arrive no later than 15 March 2003. One set should be sent to: The Director's Office, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, Senate House, Malet Street,London WC1E 7HU; fax: 44-20 7862 8640 or by email to c.fernandes at ssees.ac.uk.The second set should be sent to: Press and Public Affairs Section, attn of MrsTelo, British Embassy, Tirana, Albania or by email: Gentiana.Telo at fco.gov.uk. Short-listed applicants will be interviewed at the British Embassy in Tirana on Wednesday 24 April 2003. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Tue Feb 18 18:19:26 2003 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 15:19:26 -0800 (PST) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Events at UMass/Boston - 15 Feb. 2003 Message-ID: <20030218231926.3779.qmail@web11508.mail.yahoo.com> Tuesday 25 Taking the "ism" out of racism in the 21st Century: A Study of the Print Media's Coverage of Presidnt Clinton's National "Dialogue on Race" 2 - 4 p.m., Healey Library, 8th floor, Provost's Conference Room. Featuring Dr. Bill E. Alberts. For more information, call 617-287-5885 or email yvonne.gomes-satos at umb.edu. Women in Politics and Public Policy Open House 4 ? 6 p.m., Wheatley Hall, 4th floor, student lounge. Light refreshments will be served. For more information, please contact the assistant director, Jain Ruvidich-Higgins, at 617-287-6785 or j.ruvidich-higgins at umb.edu. Public Lecture with Robert C. Wood Visiting Professorship in Public and Urban Affairs Featuring Mayor Edi Rama of Albania 5:30 - 7:30 p.m., Quinn Administration Building, Chancellor's Conference Room. Hear Rama's first hand account of the difficulties involved when a country transitions from Communism to Democracy. Sponsored by the McCormack Institute. For more information, call 617-287-5534. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Tue Feb 18 20:36:02 2003 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 17:36:02 -0800 (PST) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Albanian related events at Harvard Message-ID: <20030219013602.26706.qmail@web11505.mail.yahoo.com> ____________________________________ Monday, February 24, 2003 4:00PM "Albania: Transition? - Destabilization?" Miranda Vickers, Author and Political Analyst for International Crisis Group "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Kosovo: Peace or War?" James Pettifer, Author Malkin Penthouse, Littauer Building JFK School of Government ____________________________________ Thursday, February 27, 2003 4:00PM "Tirana City Hall: Between Art and Politics" The Honorable Edi Rama, Mayor of Tirana, Albania Allison Dining Room, 5th Floor Taubman Building JFK School of Government ____________________________________ Friday, February 28, 2003 12:15PM - 1:30PM Danis Tanovic, 2002 Academy Award Winner: Director, Foreign Language Film, "No Mans Land" An informal brown-bag/roundtable discussion of Mr. Tanovic' award-winning film set in the midst of the recent Balkan wars. The film "No Mans Land" will be screened at Harvard Film Archive on Wednesday, February 26, 2003. For more information on the screening, please visit http://www.harvardfilmarchive.org Fainsod Room, Littauer Building JFK School of Government ____________________________________ For more information on these events please visit http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/kokkalis --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Sun Feb 23 12:04:19 2003 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 09:04:19 -0800 (PST) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Sex and Slavery - The Observer Message-ID: <20030223170419.85115.qmail@web11502.mail.yahoo.com> http://www.observer.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,901001,00.html Sex and slavery Police estimate that 10,000 illegal immigrants are working as prostitutes in Britain today. Many are from Eastern Europe, brought here by ruthless Balkan pimps who sell them into a life of enforced vice for as little as ?150. John Gibb travels from the mountains of Moldova to the saunas of King's Cross and Chingford on the trail of the human traffickers Sunday February 23, 2003 The Observer Hidden away in the bleak back streets of the Moldavian city of Chisinau is a sanctuary where damaged women are brought to recover. At first sight it appears to be just another anonymous communist-era tenement among a collection of rundown buildings, but glance through the plate-glass doors and you will see the shadowy figures of men in uniform, there to prevent unwelcome visitors from reaching the interior of the building. The security is a reassurance to the residents and their protectors, because this is where women who have been trafficked from Moldova into the West are brought after repatriation. The refuge is funded by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). It holds 20 patients and is always full. More than 1,000 victims have been sheltered here in the past two years. I went to Moldova with Paul Holmes, a former inspector in the Met, for six years operational head of the Vice Unit at Charing Cross. Holmes works as a consultant for the IOM. He's a big man, round shoulders, naval beard, hard eyes - looks at you like a boxer. Holmes has said many times that the influx of women from Eastern Europe into the UK vice trade is out of control. 'Over 90 per cent of the women who come back have been victims of deception, usually with false job promises, and have been forced into sexual slavery,' he says. 'They're all damaged, many badly. It's a huge problem here.' Chisinau is surrounded in the suburbs by apartments piled like blocks of concrete Lego. Kiosks sell cheap and lethal cigarettes dumped by the big tobacco companies, and a bottle of brandy costs a quid. In the early evening, the city streets seem half empty and the traffic is a sparse mixture of ancient cars and horse-drawn carts. The prime minister, unable to live on his meagre salary, works part time for a baby-food company. Government posters warning girls to be wary of promises of employment overseas litter the walls of the city. The women in the IOM shelter have been expelled from the Middle East, Europe, South America. Some have been kicked out of Britain, detained by immigration and sent home 24 hours later. Many have been tortured. Holmes gives me an example. 'One of the girls here was picked up by the Caribinieri in a car park in Bologna. Her pimp had taken out her front teeth to make it easier for her to give oral sex. She is 16 and comes from a village 30 miles from the border with Yugoslavia. She believed she was going to work in a restaurant. When they brought her in, she was naked and had been badly beaten. She was deeply traumatised, unable to speak. When her family learnt what had happened, her father shot himself. 'Very few make it back after they have been abducted, and many will never fully recover. IOM gives them the medical treatment they need, psychological help, counselling, group therapy if they want it. We train them to be independent and find work by passing on entrepreneurial skills which are vital in a country where education is cursory, unemployment endemic and 30 per cent of the population has walked out. 'It has become part of the culture that young females migrate and try to support their families from overseas. Moldavian women are known for their looks, which is why they are in such demand by organised criminals. They are the tangible victims of the trade in human beings.' Fred Larsson arrives for a meeting with Holmes after driving from Kiev, through the rogue state of Transnistria and across Moldova. Operational director of the IOM in Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, Larsson is a spare, ex-military Swede; short hair, bit of a whippet. He is not happy. 'You won't believe this,' he says, 'but nine months ago, an Anti-Trafficking Unit from the Interior Ministry in Kiev sends a request via Interpol to a police HQ in England. I can't tell you where. They want information on a language school operating near the south coast. Nine months later and we've heard nothing. It happens all the time.' Language schools are often used to gain access into the UK by criminals trafficking in women. An application to join a course by a 'student' in Eastern Europe is accepted by the school and an enrolment form sent. The student takes it to the British Embassy and applies for a visa. When she arrives in the UK, she is met by the trafficker and disappears. The Ukrainian police believe the school is a cover for organised criminals dealing in vice and child prostitution. Holmes says that the inquiry would have been a simple matter of a few hours' work by a single officer, and should have been in Kiev within a week. But now the impetus has gone out of the investigation and there is a residue of bad will. 'Every year,' says Larsson, tens of thousands of women leave the Ukraine to look for a better life. Most slip illegally away, enticed by promises of security and a golden dawn in the EU or the Middle East. The traffickers operating in Ukrainian villages spirit the gullible into the EC, where they are sold, their papers taken away and they become stateless and vulnerable to coercion. 'In the West, there is little understanding of the horror of the dispossessed. When Immigration picks them up in the UK, for instance, they are flown home within 24 hours. They are often met by traffickers at the airport and simply taken back to Britain where little effort is made to trace the criminals who have exploited them. In the Ukraine, the ebb and flow of the population has destabilised society. Victims in their thousands suffer from sexually transmitted diseases and psychological damage. Ukrainians believe that their women are victims of a crime legitimised by the torpid indifference of countries such as Britain.' 'The only police unit dedicated to counter trafficking in the UK,' says Holmes, ' is my old mob, the Vice Unit at Charing Cross.' Last July, an Albanian pimp named Kaidu was convicted and jailed for the rape and corruption of a 14-year-old Romanian girl after a long investigation by the Vice Unit. But convictions for trafficking are rare in the UK. 'The provincial squads have been closed down,' says Holmes, 'and there isn't the will to tackle illegal prostitution because chief constables haven't the resources to deal with it. Britain is rife with women and children forced into the vice industry against their will while we're doing nothing about it.' Larsson and Holmes agree the only way to convict traffickers is to persuade their victims to give evidence. This is virtually impossible in the UK, where victims are treated as illegal immigrants and rarely encouraged to complain or give evidence. Investigations against traffickers are expensive and time consuming and, without a material witness, there is a high risk of failure. A draft EU directive that would allow police to apply for 30-day residency permits while victims consider whether to testify, is, according to sources within the police, unlikely to be signed by Britain or France. By contrast, the IOM has worked with the Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior to recruit and train 176 police in dedicated anti-trafficking units throughout the country. The USB, once known as the Soviet Secret Police and, arguably, the toughest squad of coppers in the world, deals with the 'more difficult' cases - in particular the Albanian gangs which are deeply involved in the trade. In the past 12 months, the Ukrainians have brought 260 prosecutions and launched hundreds of investigations. Larsson says: 'We signed up to the Palermo Protocol in 2001. It is designed to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in people - especially women and children. The trouble is, although the EU are signatories, Britain and France still consider "trafficked" women and children as illegal immigrants while, in truth, they are victims of a horrendous crime. That's why I'm angry. I can't understand why the British won't cooperate.' I traced a girl who had been expelled from the UK and passed through the Moldavian refuge. Desperate to escape relentless poverty, she had applied for a job looking after the elderly in Italy, but had been abducted and taken to Belgrade where two Serbs 'seasoned' her - a pimping term for the technique of raping and beating girls until their resistance disappears. Thin, black hair with a yellow strip where the dye is growing out, Irina sits on a wooden chair, while a friend translates her story. 'She was taken across the Serbian border to Belgrade, to the Mala Romansa, a bar owned by Tsitsa, a Serbian woman. Ten girls entertained their clients in three rooms at the top of the building and were kept locked in. There was no hot water, little food and drink. The windows were barred. Tsitsa claimed she had paid $1,000 for her and that she must pay it back. Any dispute, Tsitsa beat the girls. After a month in Belgrade, Irina was sold on and taken through Macedonia to Albania and on to the Adriatic coast. In September 2001, she arrived by boat on a beach south of Brindisi. She had become the chattel of Zef, a pimp who had acquired her in the port of Vlore. They travelled by train to Paris, where for a few days she was put to work on the streets above Port Maillot. No one examined their papers. With passports borrowed from Zef's Albanian relatives in Nanterre, they took the Eurostar to London and on 25 January 2001 emerged unchallenged into the concourse of Waterloo Station. 'Irina stayed in a flat in Edmonton, north London, with Zef's cousin. The windows were barred and she was in a room with another girl from the Ukraine. She was there maybe two days and she was taken to a sauna near King's Cross where she met a man called Carlos, who agreed that she could work for him. She was paid ?60 by the customer for sex, gave ?20 to Carlos and the rest to Zef. There were other Moldavian girls there.' Irina was working seven days a week and passing all her earnings to Zef. She was arrested in a raid on the flat in Edmonton and interviewed by the Vice Unit and Immigration officials who sent her straight back to Chisinau, where she was admitted into the IOM clinic. She has refused to return to the UK to give evidence against her pimp, who has, understandably, disappeared. The unofficial estimate within the Metropolitan Police is that there are 10,000 illegal immigrants working as prostitutes in the UK. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) says that it is a problem largely confined to the capital, but my own research into the websites advertising prostitutes throughout the UK shows that many hundreds of Eastern European and Asian women are working throughout the country. 'There is constant movement of illegal immigrants from Eastern into Western Europe,' says Paul Holmes. 'The UK is full of Moldavian, Romanian and Ukrainian girls. We don't know exactly how many are here illegally because it's impossible to produce accurate statistics when there are no records, but we are certain there are thousands of Eastern European girls working in Britain without the right to be here. A small example: if you take the 70 walk-up flats being worked by prostitutes in Soho, we know that 90 per cent of them are Eastern Europeans being run by Albanian pimps. Arrest a girl and her pimp and they are immediately replaced.' The Metropolitan Clubs and Vice Unit was formed in 1975 after the police corruption scandals of the 60s. Similar specialist units outside London, dedicated to the protection of oppressed women involved in the vice industry, have been disbanded as provincial police forces prioritise their resources. 'Prostitution has become acceptable throughout the British Isles,' says Chief Superintendent Simon Humphreys, who commands the unit, 'and this attitude is reflected in the approach of some provincial constabularies to enforcement of the law. Vice is attractive to the professional criminal because the returns are high and the penalties low. The recommended tariff for pimping handed down by the Court of Appeal is two years; peanuts compared to the penalties for drug dealing. If you control a woman on the game, you have a long-term and reliable source of income which can be used to finance other serious crime.' Alenka's story is a disturbing example of what is happening on a wide scale in the UK. Persecuted by a vicious pimp from the age of 15, she sought sanctuary at a youth project in east London. The Vice Unit provided protection and encouraged her to give evidence against her persecutors. I met her while she was in the care of the social services and under the protection of an outreach worker from a youth organisation. This is what she told me: 'I am from Timisoara in the county of Timis, I am 16 years old. I left Romania on 18 February 2001 and I arrived in Beserica Alba in Yugoslavia the next day. I was involved in import-export between Romania and Yugoslavia with my brother.' The outreach worker, a tall, angular woman in jeans and an English football jersey smiles, 'You mean you were selling black-market cigarettes?' 'Yes. Some men came while I was there and they forced me to get into their car. They were Albanians and they drove me to a hotel in Montenegro. After a while, an Albanian man arrived and bought me. He took me to the border with Albania. He drove me to a place called Shiak, where he sold me to another Albanian for 3,000 Lek (?150). This man took me to a hotel, told me he wanted to have sex, and, when I refused, drew a pistol and forced me. 'The police came to the hotel on an inspection and said that I was working as a prostitute and put me in a prison. It was known as "313" and was in Tirana, the capital. After two weeks, I was given a lawyer and went to court.' I watched the girl, tense in her chair, staring at her feet, chain smoking. After a time, as she told her story, she became distressed, and, while the outreach worker took her out of the room, I waited in the silence which seemed to hang in the air like a fog. When she came back, clutching a cup of coffee, she told me about the lawyer, who took her to a hotel and sold her on for 2,000 Lek to a man who drove her to Vlore on the Adriatic coast. At Vlore she had stayed with a woman called Vera, who told her that she had a daughter in London. 'She said that she has a friend who would go with me to England.' There was an inevitability about Alenka's descent into tragedy. It seemed unimaginable that someone so young should experience such things. Everyone she met made money from her. Vera's friend Tomas arrived with a fake passport and they took a boat to Italy and drove to Venice, then to Belgium. The girl sighed as if she had told the story many times. 'When we arrived at Vlissingen to board a ship, the Dutch police took the passport away and returned it after a while. They said, "OK, go." At Sheerness, Vera's husband Stanislav was waiting for us in his car and we drove to a flat in Kitchener Road in Forest Gate, east London. 'Stanislav and Magdelena, Vera's daughter from another marriage, were lovers. They shared the bedroom while I slept on a sofa in the sitting room. That night, Stanislav had an argument with Magdelena and beat her. She was badly injured in the mouth and her face was swollen. The next evening I went with Stanislav to collect her from the sauna and as she was getting into the car, she handed over a bunch of ?20 and ?50 banknotes. As he drove, Stanislav again struck Magdelena with his hand. I was sitting in the back of the car and I saw him hit her twice. I was frightened. 'Stanislav told me that I owed him ?3,000 for having brought me here to London. And he took me to a sauna to work. During this time, my name was Angela and I worked 10 flats and six saunas. On average, I earnt ?300 a day, sometimes more. Once I made ?700. I gave all the money to Stanislav.' We broke again for a few minutes and went outside the youth centre for a breath of fresh air. The girl told me how, one day, Magdelena had written down a customer's telephone number and hid it in the bag where she kept her condoms. She had found Stanislav several days later going through the bag on the floor in the bedroom. 'He said, "What's this?" 'I swore to him that I knew nothing and he slapped me, took a knife from the table which he put to my throat and said, "Ti amazo" ("I kill you" in Italian). Magdelena had planted the number on me because she was jealous because Stanislav did not beat me. I decided to leave Stanislav once and for all.' By now, although only 15, the girl had become streetwise beyond her years and was working in a sauna with a Kosovan girl called Vali. 'She took me with her to Wood Green and I lived with her and worked as a prostitute until February 2002, when one of her Albanian friends told me that Stanislav was willing to pay ?10,000 to kill me.' What followed was a familiar Balkan confrontation. Another girl in the sauna had recognised Alenka and phoned Magdelena. Stanislav arrived soon after with two friends. When she refused to go with them, he drew a knife and took her by the hair and pulled the gold chain from her neck. She describes the beating in a low monotone: 'He hit me on the back of the head and on my arm and on my knees and I was badly hurt. They dragged me from the sauna and took me back to Forest Gate. 'We then travelled to Manchester, because Stanislav was frightened that my new Albanian friends would follow me and try to kill him. He beat me again and made me swear on my brother that I would not leave again. He bought a pistol, about 20cm long, which carried eight bullets. He said it was a present for me if I leave him again and he demanded sex, and I always agreed because I was frightened he'd murder me if I refused.' Finally, on 18 April 2002, Irina went to Welwyn Garden City to talk to an English girl she had befriended at one of the many saunas she had worked in. The girl put her in touch with "Liz" at the youth project and the Vice Unit was called in. Since the interview, Alenka has absconded to Holland and disappeared. Her pimp, Stanislav, has been convicted of burglary, but, without a witness or a victim, the police are unable to charge him with rape and assault. 'Alenka's tragedy is commonplace,' says Simon Humphreys. 'The Balkan criminal, becoming familiar in Britain, is of great concern to us. There is no organised Albanian mafia, the problem is more dangerous than that - it is a loose affiliation of small groups of ruthless, violent and unpredictable men joined together by blood or tribe. If we don't make an effort to bring them to heel, they will become the future of crime in this country.' Three years ago, the Home Office started a review of the Sexual Offences Act which is expected to become law before the summer recess. There are many welcome initiatives in it, but while the interminable drafting has continued, the UK has been flooded with criminals and prostitutes from Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. Simon Humphreys says that vice-related crime will increase dramatically during the next five years. 'Professional criminals thrive on the exploitation of weak law enforcement, and the introduction of meaningful anti-trafficking legislation is long overdue. But without the resources to tackle this problem properly, I'm afraid Alenka's terrible story will become all too familiar in Britain.' --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, and more -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Tue Feb 25 13:26:46 2003 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 10:26:46 -0800 (PST) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Vizite ne Kishen Shen Meria te Elbasanit Message-ID: <20030225182646.21696.qmail@web11508.mail.yahoo.com> Ambasadori amerikan n? Tiran? Jeffrey viziton Elbasanin Lajmi i ores 4:00 PMELBASAN (25 Shkurt) - Ambasadori i SHBA-s?, n? Tiran?, James Jeffrey, zhvilloi sot nj? vizit? n? qytetin e Elbasanit. Vizita e par? e ambasadorit amerikan ishte n? Universitetin e Elbasanit, "Aleksand?r Xhuvani", ku gjat? takimit me rektorin Jani Dode, ai u shpreh nd?r t? tjera se, "zhvillimi i Shqip?ris? do t? b?het vet?m n?p?rmjet arsimimit". M? pas ambasadori b?ri nj? vizit? n? nd?rmarrjen e prodhimit t? ?elikut "Kurum", ku u njoh me pro?eset e pun?s dhe investimet e realizuara nga firma turke. Ndalesa tjet?r e diplomatit amerikan ishte n? Kish?n Ortodokse Autoqefale Sh?n M?ria n? lagjen Kala, ku famulltari i k?saj kishe, At Nikoll Marku e njohu ambasadorin me historikun e nd?rtimit t? k?saj kishe dhe mesazhet e toleranc?s, dashuris? dhe urt?sis? q? ajo p?rcjell te besimtar?t. M? pas, disa metra m? larg, ambasadori Jeffrey, vizitoi Xhamin? Mbret, e nd?rtuar q? n? shekkulin e XV-t?, ku Myftiu i Elbasanit, Halit Muharremi, tha se, "vizita juaj sot d?shmon p?r respektin dhe vler?simin q? nj? p?rfaq?sues i vendit m? demokratik t? bot?s, SHBA-s? ka p?r qytet?rimin e besimin islam". anjo/mr (BalkanWeb) --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, and more -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Fri Feb 28 23:02:17 2003 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 20:02:17 -0800 (PST) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Per qendren e Tiranes - Korrieri Message-ID: <20030301040217.80334.qmail@web11506.mail.yahoo.com> Qendra e Tiranes, dinjiteti i shqiptareve Perpara disa ditesh, studiuesi Ardian Klosi, nepermjet nje shkrimi te gjate ne faqet e gazetes "Shekulli", terhiqte vemendjen e cdo qytetari te Tiranes per pretendimin e padrejte te kryesive te dy feve me te medha ne Shqiperi, per ngritjen ne mes te qytetit te nje xhamie te madhe dhe te nje kishe madheshtore. Shqetesimi i autorit te shkrimit, ishte i drejte, qytetar, kulturor dhe kombetar. Pas leximit te shkrimit ne fjale, hamendesova se mos kjo kerkese, ishte nje deshire, por me pas ne faqet e gazetes "Sot", lexoj se kerkesa e mesiperme, ishte aq serioze, sa qe problemi kishte shkruar deri ne Ameriken e madhe. Sipas burimeve te gazetes, vite me pare perfaqesues te lobit grek ne Amerike, kishin marre kontakt me Presidentin e atehershem Bill Klinton dhe i kishin kerkuar ndermjetesimin e tij prane pushtetareve te Tiranes, per te lejuar ngritjen ne mes te kryeqytetit, prane Komitetit te Partise Socialiste, te nje kishe madheshtore. Ma merr mendja se cilido njeri, me sado pak ndergjegje kombetare, do te shtronte vetiu pyetjen: "Cfare meraku i paska ngrene zoterinjte e lobit grek ne Amerike, per te patur nje kishe ne qendren e kryeqytetit te SHQIPETAREVE?!" Besoj se edhe vete Presidentit Klinton, i cili, vecanerisht pas nderhyrjes ne fatet e Kosoves, mori respektin e perhershem te cdo shqiptari, duhet t'i kete bere pershtypje kjo kerkese. Ne faqen e pare te gazetes ne fjale, terheq vemendjen kryeartikulli me germa kapitale "JANULLATOSI I ANKOHET BUSHIT!!" Nga shkrimi del se kerkesa e bere dikur Presidentit Klinton, i eshte drejtuar edhe Bushit. Nuk e di se, me cfare llogjike e kerkon qendren e kryeqytetit, kryetari grek i kishes shqiptare? Te me fale lexuesi dhe cilido tjeter, pasi ne rrjedhen e shkrimit, nuk do perdor titujt: shkelqesi, madheri, lartesi e shenjteri. Ne kohen tone kur bota ka dale e zhveshur, perpara syve te miliarda njerezve, me ligesine, intrigen, dobesine, mashtrimin, imoralitetin, spekulacionin....edhe miresine, nuk kane vend titujt e mbartur nga mesjeta injorante e makaber. Sot ka kryetar shteti, kryetare kishe, xhamie, kryetare partie apo shoqatash, te cilet, ne qofte se do te bejne vepra te mira per te miren e njerezimit, do te mbeten ne kujtesen e historise dhe ne ndergjegjjen e njerezve, te dashur e te paharrueshem. Ne te kundert, do te harrohen gjurmet e tyre te zeza...Njerezit si qenie, jane te gjithe njesoj, si mbreti dhe lypesi, pasi t'u mbaroje koha e prere nga zoti ne kete bote, do shkojne te pleherojne token. Sic ka ndodhur edhe me miliardat qe kane shkuar perpara. Ne kete bote nuk ka njerez te shenjte, e aq me pak te pavdekshem. Sa here harrohet ky fakt i thjeshte, na lindin individet tabu, qe firmosin inferioritetin e popujve per ta mbushur boten me krime... Le t'ua leme shenjterine Krishtit, Muhamedit, Budes, Lazarit, etj, pavaresisht nga betejat qe kane bere ata ne jeten e tyre, apo nga armet qe kane perdorur per te ngulitur ne ndergjegjen e njerezve pushtetin e besimit.... U zgjata disi ne kete arsyetim, por kjo vjen ngaqe ne na plasi shpirti qe ne kete jete kaq te perkohshme, na duhet t'u puthim doren individeve qe na marrin edhe driten e saj. Po le te kthehemi te kerkesa e zotit Janullatos. E cuditshme dhe jashte llogjikes eshte shkuarja e kesaj deshire deri te Presidentet e Amerikes. Mendoni nje cast sa absurd do dukej telefonata nga Shtepia e Bardhe: "Alo, zoti Moisiu? Lereni te qete zotin Janullatos te ndertoje ate kishen ku e deshiron ai!" Zot, mos ndodhshin te tilla cudira. Perpara disa kohesh, ne nje televizion, shfaqet kreu i kishes ortodokse ne Gjirokaster, duke bekuar nje pike karburanti. Une nuk jam fetar, nuk besoj bekime prifterinjsh, hoxhesh apo dervishesh, pasi nuk me le llogjika e jetes. Ne qofte se keto bekime, do zinin vend ne jeten e njerezimit, jo vetem do te dilte jashte rolit shkenca mjekesore, por edhe bota nuk do te ishte sot ne kete kategori tragjike. Une besoj se si cdo veper e ka nje autor, edhe bota me jeten e kane nje autorin e tyre te jashtezakonshem, te cilin njerezimi e ka quajtur Zot. Perderisa ai na ka sjelle ne jete si krijesen me te kompletuar me arsyen dhe mundesine e veprimit per transformimin e tokes djerre, bij te tij me te denje duhet te jene ata qe e kryejne kete mision me pune, me djerse e ndershmeri. Natyrshem, keta nuk kane nevoje per keshillen e ndonje zyre, cfaredo emri paste ajo. Pra, m'u duk i pakuptueshem bekimi nga ana e kreut te larte te kishes te nje pike karburanti, aq me teper kur keto nyje tregtie jane nga me te perfolurat per korrupsion, nga vete kreret e politikes sone. Gjithesesi, punet e tij i di vete zoti Janullatos, kurse une si qytetar shqiptar, do ta uroj sinqerisht qe se fundmi, te bente kryepunen: Pas nje ndihme te madhe qe i ka dhene kishes shqiptare, pas shkaterrimit nga komunizmi, te lere ne vend te tij nje prift shqiptar dhe te largohet per ne atdheun e tij, duke marre me vete mirenjohjen e gjithe besimtareve dhe nje titull nderi nga presidenca e vendit. Ne te kundert, jo vetem mbi dinjitetin e shqiptareve, do te mbetet pikepyetja po shteruese: "A nuk gjendet ne mes te ketij populli nje kryeprift per kishen ortodokse?" Por edhe misioni fisnik do te vihet ne dyshim. Per hir te se vertetes, duhet thene se zoti Janullatos, per kerkesen e tij e ka dhe nje te drejte, nje shkak te natyres sfiduese. Kryetari i myslymaneve Hafiz Koci, kerkon me kembengulje ngritjen e nje xhamie madheshtore ne lulishten prane Parlamentit shqiptar. Pra, ne te ardhmen, kur kjo te jete ngritur, ne castin qe hoxha do therras namazin, duke iu lutur hapesires pa fund, deputetet aty prane, te cilet duhet te mbajne praktikisht me debat, ne kembe ekonomine, politiken dhe moralin e kombit, duhet te pushojne. ?shte lehte e kuptueshme se karshilleku fetar i semure ne mes dy feve, luan rol ne arritjen e qellimit, pa u kujtuar kush, se kjo "gare" mund te sjelle pasoja afatgjata negative ne harmonine tradicionale fetare te shqiptaret. Eshte i dhimbshem fakti qe perfaqesuesit e feve, si te afert te zotit, gjate 12 viteve qe shqiptaret u zhyten ne nje katraure tragjike, nga politikane sharlatane, nuk dolen njehere kompakt perpara besimtareve t'u benin thirrje, t'u drejtoheshin vellazerimit e jo depove te armeve. As njeri nuk u kujtua te dilte ne mitingjet e pergjakshme, sic dilte fisnikja Nene Tereza ne mes te plumbave ne Liban. Kush e imitoi ate plake te paket tek ngjitej ne pallat mbreterish e presidentesh me ato sandalet me rripa, per te kujtuar se poshte dritareve te lluksit te tyre marramendes shtrihej varferia njerezore. Kreret fetare, me teper se kush, duhet ta kuptojne se sot shqiptaret kane nevoje urgjente per ndermarrje e institucione prodhimi ku te punesohen per te dale nga kriza e rende ekonomike qe i ka pllakosur, e jo per te ngritur kisha e xhami ne kater anet e vendit, madje dhe atje ku nuk ka fare besimtare perkates. A nuk do te ishte me e perendishme ngritja e nje shtepie moderne femijesh jetime? Lutjet le t'i bejme, por boten dhe jeten e zbukuron djersa. Ne qofte se kreret fetare ne fjale, pretendojne si prone vendin e dikurshem te kultit ne qender, ka Kushtetute dhe ligje qe e kompensojne ate diku tjeter dhe jo atje ku prishet bukuria dhe urbanistika e kryeqytetit. Ku prishen dy nga lulishtet me frymedhenese per banoret e Tiranes qe po i afrohen milioneshit. Intelektualet ne radhe te pare, dhe gjithe qytetaret e Tiranes, duhet te reagojne me vendosmeri per te ruajtur bukurine e kryeqytetit tone. Zeri publik duhet t'i beje te mendohen mire politikanet, perpara se te leshojne premtime neper avuj festash, duke rene keshtu ne faje te cilat kurre nuk do t'ua fale historia. SIRI SULEJMANI __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/