[NYC-L] Fwd: outrageous article on Albania

[Besnik Pula]

Below is my reaction to a very offensive article published yesterday  
in the London Times.

You can read the article at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/ 
0,,2099-2271185,00.html

I urge you to react as well.

-Besnik

Begin forwarded message:

> From: nyc-l-owner at alb-net.com
> Date: July 24, 2006 3:51:46 PM GMT+02:00
> To: besnikpula at gmail.com
> Subject: outrageous article on Albania
>
> You are not allowed to post to this mailing list, and your message has
> been automatically rejected.  If you think that your messages are
> being rejected in error, contact the mailing list owner at
> nyc-l-owner at alb-net.com.
>
>
> From: Besnik Pula <besnikpula at gmail.com>
> Date: July 24, 2006 3:51:18 PM GMT+02:00
> To: letters at sunday-times.co.uk, travel at sunday-times.co.uk
> Cc: alb-Shkenca ((www.alb-shkenca.org)) <alb-shkenca at alb-net.com>,  
> nyc-l at alb-net.com, Avni Mustafaj <avni at naac.org>, NAAC  
> <naac at naac.org>, shipecat at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: outrageous article on Albania
>
>
> Dear Editor:
>
> I was appalled, offended, and utterly disgusted by the article on  
> Albania by A. A. Gill in the Sunday Times of July 23, 2006 ("The  
> land that time forgot"). As a student of colonialism, I had to  
> pinch myself several times to become reminded of the fact that I  
> was indeed reading a Times article published in 2006, and not in  
> 1906. But even colonial-era journalists had a greater sense of tact  
> when writing about foreign cultures. A. A. Gill's article could  
> have been motivated by nothing other than maliciousness and  
> shameless bigotry. The claims he makes there are not only  
> outrageous, but slanderous to the point of being the potential  
> subject of legal action, which I truly hope the Albanian Embassy in  
> London and/or other third parties will seriously consider taking  
> against the author and your paper.
>
> After some research on the author of the article, I learned of his  
> notoriety in issuing offensive remarks against others (including, I  
> learned, the Welsh and the English). His attitudes thus reflect a  
> pattern of racism that he harbors against others not like him, whom  
> for whatever perverse reasons he enjoys branding into ugly  
> stereotypes. These facts somewhat lessened my astonishment at what  
> was written in the article, but I became even more disturbed of the  
> fact that such slanderous articles would find their way into the  
> pages of The Times, and even more that such bigots would be on your  
> payroll. I must say that your editorial staff's decision to allow  
> the publication of such a completely uninformative, brazenly  
> bigoted, and highly offensive article has greatly diminished the  
> respect I once had for your paper.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Besnik Pula
> ABD, Ph.D. Candidate
> Department of Sociology
> University of Michigan
> Fulbright Scholar
> Tirana, Albania
>
>
>
>