«Albania: il paese di fronte»

If you understand Italian and/or have some time, this Italian documentary on Albania is an impressive work of research and a much-needed voice of objectivity on certain parts of Albanian history that have become prey of historico-political revisionism. It highlights its modern history from Independence to the fall of Communism in 1991, including the Albanian-Italian conflicts in the early 1920s, the invasion in the period between 1939 and 1943, as well as their joint collaboration against the Nazi invasion until 1944.

The documentary has seven parts (due to youtube limits on time). I am posting the first one here; follow the links for the subsequent parts.

Balkan Demographics

The Economist analyzes demographics in the Balkans. Population seems to be declining all across the board, although it is expected that by 2050 the population of Albania will have increased. I don't know if I agree with that, but they know best... sorta....

Freedom of Press Around the World

The Economist deplores the declining freedom of press in Eastern Europe. A look at the overall standings, however, has good news for the United States, which, in comparison with 2008, has gone up sixteen places. No wonder Fox News is spewing anti-Obama propaganda in ways other networks would not have been able to do against Bush under Bush.

Albania, on the other side, has oscillated, but on the side of decline... especially during election years.

In 2003, it ranked 34th.

In 2004, it ranked 50th.

In 2005, it ranked 62nd.

In 2006, it ranked 80th.

In 2007, it ranked 87th.

In 2008, it ranked 79th.

Presently, it ranks 88th.

A Jab at the French

According to statistics reported in Le Monde, TOEFL scores rank French students 69th (out of 109) worldwide, and 25th (out of 43) among their European peers.

The article also mentions Albania (along with Kosovo and Cyprus) as having the lowest TOEFL scores in the continent.

Religion in Albania

I am writing this post in English so that non-Albanian-speakers can understand it, too. It is important to educate the greatest number of people about this, however inconsequential it may appear.

There is finally a separate page discussing the issue of religion in albania on Wikipedia. I am particularly glad about this because, for the first time, it addresses the issue of secular Albanians and claims what I think are the most realistic assessments about religious belief today in Albania. Still today, many individuals, organizations, and countries cite a census from the 1930s in saying that Albania is 70% Muslim, 20% Orthodox, and 10% Catholic. Although I do not question these numbers for the time in which they were taken, and for the times that preceded it, I have to say that much has changed in Albania since then. Years under a 'Communist' régime alone—quotation marks necessary, since it wasn't Communist in the proper sense—created mixed families and eradicated religion from the life of many families in Albania.

Today, it is no longer valid and is perhaps completely unfair to the majority of the Albanian population to claim those same numbers for religious belief in Albania. They may have been true at one point, and they may be somewhat true as far as one's traditional family religion goes, but when individual belief is in question, everybody had better be wary and consider atheist and agnostic Albanians as a sizable community.