Less than four months after opposition anger over contested national elections triggered deadly clashes with police, Albanians vote for local ...

(John)

For quite a few years, May Day was big among Communists. Every May 1, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Union of Socialist Republics and some of his henchmen would be in Red Square, watching a procession of ICBMs and goose-stepping Red Army soldiers pass by. Those were the days! Communism collapsed, and for a while we would snicker at the few remaining countries that were benighted enough to cling to their socialist pasts--Cuba, North Korea, Albania. Now, even Albania is no longer Communist. So the glory days for Communist parades on May 1 are gone, right?

Not quite. Zombie documents an extraordinary May Day display in Los Angeles, where unions, most prominently the Service Employees International, teamed up with the Communist Party USA and other Commie groups. I love the "from Wisconsin to Libya" theme:

Note the innocuous-looking "PLP" on that poster. It stands for Progressive Labor Party. Quite a coincidence: I noted within the last day or two that long ago, I used to hang out in PLP circles. I had no idea the party still existed. In my day, it was known for believing that Mao's China wasn't radical enough.

Here is another PLP member; note the large SEIU banner just behind him:

As labor unions become increasingly marginalized, they have gotten radical to the point of parody. It seems like a good way to ensure their continuing irrelevance and likely extinction.

A vehicle moving around the Albanian capital ,Tirana, is covered with electoral posters Friday, May 6, 2011.

Summary

Wikitravel users have collectively created a free Macedonian phrasebook with the goal of making it possible for travelers to "get by" while traveling in areas where Macedonian is spoken.

Wikitravel phrasebooks are available in many languages and each one varies in depth and detail. Most of the phrasebooks include a pronunciation guide, a general phrase list, information about dates and numbers, a color list, transportation-related phrases, vocabulary for shopping and phrases for eating and drinking. Some are even more in depth, and all are free!

From Website

Macedonian is the main language of the Republic of Macedonia situated between Serbia, Greece and Albania in Southeastern Europe. The language is very similar to Bulgarian, and the differences between them are often even blurry when spoken. Most Macedonians will understand Bulgarian without the need of a translator. Two other languages widely spoken in Macedonia are Albanian and to some extent Greek. There are also Macedonian language speakers among the Slavic Macedonian minority in northern Greece which is, however, not recognized by the Greek national authorities.

The Macedonian language ought to be an easy language to learn and get used to since each letter contains its own sound and you'll not encounter any letter change. The vowels are similar to the Spanish vowels and they give out the same sounds at all times.

Macedonian (македонски јазик, makedonski jazik, pronounced [maˈkɛdɔnski ˈjazik]) is the official language of the Republic of Macedonia and a member of the Eastern group of South Slavic languages. Standard Macedonian was implemented as the official language of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia in June 1945, was mostly codified between 1945-1950, and a thriving literary tradition has since developed.

Macedonian dialects are part of a dialect continuum with Macedonian and Bulgarian at one extreme, Slovene at the other, and Serbo-Croatian in-between; Macedonian is sometimes considered a dialect of Bulgarian, though this is a politically charged issue.

The orthography of Macedonian includes an alphabet (Macedonian: Македонска азбука, Makedonska azbuka), which is an adaptation of the Cyrillic alphabet, as well as language-specific conventions of spelling and punctuation.

The Macedonian alphabet was standardized in 1944 by a committee formed in the Socialist Republic of Macedonia (then part of the federation of Yugoslavia) after the liberation from the Nazis in World War II. The alphabet was similar to, and influenced by, the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, and used the same phonemic principles employed by Vuk Karadžić and Krste Petkov Misirkov.

Before standardization, the language had been written in a variety of different versions of Cyrillic by different writers, influenced by Bulgarian, Early Cyrillic or Serbian orthography.

The Macedonian language has the following linguistic heritage: Indo-European Languages > Balto-Slavic Languages > Slavic Languages > South Slavic Languages > Eastern South Slavic Languages > Macedonian

View the Macedonian Phrasebook.

Advertisement:

Less than four months after opposition anger over contested national elections triggered deadly clashes with police, Albanians vote for local authorities on Sunday - at the close of a campaign marred by bombings and political violence.

Vlorë, Albánie
Annual international meeting of paragliding pilots from Balkans and from all over the world
...more

Less than four months after opposition anger over contested national elections triggered deadly clashes with police, Albanians vote for local authorities on Sunday - at the close of a campaign marred by bombings and political violence.

Less than four months after opposition anger over contested national elections triggered deadly clashes with police, Albanians vote for local authorities on Sunday -- at the close of a campaign marred by bombings and political violence.

Less than four months after opposition anger over contested national elections triggered deadly clashes with police, Albanians vote for local authorities on Sunday — at the close of a campaign marred by bombings and political violence.

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Less than four months after opposition anger over contested national elections triggered deadly clashes with police, Albanians vote for local authorities on Sunday — at the close of a campaign marred by bombings and political violence.

Vlorë, Albánie
Annual international meeting of paragliding pilots from Balkans and from all over the world
...more

The report details the main upstream indicators of activity from drilling activity, expenditure through to production.

Danish architects Bjarke Ingels Group have won a competition to design a mosque, Islamic centre and museum in Tirana, Albania. (more…)

BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), Martha Schwartz Landscape, Buro Happold , Speirs & Major, Lutzenberger & Lutzenberger, and Global Cultural Asset Management are today announced as the winning team of the international design competition for a new 27.000 m2 cultural complex in Albania, consisting of a Mosque, an Islamic Centre, and a Museum of Religious Harmony. The [...]

BIG, Martha Schwartz Landscape, Buro Happold, Speirs & Major, Lutzenberger & Lutzenberger, and Global Cultural Asset Management are today announced as the winning team of the international design competition for a new 27.000 m2 cultural complex in Albania, consisting…

A yes vote would improve our divisive political culture and give expression to this country's genuine progressive majority

"What should we do on AV?" may not exactly be the question gripping the whole nation, but it is one exercising many people on the centre-left, particularly Labour people, just now as we approach tomorrow's referendum.

Tories are clear: vote no for self-preservation. Lib Dems: vote yes to do the same. What should Labour people do?

I respect my colleagues who would argue for no, but I think they are wrong. Instead, I say vote yes because it supports the kind of politics we should want: fairer, more pluralist and more progressive.

The right starting point is to ask why we should change a system that has remained pretty much unaltered since the extension of universal suffrage in 1928.

In the intervening years, first past the post has been abandoned by all the major political parties in Britain for electing its leaders. And only three post-war democracies have introduced this system – Albania, Macedonia and Ukraine – and even they later decided to reform it.

Time and democracy have moved on but Britain is stuck in the past with an outdated first-past-the-post way of electing MPs, which does not serve us well.

In a more splintered electorate, it is a system where two thirds of MPs are now elected with fewer than 50% support, and where many people's votes do not count in safe seats.

At last year's general election, this meant the result was decided by fewer than 460,000 voters – just 1.6% of the electorate – in 111 marginal constituencies. That is, by any reasonable standard, unfair.

AV is not a proportional system, it is true. But it is the best way of retaining one MP, one constituency, making MPs seek more than 50% of the vote and making more people's votes count.

I believe reforming the system with the alternative vote will also be a step towards improving our arid and divisive political culture.

Under the old system, there is no motivation for parties to go into elections pretending anything other than that they hate each other equally. No reason to find points of common ground; just to disagree. To secure a majority of votes under AV, candidates will need to be more frank about points of agreement, less keen to build up artificial arguments.

Is this about more coalitions? Not necessarily. It is about the way we conduct political debate between and before elections, and whether we claim that all political wisdom resides in one party. Or whether we are willing to reach out.

Finally, the old system has not served the cause of progress.

Britain is not a Conservative country but we have had more than our fair share of rightwing governments over the past century.

Let's not forget. Margaret Thatcher never secured the support of a majority of people in this country. Indeed, many of us believed a majority of the country were against her. But she was allowed to force extremely divisive policies through parliament that did lasting harm to so many communities.

A yes vote is not about re-running past elections but it is about asking ourselves whether we want to persist with a system that could allow a Conservative majority on a minority vote.

It is no wonder that David Cameron and George Osborne are so desperate to defeat reform in this referendum. Nor is it a surprise that tactics of fear and smear deployed by the Conservatives in the no campaign embody the characteristics of the old-fashioned politics we are seeking to change.

Labour has always been at its best when it has been a force for political reform. A yes vote would, above all, reflect confidence that there is a genuine progressive majority in this country.

The fear of some no campaigners on the Labour side is that we entrench a rightwing government like the current one. But I believe that is too pessimistic about the preferences of people.

If you believe this is a big C Conservative country then perhaps you will believe that, when forced to choose and elect someone with more than 50% of the vote, it will aid the right.

But if you believe that this is a genuinely progressive country, then we need an electoral system that can reflect the views of the electorate and give expression to the anti-Conservative majority.

AV would do that. That is why I am proud to say yes to fairer votes, yes to better politics and yes to a system that reflects the progressive majority in Britain.

Se ha registrado un muerto y 14 heridos oficialmente a causa de los "fuertes vientos":http://elcomercio.pe/tag/205000/tornados que destruyeron parte del suburbio de Albania

Most people never think about visiting some of the small cities and towns in the interior of Greece when on vacation.  I can tell you now that you are really missing out.  Allison and I went to the city of Ioannina near the border of Albania, and found the nicest candy selling lady in history.
Her store is located on the island in the middle of the the cities lake.  The island has a population of less than 300 and more than half of the population seems to be in the business of selling meals to visitors or tourist trinkets.  One lady however has a great collection of hand made treats that it appears she makes by hand.
She was so nice to us, and was so generous with the samples.  I tasted everything she makes before I had to buy anything.  Although all of her snacks where tasty, this almond triangular cookie was superb.  I could have eating a million of these things.

CC

By Gaither Stewart. Republished from the The Greanville Post Little known fact: WWI cost Serbia more than one million dead. Relative to its small population, that was a horrific proportion. The image shows Serbian army retreat across Albania. Serbians won...

As the battle for the domestic title raged at the weekend, most Albanians were more interested in Europe's big leagues

In the half-built apartment block that spoiled the view of the mountains beyond, around 30 fans perched. A couple more clung to the skeleton of the dilapidated scoreboard behind one of the goals. Perhaps three or four hundred on the low terrace huddled under the stadium's retaining wall, seeking protection from the squally showers that blew in from the Ionian Sea. The one stand was packed, all the seats taken and the aisles full, the roof making it by far the most desirable part of the ground to be in. If there were any away fans, they were well hidden.

In terms of Albanian football, this is pretty much as big as it gets: second-placed Flamurtari against fourth-placed KF Tirana, the most successful side in the nation's history, on the same day that the league leaders Skenderbeu faced third-placed Vllaznia. Flamurtari's fans like to style themselves as the most passionate in Albania - and the previous weekend their game at Lac had been held up by 50 minutes after a rock was thrown from the crowd and struck the opposing goalkeeper - but aside from a couple of banners depicting dragons there is little sign of any great fury burning within them; most seemed to be at least as concerned about securing their cone of sunflower seeds - thrown expertly from the front of the stand by a vendor in a check trilby - as they were about welcoming the sides on to the pitch. Only the Tirana defender Tefik Osmani, who was jeered throughout, generated any particular feeling.

The respective centre-forwards seemed to be enacting an odd footballing version of Stars in Their Eyes. For Flamurtari, Sebino Plaku came as Kenny Miller, all bristling scalp and buzzing short-legged energy; for Tirana, Pero Pejic was a superb Zlatan Ibrahimovic, tall, languid, long-haired, proud-nosed, talented and immensely frustrating. He didn't so much drift in and out of the game as float semi-corporeally on the edge of it, early menace dispersing in a series of bewildered shrugs and shots from absurd positions.

It was Plaku who struck first, after a matter of seconds. The ball was worked to the right, Daniel Xhafa sent in a cross that was just behind the centre-forward, but he had time and space to bring the ball down, turn and hook it into the corner. Technically adept it may have been, but the defending was awful.

A couple of minutes later, at the far end of the stand a shout went up, and it spread in an enormous Chinese whisper. Within seconds everybody was on their feet cheering: Vllaznia, apparently, had scored at Skenderbeu. The man behind me offered round a bag of kumbull - essentially unripe plums - in delight, but as phones were rapidly dug from pockets and confirmation sought, confusion set in. The fan to my right called up a live-scores site on his phone: it confirmed Vllaznia were 1-0 up. But an older fan with a transistor radio held to his ear wagged a finger. It was a false alarm - still 0-0.

Odise Roshi, young and gangling, won possession on the left, burst forward, seemed to have held possession for too long, but then cut the ball back to Xhafa, who struck in a low finish from the edge of the box: quarter of an hour gone, 2-0, and with Tirana's defending all over the place, it seemed merely a matter of how many Flamurtari would score. In Berat a day earlier the receptionist in the hotel, a Tomori fan, had spoken of the "good stuff" Flamurtari have been playing this season, and at that stage it was easy to see what he meant. Even in the worst of the wind and the rain, and on a less than perfect pitch, they'd played neat, progressive football. Xhafa, in particular, caught the eye, dropping off Plaku to link with the midfield.

Having gone 2-0 up, though, Flamurtari eased up. Pejic seemed to have scored with a superb header, only to be penalised for what must have been a very tight offside, and then did score after 22 minutes, finishing precisely from Sabien Lilaj's cut-back, the shot of a player of great technical gifts. Five minutes later the mood was lowered another notch as word filtered through that Skenderbeu had scored. They went on to win 3-0. Flamurtari never recaptured the rhythm of the early minutes, even as the storm subsided, and had Pejic not started trying to beat them on his own, they might have found themselves in trouble. As it was, after a patchy second half, their 2-1 win was comfortable enough.

That evening, wandering around town, I paused in the doorway of one of the many bookies-cum-bars to check the scores. Through the general fug of cigarette smoke, I could see that Real Madrid were 3-2 down to Zaragoza and that Chelsea were drawing 1-1 with Tottenham, but the screen showing Internazionale was too small to see clearly. As I peered in, a boy of about eight in a faded Barcelona shirt pushed past me to get out.

"Inter 1-1?" I asked, holding up a finger on each hand.

"Po," he said, shaking his head, which in Albania means yes.

A couple of giggling friends joined him. He turned round so I could see the "Messi 10" on the back of his shirt.

"Messi? Ronaldo?" he asked, his tone indicating he wanted me to choose between them.

"Messi," I said. "Of course."

He and one of his friends turned to the other and jeered. "Real," he said stubbornly.

The first boy turned back to me and raised a palm for me to slap.

The Madrid fan said something of which I made out "Italia" and "squadra".

"Milan? Inter?"

"Napoli," I said, having no preference.

He reached in his pocket, pulled out a crumpled piece of paper and showed it to me, his finger tracing under the words "Napoli v Genoa 2". With a degree of shock, I realised it was a betting slip - an accumulator on the result of six games. Perhaps the kid was looking after it for his father, waiting to collect potential winnings, but his air of expertise suggested it was his.

The next day, watching Arsenal beat Manchester United in a similar bar in Tirana, I realised the system was automated, a terminal on a counter, which presumably makes it harder to check underage gambling.

Gambling seems hugely popular in Albania. On every street in every town, it seemed, there were photographs of random games - Emile Heskey scoring past Craig Gordon, Frank Lampard holding off Diego Forlan, Rio Ferdinand brandishing the Premier League trophy - advertising betting shops. Three men sat at the table next to mine in Tirana, smoking furiously, drinking raki and picking at a pyramid of cheese cubes. Two older men sat behind them against the wall, smoking more calmly, until, if Bologna crossed the halfway line in their game at Milan, one would leap forward to pray in front of the television. There was a happy, communal - if unanimously male - feel to the afternoon, yet these bars highlight one of the major problems facing Albanian football.

I was reminded of something Zoran Avramovic, the former marketing manager of Crvena Zvezda, had said to me about a decade ago. "If you want to help Serbian football," he said, "you would stop them showing foreign football on television. A guy gets in from work on Friday night, he sits in his chair with a beer, and over the weekend he watches eight, nine, 10 games of great football from Germany, Spain, Italy, England... Go to the stadium to watch Crvena Zvezda, even when they play badly, beat some village 2-0? Why would he?"

Why would an Albanian watch a parody of Ibrahimovic when he can see the real thing? Why leave the smoky comforts of the bookie-bar for the cold and crumbling concrete of the stadium? Why risk flying rocks and hooligan-related hold-ups when you can watch three high-quality games simultaneously with a glass of raki in your hand?

There are those who would say a true fan would go anyway, and perhaps he would, but when football is limited to true fans, attending the game live becomes a minority pursuit. Look at attendances in England which, for all the flaws of the Premier League era, have more than doubled over the past quarter-century. If English football in the mid-80s had been competing with bookie-bars showing Serie A when it was the richest and best league in the world, those attendances might have been even lower.

Four points clear with two games to go, Skenderbeu should go on to win their first title since 1933. That the stranglehold of KF Tirana and Dinamo, the country's two most successful teams, has been broken, is probably a positive, but you look at crowds of 3,000-4,000 even for big games, and you wonder what future Albanian football has. It's a country that loves the game, just not necessarily the version of the game played in its own stadiums.

Very soon, Starwood Hotels and Resorts will stop tossing out all the used soaps and bottles from guestrooms, instead having them recycled and distributed worldwide in an attempt to spread global hygiene, as part of the Clean the World initiative. The hospitality firm will recycle the soap and bottles from as many as 500 Starwood hotels in North America, recycling an estimated 1.6 million pounds of hotel soap annually. This will then be distributed across the world to keep away hygiene-related diseases in countries like Haiti , Japan , Zimbabwe, Uganda, India, Honduras, Mexico and Albania. Continue reading "Starwood hotel giant to recycle soap and distribute world-wide with the Clean the World campaign " »

Eurovision 2011: Poland, Norway, Albania and Armenia rehearsal esctoday.com Today the following countries from the first semi-final will have 40 minutes on the stage each to test and plan their performances technically: Poland, Norway, Albania, Armenia, (break), Turkey, Serbia, Russia, (break), Switzerland, Georgia and Finland ... and more »

I was fortunate when I found your site. Coursework Help

Location Albania (Europe, Albania)

[JURIST] Italy deported a Tunisian national and former Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee Wednesday for his connections to an extremist group that had planned various acts of terrorism in the country. Accompanied by Italian officials, Abdel Ben Mabrouk [NYT materials] was taken by plane to his native country under an agreement with Tunisian diplomats [AP report] brokered in Rome. Mabrouk was transferred to Italy in 2009 as part of US efforts to shut down the prison at Guantanamo, where he spent eight years as a suspected terrorist after being captured in Afghanistan in 2001. Having lived in Italy before traveling to Afghanistan, Mabrouk was returned to the Italian government, which imposed a two-year suspended sentence [JURIST report] for terrorist association. The judge based the sentence on recommendations from Mabrouk's lawyer and prosecutor Armando Spataro, finding that Mabrouk's time served at Guantanamo and the year he spent in an Italian prison were sufficient punishment. Italian intelligence broke up the group with which Mabrouk was associated after thwarting several of its terrorist plots, including a plan to blow up the famous Milan Cathedral with a car packed with explosives. The continued operation of Guantanamo Bay remains controversial. Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] criticized US President Barack Obama in January for failing to shut down the facility, as Obama's stated desire to close the Guantanamo prison [JURIST reports] has faced heavy opposition in Congress. Earlier in January, Obama signed a bill barring the transfer of Guantanamo detainees [JURIST report] to the US for trial. The legislation authorized funding for defense interests abroad, military construction and national security-related energy programs and barred the use of funds to transfer detainees into the US and limited funds available for transfers to foreign countries. The number of detainees at Guantanamo has been significantly reduced as the administration continues to transfer detainees to a growing list of countries including Germany, Italy, Spain, Maldives, Georgia, Albania, Latvia, Switzerland, Slovakia, Somaliland, Palau, Belgium, Afghanistan and Bermuda [JURIST reports].

United States, Canada, Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua & Deps, Argentina

I was fortunate when I found your site. Coursework Help

Location Albania (Europe, Albania)

The brother-in-law of Ayman al Zawahiri, al Qaeda's second in command, is reported to have been killed in Afghanistan earlier this year, according to an Islamist website.

Osama Hassan, whose sister, Omayma, is married to Zawahiri, was killed in Afghanistan sometime over the past several months, according to a martyrdom statement released by the Al Maqrizi Center for Historical Studies. The statement announcing Hassan's death was published on April 18 at the Al Maqrizi Center's website.

The Al Maqrizi Center is run by Hani al Sibia, who according to an Egyptian court was one of 14 members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad's shura majlis, or executive council. Sibia, who has been designated as a terrorist by the United States and the United Nations, maintains close ties to Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Zawahiri's organization which formally merged with al Qaeda in June 2001.

The exact date and location in Afghanistan where Hassan was killed was not disclosed in the martyrdom statement. Nor is it known how Hassan was killed.

According to the statement, Hassan sought asylum in the United Kingdom in 1998 and then traveled to Iran and then Afghanistan in 2001 with Mohammad Khalil Hasan al Hakaymah, who is better known as Abu Jihad al Masri. Hakaymah served as a top leader in the Egyptian Islamic Group, a rival group to Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Both Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Egyptian Islamic Group seek to overthrow the Egyptian government and impose an Islamic state. Hakaymah was the chief of al Qaeda's intelligence shura prior to his death in a US Predator airstrike in Mir Ali, a terrorist haven in Pakistan's tribal agency of North Waziristan.

Hassan's role in al Qaeda or the Egyptian Islamic Group has not been disclosed; however, he appears to have been a key link in convincing the external faction of the Egyptian Islamic Group to join al Qaeda. Hakaymah became the emir, or leader, of the Egyptian Islamic Group after appearing on a videotape with Zawahiri in November 2006. On the tape, Hakaymah swore an oath of allegiance to Osama bin Laden and announced the merger of the Egyptian Islamic Group and al Qaeda.

While Hassan was a member of the Egyptian Islamic Group, his two sisters married senior leaders of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the death notice stated. As noted, Omayma, is currently married to Zawahiri. Prior to marrying Zawahiri, she was married to Tariq Anwar Sayyid Ahmad, who was described as the "Commander of Special Operations for the [Egyptian Islamic] Jihad group." Ahmad was killed in Khost province, Afghanistan, sometime in 2001.

Omayma also has contributed to al Qaeda's propaganda. In December 2009, As Sahab, Qaeda's media arm, published "A Message to Muslim Sisters," a statement from Omayma that offered advice to the wives of jihadists.

Another of Hassan's sisters, who was not named, was married to Shawqi Salaama, an Egyptian Islamic Group member who "was sentenced to a life-term of hard labor in the case of 'Returnees from Albania'!" according to Hassan's martyrdom statement.

Research and Markets: Experiencing Project Management: Best Practices ... SunHerald.com ELISABETH BITTNER: has built up communities on project management and project training and she does communication and PR for project management topics. WALTER GREGORC: has directed projects in the USA, in Albania, Hong Kong, Oman, Saudi-Arabia, ... IT Project ManagerThird Sector all 3 news articles »

Publisher: United Kingdom: Home Office - Document type: Country Reports

Back in February we reported on the (ultimately successful) campaign by an organization known as the Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada to keep the historian Srdja Trifkovic from speaking at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

The IRGC is a front group for radical Bosnian Muslims who aim to perpetuate the narrative of the “genocide” at Srebrenica during the civil war in Bosnia. They don’t take kindly to anyone who interrupts their fantasy with the truth; hence their antipathy towards Srdja Trifkovic.

Dr. Trifkovic’s subsequent research into the background of the IRGC has borne fruit: the renowned scholar Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel resigned last week from the advisory board of the IRGC. Here’s the report from The Lord Byron Foundation:

Elie Wiesel resigns from the "Genocide Institute Canada," dissociates himself from Emir Ramic

Friday, 15 Apr 2011

“Elie Wiesel cannot sit together with Emir Ramic in the same organization. He does hereby resign from the ‘International Team of Experts’ of the Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada. Thank you, and please do confirm receipt of this message.”

This terse note, sent by the Elie Wiesel Foundation to the Bosnian-Muslim “Institute” on April 14, is a welcome and long overdue development. Professor Wiesel is to be commended for dissociating himself from Emir Ramic and all that he and his Jihadist cohorts stand for. This fraudulent disinformation outfit now stands unmasked for what it is and terminally discredited.

JULIA GORIN WRITES: Professor Wiesel and his foundation are to be commended for the integrity and courage they have demonstrated by this act. All the more since the political fallout and pressure against him now — including, potentially, by senior government officials and other prominent types around the world — may be immense. For background on the ghastly Emir Ramic and his Bosnian-Canadian “genocide institute,” please see the summary by Srdja Trifkovic, whose persecution and expulsion from Canada at the behest of Ramic’s institute prompted the latter’s own exposure by me and others, whether it was my Feb. 28th letter to the Wiesel Foundation’s director Daniel Schwartz that called their attention to what was going on and what the Institute was at its core, or whether Professor Wiesel and his staff found out about it from the above-linked articles. But I will reproduce for readers the letter as I’d sent it:

Dear Mr. Schwartz: I’m a Jewish columnist who recently stumbled onto the fact that Mr. Elie Wiesel is indicated as an expert adviser on the website for the Institute for Research on Genocide in Canada (IRGC).Last Thursday, the IRGC accused the scholar and author Dr. Srdja Trifkovic of “genocide denial” and influenced the Canadian authorities to ban him from entering the country. In contrast to Dr. Trifkovic, who has been a keynote speaker at Yad Vashem, the director of IRGC — Emir Ramic, who wrote a protest letter to the Canadian university where Trifkovic was to speak and got the wheels in motion for his removal from Canada — is on the editorial board of an Islamist magazine in Sarajevo called Korak (Step), published in Sarajevo.

This magazine’s issue No. 13 (above link) has an interesting article: “Basic Principles of the Law of War in Islam” (pp. 13-17). The article asserts, among other things, that “Jihad is a just and legitimate fight against aggression and a struggle in protection of human rights and freedoms.” (p. 15) On p. 93 appears the following headline: IZRAELSKI REZIM JE TERORISTICKI, by Fikret Muslimovic. (“Israeli Regime is Terrorist”).

Mr. Schwartz, this is the real face of the so-called “Institute.” In addition to the “Institute’s” director, Mr. Wiesel’s fellow board member Asaf Dzanic is the editor-in-chief of this magazine. Mr. Wiesel is in some interesting company indeed.

In his recent article Canadian former ambassador to Bulgaria, Albania and Yugoslavia, James Bissett pointed out some other problems with the organization — including a rather ironic one, given that the group engages in Holocaust minimization on the subject of the Jasenovac camp (“Auschwitz of the Balkans”), an already minimized and suppressed story.

One trusts that Elie Wiesel Foundation knows some history of the Balkans region, and that the horrific happenings of the 1990s were a direct pick-up of the 1940s — with all the same players on the same sides. In Croatia, President Franjo Tudjman, a Holocaust minimizer, was swiftly establishing a widely noted carbon copy of WWII’s Hitler-aligned Ustasha regime. And Bosnian-Muslim president Alija Izetbegovic, while packaged as a “multicultural democrat” by a credulous West, was revered in the Muslim world as an ideologue of jihad and Islamic revolution, as his own book “Islamic Declaration” openly demonstrates; he was fighting to establish an Islamic regime in Europe (while calling it something else, of course).

Naturally, the Serbs — avidly slaughtered by both of these players in the previous war, in which Serbs died with Jews and Roma at Croatia’s Jasenovac (staffed by Croatian and Bosnian guards and executioners) — weren’t about to consign themselves to the same potential fate when they suddenly found themselves no longer citizens of Yugoslavia, but second-class citizens of a unilaterally declared independent Croatia and a unilaterally declared independent Bosnia. And so there was war. It was not the black-and-white affair that has been presented for Western consumption.

I do not ask that Mr. Wiesel take any new positions or actively start to oppose the Bosnian-Muslim side. I ask only that those who do not know all the facts of the Balkan civil wars — take no sides at all. Especially if they have a name that carries as much weight and legitimizing power as Wiesel. But if Mr. Wiesel chooses to still endorse the Muslim side — as is his prerogative — then at least for decency’s, liberty’s, and history’s sakes, it should not be a difficult decision for him to just disengage himself from IRGC. Yes, he will face some political pressure to reverse that decision, but I am confident that a man like Elie Wiesel still knows how to take a stand.

In the meantime, Efraim Zuroff, Jerusalem director of Simon Wiesenthal Center, has been apprised of the situation and is determining a course of action. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Julia Gorin

p.s. Here is a link to Thursday’s news broadcast on the deportation of Trifkovic; under the “more info” arrow is this paragraph:

February 24, 2011 (SYL) - Serbian-American professor Dr Srdja Trifkovic was denied access into Canada after being accused of holding a senior position in the Government of Republika Srpska during the Bosnian war by the Vancouver airport immigration authorities. Srdja, who was a foreign affairs expert with links in the Bosnian Serb Government, never held any position in that Government, let alone a senior one. The fabricated reason for deportation was likely the result of lobbying by the extremist organization “The Institute for Research of Genocide in Canada”, which is notorious…

Elie Wiesel has shown character and taken a stand. As Stefan Karganovic, of the Srebrenica Historical Project, wrote me upon hearing the news: “It was clear to me from the start that he was bamboozled by Bosnian Moslems and had no idea what they were doing and advocating over his name.”

I am going to close with an update on some things about Emir Ramic which I found out only after writing my previous article mentioning him and his activities…

Read the rest at The Lord Byron Foundation.

Albaania

Albaania

Albaania

In this post I want to talk about some of the Open Government Data (OGD) projects taking place around the world.

Open government data is assumed to be a given by many in the US because our copyright law states that federal government data is not covered by copyright. (The situation in US states can vary, but the federal government's declaration sets the tone.) In other countries the situation is less clear and governments do not have a mandate to make data open. However, the open government data movement has purred on a number of fast-moving activities, many sponsored by governments themselves that encourage citizens to download and use government data.

The UK government has a site, Opening up government, where it not only shares data but encourages people to develop apps that use the data. Apps here can alert you to new building and planning projects in your area, and give you real-time public transportation information.

The EU has its own Open Government Data Initiative. It provides the data under these terms of use:

All Data on dev.govdata.eu is available under a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use, modify, and distribute the datasets in all current and future media and formats for any lawful purpose and that this license does not give you a copyright or other proprietary interest in the datasets.

There is a European site for public sector information, the European Public Section Information Platform: Europe's One-Stop Shop on Public Sector Information Re-use. You can search by country and see news and developments relating to public data, much of which is available for re-use. Because many countries for not have an explicit statement in their copyright laws covering government data, one of the important early steps for these jurisdictions is to develop blanket licenses that they can apply to the data. So when you visit the site you see recent news that Norway has developed a license for its government data and is asking for feedback (if you read Norwegian).

To understand the force of this movement, it is said that Albania and Bulgaria are on the verge of opening some government data.

The Obama administration announced its Open Government effort on the first day of his administration.

To the extent practicable and subject to valid restrictions, agencies should publish information online in an open format that can be retrieved, downloaded, indexed, and searched by commonly used web search applications. An open format is one that is platform independent, machine readable, and made available to the public without restrictions that would impede the re-use of that information.

Wired has a US-oriented "how-to" wiki on OGD. (Of course, they include in their "how-to" examples MarijuanaLobby.org, being Wired, but it's a good example of the range of utility of OGD. )

Not all data is at the country level, of course, and the movement is reaching into lower levels of government. Paris has an open data portal, while Enschede Netherlands has an open data declaration for its information. In Italy, the government of the Piemonte Region has a website for its open data.

The government open data movement is heavily influenced by grassroots efforts to convince governments that open data is a good thing -- not just for government watchdogs and opposition movements, but for heathy government and strong business. In the UK there is a Working Group on Open Government Data of the Open Knowledge Foundation, an independent not-for-profit that is promoting, as its name says, open knowledge. In Italy there is the wonderfully named "Spaghetti Open Data." Spain has a broad coalition of non-profits that form the "Coalición Pro Acceso." The CKAN web site, which is a general archive of available datasets of all kinds, has OGD under a number of tags, such as "gov". [Just out: Open Government Data video.]

We hear a lot about problems with copyright, with DRM, with information providers who want to lock down their products. Government data covers a huge variety of information types and is often the key information needed for a lot of civic and scientific decision-making. OGD can generate a mountain of new knowledge, and then tell you how high the mountain is.

On the 1st of April 2011, the Bridging Project, an educational advice and support centre for migrants at Oxford Cherwell Valley College, closed. The project worked with around 60 students from countries as diverse as Eritrea, East Timor, Afghanistan, Iraq, Brazil, Albania, Spain and France, around 20 of whom are in the process of seeking asylum. It provided a bridge for migrants into mainstream education and society, fostering exactly the kind of “local identity” and “feeling of belonging” promoted by David Cameron in a recent speech at the Munich Security Conference. In the last 6 months, however, the centre has seen its staff reduced from 6 to nil as pockets of funding, from the college, social services and Connexions, were gradually cut. An Eritrean student, 17, described his reaction upon hearing the news: “it’s like someone cutting off one of your hands.” The Elements course – a basic literacy and numeracy programme which prepares students for mainstream courses - will still be running, he tells me, waving one hand, but he adds, unsuccessfully miming the action of trying to climb with it, that “one hand can’t do nothing without the support of the other”. An Afghan student interrupts to tell me that he too feels unsure about his future, unsure about who to go to for advice: “an English teacher cannot help you with these things”. When I ask what his plans are he tells me that he might drop out. He fears that without the backing of the Bridging Project “[the college] won’t take me seriously for mechanics now”. “And”, he adds, “I mean I’m just going to miss him [Bridging Project worker]”.For Barbara, an ex-Bridging Project employee, the closure has been a similarly devastating prospect: “that door will just close. People will be knocking and there will be nobody to answer it”.

For many years the Bridging Project has provided a holistic form of educational support both inside and outside the College, acting as a practical assistance and advocacy platform for students such as these. Like most migrant support organizations, its work went well beyond its official mandate and, as Faraz, an ex-full-time Bridging Project support worker, explains, “we have multiple hats”. In addition to tasks surrounding access, assessment and attainment, the Project responded to appeals from asylum seeking students regarding related needs such as arranging doctor appointments, court hearings, housing troubles, referrals to other services and informal counselling. It also organized a range of recreational and extra-curricular activities which, in the words of one student, “brings us all altogether”. During our discussion this sense of solidarity is manifest, and it is clear that the Bridging Project, referred to as a “nurturing environment” by staff and a ‘home-like” and “really friendly” place by students, has played a key role in plugging many young asylum seekers into education and fostering their wider inclusion. The importance of both this practical and relational support cannot be underestimated, given the insecurity which characterises the lives of many young asylum seekers.

Many of the students who will be hardest hit by the closure of the Bridging Project live in shared housing and fear rejected asylum applications and deportation as they edge towards 18. As they make this transition they face new challenges, living a precarious existence in which friends disappear off the local map and appear a few weeks later in the form of a text message from the other side of the world. This sense of limbo is greatly exacerbated by the fact that their support is subject to unpredictable policy and legal developments which pre-date the recent wave of cuts. Saeeda, Director of Asylum Welcome, an Oxford NGO, laments that these developments have consequences which would simply not be countenanced for British young people. To illustrate her point, she describes one episode in the summer of 2010, where many young asylum seekers were ‘de-accommodated’, in effect making them homeless and forcing them to ‘sofa surf’ or sleep rough for several months. In this time she observed the deterioration of their mental health and described “a huge number of self-harmers”. Accommodation was eventually reinstated after a legal case (R(SO) v. London Borough of Barking and Dagenham) found that the local authority has a duty to accommodate former relevant children until the age of 21. However, the damage had been done. Saeeda described how trust had been eroded between social services and the young people, some of whom refused to take up accommodation again for fear that it may only be temporary. Matt, also of Asylum Welcome, referred to the re-accommodation starkly as a “stay of execution”. This de-accommodation episode is emblematic of a wider sense of insecurity stemming from sudden changes in policy and legislation which place already vulnerable asylum seekers in situations of increased distress, foster mistrust of the system and force them to adopt ad hoc coping strategies. The closure of the Bridging Project should be read within this context as contributing to increased insecurity and a culture of closed doors.

Those that turned to the Bridging Project when they found themselves evicted from their homes are uncertain where to turn now, yet most are responding to the current crisis with a familiar sense of pragmatism and disillusionment. As I spoke to the students, many were clutching envelopes stuffed with hurried applications for courses for the coming year; others are only just finding out about the closure, and reconsidering their future options: “it will be so, so much harder now”. Students echoed the practical problems raised by staff regarding the capacity of existing organizations to absorb their mandate- “nobody else can do their job”- as well as Faraz’s concerns over the loss of experience and “level of built up trust”. For Barbara, the main dilemma is ‘who’: “who will do the assessments, who will offer advice and guidance, who to pass this on to?” Existing Oxford-based service providers have already emphasised being overburdened. In October 2010, Refugee Resource, the main provider of counselling for asylum seekers in Oxford, reported that some clients were having problems making appointments with GPs, and that they had recently lost two of their councillors. Asylum Welcome has also lost a full-time youth advisor position, previously funded by Connexions through the County Council, which provided vital immigration support to young asylum seekers aged between 13 and19. The invaluable work realized by organizations like the Bridging Project thus clearly cannot simply be assimilated into other services. Nor can it be shouldered by uncoordinated volunteers acting under the ‘Big Society’ mandate. Inclusion means access to fundamental rights, such as education, which the state has a duty to provide under international law.

The funding cuts will thus hit young asylum seekers the same way as they are hitting several other marginalised groups across the country, by tearing down bridges to inclusion. As Petra Brady has already suggested, this reality sits uncomfortably with David Cameron’s ‘Big Society inclusion’, and the costs of this hypocrisy will be manifold. For in addition to the sudden loss of practical support, the undermining of relationships of trust and solidarity will also cause exclusion, both in terms of bonds between staff and students, and those developed through the many social events organized by the Project. A weekly football club may seem like an easy target to cut, yet for many young asylum seekers without fraternal or parental support, these regular activities are a kind of lifeline. Given the nature of these vital yet often unquantifiable services, the ignorance demonstrated in the implementation of these cuts is unforgivable. The example of the Bridging Project suggests that the cuts will deepen the insecurity of young asylum seekers, both emotionally and physically, closing door after door at a time when there are very few open windows.

Sideboxes

Related stories: 

The lonely death of Jimmy Mubenga

Asylum decision-making in the UK: disbelief or denial?

Integration: a two way process

Rethinking asylum

"They don't speak English": language, migration and cohesion

Albaania

Publisher: UN Human Rights Council - Document type: Resolutions/Recommendations/Declarations

Updated areas of Japan include Ishinomaki, Minamisanriku, Hitachi, Kamisu, and Chiba.





Also included in this update are images from around the globe. Below are a few of my favorite sights.










Do you have a place you love that you’d want to receive notification from us when the Earth and Maps Imagery team updates your beloved site? We’ve got just the tool: the Follow Your World application!

As always, these are but a few examples of the types of features that can be seen and discovered in our latest batch of published imagery. Happy exploring!

High resolution aerial updates:
USA: Sacramento, CA; Columbus, GA
Japan: Ishinomaki, Onagawa, Minamisanriku, Hitachi, Kamisu, Chiba

Countries/Regions receiving high resolution satellite updates:
Canada, USA, Greenland, Mexico, Honduras, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Ireland, United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Namibia, Madagascar, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Israel, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Nepal, China, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Mongolia, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand

These updates are now available in both Google Maps and Google Earth. To get a complete picture of where we updated imagery, download this KML for viewing in Google Earth.

Posted by Matt Manolides, GIS Specialist

SOUND KAPITAL OUT JUNE 28

Handsome Furs

Sound Kapital is the third full-length from Handsome Furs, the Canadian two-piece of husband and wife Dan Boeckner and Alexei Perry.

The album was recorded quickly, polished and rehearsed in the Furs' derelict Montreal studio, then preserved for posterity by longtime producers Howard Bilerman and Arlen Thompson at Hotel2Tango, mixed by Finnish dudes Antti Joas and Jonas Verwijnen at Kaiku Studios in Helsinki and Berlin, and mastered by Harris Newman at Grey Market Mastering in Montreal.

Fans can sample the debut single "What About Us" off of Sound Kapital by clicking here.

Sound Kapital Tracklisting
1. When I Get Back
2. Damage
3. Bury Me Standing
4. Memories of the Future
5. Serve the People
6. What About Us
7. Repatriated
8. Cheap Music
9. No Feelings

Tour Dates
Apr 13 Great Scott, Allston, MA
Apr 14 Bell House, The, Brooklyn, NY
Apr 15 Gallery 5, Richmond, VA
Apr 16 Clemson University, Clemson, SC
Apr 17 King's Barcade, Raleigh, NC
Apr 18 Kung Fu Necktie, Philadelphia, PA
Apr 22 RBF Club, Sofia, Bulgaria
Apr 23 Zdravo Mladi Festival, Skopje, Macedonia
Apr 26 Club 21, Pristina,, Albania
Apr 27 Soul2Soul, Podgorica, Montenegro
Apr 28 Orlando, Dubrovnik, Croatia
Apr 29 SLOGA, Sarjevo, Bosnia and Herzegowina
May 03 Flex, Vienna, Austria
May 04 KC Dunaj, Bratislava, Slovakia
May 05 Laznia, Krakow, Poland
May 06 Cafe Kulturalna, Warszawa, Poland
May 07 Puzzle (PL), Wrocław, Poland
May 08 007, Prague, Czech Republic
May 09 West Germany, Berlin, Germany
May 11 De Centrale | intercultureel centrum, Gent, Belgium
May 12 Bitterzoet (NL), Amsterdam, Netherlands
May 13 Great Escape Festival, Brighton, Ireland
May 14 Buffalo Bar, Cardiff, United Kingdom
May 16 Lexington, London, United Kingdom
May 17 Captain's Rest, Glasgow, United Kingdom
May 18 Rainbow, Birmingham, United Kingdom
May 19 Sounds City Festival, Liverpool, United Kingdom
May 20 Fleche D'Or, Paris, France
May 21 Landmark, Bergen, Norway
May 22 Betong, Oslo, Norway

Handsome Furs Tour Dates :: Handsome Furs News

Albaania

“Why would I choose Macedonia over nearby Greece or Albania, both of which are much easier to get to?” That was the challenge laid down by one reader when he commented on our blog post last week. So we accept the challenge. Why go to Macedonia? What’s in a name? Similar in size to Massachusetts » Read more

You've heard of Fresh Expressions? Good. I want to introduce the idea of Fringe Expressions which is our next major project. But before I waffle on about what I mean by that strange phrase, I need to pause . . . and say . . .  THANKS to our sponsors for the incredible last season of support for our Missional Entrepreneurs Project.

You all rock. Yes, you rock indeed!

We just completed our first year of NO REGULAR INCOME [ouch!!] and YET we were able to keep going by the grace of God and the generosity of people like you. In fact, we were able to minister in over 20 countries last year and help equip over 500 missional entrepreneurs for effective ministry in their cities.

We could not have achieved the outcomes of the Missional Entrepreneurs Project without the generous sponsorship of these wonderful churches, individuals, businesses and organizations  . . . . [no blushing you guys!]

Top sponsors last season: CMS, Gateway Baptist, Maclellan Foundation, Grace Community, Theo Presents, Edugames, Christian Associates, Sir Tobys, PT and Magz, Jarda B. from Google, and the families of W, Sheng, Webb, LaBorde, Warren, Standerfer, Thomas, Fernandez, Chapman, Blick, Ellis, and others. LOVE YOU ALL!!

Also a big thanks to my wife and 5 kids who have camped [cramped??] in an overlander truck and tents for the past year, switched to home-schooling, endured many hardships and sacrifices . . .

. . . as well as some scary, hair-extending moments

. . . like driving through a bumpy swampy wasteland in Albania

. . . and getting chased by drug dealers in the Rif mountains of Morocco

. . . and eating camel couscous in the Sahara desert.

[hmmmmm . . . that camel was quite good, actually]

ANYWAY . . . WHAT'S NEXT????

Well, our family, minus one son who jumped off the truck to get into university in Texas, is about to launch out in a few weeks for our next season of ministry overseas with a very special focus:

We are going to partner with leading mission organizations and denominations by helping them start 50 new church/mission structures around the world that will act as role models for church planting in the toughest parts of the world.

As well as being highly effective fresh expressions of church and mission, these new communities will bring a lasting, holistic impact through these 3 strategies:

1. Through social enterprise and mico-business they will move their ministries towards long-term sustainability.

2. Through social justice ventures they will touch the needy in their cities in measurable ways - ie, a spiritual, social, financial and environmental impact.

3. Through social media streaming they will contagiously share their story to leverage their experience and compel others to follow their examples.

Sneaky . .  huh?

These 50 new communities will be fresh expressions of church but, also, because they will intentionally position themselves to impact those on the fringe, we will call them "fringe expressions".

By fringe, I mean the cultural fringe (alternative, non-churched, victimized) the economic fringe (poor, needy, vulnerable) the geographic fringe (church-unfriendly areas and countries) and the spiritual fringe [NOT your father's old-time religion] where traditional church efforts make little progress.

Or in other words, they will go where no fresh expressions or missional communities or emerging churches have gone before.

What we need for this next season [and this is where you come in] is:

- Business entrepreneurs to advise on how these social enterprises can launch successfully

- Social media geeks to assist these ministries to have a compelling online presence

- Social justice practitioners to point us to the most urgent needs in their countries

- Denominations and mission agencies who want to partner with us in starting a fringe expression in their backyard

- Sponsors to fund this project with $$ and ££. €€'s are good too. I figure the project will take US$210,000.

- Sponsors to support our family with a salary. Half a pastor's wage should be enough.

- Prayer supporters and cheerleaders to encourage us and some to host us as we pass by in our truck.

- 5 cities to launch missional social enterprise centers that will provide training and resources for the movement.

Biggest needs right now are visas (US$500 - really urgent actually), a replacement computer (US$1500) [Andrew's Macbook died 3 months ago and the whole family is sharing ONE computer, which is not easy with a compulsive blogger in the family . . .  not saying who . . .] and plane fares to get to our European gatherings (US$2400). We also need insurance and rego for the overlander which is in Prague right now (US$750).

Donations can be made in UK through Stewardship [tallskinnykiwi - 20041672], USA through Community Development Initiatives Inc. (yep, 501c3, tax deductible, etc). Email me at tallskinnykiwi at gmail dot com for more details.

A quick and painless no-brainer love-gift??? Use this Jonesberries Paypal button.

oooohhhhh yeah I feel that love!!!!!!!!

Our newsletter has more info including all the dodgy countries we are about to enter. Can't say everything on the blog [let the reader understand]. Email Loony Lizzy to request your inclusion into our somewhat irregular, annoyingly propaganderous, often intrusionous and yet strangely and suprisingly intriguing newsletter of the intrepid adventures of our family and team as we venture forth into the fringiest of fringes and . . . sorry . . . am I waffling?

So . . .  time to launch forward into the next season. Fringe Expressions is an 18 month project and it will be a strrrreeeeeeeeeeetttching challenge for all of us. Can I count on your support?

Publisher: United States Department of State - Document type: Annual Reports

Tokyo to London-The Long Way

LAC, Albania: On an Albanian spring day, dozens of Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox Christians toil together up a steep, winding slope to St Anthony's Church -- different faiths all hoping for a miracle.

Kristaq Marku examines a patient in Frisco resident Paul Stefanacci's physical therapy clinic in Albania.

Starting this week, we’ll be highlighting the five finalists in the poetry category for the BTBA. Similar to what we did for the fiction longlist, these will be framed by the question: “Why should this book win?”

Click here for all past and future posts in this series.

Today’s post is by poetry committee member Brandon Holmquest.

Child of Nature by Luljeta Lleshanaku, translated by Henry Israeli and Shpresa Qatipi

Language: Albanian
Country: Albania
Publisher: New Directions
Pages: 108

Why This Book Should Win:

It begins
when she searches in the darkness
for her likeness, a line of verse awaiting its end rhyme

and it goes on from there, and in just about every poem there’s something that grabs your attention. As in the quote above, where the rhythm of the use of the letter S is so nice in the first two lines, establishing a beat which then opens up to let the long I come in, “likeness” “line” then the same S in “verse” and the long I again in “rhyme.”

This is English-language poetry, of course. I have no Albanian whatsoever and the book is not bilingual, something which I generally regard as a minor crime, though this book may have persuaded me to be a little less hard-line about it. As I was attempting to explain to a bookseller friend of mine not that long ago: I want the original even in languages I don’t know because I want to see what I can see. Are the original much longer or shorter than the translations? Are they shaped differently? Do they rhyme and if so, do the translations? And so on. I’m suspicious, in short.

And often, there’s reason to be. But, sometimes, maybe it doesn’t matter at all, because the English is so good I cease to care if it’s even a translation. I just want more of it, whatever it is, however it came to be made.

Case in point, the poem “Monday in Seven Days,” a longish serial poem of ten parts, which I’m only going to quote once because otherwise the whole thing is going to wind up in what is supposed to be a brief review:

Preparing for winter
isn’t tradition, but instinct. We hurl our spare anxieties
like precious cargo from a shipwreck.

Read that again. If you don’t see on your own how good it is, how truly excellent the choice of the word “hurl” is and how excellently true the observation contained in the lines is, maybe you don’t like poetry as much as you thought. Or maybe you need to read a lot more of it.

Well, there’s a lot more of it in this book. Both the above quotes are pulled from the first quarter of a 100+ page book. At about the halfway point we find:

They are dying one after the other;
shoveling earth on them has become as common
as sprinkling salt on food.

I don’t know what anyone could say to work like this except, “Hell yes.” I could go on dropping quotes all day, but I can see no real percentage in aggressively preaching to a mixed congregation of the choir and the uncovertable.

Lleshanaku’s work is in a vein with some other writers from Eastern Europe I’ve run across in the last few years. She reminds me of Mariana Marin with a less severe case of depression, but really most of the good work I’ve seen from Romania or Poland and elsewhere in the region is in the ball park. Lots of images, vernacular language, a tendency to roll around in the lower reaches of the culture, and a level of comfort on the part of the poet with the saying of things, the making of explicit statements about the nature of something, be it the self, the world, or some interaction between the two.

Point being, there’s something going on over there that we’re only just now getting a chance to see in this country, thanks to books like this and translators like Henry Israeli and Shpresa Qatipi. There are literary cultures less dominated by the inane war between boring middlebrow crap and equally boring academic crap. Child of Nature is a book that comes from such a place. Read it.

BAAR, Switzerland, April 11 (UPI) -- An environmental assessment of a leg of the Trans-Adriatic gas pipeline through Albania paves the way for project construction, the consortium said Monday.

United States, Canada, Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua & Deps, Argentina