Hello Steemians
A lot of people have asked about my homeland of Albania. It’s a relatively small country, that, well, probably not many of you think of day to day. We generally mind our own business but I can’t say the same for some of the other countries. I’m going to start out by telling you about the Albanian words Shqiperia dhe shqiptaret, which mean Albania and Albanians, which translates to Land of Eagles and sons of Eagle respectively.
Albania is surrounded by Montenegro, Serbia, FYROM (The Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia) and Greece.
According to historians, we are descendants of Illyrians who have lived in the Northwestern part of Balkan Peninsula since 2000 BC, so we’re pretty old school. Illyria was bigger than Albania is right now. We have a long violent and complicated past. You can read more here
On November 28th 1912, Albania declared independence from Ottoman Empire. The nationalist movement was inspired mainly by a man named Gjergj Kastrioti aka Skanderbeg, who is considered our national hero. He was the one who was able to stop the spread of the Ottomans throughout Europe. He fought for 25 years against the Ottomans and had a lot of support from the Vatican and other Europeans. The names “Land of Eagle” and “sons of Eagle” are inspired by his visionary leadership. Gjergj Kastrioti later united all of Albania in an attempt to fight back against the Ottomans, and made Albanians aware of their national identity and he is still an inspiration to them nowadays.
The photo of Skanderbeg statue is taken by me. On Sunday. Under 37 degrees celcius that felt like 50. The things that I do for Steemit [sigh]
When Skanderbeg was near death, he called his family, his generals and loyal commanders. He asked them to bring a bunch of thin wood kindlings. “Break them one by one” he told to his people. They started to break them. It was easy, they were thin. “Now, try to break them altogether” he continued. The Albanians around his bed, tried to break the bunch of woods all at once. They couldn’t break the bundle. He said, “Do you understand the lesson? United we stand, divided we fall”
Communism in Albania collapsed around 1990. Since 1991, Albania has been working to recover with a transitional democracy in place. Our country suffered from numerous Ponzi or Pyramid schemes. Two thirds of albanians lost all their money and assets and the schemes led to a civil war in 1997. $1.2 billion was lost from a population of less than 3 million, it simply disappeared. There are currently about 2.8 million Albanians living in the country with more than 10 million living abroad.
We love Raki. It’s our traditional alcoholic drink. The best raki is homemade. Although, you can find it in the market, commercially produced. It’s too strong so you drink a shot, slowly. Very slowly. Well you’re supposed to, but that’s not to say we don’t get drunk in Albania. Foreigners usually end up in hospitals.
Our government implemented progressive taxes for salaries. So employers often declare minimum wage salary which is 30,000 LEK, or $245.50, to avoid taxes and pay the rest under the table. We don’t have an IRS equivelant to come knocking on our doors asking how we manage to pay such expensive rent. (Amen to that)
We don’t protest much but when we do it’s because one of the political parties has given people appliances like fridges or televisions or straight cash.
When a thief breaks into your home there’s not much you can do. They generally take everything and if he finds any money around the house, you try to negotiate with him to take only a %. By Albanian law, you can’t kill a thief or anyone who is on your private property. If you do, you go to prison. As for a thief, I really don’t know, I’ve never stolen myself.
TNT is popular here. Some very rich people loan money, around $200,000. Well if you don’t pay up boom goes the dynamite. It hasn’t happened so much lately. (Hallelujah to that)
Most Albanians speak Italian. We learned it growing up watching Pokemon and Dragon Ball cartoons in Italian as we got Italian television first. The rest of us speak either Spanish or Turkish, from watching a lot of “telenovelas”.
We also have a lot of coffee bars around, and we are known to sit for 4 hours sipping one cup of coffee. JUST ONE. FOR 4 HOURS.
Several years ago, there was a morning show named “Good morning Albania”. Their motto was “Love Albania, like Albania loves America”. I don’t know if the show is still running, I haven’t watched television for the last 8 years, to be honest.
After George Bush visited Albania in 2007 we built him a statue in the city of Kruja.
We also built a monument for Hillary Clinton, maybe one for Trump next but I’m not sure you could sculpt is hair net.
Source: Euronews
Probably the one who really deserve his statue is Woodrow Wilson. In 1918, without his 14 Point Plan, Albania would probably be nonexistent today.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my country, despite the previous ironic statements. I prefer to think of them as constructive criticisms.
This small country has high potential. It has a lot of natural resources to develop industrial and agricultural business sectors and tourism. Why is it still considered a developing nation? Well, that’s a tough question. Many of us blame the politicians. We talk a lot about politics but we still don’t take action. I was discussing politics with one of my cousins, who is a very intelligent woman with a lot of expertise in geopolitical matters and has a degree in Psychology, I said, that it’s quite possible through our struggles we’ve developed a massive feeling of inferiority. She replied that we are lazy and apathetic. We had to agree to disagree on that point. I believe it’s untrue because all the Albanians that live abroad that I know have made a name for themselves, work hard and are successful. Around here, opportunities are significantly limited by "you-know-who".
When I was introduced to Steemit, first thing I did was read the white paper. Once I checked it’s main principles, immediately I subscribed.I have been around here for a short time and I have seen the potential. I agree that it is revolutionary and that’s why I think Steemit would be perfect for Albanians. It’s a unique opportunity, and not only for them.
Researching and writing about my country helps me to brainstorm about how to promote Steemit. Majority of people do not even know that there are digital currencies and never heard even about Bitcoin. I don’t expect to be an overnight success. Mind you: Rome wasn’t built in one day.
Intentionally, I wrote the story about Skanderberg. Divided we won’t go anywhere. If we join take some time to exchanges ideas, that would be beneficial to Steemit community. Unless you have 1 million followers in Facebook or elsewhere.
Feel free to comment below with your own ideas or get in touch with me at steemit.chat. If you have posted them in Steemit, please provide the links. 