Saturday, October 4, 2008

THE POST DICTATURE URBAN KAOS"

The weirdest country in Europe

Photo: Arben Celi, Reuters
People sunbathe near a bunker in the Albanian city of Durres. The bunker shells are the remains of a defence line built by former communist leader Enver Hoxha.
Robert Fulford, "National Post" Published: Saturday, October 04, 2008

SARANDE, Albania -Here and there on the Mediterranean waterfront around Sarande, a little town currently publicized with wan hope as "the southern gateway for tourism into Albania," you can spot evocative relics of communist paranoia: the concrete-and-steel bunkers erected under the personal supervision of Enver Hoxha.

He was the Stalinist who ran Albania for four terrifying decades. He created a society so hysterically secretive that the few journalists who managed to enter were immediately relieved of any potentially dangerous printed material they were carrying. The late James Cameron, a first-class British author, discovered that at the customs office he had to surrender the books he carried with him around the world, his complete Jane Austen.

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