🚀 go-pugleaf

>Somebody wrote me that reading my diaries about Albania he got the
>feeling of getting the description of a cheap "mad max" kind of film. 
>A world after the nuclear bomb dropped or an other big disaster has 
>taken place. And I think in many ways that is true. 
The break down of society after the removal of the communist
dictatorship.   South Africa is experiencing some thing similar.

>It was maybe not a nuclear war, but a financial collapse, the effects
>are almost the same.
No !  What is valid on a micro scale, is not valid on a macro scale.
eg. If you had X units of 'money',  you could get a bottle of whisky
and a motor boat, now in Albania (if you wanted). 
But every body in Albania could NOT get these items if they all had
that same X 'piece of paper', called money.  Don't extrapolate from
the micro to the macro.
The donors are slowly realising that 'money' must be matched by 
competence.  It takes 9 months to make a baby no matter how much
'money' you throw at it.  It's not a 'financial' collapse.



>But what can I say after 3 months, maybe the country
>is back on it's way to get "normal", maybe it is still on the way down, it
>is hard to say.
Consider Germany & Japan after WW2.  Baddly messed up ?
I don't know for sure, but I suspect Albania is a bit like Africa/Haiti ?
What's lacking is not physical resources (which can partly be bought
& donated quickly) but human resources which take generations to
develop - if the genetic material is receptive.

> One huge thing is that the world is willing, it seems, to
>invest 2 billion dollars in the rebuilding of Kosov@, that means almost 
>1 million dollars per person if you count well. Sorry, I have to admit I
>think that is crazy. Better would be in some way to give each Kosovarian
>that one million and let them organise themself what they do with it. 
Apparently 2 billion = 2 thousand million.  USA billion ?
Again comparing Marshal-plan-post-war-Germany with Africa/Haiti:
 if Germany's buildings, factories, railways .. etc. were destroyed,
 the human capital: education, attitude was still intact.   But if
 Albanians need to settle their disputes by stolen AK47's, you can't
build a society/economy on that - no matter how many new buildings,
factories, railways... are provided.   OK, this really refers to developing
Albania, and your writing about Kosov@.

>Smuggling is of course still Albanias biggest problem. 
You don't mention smuggling WHAT ?
Again in Europe, after WW2 people used to smuggle coffee, their
money in toothpaste-tubes, etc.   So if absurd restrictions exist
instead of an open society/economy, one talks about 'smuggling'
where the concept would be considered absurd in eg. Netherlands ?

Thanks for your interesting/informative postings.     Chris Glur.