After bribing our way across the border, it was easy to see just why Albania is one of Europe’s poorest countries and the poorest country in the Balkans region. Although there is an abundance of countryside, barely any of it is suitable for farming. The roads are narrow and unsurfaced. In our 9 hours of driving into Tirana, we only travelled 400 kilometres! Coincidently, the only cars we saw on the roads were Mercedes. This is the result of the stolen cars being smuggled in during the 90’s after the collapse of communism.
The reason why I found Albania so intriguing is because of its rich history. Before becoming the Republic of Albania in 1991, it had been invaded multiple times by Russia, Italy and Croatia and lived under Russian Communist rule. Under communist rule, there was no religion and the country was forced to live isolated from the western world. Under communism, a person could be jailed for up to 15 years for practicing religion and up to 7 years for making reference to the western world, for example, singing a Beatles song. Albanians are known to be very family orientated so under communism reign, the government worked hard to turn family members against each other. They believed that this would help prevent resistant to communism way of life.
Agriculture is Albania’s main employment sector. During communism, farmers were paid a set amount and had no desire to work hard for profit. When the communist regime collapsed in 1990, this is partially why economic collapse and social unrest resulted. An economical crisis spread in the late 1996, peaking in the 1997 in an armed rebellion, that led to another mass emigration of Albanians, mostly to Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Germany and to North America. In 1999 the country was affected by Kosovo War, when a great number of Albanians from Kosovo found refuge in Albania. Bomb shelters are scattered all over the countryside as Enver Hoxha, the leader during WW2 was so paranoid that Albania would be invaded that he had them erected. Now these shelters are used for nothing more than a public toilet or a place to lose ones virginity.
Albania isn’t ashamed of its history which is reflected in the building architecture in Tirana. Currently, the mayor is trying to update the buildings by commissioning artists to paint them brightly. Even more interesting, Albanians only earn around 250 Euro per month – well below the par in other countries and as Albania is yet to join the EU, they have their own currency the Lek, which is almost worthless anywhere else in the world. In other signs of economic instability, many of the houses have unfinished roofs because if they remain unfinished then the owner pays less land tax.
But things are looking up for Europe’s poorest country. Albania became a full member of NATO in 2009 and the country is currently in the process of applying to join the EU.
