Racism in Albania

[Bari]

Hospitality, what hospitality?

This is a rant so to all those who might get offended or look at Albania through rose tinted glasses you have been warned.

Most visitors to Albania always comment on how hospitable and friendly the people are here, and they would be right in making that assertion based on their experiences. Well I beg to differ about these observations because I believe them to be somewhat biased.

Please don’t get me wrong I am not saying that all Albanian people are unfriendly and inhospitable, all I am saying is that it in my humble opinion Albanians are not as friendly as described by most visitors, and I will explain myself.

You see Albanians are predominantly white with a minority of Roma people who are of a darker complexion. Most foreigners who live in Albania are here for work or they are married to someone who is working here. The majority of those coming to work and live here are also white, and usually from western countries within the EU or from the US. As a result the feedback you get from visitors to Albania mainly comes from these people.

Now my question to you is, have you ever considered what it is like to be a black/brown/Asian foreigner in Albania?

I am not of white European origin but I blend in pretty well MOST of the time, but I recently had two friends from home coming to visit me for two weeks because they had seen photos of the beaches here and I told them who nice and beautiful the country is. One of my friends is black while the other is of Asian background, and let me tell you, walking in the street and going out with them was a new experience for me here in Albania. The rudeness and the utter ignorance of the people makes my blood boil, and I think what made it worse was the fact that I understand some Albanian.

When we walked the streets people just stared at us as if we were some creatures that had just landed from Mars, and when we walked into cafes or restaurants heads would turn. People would stop conversation just to look at us, and I don’t mean take a quick look, no, they gaze into our eyes until it gets very uncomfortable.

The thing that made it worse was that I understand a bit of Albanian, so I could not avoid hearing ‘zezak’(nigger), ‘majmun’(ape) or ‘kinez’(...) almost everywhere we went, let alone the ‘ching chang chong’ and monkey noises some youths were saying while we walked past them in the streets.

There is one observation I made when my friends were here, and that is most of this came from the young (below 40) generation, which would rule out ignorance because this generation has seen American films, they listen to rap music, they like Thierry Henry and Beyonce. So apart from pure racism I cannot find a reason for such behaviour. The older generation on the other hand was more pleasant and just took one look at the two aliens walking with me and turned away.

I ask all ex-pats reading this, have you walked in the streets here with a non-white person? Or maybe you are not white, how do you find walking in the streets of Tirana? And if you are an Albanian reading this, please tell me if I am being harsh?

I know many of you will say ‘well things were just as bad in our countries back in the 60s, 70’s or 80’s (some are till this day), I would agree, but we were not being described as hospitable and friendly, we were rightly being called Right-wing, racists, and xenophobic.

So there you have it, next time when I hear an American/British/French/German/Scandinavian white person tell me that Albanians are friendly and hospitable, my response would be: ‘of course they are, you are the right colour, just thank God you are white’.

By the way, my friends liked Albania, but they will not come back here soon.

http://insidealbania.wordpress.com/2...t-hospitality/

[Jarl]

I don't think any mountain folk is particularly friendly or hospitable

[Bari]

I don't think any mountain folk is particularly friendly or hospitable

- Quite the contrary, and it was written down in the Kanun(book of code laws):

The Kanun of the Albanian mountains did not differentiate humans from humans (§ 593). For the injury of the personal honor the Kanun said: "whom you want, forgive him; if you like, then (or) wash the clouded forehead" (§ 595), i.e. revenge. After § 596 everyone had its own honor for himself, and nobody could interfere. There was a kind of the discrimination prohibition between the men. The life of the good one and the bad one had the same value: "the Kanun took (considered) both for (as) men" (§594). Supported by these two regulations, as well as by the rule in § 887, those means: "the price of human lives is alike for the good one as for the bad ones", is to be taken as a kind of equal treatment principle, which however was applied only between men. The robbed personal honor could not be restored by penalty, but only with blood (death) or assigning (Ndera e marrun nuk shpërblehet me gja, por a me të derdhun të gjakut, a me të falun fisnikërisht. § 598).

b. b. b. the public honor
The public honor covers the question of the guest in the house, hospitality and house right. By patent right it was understood protecting a guest (mikut). One differentiated between injury of hospitality and the house right. We will illustrate this distinction in two examples:

Example 1: House right
X comes into the house of Y. As long as X remained in the house of Y, Y was obligated for the security of X. If it happened something to Y in the house of the X, then X was obliged to revenge for him, because the act of violence at Y was considered as an injury of the house right.

Example 2: Hospitality
This case has to be understood, as injury of hospitality against someone: if Y was one of the authors, and he went in the house of X, he was allowed in no case to suffer damage from X, until he (Y) went to another house, because this meant an injury of the hospitality principle.

http://www.shkoder.net/en/kanun_en.htm

[Grumpy Cat]

There are racists everywhere. So why is it surprising that the author found it in Albania?

[Bari]

There are racists everywhere. So why is it surprising that the author found it in Albania?

- The issue was not that there are racist everywhere, but how visible it was and how openly people expressed it. It wasn't one or two incidents, but rather something following them during their whole staying on bars, cafes and in the streets.

[Wulfhere]

Who on earth would ever choose to go to Albania?

[Sigrid]

Who on earth would ever choose to go to Albania?

No offense to the original poster, but I was thinking the same thing?

[Bari]

There are people travelling from all kinds of Western countries(especially Italians and Germans). Why? Because its cheap, the locals are friendly and hospitable, the night life is okay, theres historical sites to visit, nice beaches and warm climate.

Night life




Beaches in Vlora



Rozafa Castle in Shkodra(dating 350 BC)

[Majar]

What a poor, uncivilized way to treat visitors to one's country. I hope you're not posting this to be proud of the pathetic, childish behavior described here.

[Guapo]

Hospitality, what hospitality?

This is a rant so to all those who might get offended or look at Albania through rose tinted glasses you have been warned.


http://insidealbania.wordpress.com/2...t-hospitality/

They're just pissed off because they couldn't lay any white girls while on vacation.