Yellow pages in Albania
Today at work we attempted to call the Municipal Court of Tropoja, a town in Northern Albania known for its tribal life style and its attachment to the Kanun (Kanun is a set of customary laws , whose cornestone is the 'Besa' or word of honour, a very important element of the Albanian way of life. Under the Kanun, blood revenge is particularly horrendous, USAID data reports that today around 1000 families live hidden/closed at home fearing revenge. The vendettas continue generation after generation, decimating families. Needless to say I was really shocked when I heard about the Kanun, even more when I learnt that the person who commits the crime attends the funeral of the victim!).
You have more information on the Kanun and amazingly hard pictures from Albania here
There is no doubt that there must be some places in Albania where all these Kanun rules are still applied...but I suspect that, maybe us, foreigners in Albania, tend to exaggerate this code of conduct of extremely poor and isolated people a bit too much. I am probably wrong, though. This is another of my "too subjective to be quantified" thoughts.
By the way, where was I? I wanted to explain that today my Albanian colleague Suela and I tried to call Tropoja, the lawless city...what about Mayor? Do Tropojan fellows have an active Municipality governing them? Our first step in this very important research exercise was to grab the "Albanian yellow pages" and check the number of the public bodies in Tropoja. Suela said to me: "Lucky us, at least now we have yellow pages". In that very moment, I did not tell Suela, but I felt we had had different childhoods. I realized that I had grown up in a country with thick yellow pages on the door, streets with names and numbers for each block, floor, flat. I have a very fresh memory of the yellow pages because it was me, instructed by my mum, who often picked the yellow pages up from the front door of our apartment. Well, I also remember them because in our house the yellow pages were rather useless, or with very particular functions, should I say...we used them for drawing all kind of "bubus" while talking over the phone: faces, flowers, write down numbers, practice our signature...or, a second very important usage, to practice my sister's patented contest: "become a model if you can walk 5 minutes holding the yellow pages on the top of your head"!!!. Don't do it, please. My sister and I got the inspiration while watching a documentary on Ethiopian women holding stuff over their heads.
Memories aside, we tried to call Tropoja..1st try...did not work, wrong number, 2nd try...the number of the Tax office is now the private number of a family....3rd try...no way. Advice: If you want something, go and get it. We'll have to go to Tropoja!!!
You have more information on the Kanun and amazingly hard pictures from Albania here
There is no doubt that there must be some places in Albania where all these Kanun rules are still applied...but I suspect that, maybe us, foreigners in Albania, tend to exaggerate this code of conduct of extremely poor and isolated people a bit too much. I am probably wrong, though. This is another of my "too subjective to be quantified" thoughts.
By the way, where was I? I wanted to explain that today my Albanian colleague Suela and I tried to call Tropoja, the lawless city...what about Mayor? Do Tropojan fellows have an active Municipality governing them? Our first step in this very important research exercise was to grab the "Albanian yellow pages" and check the number of the public bodies in Tropoja. Suela said to me: "Lucky us, at least now we have yellow pages". In that very moment, I did not tell Suela, but I felt we had had different childhoods. I realized that I had grown up in a country with thick yellow pages on the door, streets with names and numbers for each block, floor, flat. I have a very fresh memory of the yellow pages because it was me, instructed by my mum, who often picked the yellow pages up from the front door of our apartment. Well, I also remember them because in our house the yellow pages were rather useless, or with very particular functions, should I say...we used them for drawing all kind of "bubus" while talking over the phone: faces, flowers, write down numbers, practice our signature...or, a second very important usage, to practice my sister's patented contest: "become a model if you can walk 5 minutes holding the yellow pages on the top of your head"!!!. Don't do it, please. My sister and I got the inspiration while watching a documentary on Ethiopian women holding stuff over their heads.
Memories aside, we tried to call Tropoja..1st try...did not work, wrong number, 2nd try...the number of the Tax office is now the private number of a family....3rd try...no way. Advice: If you want something, go and get it. We'll have to go to Tropoja!!!
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