Foto pikė pėr pikė ndaluar! and other Albania Warning Or Danger Tips

In 1988, our Albanian guide had warned us that we should not photography official buildings and army members in uniform and anything related to the defense.

Strongly forbidden photo !

Here, we were looking for tracks of otter and saw only droppings but overhanging us was the Albanian army in operation. That was the occasion to try a forbidden photo!

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The first photo shows school road signs in 1988 and in 2005.

All other photos were taken in 1988.

The second photo shows the yard of a school in a village of the country.

The third is the yard of a school in Vlorė. The girls, behind the grids wear a uniform.

The fourth photo, taken in front of our hotel in Berat shows a group of school girls, all in white and blue uniform.

The fifth photo shows smaller children, in Tiranė, wearing a white blouse as a uniform.

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It looks like each form had a uniform of a different color. These photos were taken in Tiranė in 1988 n front of Eytham bey mosquee.

On the first photo, the girls, 13-14 years old have a light blue uniform with a white strip in the bottom.

On the second photo, the girls, 15-16, have an orange uniform with the same white strip.

From the 5 photos of the previous tip and the 2 on the present one, it unexpectedly seems that in 1988 in Albania, except in the smallest villages, school were not coeducational. I will have to look in 2006 if that has changed.

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Pollution in Elbasan seemed in 1988 to be varied and coming from different type of industries. The production of the iron and steel plant was important and declined rapidly after 1991 while the production at the nickel and cobalt refinery ceased completely. In the1980’s, extraction of lateritic nickeliferous iron ore ranged from 1 to 1.2 Mt/yr of ore, of which about one-half was consumed at the Elbasan iron and steel works to produce pig iron, a small amount of steel, and salts of nickel and cobalt. As far as I have read, none of these industries ran anymore in 2000. I do not know what is the situation in 2006.

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I am not sure that the two photos shown here will give the true feeling of the very severe pollution that I had seen when passing along the paper plant of Lushnijė. There were chimneys spitting smokes of various colors. Moreover, but I could not take the photo (the bus was running and I was not fast enough), the small river that flew along the road was covered with a thick (15-20 cm) layer of foam. An apocalyptic sight!

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I am not sure where this photo was taken. It should be Korcė but if some one tells me it is in Elbasan, in Lushnijė (I do not think so) or Fier, I would not be surprised. Compared to other places in 1988 Albania, this looked like “reasonable” pollution !

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In 1988, our bus drove us from Tiranė to Shkodėr and back. On the way to Shkodėr, I had spotted an impressive plant that looked like a ghostly ruin with rusted pipes and equipment, but that nevertheless seemed to work. I have made some research and found that there was in Lezhė a highly polluting paper plant that was a threat for the environment and especially for the wetlands of Kune-Vaini. I suppose this is the one shown here, though it looks more like a chemical plant than a paper plant. I have read also that there was a mineral industry plant "in the district of Lezhė".

Given the condition the plant was in 1988, I feel pretty sure that it is not working anymore (and I wish it does not!). I hope to check it in summer 2006. However, even when they are closed, abandoned plants remain a threat for biodiversity and for the environment. You can find more on the subject on biodiversity in Albania and on biodiversity in Central and Eastern Europe.

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