FLASH
Shkruar nga Auron Tare
The "Mountain Package", as an idea, is good. But the idea, without knowing the reality, quickly becomes nonsense. Such an initiative requires serious studies on traditional architecture, a legal package that fanatically protects the authenticity of the Albanian village, analysis of the economic impact of tourism in these areas and above all, a deeper understanding of the tourist maturity of the areas...
A friend of mine, a majority MP, asked me to have coffee. I happily agreed, especially since we hadn't met for a while.
After we made the usual greetings, he immediately got to the point:
I want you to explain to me what you think of the "Mountain Package".
Why? I asked him in surprise. You voted for him, didn't you?
Yes, he said, but I want to understand what it's about.
Why, when you raised your hand to give Butrint to foreigners, did you understand anything? I asked him.
No, he said. We were asked and we voted.
What about amending the law on protected areas? To build where it shouldn't be built, do you understand?
"No," he said, now with a kind of shyness. "But you know how it works..."
"Then why are you asking me in vain?" I said. And, above all, why will you understand this time?
I'm hearing a lot of words in my area and I want to understand it better, he replied.
Look, I said. Imagine a village in the north or the south. A boy who has been in Spain for years returns and builds a "hacienda", exactly like the one he saw there. His neighbor, an immigrant in England, builds a Tudor-style guesthouse. A third, who has lived in China, builds a guesthouse with Chinese architecture. All three are happy, no doubt. The law you voted for made their dream easier. But what is left behind? A tasteless mixture, a caricature of a village, where the Albanian mountain loses its face.
The “Mountain Package”, as an idea, is good. But the idea, without knowing the reality, quickly becomes nonsense. Such an initiative requires serious studies on traditional architecture, a legal package that fanatically protects the authenticity of the Albanian village, analysis of the economic impact of tourism in these areas and, above all, a deep understanding of the tourist maturity of the areas. Otherwise, it risks ending up like Thethi, where “success” turned into a social drama.
Remember "100 Villages"? A beautiful facade but a complete failure.
Which institution has conducted real field studies? Where is the map of the values we have and want to promote in these areas? Or is mere desire and a propaganda banner enough?
Meanwhile, everything is lacking in the Mountainous Areas: health services, search and rescue structures in case of disasters, public transportation, waste management.
Villages have been emptied. Schools have been closed or are about to close. The voices of children are no longer heard. Youth have fled these areas.
Who will serve in these hostels? In many remote areas, service is currently provided by foreign workers.
And most painfully, pastoral life is dying out along with the villages. Mountains without shepherds are like books without letters. Beyond the pompous proclamations about the "migration of the herds" as a world heritage, in practice nothing has been done to protect this heritage.
"How is it done?" he asked me.
Very simply, I told him. Albanians may not have invented the wheel, but they can use it. There are plenty of models from our neighbors. All it takes is the will to learn and implement. Otherwise, the “Mountain Package” will remain an empty backdrop of empty villages and, here and there, an example of “hospitality” that the world will look upon with astonishment… or with mockery.
Lini një Përgjigje