“…[T]he dates that truly made a difference aren’t always the ones we know by heart; frequently, they’ve languished in dusty oblivion. The 10 days that follow — obscure as some are — changed American history. (In some cases, they are notable for what didn’t happen rather than what did.)” (New York Times )
Daily Archives: 3 Jul 06
In Albania, a Capital Full of Contradictions
The frugal traveller visits Tirana for the New York Times: “I had arrived in Albania hoping to discover an untrammeled paradise hidden in the Balkans. What I found instead was a deeply weird place…” I was at a dinner on the United Nations Day Against Torture last week (the anniversary of the day, 6/26/1987, that the U.N. Convention Against Torture went into effect) held by Boston Medical Center’s Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights to honor political refugees who had gained asylum in the United States. By far the most uncomfortable and isolated people in this room full of political refugees from oppressed nations all over the world were an Albanian family, I felt.
