A Balkan Man in the Americas

The Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha and his wife loved to show themselves before their huge private library. If you zoom the picture and manage to read the titles of the book you should know that at least 90% of them were banned for the "ordinary Albanians"... In 2009 I found myself again in Albania, doing some research on the lifestyle of the “Party leaders” during the communist regime. I was surprised to discover, among other things, that books and private libraries played an important role in Hoxha’s court. I was astonished by the fact that some of these guys, who systematically destroyed libraries and book collections, were also great readers and book collectors themselves. They even used to compete with each other, comparing the size of their private libraries. Enver Hoxha himself possessed an astonishing private library with almost 30,000 titles, mainly in French, as he had studied in France in the thirties. Some of these books were, literally, stolen fr...

There’s a nice little interview with Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of NYC, in the this month’s Monocle (July/August 2012) in which he discusses the benefits immigrants bring to a city and country. It’s worthy reading . M: you have made strong speeches in support of immigration. Why? MB: The solution to America’s problems is getting immigrants from around the world who come in and start businesses with a work ethic that is almost always better than the people who have been there for multiple generations, because we all get comfortable. Immigrants are self-selected. They are people who want to make it better. And anyone willing to give up their friends, family, culture, housing, everything they know, to take the risks—those people work harder almost by definition. And that’s what you need to encourage those who have been there for generations, to challenge them and make them understand that they gotta do it too . America has a terrible immigration policy. If anybody get...

It is rather interesting that the Greek Civil War was not mirrored in epic narratives. Novels on this subject, in their majority, reproduced the propaganda of either the winner or the defeated. The novels which didn’t follow this rule were very rare. In these conditions of political asphyxia poetry worked like a metaphorical catharsis, painful therapy or like a mirror, especially for those who were defeated during the Civil War. Poetry was a way of telling a traumaticstory that few in the country were willing or permitted to hear ( Read MORE )

Hello from Athens and thank you for asking me how I’m doing in this mess. We walk in the streets. We buy fruits from the greengrocer. We listen to the radio and watch football. We are doing a thousand useful and useless things and thinking a thousand useful and useless thoughts – each and every one of us… things that will never be reported  on the front pages of the major international newspapers and in the headlines of the major international TV channels. Big Media, actually, is expecting to break the Big News on the results of the Greek election. The Big News is called the “Grexit”. Which means, according to the experts, a total collapse for Greece and an eventual collapse for the Eurozone. It’s a period of economic crises and prolific in neologisms. “Grexit” is the latest buzzword.  But here, for the time being, we are recycling old concepts and words. For example, the words “plot” and “guinea pig”. More and more people are convinced that Greece is  the “guine...

The gift of the Greek authorities on the worker’s May Day holiday was to publicize the photographs of 11 HIV-positive female prostitutes. These women had sex with their customers, without using condoms, thus putting lives in danger –lives of honorable families and family men who had the misfortune of having sex without a condom with these particular women.  As soon as the photographs became public, they began to circulate – at first mostly in secret – from one family to the next. Dynamic women began to cross-examine their husbands. Waving handfuls of published photographs in front of their husband’s surprised eyes they asked “hey, do you know any of these women?”  The wives’ reactions were determined by the answers of their husbands. Wives who wouldn’t dare to interrogate their husbands, wander around the brothel district disguised as beggars, holding a photo of their husband and covertly asking passers-by “have you seen this man around this neighborhood?”  ...

  T he PEN Atlas is your gateway to a world of literature.   Every Thursday, we post literary despatches from around the world, showcasing the very best international writers.  We hope to bring new insights into the rich literary landscape that may be found beyond the English language. All content is commissioned and edited by Tasja Dorkofikis , who will be inviting a wide range of contributors from around the world about to give their views on contemporary and emerging literature.  If you would like to pitch or reprint an article then please get in touch . English PEN Launches the PEN Atlas with this piece by Athens based writer Gazmend Kapllani. What does an author do in a city that is collapsing? Like all the other non-authors, he tries not to collapse. He hopes that the worst is over, and yet he fears that perhaps the worst is yet to come. He observes the falling snow and for a moment he thinks about the homeless who have filled the streets of Athens....

Leaving one country and choosing to live in another, as I have done, is both a painful and creative process. And after some years have passed, you find yourself in the position to draw some conclusions about “life lessons.” One such lesson is that man’s greatest virtue has nothing to do with the purity of his bloodline, but with his ability to create and to change. Another lesson is that our true homeland is not marked in our genes, but in our hearts and minds. A true homeland is one which offers its people respect and opportunities. Living in two countries and between two languages, I can affirm that the people I’ve met who truly loved their country did not often say the word “homeland,” nor did they maniacally shout that they are “patriots,” and neither did they lecture about hating others. For those who equate love of country with hatred towards others, history shows that this constitutes certain catastrophe – mainly for their homeland. People who truly love their homeland are not...

I recently saw the much-talked about Super Bowl commercial starring Clint Eastwood. The one where he urges the American people (using a very “American” way of encouragement) to never give up the fight because in every game there’s always a second half. In Greece and in all of Europe we are acting as if the game has been entirely lost. So, the only thing left to do is to unclog the remains of a “happy” world which is sinking. Recently at a posh mall in the northern suburbs of Athens, I saw this “happy world.” The people there shopped in a carefree manner, buying very expensive goods. Five kilometers away from this mall, people with angry faces were walking past empty shops, forced to shut down because of the economic crisis. This is the future – if we want to accept that the game is over. This is why Greece and all of Europe has the need for a second half. For a new Great Idea, like the Industrial Revolution. Back then, like now, the people found themselves at a crossroads. New social ...

I “hang out” on the metro more than I do at cafés. I feel as if it is my retreat - especially these days. Every time I descend into the station, it’s as if I am in a shelter which protects me from the prevailing feeling of melancholy which persists above ground. The people waiting on the clean platforms have more relaxed expressions on their faces. But at the same time, their expressions are more vacant. It’s as if they’ve put on a temporary mask. Once you ascend to the surface, the mask falls. You walk along the streets of Athens, “collecting” various images – broken storefronts, glum faces, burnt buildings and nearby the scorched remains, homeless people. We are living in a vicious cycle – with our nerves on edge, with conspiracy theories, with the homeless, beggars and unemployment, rage and fear, with the constant threat of catastrophe, loads of teargas and disastrous mania. Distortions usually begin with the corruption of words:  when, in the name of “Citizens’ Protection,” ...

Last night in Athens, a “neo-barbarian party” was born. Its members were not at all charmed by the old revolutionary idea that the end justifies the means, simply because their only aim is hatred. Above all, hatred for the police. Hatred for everything that symbolizes the city.  They do not really participate in any ideological tradition.  They are “children” of an “eternal present” – with no recollection, without a past and without a vision for the future; their only slogan: “a burning city is a blossoming flower.” This “slogan” unites people of the extreme left and the extreme right – hooligans of the football pitch and people of the underworld – mixing numerous “romantic” authoritarian myths and urban guerrilla warfare tactics. The neo-barbarian party is the mirror image of the main ideas and practices which are embodied (systemically and anti-systemically) by the Greek political parties and entities: animosity towards the common good. It is the flip side of the looting ...

On January 23, 2012 the Greek Ministry of Culture announced the winners of the Greek State Literature Prizes for 2011. The Major Prize of Greek Letters was awarded to the poet Dinos Christianopoulos, who issued a statement refusing to accept the award. He could have rejected the Greek State Literature Prize by slightly paraphrasing lines from is poetry: "what shall I do with your prizes/ they are too sugar-coated/ they are better suited for spoiled brats/ they are not suited for me ". It is important to know who gives you the prize and why. In any case you have to be brave to reject prizes and even more brave to reject significant prizes. All over the world, there are only few “prize rejecters” in comparison to the millions of prizes which are given. Personally, Dino Christianopoulos’ gesture moved me. It is a lifelong outlook, subversive, deeply human - with the Christian meaning of the term. I expected this gesture to spark meaningful public debates about the “hazy” worl...

My silence in this blog is due to my trip to Boston, US.  The Kokkalis Program on Southeastern and East-Central Europe invited me for a lecture at Harvard University. The title of the lecture: “Being Greek and Albanian – the “No Man’s Land” of a double identity in the Balkans”. Below you’ll find the text of my essay and you can also watch the video from the event. Comments, as always, are more than welcome. Thank you in advance for your attention and patience.  Being Greek and Albanian: The “No Man’s Land” of a Double Identity in the Balkans Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government Kokkalis Program on Southeastern and East-Central Europe Southeastern Europe Study Group, Center for European Studies November 9, 2011 Ladies and Gentlemen, I feel extremely honored being with you today. I want to thank the Kokkalis Program on Southeastern and East – Central Europe and especially its director Elaine Papoulias for the honor ...