REFLECTIONS ON A.A. GILL'S ARTICLE ON ALBANIA

The following is a commentary on the article of Mr. A.A. Gill, titled, "The land that time forgot", which appeared in The Sunday Times Magazine of London, July 23, 2006.

The article was a disappointment to me, since it gave the reader a distorted picture, for the most part, of Albania and its people. The piece betrays extensive ignorance of Albania by the author, and, worse still, it drips with malice toward the Albanian people. Not less offensive is the defense of Mr. Gill by the magazine's editor, Mr. Robin Morgan. For him to say that people should read the article "for enjoyment" is both callous and crude. Frankly, I am baffled that the prestigious Sunday Times considered Mr. Gill's report worthy of publication, instead of consigning it to the waste basket.

Mr. Gill may find it amusing to belittle and ridicule Albania, but the fact is that many foreign travelers to Albania, including some noted English figures, have written glowing accounts of the country and its people. Lord Byron, for example, in his Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, praises Albanians for their loyalty and bravery. Moreover, in a letter he wrote to his mother from Greece in 1810, he said that Albanian women "are very beautiful". The noted English traveler to the Balkans, Edith Durham, author of High Albania (1909), was very fond of the Albanian people, who in turn showed their high esteem for her by calling her "Queen of the Highlanders" of Albania. Closer to our times, the late Julian Amery, British MP and a member of the British Military Mission to Albania in WWII, says in his book, Sons of the Eagle, that Alexander the Great was of Illyrian origin (the Illyrians being the ancestors of the Albanians), both on his mother's and his father's side. Amery was also a close friend of former King Zog of Albania, whom he describes as "the cleverest man I have ever met".

Mr. Gill starts off his pernicious piece with a belittling remark about Mother Teresa, who was of Albanian nationality. He says that Albanians named their international airport after Mother Teresa, "a woman who devoted herself to helping people die" (!). I ask: Is that the way to describe the work of the world-famous nun who brought dignity, comfort and peace to thousands of wretched, forsaken and lonely men and women? Is it possible that Mr. Gill is not aware that his co-national, the late Princess Diana, admired Mother Teresa, and shortly before her tragic end, became increasingly interested in doing charity work, like Mother Teresa? Moreover, a fellow countryman of his, Malcolm Muggeridge, renowned journalist, author and satirist, wrote a best-selling book about Mother Teresa, titled, Something Beautiful for God (1971). Mr. Gill may perhaps be excused for not knowing anything about numerous Europeans who have praised Albania, but he certainly cannot be excused for his ignorance of what the British have said about Albania and its people. It is not too much to say that such gross ignorance on his part, is enough to discredit his entire article. Nevertheless, I shall consider several other points Mr. Gill makes in his article, to show how off-base and misleading he is.

Let us first see what he says about the Albanian airline, which bears the name "Albatros Airways". Well, leave it to the roving traveler, A.A. Gill, to find fault with the name. Trust the Albanians, he says, to name their planes "after the only bird that is an international symbol for bad luck". Poor chap! He doesn't even know how to spell, let alone write objectively, for he confuses the name of the Albanian Airline with the name of the bird "albatross", which has a different spelling. Furthermore, Albatros happens to be also the name of a British automobile, as well as the name of an Argentinian military unit. Then again, he might know the difference between "Albatros" and "albatross", but presumed that his readers are too ignorant to tell them apart.

Continuing his largely fictitious tale, Mr.Gill brings up a truly bizarre topic, namely the question of "the Albanian throne" at the end of World War I, with the intention no doubt of demonstrating how naïve and dense these Albanians are. He tells us that they offered the throne of their country to an Englishman by the name of C.B. Fry (1872-1956). Fancy that! Well, it turns out that C.B. Fry was an unstable, delusional English cricketer. He may have dreamed of sitting in the Albanian throne, but the fact is that his name doesn't even figure in the pages of Albania's history books. He is a nonentity.

Our traveler to Albania doesn't like the way the Albanians dress, he doesn't like their looks (they are "ferret-faced"), and he doesn't like their language. "Albanian," he dares to say, "is one of those languages that have no known relative…." Here again, he trips and falls flat on his face. He has no inkling that Albanian is a member of the Indo-European family of languages, just like the English language, and the French, the German, etc. What he says, is true of the Basque language, but definitely not true of Albanian. Here, too, Mr. Gill shows how superficial and incompetent he is as a reporter.

Further along in his notorious reportage, Mr. Gill claims that Albania is so backward, that it can be likened to "Europe in the 16th century" (!). I am not jesting. Those are his very words. I suppose he thought he was pretty clever to come up with that comparison. But I contend that he was neither clever, nor very observant. It's true that little Albania ranks low on the economic ladder of Europe. But unlike Europe in the 16th century, it does have modern plumbing, electricity, telephones, and even ice cream. And that's not all. Mr. Gill may not have noticed, but in Albania today some people even have computers, digital cameras and such. So, the comparison he draws does not stand, does it? But truth and accuracy are not his strong points.

It's not, however, until toward the end of his concoction that Mr. Gill lets loose with his heavy artillery. He informs the reader that there is "a divide between north and south Albania". A "divide", you ask? What in the world is that? He explains that the "north is called Gheg" (actually, Ghegeria, or the land inhabited by Ghegs), "the south Tosk" (actually, Toskeria, or the land inhabited by Tosks). But let's not quibble over such detail. The punch line comes in the next sentence, when he affirms: "Gheg is tough, uncouth, aggressive; the south, educated, civilized, Italianate." Really!

This is so gross and sophomoric, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Such reportage would shame even a High School student writing a paper on Albania. The distinctions Mr. Gill makes between the Ghegs and Tosks are utterly false. There are "educated, civilized" Ghegs, just as there are "tough and uncouth" Tosks. True, a long time ago the Ghegs were more insular and provincial, but that is no longer the case. Ghegs and Tosks are one and the same people, sharing basically the same culture and character traits. In fact, the very terms "Gheg" and "Tosk" are rapidly falling into disuse in present-day Albania, for the reason that they are hardly relevant any more. Which makes me wonder. Did Mr. Gill get to meet any Gheg Albanians? He may have, but the poor fellow very likely had no idea that he was in the presence of a Gheg.

Mindful, however, of the popular adage "to give the devil his due", I feel obliged to note that Mr. Gill does, in fact, say a few things that are true of Albania. He asserts that in 1913 Albania was victimized by Europe, when the Treaty of London, buckling under the pressure of Albania's neighbors, "left over half of all Albanians outside their own country, primarily in Kosovo". Correct. Not only over half of the people, but also one half of the territory of Albania was handed over to its neighbors. Elsewhere in his article, the British traveler found it in his heart to say some good words about Albania's capital, Tirana. He remarks that Tirana, despite its overall drabness, has a bright side. It has a number of attractive cafes, bars and nightclubs. To my surprise, he notes that "Tirana felt like a very safe place", forgetting apparently that elsewhere in his article he writes that Albania "is a country of brigands". In another passage, he writes in the spirit, you might say, of his pro-Albania English predecessors. He says that there is "little drunkenness in the streets", practically no drugs, "no lap-dancing clubs" and "no pornography shops".

Now, that's more like it. Had he made an effort, Mr. Gill could have found many more positive things to write about Albania, and offered the reader a balanced view of the country. He could have written about its splendid landscape, or its modern museums and network of universities. Or about the virtues of its people, such as their renowned "word of honor", their warm hospitality, their bravery and strong sense of personal and family pride. As it stands, every good word he has for Albania is drowned by dozens of erroneous and mean-spirited words.

In short, he had a chance to write, more or less, like the distinguished circle of his fellow countrymen, such as Lord Byron and Edith Durham. Instead, to his lasting shame, he presented the readers of the Sunday Times with a report about Albania that is notable for its bias, numerous errors and lack of journalistic professionalism. With a pen dipped in venom, he has offended a whole nation and its citizens, and done so without cause, without reason, without provocation. Under the circumstances, justice and propriety require that he apologize to the victims. But does he have the decency and strength of character to take that step and redeem himself?

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Note: This article was written in September, 2006, and e-mailed to the Editorial Comments Department of The Times of London, on October 1, 2006.