OMG...we've never met and yet you and I are simpatico in SO many ways. This reminds me so much of Kosovo when I was living there in the mid-'90s- a place locked in time, that most of the world couldn't find if you spotted them a Geography Ph.D, and that NO ONE cares about. The shape of the country reminds me of Chile, and your description is moderately reminiscent of Chile under Salvador Allende.
And, yes, I would LOVE to go there. I've always had a thing for lost and forgotten repressive regimes. I have no idea why, other than it's something so far removed from what I've known. I remember taking a long weekend on Lake Ohrid in Macedonia. The Albanian border runs north/south literally through the middle of the lake. Albania's communist regime fell a few months before I was there (Enver Hoxha was a g**d**n freak show). Until then, if you'd decided to swim from the Macedonian side out to the middle of the lake, you would've been met by an Albanian patrol boat, machine-gunned, and left for dead. The Albanian "Navy" didn't f**k around.
As a huge soccer fan, I hear the name "Sheriff Tiraspol" a lot. Your essay explains a lot of the "whys." Thanks for that. :-)
Jesus. I could make an inappropriate joke about academia. But seriously, from what you've said, those videos are too depressing for me to even look at.
OMG...we've never met and yet you and I are simpatico in SO many ways. This reminds me so much of Kosovo when I was living there in the mid-'90s- a place locked in time, that most of the world couldn't find if you spotted them a Geography Ph.D, and that NO ONE cares about. The shape of the country reminds me of Chile, and your description is moderately reminiscent of Chile under Salvador Allende.
And, yes, I would LOVE to go there. I've always had a thing for lost and forgotten repressive regimes. I have no idea why, other than it's something so far removed from what I've known. I remember taking a long weekend on Lake Ohrid in Macedonia. The Albanian border runs north/south literally through the middle of the lake. Albania's communist regime fell a few months before I was there (Enver Hoxha was a g**d**n freak show). Until then, if you'd decided to swim from the Macedonian side out to the middle of the lake, you would've been met by an Albanian patrol boat, machine-gunned, and left for dead. The Albanian "Navy" didn't f**k around.
As a huge soccer fan, I hear the name "Sheriff Tiraspol" a lot. Your essay explains a lot of the "whys." Thanks for that. :-)
Jesus. I could make an inappropriate joke about academia. But seriously, from what you've said, those videos are too depressing for me to even look at.