Election!

Words  361; 2 videos; a heap of pics

            Maxim’s birthday today! 

            Albania has a presidential election today.  Since I’ve been in Albania, I’ve been taking pictures of the election signs—today I continued as I ran around town on a new route.  The interesting thing is that there are so many parties that they refer to them by number.  I took pictures of the posters, banners, buttons, placards, and t-shirts proclaiming allegiance to a number.  I began to take these pictures during the 5-hour trip to Porto Palermo last Sunday .

            On Friday night, I met with a friend, Danijel, who works at the Croatian Embassy.  We noticed that there was a political rally in the park’s amphitheater.  The rally was for Number 66.  There was sound amplification, lights, cameras, and pretty people.  Here are some pictures:

66 on the right

66 on the left

A big 66 in the middle

The names of these parties are interesting. As you might expect, there's the Democratic Party, the Socialist Party, and the Democratic Socialist Party and probably every permutation imaginable of those words.   Maura said she saw a sign for the Communist party.

A man gave a heart-warming rendition of the Albanian national anthem and we turned away.  

We turned around and heard another rally just outside the park at Mother Teresa Square (did you know that Mother Teresa was from Albania?).  The second rally was for the party that is in power, the Democratic Party, number 44.  There were at least 10,000 people with speakers hanging from cranes and a balloon-powered cameraperson flying overhead in a motorized parachute.

Albania loves fireworks.  You better believe they shot off some great ones after the this final rally before the election:

  

These were thrown under our door last week. It's enough for  me to choose  he is NOT the one I  would vote for.

My Canadian friend these spray painted numbers are most distressing.  In Canada, everything the parties put up has to be gone in a month.  

            People would ask why I was taking pictures.  “Because this is so interesting to have all these parties known by a number.” It made me think of the joke about the guys working at a fire station who would tell the same jokes all the time.  They did this for so many years that one of them suggested that they simply number the jokes and then it wouldn’t take so long to tell them.  One guy would say, “15,” and everyone would crack up.  The next day, a new guy at the station said, “15,” but no one laughed.  He asked one of the veterans why not.  He answered, “Some guys just can’t tell a joke.”