A friend of mine married a former Albanian ballet dancer. When I first met him I was surprised by his fervent embrace of all things connected to America and American capitalism (he loved Bill Gates), but clearly with a ticker tape parade for George Bush this was no one off. It seems they are all like that. Bush is clearly lapping it up, but obviously ruing his luck that all this adulation comes from a European backwater.
Clearly, Albania is not like other countries (Enver Hoxha’s brand of communist isolation will do that for you – whatever did happen to the CPBML?) and with its support for the war on terror it is not like other Muslim countries either.
Bush’s popularity is further helped by his enthusiastic support for Kosovan independence much to the chagrin of Russia (not to mention Serbia).
“At some point in time – sooner rather than later – you’ve got to say Enough is enough. Kosovo is independent’ and that’s the position we’ve taken,” Bush said during a news conference with the Albanian prime minister Sali Berisha.
