Albania was probably the country who came the closest to pure socialism in its day.
My grandfather would get letter from my cousins which inferred that we were all rich beyond belief and the streets were paved with gold, so to speak. The things they told the people about the West were really outrageous, at least from what we could see. One of the last letters I saw from them before the government collapsed and the Hoxhaist state was more or less dismantled had them asking for several thousand dollars so they could buy motorbikes for everyone in the family to help them to be able to get around. This was in the early 1980s, I recall. In 1966 or 67, I traveled with my Dad to NYC to visit the Albanian representatives at the UN. We had gotten word that one of the relatives was very sick, and my grandfather wanted my Dad to travel to Albania to deliver medicine to the family under the auspices of a Red Cross visit. I recall the men from the consul or whatever the diplomatic entity they were being very skeptical and not so nice. They would, however, grant my father and any other member of our family a visa to enter the country if we liked. The next day we took the train down to D.C. where we met with some people from the State Department. I remember was the State Department person telling us that we were welcome to go to Albania if they issued a visa, but once we crossed their border we would, for all intents and purposes, vanish off the face of the Earth, as the US had no diplomatic relations with the country. Needless to say, my Dad said "The hell with it!" and more or less told my grandfather they wouldn't let us in the country. Dan On Jun 2, 2014, at 5:37 PM, Randy Bennell wrote: > > Just like in Washington DC (and probably Ottawa too). > > > > On 02/06/2014 4:12 PM, Andrew Strasfogel wrote: >> Commie socialist capitalists? >> >> >> On Mon, Jun 2, 2014 at 3:58 PM, Rich Thomas < >> richthomas79td...@constructivity.net> wrote: >> >>> I understand a lot of them are stolen elsewhere and taken there and sold, >>> a fairly lawless place. The commie socialists embraced capitalism very >>> quickly. >>> >>> --R >>> >>> >>> >>> On 6/2/14 3:34 PM, Dan Penoff wrote: >>> >>>> That's pretty interesting, as before they opened the borders to the >>>> outside world they were lucky to have horse drawn carts. >>>> >>>> My Dad's family is from Albania and I supposedly still have relatives >>>> there... >>>> >>>> Dan >>>> >>>> Sent from my iPad >>>> >>>> On Jun 2, 2014, at 3:30 PM, "WILTON" <wilt...@nc.rr.com> wrote: >>>>> @ 1 grandson (grad student in Paris) is on a summer job in Tirana, >>>>> Albania; 'says most of the cars there seem to be MB's; lotsa 124's and >>>>> newer; I'll ask about 123's. >>>>> >>>>> Wilton >>>>> _______________________________________ >>>>> > > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > All posts are the result of individual contributors and as such, those > individuals are responsible for the content of the post. The list owner has > no control over the content of the messages of each contributor. _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com All posts are the result of individual contributors and as such, those individuals are responsible for the content of the post. The list owner has no control over the content of the messages of each contributor.
