I spent the best part of last month struggling with my apartments' drains, which suddenly stopped draining and started doing the reverse. After two days of consultations with the landlord, several visits from plumbers, and using the bathroom at the bakery downstairs, we figured out that the pipes in the building (which was probably built in the 1940s) weren't designed for toilet paper.
This is something I've come to realize over my time living in Albania: even the most modernized parts of the country rest on an infrastructure that's shaky at best. In the southern parts of the country, the power is out for 2 hours a day in the winter; in Tirana, the outages can last eight hours or more (according to the power company, half of the country's electricity is stolen before reaching its destination, which doesn't help things). My neighbourhood has power almost all of the time, but the water's turned off at 10pm every day. So the ultra-modern office building down the street relies on a diesel generator to keep its escalators moving; the pub around the corner may or may not have running water; and my newly-renovated apartment in downtown Tirana is incompatible with toilet paper.
For me, these things are minor annoyances, but for foreign investors who might bring some badly needed money and employment into the country, they're major considerations. A supermarket can't operate without 24/7 electricity for its refrigerators and freezers; a medical clinic needs water. The few foreign companies (like Mercedes and Italian supermarket chain Conad) which have opened branches in Albania have had to work around the infrastructure, adding generators and water tanks to their stores. Most multinationals, however, seem to have decided that it's not worth the effort (there's no McDonald's in Albania).
The relative absence of multinational corporations may not be an entirely bad thing (like I said, there's no McDonald's), but locally-owned businesses are affected by the same factors that keep foreign investors away.
This is something I've come to realize over my time living in Albania: even the most modernized parts of the country rest on an infrastructure that's shaky at best. In the southern parts of the country, the power is out for 2 hours a day in the winter; in Tirana, the outages can last eight hours or more (according to the power company, half of the country's electricity is stolen before reaching its destination, which doesn't help things). My neighbourhood has power almost all of the time, but the water's turned off at 10pm every day. So the ultra-modern office building down the street relies on a diesel generator to keep its escalators moving; the pub around the corner may or may not have running water; and my newly-renovated apartment in downtown Tirana is incompatible with toilet paper.
For me, these things are minor annoyances, but for foreign investors who might bring some badly needed money and employment into the country, they're major considerations. A supermarket can't operate without 24/7 electricity for its refrigerators and freezers; a medical clinic needs water. The few foreign companies (like Mercedes and Italian supermarket chain Conad) which have opened branches in Albania have had to work around the infrastructure, adding generators and water tanks to their stores. Most multinationals, however, seem to have decided that it's not worth the effort (there's no McDonald's in Albania).
The relative absence of multinational corporations may not be an entirely bad thing (like I said, there's no McDonald's), but locally-owned businesses are affected by the same factors that keep foreign investors away.
3 comments:
JIm,
Remember there are 4 rules to plumbing...
1. Hot on the left
2. Cold on the right
3. The smelly stuff doesn't flow up
4. Don't bite your finger nails
Brian
Except in Europe where hot and cold are sometimes reversed...
I'll post a picture of a Turkish Toilet sometime.
Man, I really didn't want to make this blog about plumbing........
James, get out of the bathroom and do something interesting to tell us about. I am tired of checking your blog only to find out that there is nothing new.
go for a walk
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