WE HAVE ENTERED THE IRRIGATION SEASON ARE WE PREPARED? Don’t fear tomorrow’s drought According to a conversation with the director of the water directorate in the district of Korçë, Gjergji Sklavi - During these days, rain has fallen in the district of Korçë. We cannot say that the soil has been «fully saturated», but the plants’ needs have been met (especially those of wheat). One fact: in previous years, at this time, as much as 15–20 percent of the water supply was seen to be wasted before the season even began, just for wheat. During this period, attention has focused on creating conditions so that water can be controlled as well as possible and not be lost. Irrigation canals were lined at twice the length achieved last year. In addition, by blocking the irrigation canals, they are now filled with water. This is another reserve that postpones the use of the main reservoirs, which still hold less than 30 percent of their capacity. Continuing the work begun last year, work is underway to build irrigation structures, such as weirs, temporary and permanent dams, pumping stations and diversion canals, so that we can collect free-flowing water and make the greatest possible use of the district’s rivers during the irrigation season. The first weir on the Dunavec River was completed back in February. The canal’s capacity, starting from this weir, is up to 1 cubic meter of water per second. The second and third weirs will also be completed within two months. In this way, more than 2 million cubic meters of water will be collected in the bed of this river for the irrigation season. Dams have also been built along the bed of the Devoll River, at Bitinçkë, Zëmbëlak, Pojan, Orman and as far as Maliq. A pumping station was built to reduce water losses from the Ventrok canal in the Zëmbëlak branch. The planned work for this season on the facilities for sprinkler irrigation has been completed. Sprinkler irrigation will now cover 3,500 hectares of the Korçë Plain. It will be extended further as an advanced irrigation technology that benefits crops and saves water. KOSTAQ DUKA

- SHKODËR - • SHKODËR • Although irrigation began very early this year, the reservoirs are full, since the water used in February and March was replenished by the April rains. This early start to irrigation has also meant that the irrigation canals are ready to the required standard, as the agricultural cooperatives took timely measures to ensure this. The motorized electric pumps are also fully ready. Now that temperatures have risen and the drought continues, the Mbishkodër area began irrigation as early as March 11. An average of 300 hectares are irrigated in this area every day. The areas are expanding daily, with wheat, corn, tobacco, vegetables and fodder crops. The cooperatives agri- (Continued on page 2)

- REPORT FROM ELBASAN - This summer, the district of Elbasan is entering the irrigation season with more water than last year. Although this service began as early as March this year, and around 11,000 hectares have been irrigated so far, the water-

In a letter it sent some time ago to the Youth Committee of UT «Enver Hoxha», the Executive Committee of the KP of the district of Gramsh requested that, if possible, the senior specialists from that district who are graduating from the University this year be assigned to work in the district. At first, this letter seemed unnecessary to us. «Who would think, we reasoned, of depriving a district like Gramsh, which has so many needs (and, understandably, not many students) at the University, of these graduates and sending them to other districts?» But it turned out that we had been too hasty, and our colleagues on the Executive Committee of the Gramsh District had a strong premonition. The General Directorate of Mechanical Industry, in the job-allocation list it sent to the University for the new electronics specialists, has not provided a single job for Gramsh, even though a young woman from this district is graduating. Even the young woman herself finds this fact strange. According to what she tells us, a student from her district who graduated last year was also not appointed in Gramsh. How can this happen? One might think that Gramsh has no need for electronics specialists. Then who gave her the right to study? On the other hand, the Executive Committee of the Gramsh District itself, through its letter, acknowledges this impossibility. Cold logic, indeed economic logic, asks: Couldn’t a job have been found for this young woman in Gramsh this year, so that what has happened before does not happen again—that after a year or two, a specialist from another district is forcibly brought to this district? Is this transfer of senior specialists economically rational? — A reminder ahead of the BRPSH meetings on appointments — It would be extreme if our reasoning were based only on this case. But here is another example: at the Faculty of Mechanical-Electrical Engineering, we learn that this year no transport engineers have been planned for the district of Shkodër, even though four students from that district are graduating in transport this year. Strangely, engineering technologists have been allocated to Shkodër, although none are graduating from this district this year. Ironically, last year, when technologists graduated from the district of Shkodër, not a single one was allocated to Shkodër itself. That’s what you call getting them! When you don’t have them, they don’t give them to you; when you do, they don’t. This seems to us like irrational planning and use of staff. We do not know what reasons dictate such planning. Perhaps they are objective, and we harbor no prejudice against anyone. In any case, we have the right to ask for more natural and reasonable solutions to the problems that arise in planning the placement of senior specialists. This is one side of the matter. The other concerns requests made by some institutions—requests that lack only the candidate’s name, or, as students put it at a youth organization last year, «only the hair color». Such requests clearly serve specific people’s interests. For example, a specification made by the administration of the Academy of Sciences in its request, which reached the personnel directorate of the Ministry of Education, for a biologist: «He must be a boy, since there are about 100 days of service in the field (an insult to our girls, supposedly frightened of field service) and he must have a diploma in genetics» (below); preferably he should be tall... followed by the person’s name. (At least last year there were many such requests.) Why?! Is this going to continue?! Requests of this kind have also come from some departments at higher institutes outside the University. They, too, ask for people by name. We understand, that is, there is nothing wrong with a university department that has followed a student’s work for four or five years, knows that student well and may request them by name. In that way, it tells the youth organization: «This person can do the job for me. But what do you think, comrades?» And the judgment in this case will be objective. But it is unacceptable and unjustified for a department head to come out and tell the youth organization: «I want this student, because I supervised their diploma work.» We think this should not happen, and it would be best if such requests did not reach us. The youth organization, regardless of the names and requests it receives, will have its say—why impose such unpleasant situations on it? When we ask the youth organization to observe rules and act honestly, then it is only right that we make these judgments honestly, too. Last year we raised our objections at the end of these discussions. Now, with the discussions about to begin, there is still time to correct any such «rush». This is what prompted us to write this report. KOSTA BARJABA Secretary of the BRPSH Committee of UT «Enver Hoxha».

hectares have been irrigated so far, water has been used sparingly by both the agricultural enterprises and the specialists of the water directorate. To meet every enterprise’s demand for water, reconstruction work on the irrigation network was completed at the beginning of this summer, and the canals, hydraulic structures and intake works are ready. However, a concern has arisen: the chief engineer of this enterprise, Bashkim Saliu, says that since last year 19 electric motors have been sent for repair to the UEM in Durrës and Tirana, but they have still not been repaired. Several times, representatives of the enterprise have gone to (Continued on page 2)

- FROM THE WRITER’S NOTEBOOK - Readers will forgive me if, in this article, I draw my examples from the history of my village. I do not do so out of any feeling of local pride, but because they are quite significant and because people find it easier to talk about things they know well. Dardha is a mountain village southeast of Korçë, at an altitude of about 1,300 meters above sea level. Its geographical position explains its origins: it cannot boast of being mentioned in chronicles or tax registers as an old village. It was probably founded around the middle of the 17th century by people who, with their rebellious spirit, would not submit to the demands of the official authorities and the feudal lords. The tenth volume of the Greek encyclopedia Pirros mentions it as an Albanian-speaking village with a school as early as 1768. Its rugged, forested setting explains its first occupation: woodcutter. At the end of the last century, Dardha was the largest village in the Korçë region, with 1,454 inhabitants («The Geography of Korçë and Its District», Thessaloniki, 1888). The school helped cultivate a love of education, but one should not imagine that the village’s cultural development suddenly arose within an isolated community surrounded by deep forests. It was nourished by a good seed found in the larger centers around the forests, from which inhabitants had moved, reviving the stronghold of Voskopojë. The merit of the people of Dardha was that, unlike in other regions where reprisals left ruin and destroyed culture, they fanatically preserved their authentic spiritual heritage, which has come down to our days in its rich folklore (the finest part of which was collected by the passionate autodidact folklorist Koci Zdruli and published in the collection «Folklore from Upper Devoll»); in the women’s graceful lyrical dances, which hold a special place in our ethnographic choreography; in the costumes, where red and black stand out; in a number of distinguished intellectuals and a few poets (by 1926 alone, there were 26 graduates of higher education); in a remarkable tradition of painting (the Museum of Medieval Art contains works by about 20 masters from Dardha), and in icons, carved works and photography (the second professional photographer was the scholar P. Nace; Jani Zengo is also from this village). Is this thirst for knowledge and progress not evidence of people who are free-spirited and profoundly democratic? There is another truth that should be emphasized: 150 years of uninterrupted schooling and religious preaching (by outsiders notwithstanding), yet their language never managed to take root in the village’s speech. The spoken language remained that of their mothers, a pure Albanian with archaic forms that were preserved until recently (in the groups of songs), and which today are retained only in the speech of archaic villages such as those of the Arbëreshë. No true collective progress can be achieved without mutual understanding, a sense of equality and helping one another. But solidarity cannot be the quality of just one region. Historical and social circumstances make this trait more or less dominant in people’s psychology. These circumstances are often beyond people’s power and wishes. Feuds and blood vengeance, as well as the state of roads and means of communication, also create a sense of isolation. This region did not suffer from them. From their earliest migrations, the people of Dardha travelled through the forests of the Balkans, from Olympus to Rhodope, from Brusa and Isakumi to Romania, with their horse caravans, in groups of 30–40 armed men. They had obtained the right to carry weapons, as well as exemption from the head tax and road toll, as early as the end of the 18th century. In those times, water-powered sawmills could be called veritable factories of the day, for they processed timber to order, from ordinary building materials to wood for shipbuilding. They worked collectively and divided the work according to each person’s skill and craft: sawyers, woodworkers, charcoal burners, carriers, sërevernas, cooks, bakers... They lived in lodges, and in that brotherhood of workers the oldest craftsman was the head. When they shut down the waterworks, they left two or three guards and returned to their village, where their wives and children, weddings and festivities awaited them. With the same solidarity and mutual understanding, they strove for the all-round well-being of the village. In 1865, the first water supply system was built, 1,500 meters long, with ceramic pipes made by the skilled hands of the potters of Bradvica. Water flowed into 20 fountains, each more beautiful than the next, with carved stonework or marble ornamentation, and covered by a roof. The emigrants of the beginning of the century, too, on the distant continent, although they worked in different factories, lived together in shared lodges. This was a difficult time, and fate took a hand. Small brotherhoods originating from villages and towns, as they acknowledge and the evidence shows, formed larger communities: close-knit patriotic associations at home and abroad. The Dardha native Sotor Peçi, the writer who brought Fan Noli to America and helped him, published in 1906 (Continued on page 3)

- A group of young singers, instrumentalists and dancers set off for Turkey. It is headed by Hazer Lani, editor-in-chief of the newspaper «Zëri i Rinisë», and will take part in the International Youth Festival, which will be held in Ankara in the coming days. (ATSH)

In the Xarë sector of the Vrina Agricultural Enterprise, Liljanë Abazi and Evgenji Stefani are assembling pipelines for the sprinkler systems used to irrigate the corn. (Photo: G. Xhengo - ATSH) In the Xarë sector of the Vrina Agricultural Enterprise, Liljanë Abazi and Evgenji Stefani are assembling pipelines for the sprinkler systems used to irrigate the corn. (Photo: G. Xhengo - ATSH)

LETTER TO THE EDITOR That is what a group of mechanics, repair workers and operators from the Roskovec Agricultural Enterprise, the Fier Agricultural Enterprise, the Levan Agricultural Enterprise and the «Çlirimi» Agricultural Enterprise told us. A group of agricultural specialists were also concerned that the crops, helped by the recent rains, are thriving and giving promise, but the combine harvesters are not ready: they lack several spare parts, both imported and locally made. Here are some opinions: Selo Çepele, head of the agricultural mechanics sector at the Roskovec Agricultural Enterprise: “We have 7 combine harvesters in all, 4 «Gloria» and 5 «Fostrita». For these two types we have serious shortages of starter motors, dynamos, hydraulic pumps, fuel and water pumps, etc.” The repair technician for the combine-harvester brigade, Nikolaq Toska, at the Fier SMT, which also serves and bears the main burden of the district’s agricultural cooperative: “We are short of replacement parts for fuel pumps, such as pumps, injectors, variator axles, safety sleeves, etc. Compared with the same period last autumn, when this SMT had completed and tested around 70 percent of the combine harvesters, this year, because of the shortages mentioned above and others, only 30 percent of them are ready. “Letters, telegrams and meetings have been held to address these concerns, but the situation has not changed. So the workers, repairers and operators are rightly asking when the spare parts will arrive according to the plan and requests, given that the Ministry of Agriculture has a director responsible for supply, and the district has a department responsible for procurement, supply and distribution of spare parts, with all the necessary staff. The worst thing is that some of these parts are made by our own factories; this raises the question: could there be a flaw in the planning, and are the officials responsible for this work unaware of the situation?” KITO KOLA Supplier at the agricultural mechanics sector of the Roskovec Agricultural Enterprise, Fier.