Dr. William Maxwell, 2nd from left; Dr. Dritan Zela, center; and participants in the public lecture sponsored ty the University of Tirana at the National Historical Museum Lecture Hall.


LtoR:  Ms. Raimonda Lami, Interpreter/Translator, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Dr. Maxwell; a public school teacher; Dr. Zela.


Part of the audience at the public lecture, National Historical Museum, Tirana.


Dr. Zela, seated, Dr. Maxwell, lecturing.  The essence of the lecture was that a large paradigm shift in education is underway.  Part of that shift is to find ways to help all children fall in love with mathematics, otherwise the persons are severely handicapped in the coming technological age.


LtoR:  Dr. Zela, Dr. Maxwell, The Rector of the University of Tirana, Dr. Dhori Kule; and The Vice Dean of the Social Sciences Faculty, Dr. Gjergj Sinani.


More of the audience which included a large number of senior government officials.


Dr. Zela and Ms. Lami


Dr. Zela, translating


Part of the audience at the public lecture.


Part of the audience before the public lecture.


LtoR:  Ms. Lami, Dr. Maxwell, Dr. Zela


Part of the IT crew that recorded the event for six television stations wtih Dr. Maxwell and  Dr. Zela


Mathematician and civil servant Mr. Gjovalin Lushi

LtoR:  Mr. Stavri Bello, Secretary General, Albanian National Olympic Committee; Dr. Dritan Zela, Professor of Mathematics who set up the various meetings with government, sports, and educational leaders; Dr. William Maxwell, President, the Global Academy for International Athletics; Mr.

The Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sports, Tirana.


Mr. Vasil Bicaj, Director of Sports, Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sports, with Drs. and Maxwell.


Dr. Ardjan Turku, Minister of Tourism, Culture Youth and Sports, welcoming us to his office.


The Minister's Office.


The Minister, Dr. Turku, listened intently as we
All above photos are by Hamza Hatika, professional photographer, Tirana.


Albania (or Illyria) is famous for ancient castles and fortresses.  The fortresses signaled each other about incoming invaders, from the Huns, or the Romans, Greeks, Turks, Italians and others who have repeatedly invaded the nation.


A modern residential street


A modern downtown street


A bird's eye view of part of Tirana

Foreword:

Please read this classic aloud for best effect:
 

--  Constantine Cavafy  (translated from the Greek language by Rae Dalven)
(*)  Lestrygonians, Cyclopes and Poseidon are all "monsters," popular in Greek mythology.  The poet is telling us to not be afraid of these or other imaginary gremlins.

My narrative starts with this classical poem by one of the great poets of the 20th century because, at one level, this poem is a paean to the many ancient civilizations that have come to life on the shores of the Mediterranean and that will fertilize the future global civilizations.

Tirana, the capital of Albania, shares with the nation at large the distinction of rarely being mentioned in the mainstream textbooks of history.  Fair-minded future-oriented scholars should help change this historical “oversight”.  My personal “journey to Albania” began seventy years ago when “big, bad” Italy, under the leadership of Fascist Benito Mussolini, invaded tiny, innocent Albania at the beginning of World War II.  My memory is that virtually the entire world “sided” with Albania against the Axis powers.  That 1939 Albanian re-entry into the world’s consciousness should have generated more interest in the history of that “highway” between the world of Rome and the world of Greece.  But, it did not.

That “highway” between the Roman and Hellenic civilizations students of history do know as Illyria.  The Albanians are universally acknowledged as the descendants of the Illyrians who gave the world Alexander the Great, Emperor Constantine, several other Roman and Byzantine Emperors, one of the popes of the Roman Catholic Church, several Grand Vizirs of the Ottoman Empire, Muhammad Ali Pasha, father of modern Egypt, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of modern Turkey, as well as Mother Teresa destined for sainthood because of her services to the poor of India. Albania was also the only country in Europe that protected all the Jews, i.e. the only European country where the Jewish population was increased during WWII.

Albania with a current population of about 3,700,000 people was further kept off the world’s major stages by a repressive communist regime that ruled the country from the end of World War II until 1991.  Today, Albania is a democracy – in fact, it is holding major parliamentary elections this coming month, June, 2009.

The Invitation:
I was on a week long trip to Ireland in April when Dr. Dritan Zela, a former colleague at the University of Advancing Technology, invited me to visit Albania since I was “so close.”  Since a change of schedule was not easily accomplished I took a rain check.  Back in Phoenix, I consulted the Grand Canyon State Games Executive Director, Mr. Erik Widmark, and decided to go to Albania (with the thought of also going on to Greece, next door) to invite those nations to send children to the International Summer Games hosted by the Global Academy for International Athletics and the Grand Canyon State Games.  Dr. Zela set up the appropriate appointments and my agenda expanded to introducing the Academy to Albanian officials.

Summary of Schedule:

Sunday, May 15, 2009: 
Met at “Mother Teresa” Tirana Airport by Dr. Dritan Zela, a mathematician, and Kadri Kushta, one of Dr. Zela’s neighbors who provided transportation for us.

Monday, May 16: 
Met with the President, and Secretary General of the Albanian National Olympic Committee, Mr. Hysen Domi and Mr. Stavri Bello.

A Press Conference at the Headquarters of the Albanian National Olympic Committee
   
Met with the Minister and the Director of Sports at the Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sports, Dr. Ardjan Turku and Mr.Vasil Bicaj.

Tuesday, May 17:
Given a tour of the National Historical Museum accompanied by Dr. Zela.

Met with the First Secretary of the U.S. Embassy and the Acting Director of USAID in Albania, Dr. B. Bix Aliu, and Mr. John Brannaman.  (The Ambassador and the Director of USAID were out of the country at the time.)

Met with Mr. Jeffrey Griffin, CEO, The Albanian American Enterprise Fund.

Wednesday, May 18:
Given a tour of the ancient fortress city of Lezha which is north of Tirana, accompanied
by Dr. Zela; the Vice Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Tirana, Dr. Gjergj (George) Sinani; and Mr. Gjovalin Lushi, a Government Civil Servant, Mathematician, and a friend of Dr. Zela.

Thursday, May 19
Gave a Public Lecture at the National Historical Museum sponsored by the University of Tirana.

Friday, May 20
Gave a lecture to several psychology classes at the Kristal University of Albania, a private University in Tirana.
   
Saturday, May 21:  0500 a.m.
Departed Tirana for the United States via Vienna.

Impressions:

The Albanian people are, despite decades of living under Communist tyranny, without the expected paranoia.  They instead remind me of the openness of the Koreans in the 1950’s, or the Pacific Islanders in their relative lack of the materialistic philosophy that has dominated Western Europe and America over the past couple of centuries.  Unlike northern Europeans, the Albanians seem comfortable showing affection to one another and to strangers.

In physical appearance, while the elderly Albanians closely resemble their neighbors, the Greeks, the Italians, and occasionally, the Turks, the Syrians and the Iranians, the younger Albanians generally are better looking than their neighbors.  One Albanian pointed out that that facial attractiveness stems from relatively unique attributes of their eyes.  Upon closer observations, the muscles around the eyes seem stronger than usual; the colors (grey-green) and the luminosity of the eyes are quite distinctive.

At this time, there seems to be a lot of building going on, economic prosperity of sorts.  I didn’t see any slums or substandard housing anywhere in Tirana or Lezha.  I didn’t see much evidence of industrialization.  The few farm workers I observed were nearly all women.   Someone attributed much of the building going on as Albanians residing abroad sending their capital “home”, which I think is a sign of faith in the economic stability of the country.

Downtown Tirana – Dritan’s apartment is within walking distance of the main government and business district – bustles with Mercedes and taxis and pedestrians.  A mosque, the University of Tirana, the Museum, and the Opera House dominate the main and very wide thoroughfare, which sociologists would see as significant barometers of what the culture values.  My host pointed out that Albania was the only Nazi occupied nation in Europe to protect all the Jews in World War II, i.e. the only European country where the Jewish population was increased during WWII, a fact acknowledged by a major event in Israel honoring one Albanian protector of a Jewish family as reported by the Jerusalem Post just a couple of days before I left for Albania.

Geographically, Albania sits almost within eyesight of Italy across the Adriatic Sea, an arm of the Mediterranean, and borders Greece, Macedonia, and Kosovo which is really culturally a part of Albania.

The Meetings:

The President of the Albanian National Olympic Committee, Mr. Hysen Domi completely shocked me as did the Secretary General of the Albanian National Olympic Committee, Mr. Stavri Bello.  I have become accustomed to presenting the idea of the Academy to persons who listen politely, nod supportively but whose response ultimately conveys doubt that the dream of such a sport academy can be realized in our time.  These two Olympic executives in Tirana were amazingly in sync with the idea, pledged support and promised full cooperation.  They even had prepared, with Dr. Zela, a full media briefing or press conference, following our one hour meeting.  Clips of that news conference were broadcast on six television stations I was told.

Mr.Vasil Bicaj, the Director of Sports at the Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sports met with Dr. Zela and me and assured us that he understood my purpose in being there and supported my efforts.  We later met with the Minister of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sports, Dr. Ardjan Turku, who also expressed support for the idea of the Academy.  I gave all of these individuals copies of the Academy’s revised business plan.  However, each of them had already been briefed and read the material sent ahead and probably the www.gaiaschool.info website.

On Tuesday, May 17, both the U.S. Ambassador and the Director of USAID were out of the country.  But Dr. Zela and I met with the First Secretary of the U.S. Embassy, Dr. B. Bix Aliu, and the Acting Director of USAID, Mr. John Brannaman.  Both offered support to the idea of locating the Academy in Albania and pledged support in sponsoring American scholars and sports experts to come to Albania to serve as consultants, instructors, etc.

That afternoon we wet with Mr. Jeffrey Griffin, CEO, The Albanian American Enterprise Fund, which was initiated by a grant from the U.S. Government.   Mr. Griffin indicated that he would submit our proposal to the Foundation being established by the AAE Fund, but he made it clear, however, that he could not endorse the idea as to do so would overstep his authority.

On Thursday, May 19, Dr. Zela had secured the cooperation of the University of Tirana, the premier university in the country, to host a major public lecture by me. I titled the lecture:  “The Coming Paradigm Shifts in Education” and demonstrated some fun games that facilitate the teaching of fundamental mathematical concepts.  The idea was that mathematics is not intimidating if the parents and the teachers treat mathematical ideas as games.  The room with 225 seats in the National Museum was almost filled.  The Rector (President) of the University of Tirana, Dr. Dhori Kule, welcomed everyone and participated in a panel discussion after my presentation.  Others participating in the panel included the Vice Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Dr. Gjergj Sinani who is a scholar of D’Tocqueville; Mr. Vasil Bicaj, Director of Sports at the Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sports; Mr. Korab Llazani, Secretary General of the Albanian Basketball Federation; and the President of the Albanian Teachers Association.  Dr. Zela with his network of associates had arranged to run the symposium smoothly from the making of the invitations and arranging the arduous IT work for the symposium, to securing the large and prestigious participation, to having a hostess for the audience, sending press releases to all TV stations and written media, to having a personal photoreporter at our disposal for the whole trip, to having the symposium be broadcasted by six main TV stations, including the Albanian State TV. Dr. Zela moderated the symposium and translated my talk while an official of the Albanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who was a polyglot international business economist and international education specialist, translated my interactions with the five ten-year-olds who volunteered to serve as “model students” for my mathematical demonstrations. Much of the audience were senior government officials, including the Director of the Legal Department of the Albanian equivalent of the Securities and Exchange Commission; the Deputy Director of the Albanian equivalent of the CIA; the advisor to the Prime Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials, etc., as well as the professorate and students from the University of Tirana and several private universities.

On Friday, May 20th, I gave a lecture to several psychology classes at the Kristal University of Albania, a private University in Tirana, and had brief conferences with the President/Founder, a local businessman, and the rector.  The large classroom was filled with bright-eyed students and faculty members, all of whom were very attentive.  A faculty member from Canada translated my talk. 
   
Summary:

Although Former Governor of Arkansas, Mr. Bill Clinton, accepted the idea of the academy for his state, his support did not carry over to his subordinates.  Similarly with Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the first woman to head a nation in Africa (Liberia) since Cleopatra, specifically urged her cabinet to understand the Academy.  Her enthusiasm for the idea was not shared by her ministers.  In Fiji, the same story applies, with different details.  But in Albania, everyone Dr. Zela and I spoke to seemed not only positive in response, they all seemed persuaded that the idea was feasible for their country.  (Dr. Zela’s high social status and his multifaceted background in academia and U.S. political and legal fields may be a factor here – his family was one of the founding families of the City of Tirana, going back centuries, and he has just returned from the U.S. and has become the Vice Rector at the largest private university in the country)

I plan to return to Albania in August or early September to begin working on the necessary first steps to update and implement this 5th century B.C.E. idea for the 21st century.

The essence of the Academy is that    
    a. All children are geniuses, if we look hard enough, soon enough;
    b. The easiest talent to find is athletic talent;  Thus the Academy is a harbinger of the 
        future for all trades and professions.
    c. The athlete, when discovered and trained early, will readily learn
        the basics of all disciplines; and prepare himself/herself for
        the Olympics and a post-Olympic career..
    d. The economic playing field is made “level” by the “Educational
        Mortgage” idea as suggested by Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman
    e. We will have an intake of 100 children per year, graduating nearly all of them
        after six years of intensive training prepared for the next Olympics and
        for higher education.
    f.  The teachers and coaches are all highly intelligent, well educated and paid
        better than any other profession, per Plato’s  and Confucius’ principle that the basic
        pillar of a healthy society is the teaching corps.
    g. The Academy will particularly serve the 96 nations that have never won an
        Olympic medal.

For more information contact us at info@gaiaschool.info.