ALBANIA & MACEDONIA: Tirana & Skopje

                        TIRANA, ALBANIA

WAR MEMORIAL

 

Enver Hoxha Pyramid – The Dilapidated, Never-Used Mausoleum Of The Dictator

A Garish remnant of the communist era that has gone through many incarnations has now degraded into a crumbling, graffiti magnet that now awaits renovation or demolition.

A LOCAL OPINION

SKANDERBERG SQUARE

SKANDERBERG STATUE

THE NATIONAL MUSEUM

 

 

                            SKOPJE, MACEDONIA

MOTHER THERESA of Calcutta at a pro-life meeting on July 13, 1986, in Bonn, Germany.

 

 

Mother Teresa: The Angel of Death

 

In reality, Mother Theresa or Gonxhe Bojaxhiu as she was born here in Skopje, Macedonia was really pro-death more than anything, because it provided her with meaning as the Maitre D’ of the afterlife. I’m sure she saw herself as someone who was merely guiding souls into Heaven and making sure that all in her charge received a seat at the Lord’s table. Like the Marine sergeant in Full Metal Jacket who claimed that God had a hard-on for the Marines because they kept Heaven well supplied with fresh souls, Mother Theresa gave the Vatican a serious erection in that she did the same thing for the Catholic Church. Yes, I just used hard-on and erection in the same sentence as Mother Teresa, and that’s about as complimentary as this screed is going to get.

I find myself in Skopje, Macedonia wondering why I would choose to spend four days in the hometown of Mother Theresa given my antipathy for her, and my belief that she is without a doubt the most overhyped person in the history of mankind. I know it’s in poor taste to speak ill of the dead, and know many will be shocked and offended by my presuming to launch into this bombastic bit of blasphemy, but someone other than Christopher Hitchens needs to expose this alleged saint for what she really was, a depressed, deluded, and very much “human” being who when all is said and done, did far more harm than good.

MOTHER THERESA MUSEUM

Mother Teresa believed that poverty and suffering was a gift of God, and she believed and served that motto until the day she died. Seriously take a moment and ponder the absurdity of that statement. One would think it would be enough to motivate most rational people to run screaming from every church in the land. Yet, it is this wellspring of twisted philosophy from which sprang the suffering she wrought on the world, whilst millions of people credited her for its assuagement.

A good example of her destructive nature is her proselytizing against the use of condoms in Africa and elsewhere, which surely sent thousands to their deaths, and condemned countless women throughout the third world to lives of poverty by burdening them with children they couldn’t feed. This advice ironically coming from a barren, desiccated virgin who did little to feed the millions of additional hungry mouths she insisted upon foisting upon an overpopulated world that is already falling well short of being able to care for. This year alone saw the world using up a year’s worth of resources in just eight months.

She also spent a good portion of her life rubbing elbows with the rich and powerful but made sure that the poor stayed that way so she and the Catholic Church would always have a healthy supply of gullible and vulnerable adherents to draw upon. Her most appalling contribution was the one she drew the most praise for. Her “House for the Dying” in Calcutta was a holy expression and exploitation of her suffering is a “Gift of God” philosophy.

Some who visited likened the place to Auschwitz in terms of aesthetics and hygiene, but I think the worst part was that there were patients that could have been saved with a taxi ride to the hospital and in many cases a simple inexpensive operation. But you see she was merely there to save souls, lives really didn’t matter unless of course, they were undeveloped collections of unborn cells. Then her naïve demagoguery on the evils of abortion, and how it’s the cause of war would manifest itself in all its glory.

Mother Teresa’s Sari & Rosary

Even after millions of dollars poured in as her fame grew, the “House of the Dying” maintained its status quo standards of degradation and filth. She could have created a state-of-the-art clinic and hospice with clean linen, painkillers, and fresh syringes, but instead, they continued to dispense aspirin and rinse out dirty needles in unsanitary conditions. Unfortunately, the squalor of the place is what set the stage for showcasing her unquestioned sacrifice for the poorest of the poor, and to make sure that the nuns in her charge suffered right along with her as part of her insane, necrotic liturgy of demise. However, whenever she fell ill she was whisked away in a life flight helicopter and received the very best in medical care in top-notch facilities like Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. The irony was completely lost on the wanton selfish hypocrite.

GONXHE BOJAXHI – Seen here on the left is a seemingly normal young Gonxhe before her catechism of death and suffering consumed her life.

In a tragic reversal, Gonxhe Bojaxhiu came to doubt her faith for the last half of her life and felt quite the hypocrite. For over 40 years she fervently prayed to Jesus, and he never returned her calls. Without a phone number or forwarding address, her only alternative was to stalk him through prayer and to leave messages on his cosmic answering machine. Messages that were never returned.

At the behest of her confessor, she put her dilemma down on paper. Here is a small excerpt of this painful revelation. I call, I cling, I want … and there is no One to answer … no One on Whom I can cling … no, No One. Alone … Where is my Faith … even deep down right in there is nothing, but emptiness & darkness … My God … how painful is this unknown pain … I have no Faith … I dare not utter the words & thoughts that crowd in my heart … & make me suffer untold agony.

So many unanswered questions live within me afraid to uncover them … because of the blasphemy … If there be God … please forgive me … When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives & hurt my very soul. I am told God loves me … and yet the reality of darkness & coldness & emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul.

Frankly, I really feel sorry for the old girl, and look at her as a victim of the Catholic Church itself which used her as their poster girl to deflect criticism of their many sins including the systematic cover-up of decades of child rape and abuse, moving priests around to avoid prosecution, and continuing to denounce birth control to the detrimental results of the developing world.

Unfortunately, at this point, her brainwashing was so complete that she was well past the point of being able to conclude that it was the faith itself that was flawed and that she had been wasting her life on a questionable spiritual path. Like the poor Scientologist who spends $100,000 just to find out that a laughable Galactic overlord named Xenu came to Earth 75 million years ago, stacked millions of aliens around volcanoes, and exploded hydrogen bombs killing them all subsequently infecting the psyches of humans hundreds of millions of years later. You would think that this would be a good time to cut your losses and move on, but at this point, the investment financially and emotionally is so great that one must remain in the bubble of delusion or risk having one’s ego collapse altogether. 

Granted, she did suffer from depression exacerbated by Jesus’ abandonment which in combination with her Catholic brainwashing, personal philosophy, and compromised faith would certainly explain her untreated pathology and the delusions that led to the suffering she caused.

All in all, I believe she was a fundamentalist, emotional ghoul who feasted upon the myriad sufferings of others to gain relief from the emptiness and darkness of her own soul. I don’t think she was a particularly virtuous person, nor do I believe she was villainous.  I’m convinced that she used the suffering of others to numb her own pain and gain attention on the world stage since Jesus had ignored her for over 40 years. Nature abhors a vacuum, and so does the human psyche. She probably had the best of intentions most of the time. I’ll give her that much, but you know what they say about good intentions…

Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, we can get on with Skopje which has a few other tragic and pathetic things to be pointed out as well.

A HOLLOW FORTRESS

SKOPJE – City of ridiculously expensive giant statues paid for with money that should have been earmarked for education and infrastructure. Take note of the booth to the right of the structure to get an idea of the enormity of the thing.

This strange and fascinating building unfortunately obscured by billboards is one of the most interesting buildings in Skopje. Take a guess at what it is. When I questioned my driver he told me to my surprise that it was just the local Post Office, and yet they went ahead and spent a king’s ransom on some of the tackiest adornments yet conceived by a world capital.

A ridiculous tacky statue of Alexander the Great that looks like it belongs outside Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

 

At Least Motherhood Gets A Nod In This Piece

 

Another strangely proportioned tacky building that also looks like it belongs at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

Check Out The Shit Quality Metalwork – They must have run out of money.

 

THE STONE BRIDGE

Another ridiculously oversized statue of Alexander the Great. Money is spent on this drek while the real needs of the country have gone unaddressed. Looks like something that would have fit the decor in the entryway of Tony Montana’s (Scarface) home. The fountains have built-in water effects which add to the Vegas tackiness.

THE MAIN SQUARE

One Good Thing – At least they looked after the kiddies, and gave local children and tourists alike something they could really enjoy while beating the summer heat. Of course, they could have bought every child in Skopje a slip n’ slide with the money they wasted on the bronze of the woman talking on her cellphone which you will be treated to shortly.

Vegas Baby!

Skopje’s Own Arc de Triomphe

A buxom bronze chats on her cell phone whilst an agitated bull goes unnoticed in the background. More classic cheese.

CEDO – My driver and guide for the day.

SKOPJE

Church of St. Panteleimon – 12th century church

 

CANYON MATKE

 

 

 

Boat up the canyon and to the cave.

CAVE ENTRY

Seriously Lame Cave – However this area has the deepest underwater cave in the world.