We all have good minds and bad ideas keep coming. Recognizing your bad idea is a sign of intelligence. If anyone thinks that all his ideas are good, then understand where the abundance of bad ideas comes from. This article is about a bad idea whose traces are still there fifty years later, so bad that it made the pieces of concrete scattered all over the nation's identity, so bad that the world's Posting in the other corner today.
A dictator with a strange mental state was fighting a war fifty years ago today. This war was going on in his own mind. It was Enver Hoxha, the communist leader of Albania who ruled this small European country. Within twenty years of his rule, he had fought all the friends of his country. They saw enemies everywhere. Some real and some less real. Italy invaded during the fascist era. Enemy. There was a historic feud with Grace and there was a right-wing dictatorship. Enemy. Yugoslavia, with the help of which Enver came to power, wanted Albania to be its part. Enemy. The Soviet Union was ruled by Khrushchev, who wanted to change the policies of his favorite leader, Stalin. Enemy. China befriended Mao for a while, but then China began to build relations with the United States. Enemy. This country did not have a single friend. Now only the people could protect their beloved leader. All they had to do was convince them that they were defending themselves.
No one cared about Albania. It wasn't that important. It was the poorest country in Europe. The population was illiterate. Transportation was good, not natural resources. Someone had to do this country. The superpowers had other problems during the Cold War, but people here were reassured that they were all in danger. All eyes are on Albania. A program began to build bunkers. It completely destroyed this weak nation. That was the bad idea this article is about.
Over the next twenty years, seven and a half million concrete fronts were built all over the country. If you go to Albania at that time, they can be seen everywhere even today. Not just at the border, everywhere. In the streets, on the beach, in the middle of the markets, in the fields. One for every four citizens !! Twenty-four in every square kilo meter !! They were not cheap. These millions of boxes made of steel and concrete completely drowned its weak economy. A poor country spent its last accumulated capital behind a strange madness. Twenty percent of their economy would be spent on building them. Albania could not build houses or roads because of this hobby.
It was a very bad idea. Not only for the economy but also for defense. What could people do in this bunker even during the war? Where to get pills and food? How to contact? No one wanted to invade Albania. But Enver Hoxha succeeded in one thing. In increasing your power. These bunkers were clear signs of the war frenzy and the unseen enemy that reminded people of a dangerous day. His leader was his hope for a lonely and threatened nation. If there was no danger then why there were so many bunkers? This idea was not bad for the leader of the country.
After 44 years in power, Enver Hoxha died in 1971, along with a bunker-building policy. Many bunkers were destroyed. There are many left. Their new uses were discovered. Somewhere mushroom farm, somewhere cafe, somewhere someone's residence, sometimes Kosovo refugee camp, somewhere clinic, somewhere bird sanctuary. If a tourist goes here today, the most important thing is to note them. These bunkers, which in the past kept the nation in darkness and fear, are now a tourist attraction. This nation has made the bad ideas of the past good today. No one occupied Albania, except for its own fears. Today, Albania has overcome its fears. It is no longer alone, it is surrounded by friends everywhere without changing its geography.
