Category: government

Mixed Feelings – Tirana, Albania

On By Rick McIn food, government, hiking, travelLeave a comment

Albania is cool in 2026. Especially the Albanian Riviera.

Almost every tourist online has a lot of praise for Albania.

Once the “North Korea of Europe“, Albania is frantically trying to become the next Greece for tourists.

Inland Berat is great. I hear Gjirokastër is terrific, too.

The capital, Tirana, is NOT one of the tourist highlights. Fly in and leave as quickly as possible. The airport is terrible in 2026, by the way.

Taking walking tours of the centre on a hot day, I concluded this must be the most boring capital city in the world.

The only attraction to write home about is weird and wonderful Pyramid of Tirana. On top is the place to be at night.

Children sliding down the pyramid.

The inexplicable structure was co-designed by daughter of former dictator Enver Hoxha — and nobody has settled on best function. Numerous proposals to demolish the thing have been pitched — but I hope they keep it.

There are some impressive religious buildings.

Resurrection Cathedral, Tirana
The Namazgah Mosque near Skanderbeg Square

This thing was closed.

I did enjoy walking the Grand Park of Tirana close to the city centre.

Tried to go to the Botanic Gardens — which seemed to be closed — so bought a ticket to the animal prison. The zoo is bad, as I expected, needing funds for reparations and animal care.

After a week hiking Accursed Mountains, crossing between Albania, Kosovo, and Montenegro — some of our group finished the trip with an excellent meal downtown.

Food fantastic.

Walking town on Saturday night after dinner, I started to see why tourists like the lively cafe culture, and budget-friendly, high-quality food.

That night I stopped in at the government Flamingo Revolution protest. It started against luxury tourism developments, one backed by American investor Jared Kushner.

Expanding nationwide into an anti-government movement focused on corruption, land rights, protected areas, strategic-investment laws and political accountability. Most of the signs I saw were calling for Prime Minister Edi Rama to resign.

Tourism is booming everywhere in Albania — and I expect things will keep improving quickly.

Don’t count on good toilets or showers. 😀

Visiting Berat, Albania

On By Rick McIn ethics, government, travel1 Comment

Everyone loves this quirky little town about 2 hours by bus from Triana. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site.

In fact, Albania is a tourism hotspot in 2026. Berat had 50,000 tourists a year a decade ago. Today it’s 1 million.

BUT I recall when Albania was off limits to tourists. During the repressive communist regime of Enver Hoxha (1944–1985), Albania became one of the most isolated “hermit states” in the world.

Enver Hoxha was a totalitarian dictator who ruled Albania with extreme repression, paranoia, and isolationism from 1944 until 1985. He closed all churches & mosques, for example.

Like Trump, he wanted his name everywhere — including on this mountain seem from Berat. BUT in 2012 the first two letters were swapped to spell NEVER as part of an art project by filmmaker Armando Lulaj.

Brilliant.

Berat is much more than just “the city of a thousand windows“. There are NOT a thousand windows. That’s a marketing tag line that started as a language misinterpretation — but stuck. 😀

Detail of the beautiful houses of the illuminated historical city of Berat in Albania

There’s a great hostel. I paid 12 Euro / night ($14) including breakfast. Sweet.

Berat was +45C recently, the highest temperature ever recorded.

SO I decided to climb up to Berat Castle in the cooler evening. It’s open 24 hours / day as families still live there.

Interior of the bridge of the illuminated historic city of Berat in Albania, UNESCO, the city of a thousand windows

Next day I climbed the slope opposite Berat Castle, Gorica Hill.

More great vistas.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Happy Canada Day 2026

On By Rick McIn government, human rightsLeave a comment

Idiot Trump in office — I’ve never been happier to be a citizen of Canada.

Prime Minister Mark Carney is doing a good job protecting our sovereignty, building our economy.

As per the U.S. News Best Countries rankings, Canada is #5 in terms of quality of life, behind Sweden and Denmark.

If you don’t like Canada, you are free to leave. 😀

We don’t restrict personal freedoms as the ReTrumplican governments do in the USA.

ALBERTA PATRIOTS – JOIN THE Bloc Albérta

On By Rick McIn GOP USA, government, humourLeave a comment

Obviously, Danielle Smith is a TRAITOR to the cause of Alberta Independence. 

Join the newest extreme right wing fringe party, Bloc Albérta. 

Paid for by a supporter of Naheed Nenshi and the Alberta NDP. 😀 

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett

On By Rick McIn books, governmentLeave a comment

A Drop of Corruption is a 2025 fantasy murder mystery novel by Robert Jackson Bennett.

It is a sequel to his 2024 novel The Tainted Cup.

Quite good — but not as good as Tainted Cup.

Dinios “Din” Kol, a gifted young engraver (with perfect memory) is Watson to the eccentric investigator Anagosa “Ana” Dolabra. An entertaining Sherlock Holmes genius.

This book is a locked room mystery.

Technology in this world is based on extracting blood from sea monsters called leviathans.

There’s an attempt made to keep leviathan marrow alive in the lab, producing blood. This is what motivated the bad guy.

His books explore politics through his fiction, often examining how societies maintain order and justice in the face of external threats and internal corruption.


Nils Shukla – book review


The Proving Ground by Michael Connelly

On By Rick McIn books, ethics, government, internetLeave a comment

Excellent.

The Proving Ground (2025) is 8th in the Mickey Haller (Lincoln Lawyer) series. Possibly the best yet.

A courtroom procedural. Mikey with a case against an AI company whose product may have been responsible for the murder of a teenage girl.

It’s set post-Covid. During fires in L.A.

Very contemporary.

… a chatbot told a sixteen-year-old boy that it was okay for him to kill his ex-girlfriend for her disloyalty.

Representing the victim’s family, Mickey’s case explores the mostly unregulated and exploding AI business and the lack of training guardrails.

Along the way he joins up with a journalist named Jack McEvoy (The Poet), who wants to be a fly on the wall during the trial in order to write a book about it.

But Mickey puts him to work going through the mountain of printed discovery materials in the case. McEvoy’s digging ultimately delivers the key witness, a whistleblower who has been too afraid to speak up. The case is fraught with danger because billions are at stake.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Visiting Taipei City

On By Rick McIn government, travelLeave a comment

My favourite photo of the big city.

At dusk, many photographers were taking advantage of rain water puddles. I quickly joined them.

Sandra had given me a detailed itinerary for my 2 weeks in Taiwan. My default plan.

Most fly into and out of Taipei city, the capital of Taiwan.

Even at the airport, my feeling was that Taiwan is much more like China than Hong Kong or Singapore.

Recovering from a summer cold I picked up in Singapore, I first headed to the Beitou, the hot-spring area.

The public baths were closed for renovation, so I never got a soak — BUT heritage buildings and history information made it a worthwhile visit. Tourism is very well organized here.

The library is impressive. An eco-friendly green building.

I used the GPSMyCity app for a self-guided walking tour.

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is huge and impressive.

Here’s the founder himself.

Chiang Kai-shek looks over massive Liberty Square, flanked by the National Theater and National Concert Hall.

All in all, a very impressive tourist attraction.

Longshan Temple is stunning, as well. Quite welcoming of visitors.

Of course, every visitor rides the high speed elevator to the top of Tapei 101. It dominates the skyline.

Finally, if you LOVE SHOPPING, this is the city for you. It’s one of the most important pastimes of locals. Along with FOOD. 😀

My first visit to Taiwan.

Leonard Cohen – In Flander’s Fields

On By Rick McIn government, philosophy6 Comments

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

– John McCrae, 1915

Though thankfully I was never in a war, this is an important day for me. I remember.

Lest we forget – CBC

Remembrance Day (Australia, Canada, Colombia, UK and Ireland), also known as Poppy Day (South Africa and Malta), and Armistice Day (UK, New Zealand and many other Commonwealth countries; and the original name of the holiday internationally) is a day to commemorate the sacrifice of veterans and civilians in World War I and other wars. It is observed on November 11 to recall the end of World War I on that date in 1918.

Remembrance Day – wikipedia

HISTORY OF INDONESIA in 12 Minutes

On By Rick McIn government, Islam, travelLeave a comment

Indonesia is the least understood of the world’s large nation. 

Ejducate yerself. 

It’s quite moderate for a Muslim majority country.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. 

Want more?

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.