After Clinton, Albanians now plan a statue for George W. Bush
Only weeks after Kosovo Albanians erected a statue to former US president Bill Clinton for his services to the Albanian national cause, the small Albanian town of Fushe-Kruje announced plans to erect a statue of former U.S. President George W. Bush to commemorate his June 2007 visit, when he was feted as a hero in an outpouring of love for America.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Sunday, November 22, 2009
Mayor Ismet Mavriqi said seven Albanian sculptors had entered the competition for the statue he plans to unveil in Bush Square in the town center on June 10, 2010, the third anniversary of Bush's visit.
"If had the final say, I would very much like a three-meter statue, probably in bronze, that captures his trademark way of walking with energy," Mavriqi said.
The municipality has already finished the blueprints for rebuilding the square where the statue will stand, he added.
A cafe in Fushe-Kruje and a street in the capital Tirana are already named after Bush.
When Bush visited Fushe-Kruje, he dived into a throng of waiting Albanians and enjoyed a rock-star reception -- a stark contrast with the noisy protests that dogged him elsewhere on that European trip.
The bakery and the cafe where Bush stopped to talk with the owners and a barber, a shepherd and a tailor whose businesses were funded by U.S. micro-loans, have become landmarks visited by Albanians, ethnic Albanians from Kosovo and foreigners.
Bush, on the first U.S. presidential visit to post-communist Albania, backed independence for Kosovo and urged Kosovo Albanians to be patient. The United States was the mastermind of Kosovo's independence.
