Albania is still recovering from social and economic chaos that followed the collapse of nationwide pyramid investment schemes in 1996, and further waves of refugees could cause the economy to collapse altogether. Still, the crisis is providing at least a shot in the arm. At the air base, a few hundred laborers, carpenters, laundry workers and translators are earning two to three times the wages they would be earning outside the gate - if jobs could be found. Hundreds more are working for aid agencies, news organizations and private contractors that are responding to the crisis. This will make a difference.
People have money.
In Elbasan, a local bakery went to three shifts a day and doubled its workforce to meet orders for 20,000 loaves of bread a day placed by the World Food Programme, which sends food to refugee camps. NATO military forces have unloaded hundreds of pieces of heavy engineering equipment at the port of Durres to rebuild Albania's main roads and bridges to support humanitarian operations. Private contractors are expected to win awards to upgrade power and communications systems, as well. To be sure, Albania needs some good things to happen. It shook off a half-century of virulent, isolationist communism only eight years ago and is still Europe's poorest country.