Hear the one about the Albanian swimmer?

Look for it and you’ll find humor anywhere. Even, maybe even especially, in Pristina, Kosovo. Though this United Nations protectorate , working to obtain independence from Serbia, is 90 percent Albanian, that doesn’t mean that it feels an automatic kinship with Albania proper.

The Kosovars, despite their problems, at least were part of the changes that occurred during the majority of the 20th century. The Albanians, on the other hand, were for half the century mired in an isolationist, Maoist-type Communist society .

On the other hand, Kosovo is a landlocked pocket of the Balkans, unlike Albania, which has a long western coastline that fronts the Adriatic Sea – just across from Italy. The Albanian beaches, it is said, are unbelievably beautiful

So the Kosovars see the Albanians as less educated, while the Albanians see their cousins as country folk – and, of course, I’m being polite.

Here, then, is a joke as told by one Kosovar Albanian:

Q. Why are there no swimming pools in Albania?
A. Because all the Albanians who know how to swim are in Italy.