Sunday, June 10, 2007

郑小琼:记录流水线上的屈辱与呻吟

郑小琼:记录流水线上的屈辱与呻吟
2007-06-11 09:05:22 来源: 南方报业(广州) 

  四川打工妹郑小琼一边在广东东莞工厂打工,一边写出了“打工诗歌”,作品《铁·塑料厂》获得人民文学奖散文奖。有人说,她的作品充满灰暗与苦涩,但是她说,记录了打工者的真实境况。“来自底层的真切体验给了她沉实的底气。”

打工妹郑小琼作品选:

我不断地试图用文字把打工生活的感受写出来/它的尖锐总是那样的明亮/像烧灼着的铁一样/不断地烧烤着肉体与灵魂———《铁》

在背后我让人骂了一句狗日的北妹/这个玩具化的城市没有穿上内裤/欲望的风把它的裙底飘了起来/它露出的光腚/让我这个北妹想入非非啊!———《人行天桥》

在深夜轰鸣的机器中/夜晚疲惫得如同一个筋疲力尽的鱼/在窗外/在机台上游动着———《塑料厂》

那个疲倦的外乡人/小心而胆怯/你从来没有见过这么胆小的人/像躲在浓荫下的灯光一样———《黄麻岭》

相关报道 郑小琼:在诗人与打工妹之间(南方周末)

郑小琼与诗友结伴爬山被警察拦住,朋友从手提袋里拿出一本书,挥舞着告诉警察,那是他刚出的诗集。警察不耐烦,将诗集打翻在地,把手一伸,“暂住证!”

“我不知道什么叫光明或阴暗,我只看见事实。我的诗歌灰,因为我的世界是灰的。”

“珠江三角洲有4万根以上断指,我常想,如果把它们都摆成一条直线会有多长,而我笔下瘦弱的文字却不能将任何一根断指接起来……”

《南方人物周刊》实习记者 郑廷鑫 李劼婧 发自东莞


是诗人在打工,还是打工妹在写诗?成希/图(南方周末供网易深度图片)

女工们的真实生活怎样?(南方周末供网易深度图片)

见到郑小琼,颇费几番周折。

记者到达东莞南城客运站,郑小琼告知:“我今天要去送货,在长安镇。”

车到长安已是中午。再去电,得知她接下来要去涌头工业区。

到了涌头工业区,太阳曝晒,仍然不见人影。后来终于见到了,这个人民文学奖本年度“新浪潮”散文奖的得主一脸歉意:“上午忙着到处送货,还要赶到朋友那边拿信。我没有固定的住址,信件都是寄到朋友那,我一个月再去拿一次。”

以前在厂里,她的信经常被扣留。每个月要扣她几十块钱才能把信拿走。“一封信要我交一块多,每个月扣四五十块,我一个月就赚几百块,都是血汗钱,心痛死了。”所以,只好让朋友代为收信。

几十封沉甸甸的信,大都是各地的文学刊物寄来的,还有一些读者的信,当然还有汇款。

于是一起到邮局。却被告知无法取款:汇款单上写的是朋友转交给郑小琼,必须有朋友的身份证和签名。她打电话给朋友,朋友却已经出差去了。

没人知道她叫郑小琼

在没来东莞打工之前,郑小琼是四川南充乡下诊所的一个小医士。

1996年,当她考上南充卫校的时候,还是家里的骄傲。“在那个年代,考上卫校,毕业后分配到某个医院,就意味着端起了铁饭碗,吃上了公家饭。”她带着村里人羡慕的眼光,和家里人砸锅卖铁也要供她上学的决心,来到了卫校。

四年毕业后,学校不再包分配了,郑小琼来到了一家乡村诊所。

诊所的经历,她一直都拒绝回忆,因为那是个梦魇。乡村诊所说到底就是个性病医院,“那些地方太黑了,根本就是骗人的,一点效果都没有,害人啊。我真的看不下去,良心不安啊。”

“上学时,我一个月要用两三百,一年学费要两三千,上学欠的那么多钱怎么还?更别提回报父母了!”于是,她不顾家里人反对,南下打工。

“那时候找工作挺难的,要找到一个好的工作就更难。招两三个人,就有两百多人排队。先让你跑步,还要做仰卧起坐啊,看看你体力怎么样。人都没有尊严了,反正他叫你做什么你就得做什么。进去的话,又要收押金,先交一两百块,制服费。”打工多年,见过无数不平事的郑小琼讲起这些,还有些忿忿不平。

在残酷的现实面前,“好像所有的理想一下子全都没有了”。先在一个模具厂工作,没做多久又去了玩具厂、磁带厂,再到家具厂做仓管。

不断转厂换工作的后果,就是生活更加地艰难。“当你连饭都吃不上的时候,那种感觉真叫可怕。”但恐慌之后,生活还得继续,继续挨饿,饿过一顿是一顿。

挨饿之外,暂住证成了郑小琼的另一个梦魇。“有时候老乡把你反锁在出租屋里,查房的就猛敲铁皮房门,看你在不在,外面又下着雨……有些家里带着小孩,‘哇’地一声就吓得哭起来……特别是他那个手电筒‘刷’地一下照着你,那种感觉……”

工厂没有任何休息日,一天工作十二小时。饶是如此,她在家具厂上了一个月班后,月底结算的时候又一次让她彻底地心寒了:工资卡上的数字是284元。

几番辗转,郑小琼来到一个叫黄麻岭的小镇,进了一家五金厂。这里,所有的东西都是冰冷而残酷的,但对她来说,这是一座火山,让她喷发出无尽的灵感。

工厂实行全封闭式管理,一个员工一周只允许出厂门三次,用于购置基本的生活用品或办理私事。有一次老乡来看望她,在门口等了半天,等到她下班,因为那周她已经出去了三次,两个人只能站在铁门的两侧,说上几句话。

在这个封闭得类似于监狱的环境里,她每天早上七点三十分上班,十二点下班,下午一点四十五分上班,五点四十五分下班,六点半加班,一直到九点半下班。每月五号左右,领一千块左右的工资。加班费倒是有,一个小时一块钱。很多工人会争着要加班,为了三个小时三块钱的加班费而争执起来。

在郑小琼看来,“这是挺好的工作了”。她一呆就是四年,在流水线干了两年后,又到办公室做文员。

五金厂的流水线上,所有人都没有名字,只有工号。每天的工作就是在铁片上用超声波轧孔,从机台上取下两斤多重的铁块,摆好、按开关、打轧,然后取下再摆,不断地重复。每天要将一两斤重的铁片起起落落一万多次,第一个月手就磨烂了。等到你的手磨掉了一层皮,长出老茧之后,便开始能适应这种生活。

流水线上,没有我,只有们,人只是流水线上的一种工具。这是郑小琼在东莞最为辛苦的一段日子。在那里,没人知道她叫郑小琼,人们只会说:“哎,245号。”

后来,她在自己一篇名为《流水线》的文章中写下了这段经历。虽然已经时过境迁,语言中的愤懑与辛酸却是无法掩盖的:

作为个体的我们在流水线样的现实中是多么柔软而脆弱,这种敏感是我们痛觉的原点,它们一点一点地扩散,充满了我的内心,在内心深处叫喊着,反抗着,我内心因流水线的奴役感到耻辱,但是我却对这一切无能为力,剩下的是一种个人尊严的损伤,在长期的损伤中麻木下去,在麻木中我们渐渐习惯了,在习惯中我渐渐放弃曾经有过的叫喊与反抗,我渐渐成为了流水线的一部分。

写诗能赚多少钱?

还是在流水线上。有个工友在打轧的时候,手上动作慢了一点,手指立刻被打下来。自己还不知道,还在继续做事。然后就奇怪,这怎么有血呀?一看只有一个指甲盖在流水线上,其它部分都压成了肉酱,看不到了。

工友看着自己的手,等了会,血一下子喷出来了。她按住手,走到郑小琼面前,缓缓地说:手砸了。

郑小琼急了,赶紧去找老板。老板说:哦?严不严重?那就去找厂里的采购吧,坐他的摩托车去医院。

采购在外面,半个小时后才能回来。老板的车就在旁边,但他看到工人流血的手,肯定会弄脏自己的车,又面无表情地摇摇头,让她们继续等采购回来。

十分钟、二十分钟、三十分钟,血已经在地上摊成一大片。采购终于回来了,受伤的人却不愿意住院,因为这样能向工厂要求多赔点钱。好的时候,能有一两千块的赔偿,不走运的时候,老板都没有赔,就从保险里面给,还要扣掉医药费。

伤口简单包扎一下之后,血止住了,彻骨的疼痛却止不住。半夜睡觉时,她一再地痛醒,喊痛的呻吟又吵醒了其他工友。

后来,断指的故事被郑小琼一再提起。她自己也有相似经历,幸好手抽得快,只打掉了一个拇指盖,但也足够痛彻心扉。

在获得人民文学奖“新浪潮”散文奖后,站在领奖台上,她又一次讲起了断指,断指和她的写作:

我在五金厂打工五年时光,每个月我都会碰到机器轧掉半截手指或者指甲盖的事情,我的内心充满了疼痛,当我从报纸上看到在珠三角每年有超过4万根的断指之痛时,我一直在计算着,这些断指如果摆成一条直线,它们将会有多长,而这条线还在不断地、快续地加长之中。此刻,我想得更多的是这些瘦弱的文字有什么用?它们不能接起任何一根断指。

但是,我仍不断告诉自己,我必须写下来,把自己的感受写下来,这些感受不仅仅是我的,也是我的工友们的。我们既然对现实不能改变什么,但是我们已经见证了什么,我想,我必须把它们记录下来。

在家具厂做仓管的时候,郑小琼每天守在很大很凌乱的仓库里,等待有人来领胶布之类的东西。很多时候,都是一个人枯坐在办公桌前。于是她会偷偷地翻看厂里的书和报刊。

在一些打工者的刊物上,看到别人写的诗歌,她觉得有些奇怪:写这些东西有什么困难嘛,我也能写。就是在这里,她偷偷地写下了生平的第一首诗,然后寄给了一家镇报,居然发表了。在那之前,她对诗歌一点也不了解。在那之后,便一发不可收拾地写起来了。

写作都在一个前提下进行:偷偷地。如果被人发现她在上班的时间写作,后果就是罚钱。但写诗的激情总归战胜罚款的忧虑。她在小纸片上,这里写几句那里写几句,回到宿舍再整理起来。因此,曾被人称为“地下党”。

有一天郑小琼突然心血来潮,想跟同住的老乡说说自己写的东西,“正当我很有激情要跟她说这些的时候,她突然就埋下头,不是擦擦鞋,就是整理一下被子,弄一下衣服……虽然也没有离开,但是……你就觉得这样真的很没意思,就不想说了。”

她一直偷偷把诗写在工厂的合格纸上,堆起来有一尺多高。因为居无定所,转厂的时候,这些全部都带不走,扔掉了。

故乡只能是笔下的故乡了

几年的时间,郑小琼把自己的打工生活都写成诗歌。写诗给她带来了意想不到的名声。随着她的诗歌在各种文学媒体上频频发表,引起了文坛的关注,也获得了“打工诗人”的称呼。

但到现在,郑小琼仍然认为,自己“还不明白什么是诗歌的体例”,自己只是在记录一些来自内心的感受,没有经过过多的雕琢,连错别字都没改。

理所当然,有人认为她的诗歌“过于粗糙,堆砌太多”,“写诗还处于无意识状态,宣泄的成分多一些”。

但更多的人,却被她诗歌的大气和对苦难生活的描写所震撼。评论家惊叹,“来自底层的真切体验给了她沉实的底气,苍茫而又富有细节能力的描述,再加上天然的对底层劳动者身份的认同,使她的作品倍添大气、超拔、质朴和纯真的意味。”

所有这些评价都很难与记者面前这个郑小琼联系在一起。她看上去柔弱,腼腆而害羞,说话不多,脸上总是漾着笑意。

“也许你无法想象,打工这么多年,我不敢回家。”因为工资低,郑小琼“到了结婚的年龄,仍身无分文”,也没寄过多少钱回家:“我现在都不敢去流浪,要是流浪一年的话,所有的亲戚都不相信你了,因为你没钱了要去他们那边借……”

今年上半年,转做业务的郑小琼一单没成,还倒贴了三千块。得到的一万块人民文学奖金,只是让她可以缓一口气。

2007年,郑小琼终于回到阔别七年的家乡,却发现“完全没有家乡的感觉,故乡只能是笔下的故乡了”。

“家里都是一些老人孩子,盼着打工的人拿回去更多的钱。萧条的街上没什么人,小时候的玩伴一个都没有了,出来那么久已经完全改变了。

“等我写完这个南方系列,也可能我就不再写,或者不在这个城市了,人生总是有很多可能的。”

仍然奔波于东莞大街小巷的郑小琼,一边祈愿写作的人要“正常一点,良善一点,平静一点,谦和一点”,一边希望“打工的人,大家都越来越好”。(感谢洪湖浪对此文的帮助)


本文来源:南方人物周刊 作者:郑廷鑫 李劼婧
http://news.163.com/07/0611/09/3GMPCVJK00011SM9.html

Corporate Korea Corks the Bottle as Women Rise

June 10, 2007
Corporate Korea Corks the Bottle as Women Rise

By NORIMITSU ONISHI
SEOUL, South Korea — In a time-honored practice in South Korea’s corporate culture, the 38-year-old manager at an online game company took his 10-person team on twice-weekly after-work drinking bouts. He exhorted his subordinates to drink, including a 29-year-old graphic designer who protested that her limit was two glasses of beer.

“Either you drink or you get it from me tomorrow,” the boss told her one evening.

She drank, fearing that refusing to do so would hurt her career. But eventually, unable to take the drinking any longer, she quit and sued.

In May, in the first ruling of its kind, the Seoul High Court said that forcing a subordinate to drink alcohol was illegal, and it pronounced the manager guilty of a “violation of human dignity.” The court awarded the woman $32,000 in damages for the incidents, which occurred in 2004.

The ruling was as much a testament to women’s growing presence in corporate life here as a confirmation of changes already under way. As an increasing number of women have joined companies as professionals in the past half decade, corporate South Korea has struggled to change the country’s thoroughly male-centered corporate culture, starting with alcohol.

An evening out with colleagues here follows a predictable, alcohol-centered pattern: dinner, usually some grilled pork, washed down with soju, Korea’s national vodkalike drink; then a second round at a beer hall; then whiskey and singing at a “norae bang,” a Korean karaoke club. Exhorted by their bosses to drink, the corporate warriors bond, literally, so that the sight of dark-suited men holding hands, leaning on one another, staggering toward taxis, is part of this city’s nighttime streetscape. The next morning, back at the office, they are ready to fight, with reaffirmed unity, for more markets at home and abroad.

Many professional women manage to avoid much of the drinking by adopting well-known strategies. They slip away while their male colleagues indulge in a second or third round of drinking. They pour the drinks into potted plants. They rely on male colleagues, called “knights in shining armor,” to take their turns in drinking games.

Companies, too, have begun to respond. Since 2005, Posco, the steel manufacturer, has limited company outings to two hours at its mill in South Korea’s southwest. Employees can raise a red card if they do not want to drink or a yellow card if they want to go home early. At Woori Bank, one of South Korea’s largest, an alarm rings at 10 p.m. to encourage workers to stop drinking and go home using public transportation, which stops running before midnight.

“My boss used to be all about, ‘Let’s drink till we die!’ ” said Wi Su-jung, a 31-year-old woman employed at a small shipping company.

Ms. Wi, who was out enjoying the sun in downtown Seoul, said the atmosphere began changing as more women joined her company in the past couple of years. “The women got together and complained about the drinking and the pressure to drink,” she said. “So things changed last year. Now we sometimes go to musicals or movies instead.”

Kim Chil-jong, who was taking a walk on his lunch hour, said he owned a nine-person publishing company. In the last couple of years, he hired two women for the first time.

“We drink less because of their presence,” Mr. Kim, 47, said. “Before, I’d encourage my workers to drink whenever we went out, but I don’t do that anymore.”

Still, at least 90 percent of company outings — called “hoishik,” or coming together to eat — still center on alcohol, according to the Korean Alcohol Research Foundation. The percentage of women who drink has increased over all as they have joined companies.

Over all, South Koreans consume less alcohol than, say, most Europeans, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a research organization financed by industrialized nations.

But Cho Sung-gie, the alcohol foundation’s research director, estimates that South Koreans rank first in binge drinking: the goal is to drink as much as possible, as quickly as possible, so that co-workers loosen up.

Companies have awakened to the potential dangers of bingeing: health threats, decreased productivity and, with more women working, the risk of sexual harassment.

The foundation, though financed largely by the alcohol industry, is considered the authority on the country’s drinking culture. It runs programs on responsible drinking and abstinence, and assists companies to organize outings not centered on alcohol. Chang Kih-wung, a manager in the education team, has even joined company outings to the movies.

“Usually, a company decides to do something about drinking after a guest, often a foreigner, visits and makes a comment like, ‘Man, people drink like crazy here!’ ” Mr. Chang said. “So they’ll invite me for a lecture or organize a single activity — then they forget about it and go back to drinking.”

Traditionally, this corporate culture often began at the job interview itself. Asked whether they liked to drink, applicants knew that there was only one correct answer.

“If they said they didn’t drink, we’d think that we couldn’t work closely together,” said Lee Jai-ho, 40, an engineer at a paper mill that was bought by Norske Skog of Sweden in the late 1990s.

Mr. Lee said he was asked whether he was a good drinker during his job interview in 1992, and he asked the same question of job candidates later. The company’s hard-drinking culture changed, however, after it changed to foreign ownership.

It is this fear of not being accepted as full members of the team that has led many women to drink to excess. A 31-year-old lawyer for a telecommunications company, who asked that her name not be used, blacked out during a company outing shortly after she became the first Korean woman to serve as a lawyer in the legal division three years ago. “During my studies, I always competed against men,” she said. “So I didn’t want to lose to men at hoishik.”

She drank so much during dinner at a Chinese restaurant that she remembered nothing past 9 p.m., though the outing lasted until 1 a.m.

However, as more women have joined her division, she said, the emphasis on alcohol has decreased.

“Before it was always grilled pork with soju followed by mixed drinks,” she said. “Now, I can suggest that we go to a Thai or Italian restaurant.”

Not all men were so flexible, though. In the case of the 29-year-old graphic designer, when she was interviewed at the 240-employee online game company in 2004, she was also forced to submit to an “alcohol interview,” according to the court ruling. She could drink only two glasses of beer and no soju at all, she said.

Her boss, though, liked to go out with his 10-person marketing team — six men and four women — at least twice a week until the predawn hours and brooked no excuses.

One time, he told her that if she called upon a “knight in shining armor,” she would have to kiss him. So she drank two glasses of soju. Another time, after she slipped away early, he called her at home and ordered her to come back. She refused.

At the trial, the boss said he was so intent on having his subordinates bond that he sometimes used his own money to take them out drinking. He called the woman a weirdo and said of the lawsuit, “I’m the victim.”

For One Visit, Bush Will Feel Pro-U.S. Glow

For One Visit, Bush Will Feel Pro-U.S. Glow

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/09/world/europe/09albania.html?em&ex=1181620800&en=6c0473e76408e8cd&ei=5087%0A

By CRAIG S. SMITH
Published: June 9, 2007
TIRANA, Albania, June 8 — The highlight of President Bush’s European tour may well be his visit on Sunday to this tiny country, one of the few places left where he can bask in unabashed pro-American sentiment without a protester in sight.

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Visar Kryeziu/Associated Press
Women passing the day at a park in Tirana, Albania, where the American and Albanian flags are on display in anticipation of President Bush’s visit Sunday. He will be the first sitting American president to stop by.

The New York Times
The mayor of Tirana calls Albania “the most pro-American country.”
Americans here are greeted with a refreshing adoration that feels as though it comes from another time.

“Albania is for sure the most pro-American country in Europe, maybe even in the world,” said Edi Rama, Tirana’s mayor and leader of the opposition Socialists. “Nowhere else can you find such respect and hospitality for the president of the United States. Even in Michigan, he wouldn’t be as welcome.”

Thousands of young Albanians have been named Bill or Hillary thanks to the Clinton administration’s role in rescuing ethnic Albanians from the Kosovo war. After the visit on Sunday, some people expect to see a rash of babies named George.

So eager is the country to accommodate Mr. Bush that Parliament unanimously approved a bill last month allowing “American forces to engage in any kind of operation, including the use of force, in order to provide security for the president.” One newspaper, reporting on the effusive mood, published a headline that read, “Please Occupy Us!”

There are, to be sure, signs that the rest of Europe is tilting a bit more in America’s direction, narrowing the gap between “old” and “new” Europe that opened with disagreements over the Iraq war.

France’s new president, Nicolas Sarkozy, wants to forget the acrimony that marked his predecessor’s relations with the United States, even appointing a pro-American foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, who supported the United States’ invasion of Iraq.

Shortly after taking office, Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that Germany did “not have as many values in common with Russia as it does with America.” She has since proposed a new trans-Atlantic economic partnership that would get rid of many non-tariff barriers to trade.

And Gordon Brown, who will succeed Tony Blair as Britain’s prime minister this month, has vacationed several times on Cape Cod and befriended a succession of Treasury officials. He is expected to maintain what Britons call the country’s “special relationship” with the United States, ahead of other American allies.

So “old Europe” has warmed toward the United States, although there has been no fundamental shift toward more American-friendly policies. But even in “new Europe,” as the post-Communist states of Central and Eastern Europe have been called, Albania is special.

Much of Eastern Europe has grown more critical of Mr. Bush, worried that the antimissile defense shield he is pushing will antagonize Russia and lead to another cold war. Many Eastern Europeans, Czechs and Poles among them, are also angry that the United States has maintained cumbersome visa requirements even though their countries are now members of the European Union.

But here in Albania, which has not wavered in its unblinking support for American policies since the end of the cold war, Mr. Bush can do no wrong. While much of the world berates Mr. Bush for warmongering, unilateralism, trampling civil liberties and even turning a blind eye to torture, Albania still loves him without restraint.

Mr. Bush will be the first sitting American president to visit the country, and his arrival could not come on a more auspicious day: the eighth anniversary of the start of Serbian troop withdrawals from Kosovo and ratification by the United Nations Security Council of the American-brokered peace accord that ended the fighting. Mr. Bush is pushing the Security Council to approve a plan that would lead to qualified Kosovo independence.

Albanians are pouring into the capital from across the region. Hotel rooms are as scarce as anti-American feelings.

Albanians’ support for the war in Iraq is nearly unanimous, and any perceived failings of American foreign policy are studiously ignored. A two-day effort to find anyone of prominence who might offer some criticism of the United States turned up just one name, and that person was out of the country.

Every school child in Albania can tell you that President Woodrow Wilson saved Albania from being split up among its neighbors after World War I, and nearly every adult repeats the story when asked why Albanians are so infatuated with the United States.

James A. Baker III was mobbed when he visited the country as secretary of state in 1991. There was even a move to hold a referendum declaring the country America’s 51st state around that time.

“The excitement among Albanians over this visit is immeasurable, beyond words,” said Albania’s new foreign minister, Lulzim Basha, during an interview in his office, decorated with an elegant portrait of Faik Konica, who became the first Albanian ambassador to the United States in 1926. “We truly believe that this is a historic moment that people will look back on decades later and talk about what it meant for the country.”

Mr. Bush’s visit is a reward for Albania’s unflinching performance as an unquestioning ally. The country was among the first American allies to support Washington’s refusal to submit to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. It was one of the first countries to send troops to Afghanistan and one of the first to join the forces in Iraq. It has soldiers in both places.

“They will continue to be deployed as long as the Americans are there,” Albania’s president, Alfred Moisiu, said proudly in an interview.

Most recently, the country has quietly taken several former detainees from the base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, off the Bush administration’s hands when sending them to their home countries was out of the question. There are eight so far, and Mr. Moisiu said he is open to accepting more.

Mr. Rama, Tirana’s mayor, says he is offended when Albania’s pro-Americanism is cast as an expression of “provincial submission.”

“It’s not about being blind,” he said, wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with the Great Seal of the United States. “The U.S. is something that is really crucial for the destiny of the world.”

The pro-American feeling has strayed into government-commercial relations. The Albanian government has hired former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge as a consultant on a range of issues, including the implementation of a national identity card.

Many people questioned the procedures under which a joint venture led by Bechtel won Albania’s largest public spending project ever, a contract to build a highway linking Albania and Kosovo. President Moisiu said state prosecutors were now looking at the deal.

In preparation for Mr. Bush’s six-hour visit, Tirana has been draped in American flags and banners that proclaim, “Proud to be Partners.” A portrait of Mr. Bush hangs on the “Pyramid,” a cultural center in the middle of town that was built as a monument to Albania’s Communist strongman, Enver Hoxha. State television is repeatedly playing a slickly produced spot in which Prime Minister Sali Berisha welcomes Mr. Bush in English.

What Mr. Bush will get in return from the visit is the sight of cheering crowds in a predominantly Muslim nation. When asked by an Albanian reporter before leaving Washington what came to mind when he thought of Albania, Mr. Bush replied, “Muslim people who can live at peace.”

Albania is about 70 percent Muslim, with large Orthodox and Catholic populations. To underscore the country’s history of tolerance, President Moisiu will present Mr. Bush with the reproduction of an 18th-century Orthodox icon depicting the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus flanked by two mosques.

“President Bush is safer in Albania than in America,” said Ermin Gjinishti, a Muslim leader in Albania.

Tim Golden contributed reporting from Tirana, and Alan Cowell from London.