Albania has a president of state, who represents everyone, everyone’s interests and aspirations. We all voted for him, electing the parliamentarians, who in turn elected the president, Sali Berisha. But day after day, in the economic realm, we are also encountering dozens of other presidents: the presidents of companies! The priorities of the president of state are well known; he is, above all, a political figure, brought into office by political circumstances, and remains at the head of the country for five or ten years, no longer. The other presidents, those of companies, have a longer tenure. Solely because they rely on private property. Solely because private property—ownership of it—is sanctified by its attributes. Then let us all hurry to become company presidents! And as soon as possible. First, property—property itself must be sanctified by law! If this is not done, then the presidents of private property (properties) will remain a desired goal that will never be attained. And this impossibility must be buried once and for all. Otherwise, communism, the natural enemy of private property, will remain a constant threat. We are not talking about specific methods. Let the theoreticians deal with their theories; let the lyricists fade away; politics—politicians—with politics, since politicians cannot concern themselves with aphorisms, it seems. Even the possessive ‘mine’, ‘my own’ has for a long time been replaced by the collective adjective ‘ours’, which realistically promises nothing to anyone. Today, various political forces are playing hide-and-seek with ownership. We agree with ownership, but who will be called an owner?! Or should we disregard the old owners and start with the new owners (!)? Let Parliament take on such issues; in it we ‘choose’ our mentality. Both the old owners and the new owners are owners. Returning or guaranteeing their property is a sign of a democratic state’s maturity. This is not about the unlawful ‘new owners’, known as the ‘red economic mafia’. On the contrary, the red bosses are an insult to property, its anti-Albanians. Property and the old owners cannot be respected without penalizing and verifying the illicit wealth of the ‘nimble’ communists of the market economy. Once we have hurried past such compromises over property, then we will no longer be afraid of owners. If we fear the chairmen of cooperatives and directors of State Agricultural Enterprises and State Enterprises, let us be at ease in the face of capitalist private owners. They will only raise our standard of living (by putting us to work, naturally!); they will only take care that we are not made to work for nothing and live in poverty, but are paid much better than we are today... that much (naturally, while understanding that no material good can be secured without work). No harm will come to us from the old owners. It will simply bring back the time when everyone was an owner, when we all had something of our own, our land, our living beings, each of us something belonging to us. And then we will understand that at last we have attained that sacred thing which we usually call FREEDOM. Sacred things always demand and belong together. So it is with Freedom and Private Property. buried once and for all. Otherwise, communism, this natural enemy of private property, will always remain a threat. We are not talking about nature in particular. Let the theoreticians concern themselves with their theories, let the lyrics be written by politicians with politics, since we cannot all concern ourselves with aphorisms! And let those who know how to make love do nothing but make love, since they may end up owning little property! We are talking about those who tremble when faced with the possibility of becoming proper owners. But since we cannot all be like them, let us not prevent them from becoming so. Are we afraid to become owners? Or are we afraid of property owners? As absurd as it may be, this is a real state of affairs: as soon as we utter the word OWNER, we all seem to become agitated and worried. Why? The first clarification: Communist socialism has worked to make us believe…

. Friday is one of them. They say Tuesday is too. For days now, crowds of people have no longer been crossing the destroyed wires along the Albanian-Greek border. At the Kakavijë and Kapshticë border crossings, Greek police buses continue to return Albanian emigrants from Greece. Five meters inside our territory, we do not know why we should ask them questions. Meanwhile, they have no reason to answer either. Their torn clothes, darkened faces, unwashed hair and, here and there, sacks on their tired shoulders bear witness to the difficult days they have gone through when they were caught by the police. They are still afraid to speak in front of me, even though I tell them I am an Albanian journalist. They still do not dare break the line, although they have crossed several meters into their own land, a land that truly no longer keeps them in line, but still cannot feed them. They are returning. With them, besides the wounds on their bodies and the terror frozen on their faces from what the soldiers did to them when they were caught, they are bringing some leaflets hastily handed out by a customs official when he saw that some Albanian journalists were filming. And the leaflet says that Greece is a friend of Albania, that it will help them (the destitute, the scorned, the abused, the ...), and that ‘Greece’ and whatever else, the Greek soldier immediately went and presented himself at the customs post fence. He appeared and nearly fell to his knees to deny it to the two female journalists. The Greek soldier, more ... at the post than his colleagues who mistreat the refugees, continued protesting even more vehemently in front of our border commander. Meanwhile, as the returned refugees kept in line, the customs office phone rang at our border post. He protests. In the name of the law ... in the name of international conventions ... in the name of ... I do not know in whose name anymore ... I only know he protested a serious violation of border relations between the two countries. Two Albanian female journalists had taken photographs on Greek soil. A serious violation for him, a very serious one. More serious than the bruised face of the 24-year-old young man from Skrapar, who had been beaten for two days in a police station in Trikalla and forced to have sex with his friend by force; more serious than the case of a 35-year-old woman from Ksamil, who, overcome by shame and terror, does not know how to explain what happened to her with the Greek soldiers, and through her tears and sobs can only say that ... The Greek soldier asks that the serious violation committed by the two female journalists be forgiven. The photojournalist had to intervene to rescue them, explaining that he had not photographed Greek soil but Albanian refugees, but the commander had already found his courage. The photojournalist was Albanian, and that made it easy for the commander to act stern and military. You crossed through the Konuz canal in an illegal boat, a resident of Ksamili and the two little girls. The mother who manages to survive suffers a nervous breakdown as soon as she reaches the shore and cries out that someone has stolen her money... someone... perhaps the one who snatches away the lives of her two daughters, the life of her husband. She cries out ... Zoto Petri OMERI [leaflets] hastily distributed by the customs officer that it will help them (the ruined, despised, abused, and plundered) there in Albania. After that, a thin Greek soldier guarding the gate gave the Albanians some books as well. The Greek soldier kept hitting, hitting hard. He wanted our post officers to hear clearly that two Albanian journalists had gone against the rules and had endangered the goodwill between the two peoples. And our commander, Commander Tomorri, whom I did not dare ask because he had been in Albania for only two months. The Greek commander, with [unclear] on Greek soil, but photographing Albanians; by then the commander had already turned into a monster. the commander to act stern and military. “You broke the rules,” he told us. “You should definitely have asked me.” A couple from Shkodra attempts to… (continued on page 2)

Zoto Petri OMERI

Yes, says the director of the Directorate of Culture at the Ministry of Culture, Mr. D. Kokonozi, but apparently he himself has a qualified answer in mind, because: According to the statistics, the collection of foreign books at the National Library has been declining in recent years: 9,300 books this year, fewer than 8,000 in 1990! The figures will fall even further in the future, because, according to official sources, a special fund allocated a few years ago for purchasing foreign books with foreign currency no longer exists! It seems that under today’s extremely difficult conditions, the government cannot guarantee a special fund for purchasing foreign literature. In any case (it seems paradoxical), foreign literature does not come in. Just as some charitable associations give us food aid (oil, sugar and clothes), they also give books to Albanians. “SOROS,” “God Loves Albania,” “Feed the Children” (and who knows how many other associations with astonishing names) have from time to time donated batches of books to the National Library. The libraries of university departments at the State University have also been donated somewhere. In any case, this does not resolve the whole problem of foreign books entering Albania. The Albanian is a person who needs foreign books. He does not know who the most prominent novelist, playwright, poet or journalist in the world is today. He is unfamiliar with European culture because... Books in foreign languages are also not supplied sporadically through aid that benefactors may give from time to time. The government has opened emergency funds in many areas to help the market economy. According to Director Kokonozi, another fund could also be approved for culture, namely one for foreign literature (especially since the overall fund for culture will be less than one percent). But books are nevertheless an emergency, because Albanians today are hungry not only for Europe’s food market, but also for its “spiritual” market.

A sensational story spread in Tirana these days: the artist who played the dictator Hoxha in the satirical film against the dictator, “Gjuetia e fundit,” was found one night beaten nearly to death by four people. It was believed that the perpetrators were communists. But a subsequent inquiry showed that this was not true. Two of the film’s actors told us that nothing of the sort had happened and that artists, in general, continue working as usual. But in the Albanian capital, stories like this spread quickly. Who is spreading these sensational stories, and have there really been threats? There have been threats against artists—those who have only just dared to stage the political tragedies of the past fifty years in Albania. According to statements made, the institution of the artists who acted in the satirical film is carefully guarded by the police and public-order forces. They have often received threatening phone calls, while the film’s director was threatened with death in a letter sent from Gjirokastra (the birthplace of the former dictator). The courageous director of TVSH, Mr. Leka Bungo, has also been threatened, as have other artists. Communist pressure has become particularly real. Try to publish anything truly scandalous in the Albanian press against former dictator Hoxha and the communists, and you will feel that... Then it becomes clear why the widow of former dictator Hoxha sits so calmly in the courtroom when Albanian justice announced the sentence...

- It is expected that the Albanian prime minister will resign after this - “Greetings, Captain! Greetings to... you others, too...!” “Thank you, Mr. Arjan (Tepelena), thank you and... you, Mr. Meksi... The first sentence was taken from an episode of an Albanian film, while the second was taken from the television revue of the parade of satires. Dear readers, did you read both? O.K. It is said that after Mr. Meksi heard himself being thanked like this on the television revue, he prepared a “motion of resignation,” while “Captain” Arjan Tepelena prepared a “motion of promotion.”

For five days now, the unfortunate N of the capital has not been seen out on the streets of Tirana. The rumors that the unfortunate N. had held a series of high-level meetings with representatives of the political parties must have been entirely true, since on Wednesday afternoon the unfortunate N. was seen in the blink of an eye in front of the headquarters of the National Unity Party, even coming out through its doors shouting: “Only ndajet Beqiri is for national unity and reconciliation! Sami Frashëri is not for national reconciliation and unity.” After these two statements, the unfortunate N. was not seen again until late afternoon, when, in the lobby of Hotel “Dajti,” she allegedly held a lengthy conference, lamenting the foreign contingent excessively. They hurried up to the second floor of the lobby, watching and listening to the unfortunate woman shouting: “Why are you inviting me for coffee?! You, Fatos Nemo, why are you looking at me askance? Why are you preparing these party speeches? Restaurant “Dajti” is depoliticized! You, Comrade Gramoz Ruci, where is your office here in “Dajti”? Why have they put you in the Tavern? Doctor Kastrojt Islami also hangs out in the Tavern. The Tavern is depoliticized too. But is Bashkim Zeneli depoliticized? If he is, let him eat lunch and dinner at “Dajti.” Who raises a toast to Sali Gërdeci at “Dajti”? Why are you arguing over coffee? Why are you raising your voices? Who are you here? No one here is to blame! Why are you shouting as if you’re being beaten, Fatos? Why are you expelling Kraksi from the Socialist Party of Albania? Who are you going to give the number 3 ballot to tomorrow? Aranit Çela, even if you give it to him, he won’t take it. What are all the Socialist Party political bigwigs doing at “Dajti”? Why don’t they go and set up cooperatives in the villages? The villagers want cooperatives. Who are these people coming out of “Dajti” all dressed up? Gramoz Pashko, which wine do you prefer? You’re depoliticized, so you can drink red wine too. Arben Imami also likes red wine. But coffee is what you drink at “Dajti.” Are people allowed to change clothes at “Dajti”? Mekoni Zenon, why are they “boasting”? Who is this person who has left thousands behind, and has put on glasses too. He looks like Sami Frashëri, but he isn’t syvat. Do all the politicians and ministers know to stay away from “Dajti”? Are they all hanging out here? Do they know to stay away from “Dajti,” the depoliticized place?