This country will suffer for a long time as long as semi-culture commands culture The PR chairman calls on intellectuals at the meeting organized in Korçë on October 1 to become more involved in the problems Albania is facing today The time has come to take a serious account of the country’s intellectual potential; otherwise, we will leave many of our existential problems unresolved and create others, in the name of the national ideal and democratic developments. The movements of an era that have advanced humanity, including political movements, have been led by intellectuals. What should be brought up for public discussion is this question: to what extent have our intellectuals led the movements in Albania during our century? It is a burden that exceeds my powers. But I will use the simple method to open this necessary discussion. We can easily trace how the movement for national identity, the cultivation of the language, and the achievement of Independence were led by our enlightened Renaissance figures. We still do not have a complete picture of their contribution, because history has been politicized, especially under the communist regime. But this does not prevent us from affirming that we might have disappeared as a state and as a nation without the intervention of the Renaissance figures, at a time when the cradle of Albania was rocking beneath the edge of the sword, as one legacy of Lumo Skëndo puts it. During the rule of the monarchy (1924–1939), several powerful intellectuals held positions in the state administration, but intellectual potential leaned heavily toward the opposition, which faced no serious obstacles to making its contribution to mental, cultural, and artistic development. With this, that is, very cursorily, I will cover the role of Albanian intellectualism in the first half of the century for today. Now I turn to the role of intellectuals under the Enverian regime and during these years of democratic transition. What happened to intellectuals was what Dostoevsky had foreseen in the novel “The Demons,” when he says that “a time will come when semi-culture will rule, and true culture will bow before it in servility.” For those who have not had the chance to read this novel, I will mention another passage as well. The great anarchist says that we will create a society in which denunciation will reign and all people will feel toward one another like mice locked in a large cage, while we, “the chosen ones,” will sit above and rule the world without trouble. He also says that, to create the illusion of equality, everyone will wear gray clothes. We “chosen ones,” too, will outwardly wear gray clothes for appearances, while inside we will have our own pure and elevated lives. Such was the Cultural Revolution in China. I believe you remember the Red Guards, the dazibaos, and the gray uniforms worn by the whole population, which even Chairman Mao himself wore. Even today one wonders, without finding an answer, how Dostoevsky could have foreseen, down to the smallest details, what would happen in China 150 years later! In Albania we did not all wear gray uniforms, but especially from 1947 onward, a continuing “cultural revolution” began here, during which, to stay alive, you had to speak only Enver Hoxha’s language and live and work as the party cell decided. The communist regime tried to make its political rule and ideology over culture permanent, to separate the country from its historical past, to take from it only what could serve operational and propaganda needs, and to turn religions and beliefs into history, cutting away facts and economies in favor of a history and a new communist era, while visibly accumulating the heaviest burden on national identity. This operation would begin with intellectuals, as the part of the people that thinks and acts more actively and is therefore also the most dangerous opponent. Some intellectuals were liquidated physically through executions and imprisonment, under fabricated charges, or were thrown out onto the streets. The rest were forced to bow their backs and perform technical work under the strict supervision of the Sigurimi and party secretaries. Nevertheless, some of them, with high professional ability and intelli- • Clear the way for honest and capable intellectuals • The state and society should be led by the best people, so that the moral degeneration of the nation can be stopped • The people — the backbone; intellectuals who are truly [unclear] have no shame Continued on p. 3

The VELIJA Foundation, which prepares and awards the Prize, chaired by Professor Rexhep Qosja, decided that for 1995 the KADARE Prize would be awarded to the great Argentine writer Ernesto Sabato. The Kadare Prize ceremony will be held in November of this year, and great writers from world literature, such as G. Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende, and Otavio Paz, have been invited to attend. The prize was announced last night at the offices of the Velija Foundation, at the “VEVE” business center, in the presence of press representatives and intellectuals. Ernesto Sabato was born in Argentina in 1911. He began his career as a bona fide scientist, then abandoned a brilliant future in science to devote himself to literature. It is only three novels, widely separated in time, that have earned him a special place in world literature. Sabato is considered an “intellectual novelist,” both for the logic of the construction of his works and for the density of the problems he addresses in them. His works contain elements of the essay, perfectly integrated into the narrative. THE TUNNEL (1948) is a short novel of love and thought in which he addresses the subject of a crime, [unclear], centered on a problem of communication and the anxiety of life. ON HEROES AND TOMBS (1961), a long and complicated novel, contains an impressive and apocalyptic vision of our world. The action is woven together with various episodes, among which “Report on the Blind” stands out: a hallucinatory parable, one of the high points of Spanish-American narrative. Finally, ABBADÓN, THE EXTERMINATOR (1974), a work that reaches maximum complexity by combining autobiographical and fictional elements, reality and evil dreams, narration and essay-like meditations. In addition to these works, Sabato is the author of passionate essays. We now have 700 thousand in a bunker. The last bunker will be seen only with privatization vouchers and securities. Albania is the strangest country; even those who do not love it enjoy living in the cafés of Tirana. Others have the right to be different from what I want, but they do not have the right to give me a headache. According to the latest polls, the Socialist Party gets 99.99% of the votes in Tirana and the surrounding areas. Lies have taken bad root among this [unclear] crowd. In the coming elections, the issue of great intellectuals who no longer engage in small-time politics will also be put up for discussion. In 2002, the great intellectuals who committed petty acts of spying and insignificant denunciations against one another will be released from prison. If foreigners say something, and especially if foreign newspapers say it, nothing can budge it. Tradition does its work: it is easier to believe a friend than one of your own. We are for peace, blessed from morning until night.

• How ethnically pure is Albania?........................p. 2 • The case of the 400 thousand dollars of the “Solidarity Fund” is reopened........................p. 2 • Electricity before winter ’95........................p. 2 • Now Fatos Nano himself does not know what he wants........................p. 4 • Draft law on free zones ready........................p. 5 • The great agriculture and food fair........................p. 5 • German diplomacy on its 125th anniversary........................p. 5 • Thatcher - Bush - Gorbachev and international politics........................p. 6 • The dairy giants in Tirana........................p. 7 • An extraordinary recital by the young artist Tedi Papavrami........................p. 7 • Love behind the cameras........................p. 8