“Xhaferri”: The Bank has not blocked our money, but our papers. Foreign currencies have lower interest rates than the lek Companies in the race to lower interest rates. From February 1, fewer lekë for long-term deposits

It seems that the course of events at the start of this year is naturally determining its own direction. Unlike what usually happens when attention shifts, economic problems are forcefully entering Albanians’ concerns, leaving politics in second place. Conversations about pyramid schemes, the devaluation of the lek, rising inflation, the state of the markets, falling purchasing power, and so on, have become so commonplace and dominant that the time of political discussions, imposed by last year’s intense and tense campaigns, seems to belong to a distant past, when Albanians lived in another world. Is this good or bad? Let sociologists and researchers of mass psychology decide. The fact is that this metamorphosis, like any other mass change, happened neither by order nor for the pleasure of one person or another. Moreover, wise or charismatic prophets capable of visibly influencing the perceptions and opinions of an entire nation do not exist. At least not in Albania! Apparently, this is the most ordinary thing that happens among any people during the peaceful days of its history. On the contrary! Political changes, with the partisan fervor that we may or may not want, are in themselves a deviation from what is natural and from a nation’s everyday life—from its greatest and most enduring concern: economic livelihood. Albanians have this right, especially more than anyone else. Not only because they are the poorest people in Europe, but because the reality confronting them at the start of this year is truly very worrying. A mere superficial look at Tirana’s markets is enough to convince you that this concern is not unfounded, at least for ordinary people. Traders tell you that warehouses are almost empty and, as a result, the market has contracted. Customs officials report higher tariffs, while the lek seems to have forgotten how to raise its head. The wealth conjured up by the pyramid schemes is no longer warming the unemployed with any guarantee of tomorrow. Instead of the food and desired camping trips, they sit in cafés whose clientele has visibly dwindled, gathered around the tables. Problems with neighboring countries have thrown off the fictitious costume of prosperity, giving way to traders’ uncertainty about setting out for their markets. Frightened by their pockets being emptied ever more quickly, many Albanians are losing more and more hope each day of benefiting from the “good things” offered by the pyramid schemes. They are returning, albeit vaguely, to forgotten plans about trade and embassies, at a time when emigration is also rapidly taking away their dream of the “luxury” of illegal migration. Nevertheless, the word “hope” has not yet lost all its letters. Shocked by the many paradoxes life has dealt them, Albanians are as capable of considering themselves defeated at the first blow of bad luck as they are ready to believe any promise made to them—whether it comes from the pyramid-scheme bosses, with their long years of promised returns, or when the President announces “deepening the reform or lowering taxes,” which 1997 has in store for us.

A German pedophile sleeps at Hotel “Tirana” with 6 beggars. The queen of the beggars speaks to “Republika” Page 2 Berisha guarantees even the last penny Page 3 Socialists in the square today Page 3 Albanians’ money in cardboard boxes. Sudja used banana boxes instead of a safe. Page 2

Members of the National Council of PR are hereby informed that the Council meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 22, at 10:00, at the Palace of Congresses, with the following agenda: 1. Draft of the new PR Statute. 2. Setting the date of the 3rd PR Congress. All PR Branches in the districts are hereby informed to contact their city newspaper vendors to collect Saturday’s issue of the newspaper “Republika.” The full text of the Draft PR Statute was published in this issue.

Yesterday the newspaper “Republika” was distributed only in Tirana and was unable to reach the country’s other cities. This was caused by disagreements with the printing house over the deadline for submitting materials for printing and, consequently, with the distribution agency “Albania Press” over the time the paper left the printing house. Apologizing to our readers in the districts for this incident, which was not the editorial office’s fault, we inform them that, if they wish, they can get yesterday’s issue of “Republika” free of charge today from newspaper sales points in the districts and from the Branches of the Republican Party.