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It is the same idea as Berisha’s P. 3

Help is being sought from the opposition P. 5

By Teodor KEKO Yesterday again, the news bulletins opened and closed with grim news; indeed, now they do not hesitate to begin their reports with the somewhat absurd, but real, phrase “Criminal crimes are taking place...” Seven people killed and seven wounded, including completely innocent children, were recorded during the course of the Albanian weekend alone. According to police sources, the killers had used a Kalashnikov, a pistol and an axe. This time, the killers’ arsenal was missing an antitank weapon and a remote-controlled mine!… The crime reports speak of the names of gangs, countless gang names, and the names and aliases of terrible bandits, so many that you would not find even in the time of Haxhi Qamili. All that is missing is their “legendary” song, which ends with the lines: “Albania, you whore, / You gave us consumption!” Where is Albania headed amid all this atmosphere of macabre crime? None of the government officials is speaking—not with facts, but not even with words—about the phenomenon of the brain drain and the departure of Albanian businesspeople! Even those who have stayed here have their families abroad. Others continue their businesses “by correspondence,” while this whole phenomenon, which stems directly from the costs of living under crime, has put thousands of workers out on the street and sent millions and millions of dollars out of the country’s banks—precisely those dollars for which the Majko cabinet plays the role of a supposed expert at the negotiating table, and whose faces, from servile grinning, have become almost Chinese! This lack of safety in life is nothing more nor less than the dragon barring investment in Albania. If Mr. Majko complains that the investment plan has been only 63% fulfilled (even this figure is dubious!), he should look for the cause of this downward trend solely in the lack of personal safety in the country. This lack of safety may also explain why the US Embassy in Albania has, for nearly a year and a half, been nothing more than an imposing building with no normal function for our citizens. This lack of safety is the source not only of our poverty, but also of Albanian psychological illnesses, which are driving these helpless people to kill even their closest family members in the most macabre ways... Damn it, who is going to take responsibility for all this chaos? Now they are firing into crowds, killing one another! Children are being killed too, while buying alcohol! This sort of breed is degenerating in blood, old blood, and has no connection whatsoever with the killers of the cities; today people sigh, thereby giving full form to our absurdity: “At least, let the criminals have a distinguishing mark!” The state is not outside the criminals’ sights! Do you remember what that German priest said? He said something like this after the Second World War: - I too am guilty, despite being a man of God! When Hitler attacked the communists, I kept silent, because I was not a communist! And when he attacked the Jews, because I was not Jewish! And when he attacked the Protestants, because I was not Protestant! When he came for me too, then I understood that he was a criminal... If our state were a little more cultured, it would certainly be more active in the fight against crime!

900 returned in 24 hours P. 2

Thaçi Perhaps we can open representative offices in Greece and Kosovo P. 4

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THE LIBRARY OF THE FUTURE All for 20 lekë

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