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By Ilir BUSHI Before the paint with which Meidani’s scenographer signed off on the government cabinet has even dried, a lake of tears will pour into the sea of Vlora, where the relatives of the twelve drowned people will seek to be reunited with their family members, while an entire society will finally seek to reclaim its identity. Before the bodies of the drowned children, no words of hope can be spoken—not only because they will no longer be able to hear the deafening symphony of our daily and cruel quarrels, but because the tragedy of their lives and deaths defies all reasoning. Before them, we are all guilty, and it can be said that the troubled conscience of an entire nation has drowned in the Adriatic. The tears of the world are not enough for this tragedy, even if poured out in torrents, nor are its thunderclaps enough in the form of laments. Messages of condolence from hypocritical government officials are not enough for them, because these officials are, first and foremost, directly responsible for the loss of faith in the future. The announced names of the Meta cabinet did nothing on this threshold of winter except swell the ranks of people who want to leave Albania as soon as possible, just as people flee a plague with no hope of survival. An increase in the number of those who want to leave is always observed on the eve of the fall of post-communist governments, but this also repeats periodically on the eve of their re-creation. They refuse to understand that, because of their deceitful schemes and lack of love for the Nation, an entire society lives on the edge of the abyss and drowning, ready to sacrifice even its life for the sole chance not to hear any more the bastard lies of pseudo-politicians, who want to lull the Nation’s conscience to sleep, only to plunder it peacefully afterward in the name of their criminal interests. Yesterday’s drowned victims—children, women and defenseless people—had barely managed to secure the money for their travel fares, hoping to find peace in a safer place, free of crime, corruption, unemployment, poverty and moral decay. But fate also casts their women onto the rocky shores, causing a national tragedy that must be honored with a general mourning. One minute of silence and one day are far too little for the children, brothers and sisters of ours who lost their lives in the catacombs of the Adriatic. This is necessary so that afterward we may learn never again to remain silent, never again to remain silent in the face of the macabre platforms being prepared to cast all of today’s Albanian society into the sea.

RESOLUTION OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE RP Cooperation for a new electoral process

11 lives are lost P. 2 PD splits in two over Meta P. 6 INTERPOL exonerates Gazidede and Agim Shehu P. 7 Government announces tender for its restaurant P. 8