P. 4

P. 3

P. 5

By Ilir Bushi It is said that at the Textile Combine, a house was built using marble stolen from cemeteries; two months later, it mysteriously collapsed, trapping inside the people of the house, who were also the perpetrators of the macabre theft. Meanwhile, in Albanian politics, governments are built—with ministers “stolen” from road tenders or customs scandals—and these governments fall one after another. But the truth is that they do not bring down the builders of these dark deeds; rather, they overturn national platforms, thereby helping to delay the country's prospects. The speed with which governments are formed and fall in Albania, which has become a seasonal trend, is connected above all with the lack of sincerity of the Socialist leaders, who, with their demagogic rhetoric, want to conceal the figures for the stolen dollars taken from humanity and from our nation, impoverished to the bone. Those in power speak of the danger posed by the mafia and announce severe punitive measures, but ordinary people know very well that the devils of the river can never punish themselves. There are many such leaders. Whenever, on the eve of forming governments anew, these leaders speak in theory against corruption, they try to put precisely the ministers most corrupt and most widely accused of smuggling on the cabinet list; whenever they speak of honesty, they appoint the most dishonest; whenever they speak of culture, they put the least cultured there; and whenever they speak of fighting the mafia, on the contrary, they prepare to kill honest people who will testify tomorrow at the trial of history about what the vampires of the end of the century did to the Albanian nation. Tomorrow the Meta Government will receive Parliament's vote of confidence, determined and resolved to continue the destruction and terrorization of Albanian life, driving society toward the abyss. As for themselves, they will survive, strutting like circus strongmen on the wire, ready to be recycled into new governments that will periodically try to repeat the same thing, before our eyes and amid our innocent silence.

P. 5

. Agim Tirana: The Democratic leader will soon be in the dock. P. 6. 11 members of the Italian-Albanian network arrested. P. 7. Cement smuggling brings in USD 50 million a year. P. 9

Interview P. 3

Caricature; partially visible text: “Yor…”; signature: “Mushi”.

THE TITAN ‘corruption’