P. 3

P. 4

P. 6

By Ilir Bushi In the film “Poppies on the Wall,” set in an orphanage, it is shown how the director and the greedy administrators steal and pocket the money for the orphans’ bread rations. From the newspaper headlines, pensioners read aloud that “Nano won in Paris,” “Berisha triumphed in Rome,” while Albania is in its final attack in front of the crazy traffic lights. Behind the windows fogged with mist, the curse could be heard: “May God strike you, you who rob the defenseless orphans.” At present, the directors and ministers, administrators, bureaucrats and insatiable people of today’s Albanian society are rushing upon the people’s apportioned rations, with dizzying speed. On the other hand, their irresponsible statements, which always contradict one another, make even the most optimistic more skeptical about predicting what tomorrow will look like. Meanwhile, the destroyed capital, appearing almost insane in its extreme poverty, together with all the other parts of the country, is entering the winter season with the image of an outstretched hand begging, while behind the prime ministerial railings the tragic reply can already be heard: “May God provide for you.” And as the sound of police sirens drives away from the boulevard—where the presidential façade is passing—the sad children selling cigarettes to earn their bread, the tangled lectures of unemployed intellectuals suddenly mingle with the bells of … And this landscape of misery, which would drive any enlightened human conscience to resign or commit suicide, should at least make the fat cheeks or faces of those in power blush. But, in fact, the opposite is happening. In this case, it is honest people who are blushing and feeling ashamed, people unfortunate enough to live in the age of hippopotamuses, where the barking of dogs seems more natural than human voices. And then, almost suddenly, on the eve of winter, someone announces that cholera has broken out. And we, perhaps tired of the Middle Ages, with weak voices with which to address the new century knocking at the door, try to lend a voice to Bertolt Brecht, who, just as once at the epicenter of the Nazi earthquake, has now appeared on Tirana’s boulevards and asks: who will save us from this cholera? The books of the Bible say that whoever saves a human life has saved an entire world, while the potential saviors of Albanian reality have the chance to save not one person, but an entire nation that is being buried.

. P. 2

P. 8

P. 10

P. 9

. According to the Italian press P. 2

. 300 people protest, police fire Kalashnikovs P. 8

P. 2