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By Ilir Bushi For a hundred years, the pentagrams of our hearts have sung the refrain “Albania, beloved homeland / in st… we leave you poor.” But on our knees before the monuments of the nation, which will undoubtedly serve as examples of inspiration for generations. The month of November itself, for our people now, on the threshold of the new century and of the November holidays, we look with regret at the fact that we have still not kept the promise we made to our land, and Albania still suffers from the syndrome of poverty and destruction. The liberation of the country, achieved in ’44 by our fathers, was subsequently exploited by dictators to construct a medieval system. Thus, putting into words the phrases of a bitter reality, we can say with sorrow that Albania, after the river of blood it shed in the Second World War, was engulfed by glacial oceans, where sharks and crocodiles erased any notion of freedom and human rights. Later, our country became a battlefield, where law and institutions were absent and only disillusionment was present. But despite the events, the destruction, the rise in corruption and criminality, even now, in our present affliction, nothing can stop us from honoring and kneeling itself has become, for our people, synonymous with the flag, strength, and a source of rebirth. Today and tomorrow, together with the people or away from their eyes, Albanian politicians too will sit down to celebrate; divided into camps, they will pour champagne over their speech reports, each trying to appear as credible as possible. Regardless of this, or immediately after the official ceremonies, after laying flowers at the graves and mentioning the name of Ismail Qemali, who has become a legend, all of us will be overcome [?] by shame that nearly 80 years after his act, we have still left Albania to languish in tragedy and occupation. In this case, remembering the promise, just as in ballads, beside tables or traffic lights, it will seem to us that we hear: “Konstandin, where is your promise?” Therefore, so that this shame [?] is not repeated in the Novembers to come, it is time to unite our contributions to ensure survival and clear the future of mines.

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Diplomatic F. 6 Special forces massacre a citizen F. 7 A 13-metre speedboat is impounded F. 7 Those in power: We will leave by air F. 9

[Illustration: a black silhouette in front of a crowd of figures with parachutes]

Prose by Mempo Giardinelli (Argentina) and Silvana Gjika, poetry by Xhelal Tosku, essay by Nermin Vlora, notes by Valter Shtylla, graphics by Medi Belortaja