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By Juli Prifti The hunger strike by artists of the Opera and Ballet Theater brought to the surface the whole complex of an artist who never found the road to success through his paintings, Edi Rama, but who, in the role of Minister of Culture, is causing immeasurable harm to Albanian art. In his adventure, begun immediately after taking office as head of the Albanian cultural department, Edi Rama is unrestrained. He has decided not to spare even the lives of the seven artists barricaded in a hunger strike, who are seeking to save the TOB from ruin, thereby creating a dangerous precedent for the future, culture and social life of the country. It is the same perverse practice he followed in his role as a person in power with the artists of the National Theater, who protested against him on the main boulevard of the Albanian capital a short time ago. Once, when Edi Rama was and appeared as the real Edi Rama, PS chairman Fatos Nano kindly described him as “an anarchist,” sparing him the epithet “pseudo-artist.” It was a time when Rama was reflecting on the stormy years of the Student Movement, in which he had not forgotten to mock socialist leader Nano as well; Nano would later serve as a springboard for him to leap to the head of Albanian Culture, demonstrating why Edi had not stood out at exhibitions with his paintings. And Rama is not disappointing Nano’s characterization in the least. Day by day, he is appearing as the anarchist and pseudo-artist who is destroying Albanian cultural institutions. This is not only about the Ministry of Culture, because this Ministry is an umbrella institution that brings together the experience, expertise, talent and future of Albania’s principal cultural and heritage institutions. He turned this Ministry into a foundation where he prepared projects promoting his own name, while taking the money from Albanian taxpayers. The National Theater, one of the first institutions to experience Edi Rama’s destructive hand in the name of “reforms,” is now rivaled by a private theater under precisely the same roof. This fact, which seems to mean that the National Theater will not be able to get back on its feet for a long time, along with the other absurdities served up every day as Edi Rama’s reforms, shows that this person has taken it upon himself to destroy institutions in the name of his extravagant actions. Edi Rama’s anarchism is clearly apparent in his philosophy of building his own makeshift reforms on the ruins of Albanian cultural institutions. The Writers’ Union building, which was put up for sale by none other than the Minister of Culture, marked the beginning of an entire policy of privatizing artistic and cultural institutions. Edi Rama imagines that he will be the Minister of Culture who makes history in Albania by putting up for sale, piece by piece, the property inherited by the art institutions. He may perhaps go down in history, but only as one of those frightening legends: “once upon a time there was a Minister who took everything under his protection and art.” Morally, Edi Rama’s time to resign has passed.

WILL BE DEMOLISHED — The state bears no responsibility for financial losses. F. S

The state bears no responsibility for

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