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EDITORIAL By Agim Baçi Politics is not simply a “cap toss” nor some badly thought-out evil. It is responsibility for the endurance of civic culture. The roads of serpe [?] channels are brightened by the light of the mask. The narcotization of politics has begun to take the form of a spectacle in which everyone plays foreign roles. It seems as though a different kind of “legitimacy” is being sought through the language of fear and crime. If society no longer distinguishes the boundary between politics and crime, then the public no longer sees representatives, but actors in a game where masks become faces. This is why public debate is today being replaced by insinuation, by the rhetoric of threat, and by the use of violence as a political tool. The figures that speak of armed clashes, gangs, robberies, and insecurity are not merely black chronicle; they are also indicators of the level of state failure. If public order is not guaranteed, if the police do not provide security for the campaign, then the citizen rightly asks whom power serves. The masked ball is the clearest metaphor of this reality: politics hiding behind the language of crime and crime wearing the costume of politics. And in the end, the loser is the citizen, who expects not a spectacle, but a state. Page 3

How children with 450 million in super-swindle and the Ministry of Education with the phantom firm “AEG Folloriin” How children with 450 million in super-swindle and the Ministry of Education with the phantom firm “AEG Follorin” Page 15

2,000 more emigrants live in Albania 75% of foreigners work undeclared Page 19

Bus attacked, passengers robbed Page 8

The state does not know where the 42 million dollars are Page 11

Hostage-taking policeman arrested Page 7

Jozefina: They threatened me not to coun… Jozefina: They threatened me not to këhanehshtë [?] Page 4

The US Embassy opens its doors for visas Quote: these are the procedures for applying for an American visa What are the procedures for applying for an American visa Page 9

National Buildings TIRANA

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