HISTORY/ A 12-year correspondence by Barba Jorgji In 1987, among thousands of messages sealed in bottles and thrown into the sea, Jan discovered that one of them had reached the Albanian coast “Dear friends, please, whoever is able to find this bottle, notify us at this address” On pages 12–13 Jean Baptisti throwing the bottle

Emergency rooms fill up with children FRIGHTENING FIGURES FROM HIGH TEMPERATURES On page 14

Aleksandër MEKSI Unfortunately for Albanians as a whole, rather than for any particular individual, slander based on falsehoods is believed more than the truth in these difficult times. What is more, the truth has to be found. As if that were not enough, most Albanians take perverse pleasure in seeing the honest person, the one who works, the one who gets ahead in life (I am not referring here to positive ambition), insulted. Few are those who stand up for them, even by asking for the truth. Few are those who distance themselves from or drive away the slanderer. Those who accuse have always existed; they have been made visible in literature as negative figures, and the unwritten laws of the Albanians call them the same thing: the Kanun. Thus, in the Kanun of Lek Dukagjini (Section 86, Word, 523): “He who goes about sowing and spreading bad words and discord, now about one person and now about another, is called in the language of the Kanun ‘a bad hired hand’—he is not employed, nor does anyone pay him wages.” The Kanun of Skënderbeu (Chapter III, art. VII, 3417) states: “Slander is the greatest damage to one’s honour; it is a black stain before society.” Therefore, there can be no doubt that traditional morality condemns evil tongues, singles out such people and expels them from the community. Continued on page 4

The account of the blood-feud policeman On page 6

On page 11

Arrest today in the “Kambo Marshall” case On page 7 Here is why the ministries are not receiving money On page 5 Gjinushi: Anyone who insults will be expelled On page 3