Is this a question we ask about our lives? How long will politics do its job? In the election programs, all these problems are discussed and analyzed more and more extensively every day, but no one is able to provide answers. No one. So many questions are waiting for answers, and they keep piling up, day after day. Everyone asks: How long will this extreme state of poverty continue? How long will our shops remain emptier than ever? How long will prices in the free market continue to rise into the stratosphere? How long will our mothers have nothing to put on our miserable tables? How long will profiteers and smugglers make the law and fill their pockets illegally? How long will we be able to live on these laughable wages in the face of prices that rise every day? How long will the dollar and foreign currencies continue to rise, and the Albanian lek to lose value? How long will the overwhelming majority of workers remain unemployed? How long will the housing saga continue? How long will insecurity about our lives prevail over freedom, peace, love, happiness, joy and dreams…? How long…? But who should answer all these many questions? Surely the Government. But how long will the Government get by only with transfers and dismissals of officials? How long will the Government appear only to inform the public of the decline in the economy? How long will the Government be unable to come before the people and answer all these questions? Surely, finding solutions to all these problems takes some time, and it is not easy. We are all aware of this, of the difficulties this Government faces in our lives. But today there are difficulties; not everything can be done at once. Of course. But, still, HOW LONG? We need to know this so we know how to move forward. We need to know where we are headed; we need to know that this is a difficult road, and we need to know where improvements must be made. But we must reach our destination. Yet the dreams of all Albanians must continue. We need to know where we must arrive. But we must arrive. We need to know where all these problems are headed, though in most cases that is unclear; we need to know where we are going, so we know how to move forward. How long will we go on asking: — How long…? How long will our HOW LONGs go unanswered?! ALEKSANDËR FRANGAJ

READ ON PAGE 3: — WE ARE A PEOPLE STILL TORMENTED BY HISTORY. Interview with Academician REXHEP QOSJA by journalist FRROK ÇUPI.

A sure step toward the unification of the Republic of Albania with Kosovo. By the end of this year, the two Albanian republics will be united. Ethnic Albania also claims the lands in Montenegro and Macedonia. On Sunday, May 24, 1992, free elections were held in Kosovo. Despite the psychological terror of the Serbian soldiers, the people of Kosovo once again showed that they are determined to pursue full independence. Doctor Rugova was proclaimed President of this Republic, giving new impetus to the Kosovars’ demands for the removal of Serbian rule. What remains now is international recognition of this Republic, followed by its unification with Albania.

On Monday, at 21:40, the new President of the Italian Republic was proclaimed: SCALFARO. He won 672 votes, against the 508 required. The other rivals received the following votes: MIGLIO 75, COSSIGA 63, VOLPONI 50. We recall that there were 1,002 voters.

A few days ago, the «Ministerial journalist» (Mr. Milto Baka has done this job from the days of one-party rule through to the present pluralist system), a TV journalist, appeared before us in the role of an interviewer, having signed me in at the State Audit Commission. After a few pointless questions, as I could see he had come for another purpose, Milto Baka asked a question, somewhat trembling: «What can you say about the violations found at the newspaper “KOHA JONË”, Mr. Deputy Chairman?» And the Deputy Chairman, ordered by Blerim Çela to appear on TV at all costs, began listing the many violations by the newspaper “KOHA JONË”. The “Western-style” journalist, Mr. Baka, forgot his journalistic duty and became merely a microphone-holder, trying to make even the Deputy Chairman’s nonsense sound respectable on the microphone, since he had to listen to Blerim Çela. He neither questioned him nor challenged him; he simply agreed. Naturally, it is not a journalist’s job to draw conclusions, but the most basic journalistic ethics would have called for questions such as: «Why is the newspaper illegal when it has been in existence for five years?!» «Does the State Audit have the right to take away a journalist’s profession?» «Are there other private newspapers in Albania? (We recall that there are 13 such newspapers.)» «Were the findings presented to the editorial office, or only on Radio Tirana?» and so on. A modern journalist should have asked these questions to bring the truth more clearly to light, even though he had gotten himself into that predicament (he asked the question himself first, though he had been instructed only to conduct the interview). He should have acted as though this were not about a kebab shop or a bar, but about the first independent Albanian newspaper. The discussion concerns a newspaper that has criticized both the PS and the PD equally, and the future of the independent Albanian press. This administrator’s journalist did none of that. The next day, he should have gone to get the views of the other members of the State Audit group, interviewed the Prosecutor General, the Minister of Justice, the director of the Financial Police, the editor-in-chief of this newspaper, and… This comparison of facts and interviews would have earned the journalist a good name and presented the events fully, instead of repeating the State Audit group’s claims and deceptions. Milto Baka did not do this and will not do it, because he wants to earn his bread and has children to support (!). Nevertheless, a true journalist remains a journalist, even if those in power threaten him or dismiss him from his job. He must have professional pride. Even so, Milto Baka may collect the fee for the interview, since Blerim Çela, for now, has none to pay—at least until he discovers the gold in this newspaper.

As you know from the inspection of «Koha jonë», dear readers, you must remove as soon as possible the antennas or amplifier units you use for foreign television channels, otherwise you will be punished just like «Koha jonë» for installing them without authorization from the special government commission for television antennas and amplifiers. Mr. Blerim calls an amplifier unit installed in a bunker on a hill in Lezhë a “radiocommunications center.” Under the laws in force, this unit—an amplifier, or a “tin can,” as we called them out of fear in Enver’s time—is illegal; they nearly shut down the newspaper «Koha jonë» over this tin can alone. Therefore, the editorial office of «Koha jonë» kindly appeals to everyone who has such amplifiers in use, to all the citizens and villagers of Albania who have put such “tin-can” units or antennas into operation in their homes to amplify the signals of foreign stations: remove them as soon as possible, or else, under the law… (the law is known to Mr. Blerim and those who drafted it back in Enver’s time)… you will be punished and will have nowhere to appeal. We believe you remember how pensioners and neighborhood and Front agitators used to knock antennas down from terraces and apartment-block roofs; we believe you remember the antennas, and those who were put in prison for watching or listening to foreign stations. Well, that law is still in force, and Mr. Blerim Çela, who swore only recently that he would spare no one, will enforce the law just as Enver once did. The editorial office of «Koha jonë» begs you all: — Remove any of these units, tin cans; watch only Tirana… What, still…? Make an arrangement with the Government and Blerim, because we believe you heard on RTV that someone was asked to be dismissed from his job over a radio amplifier, Mr. VULNET MUSARAI, since he had supposedly produced it illegally! DO NOT FORGET THAT BLERIM WILL NOT SPARE YOU!

A while ago, the home of PD MP BESNIK MUSTAFAJ was burgled. On the same day, the home of another PD MP, NATASHA LAKO, was also burgled. Which MP is next? A number of questions arise: Whose homes will be burgled next among our MPs? Could it be two from the PD and one from the PS? (Which party do the thieves belong to?) Could the burglaries continue in this pattern: one man, one woman?! (Women make up few of the Parliament’s victims.) Or two artists and one doctor?! Or are there other selection combinations? And so the MPs are worried. Some do not go to Parliament because they fear their homes will be burgled. How will Minister BASHKIM KOPLIKU respond to these MPs? Or is this Minister worried that his own home may have made it onto the brave thieves’ list? It is quite possible that one day the mafiosi will even steal our MPs themselves. But how will they begin, with the men or the women?