The company is not distributing interest payments. It promises to repay only principal sums of up to USD 5,000 VEFA, the pyramid scheme is collapsing Opposition rally in Tirana today calling for the statue to be toppled. Police allow it Pages 3, 8

“An old car, an Eastern-made model, most likely obtained through barter with the CMEA countries, was pulling through the streets of Tirana the bronze monument of Enver Hoxha, the final reminder of a communist dictator of the former red empire. On it and around it were thousands, elated by the incredible miracle.” These were the main images that, on the evening of February 20, 1991, were captured on the equally astonished screens of Western television stations. The museum of global isolation, the land of the terrors of class warfare, prisons and mass poverty, built upon its fear, had triumphed over the symbols, hoping more than ever for the future. For a country that had almost never lived in democracy, or where democracy had been a faint and temporary flicker on the eve of prolonged dictatorships, the images became even more meaningful. The future might now be rosy, and everyone had the right to call it the great day of hope. Because Albanians, as rarely in their history, had managed to overthrow not only a bleak reality but also its abstract foundation: myths. The very thing that had made them suffer so much during these few years of genuine national consciousness. But, ironically, fate is merciless with us, and history seems to repeat itself in precisely the same details. Six years later, February 20 found us once again in the streets and at demonstrations. It found us at a crossroads, as if the roads to our prosperity were an unconquerable labyrinth. Of course, six years is a short time in which to move from a bleak and cruel reality to a new, modern and advanced system. At the same time, six years is a long time for a people that has no time to lose. There is no time for experiments, nor any excess energy to expend. In the X-ray of the six years since the happy February 20 of 1991, Albanian lungs are still full of the same dark spots. Six years ago we escaped a fatal disease, but alongside it, our scant Albanian civilization was also sick. We turned the streets and cities into pale copies of medieval villages and offered our best people exile as their only alternative. We saved Tirana from the macabre shadow of Enver Hoxha, the architect of evil, but in its place we offered Tirana’s parks and pavements the alternative of bingo halls and kiosks. We freed people from 80% of abuse, only to replace it with the fairy tale of pyramid schemes and millions earned not through work, but at the counters of foundations. We divorced ourselves from a system of poverty, but six years later we find ourselves one and a half billion dollars poorer. We forgot the words state security, agitation and propaganda, but just as quickly learned the words illegal rally and special forces. Six years ago, TV broadcast the historic images, while last night it showed an absurd montage in which Ceka’s words, “Don’t fall prey to provocateurs,” were turned into: “Don’t fall prey to demonstrations.” Back then the opposition came out to meet its supporters, while today’s opposition seeks salvation from a forgotten king who has never lived in Albania, from a politician of the 1940s, and from a—

During the toppling of the statue of dictator Enver Hoxha — Photo: A. Babani

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