Relations between the USA and China risk breaking down if military force prevails, while Taiwan has signed an agreement to buy 36 aircraft worth 5.6 billion dollars from the Americans page 2

The failure to punish wrongdoing is what has brought Albanian society to a situation like the one it has faced in recent years, where there is no question of enforcing the law. That power is considered a business tool by most Albanian politicians is clear to every citizen. Even the fierce political struggle, carried to extremes, is waged less over programs, ideals or worldviews than over gaining control of posts that “bear” money. The way ministerial portfolios were divided up by the “Alliance for the State” coalition, and the features of its governance, finally confirmed the truth of this hypothesis. Indeed, Prime Minister Majko and some of his honest associates, concerned by the scale of corruption and abuses by senior officials, have declared war on such phenomena; but, when faced with reality, few can have confidence in the success of a campaign against officials of this category. First, when speaking of corruption, abuses and the many kinds of violations committed by ministers and administration officials, they have still not managed to name names. Everything remains at the level of observations and empty promises, which makes one doubt the sincerity of the “anti-corruption” campaigns by specialized state institutions. Moreover, it seems as though it is all done to calm angry people, or to win their votes in order to preserve power—or, rather, privileges. Yet even when someone is singled out, at most he is dismissed from his position, without being made to pay for what he has done. Thus, although there have been numerous cases in which customs directors or police chiefs, for example, have been dismissed for such reasons, none is known to have ended up behind bars or even to have returned some of what they gained by damaging the state treasury. Indeed, instead of facing justice, such officials are routinely found another “safe haven,” perhaps once again in the administration, where at the very least they can put to use everything they have gained illegally. It is no wonder that the lack of punishment for officials who break the law is one of the main reasons corruption has become an unwritten law of the state administration. If, under the dictatorship, officials were afraid to break the law, that was because of the maximum penalties they had to pay for their abuses.

After the Prime Minister’s meeting with the PS chairpersons in the districts — page 3 Prime Minister Majko during his meeting with PD chairman Berisha on 22 December 1998

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Post-eclipse The strangest Albanians in the world. Everyone shuts themselves inside pages 7-8-9