What morals do the politicians and government officials of the majority have to lead Albania when they have sent their own people away from the Homeland? . President Meidani, Parliament Speaker Gjinushi, Socialist Party leader Fatos Nano, Deputy Prime Minister Çeço, Foreign Minister Milo, Defense Minister Hajdaraga, Public Order Minister Poçi, Education Minister Ruka, etc.—all with one foot in Albania and the other abroad. Do they have the moral authority to lead the country?!

Page 5 Stojanov, Orban, Robertson and Meta yesterday in Hungary photo REUTERS

Two days ago, the Greek media reported that Albanian emigrants in Greece had suffered considerable losses as a result of fluctuations on the Greek stock exchange. All of this is a consequence of the fact that Albanians now prefer to deposit almost all of their savings in the banks of the country where they work—in this case, in Greek banks. Naturally, the lack of security in the country, above all in Albanian banking institutions, has led emigrants to entrust their savings to foreign banks. Add to this the capital losses suffered by a large number of them when the pyramid schemes collapsed. But this case highlights something else, specifically the indifference of the Albanian State both toward emigrants and with regard to attracting their savings to Albania. In fact, emigrants’ fear of bringing their savings to Albania is linked not only to the lack of security, but above all to the Albanian State’s inability to create the necessary conditions for these savings to be put to use, for example, in building the country’s infrastructure. Naturally, this would mean giving them the rights due to them in the use of facilities built with their money, such as, for example, collecting tolls from people traveling on a road built in this way. If one were to make a rough calculation, taking into account that around 800,000 Albanian emigrants live and work around the world, and assuming that each saves at least 5 dollars a day from their earnings, this means that approximately 4 million dollars are saved every day. For just such a sum, Albanian officials would have to knock for months on the doors of financial institutions or the chanceries of Western countries. But continuing the calculations shows that in one month emigrants would have 50 million dollars left in their hands and, in one year, 600 million dollars. That is more or less as much as Fatos Nano promised them three years ago in Rome, but which has still not been provided. In other words, emigrants’ money is circulating without any need for the “fiscal amnesty” that would amount to illegal legislation. But in this regard, it is surprising that during the opposition’s campaign of recent weeks to put the Government with its back to the wall, it has not said a single word about this problem. Perhaps Berisha’s Democrats, too, feel incapable of guaranteeing that Albanian emigrants’ money will go into serious investments for the country’s construction and development.

The newspaper “Koha Jonë” launches the column: “Which national and local officials have children and families abroad?” Starting next week, “Koha Jonë” will publish the names of politicians, ministers, members of parliament, mayors, prefects, police directors and senior officials who, on the one hand, govern in Albania while lecturing Albanians on the importance of working and living here, while on the other hand sending their children and families abroad to study or live.