VEFA had gone bankrupt as early as 1996, but this was not declared Farudin Arapi reveals the final secrets of the pyramid schemes and Gazidede’s letters to Berisha pages 16–17-

BY FRROK ÇUPI “Today’s event is simple, as simple as the ‘crime’ of stepping on the grass itself. One of the policemen guarding the entrances and exits of Tirana National Park stopped a car that he thought was being driven by an innocent man: ‘Listen here, you, the penalty for damaging the Park is very severe; you have to pay,’ said the authoritative policeman. The other man did not know what he had done, but he complied. While I left the policeman and the driver almost face to face behind the car’s open door, opposite me appeared several very tall buildings owned by people whose names included former prime ministers, ministers and current bigwigs. A little farther on, a winner at the KRT has obtained the right to gulp down 10–15 of the Park’s large pine trees and pierce the sky with a profitable structure. Along the roadsides, even within the capital, there are flowers and tombstones, just as in the old days with the dead. Where the day’s newspapers are sold, great headlines flash: ‘Crime’, ‘Political Terror’, ‘Erieta’, ‘License’, ‘I Want the Prison Money’, etc. I was reminded of the same situation during the period of communist rule. Back then, someone who had been targeted by the Party was followed until he came near a city flower garden, where he would be caught: ‘You’ve stepped on the grass; come to the police station.’ After the ‘grass’, it turned out that this person was an enemy of the Party, a major saboteur, a tragic figure. Indeed, investigators or judges used the newly coined aphorism: ‘You’ve stepped on the grass.’ Those who step on the grass, then as now, are hundreds and thousands of innocent people found guilty; they live in the shadow of the imposing buildings built and bought by the ‘innocent’ people who never commit the crime of stepping on the grass. Those who step on the grass are on the brink; they pay the boss who comes to power and builds palaces, they pay the illiterate boss who has become rich through illegal means; they also pay the policeman and the judge because they step on the grass they themselves have planted. While the machinery of force itself clashes with this category, a little farther away the category that tramples the state flourishes. There, buildings are erected that enslave the sun and the pockets of thousands who step on the grass; there, smuggling and corruption pass through (continued on page 2)

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The show, presented by Ardit Gjebrea, Miss Albania 2000 Gentiana Ramadani and Agron Llakaj, will take place in the city’s central square Tomorrow evening, at 19:30, in Skanderbeg’s Lezhë The well-known Albanian artists taking part: 1-Ardit Gjebrea 2-Agron Llakaj 3-Zef Deda 4-Manjola Nallbani 5-Agim Bajko 6-Aurela Gace 7-The Libohova Sisters 8-Dashnor Diko 9-The group “Djemtë e Detit” 10-Bujar Qamili 11-Zyliha Miloti 12-Besnik Qinari 13-Drande Xhai 14-Edmond Halili 15-Françesk Radi Tomorrow, at 19:30, in the central square of the city of Lezhë