If there is no strict response to crime, Albania will sink into chaos again Faced with criminals who kill and rape, the State must issue the order to execute the bandits page 3

On this dark, lightless threshold of winter, the faces of our party hierarchs have not lost their rosy hue

[Photograph of people seated around a table; partially visible, cut-off and illegible writing appears at the top of the photo.]

On this dark, lightless threshold of winter, the faces of our party hierarchs have not lost the rosy hue of sudden weight gain, and above all that kind of smile of a stuffed-shirt who knows everything, understands everything, and is convinced that he has been, is, and will remain a VIP of Albanian society. our party hierarchs have not lost the rosy hue of sudden weight gain, and above all that kind of smile of a stuffed-shirt who knows everything, understands everything, and is convinced that he has been, is, and will remain a VIP of Albanian society. We have never before seen such self-satisfaction in those in power. Cynicism, black humor, politics conducted through mocking quips at tables and rally squares, thuggish labels such as “thief,” “murderer,” “death,” “noose,” etc.—these are the barbaric and primitive tools with which Albanian politics is forged, night and day. However things turn out in elections—whether a party falls into opposition or rises to power—there is a category of politicians who, over these ten years, are bound to remain party leaders, members of party presidiums, ministers and, inevitably, members of parliament, since they have already secured their place on the “proportional representation list.” This leadership category, regardless of how things have gone for their party and, in turn, for Albania, are and will remain people who at the very least attract, or “deserve,” the labels “eternal MP, eternal party leader”—born leaders, from the time their mothers nursed them. In the PS, the PD, and the satellite parties alike, the list of those who secure seats through the proportional lists never exceeds twenty names. These are the people who have set the tone of Albanian politics. These are the people who pass the ministerial office chairs from one to another. These are the people who still tell us how we ought to behave and think. (Continued on page 4)

The cleanup of the Lana River began page 21