EU Defends Greek Minority Rights against Rama, But Ignores the Plight of Albanians

In the past four years, Rama’s government has ruled arbitrarily, especially in the area of urban development. There hasn’t been any transparency, any information, or public involvement in the decision making process, the right of ownership and other fundamental rights and freedoms haven’t been respected, and Rama’s government has undertaken hundreds of urban projects without disclosing

Weed Cultivation Booms in Albania

The coordinates for the operation were been given to the police chief, Saimir Rrustemi, directly from the Ministry of Interior Affairs. In the light of a street lamp, he goes through the prints once again: Google Earth satellite imagery, wooded mountain ridges, and yellow needles on it. It is just after four at night, and Shkodra, the largest

The Driver and the Fire

While the city was waiting for a party meeting with our Driver–Prime Minister and his talk with the “common people” against the “evil” administration, the forest high up on the mountain stood in flames, casting black smoke into the sky, just like Fire of the Lord… because this country has none! It’s been years since Albania

A Response to Alastair Campbell

It appears that Prime Minister Edi Rama has found a new, somewhat jaded constituency to boost his inflated ego onto the “international scene”: the political leftovers of the now widely discredited late-nineties Third-Way labor politics, which not only turned left-wing politics into a largely symbolic effort of “rights” but has led to the privatization wave

Albania: In Europe’s Wild East Cannabis is a Billion-Dollar Business

In 2014, Albania was the focus of international media reports stating the small country to be the largest producer of illegal cannabis in Europe. At that time, special police forces had entered the mountain village of Lazarat to start a three-day battle with local cannabis farmers. When the Albanian police units began to capture the

Save Gjirokastra!

The new regulation that protects the historical center did not protect the home of Thanas Kamberi, found at the entrance of Pazari i Vjetër neighborhood in Gjirokastra. The fire blazed out of the roof first and then it spread in both floors of the house, in thirty minutes everything was reduced to ashes! The well-known residence known

Top Ten Scandal Countdown of 2016 (Part 2)

Read part 1 here. 5. The National Stadium During the summer, a quick succession of decisions and maneuvers led to the lightning-fast destruction of the Qemal Stafa stadium including its historical and monumental façade. Through a public-private partnership between the Ministry of Culture and the Albanian Football Federation, all public procurement procedures were handsomely avoided. The architect,

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