continent.continent.

The Real vs Zizek

Nick Skiadopoulos — Mon, 20 May 2013 22:27:11 +0000

Two conferences, three papers and one ppt. presentation destined for mistrustful economists and philosophers of science were enough to keep me away from this blog for more than a month (hope I am excused). That it simply took one Zizek appearance to induce a short comeback is certainly indicative of the bad state of my imagination these days… Unless this lack of imagination can be partly attributed to the unwillingness of some leading intellectuals to start “thinking” rather than merely (re)acting to the financial crisis, as Zizek himself suggested in a recent popular video or implied in his OWS talk.

Anyway, I just stumbled upon his common interview with Alexis Tsipras, the head of the greek radical left (and government opposition) SYRIZA party. The Greek media (as well as several facebook intellectuals) urged to reprimand Zizek for his gulag joke near the end of this video. And ok, I can understand this reprimand insofar as the Greek government coalition launches a riduculously populist rhetoric against SYRIZA, identifying it as the opposite extremist pole of neonazism. But Zizek does not experience the schizophrenic tension of Greek everyday life where every metaphor or joke is taken literally by citizens who are ready to tear their interlocutor apart at the sound of one wrong word. So let’s grant him yet another joke.

However, on the level of a European (if not cosmopolitan) Left and on the basis of Zizek’s own concern for “the day after”, he is simply unforgivable. For while he recognizes that mere protests with vague humanitarian claims are not enough for some substantial change to emerge in Europe and while he sees the need for a solid political force (either in the form of a party or in that of a social movement or preferably both) to summarize all these claims into a coherent strategy, he misses out the most important and most problematic part: the economy. The problem of a functional economic planning that does not violate the freedoms it professes to promote remains the biggest thorn in the Left wing theory. And as regards its history, nearly a century of communist States should have at least taught us that what you are free to do is not independent from how you are allowed to do it –viz. that freedom of the ends (whether political, ethical or both) is not independent from the freedom of the means (economic freedom, which is not necessarily market freedom). On this tremendously important aspect Zizek remains obstinately silent.

Zizek sees SYRIZA as the most hopeful political alternative that has emerged in Europe. But hope should not and cannot be restricted to slogans without strategy -however important their content. Such neglect would be in fact dangerous in many ways that need not be described here. What is important to stress is that SYRIZA is shockingly vague as regards the burning issue of economic policy (either of Greece as a member-state of the EU or as a potentially independent state with national currency). Some of my previous entries (here and here) point to this complete lack of a coherent economic strategy. To be sure, not even the leading members of SYRIZA seem to have a consistent idea on some perspective economic policy. For those of us who are pessimistically realists, the most plausible scenario is that in lack of any serious economic alternative and given its pro-European position, if SYRIZA gets elected it will have to fall back to a social-democratic approach, replacing the now decadent and formerly ruling PASOK party. However, as recent history taught us, social democratic governments involved in the EU (e.g. the government of Francois Hollande in France) have contributed little if none to the abolition of austerity policies, not only in Europe in general, but also within their own country.

Of course one would argue with Zizek that several aspects of radical democracy are more than important, especially during this strange conjuncture for capitalism. But direct democracy, radicalized rights and everything else cannot substitute for a serious solution as to how these things are going to be implemented in a State that has not solved the economic enigma that the current recession poses.

I will not stop believing that this question constitutes the greatest and most reliable chance for the Left to make a serious political comeback. At the same time, insofar as it shies away from addressing this problem while at the same time being empowered day-by-day, then it merely betrays an obstinate and dangerous passion for power.

Maybe it’s time for the Left to open up some black boxes (one of them being is the famous “socialist calculation debate”). It finally needs to accept that as capitalism produces crises it can well overcome through the implementation of several injustices, so central planning is founded upon enforced injustices in order to remain (or appear) sustainable. More generally, the Left needs to rethink the question of the golden rule between social injustice and the economy and restate it beyond the inconsistencies of social democracy. And maybe most importantly, it needs to take the role of technology and of financial institutions into serious account.

Let’s hope it won’t take another crisis before it does.

Soviet propaganda poster: "This is our gain!"

The Unofficial View of Tirana (61)

Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:43:31 +0000

Current EU Ambassador Ettore Sequi in traditional Albanian costume. Photo by Roland Tasho for the exhibition European Portraits.

Sometimes a photo just hits you in the face. Like this one. Ettore Sequi, the EU Ambassador to Albania is a man with an attitude. It’s a man that loves to hear himself talk. It’s a man who melts for press conferences. But it’s also a man who loves to dress up in costumes from eras long gone, from the times Lord Byron “discovered” Albania and wrote about its beautiful boys that “they […] have painted complexions like rouged dowagers, large black eyes & features perfectly regular. They are the prettiest little animals I ever saw” (Letters I, 231). If there is any photo that has captured both the obsession of the EU for its Balkan backyard, its neocolonial streak, its vanity and utter madness for some sense of old-fashioned pride, glamor, and veritable power outfits, this is it…

Update:

EU Ambassador Sequi posing for the May 2013 issue of Elegance. Notice the cheap pun on the EU (in Albanian BE) slogan, Just Be

The Unofficial View of Tirana (60)

Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:33:18 +0000

Sample ballot paper, color coded by yours truly

Already some time ago I found online an example of the 2013 ballot paper to be used during the parliamentary elections of June 23. It was a model issued by the KQZ (Central Election Committee), which currently consists of 4 majority party members and 3 vacant seats with no solution in sight. I think even the internationals are a bit tired of it all… and we haven’t even started! So what I loved about this ballot paper is that the names on it are not entirely random. Clearly someone in the KQZ has been hammering away on a keyboard in an utmost attempt to block out any active knowledge of the current political system. Let’s see what happened:

In the far left corner we see (turned 90 degrees) the names of the different coalitions. Like in France, the main parties form their own coalitions, in this example the Koalicioni i Hfgostewq, the Koalicioni i Cvdfffff, the Koalicioni Indftresdfgj, and last the Koalicioni i Loest (lowest?). The process used here is the one of the monkey on the computer. Clusters like hfg, ewq, cv, tre, dftresdfgj are all close on the keyboard, alternating between left and right hand “randomization.” What is more interesting are the moments of lapse, of tiredness (fffff), or of the suggestion of a word (“Ind…ependent”).

It becomes even nicer in case of the “nonsense” names. The author clearly started out with some organization, alphabetically proceeding from party Alxxxcvbmlpnjklfdreputserklqpertfdsa, whose name starts with “A” and contains the “unrandom” sequence repu…blican at a distance from the clusters fd and tser. Also interesting is the sequence kld, which is the acronym for the High Court. The next party on the list, Bmlpnjklfdreputserklqpertfdsa, starts with B, but when we arrive at C the author clearly chose to break the order by preceding the sequence with xxx, which is also inserted in the First name, which then suggests an analysis Al-xxx-cv-bmlpnjklfdreputserklqpertfdsa: Al…bania-xxx-cv (adjacent keys or curriculum vitae?) ending with the string bmlpnjklfdreputserklqpertfdsa that seems to be included in all “fake” names.

This string, with its “republican” core, is subsequently edited both in the beginning and the end in order to generate party names of different lengths, such as party 3, Bmlpnjklfdreputserklq[pertfdsa]; party 4, Bmlpnjklfdrepu[tserklqpertfdsa]; party 8, [Bmlpnjk]lfdreputserklqpertfdsa; and party 9, [Bmlpnjkl]fdreputserklqpertfd[sa]. These truncated strings are then preceded by the alphabetical series a, b, cv, d, and e, with the infix (xx)x. The rest of the party names become increasingly less “random,” as the author abandons the semi-alphabetic progression after party 12, fo, and starts introducing elements of actual party names, such as in the unique name of party 17, lëvizja pë… perhaps a reference to the LSI (Lëvizja Socialiste për Integrimit); party 19, partia de…mokratike; party 21, partia ko…mbëtare; moving to party 29, and again party 30, partia dem…, and then only at the bottom parties 32 and 33, partia so(c)…ialiste. The list is closed with the shortest and the longest party names, party 36 adding the letters vbasd.

So even this, theoretically “random” and “neutral” example for an Albanian voting ballot contains very visible traces of the political commitment of its authors, the majority-dominated KQZ. Whereas elements suggesting “Democratic Party” already explicitly appear as high as number 19 (and possibly even the double d in parties 9 and 10, references to the Socialists appear only in the bottom. Notice also that no random initial elements contain the letters s(o) before party 32.

All of this came to mind when today I read the news that an audit group reviewing the voter lists has found no less than 33,690 double entries and that about 403,387 potential voters still haven’t been registered. Moreover it audit group found 4,038 “coded” entries, that bear a striking resemblance to our sample voting ballot. There must be some really funky typists around at the KQZ…

The Unofficial View of Tirana (59)

Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 19:40:57 +0000

The King's Song… with new nationalist symbol

The last few days, finally on a short holiday in Istria (and my dear are these Croatians afraid to enter the EU on July 1!), I’ve been trying to think what to write about, or at least, where to start on reporting about the current Albanian pre-election situation. A small recap: about two weeks ago the left-wing LSI party announced to leave the coalition government with the PD and team up with opposition party PS for the upcoming June 23 elections. The LSI immediately vacated their ministerial positions, leaving basically a PD minority government in place. This also had an immediate effect on other governmental levels, as throughout the country PS and LSI starting voting together, thus shifting the political balance in the entire country.

In a countermove, the PD started a parliamentary procedure to remove the LSI nominated member in the Central Election Committee, which is supposedly politically neutral. In spite the fact that the electoral law does not give parliament the power to remove any of the CEC members, PD pushed the vote, managed to secure a majority for it (which I found surprising considering the fact that they are in the minority now), and put somebody else in the CEC (again this is legally impossible), upon which the two PS nominated members resigned. Although the electoral law demands a replacement of vacated CEC seats during election time within 48 hours, no new members have been nominated, leaving the CEC fully in the hands of the PD and its allies, with only 4 of 7 seats filled (two vacated, one contested). The idea to “restore political balance” in a supposedly apolitical and procedural body (no CEC member is supposed to have had any party affiliation in the last 5 years) has thus resulted in a wonderful clusterfuck with every single “international” panicking and the elections basically ready for yet another brilliant series of fraudulent and illegal moves. I am still surprised now and then at what PM Berisha is able to pull off, although this surprise is slowly starting to be accompanied by a profound sense of alarm. I have never seen such utter disrespect for the rule of law from up close, nor “lived” it. The overall mood is pessimistic; most of my friends expect a terrible post-election situation, no matter who wins.

Yet, that there is no way back to the politically “stable” backwaters of the Netherlands is now more clear to me than ever. As the country is readying itself for the crowning of the new King Willem-Alexander on April 30, the mediocrity of its general taste levels (and thus the mediocrity of the kingdom) is surfacing once again, this time in the form of a national (or “nationalist”) anthem thrown together by some cheap musical guy to celebrate the crowning ceremony (and this crown prince must have approved of this. woe the arts for the coming 50 years!), including a brain dissolving rap sequence. Here it is. Beware.

Some Dutch guy made a rough translation of the pathetic, incoherent, and moreover ungrammatical lyrics, from which I quote:

There you are
You’ve seen this moment often in your dreams
And here it is
The day that you knew who (sic) was coming is finally here
Are you ready?
Can one ever truly be?

There you are
Everyone has a calling in this life
You’ve done everything to prepare yourself
And here it is
You promise you’ll give it your all
Every step you took was leading to this
And look around you
We’re walking with you […]

(Rap)
One battle! Two lives!
We have each other’s back! Unbreakable!
One flag! Two lions!
Together, come rain or shine!
Side by side! Standing tall!
Proud as a peacock! This is our sound!
It doesn’t matter we’re small!
Our actions speak loud!
We won’t fall in an awkward manner!
For you, my child!
For my dad, for my mom!
For you, I’ll weather wind and rain!
And I’ll have your back!
I’ll wear a banner with your name!
I’ll believe in you, as long as we exist! (WTF!?)
I’ll build a dyke with my bare hands! (!)
And keep the water away from you!

I don’t think this text, or the “music” that goes with it needs any of my sarcasm for my point to be made. I invite the unwitting listener to compare this absolutely anti-intellectual polder-terror, sad excuse for a “song” with the timeless grandeur of the following nationalist Albanian songs, “Rrjedh në këngë e ligjerime” (Flows in songs and stories) by Vaçe Zela and “Për ty atdhe” (For you, fatherland) by Mentor Xhemali. Yes, the Albanian political system still has to develop (and it’s about to crash), but at least its national songs have taste. Even the Aleanca KuqeZi party anthem is a celebration of good taste compared with this Dutch fart. And as long as there is good taste, there is hope!

The Unofficial View of Tirana (58)

Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 17:24:11 +0000

On Sunday I woke up around 11 am to the sound of the nationalist song “Xhamadani vija vija” (YouTube terror). Somebody was playing it loudly on a car stereo or maybe the wind brought it to my window from Skënderbeg Square where nationalist party Aleanca KuqeZi was holding their “peaceful” rally “against” Berisha. I had planned to go there to sniff up some of the atmosphere, but the incessant rains of the last few weeks still hadn’t stopped and moreover I had ruined my back the previous day carrying a garden table to my balcony. In other words I was too lazy/in pain to bother. But when I saw this picture of the rally on the Aleanca KuqeZi site, I felt I’d really missed something. In Holland I’ve seen quite some interesting people become nationalist figureheads. First a bald, gay professor of sociology who publicly chatted about his rendez-vous with Moroccan boys in gay saunas. An overweight, chain-smoking movie director. And now, already, for quite some time, this guy with the bleached Mozart hairdo and (immigrant) Hungarian wife.

But this picture, it hit me. The tragic plastic flowers above the Boulevard of the Martyrs still hanging there from the “Summer Day” celebrations of March 21, a summer that still doesn’t seem to come. Then the two banners repeating the AK election slogan “Zoti është i pari, Shqipëria mbi të gjitha” — “God is the first, Albania above everything.” It reminds me a bit of the PD slogan for the last municipal elections “Tirana is the first, you are the first ones.” It all sounds dreadful, not only in English. The first part of the slogan is in black, the second part in red. Because the way the image is cut, the slogan reads as “Albania above everything, God is the first.” They clearly didn’t think about how the parade would look through the lens of the average Albanian photographer. Because the line of mostly long-haired girls that is holding the banner on the left is seems to be slightly ahead of the banner on the right, it seems as of the red capitals of “Albania above everything” are even bigger. Don’t let the grammar fool you. This God part slightly baffles me. There is nothing about God in AK’s party program. It is true that he breaks something of a taboo by mentioned the Lord in a party slogan, but did he really think that sexing it up with a line of non-scarfed girls would bring him closer to the religious Muslim part of the population? Or maybe he is convinced that Lord+sexiness=victory? If I were a Muslim I would have preferred “Allahu është i pari,” so maybe he is aiming for the Catholics and Christian-Orthodox?

And then there is Kreshnik Spahiu himself. Quasi-filmically walking in front of all (above everything?), without umbrella. The crowd behind him shelters under a mass of umbrellas but not the great leader. He walks a bit off center, which gives the whole picture a weird asymmetric feel. The picture doesn’t capture him in a flattering pose. His glasses seem too thick and the shade of his Albanian flag cap makes it more difficult to read his expression, but he doesn’t seem happy. The corners of his mouth are hanging, his lips are not fully closed. His mouth in general seems rather weak. Did he talk to much? Why didn’t he wear the same cap as his girls? Maybe they were out of AK caps and he wanted to put something on his head last minute so his hairs wouldn’t get wet? Like his cap, his jacket seems entirely impromptu, he really didn’t expect this rain; the day before the weather was so lovely. The jacket is a bit sporty, not the thing you wear to a political rally. Maybe he was cold. It’s also not a jacket you wear your Albanian flag pin on, that’s more something for a suit jacket. He probably moved it last minute from his jumper to his jacket once it started raining. It’s also positioned too low, it would have looked better on his revers. Maybe it’s a bit overkill too. An Albanian flag cap and an Albanian flag pin? The jacket itself is too large. It hangs from his shoulders and his hands disappear in the sleeves. The entire ensemble, the flag cap and pin, the oversized jacket, the sad face, the glasses, it makes him look like boy whose birthday party just got ruined but still has to pose for a picture with all his friends.

But then still this boy decided to put it on his website, for all the world to see. Maybe he thought he looked good?

The Unofficial View of Tirana (57)

Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 21:59:10 +0000

Social trust in Europe according to SOROS/European Social Survey. Albania on the far left with the lowest score.

To join a climbing gym has definitely been one of the better decisions I took so far this year. Not only is my fear of heights drastically decreasing (at least up to 5 meters), it also teaches me to trust my body, which for an anti-physically oriented person like me can be quite exhilarating. Yes there are blisters on my hands and the muscles in hips are dancing the samba without the rest of my body, but as long as my blog posts don’t suffer…

Now, as the election draws ever closer, a host of NGOs is coming out with new statistical research, independent questionnaires, and we’re (we who are following these things — there’s always free coffee) walzing from pre-electoral conference to pre-electoral conference. I would like to share with you some of my observations from two of these meetings. The political context in which they seem to be happening indicate a fundamental atmosphere of distrust that seems to characterize this tense pre-electoral period. Practically nothing is known yet in terms of representatives and programs, and it seems the goal is delay informing the public as long as possible. So all we get through the media are snippets in which one deputy is blackmailed by the other, the father of another one arrested by the police, threats and promises based on non-existent evidence unsupported by any economical calculation. All of this while the World Bank has warned the government recently for Greek situations and the Bank of Albania has already warned that the government is severely behind on paying its private contractors. The Ministry of Finance only responds to these warnings by taking more loans. This shouldn’t come as a surprise once we take into account that Minister of Finance Ridvan Bode is (since 2005) exactly the same Minister of Finance that “guided” Albania into total financial and political chaos in 1996-7. Perhaps he confuses not making the same mistake twice with ignoring the second mistake. Any government that will take power after June 23 will most probably fall into a financial hole deeper than the potholes in the mud road in front of my apartment (will it ever be fixed?), but that’s something for later posts…

Part of the NDI equipe during the press conference

So far about the finances, let’s dig into some of the results our international friends came up with “about Albania.” First there was the National Democratic Institute. A top heavy delegation consisting of former Governor of Vermont and former Chair of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean; former Member of the Netherlands Parliament and the European Parliament, Lousewies van der Laan; Chair of the United States Federal Election Commission, Ellen Weintraub; Robert Benjamin, Director of NDI’s Central and Eastern European Region; and Ana Kadovic, Resident Director of NDI/Albania (yes I copy-pasted this) held several rounds of interviews on the Albanian pre-electoral situation. The result (click for English PDF) was presented to the assembled press (noisy like school children, shame shame, Gov. Dean even had to ask them to be quiet!). Their report basically starts from the observation that there has yet to be an election in Albania meeting international democratic standards, and that the problem is not so much the electoral code but rather the way in which it is implemented (so far not so good…): “An election that merits confidence on the basis of democratic standards is within grasp.” Yes, but who will make this final leap? During a coffee break one of the NDI delegates confided in me the wish that countries could be EU candidates forever, so you could continue steering them. This is no longer possible in Greece, Cyprus, or even Bulgaria and Romania, but as long as EU membership remains a carrot in front of the horse…

The NDI equipe ready for new challenges in the exciting world of global democracy!

This is precisely the reason why the presentation of some preliminary results of the European Social Survey executed by SOROS proved to be a valuable, if somewhat depressing complement to NDI’s recommendations. It namely seems that of all governmental actors, Albanians report to have the least confidence in politicians, who get a miserable score of 1.8/10.

From top to bottom: faith in the police; in the legal system; in the parliament; in political parties; in politicians.

What made the SOROS study so interesting was that it was based on self-reporting; in other words it portrays the subjective interpretation of the respondent’s situation. Apart from several important critical remarks that were made during the presentation concerning the statistics methodology — namely that the report only has value when Albania is treated as a country, the margin error becomes too large the moment one zooms in on subgroups — there seemed to be a large distrust of the self-reporting standards of the respondents themselves. For example, over 50% of the population reported a monthly income of 15625 lekë (111,75 euro) or less. Now, Albania is a poor country, but it cannot possibly be that poor. There are more interesting anomalies: for example, Albanians consider themselves by far the most religious population of Europe (a high score of 7.3, with notoriously Catholic Poland scoring a 4.4) while only 12% actually pays a weekly visit to a house of prayer (in Poland 52%).

By far the most interesting preliminary result was that Albanians consider themselves to be the most distrustful population of Europe, with an absolute low score of 3 on the scale “You must be very careful in your relations with people” (0) to “The majority of people can be trusted” (10). By comparison, highest ranking country Denmark scores a 6.8 for the same question. I remarked during the Q&A session that it is somewhat ironic that some of questions asked precisely show this enormous distrust in their approach to the study, as if Albanians aren’t “ready” yet to be self-reporting and that these statistical studies should rely only on “objective” data. One of the researchers indeed replied that there seems to be a statistical correlation between on the one hand the level of distrust in a country, and the discrepancy between certain subjective answers (e.g. reported monthly income) and objective data (for example from the tax office). But this critique is irrelevant the moment the results are accepted for what they are: the self-image of the Albanian population. And therefore it is precisely this discrepancy that is fascinating, as it is operative on all levels, from the people not trusting each other, to not trusting their politicians, from the Minister of Finance not trusting the Bank of Albania, to the politicians not trusting their voters. In other words, the levels of distrust expressed by the respondents to the SOROS research contextualize the research as such, they are the frame in which the entire sociopolitical situation should be read.

Within this context it also becomes possible to interpret another event this week, namely the cheesily titled conference “Just BE,” in which the EU gave its vision on the elections (but just notice this horrible title, with a pun on “be” which is also the Albania acronym for the EU — Bashkimi Evropian — and what does it even mean? “Hey, hello, we’re just the EU speaking here to you, relax, just be and pass those laws we asked you to, don’t worry, chill the fuck out?). While Commissioner for Enlargement Štefan Füle drilled his audience another time on what the EU finds important (I’m not going to repeat him), the government largely boycotted the event, whereas Berisha is usually the first to shake hands with any foreign dignitary. Could it be that on top of all the social and political distrust form the side of the population, the government is now also slowly starting to develop its own distrust toward Europe after all these failed attempts to pass the necessary legislation, enact the right reforms, and not to shoot each other in parliament? We do not need to look for a precedent; Turkey is a clear example where the membership carrot rotted away before it could be consumed.

This last point is one worth developing. I have written before about the increasingly nationalistic rhetoric donned by Berisha, and the possible political motivations behind this. But today I read in a recent blogpost by Fatos Lubonja another analysis that merits our attention, namely that instead of a preemptive strike against Aleanca Kuqezi, or a distraction from the enormous economic and social problems the country is facing, Berisha’s nationalism is pointed outward, toward the EU:

At this point another hypothesis may be raised which however I haven’t seen in the media nor have come up with myself, but which has been circulating among diplomats, from whom I in turn have heard it. According to this hypothesis, Berisha’s [nationalist] declarations are precisely directed to the internationals, not the Albanians. In short, tired or disappointed by the internationals who refuse him the [EU candidate] status […] he has chosen to blackmail them: you don’t accept us into Europe, well I’ll continue to plan B and create problems so large you can’t imagine [i.e. renewed ethnic tensions in the Balkan].

According to this interpretation — which I personally take seriously, also taking into account that most Albanians find Berisha’s nationalism laughable and is full of insane contradictions and paradoxes — there is an enormous distrust from the government toward the motivations of the “internationals,” the EU in particular. Hence the nationalist rhetoric, hence the absence from the conference, hence the appearance of the word “albanophobia.” So it seems that this score of 3.0 goes all the way… from the poorest peasants to the richest autocrat. The NDI told us that elections which inspire confidence are “within grasp,” but I’m pretty sure I’ll grasp that slippery grey hold at the top of that V5 route much faster…

The Unofficial View of Tirana (56)

Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 09:29:53 +0000

Yes, we're in that place again. Free euros and stars running in circles…

It has been a while since I posted for the last time about Albania, but now that finally the first rays of real spring sun are shining through the window of my study and the new washing machine has been installed, I feel ready for some political commentary. Two days ago when I was going for a raki and a plate of baked liver at one of my favorite bars, I found some postcards which apparently have been spread around Tirana, depicting on one side a 100 euro bill, and on the other side an enormous amount of bullcrap propaganda, starting in the center, then clockwise from upper left corner:

These 100 euros would be yours if the 3 integration laws had been voted and and the candidate membership of the EU had been taken. [look at the running star and the all-green typically Albanian traffic light! ]

Youth Movement
Vote Now,
Act Now

Participate in our petition too

To take the candidate member status.

ACT NOW:
- as a responsible citizen
- as conscious intellectual
- as worthy representative of the Albanian people
- as Deputy of the Albanian Parliament

VOTE NOW:
- for the integration of Albania in the European Union
- for the strengthening of democracy
- for the growth of the living standard
- for the strengthening of the rule of law
- for more work places
- for having a better life
- for the Albanian youth
- for our future

So what’s the background of this? As Gazeta TEMA has already pointed out, this is nothing but a phantasm of a “youth movement,” basically aiming to blame the opposition for the total failure (third time!) of Albania to gain EU candidate membership. In the discourse of the current government, the only reason this status was rejected is because the opposition had refused to pass three laws, which, although mandated by the reform program posed by EU, seemed to include so many “surprises” that they basically decreased the already fragile democratic structures in Albania. So the idea was that these three laws would already be approved before the deadline on November 20, 2012, so that theoretically speaking Albania could get candidate status during the EU summit in December. Head of the parliament Jozefina Topalli famously said that the opposition only needed “three seconds” to vote for the three laws.

PM Berisha's Facebook post about the referendum

Neither has happened, although I believe that there were more reasons for the EU to deny Albania candidate status than only the failure to pass these three laws on a basis of consensus (for example, what about removing the independent public prosecutor Ina Rama before her term was over and replacing her with a government puppet?). As the British ambassador succinctly put it, these three laws in themselves are not important for the integration process. Subsequently, Berisha swore to pass the three laws before the elections by means of a popular referendum, which he announced on his Facebook on January 27. And this postcard seems one of the ways in which the government, by means of a “youth movement,” intends to influence the population to vote “yes.” Obviously, the way in which is done is shamelessly clientalistic and its argument as incoherent as a certain Chinese encyclopedia that Borges once found. Stefan Fyle, the EU commissioner of enlargement has already stated to be against the referendum, but I think at this point nobody actually cares and the “EU” has just become an empty signifier in pre-election madness.

So what are these three laws about? In the current media landscape that is terribly difficult to find out, most newspapers talk about the “three integration laws” and the upcoming referendum, without mentioning any of its contents. The three laws are supposed to be concerned with respectively the High Court, civil servants, and parliamentary reforms, technical matters that seem highly unsuitable for popular vote by referendum. As far as I heard through the grapevine, the High Court law broadens the power of president to nominate judges (the current president is from PD and just started his mandate), and the law for the civil servants makes it more difficult to fire them (i.e. after elections, all current civil servants are PD). Even if these laws in themselves would be necessary — it would indeed be nice to have some continuity of government at some point — the fact that PD intends to push them coûte-que-coûte through the Albanians’ throat before the elections should have all alarm bells ringing, because incidentally at least two of them (but I’m sure the parliamentary “reform” will help too) would seriously obstruct any attempts of the PS to govern if it would win in June — just imagine all laws passed being struck down by High Court judges nominated by your political opponent and all your civil servants hired by your political opponent rock steady in their office seats creatively delaying any legislation you may want to implement. In other words, these three laws have every appearance of being Berisha’s safeguard in case he loses the June elections.

Now, just in case, he has already started to find alternative ways of securing the vote, for example by proposing (again on his Facebook) to lower the legal voting age to 16 years, so he would have potentially 100.000 votes extra. And yesterday, the parliament passed a law which allows deputies, ministers, high level judges, and prefects, among others, to carry guns in public. In the light of the explosion of recent assassinations it indeed seems better to arm politicians than to trust on the security forces that be, in case you lose your seat in parliament, just shoot your opponent, and violà! problem solved. The head of the parliament, Jozefina “Cruella” Topalli also thought it necessary to make the following “joke“: “In fact, we should be careful because this law allows Edvin [Edi Rama, opposition leader] to be armed and maybe I would propose that [the law] isn’t promulgated on June 23, so that in his sadness he doesn’t commit the unthinkable act [i.e. of killing himself].” Now that would be the perfect solution: Rama’s suicide as Albania’s ticket to Europe… What are we waiting for?!

Oh, I found the youth movement! I love those creased flags…

Update: In order to give an idea of what this legislation would support, a video of the previous shooting in the Albanian parliament, an attempt on PD parliamentarian Azem Hajdari in crisis year 1997. He was later killed close to the PD headquarters in 1998; his murder still remains surrounded by intrigues (but he used to be a controversial critic of Berisha).

The Unofficial View of Tirana (55)

Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 17:22:32 +0000

Since its first edition, Kosovo 2.0 has been a groundbreaking, border-crossing, and taboo-transcending initiative. Not only is its website a platform for many young creators and writers, it is also one of the few initiatives that refuses the ever increasing nationalism in Kosova and Albania, and consistently publishes in the three official languages of Kosova: Albanian, Serbian, and English. From an Albanian perspective, we can only wish that such a wonderful initiative would sustainable here, as the thematically organized editions on matters such as Religion and Corruption, and now, Sex, are truly pushing forward in unknown territory. Read here the letter from the editor for the Sex issue.

That the current issue, that was supposed to be launched yesterday night in Prishtinë, dealt with sex, with special focus on LGBT issues in the region, and even subjects such as the sexuality of disabled groups (which are even repressed in western discourse on sexuality), would raise an enormous debate was to be expected. LGBT clubs had to be closed in the past under the threat of violence, and many Kosovars come to the monthly parties organized in Tiranë in absence of an open LGBT nightlife in Prishtinë (neither is it open in Tiranë, but ok).

Yesterday night, after several instances of hate speech reported from mosques at the Friday afternoon prayers, an unknown group of youths destroyed the space in which the magazine would be presented, in a festive context provocatively called the “Night of Sex.” Apart from a few instances, hardly any media have picked up on this act of violence and terror, and if they do, they consistently refer to the presentation event as “sex party.” At the same time a student group from the University of Prishtina, ironically calling themselves “Student Peace,” has posted videos of the demolition on their facebook page and released the following statement:

Through this communiqué, Paqja Studentore [Student Peace] of the University of Prishtinë, expresses its concern about the organization of the so-called “Day dedicated to sex” by Kosovo 2.0, which is expected to manifest itself through several activities, including a shameful event in the “Pallati i Rinisë” [Youth Palace building, in Serbian: Boro Ramiz] which in no way corresponds to our family and social traditions.

According to us, Kosovar society needs organizations that serve moral and academical growth, and not these types of inhumane organizations that contribute to evil and the degradation of society.

We as a student organization remain dedicated to take over the tradition of work of western countries, but do not follow those qualities that are like a virus to a healthy society.

We are not against information in the interest of Sexual Health, but we are against the stimulation of Homosexualism and similar phenomena which are synonymous to the degeneration and destruction of society.

We think that the “Youth Palace,” which, among others things, also serves as a library for a large number of students, should not be turned from “Buro [sic!] Ramiz” into “Porno Ramiz,” and hereby we call upon the management of this Palace to cancel this degenerate event immediatey.

We call upon the protagonists of this evening to occupy themselves with things that reflect positively on our youth and to withdraw from their degeneration.

Nexhmedin Alisin added for good measure that Kosovo 2.0 wants legalize “Dark sex” and warns for an increase in murders, abortions, extra-marital relations, (just like American Christian fundamentalists, these peaceful students!), quote:

It has never happened that an Albanian [man] has taken a woman who has lost her virginity (because she has “played tails”, not because of a previous marriage), which he have considered dishonorable and undeserved for women, while what served to us [by Kosovo 2.0] is even worse. The loss of virginity in public!

Ok, but serious… Together with the apparent increase of Muslim extremism noted in the region, and a nationalist rhetoric that embraces Islam as uniting force of the Albanian nation, we should brace for more acts of repression such as these, as well as invent modes of resistance. This is the video of the vandalization — which I’m sure reflects positively upon the Kosovar youth — last night, of several hunky men screaming “Allahu Ekber”:

And the press declaration released by Albanian LGBT organizations Aleanca LGBT and Pro LGBT:

Men who are afraid of sex only exist in Kosovo

Lepa Mladjenović, the first lesbian in Serbia who publicly admitted her sexual orientation and Igballe Rugova, her friend, who also was the fist open lesbian in Kosovo, were getting ready to give a presentation in the Youth Palace where Kosovo 2.0 would launch their new number on sex, when suddenly a group of hooligans got inside the building and started to destroy the scene and everything in front of them.

The magazine had planned, around 23:00, a launching event called “Night of Sex.” At the entrance of the event an imam had started to hold a speech to hundreds of Muslim believers, most of them, according to eyewitnesses, wearing long beards and shouting Allahu Ekber (Allah is great). It was very difficult for people to enter the space.

According to one of the eyewitnesses, a lesbian girl, “There were around 20 people, violent, some of them wearing balaclavas on their heads. They started to hit and loudly offend people, to break lights, tables, and projectors. Everything happened under the eyes of two policemen who tried to protect the participants of the event. One of the policemen got sprayed into the eyes by one of the hooligans.” Some of them threw teargas.

This however didn’t stop the organizers from continuing the event. Lepa and Igo showed that “we should grab each other’s hand and act with humanity.” A participant in the event said that “it was very emotional and motivating, even though we had aggression from some people who came there in the name of God shouting ‘Allahu Ekber.’ I am a Muslim myself and I know that what happened was not done in the name of God. I met Lepa and Igo and talked with them. It was a very inspiring conversation. I really liked the sincere and faithful friendship they had together, it was one of the most inspiring and beautiful moments for me”

The culmination of the night was the moment when people of the LGBT community, even though there were many medias present and cameras, took the microphone and went onto the stage openly declaring their sexual orientation in the very room that the hooligans had destroyed, which the organizers had decided to keep just like was after the attack to emphasize the strong message of the last edition of Kosovo 2.0: Sex is political!

The above information is a coverage by Aleanca LGBT and Pro LGBT of the events which happened yesterday evening containing information gathered from different sources present at the event. We, as representatives of these organizations, feel neither fear nor sadness because of what happened in Kosovo. Instead we feel proud that finally a group of civilized, open-minded, motivated, and courageous people broke the ice of ignorance and the taboos of a society that has deeply suffered from the oppression of the previous regimes. Now it is time to fight against the oppression of ignorance and prejudices.

Aleanca LGBT and Pro LGBT urge Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi to react publicly in defense of the freedom of speech, the right to identity, the right of peaceful assembly and in defense of the freedom of information.

Mr Thaçi! Your Albanian counterpart has, in spite of his conservative and right wing approach, had the courage to go out publicly in support of LGBT issues. Mr. Thaçi, this is time for you to take that step too, if you really want to be the leader of a democratic country where the respect and the protection of human rights are not negotiable.

We ask to the international community to not remain passive in this situation where medieval, fundamentalist and absurd acts are happening, but to stay closer to the human rights defenders and to support them publicly and actively.

We encourage the Kosovo media to refuse the use of hate speech and to become a western media, understanding the communities and not prejudicing them. Dear colleagues of the media. Take the example from Kosovo 2.0 and take your responsibility to educate your suffering society through accurate information!

We also call upon the President of Kosovo Mrs. Atifete Jahjaga not to forget that she has the duty to stand up as an woman and protect women rights, LGBT rights, and human rights. Be courageous and strong, Mrs. Jahjaga!

As the new year is approaching we remind the police that they are in the service of society, a police force able to prevent violence instead finding themselves in the middle of it, taken by surprise. This is inexcusable; many millions have been invested in the training of the security forces to live up to European standards. What can be done? Very simple! These so-called “Plisa” (“felt-caps”) have started to make public announcements, to organize, and to threaten. Their current activity is a risk for Kosovar public space. Go and stop them before it’s too late!

At finally, we deeply want to thank Kosovo 2.0 and extend an open invitations to cooperate with the Albanian civil society to create an event to promote the last issue of Kosovo 2.0 in Tirana, because we know it: In Kosovo, as in Albania, we only talk about sex by not talking about it…

Xheni Karaj (Aleance Kundër Diskriminimit LGBT)

Kristi Pinderi (Pro LGBT)

Update Dec. 17:

More developments in the aftermath of Friday night attacks on Kosovo 2.0:
Igballa Rugova receives several phone threats; LGBT activists of Libertas violently attacked in Prishtina.

Women’s rights activist Igballe Rugova has been threatened after publishing a strong letter in the latest issue of the magazine Kosovo 2.0, in which she spoke openly about her sexuality in a correspondence with the feminist lesbian Lepa Mljadenović, a correspondence that will certainly be remembered as the most beautiful in the history of feminist and LGBT activism in the Balkan.
Igballe Rugova: “Yesterday morning I woke up to a threatening phone call: ‘We will not let you lead the women of Kosovo.’ I had two fears. First, that the same hooligans would come and destroy the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) annual membership meeting (as they had threatened to do). Second, following slanderous and sensationalized press coverage (namely by KTV) of the Kosovo 2.0 event, that few women would dare to show up to the KWN meeting. I was afraid that they would not want to be identified with a lesbian woman, particularly in the negative way that I was portrayed in KTV.

In the meeting with the Kosovo Women’s Network she clarified: “After this call and after all the threatening text messages that I had received before, I called an ex-chief of the police, who ensured me that police forces would provide us with security. They even the investigation of the 38 threatening messages that had been sent to me. I have to thank the police for what they have done till now.”

Today in Stockholm representatives from 103 countries worldwide decided during the plenary session of the global meeting of ILGA World to sign a letter of support for the activists Igballe Rugova and Lepa Mladjenović.

Meanwhile activists for human rights have informed us that about 7 hooligans have entered in the offices of the LGBT rights organization Libertas in Prishtina. After destroying the entire office they also attached several activists. One activist has been severely beaten, though is not critical condition. The attack has been immediately reported to the authorities.

Update Dec. 19:

More Conservative Party Coprophilia: Britain’s New Budget

Gullick — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 11:04:39 +0000

Yesterday the Conservative chancellor of Great Britain gave his Autumn Budget (yes, in winter). As the image here shows, Autumn is the leafy, golden one, with people picking apples, bottom right. Winter is the snowy, ice-hockey one, top right. chancellor osbourne (he doesn’t get capital letters) might need such nursery learning resources so that in the future, if he has one, he can deliver his budgets on time. As most of the country trudged through austerity, even the weather turned austere, with blizzards and ice confirming the prophecies of the picture above.

Usually it would be a travesty to subject anyone to a discussion of george osbourne, but at the moment every budget in a major economy is important. France’s budget, with the election of Hollande, was important because it hesitated over austerity. Germany’s budgets are important because they tell you what the lives of most Southern Europeans will be like for the foreseeable future. Americas budget… blah blah blah. China’s five year plans… blah blah blah.

The British budget, piling into this, isn’t important because suddenly our rulers have decided to step back from the neoliberal edge; when even credit ratings agency Fitch is telling them “don’t jump!” they are intent on diving off in a Thatcherite somersault; no, the British budget is important because it is nothing but a continuation, and even extension, of the same austerity plans drawn up in the immediate aftermath of 2008. It is important because it shows the continued hegemony of neoliberal governmentality and class consolidation. It is a confirmation of German policy, without the global political power (but with the economic depression-contagion effect).

The usual reaction to the British parliament within Britain is that it resembles the Victorian children’s puppet show, Punch and Judy. A more apt description is chimps in a cage throwing their faeces at one another. Actually, this does an injustice to chimps, which are rightly known as “great apes”. None of the apes in parliament yesterday looked particularly great; and chimps throw faeces out of boredom and frustration at captivity. Parliament is captive to neoliberalism, but they don’t seem to be bored by it, even if the masses increasingly are. The politicians sling shit because they have nothing else to hand.

This is all said in full awareness of the psychic synonymity Freud established between faeces and money. Unfortunately, despite lots of grunting, groaning, and quantitative easing, there still isn’t much money around (or there is, but somehow the money the State printed ended up as bank bonuses and dividends; it’s now comfortably in accounts in Barbados, Panama and Luxembourg). Consequently some turds had to be polished not just slung – our illustrious rulers had to pretend they were doing well, even though neoliberals set their stall by economic growth and such a thing hasn’t been known now for four years. None is on the horizon in the UK either, or in the Eurozone, whilst America’s 4% growth is only 1% above recession level, whilst China’s growth drops quarter on quarter.

Neoliberalism is a particular mode of accumulation, a certain balance between industrial capital, finance capital, mercantile capital and good old primitive accumulation. This mode of accumulation is still (quite obviously) in a crisis (the only people who disagree seem to variations on the Dickens character Bounderby). Neoliberalism has never been very good at making new value, relying on State capitalist China to do so, or financialisation/fictive capital, or else expropriating anything it can, from the entire ost-bloc to national health services, from Cochambamba’s water system, to California’s energy grid. This isn’t working at the moment – there isn’t enough value around to back up all those “toxic assets” that popped up four years ago, and which continue to pop up. “Austerity” simply names the continuation of this strategy (trying to create value by asset stripping and selling off national services), whilst the only reason growth figures don’t look even worse in the UK is because financial services have been growing (because someone hurled money at them). The only other area of economic growth in the UK is the so-called “green economy”, wind farms, insulation etc. osbourne mentioned nothing of this, instead tying his boat to fracking. Making all this look alright is a serious turd-polishing act for osbourne.

Neoliberalism is also a consolidation of class power, partly through the redistribution and consolidation of wealth. This is also a difficult turd to polish. However hard he tried, chancellor osbourne couldn’t make his proposed tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations look particularly shiny given the week-old tax avoidance scandals rocking Britain, and the constant, Schumpetarian reports of record profits we keep getting from around the world.

One of the few useful things the Labour party opposition pointed out was that even osbourne could not help but smirk when he said “we’re all in this together”. I finished off that sentence in a previous post.

Much of osbourne’s message, about tax cuts for the wealthy, austerity, Britain being “open for business”, going cold over tax collecting, not increasing funding for greening the economy, was code for: “fellow millionaires, you are safe and secure”; – but then they knew this already.

As Foucault said, neoliberalism is also a “veradiction”, a speaking of the truth – not a truth which reflects reality (we’re in post-modernity here, not a book by Popper; nobody would be so stupid as to have a reflection theory of truth any more, even C/conservatives). No, this truth speaking is the speaking of socially effective truths, the making of truths which intervene in the world. True to form, Osbourne’s speech was a masterclass of neoliberal ideology. Take most of neoliberalism’s jargon, throw it into a pot with some statistics, then deliver it as if your doing the world a massive favour, and you will have just recreated the last 30 years political spectacle (yesterday’s budget included). “Hard working families”; “best practice”; “sustainability”; “competition”; “the needs of business” etc. etc. There was a lot of it, a steaming pile of it. A new nugget was “improving Britain’s competitiveness in the global race”. This is a neoliberal-Darwinian twist on old colonial capital’s “White Man’s Burden” and its notion of race. osbourne seems to think he’s still at the London Paralympics, where, as it never gets tiring to reiterate, he was booed. This is, however, only one of the excellent responses to anything he says; another one is removing osbourne (and other neoliberals) from any kind of position of power.

The Unofficial View of Tirana (54)

Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 15:10:45 +0000

Thus was the main event of Albania’s 100th independence day. A cake fight. Thousands of people had gathered at the central Skënderbeg square as Mayor Basha of Tirana cut the giant supercake (a world record) with an extended pizza knife and presented the first piece to Kosovar president Jahjaga. After several pieces of cake were presented — in the best (post-)communist tradition — to folkloristically dressed-up girls, the cake was utterly destroyed by the bystanders fighting to get a piece. No distribution had been put in place (typical for the huge disorganization that was characteristic for the entire day), nor was there any cuttlery that could be used to consume the cake properly. As a result the masses consumed the cake on the spot, children throwing pieces around, plastic boxes being filled by old ladies, and so on. Although much fun has been made of the scene already, I would like to point out that Black Friday on the other side of the ocean looks quite like it (or for that matter try to give away free stuff on a Dutch street…). Nevertheless, it definitely put a blemish on the celebrations.

Piece of cake…

What will be the immediate political effect of this celebration of the first 100 years of independence? A quite disturbing one as far as I’m concerned. Although I have already many stressed the danger of the entry of a fascist nationalist party like Aleanca Kuqezi entering the Albanian political scene, it seems their pressure from the right has already resulted in the desired shift in the political discourse. Disillusioned (though still appearing faithful) by the looming rejection of candidate membership of the EU (the council still has to decide but I’m pretty sure the political elite will not be able to implement the desired reforms on time, before the upcoming elections — a friend high up in the Ministry of Integration told me basically no one expects the candidate membership will be awarded, her words: “I don’t see any change, it’s a shame for this country”), Albanian political discourse has become markedly more nationalistic as Independence Day came closer.

A map of Greater Albania (including Kosova) and Çamëria (in Greece), decorating a bridge in Tirana

This has been reflected in the decoration of the city. Albanian flags, without the otherwise omnipresent EU flags, “I love Çamëria” flags all along the Lana. The Greater Albania maps all around Bllok, both in official decorations and on private advertisement, and on a bridge across the Lana large hearts with the same maps and a big sign calling for the end of the 1913 Treaty of London, which destroyed the idea of Greater Albania, calling the treaty a “crime scene.” Ardian Vehbiu, an Albanian writer and semiotician (who wrote a great book on the Albanian language during communism), wrote earlier in a blog post entitled “Map of Desire” that:

If one of our neighbors would take these cartographical rattling seriously, we would have heard some protest somewhere, a recall of an ambassador, a letter from some ministry to his counterpart in Tirana. That nothing of the sort has happened, turns our redrawing of maps into a pathetic and miserable exercise; a delayed sigh, which doesn’t impress anyone; a honk from a bus full of supporters, whose team has been left behind, for no one knows many seasons, in the third league…

It may be that none of our neighbors have noticed the rise in nationalism, perhaps because both in Macedonia and Greece (not to speak of Kosova), a similar nationalism has started to show its ugly face. Nevertheless, the guest list for the celebrations says enough about the state of Albanian foreign and integration politics. Except for the Kosovar president, no other heads of state were present, and of government leaders Berisha only entertained the Croatian and Slovenian PMs as well as Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán, a known eurosceptic and nationalist politician, whose government moreover sports antisemitic and fascist overtones. Maybe a few more or less, but that was about it, in other words, no-one form the “old” EU countries. This is a signal for the growing isolation of the Berisha government in its persistent failure to meet EU criteria (while a having a national deficit and debt that is about to nosedive any second now).

Moreover, the Macedonian president canceled his visit in the light of the incident last week where eggs were thrown to the Macedonian PM’s car, while Macedonian flags were burned in public, and the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs canceled his visit last minute, when he understood that Berisha had referred to the ideal of a Greater Albania at the inauguration of the statue of Adem Jashari, a commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army, and Kosovar national hero, calling for ethnic unification:

We all [i.e. Albanians and Kosovars] represent the ethnical Albanian territories and we are committed to create what our martyrs have fought for on the side of the country: the union of Albanians on our ground.

According to the news report in Shekulli, he added that “the dream of the union is the truly European dream of our country.” This is what Europe has become for Berisha, the adjective for the desire of a Greater Albania; the EU is a model of integration — not to integrate into, but to take as example for the unification of all Albanian nations in neighboring countries. Berisha sees himself as the president of the United States of Albania, a leader that satisfies his people with giant cakes and 2000 slaughtered animals (no trace of which was seen), who openly speaks of annexing foreign territory (as if a “European” dream).

Berisha’s official response to the absence of any international leader that would actually legitimize Albania’s independence beyond empty claims (even the sheep came from Italy) was typical. At a press conference with the Slovenian PM (sic!) he said “the French have a saying: friends always shine in their absence…” If according to the cliche dictum, the EU is currently a tragedy, Albania has definitely turned into a farce.