Did you know that a small 'village' with 90 inhabitants on the outskirts of Tirana has a figure in euros as much as one-fifth of Albania's Gross Domestic Product?
According to Endri Shabani , the former leaders of the 'Knitting' Initiative, only "90 residents of a neighborhood in the hills of Tirana have deposited in the bank 3.1 billion Euros. All other Albanians gathered together have deposited 2.6 billion Euros.
The "village" Shabani is talking about is no ordinary village. There are no cows, sheep, chickens, or crops. There are villas, which until they were corrected in the fourth grade history textbook were taught to children as a model of success.
"Almost all the houses in the village have become new. The inhabitants there are kind even to every passerby. "The village is really beautiful and people live well there", was written in the text of the history of this class.
It is actually about the "village" of Samir Manes in Rolling Hills, which has gathered the richest of Albania, where a good part of them have been accused of 'oligarchs' (including Samir Manen himself), or favored by tenders and special decisions and laws of the Government and the Assembly.
One such is the law on strategic investments, which although in times of economic crisis is being used by the Government to give public property to power-related investors, as in the case of Olta Xhacka's husband, actor Gazment Paja, or Samir Manes of Shefqet Kastrati.
"I work over 40 hours a week and for every penny I earn I pay 15 percent tax to the state. The other goes without school, without qualification, without competition, eats a lunch with Rama and turns into a strategic investor. We pay for the land, we pave the road, we build the energy-water infrastructure and in the end he pays 0 tax on the money he earns from the business he carries out. What the hell is this ?! How can this be justified ?! "In a normal state, economic aid is given to those in need, not to the oligarchs," Shabani wrote.
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