"Tirana is a haven for drug money laundering", journalist: An environmental disaster is approaching in Albania!

2024-04-25 14:57:12Aktualitet SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

The Albanian-American journalist, Peter Lucas , has written about the threat to the climate and the environment from the plans for the construction of the Vlora airport in the Narta lagoon and Jared Kushner 's project for tourist resorts on the island of Sazan.

The article points out that Albania is the most politically corrupt country in Europe and its capital, Tirana, is a haven for drug money laundering, much of which is caused by the boom in office buildings and high-rise residential structures.

Also, Lucas writes that it is not surprising that the government, headed by Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama, is bending over backwards to help Kushner.

Kushner and his wife Ivanka have visited Albania twice and met with Rama.

Full article:

It's great that climate change enthusiasts Gov. Maura Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu will attend Pope Francis' climate summit in Rome in May.

The summit is part of the Pope's Climate Resilience Initiative, which brings together researchers, policymakers and faith leaders to study and discuss climate change. At the May 15-17 conference, Healey is scheduled to discuss "Governance in the Age of Climate Change" while Wu will deliver a speech on "Governance, Health and Energy".

All in good.

But if Healey, Wu and, indeed, the Pope himself want a clear example of a threat to the climate and the environment, all they have to do is look out the window, so to speak.

Across the Adriatic Sea on the Albanian coast – an hour's plane ride from Rome – a massive coastal tourist development has been proposed that environmentalists say will destroy what is perhaps Europe's last pristine ecosystem.

It is the 10,000-hectare Narta Lagoon, the center of a large and largely unspoiled wildlife refuge, fed by the delta of Albania's Vjosa River, which is the last pristine, free-flowing river in Europe.

A Council of Europe environmental committee called the lagoon "a temple of nature" and with good reason. The now-threatened lagoon is, among other things, the habitat for more than 220 species of birds, including the majestic Dalmatian pelican, as well as a stopover migration route for birds from Europe to Africa and back.

The conservationist is already under attack with the construction of an international airport - opposed by the European Parliament and the European Commission interested in the environment - on the northern side of the lagoon. The port city of Vlora is just to the south.

It means that large planes will fly over the lagoon to and from the airport to the detriment of wildlife.

Albanian officials say the airport is needed to accelerate the growing flow of tourists lured to the beautiful beaches further down the coast, as well as to create jobs and improve the economy.

If the construction of the airport wasn't controversial enough, Jared Kushner, son-in-law of former President Donald Trump, is proposing to build luxury hotels and villas in and around the lagoon.

Albanians in the region already call the villas "Trump Villas".

Included are plans to transform the nearby abandoned island of Sazan, once a Cold War military stronghold, eight miles off the coast of Vlora, into a kind of residential paradise for the well-heeled. The sunsets are spectacular.

What is worrying is that Albania is the most politically corrupt country in Europe and its capital Tirana is a haven for drug money laundering, much of which is generated by the boom in office buildings and high-rise housing developments. .

So it's no surprise that the government, headed by Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama, is bending over backwards to help Kushner. Kushner and his wife Ivanka have visited Albania twice and met with Rama.

While the project, despite the environmental and climate damage, may be good for the country economically, it will certainly be good for the politicians.

Just last December, disgraced former FBI counterintelligence chief Charles McGonigal, who had met with Rama, was sentenced to more than two years in prison for accepting $225,000 in cash from a former intelligence agent with Albanian ties. with the prime minister. Rama has denied any wrongdoing.

Kushner, a former senior Trump adviser, is financing the project through Affinity Partners, an investment firm he founded after leaving the White House in 2020. It is said to have a $3.1 billion endowment, most of which from Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund.

If Healey wants to govern in the age of climate change, it may take her, the mayor, the Pope and other climate change warriors to take a look at "a temple of nature" before it is destroyed.

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