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The problem with Luljeta Bozos recent comments is that its a sentiment shared casually by many.

The Socialist Party electoral candidate sparked outrage recently when during a TV interview, she appeared to praise elements of the communist regime. As a part of a discussion on the almost 50 years of communist rule, she was asked about Dictator Enver Hoxha and the impact he had on the country.

She responded that if you put them on a scale, for me he has more positives than negatives. Bozo added that Albania was a constitutional dictatorship, that it developed Albania, and increased its industrial production.

I have heard many say similar things. I have heard people say that everyone received an education, had access to healthcare, and no one was out of work. I have heard people say there were positives and negatives, good and bad.

And maybe for the privileged, there were positives. But can we really put these above murders and the mass and systematic violation of human rights?

During communism, the countrys entire economy was controlled by the state. All production, agriculture, and industry were nationalized and private enterprise was strictly forbidden. While this did lead to economic growth for some time, towards the end of the regime, the system began to collapse. There wasnt enough food and people were forced to queue for rations. After they cut off relations with the Chinese and Soviets, shortages of everything from machine parts to wheat and animal feed were exacerbated.

A network of sigurimi and their informants amounting to a large percentage of the population, reported back to the state on their family, friends, and neighbors. I remember a hairdresser telling me she discovered her husband had been spying on her and her clients for decades and she had no clue until communism fell.

People told tales on their circle, others fabricated stories to take the heat off them. The accused were shipped off to prisons, gulags, and forced labor camps.

A friend of mine, lets call him Endri, showed me a gunshot wound in his leg. He was shipped off to work in the mines at the age of 13 because a distant family member had committed a political crime. After seven years of labor, he was released and he and a friend tried to escape to Greece. Albanian guards shot his friend in the head from behind as he ran abreast with him, the second bullet passed straight through Endris leg.

Today, 30 years after the regime fell, there are still up to 6000 people who were executed or died in prison and are still missing. Their families do not know where their remains are and excavation orders for suspected mass grave sites have been pending with the Prosecutor for three years and counting.

There has been no apology, there is no national or regional memorial and no national day of remembrance. The Socialist Party who is currently in power has not condemned the crimes of their predecessors, and the process for compensating those who were persecuted or had family members murdered has stalled.

Albania has not dealt with its past- thats what makes comments like this, even if they contain truth, so controversial. The fact that there are thousands of people in this country, still suffering the consequences of that time, means that any claims of benefits of the regime are inappropriate. Perhaps once Albania has dealt with its collective trauma, when people have located the remains of their loved ones, and when the state has apologised for its crimes, then we can begin to dissect the positives and negatives of history.

While I dont doubt the benefits of education, employment, and healthcare, I prioritize the right to life.

Perhaps we could ask the families of those who lost loved ones, whether they would prefer an education or to be able to bury their remains with dignity? Or those that were tortured and suffer PTSD decades later if they would prefer a job or an end to their suffering? Maybe we could even give them the choice between losing their ancestral homes and livelihood or getting a free checkup at the hospital.

I am pretty sure which one they would choose.

My point is that while some may believe there were positives to communism until we have dealt with the legacy and scars of the negatives, it is an insult to discuss them.

Albania needs to implement a comprehensive program of truth, memory, and remembrance. All documents and archives containing data from that time need to be made public with no limitations. School books must include full information on what led to communism, how it impacted society, and what happened after it fell. There must be a national memorial in a prominent place, a day of remembrance, and an official apology and condemnation from both the government and the Socialist Party. Anyone who worked in politics, security, or the judiciary during the communist period must be removed from public office, the legal system, or any position of authority. Everyone who is entitled to compensation must receive it and the scope of the compensation program must be widened to include everyone with a claim. Investigations into crimes of communists must be started and completed in a swift and efficient manner. Relevant institutions must prioritize the search for missing persons, excavations, and the identification of victims. Bodies must be returned to families, and perpetrators must be identified and punished. I would go so far as to say that any praising of communism or Enver Hoxha, including events held to commemorate his death should be prohibited by law.

This is just the tip of the iceberg but they are some of the steps that should be taken to allow Albania to reconcile with its past and to move forward with dignity.

Whether her comments were taken out of context or not, for me, its morally and ethically wrong to put the word positive in a sentence discussing communism while so many are still suffering.

Fjal kye: Albania, communism, Edi Rama, luljeta bozo, Socialist Party, Tirana

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Comment: The Casual Sentiment that 'Communism Had Positives and Negatives' - Exit - Explain Albania

Albanian human rights organizations have condemned comments made by Socialist Party candidate Luljeta Bozo, who spoke in favour of communism and dictator Enver Hoxha.

In recent a television interview, Bozo was asked what she thought of the regime and dictator. She answered:

If you balance it out, for me there were more positives than negatives.

Her comments sparked outrage as she is running in the 25 April general elections in the Tirana district. So far, there has been no apology or condemnation of her comments from the PS. Following the fall of communism, the communists just changed the name of their party to the Socialist Party. Several key communist figures still hold positions of authority in Albania today.

The organizations including Historiaime, Aleanca LGBT, and ** invited the PS to distance themselves from the statement.

Defending the dictator and trying to see his activities and the anti-human system he represented, in a positive light is a missed opportunity to do justice to the thousands and thousands of lives destroyed under the regime, they wrote.

They added that Albania cannot move forward if it doesnt separate itself from the communist past while considering what happened as crimes against humanity.

The letter states that freedom of speech and expression is a key part of the democratic system, but in Germany for example, the promotion of Nazis is illegal.

The crimes of the communist system, inspired, conceived, and ordered by the dictator Enver Hoxha have caused wounds tht hurt our country even today, they wrote.

Albanias communist regime was one of the most brutal and repressive. During almost 50 years, there were 34,134 political prisoners, 984 prisoners who died in prison, 59,009 interned, 7022 killed in exile, 6023 killed during the regime, and 308 who suffered severe mental health problems in prison.

The bodies of the missing, some 6000 people, still have not been located or returned to families. Excavation orders for suspected mass grave sites have been stuck at the prosecution office for three years.

Bozo is an engineer. During the aftermath of the November 26 earthquake, she was present in the media and spoke about poor construction that led to the collapse of buildings. She was then announced as a candidate for the Socialist Party for the upcoming elections.

Fjal kye: Albania, communism, communist, luljeta bozo, Socialist Party, Tirana

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Socialist Party Asked to Distance Themselves from Candidate who Praised Communism - Exit - Explain Albania

Nigel Farage took to Twitter to lambast the European Union for "seizing" the means of production of the coronavirus vaccine. The former UKIP leader accompanied the tweet with a clip from 2013 where he labelled the trading bloc the "new communism" in European Parliament.

Mr Farage tweeted: "For years I said the European Union was the new communism...

"Now they have proved it by seizing the means of production."

In the 2013 clip, the former MEP said: "How ironic to see the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev compare your actions and say 'I can only compare it to some of the decisions taken by the Soviet authority.

"This European Union is the new communism.

READ MORE:EU embroiled in 'vicious cycle' of 'blaming' as vaccines in storage

"It is power without limits, it is creating a tide of human misery and the sooner it is swept away the better."

Earlier this year, the Reform UK leader predicted that the European Union will not exist in a decade as the trading bloc continues to economically squeeze nations in the south of the continent.

Mr Farage told LBC Britain has set the standard by reclaiming independence from the trading bloc and said countries such as Italy will have to leave the Eurozone in the future.

He added Brexit will not be reversed and the younger generation will begin to see the democratic benefits of independence from the EU.

"I dont think there will be a European Union in 10 years' time.

"We have set the standard and I think in a year or two time, you will see in a lot more mainstream opinion across European politics."

He added: "What people will come to understand including the younger generation is that the point about being independent is that democracy is vibrant and becomes real.

"We will really be in charge when we vote in general elections of laws that directly affect us, I really do not see that being reversed, at least I hope not."

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'It's the new communism!' Nigel Farage renews EU warning with brutal slap down - VIDEO - Daily Express

New Delhi:Uighurs are treated as second class citizens by the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), like the Palestinians who live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and suffer from Israeli occupation and apartheid, says Olsi Jazexhi, a Canadian/Albanian historian and journalist specialised in the history of Islam, nationalism and modernity.

In an interview with IANS, Olsi said China has build massive detention centres, which it calls Vocational Training Centres, where Uighur Muslims are detained and forced to renounce their Turkic and Islamic identity.

They are prohibited from praying, living as Muslims, speaking Turkic and forced to Sinicize themselves.

The reason that we hear little about the Uighurs in the mainstream media is that China is very good on concealing what it does in Xinjiang, the neighbours of China and the Muslim world does not want to upset the Chinese superpower, Olsi added.

Olsi said the Chinese leadership is not used to an open society, democracy, human rights and multicultural values.

It is very stubborn and does not accept multi-culturalism and diversity and for them the Uighur identity is not acceptable, he added.

They see Islam, Turkic identity and Muslims as a threat to the Republic. China has officially declared war in its government papers on three evils in Xinjiang.

The historian said China does not respect and consider the Uighurs as citizens with human rights and wants to finish the Uighur issue once and for all.

That is why they are mass colonising Xinjiang, mass de-Islamising and de-Turkifying the Uighurs and forcefully turning them into Chinese. While the British invaded and Anglified India for 400 years, China is trying to do the same with the Uighurs but in a much faster and more brutal way, Olsi added.

Q: Why is the world not helping the Uighurs in China? Please tell our readers about yourself and your work on Uighur people.

A: I am a Canadian/Albanian historian and journalist specialised in the history of Islam, nationalism and modernity.

I got involved in the Uighur issue in summer 2019. I wanted to investigate the Uighur issue myself since I do not trust what I read in Western media. Very often the information that we get in the West is fake and distorted. In 20122013, many Syrian based terrorists were portrayed in the West as freedom fighters. We had many Muslims from Europe who were radicalised and joined the jihad in Syria and ended up committing a terrorist war against a foreign country. In Albania, we have a former terrorist organization, the Mojaheden el-Halk which runs a paramilitary camp. However some media in the West like to call them Iranian opposition and not what they are: a former terrorist paramilitary cult of mujahiddeens who commit acts of war against foreign countries.

My initial suspicion was that what we read about the Uighurs in the West was fake and China was being target unfairly. For these reasons I approached the Chinese embassy in Tirana and asked to join any journalist delegation and see with my own eyes the reality in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China.

Q: Why is there very little information about the Uighurs in mainstream media? What is the status of social, political and economic rights of the Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province?

A: During my visit to Xinjiang I found that Uighurs are treated as second class citizens by the ruling Communist Party of China. They are like Palestinians who live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and suffer from Israeli occupation and apartheid. The autonomous region of Xinjiang has been stripped of its autonomy and the Uighur religion, culture and population is under constant attack from Chinese invaders. China has build massive detention centers: which it calls Vocational Training Centers, where Uighur Muslims are detained and forced to renounce their Turkic and Islamic identity. They are prohibited from praying, living as Muslims, speaking Turkic and forced to Sinicize themselves.

The reason that we hear little about the Uighurs in the mainstream media is that firstly, China is very good on concealing what it does in Xinjiang; second, the neighbours of China and the Muslims world does not want to upset the Chinese superpower; third, China is very aggressive on countering any story that reveals what is does in Xinjiang. China keeps Xinjiang in total lockdown and isolation at the same way as Israel keeps West Bank and Gaza Strip or how the Iranian Mojaheden keep in isolation their soldiers in Albania.

Q: The CPC regime justifies its actions against Uighur Muslims by claiming that they are Islamist radicals and have been indulging in Islamist terrorism. What would you say to that?

A: The situation of Muslims and Islam nowadays is similar to the situation of communism in the era of Pope and Tsar, Metternich and Guizot when Marx wrote the Manifesto of the Communist Party. From China to the United States different regimes and governments use Islam and Muslims as scapegoat for their internal and domestic problems.

China has copied the US and Indias war on terrorism ideology and is using it to destroy its Uighur and other Turkic Muslim population which live in Xinjiang. While it is true that some Uighurs became radicalised in 2010s and joined extremist groups in Syria and some have even committed terrorist acts within China, this does not justify Chinas suppression with an iron fist of the Uyghur and Turkic peoples rights, culture and religion.

Terrorism is being used by China as a scapegoat in order to justify its repressive policies against its Muslim population.

Q: Is there a possibility of resolution to the conflict between Uighur dissidents and the CPC regime? If yes, what are its conditions?

A: Yes. China can resolve its Uighur issue very easily if it wants to. When I was in Xinjiang I told our Chinese friends to stop their crazy policies against the Uighurs since they will further radicalise them. I advised them to close the concentration camps, to allow Uighurs to practice their religion, to open mosques, madrasas and schools in their native language and instead of turning them into enemies China should make them partners in the development of the country.

However, the Chinese leadership is not used to an open society, democracy, human rights and multicultural values. It is very stubborn and does not accept multi-culturalism and diversity and for them the Uighur identity is not acceptable. They see Islam, Turkic identity and Muslims as a threat to the Republic. China has officially declared war in its government papers on three evils in Xinjiang:

1. Terrorism, which means Uighur Muslims who fight with Chinese forces.

2. Separatism, which means peaceful Muslims who want to become independent from China like Mahatma Gandhi did in India.and

3. Religious extremism, which means any Uighur Muslim who practices his religion and believes in Allah and not the Communist Party of China.

China considers all these three groups as enemies which must be destroyed. Mahatma Gandhi like Dalai Lama would have been considered terrorists and killed in China or be sent to concentration camps to be de-radicalised.

China does not respect and consider the Uighurs as citizens with human rights. It wants to finish the Uighur issue once and for all. That is why they are mass colonising Xinjiang, mass de-islamizing and de-Turkifying the Uighurs and forcefully turning them into Chinese. While the British invaded and Anglified India for 400 years, China is trying to do the same with the Uighurs but in a much faster and more brutal way.

Q: Why have the super powers of the world remained so apathetic towards the persecution of Uighur people in Xinjiang?

A: The US, the UK, Canada, Australia, the European Union, Turkey and their allies are not apathetic towards the Uighur persecution. They have condemned the persecution of the Uighurs but obviously they cannot force China to stop what it is doing like they cannot do to much about Hong Kong or Tibet. China is an economic and nuclear super power. It has the power it needs to do whatever it wants with the Uighurs and get away with murder.

Russia on the other hand does not talk about the Uighur issue since, even though they know very well the situation. They need China as an ally to face off Western imperialism.

If I would quote the ancient Greek historian Thucydides about what China is doing today with the Uighurs I would say:

The strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must.

Q: How can the world hold the CPC regime accountable for its oppression of Uighur people?

A: The world can hold the CPC regime accountable in three ways:

1. Through the international law. But China has veto power in the United Nations Security Council.

2. Through the Right to Protect doctrine of Western imperialism. Which means through the threat of a military intervention or arming of Uighurs to defend themselves, which is impossible since the West will not fight for Muslims like it does for Israel.

3. Through a worldwide moral and social mobilization, which is also impossible since China is an economic superpower and many countries of the world are not willing to put China under embargo for its treatment of Muslims.

In few words we came to the conclusion of Thucydides. China will continue its oppression of the Uighurs since it is strong and can do what it can. The weak Uighurs will suffer what they must.

Only Allah who can twist the history of mankind as He wants, can change the desperate situation of the Turkic Muslims of China.

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Uighurs treated as 2nd class citizens by Communist Party of China - The Siasat Daily

Rotterdam-based MVRDV has announced that renovation work has started at the Pyramid of Tirana, an adaptive reuse project in Albanias capital city that will see a monument-museum erected in honor of Enver Hoxha, the Stalinist dictator who ruled over the mountainous Balkan nation with a ferocious grip for over four decades, transformed into what MVRDV has called a new hub for Tiranas cultural life and a carrier for the new generation.

Completed in 1988 in the heart of Tirana just three years after Hoxhas death, the Brutalist structure first served as a decidedly eccentric landmark museum honoring Hoxha that was co-designed by his architect daughter, Pranvera Hoxha, and her husband, Klement Kolaneci, along with others.

The tenure of the so-called Enver Hoxha Museum, however, was relatively short-lived as a pyramidal shrine (colloquially referred to as the Enver Hoxha Mausoleum) was shuttered shortly after the fall of communism in Albania in 1991. The 127,000-square-foot monument was then rebranded as the Pyramid of Tirana and in subsequent years has served an eclectic range of proposes, none of them having much permanence: A conference venue, a nightclub, a base for NATO during the 1999 Kosovo War, a media broadcasting center, and a filming location for at least one direct-to-video horror remake. Most recently, the Pyramid, having fallen into a state of disrepair, has served as an unsanctioned (and somewhat perilous) hangout spot for Albanian youths, who have taken it upon themselves to cover the hulking, marble tile-clad structure in graffiti and often climb it at night and thennot without riskslide down its slopes, according to an MVRDV press release.

Climbing up and then sliding down the building seems to have been something of a time-honored tradition for the youth of Tirana. As the current mayor of the city, Erion Veliaj, explained to The Guardian last year in an article detailing the reuse of Hoxha-era structures and sites, he certainly partook in this activity in his younger years: I remember our butts would catch fire sliding down. We all used to have the same corduroy pants and you could see them losing their corduroy ribbing, he said. He also relayed to The Guardian that he personally specified that the reimagined Pyramid should remain climbable. The building represents our transition, he added. Its a metaphorical display of what weve gone through.

Proposed demolish-and-replace schemes have come and gone over the years but none have stuck due largely to pushback from the residents of Tirana, who prefer that the Pyramid remain standing as a reminder, however painful, of the oppressive, isolationist Hoxha regime. (Hoxhas widow, Nexhmije Hoxha, died last year at the age of 99. She remained an unapologetic defender of her late husband and his policies, which included banning all religion and private property and forbidding travel outside of Albanias borders, until her death.)

In 2017, a plan to revitalize and repurpose the structure was formalized, leading to the now-underway MVRDV-lead transformation, a project co-financed by the Albanian central government and the municipality of Tirana with assistance from the Albanian-American Development Foundation. The reborn structures main tenant will be the nonprofit organization TUMO Tirana, which will establish a multifaceted creative technology learning hub and cultural center at the Pyramid and provide free educational courses in software, film, music, robotics, and animation to local teenagers.

The overhaul of the Pyramid, its interior currently hermetically sealed and inaccessible per MVRDV, will be a dramatic one although the buildings concrete shell will be preserved. A multitude of modular boxes containing individual programmatic spaces will be placed inside, upon, and around the existing structure to create a dynamic village composed of classrooms, cafes, and studios according to the firm. The dark and cavernous main interior space will be opened up and converted into a light-filled atrium.

The sloping concrete beams will be, as mentioned, left intact and converted into external staircases so that the public can continue, as specified by Veliaj, to scaleand slide down, on one single beamthe structure, albeit in a safer and more organized fashion. As noted by MVRDV, the external staircases help to preserve the appropriating [of the former dictatorial monument] that began with the citizens of Tirana while transforming the stair-clad building into a venue for open-air events and touristic sightseeing opportunities. On the landscaping front, plans to cloak the largely vegetation-free site with trees and greenery will further boost its appeal as a place for the public to congregate.

Said Winy Maas, founding partner of MVRDV, in a statement:

Working on a brutalist monument like the Pyramid is a dream. It is striking and interesting to see how the country struggled with the future of the building, which on one hand is a controversial chapter in the countrys history, and on the other hand has already been partly reclaimed by the residents of Tirana. I immediately saw its potential, and that it should be possible to make it even more of a peoples monument instead of demolishing it. The challenging part is to create a new relationship between the building and its surroundings. I am confident our design establishes this. I am looking forward to seeing young people and for the first time older people climbing the steps to the rooftop!

The transformation of the Pyramid of Tiranaa project that shows how a building can be made suitable for a new era, while at the same time preserving its complex history, and demonstrates that historic brutalist buildings are ideal for reuse per MVRDVseems to have been warmly received by residents of the city, many of whom have rallied against plans to raze, instead of repurposing, other decrepit but culturally significant structures in the capital. Case in point: Last Mays demolition of the historic National Theatre of Albania (Teatri Kombtar) sparked heatedand at times violentconfrontations between protestors and police and lead to mass arrests. The iconic theater, erected in 1939 during the Italian occupation of Albania, will be replaced with a bowtie-shaped, Bjarke Ingels Group-designed cultural center.

Excerpt from:
Work kicks off at MVRDV's transformation of a communist relic into a new cultural hub for Tirana, Albania - The Architect's Newspaper