Albanian Designs

Many Albanian families are now being deported from the US after having lived legally in the country for more than 10 or 13 years writes Closed Cafeteria:

Many local Albanian immigrants came as refugees from political turmoil in Albaniaitself, or in portions of the former Yugoslavia such as Montenegro, Macedonia and Kosovo during the 1990s. When they arrived in the United States, they applied for political asylum and were granted authorization to work, but their asylum request has been denied. Local community activists, however, say their cases are complicated because:

- The government didn’t rule on their applications until seven or more years later, because of a backlog. By then, the political conditions had changed in their home countries and officials denied they faced persecution or danger.

- The rulings were based on current conditions, not conditions prevailing when they came here. But in the meantime, many refugees had married, had children, put in years working at jobs or started businesses, and bought houses.

I don’t understand why these people are being deported when my husband’s Albanian cousin was given asylum after having initially been refused. He was supposed to leave the country but never did and continued to work in the black. A number of years later he was given a Green Card. Then his mother arrived on a 3 months tourist visa which she overstayed by a few years and then she got a Green Card too. Strange system if you ask me.

Yes, Albania is part of the coalition in the ‘War Against Terror‘ as says Radioactive Liberty:

One thing that has always disturbed me about the Pretzeldent, straight from the get-go is the way in which he has alienated our allies. Right from the start, he lied to rush us in to a War for Oil in spite of the objections from our allies. Amerikkka was left to wage it’s racist war in solitary instead of solidarity. We invaded Iraq with a “coalition” of only 26 nations including:

Albania, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic. Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Georgia, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Mongolia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, South Korea, United Kingdom, and Ukraine.

Since that time, our fragile so-called coalition has crumbled. Spain and El Salvador withdrew form Iraq and the United Kingdom has pledged to flee back to the Island from whence they came. Yet, ever the pretentious, arrogant, self-important cowboy, Bush is willing to go it alone. So alone, in fact, that he doesn’t even care about the will of the people, or the Constitution he swore to uphold before he stripped us of every last vestige of civil rights we had remaining.

I’ve heard this story numerous times but it’s worth quoting as I’m still surprised about the fact that this guy was just dumped by the CIA in Albania:

Khaled el-Masri was vacationing in Macedonia when he was abducted by local police. Mr. el-Masri was then beaten, drugged, and interrogated at gunpoint in a Skopje hotel room. After 23 days of incommunicado captivity, Mr. el-Masri was taken to the airport and turned over to masked CIA rendition agents. He was shackled and also diapered, and flown to a CIA-run secret prison near Kabul, Afghanistan.

Once Mr. el-Masri was in Afghanistan, CIA officials soon realized they had made a mistake: Mr. el-Masri was not the man they were looking for; nor was there reason to suspect he was a terrorist. The U.S. nevertheless secretly jailed Mr. el-Masri for five months before deciding to deposit him, without explanation, on a hilltop in Albania.

During six years of the so-called "war on terrorism," we have grown disturbingly used to stories like this one. What is most frightening about Mr. el-Masri’s ordeal, however, is not the news that U.S. officials may have conspired in torturing and imprisoning an innocent man for months on end. Instead, it is the news from a federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, last month that U.S. officials cannot be held accountable for engaging in such conduct.

Albania is set to reduce corporate taxes by half to 10% as discussed by Cato at Liberty:

Spurred by tax competition, the flat tax revolution continues to generate positive results. Albania will have a 10 percent flat tax beginning in January 2008. The corporate rate also will be 10 percent, as will the payroll tax. The latter reform is particularly interesting since many of the flat tax nations in Eastern Europe retain punnitive payroll tax rates - a policy that undermines the pro-growth and pro-employment effects of the flat tax.

Details of the new tax can be found in an article written by the Southeast European Times:

In a bid to promote growth and improve the business climate, the administration of Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha plans a major overhaul of the tax system. The biggest change is a switch to a flat tax. “As of January 1st, 2008, Albania will have implemented the 10% flat tax system, one of the lowest in Europe,” Berisha told a business community meeting in late March. Corporate taxes, currently at 20%, are to be slashed in half. Social security contributions from businesses will likewise be capped at 10%. The government and other supporters of the reform say it will widen the taxable base and simplify tax administration, while also making Albania an easier place to invest. According to Finance Minister Ridvan Bode, the changes will lead to a more streamlined fiscal system. “The flat tax helps eliminate the potential arbitrage between corporate tax, dividend taxes and the income tax,” he says. VAT and other taxes will also be gradually reduced in order to woo investors, the minister added. …In the past, the IMF has been wary of plans to reduce taxes in Albania. This time, however, it seems more receptive — provided the overhaul is combined with more effective revenue collection. “We will negotiate with the Albanian government about the tax reduction, depending on the tax collection,” IMF representative Ann Margaret Westin told the press.

The idea is to make Albania a more desirable place for investors. No doubt Albania is in need of foreign investment so hopefully this will be some incentive but I’m sure a hell of a lot more incentives than that are required to increase investment and create jobs.

The New Editor mentions Albania in its On This Day segment for April 7th:

In 1939 Italy invaded Albania. (Less than a week later, Italy annexed Albania.)

Not much news but it’s nice to hear a little about past events in Albania.

I first went to Albania in 2000. I had intended to spend a month or so there but ended up getting very ill on arrival and being forced to leave after 3 days. I was visiting friends in Berat when they pointed out how sick I looked. I don’t know how I hadn’t noticed that my skin and eyes were all yellow but as soon as they mentioned it, I saw it. I hadn’t eaten for a week and I thought I just had the flu but it turned out to be much worse than that.

They took me straight to hospital in Berat where the doctor attempted to make a diagnosis. Without doing any tests they made lots of guesses as to what the problem was. As I became more and more ill I decided that a hospital in Albania with no windows, no beds, no running water, and no proper medical facilities was not the place for me.

I contacted the British Embassy in Tirana and they suggested I head to Italy for treatment. They agreed and helped me get on the next ferry. A representative in Berat drove me to Durres and I got on the Ferry to Bari where I got adequate treatment in a hospital marginally better than the one in Berat. So much for Italy being a wealthy country - that clearly doesn’t apply to hospitals in the south.

So anyway, I didn’t really get to see much of Albania on that trip and I barely remember anything from those few days. I did see enough to make me want to go back which I did the following year.

I should also take this opportunity to thank the British Embassy for helping me out as it was extremely difficult for me to travel and they helped me out a lot. So thank you.