Klodian Tomorri
Whenever Albania faces a crisis or disaster, there are always two culprits. These are the rain and the sleet. At least, that is the story that the government has been relentlessly telling Albanians for more than 13 years.
Is Shkodra flooded? It's the rain's fault.
Is Albania depopulating? Saliu is the culprit.
The water pump in Durres is not working? It's the rain again
Is the pipe bursting in Vlora? Eh. Saliu, Saliu
There are even cases when these two big evildoers work together as a structured criminal group against the vital interests of Albanians, first and foremost, and the government, second. For example, look at the series of road collapses in the country. Here, the culprit is sometimes the rain and sometimes Saliu. Or both at the same time.
In Maliq, the rain is to blame.
In Qafë-Plloc, it is Saliu's fault for designing it.
In Librazhd, the rain that fell and Saliu who built it.
The government never tires of reminding us that Albania would be a much better place if the rain fell in torrents and Saliu became a fireman.
And that may be true for many. After all, people, and even nations, generally believe what they like. Someone might actually like to believe that roads are being washed away by rain and bridges are being destroyed by Saliu. The problem is that both of these are external factors. Rain is God's work, while Saliu is at his own work.
And rational people try to correct those factors that are in their control. In this case, Albanian citizens have the power to demand accountability or not from a government that tells them that a road built two weeks ago with 300 million euros collapsed due to rain. It's as if the laws of physics were rewritten and centuries became seconds.
In fact, this is an issue that goes beyond rain, Saliu, and even corruption. This is the undoing of the mechanism that protects the public interest. It is enough to see the fragments of wiretaps that are transcribed in the SPAK files.
There are many cases in which builders are both designers and supervisors, and even certifiers of the works they build themselves. In short, they design themselves or through their satellite companies, build, supervise with supervisors they appoint themselves, and finally certify their works with bribes in institutions. After two weeks, the roads inaugurated with a bang, collapse like sandcastles.
This is extreme irresponsibility, which in recent years has become the norm.
Albanians pay an average of 300 million euros per year for road construction. But practically all infrastructure policy today is being done by private companies. This is literally a commodification of public safety. But public safety is non-negotiable. Profit belongs to the private sector. Safety always belongs to the state.
This is the truth about roads collapsing due to rain. Public interest has been left orphaned. So, it is not the roads that have collapsed, but the state.
But unfortunately, the fairy tale will continue. Until the rain and Saliu have destroyed all the roads and driven all the Albanians to the curbs.
Editorial
