A Call To All Albanians

Jaime Pozuelo-MonfortBecome a fan

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Posted: 12/11/2015

 

 

It is Wednesday 9-December-2015. Only the day before former Albania's Finance Minister Arben Malaj has invited me to present "The Drama Of Albania" before his elite master's students at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Tirana. At 11H00 I enter the classroom. Four among Professor Arben Malaj's elite students who have read the HuffPost article explain to me why they agree or disagree with "The Drama Of Albania". They indicate that the analysis criticizes but does not present solutions. They suggest that they agree with 70% of the content and disagree with the remainder 30%. Professor Arben Malaj gives me 20 minutes to follow up with suggestions for improvement. I recall that "The Drama Of Albania" is not my own creation but the testimony of 100 among Albania's most renowned personalities.

I explain to the elite students that the first two priorities Albanians must embrace are the emancipation from politics and the political establishment and eventual divorce, and the acknowledgement that the current situation is dramatic in order to embrace alternative radical policymaking.
Albania is today a country closer to a mafia state or a banana republic than to a well run developed nation of its size like the neighboring Croatia or Slovenia. The fallacy of thinking that Albania will become Switzerland within 25 years shows some leading authorities' wishful thinking when it comes to failing to realize the tragic outcome that awaits the Balkan republic in the absence of major changes going forward.
In the meantime there is Real Drama playing in Albanian politics. It is a scenario where every political leader rehearses a well memorized role, where the great pretenders who do not deserve to play the role transmit to society a context of normality and management which does not hold. It is a scenario where apparent priorities are embraced for the sake of the international institutions accomplices of the fiasco. It is a scenario where apparent confrontation and polarization is portrayed to secure a share of the electoral pie. It is a scenario in which the absence of incentives and individual discipline perpetuates. In the absence of role models every individual becomes a lazarillo de Tormes.
System failure in Albania is nothing but a repetition of the symptoms undergone and observed in many other emerging and developing countries. The West has failed in its attempt to impose its already obsolete governance system through its myriad of agencies and international institutions. In the meantime the Ambassadors who refuse to accept an invitation to meet represent mere puppets of Western oligarchic corporate establishments whose first but not unique priority is to allocate its manufactured exports and defend its vested historical interests on Albanian soil. In the absence of an original model the mediocre elites believe that a mere copy paste of the policies, institutional framework and legislation of better off nations will be sufficient condition for finally taking off towards prosperity. But it is not sufficient but necessary. Basic algebra shows that Albania and Albanians need to design their own way, a new model, a new approach in order to actually take off towards prosperity, without hesitation, without confrontation. There might be a new model, a new approach for Albania which remains particular. But in today's World new governance schemes must be global, interconnected.
I refuse to believe and accept that we ought to stick to the current system. The current governance paradigm in Albania and many developing countries is obsolete. New alternative governance schemes must emerge. The current establishment must be challenged and confronted. Professional politicians with blurry and spurious interests and connections with corporations and the media need to be replaced by a different kind of leadership, a new guild of individuals gifted with integrity, independence, pragmatism and vision, organized in a common front, a common alliance at the service of society.
It is more appropriate to start a new building from scratch than it is to restore an old structure with rusty foundations. Systems, paradigms are born, live and become obsolete only to be substituted by better approaches. There is resistance by the stakeholders who maintain undeserved privileges in the current status quo. There is conservatism and fear among citizens who think alternatives may lead to chaos, disorder and revolt. But this may not be the case, for there are new technologies that bring about changes elegantly in a peaceful means and manner through the use of the most powerful weapons available: the weapons of mass persuasion.
A call to All Albanians abroad and particularly the more talented with an ambition to radically change the system and the status quo encourages me to address this urgent memorandum. Some of the protagonists that have responded to my call are afraid, hidden in their bunkers of comfort, retaining a competitive advantage they legitimately exploit to maintain their lifestyles. Be not afraid I command you today for there is no battle to fight but that of persuasion and seduction. Be not afraid I urge you in this very occasion for there is no fear that fear itself.
Our intent is explicit, brave, visionary. It is to imagine the best possible future and present it to society in the most entertaining manner. In the best possible future Albania is part of a larger fiction state called Balkanland, along with Bosnia Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. Former rivalries must be left behind to embrace new and long-lasting cooperation frameworks. We must take integration beyond the limits of the possible towards the impossible. We must design a new philosophy of supranational cooperation that well exceeds the ambitions of post World War II Europe.
This is a call to All and every Albanian, not an attack or an ultimatum. It is an invitation to embrace a new paradigm called post-politics in which six cooperating High Performance Teams in each of the six Balkan republics dream of new long-term horizons for the new fiction state Balkanland where identities are respected but borders and barriers are demolished whether psychological or physical.
Like in an Agatha Christie's novel or Alfred Hitchcock's movie the suspense and the intrigue of our narrative will make each and every of you anxiously await the next delivery of our series. Citizens who vote become active viewers who tune to Balkanland. There must be no limitation but that of our imagination.
In my pipeline there is a guarantee, a commitment and a promise: that I stick to my lifetime determination to identify, meet and recruit the best Expert Dreamers in order to design High Performance Teams at the service of society; that I shall abide by one single priority to always defend the interest of the vulnerable and bring about prosperity for all and not only a few; that I shall embrace no third-party agenda remaining at the service of the worse off.
It is Thursday 10-December-2015 and I walk along the Boulevard Martyrs of the Nation in Tirana towards the Royal Court where at 12H00 o'clock the Royal Prince Leka II is waiting for me in his official residence. A déjà vu of his grandfather's King Zog's successful tenure may be on its way I can anticipate, but always in the form of fiction. A concerned citizen Prince Leka II is in agreement with my recent analysis and reminds me of the delicate environment his beloved country currently undergoes. There is glory ahead if we work together, united. Those that shout revolution must be careful in view of the recent instances. Demand driven revolution articulated around massive and violent demonstrations has proven ineffective and conducive to repeating the same regimes the very own arab springs intend to get rid of. Offer driven revolution is the only one which can take off elegantly. A new scenario then opens up in which citizens, the new audience, chooses where to go.

Limited by its own inability to design new horizons the current political establishment has become a duopoly aware of the fact that at any given point in time approximately half of the pie will belong to each party. The inability to envision converts the political establishment into a liability, a burden. The political establishment not only pretends to know but maintains the absurdity of the moving forward towards and ill-designed destination.
In the meantime the media fills in its broadcasting hours with loads of irrelevant charlatan-based politics which matter little to perhaps nothing. The microphone is provided to the ones that do not deserve it. The contemporary folly perpetuates because the linkages across politics and the media are manifest and explicit across all ideologies and technical platforms. Deliberate and parasitic symbiosis of politics and media finally exploits citizens as a victim, citizens who grant them a 007 license to hide the hen of golden eggs who nobody knows of in spite the fact that it exists.
The Drama Of Albania shall as a result perpetuate, for those who block the light choose to remain and stick to positions of privilege they no longer reserve. The preposterous context remains for Albanians blindly accept their leaders as the legitimate and only heirs of the representativeness, so long as Albanians continue to procrastinate seduced by the temptations of modern life where individual narcissism dominates the defense of the common good.
In the meantime the market economy of the fallen angel allocates rewards to those who do not deserve it while the hard-working struggle to reach the means to the end of survival. The perfect equilibrium among oligarchs and the political establishment guarantees citizens' acquiescence.
It is no longer enough to shout that another Albania is possible. I encourage the real brave and talented to join us in our efforts to launch a paradigm shift. The current political establishment must be challenged to move up or to move out. A non-cooperation Nash game is cooking in the oven, on the other side of the chess board the entire political establishment. To dream or not to dream, that is the question.
If you would like to join our emerging team in Albania, send us your resume to jpmonfort.albania@outlook.com. No previous political experience or affiliation and a successful track record internationally are must haves.

'Turkey Has Become a Danger for Everyone' - French ex-General

© AFP 2015/ OZAN KOSE

Middle East

Turkey's Erdogan has become a global danger, as he prefers fighting Kurds and engages in double-dealing with ISIL, according to retired French general and analyst Vincent Desportes.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's double-dealing with the Daesh (also known as ISIL) terrorist group is a danger for the entire world, retired French general and analyst Vincent Desportes told Sputnik France.
According to Desportes, the current crisis surrounding Turkey's actions toward Russia, Syria and Iraq cannot be resolved until Turkey decides which side it it is on, and who its true enemy is. Kurdistan remains Turkey's biggest source of worry, Desportes said, adding that Erdogan's "real enemy is not the Islamic State, but the Kurdish independence movement."

"The duplicity of Turkey is in that it is in NATO, yet absent from it, that it wants to be in Europe, but while together with it, it is double dealing with Daesh," Desportes said.

© AFP 2015/ DELIL SOULEIMAN

Syrian Kurds Say Turkey's 'Moderate Rebels' are Trying to Annihilate Them

Turkey recently downed a Russian plane over Syria, and has invaded Iraq's Mosul region. In Iraqi Kurdistan, Turkey reportedly bombed the Qandil mountains, where it believes camps of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, an opposition group banned in Turkey, are located. Syrian Kurdish forces, which receive aid from the US, have also been under attack from Turkish-backed rebels in recent months. "Turkey actually presents a danger for everyone. To resolve the crisis, Turkey needs to be brought to reason, so that it understands its true interests, and not the short-term ones," Desportes added.
According to Desportes, Turkey's isolation is also unhelpful to the situation, as the country's behavior is main problem the international community must now solve.

Albania's Death Rate From Guns 'Higher than US'

 
New data show that the rate of gun-related deaths per head of the population is higher in Albania than in the US - although experts disagree on what makes Albanians trigger-happy.

Fatjona Mejdini
BIRN

Tirana

Albania has a higher level of gun-related deaths per head of the population than the United States, according to data from the country's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

 It says the rate of gun-related deaths per 100,000 people in 2013 in Albania was 5.86 while in the US the number was 3.55.

The second worst country in the Balkans in terms of the rate of gun-related deaths per head of the population is Montenegro with 2.13 per 100,000 people.

The least affected country in the region is Bulgaria with 0.64 per 100,000 of the population.

Although the rate of gun-related deaths in Albania is alarming, the data show a mild reduction in the numbers.

The institute's data show that back in 2000 the number was as high as 7.86. In 2005, the figure fell figure to 6.01 and in 2010 it was down to 5.91.

In 1997, when law and order collapsed in the country, military depots were broken into and over 500,000 rifles and other arms passed into the hands of ordinary citizens. This chaotic situation was blamed for around 2,000 deaths that same year.

Arian Dyrmishi, a security expert from the Institute for Democracy and Mediation, told BIRN that the connection between the number of illegal guns in the possession of citizens and the number of murders in the country was far from clear.

"In Albania it is estimated that around 250,000 illegal guns are in the hands of citizens but this in one of the lowest numbers in the region," he said.

"In Serbia, you have around 2 million illegal weapons, and in Macedonia about 1.5 million," he added, arguing that the high number of deaths might have other causes.

Edmond Dragoti, a psychologist and professor at Tirana University, told BIRN that the high number of gun-related deaths in Albania was partly a cultural phenomenon.

"Guns have been part of Albanian culture for centuries. People have used them to protect their existence. They have guarded their territories, their families and their properties with guns, so they are rooted in their identity," he said.

He believes that after the 1990s, however people turned guns against each other also because of the lack of a normal society and weak state structures.

"The lack of social justice and widespread institutional irresponsibility have resulted in this high number of death from guns over these years. The lack of a strong state has led people to self-protection," he said.

Dragoti sees also the longterm poverty of Albanians as another factor behind the high level of gun-related deaths.

He is "Wanted" for having built an Orthodox Church in Lukovo, Himara Region

Robert Haidhi, one of the exponents of the Party "The Golden Dawn" in Greece, (party of right-wing with 18 MPs in the Greek Parliament) is accused by police of Albania, having built an Orthodox Church without permission, and was declared "wanted" by police.

Apparently extreme national security issues such as the threat from ISIS, have started to feel the members of the Orthodox community in Albania, while an Albanian citizen residing in Greece and Lukove of The Himara Municipality, feels wanted by Albanian police.

The reason is that Haidhi has built an Orthodox Church in Lukovo, his place of origin, in which there is his own business, in tourism, while the Police has charged with "illegal constructions".

But otherwise as the police in Albania, Haidhi, a member of the Party of the extreme right in Greece, "The Golden Dawn", with 18 seats in parliament, opposes the decision because the Ortodox Church built by him, has been made in 1992, in that time there was no need to be provided with permission.

This is an unprecedented case, when in Albania's Muslim community has 89 Mosquas out of control, and that all are illegal and has asked the Albanian State aid to keep under control.

A few months ago, Albania was penalized by the EU, due to the destruction of the Church of Ag Athanasios in Dhermi, in which case the Orthodox Community, is very sensitivity, having reactions from across of Europe.

Americans’ Fear of Terrorism Is at 9/11 Levels, Poll Shows

6 / 15

The New York Times

By JONATHAN MARTIN and DALIA SUSSMAN2 hrs ago

© Scott Olson/Getty Images A Donald J. Trump rally in Davenport, Iowa, last week. More than four in 10 Republican primary voters say the quality most important to them in a candidate is strong leadership, and those voters heavily favor Mr. Trump. Americans are more fearful about the likelihood of another terrorist attack than at any other time since the weeks after Sept. 11, 2001, a gnawing sense of dread that has helped lift Donald J. Trump to a new high among Republican primary voters, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
In the aftermath of attacks by Islamic extremists in Paris and in San Bernardino, Calif., a plurality of the public views the threat of terrorism as the top issue facing the country. A month ago, only 4 percent of Americans said terrorism was the most important problem; now, 19 percent say it is, above any other issue.
Mr. Trump, who has called for monitoring mosques and even barring Muslims from entering the United States, has been the clear beneficiary of this moment of deep anxiety. More than four in 10 Republican primary voters say the quality most important to them in a candidate is strong leadership, which eclipses honesty, empathy, experience or electability. These voters heavily favor Mr. Trump.
The survey was largely conducted before Mr. Trump’s proposal, announced Monday, to temporarily block Muslims from entering the country.
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“He’ll keep a sharp eye on those Muslims,” Bettina Norden, 60, a farmer in Springfield, Ore., said in a follow-up interview. “He’ll keep the Patriot Act together. He’ll watch immigration. Stop the Muslims from immigrating.”
Republicans expressed confidence in Mr. Trump’s ability to confront terrorism: Seven in 10 people who said they were likely to vote in a Republican primary said he was well-equipped to respond to the threat, with four in 10 “very confident” he could handle terrorism. Only Senator Ted Cruz of Texas comes close to those numbers among the party’s voters.
But it is not only Republicans who are feeling renewed fear about terrorist strikes on American soil. Forty-four percent of the public says an attack is “very” likely to happen in the next few months, the most in Times or CBS News polls since October 2001, just after the deadliest terrorist assault in the country’s history. Seven in 10 Americans now call the Islamic State extremist group a major threat to the United States’ security, the highest level since the Times/CBS News poll began asking the question last year.
The public has little faith in President Obama’s handling of terrorism and the threat from the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. Fifty-seven percent of Americans disapprove of his handling of terrorism, and seven in 10 say the fight against the Islamic State is going badly. There have been few foreign-directed terrorist attacks in the United States in the past decade, and American officials have repeatedly said that there is no credible evidence of planning for a large-scale attack in the United States by the Islamic State or its supporters.
Yet while Mr. Trump may be benefiting among Republicans from a perceived loss of safety, he remains a highly divisive figure with the broader electorate. Sixty-four percent of voters said they would be concerned or scared about what he would do if he became president. And while Mr. Trump occupies a commanding position among Republican primary voters, with more than twice the support of his nearest competitor, his followers are still a minority of that relatively small population.
Even as he leads the Republican field in support, he also has the highest number of Republican primary voters, 23 percent, who say they would be most dissatisfied with him as the party’s nominee.
“It’s the things he says and how he says them,” said Bill Rogers, 43, of Xenia, Ohio, who supports John R. Kasich, the state’s Republican governor. “He’s just too blunt and straightforward, and it’s scary. He doesn’t hold anything back. Some people think the way he speaks is offensive, and I’m one of them.”
Perceptions about the likelihood of another attack are also carrying over into how Americans feel about the state of the country over all.
Just 24 percent say the country is headed in the right direction, the lowest figure in a Times or CBS News survey in more than two years. More than half of the public, 53 percent, say they are dissatisfied with how things are going in Washington; another 31 percent say they are angry.
This profound discontent is animating the Republican presidential race. Mr. Trump now has the support of 35 percent of Republican primary voters, a substantial increase from late October, when he was the choice of 22 percent of Republicans and was edged out by Ben Carson.
Mr. Carson, who has struggled with foreign policy questions since the attacks in Paris last month, has fallen as much as Mr. Trump has gained since October and is now winning 13 percent of Republican primary voters. Mr. Cruz has increased his share of the vote to 16 percent from 4 percent in October. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida takes 9 percent, and the rest of the Republican contenders are below 5 percent each.
Mr. Trump remains the focus of the race for many Republicans, for better or worse.
“He stands up to people, and he tells what’s on his mind,” Philip Austin, 66, a retired insurance executive in Raleigh, N.C., said. “Unfortunately, even though people don’t want to hear it because a lot of what he says is inflammatory toward certain groups, it is the truth, because we have a massive problem.”
What has not changed from the last survey is the reliability of Mr. Trump’s supporters, an indication that he has a durable floor of support. While only a third of Republican primary voters expressing support for a candidate said their minds were made up, Mr. Trump’s backing is far more firm: 51 percent of his supporters say their minds are made up.
Twenty-six percent of Mr. Trump’s supporters said Mr. Cruz was their second choice, more than any other candidate. Mr. Cruz does well with evangelicals and voters who describe themselves as “very conservative,” running closely with Mr. Trump among each group.
But many Republicans are filled with both fury and fear, and it is Mr. Trump who is most effectively tapping into these boiling anxieties. Forty-four percent of Republican primary voters say they are angry about the way things are going in Washington, and of those voters, 43 percent support Mr. Trump.
“I’m mad about the Muslims coming in, I’m mad about the economy and I’m mad because we got a stupid president, and that’s about it,” said Manuel Hart, 71, a retired fire chief in Silver Springs, Fla., appending a pungent three-letter word onto “stupid.”
Asked whether it was more important for a candidate to agree with them on issues or to have the best chance of winning the general election, 62 percent of Republican primary voters cited issues, while just 36 percent said electability.
The country’s trepidation about another act of terrorism is having less effect on the Democratic contest, but Democratic voters expressed more confidence in Hillary Clinton’s ability to respond to terrorism than they did in Bernie Sanders’s. Mrs. Clinton has the support of 52 percent of Democratic primary voters, while Mr. Sanders takes 32 percent, a difference that has changed little in recent weeks.
What has shifted notably are attitudes toward gun control. Only 44 percent of Americans favor a ban on assault weapons, 19 percentage points lower than in the aftermath of the mass shooting in Tucson in 2011. And while 51 percent favor stricter gun control in general, that number is down from October, when 58 percent of Americans supported tighter restrictions.
The nationwide telephone poll was conducted Dec. 4 to 8 on cellphones and landlines with 1,275 adults, including 431 Republican primary voters and 384 Democratic primary voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points for all adults, six percentage points for Republican primary voters and six percentage points for Democratic primary voters.
Find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the First Draft newsletter.

Army chief, KFOR commander discuss incidents in Kosovo

The Serbian Army (VS) chief has asked NATO's KFOR in Kosovo "to devote more attention to Gorazdevac and other non-Albanian majority areas."
Source: B92, Tanjug Thursday, December 10, 2015 | 11:26

Ljubisa Dikovic (Tanjug, file)

VS Chief-of-General-Staff Ljubisa Dikovic and KFOR Commander Guglielmo Luigi Miglietta had a telephone conversation on Wednesday, in the wake of the incidents in Serb areas in Kosovo.
Dikovic also "voiced his concern over the possibility that recent armed attacks on Serbs in Gorazdevac had been organized," the defense ministry said, quoted by Tanjug.

Dikovic said that the attacks had given rise to a sense of insecurity and unease among Serbs and other citizens in Kosovo and Metohija, and noted that "KFOR is the only guarantor of security in Kosovo and Metohija under UN Resolution 1244."

Miglietta said that the investigation into the Gorazdevac incident was ongoing, and that KFOR had stepped up its presence in the area. He stressed that KFOR "will protect all citizens in Kosovo," the MoD said on its website.

Albanian refugees with children deported in middle of night

LINK

Kevi, aged three, and his sister Klea clutching their memento books from playschool before being deported. Photo: DV

There is a lot of outrage amongst the general public today following reports that an Albanian family with two young children, one of them suffering from cystic fibrosis, were fetched by police, taken to the airport and deported at 4 am this morning.
They were among a group of Albanian refugees all also deported from Iceland back to Albania via Germany this morning. No Albanian asylum seekers have received asylum in Iceland as, according to information at the Icelandic Directorate of Immigration, Albania is a peaceful democracy where there is neither war or a rule of fear. Speaking to mbl.is, Skúli Á. Sigurðsson, project manager at the Icelandic Directorate of Immigration dealing with asylum seekers each case is looked into specifically. "If the circumstances surrounding any of the cases involving Albanian citizens warrant international protection or asylum, the individuals in question will be granted such according to the law."
The press officer for the Icelandic Directorate of Immigration has been uncontactable this morning.

Three-year-old boy with a long-term illness

Kastrijot and Xhulia Pepoj and their children aged 3 and 5 were picked up from their home in Barmahlíð, in the Hlíðar district of Reykjavik in the middle of the night and transported in a coach along with other Albanians. Kastrijot was working for brick layer Hermann Ragnarsson doing construction work for three months in Reykjavik. Ragnarsson has been helping the family to settle in Reykjavik and plans to visit the family in Albania next summer.
Asked by mbl.is whether he had witnessed the deportaton last night he replies, "I just couldn't do it." He adds that the family were devastated at the news as they had wanted to stay in Iceland. Kastrijot feared for his life in Albania as his cousin has been in trouble with the law there. The two children had started playschool in Iceland and made friends. "Their son has a longterm illness, cystic fibrosis and here he had started to receive medicine here in Iceland that helped him. This medicine is not available in Albania."

The employer helped the family to settle

Ragnarsson didn't know Kastrijot was an asylum seeker when he started to work for him. "He had been working for me for two weeks when I found out, he'd received a phonecall from the Directorate of Immigration to go to a meeting there and I offered to give him a lift. He describes having stopped at Kastrijot's home first to pick up his wife and children who were supposed to accompany him to the meeting. "These poor little things had basically had to stay at home with their mother for six or seven months. They were hanging onto her dress, they were so shy. "
When Ragnarsson started looking into the matter and read a press report stating that the children of asylum seekers had the right to go to school and playschool he immediately started to help. He also helped them to obtain a car so they could drive the children to playschool. "I just don't understand it, he just wanted to work here in Iceland and to get by on his own. He wasn't trying to live off the welfare system."

MP writes that "she's ashamed"

MP for the Social Democratic Alliance Party, Katrín Júlíusdóttir wrote a statement on her Facebook page this morning deploring these actions. "A child with a long term illness in a beautiful family, shipped off in the middle of the night by police. They were looking for a better life. Why do people do this? They're taken from their jobs, their playschool, all social context, just because they didn't tick the right boxes? Ólöf [Nordal, Minister for the Interior] speaks nicely but she hides behind criteria which removes all humanity from our system. I'm ashamed."
Author Auður Jónsdóttir writes on Facebook that the regulations place the family in a rubbish bin because they're from Albania. "But the little boy is ill, and both children have adapted well at playschool and they had new friends. The father has an employer who supports him and cares for the family. The father is in danger of being murdered in Albania and the little boy can't get the medical care he needs. When he's having his worst episodes he can't even breathe."

Footage captured of the deportation

DVeports that the children's playschool teacher was in tears when she had to say goodbye to them, and that the children had received books with photographs of themselves with their best friends to take home as a keepsake. The children reportedly slept clutching these books.
The following video was published by Óðinn S. Ragnarsson when the family was deported last night.

Public outcry in Iceland today asking why an Albanian family were deported in the middle of the night. Photo/mbl.is

Stoltenberg praises Albania’s role in strengthening stability in Western Balkans

• 10 Dec. 2015
• |
• Last updated: 10 Dec. 2015

Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed Albania’s strong commitment to NATO in a visit to Tirana on Thursday (10 December 2015). After talks with Prime Minister Edi Rama, Mr. Stoltenberg thanked Albania for its continued contributions to the Alliance’s missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo, and for its efforts to build the defence capabilities of NATO partners Georgia and Ukraine. Highlighting Albania’s key role in the Western Balkans, the Secretary General added that Tirana’s cooperation with its neighbours makes “a valuable contribution to the security across the region.”

The Secretary General praised Albania’s support for NATO’s Open Door policy and the integration of the Western Balkans into the Euro-Atlantic family. He noted that the Alliance’s decision to start accession talks with Montenegro reflects NATO’s commitment to keep its door open. “It reflects our commitment to stability in the Western Balkans, and our commitment to complete our vision of a Europe, whole, free and at peace,” he said.
“Our security is being challenged from many different directions, and NATO is responding,” Mr. Stoltenberg said. He underlined that the Alliance is increasing the readiness of its forces, and working to provide more support for partners to the east and to the south. 
Mr. Stoltenberg welcomed Albania’s contributions to the Global Coalition against ISIL, noting that all Allies play a role. He stressed that “this is not a conflict between Islam and the West; this a conflict between extremism and open societies. And we need to stand up for our values.”
During his visit to Tirana, the Secretary General is also meeting with President Bujar Nishani, Foreign Minister Ditmir Bushati, and Defence Minister Mimi Kodheli.

Greece encourages his compatriots in Himara, to not commit any transaction properties

The process initiated by the Albanian Government in Drymades, is not transparent, risking the disappearance of the Greek Community in Himara Region.

Source by Foreign Ministry: "Athens will not allow nor will recognize, any registration of property titles, in Ionian coast, which belongs to the our citizens with Greek nationality, especially in Himara Region, in addition to the agreement signed with the OSCE and the EU with Albanian State"

Sources from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Greece, stated that in response to some concerns of the Association of Himara Diaspora and The Organization of "Omonia", Associated with a process of registration of titles to property in the Region of Himara specifically in Drymades, the Greek Government is following with great concern, Albanian lawmakers' efforts, and the Albanian government, which have begun to justify, alienation and property belonging to the Greek Community and the Orthodox Church through a process not transparent and not legitimate.

Besides this concern, Greece, encourages Tirana and the political class, to take responsibility and to meet requirements related to freedoms and human rights, which was submitted by the progress report of the EU for Albania, where the chapter was evaluated, minimum grade.

The Albanian government has signed a memorandum agreement, in 2011 the European Union through the OSCE, to strengthen the legal framework based on Constitutional of Albania and Universal Freedoms acts and Human Rights, to record the title of the Ionian Coast.

According to the source, the Greek government will not recognize any related new title of properties, investment transaction based with not transparent in Himara Region, including resorts for oligarchs, which risking the disappearance of the Greek Community in Ionian Coast.

Rather delicate question of a risk of extinction that Greek Community in Himara Region, has worried the Parliament of Greece, who summoned last week, the leaders of Omonia, in a report on the state of the Greek Community and ownership problems.

'Zumwalt Sails for the First Time': Monster US Destroyer Heads Out to Sea

© AP Photo/ Robert F. Bukaty

US

The USS Zumwalt, the US Navy's largest and most expensive destroyer ever built, began sea trials Monday in the Atlantic Ocean.

The ship, with its angular design, departed the Bath Iron Works in Maine and made its way down the Kennebec River to the ocean.
Costing $4.3 billion, the Zumwalt is first in a new line of revolutionary guided missile destroyers.
Coincidentally, the futuristic-looking vessel is commanded by US Navy Captain James Kirk, who shares a name with the commander of the fictional spacecraft Starship Enterprise from the sci-fi TV series "Star Trek."

"We are absolutely fired up to see Zumwalt get underway," Kirk was quoted as saying by the Tampa Bay Times. "For the crew and all those involved in designing, building, and readying this fantastic ship, this is a huge milestone."

The US Navy Sea Systems Command tweeted: "Zumwalt sails for the first time."

Kelley Campana, a Bath Iron Works employee, said she had goose bumps and tears in her eyes.
"This is pretty exciting. It's a great day to be a shipbuilder and to be an American," she said. "It's the first in its class. There's never been anything like it. It looks like the future."

© Flickr/ U.S. Pacific Fleet

US Navy Commissions New Combat Ship for Close-to-Shore Operations

The ship is 600 feet long and weighs nearly 15,000 tons, making it the largest destroyer in the US fleet. But with an angled hull and deck house, it is designed to look no bigger than a fishing boat on radar.
Its motors are electric powered, driven by an innovative integrated power system that may one day also support an array of energy-intensive weapons like lasers and electromagnetic rail guns, AFP reported.
It is intended to be capable of operating in shallow coastal waters, laying down fire to support forces on shore, as well as conducting anti-aircraft and naval surface warfare.
Only three Zumwalt-class ships will be built, as Congress cut back funding for original plans for 32 ships.

Putin "hopes" nuclear weapons won't have to be used in Syria

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday praised a cruise missiles strike against terrorists in Syria carried out from a submarine.
Source: B92, RT Wednesday, December 9, 2015 | 09:42

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(Image made from YT video)

According to RT, he "expressed hope that these weapons would not have to be armed with nuclear warheads."
Putin made "the notable remark" as he was meeting in Moscow today with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu who "reported the latest results of the anti-Islamic State ops in Syria," RT reported.

“We must analyze everything happening on the battlefield, how the weapons operate. The Kalibrs and KH-101 have proved to be modern and highly effective, and now we know it for sure - precision weapons that can be equipped with both conventional and special warheads, which are nuclear. Naturally, this is not necessary when fighting terrorists and, I hope, will never be needed,” Putin said.

“We’ve been registering the missiles launches, flights and, of course, their hitting the targets. We warned our Israeli and American colleagues about these launches," Shoigu said.

The Rostov-on-Don submarine, located in the Mediterranean, launches Kalibr-PL cruise missiles against terrorist targets near their stronghold in Raqqa:

US, EU Ambassadors: If not approved the justice reform, risk isolation of Albania

The Parliament of Albania should change the country's constitution to the 37 articles to paving the way an intermediary system, unlike the current, that is failing the country.

A new wall insulation expects, if Albania, failing the justice reform. This has been a harsh warning US Ambassador Donald Lu and EU Ambassador Vlahutin in a meeting held with journalists known in the country.

The purpose of the meeting, the diplomats important with media representatives that affect, was acquainted with the fact that the US and the EU are behind the proposals for judicial reform, through OPDAT and EURALIUS, and the request to the media to inform the public opinion on the importance of this reform.

Lu and Vlahutin were direct consequences that will have place in the event of failure to reform but also boomerang effect that will have on those who would not approve.

The ambassadors urged the media to contribute in conveying the importance of the process aimed at cleaning up the judicial system of the elements of corruption and expressed the willingness to seek help civil society to organize a peaceful march for justice reform, as a message to the policy which should to complete this process as soon as possible.

Ambassadors have indicated that the United States has prepared a draft National Bureau of Investigation for which have received the consent of the two main parties in the country and await approval, along with the decriminalization law.

Albanian Opposition Rallies for New Government, Early Elections

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Albanian opposition supporters burn a bunker that would serve as the entrance of a former communist regime-used tunnel to be turned into a museum in Tirana, Dec. 8, 2015.

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Isabela Cocoli

December 08, 2015 2:50 PM

Several thousand demonstrators led by the opposition Democratic Party rallied Tuesday in Albania’s capital Tirana, accusing the government of Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama of corruption and demanding that it resign.
Some protesters threw stones, flares, eggs and paint at the main government building, partially damaging its entrance.  Demonstrators clashed with police, but no injuries or arrests were reported.  The opposition supporters then marched to a museum of the country's Communist era, which is still under construction, and set it on fire.
Democratic Party leader Lulzim Basha said the protesters want the Rama government to be replaced by a temporary "technical" government that will prepare for new elections. “This is just the start of a season of protests that will stop when we achieve our goal,” he added.
Commenting on Facebook, Rama said it was sad to see the Democratic Party involved in a protest characterized by “miserable vandalism” on the National Day of Youth, commemorating the student protests held 25 years ago against the country's then communist regime.
Rama's leftist coalition won general elections in 2013, unseating the Democratic Party, which became Albania's main opposition party.
A NATO member, Albania is one of Europe's poorest countries.  According to the World Bank, about 12 percent of the country’s population of 2.8 million lives below the poverty line, on less than $2 per day.

Albania’s main opposition Democratic Party leader Lulzim Basha speaks at an anti-government rally in downtown Tirana, Dec. 8, 2015.

Corruption, organized crime as main enemies
The European Union granted Albania candidate status last year to encourage the country's progress in fighting corruption and organized crime, and establishing the rule of law.
Meanwhile, Albanian President Bujar Nishani chaired a conference in Tirana themed “Albania and Europe: 25 Years After the Fall of Communism.”
Rama told the conference that Albania should build its future using European institutions as a model.
Former prime minister Sali Berisha, a member of the Democratic Party,  said that if Albania’s Communist dictator Enver Hoxha and communist ideology were once the enemies, “today the two enemies are corruption and organized crime.”  He added only the opposition is capable of getting Albania out of the current situation.

Marking the anniversary of the 1990 student protests, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry extended congratulations to Albanians on their National Day of Youth.
“This historic transition was championed by the brave leaders of the student movement, bolstered by the regular citizens who marched and demonstrated against the dictatorship, and aided by the courageous former party members who assisted in establishing popular rule," Kerry said in a written statement.
He said the United States recognizes “the great strides Albania has taken over the past quarter century.”
In a congratulatory video message to the conference commemorating the fall of communism, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Albanian leaders to improve opportunities for the country's young people to develop their talents.  She said Albania has significantly advanced during the past 25 years.

The opposition led by the Democratic Party has called a rally aimed at forcing Prime Minister Edi Rama’s government to resign, accusing it of being responsible for corruption and poverty.

BIRN

The opposition is holding an anti-government rally in Tirana on Tuesday, saying it is the first of a series of actions aimed at ousting the government and replacing it with a technical administration that will hold snap elections.

The opposition Democratic Party, which lost power at elections in 2013, said it would be the biggest since the polls, claiming that tens of thousands of people will attend from all over Albania.

“People will gather in Skanderbeg Square [in central Tirana] and later march to the prime minister’s office and seek his resignation,” a Democratic Party press spokesperson told BIRN.

The opposition parties accuse government officials of being corrupt, and claim that Rama’s administration is impoverishing people with its misguided tax policies.

The Democrats chose a symbolic date for the protest - December 8, the national youth day, an official holiday to mark the first massive anti-Communist protest by students 25 years ago.

The opposition is building a stage in front of the Council of Ministers, a d will invite ordinary people like farmers and owners to tell the protesters their problems with the way the country is been administered.

The Democrats’ leader, Lulzim Basha, said on Sunday that the time of current government was now over.

“The patience of Albanians had come to an end and we are not going to turn back anymore. The Romanians and Macedonians have already reached their objectives through protests, why not us?” Basha asked.

But some political analysts in Tirana doubted that the Democrats would achieve their goal.

“They were removed as the government two years ago by citizens as a punishment for widespread corruption. Now it doesn't make any sense for them to be protesting against corruption,” analyst Mustafa Nano told BIRN.

Rama’s Socialist Party-led coalition, then in opposition, beat the incumbent Democrat-led alliance soundly in the 2013 parliamentary polls, by 83 seats to 57.

International election observers from the OSCE declared the vote “free and quite fair”.
- See more at: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/albania-opposition-rallies-to-urge-government-step-down-12-07-2015#sthash.td8TnToh.dpuf

Albanian Opposition Rallies Against Government

The opposition led by the Democratic Party has called a rally aimed at forcing Prime Minister Edi Rama’s government to resign, accusing it of being responsible for corruption and poverty.

Fatjona Mejdini

BIRN

Tirana

Opposition supporters protesting last year | Photo: BIRN/ Ivana Dervishi

The opposition is holding an anti-government rally in Tirana on Tuesday, saying it is the first of a series of actions aimed at ousting the government and replacing it with a technical administration that will hold snap elections.
The opposition Democratic Party, which lost power at elections in 2013, said it would be the biggest since the polls, claiming that tens of thousands of people will attend from all over Albania.
“People will gather in Skanderbeg Square [in central Tirana] and later march to the prime minister’s office and seek his resignation,” a Democratic Party press spokesperson told BIRN.
The opposition parties accuse government officials of being corrupt, and claim that Rama’s administration is impoverishing people with its misguided tax policies.
The Democrats chose a symbolic date for the protest - December 8, the national youth day, an official holiday to mark the first massive anti-Communist protest by students 25 years ago.
The opposition is building a stage in front of the Council of Ministers, a d will invite ordinary people like farmers and owners to tell the protesters their problems with the way the country is been administered.
The Democrats’ leader, Lulzim Basha, said on Sunday that the time of current government was now over.
“The patience of Albanians had come to an end and we are not going to turn back anymore. The Romanians and Macedonians have already reached their objectives through protests, why not us?” Basha asked.
But some political analysts in Tirana doubted that the Democrats would achieve their goal.
“They were removed as the government two years ago by citizens as a punishment for widespread corruption. Now it doesn't make any sense for them to be protesting against corruption,” analyst Mustafa Nano told BIRN.
Rama’s Socialist Party-led coalition, then in opposition, beat the incumbent Democrat-led alliance soundly in the 2013 parliamentary polls, by 83 seats to 57.
International election observers from the OSCE declared the vote “free and quite fair”.

- See more at: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/albania-opposition-rallies-to-urge-government-step-down-12-07-2015#sthash.td8TnToh.dpuf

Albanian Opposition Rallies Against Government

The opposition led by the Democratic Party has called a rally aimed at forcing Prime Minister Edi Rama’s government to resign, accusing it of being responsible for corruption and poverty.

Fatjona Mejdini

BIRN

Tirana

Opposition supporters protesting last year | Photo: BIRN/ Ivana Dervishi

The opposition is holding an anti-government rally in Tirana on Tuesday, saying it is the first of a series of actions aimed at ousting the government and replacing it with a technical administration that will hold snap elections.
The opposition Democratic Party, which lost power at elections in 2013, said it would be the biggest since the polls, claiming that tens of thousands of people will attend from all over Albania.
“People will gather in Skanderbeg Square [in central Tirana] and later march to the prime minister’s office and seek his resignation,” a Democratic Party press spokesperson told BIRN.
The opposition parties accuse government officials of being corrupt, and claim that Rama’s administration is impoverishing people with its misguided tax policies.
The Democrats chose a symbolic date for the protest - December 8, the national youth day, an official holiday to mark the first massive anti-Communist protest by students 25 years ago.
The opposition is building a stage in front of the Council of Ministers, a d will invite ordinary people like farmers and owners to tell the protesters their problems with the way the country is been administered.
The Democrats’ leader, Lulzim Basha, said on Sunday that the time of current government was now over.
“The patience of Albanians had come to an end and we are not going to turn back anymore. The Romanians and Macedonians have already reached their objectives through protests, why not us?” Basha asked.
But some political analysts in Tirana doubted that the Democrats would achieve their goal.
“They were removed as the government two years ago by citizens as a punishment for widespread corruption. Now it doesn't make any sense for them to be protesting against corruption,” analyst Mustafa Nano told BIRN.
Rama’s Socialist Party-led coalition, then in opposition, beat the incumbent Democrat-led alliance soundly in the 2013 parliamentary polls, by 83 seats to 57.
International election observers from the OSCE declared the vote “free and quite fair”.

- See more at: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/albania-opposition-rallies-to-urge-government-step-down-12-07-2015#sthash.td8TnToh.dpuf

National Front Gets a Boost in French Regional Elections

New York Times

By ALISSA J. RUBINDEC. 7, 2015

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Marine Le Pen’s Change in Tone

Following the attacks in Paris, a look back at how the National Front party leader's language has evolved over the last five years on issues such as immigration and nationalism.

By JESSICA NAUDZIUNAS and SPENCER WOLFF on Publish Date November 18, 2015. Photo by Pierre Terdjman for The New York Times. Watch in Times Video »

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PARIS — Sunday’s election results changed the political center of gravity in France.

Although President François Hollande has earned widespread approval for his handling of the terrorist attacks here, and Nicolas Sarkozy, his predecessor, is still pursuing a comeback plan to propel him and his center-right party back into power, the most significant political figure in France — some would argue the most powerful — is Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far right.

Ms. Le Pen led her far-right National Front to a first-place finish in the initial round of regional elections on Sunday, a huge step forward in her plan to transform a fringe movement into a credible party of government.

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  France’s Far-Right National Front Gains in Regional ElectionsDEC. 6, 2015

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  Marine Le Pen’s Anti-Islam Message Gains Influence in FranceNOV. 17, 2015

The result left both Mr. Hollande’s Socialists and Mr. Sarkozy’s Republicans groping on Monday for ways to thwart Ms. Le Pen’s ascendance and increasingly worried that she is emerging as the candidate to beat in the presidential elections in 18 months. It also highlighted the appeal of baldly nationalist messages on both sides of the Atlantic at a time when traditional parties are struggling to address the insecurities of voters facing economic dislocation and a sense of vulnerability to terrorism.

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Posters in Calais, France, on Monday supporting Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Front, who led her party to a first-place finish in the first round of voting. Credit Philippe Huguen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

“More than ever the National Front has become the heart of French political life and the political party around which the others situate themselves,” said Bruno Cautrès, a political analyst and public opinion specialist at the Center for Political Research at Sciences Po, the institute of political studies in Paris.

The National Front not only came in first in the popular vote on Sunday with 28 percent of votes cast nationwide, it was leading races to govern six of France’s 13 regions, decisively in at least two.

Many factors combined to help Ms. Le Pen’s party in the first round of voting — the second will be held on Sunday — but the overwhelming message was one that the French elites have been reluctant to confront: The political rules that have governed the country for the past 25 years are being reshaped by a wave of nationalist right-wing populism familiar to voters in many other countries, not least fans of Donald J. Trump in the United States.

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Just like Mr. Trump, Ms. Le Pen is shrewdly speaking to voters who feel economically strained, distant from leaders they perceive as elitist and out of touch, and angry or frightened by waves of immigration that they feel threaten their national identity and personal security. Her appeal, which helped her party win political control of a few French cities last year, seems to have only grown since the attacks in Paris last month that killed 130 people, giving the National Front a chance to establish greater credibility by governing key regions, including the area in the north around Calais that has been struggling all year to deal with an encampment of thousands of migrants.

She talks about the French “nation” and its “sovereignty” and making France once again proud of its “founding values” and “authentic Frenchness.” Such language takes aim at anyone who does not embrace assimilation into the French way of life.

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In her victory speech on Sunday night she added the word “laicité” to the core French values of liberty, equality and fraternity. “Laicité” is loosely translated as secularism, but increasingly has come to mean eschewing any show of religious affiliation in public, which some critics see as a cover for anti-Muslim views. It is on the grounds of laicité that French Muslim women are barred from wearing head scarves in government jobs and in schools.

Ms. Le Pen uses the prospect of an Islamic takeover of France as an example of what France must fight. If the war is lost against “Islamist totalitarianism,” she said after the attacks in Paris last month, “the veil will be imposed on all women.”

It is an arresting image, and because it taps into the public fear both of rising numbers of immigrants and of attacks by Muslim extremists, such language appears to resonate with a growing slice of the electorate.

“These regional elections are taking place in a context when defense and security are the primary preoccupations of the French, ahead of unemployment, for the first time in 15 years,” said Sylvain Brouard, a political scientist at the Center for Political Research at Sciences Po.

“So we have a context which makes the stakes very favorable for the National Front,” he said.

In many ways, this is Marine Le Pen’s moment. She spent the last five years working to transform the party from the outsider movement of her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was overtly anti-Semitic and content to stay on the edge of national politics, into a party that has a real chance at the presidency.

It did not escape notice that if the regional election had been the first round of the presidential elections, Ms. Le Pen would have been in a runoff with Mr. Sarkozy and the Republicans, who took 27 percent of the vote. Mr. Hollande’s Socialists, with just 23 percent of the vote, would have been out of the running altogether.

Her success is rooted not just in her ability to modulate her message, cloaking some of her more xenophobic ideas in coded language. She also had the good fortune to come to the political stage at a moment when the traditional parties are splintering, seemingly unable to address the economic woes of the middle class, stem the more negative effects of globalization on the French way of life or convince voters that they are not imperiled by immigration and extremism. Ms. Le Pen has long had proposals on these issues — albeit ones that exclude immigrants from many of the benefits that go to French citizens, or that force assimilation.

The old Socialist Party is “incapable of changing at the moment; it is an empty shell,” said Pierre Haski, the co-founder of the French news site Rue 89. “The Socialists are losing the cities, except for Paris, Lyon, maybe Lille; it’s lost most departments; and it’s going to lose regions after this election. It’s been weakened so that it’s very difficult to imagine it could win the next presidential election.

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“And you find the same crisis in the traditional right,” Mr. Haski said. “Sarkozy’s party is in disarray.”

When the National Front had done well previously, there was a broad political understanding that the mainstream parties would unite to ensure that the far right did not win.

For example, in 2002 when Jean-Marie Le Pen made it to the second round in the presidential elections, the Socialists and other left-leaning parties told their supporters to vote for Jacques Chirac, the leader of the center right, because even though the center left opposed many of his policies it was the only way to ensure that the National Front did not win the presidency.

On Sunday, Mr. Sarkozy dashed the hopes of any broad coalition against Ms. Le Pen, saying he would “neither withdraw, nor fuse” with any other party. His reasoning is that Ms. Le Pen has run on the position that there is no difference between the traditional left and right, so if he allows his party to combine with the left, it will merely validate her point and undermine his appeal to right-leaning voters who might otherwise vote for him. On Monday the Socialists and the Republicans continued to squabble over avoiding an outcome in which they split the centrist vote and give an opening to the National Front.

However, Ms. Le Pen’s first challenge will be to confirm last weekend’s showing by winning again in the second round. If the past is prologue, it seems likely that she will assume power in at least two regions of France, giving at least those areas a chance to see if they like not only her statements, but also how her party governs.

Iraq: '24 hours left' for Turkey to withdraw troops

Al Jazzera

Comment comes after Ankara told Baghdad it would not send more troops, but stopped short of agreeing to remove forces.

07 Dec 2015

Davutoglu said the presence of Turkish soldiers in northern Iraq calling it a routine rotation to train Iraqis to retake Mosul from ISIL [AP]

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has warned Turkey that "only 24 hours" were left for Ankara to remove forces it sent to the north of his country without permission.
"We must be prepared and ready to defend Iraq and its sovereignty," said Abadi, who visited Iraq's air force headquarters on Monday, according to his office.
"The air force has the capability... to protect Iraq and its borders from any threat it faces."
Earlier on Monday, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told Abadi in a letter that Ankara would halt further transfers of troops to Iraq until Baghdad's "sensitivities" were placated, but did not agree to withdraw the existing force from the country.
"No further forces will be deployed to Bashiqa until concerns of the Iraqi government are overcome," the letter said, the Reuters news agency said, citing sources at the prime minister's office in Ankara.

Those who are disturbed by the cooperation of Turkey and Iraq and who want to end it should not be allowed to attain their goal. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu

"Turkey is ready to deepen its cooperation with Iraq in coordination and consultation. Those who are disturbed by the cooperation of Turkey and Iraq and who want to end it should not be allowed to attain their goal," it said.
Turkey deployed hundreds of personnel to a camp in the Bashiqa region near the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)-controlled city of Mosul, calling it a routine rotation to train Iraqis to retake Mosul.
Davutoglu earlier said the activity was set up at the Mosul governor's request and in coordination with the Iraqi Defence Ministry.
'Crisis'
Iraqi Defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi said he told his Turkish counterpart the latest deployment had been made without informing or coordinating with Baghdad, and should be withdrawn.
He said the Turkish defence minister had explained the deployment as necessary to protect military advisers training Iraqi forces some 30 km northeast of Mosul in preparation for a campaign to retake the city. But Obeidi said the force was too large for such a purpose.
"No matter the size of the force entering Iraq, it is rejected," the statement said. "It was possible to undertake this sort of prior coordination without creating circumstances which contributed to a crisis between the two countries."
NATO member Turkey has been bombing Kurdish militant positions in northern Iraq. It is also part of the US-led coalition fighting ISIL in Syria and Iraq.