That Albania is a country of paradoxes has by now become very old news indeed. Going for a short stroll through, let us say, the streets of Tirana one encounters extreme poverty and wealth, derelict buildings and luxurious apartment blocks, horse drawn carts and the highest density of expensive cars one can think of. And yet the greatest paradox of all is another: in 2007 Albania, a country that aspires to become a member of the EU cannot yet provide its citizens with one of the basics needed for a decent life: electricity. Were it not so serious and painful this situation would have been hilarious.
Consecutive Albanian governments have tried to shift the blame on their predecessors and more lately on the weather, thus leading many to believe that short of a rain dance there is actually little our governments can do to solve the problem. But isn’t that what governments are all about – to solve our problems for us?
It might be true that the weather has dealt Albania and ‘unfair’ hand – for 17 years? – but Albania’s neighboring countries have faced this very same problem. Yet they have managed to solve it somehow just as they solved the difficulties encountered when Bulgaria – that other culprit – closed down the nuclear power station that provided much of the electricity for the region. All of these can only lead to one conclusion: the cause behind Albania’s power shortages is more complex than a simple lack of rain or a ‘stab in the back’ by Bulgaria.
The mismanagement and corruption in the KESH (the country’s electric power corporation) and the inability of consecutive governments to deal with it would be a logical place for one to start looking. The fact that an unacceptably high percentage of Albanians still do not care to pay for their electricity would be another. This second factor becomes all the more sensitive if one keeps in mind that those – fools? – who pay are now faced with even higher prices so that KESH can compensate for those who do not! The fact that most Albanian governments have been willing to close an eye when the areas that voted them into power refuse to pay – indeed this is often seen as some sort of a ‘you scratch my back, I scratch your back’ policy on the part of the governments – also bears some examination. And then there are the frozen projects and licenses for small hydro and thermo-centrals that laid dormant for years in some minister’s cabinet and that are only belatedly being resuscitated.
Taken in their entirety these factors reveal a number of problems with Albania’s governments that go beyond their simple inability to provide electricity. Problem number one: for all their boasting successive Albanian governments have been incapable – or worse, unwilling – to fight the blatant corruption and mismanagement that reigns in the KESH. And if the government cannot control its own, how can it ever hope to control the private sector, the illegal traffics and so forth.
Problem number two: there are entire areas of the country where the Albanian state seems unable or reluctant to exert and enforce its will on its citizens. And if the government fails to do this for something as simple as an electricity bill, how can one expect it to be able to implement the drastic and painful reforms that are needed in order to bring Albania up to step with the EU?
Number three: this country’s governments seem to lack the resourcefulness and capacity needed to solve Albania’s perennial power shortages. All the promises made during election campaigns seem to be nothing more than empty political slogans and rhetoric that the governments do not seem to feel duty bound to fulfill. So how can one trust them when they promise a future of milk and honey?
Faced with a situation like this ordinary Albanians can do little but be optimistic. At least the generator business is booming, people are going out more and the cafes are doing well.
