It is hard the world financial history would find a case like Albania's where the collapse of the pyramid scheme endager savings of the greatest part of Europe's poorest population. It is hard it finds a bankruptcy which so totally threaten the state's finance. Only the iceberg banking part of the usuries is made evident and its dimensions seem catastrophic. Some $250 million were frozen at their banking accounts and they belonged only to two foundations and that is something more than 50 percent of the money circulated in the arteries out of the banks for the economy. It is not known how

When it comes to democratic elections, justice and freedom of the press, Albania has not fared well under President Berisha. But under the tutelage of the World Bank and the United States Treasury, a kind of capitalism -- awash in corruption -- has taken hold. The southern region of Albania has become one big bazaar. There are probably more Mercedes that pound the rutted roads -- per capita of population than many other places in the world. In a field outside the seaside town of Durres, hundreds of new and secondhand Mercedes, BMW's and fancy Volkswagens await buyers. The asking price for a new Mercedes stolen from Italy or Germany is $10,000 cash.

The police waded in with truncheons, feet fists among the demonstrators.

The result of this shortsight policy is obvious. The spark for current crisis wasa the collapse of the get-rich-quick pyramid schemes. But the fuel was Berisha's disregard for the rule of law and persistent human rights abuses over the past six years, with the acquiescence of the West. The uprising's beggining was not an organized rebellion but a violent outcry: a Kalshnikov primal scream expressing forty-five years of humiliation and six years of deceit.

Percieved strategic interest drove this policy. First, Albania offered a useful military outpost in the southern Balkans, especially during the war in Bosnia. Berisha cooperated by opening Albania's ports and airstrips to NATO use and housing C.I.A. planes for reconnaisance flights over Bosnia. Second United States and Western Europe saw neighboring areas of Kosovo, with a large Albanian majority, and Macedonia, with a large Albanian minority, as the real danger spots in the region. the West feared that the Bosnian conflict would spread south, wich could draw in Greece and Turkey - both members of NATO. To avoid this, a Faustin deal was made: Berisha pursued moderate politics in kosovo and Macedonia and was left to run Albanias he wished. In agreeing to this deal West abandoned the effort to estabilish democracy in Albania. By watering only one poltical force - Berisha's Democratic Party - it left Albania's sapling democratic institutions to die in the Mediterrianean sun.

Even though President Sali Berisha claimed victory in the elections, which many international observers said were marred by serious voting violations, he banned an opposition rally today. Many of those who defied the ban, including elderly men and women who were near the square, were beat

Some common words found in the essay are:
Democratic Party, Communist Party, Greece Albanians', Italy Thieves, Enver Hoxha, Yuraj Atabaki, Plan Albania, Sali Berisha, United Treasury, Turkey NATO, democratic party, berisha's democratic party, communist party, secret police, near square, pyramid schemes, prime minister, berisha's democratic, human rights,
Approximate Word count = 1653
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)