Starting over

Starting over works very well as a strategy to get over an ex or even maybe to reinvigorate your life with a career change, but as an economic strategy for a country, it is questionable, particularly when taken literally. After the fall of communism in Albania in 1990 (after the death of the evil dictator Hoxha a couple of years earlier), the government of the time decided to start over – literally. They told the people that they should destroy all that which was created by the previous regime, and they meant it quite literally. For some reason, the government had somehow been given the impression that they had a blank check from the United States for reconstruction, so they told the people to cut down the orange groves, ruin irrigation systems and destroy factories, taking them apart piece by piece for scrap metal. The people obeyed, but they are still waiting for the blank check. Today as I drove to southern Albania I saw an incredible system of hill terracing with irrigation, but the hills were bare. My colleagues told me that the entire valley used to be green with fruit trees, but the trees were cut down in the early 90’s and the people are still waiting for the US to help them replant.

Is it any wander then that these desperate and unpracticed new capitalists invested so heavily in pyramid investment schemes that appeared in the mid 90’s, especially when initially people did earn a hefty profit, sometimes doubling their investment within 6 months. They didn’t understand that the only way for everyone to make money in these schemes was for people to keep investing more and more. Not surprisingly, cracks started to appear in 1996 and by 1997 they had all collapsed, putting desperate people in an even more desperate situation. The desperation became anger and violence broke out across the country. Thousands died.

It had taken me a while to understand, but expectations were so high when the evil communist government fell, and the promises made were not met. Those include promises made (or implied) by the US government, and yet, when Bushy (brain) was here earlier this year, he was treated like the long lost son with people ruffling his hair as he walked through the crowd. Maybe this naiveté is also a root cause.