Albanians can't buy a house, but Shakohoxha always finds a sports story about the crisis

By Osman Stafa

A "miracle" has happened in Albania: housing prices have reached Berlin levels, while salaries have not moved from Vlora. And in this economic absurdity, Dritan Shakohoxha, with his early passion for sports, emerges and shows a former Minister of Finance and Economy, Arben Malaj, how the market works.

In a normal country, when an economist with experience and concrete data speaks, others listen. In Albania, Dritani interrupts. It doesn't matter that Malaj talks about money laundering, about Bank of Albania rules, about inflation created by informal money. No, what matters is that Dritani raises his voice in the same way he comments on a derby match: without depth, without statistics, but with a lot of pathos.

Because when you don't understand the numbers, you only have one way to defend yourself: to attack the person who tells them. 

"Are you serious?!" he asks Malaj, as if he were talking about a wrongly awarded penalty, not about the drama of thousands of families living in rented accommodation while Tirana is built for the mafia.

The truth is this: in Albania it is no longer news that an honest citizen cannot buy a house. What is news is that someone has the courage to say it out loud, something that most people suffer from. And instead of listening to it, they tell him "calm down, professor, you're ruining our atmosphere."

Atmosphere? There is only atmosphere in the stadium. In the real estate market there is only money laundering, concrete and a crime that rises floor by floor.

But I ask Shakohoxha: 

Could Shakohoxha buy a house with just his salary as a sports commentator? Or with other similar jobs? 

When I have to support my family, pay for water, electricity, taxes, get dressed, go out to restaurants, take a trip, answer questions, go to hospitals, etc... 

Can it? 

Very unlikely, if Shakohoxha does, he will come out and tell us the secret, and save us all.