On the Politics of International Real-Estate Projects: The Case of Albania

During times of global peace, it is easy to suppose that increased economic interdependency between countries reduce the likelihood of war due to the ramifications on the business projects. By a similar logic by analogy, a couple could suppose that by getting married, the increased interdependence would make breaking up more difficult, and thus less likely. What is overlooked here is that emotions, whether in a romantic relationship or between governments, can, if allowed to go unchecked, break through the parchment barriers that we set up as if they could constrain even intense, ongoing emotions. A couple using marriage as a substitute for going to couples-counseling could actually make a break-up more likely once in the marriage. Similarly, peace abroad and domestic tranquility can be thwarted by international real-estate development projects themselves. Such a situation was unfolding in Albania in mid-2026.

In early June, “Edi Rama told Euronews that opposition to a proposed real estate project on [Albania’s] southern coast linked to the Trump-Kushner family is being amplified by bots, antisemitic narratives and hostile external forces to fuel tensions in Albania.”[1] Israel had been incessantly “crying wolf” as if international criticism of Israel’s militaristic aggression against the people of Gaza were antisemitic, so Rama’s label can also be viewed as misapplied hyperbole intended to discredit political opposition. Because the protests against the proposed real estate project came largely from environmental groups, it is unlikely that Rama’s claim that “antisemitic narratives” were “being promoted by the ‘enemies of Israel and Albania’ is true.[2] In actuality, the environmental groups were objecting to the project being located on a hitherto protected small island.

To be sure, that the planned luxury resort’s financing involved Affinity Partners, the investment firm founded by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump, was also rich fodder for the critics, and even though Kushner is Jewish, it would be a stretch to label protests against his involvement to be antisemitic. Indeed, the label antisemitism had ironically been weaponized by Israel’s Netanyahu, who still faced an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court. Rama’s own narrative that there was an alternative narrative sourced in the “enemies of Israel and Albania” that the project was based on a “hidden dean between me and Bibi Netanyahu through Jared Kushner to bring Palestinians to that area, which is a total fantasy,” can be subjected to scrutiny, especially as Rama felt the need to add that Albania “has a very proud history of saving Jews, of never having antisemitic feelings.”[3] Indeed the political-linguistic “red herring” device goes beyond even such statements.

The whole Albania thing can be viewed as a diversion or even distraction from the more serious case of Jared Kushner’s involvement in luxury real-estate development projects then being put together to turn Gaza into a resort area, sans Palestinian residents. The Trump-Kushner-Netanyahu axis was much more evident in that case than in Albania, and the business and political stakes were much greater than those pertaining to a resort on a small island in Albania. Being a de facto or tacit accomplice to a genocide, even if in standing to gain financially from it, renders Kushner much more culpable than he stood to be in Albania. So, it is interesting that the latter galvanized more political protests than the former, as if the latter were more unethical than the former. To be sure, targeted political protests against one resort stood more of a chance of success than voiced criticism of turning Gaza into a resort area, especially given the sheer political power backing up the latter. Is it ethical, however, to bypass cases of much greater harm just because the chance of success is less? Furthermore, is it ethical to “take the bait” by focusing on a lesser harm at the expense of retaining a focus on the more egregious case?

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1. Marina Stoimenova and Maria Tadeo, “Rama Alleges ‘Hybrid War’ Behind Protests Against Kushner-Linked Coastal Development,” Euronews.com, 6 May, 2026.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.

On the Arrogance of Self-Entitlement during a Pandemic

In the midst of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, libertarians in San Francisco, California objected to wearing face masks. Other people there were simply fed up with wearing masks by late 1918. The libertarians, who objected on the basis of rights, actually prevented the Board of Health from renewing a mandate to wear masks.[1] In early 1919, another spike in influenza cases there led the board to put a mandate in place. So in March of 2020, the failure of mass transits and retail stores to enforce physical distancing and the failures a few months later to enforce mandates on wearing face masks to reduce the spread of the coronavirus can be seen as recklessness (and fecklessness) that could have been prevented by looking back a hundred years. But could the willful disregard of store policies and local law both by customers and store managers have been prevented had business had heeded history? I contend that human nature, which had not changed in such a short time by evolutionary standards, played the heavy, or anchor.
The selfishness of business managers can be regarded as the obstacle to historical progress in dealing with pandemics. As against history and even “organizational learning,” the current profit-motive wins over managers. God forbid that a customer be offended by being confronted by a store employee for not wearing a mask even though mask-wearing was “required” not only by store policy, but also by local law! Of course, a store or business policy barring enforcement of a requirement nullifies it, even if managers could not grasp this simple point. Also, allowing customers to break a local law is itself criminal, even if managers could not grasp this simple point. Ignoring a company policy and even local law could somehow be justified by the interests of profit-seeking.  
The selfishness and inconsiderateness of customers came with a presumptiveness or sense of entitlement to break not only store policies but local law as well. The mantra by the individual that that individual is above store requirements and the law rings with a shallow arrogance. The presumptuousness of the weak of being self-justified brings with it a bad odor, Nietzsche would say. This pathology was especially prevalent in places such as Arizona in the United States.
According to Jeremy Brown, an expert on the 2020 pandemic, it showed how strident selfishness can be. Such selfishness, joined by the related lack of consideration and empathy for other people, was perhaps greater than expected among American business managers and customers. “I think that the message we’ve seen is that people are selfish to a remarkable degree that I don’t think we’ve seen before,” Brown said.[2] That is, the refusal of retail managers to enforce a company requirement because doing so might turn some customers away, and thus their money, is steeped in short-sighted selfishness that recognizes no business responsibility in society. Similarly, the refusal of customers to wear masks, which put other people at risk, can show us just how much of a force selfishness can have in certain people. “The selfishness of people and their inability to have empathy for others who aren’t like themselves is one of the very, very worrying aspects that the disease has highlighted, Brown suggests. “I think this is a deeply rooted part of American society.”[3]
I submit that it is a gross overgeneralization to gloss American society, as there are many, just as many exist in Europe. In having lived in several of those in America, I was stunned in 2020 by just how much aggressive selfishness and stubborn weakness I witnessed in Arizona by how people reacted to the pandemic. Many bus drivers, for instance, refused to wear masks even though they were required by company policy and the local law. Many retail stores had policies forbidding employees from even approaching customers who were not wearing masks. Many light rail, bus passengers, and store customers went maskless with impunity. Light rail security guards were not allowed even to ask passengers to put masks on, and bus drivers rarely did even though they could have at least informed violators of the company policy mandating the wearing of masks. The local police department managers unilaterally decided not to go after organizations allowing customers or riders to break the law. Apparently some laws, especially if they are important to public health, are not worth enforcing.
In short, in some places more than others, just as the extent and depth of selfishness became more apparent with the coronavirus pandemic, so too did human weakness and the related organizational corruption. That these defects had the gall to defend themselves aggressively rather than recognize themselves are faults is perhaps another stunning realization that was made possible by the coronavirus pandemic. This can easily account for the fact that lessons learned in 1918 were so easily dismissed in 2020.

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1. Kristen Rogers, “What the 1918 Flu Pandemic Can Teach Us about Coronavirus,” CNN.com, September 25, 2020.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.