Edi Rama

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Edi Rama (from www.edirama.com.al)

Edi Rama (born 1964) is an Albanian politician and artist. He is currently the chair of the Socialist Party of Albania and the mayor of Tirana, the capital of Albania.

Rama was active during the anti-Communist revolution, while he served as professor at the Academy of Arts of Tirana -- then a political centre. In 1992 he copenned an anti-Communist book called "Refleksione" together with his long time friend Ardian Klosi, condemning Enver Hoxha's regime and offering insight into emigration, economics and the future of Albania. Rama was disappointed with the Democratic Party because of its corruption. He criticized Sali Berisha's regime a lot abroad during his career as an internationally recognized visual artist.

In 1997, security agents beat Rama nearly to death. After a long recovery he emigrated to Paris. When he went to his father's funeral in 1998, Fatos Nano called him into his government to be the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports. His first step was the opening of movie theaters to show Hollywood and other foreign movies in order to allow the Albanian people's mental isolation from the rest of the world to end.

In 2000, Rama ran for the mayor of Tirana as an independent candidate supported by the Socialist Party of Albania. He gathered 57% of the votes. Shortly after his election, Edi Rama's house came under fire from an unknown gunman on November 9, 2000, but Rama escaped the assassination attempt unscathed.

In an attempt to widen roads, he has single handedly authorized the bulldozing of private properties so that the they can be paved over, thus widening streets. There has been no compensation for or permission to the owners of such properties.

On June 27, 2005, Rama was featured in an article by Jane Kramer for the New Yorker entitled "Painting the Town" (referring to Tirana).

He became chair of the Socialist Party of Albania on October 9th 2005.

[edit] Impact on Tirana

The most noted impact of Rama has been the many improvements to the city since he took over. Although he has been accused of corruption and funds mismanagement by the opposition, he is mostly liked by the citizens for his bold style and for cleaning up the city. Rama's Return to Identity project ridded the city of many illegally constructed buildings and kiosks on municipal lands such as local parks and the banks of the Lana. His Clean and Green project in 2000 resulted in the production of 96,700 square metres of green land and parks in the city and the planting of nearly 1,800 trees. He also ordered the painting of many old buildings in what has come to be known as Edi Rama colours (very bright yellow, green, violet). He also is trying to change people's consciousness in the direction of shared responsibility for their city, and to enhance people's trust to the government. His critics charge that he focusing too much attention on cosmetic changes without fixing any of the major problems such as shortages of drinking water and electricity.

The former artist had this to say about his work as mayor: "It's the most exciting job in the world, because I get to invent and to fight for good causes everyday. Being the mayor of Tirana is the highest form of conceptual art. It's art in a pure state."

Rama also is the head of the Albanian Association of Mayors. He no longer is active as an artist but when asked he maintains that politics is a kind of conceptual art.

On October 12, 2003 Rama was the winner for the mayoral seat of Tirana, gathering 61% the votes from the reporting of 283 from 346 voting places.

Edi Rama was elected World Mayor 2004 in an Internet poll by City Mayors, beating second-place Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mayor of Mexico City, and third-place Walter Veltroni, Mayor of Rome [1].