Talk:Edi Rama

It must be the person featured on this site:

http://www2.ronchiato.it/AlbaniaToday/Eng/rama.htm

Them we know his birth time and place. Before 1998 he worked in Paris. --Andres

I am not sure if it is the same person. In fact, I am almost positive that it is not. Dori 15:57, 11 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Meanwhile I did some research. Look at

http://www.palais-jalta.de/geschichte.htm

There you can see the familiar face. His exposition at Palais Jalta is mentioned on the page I cited above. His age fits as well.

Rama was active during the anti-Communist revolution, the Academy of Arts being a political centre. Rama got disappointed in the Democrat Party because of its corruptedness. He criticized Berisha's regime a lot abroad. In 1997 the security agents beat Rama almost dead. After long recovery he emigrated to Paris. When he went to his father funeral in 1998, Fatos Nano called him into his government. --Andres

I am surprised, but I guess it is the same person. Do you want to add the additional info? Dori 00:55, 12 Aug 2003 (UTC)

OK, I am going to do this.

One more thing. The Academy of Arts of Tirana (formerly Higher Institute of Arts of Tirana) is not part of the University of Tirana (you do not mention it too) and I think never has been. Andres

Yes, that's probably right. Dori 13:31, 12 Aug 2003 (UTC)

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I have added three news articles about him, but I don't know if that is too much, especially considering that the article should be in NPOV and those articles have more praises than criticisms for Edi Rama. Dori 16:07, Oct 25, 2003 (UTC)

I think that's OK. But perhaps we should look whether the articles add something new, and add that to text, and then the articles would be redundant.

For instance, the first article told me nothing new except that his father used to be an official sculptor. Besides, there are other details that add colourite but are not easy to be included to the main text, as surrounding himself with young, beautiful, but clever women etc. And that was familiar from earlier articles.

As to the NPOV, I am more concerned about that the reports of his beating and his assassination attempt are his own interpretation, and his attitude towards Berisha was carried over to this article. Even if we share this attitude that probably isn't NPOV. However, perhaps it's better to let this alone until someone comes and disputes that.

That he was beaten by Berisha's secret police is not confirmed, it is his own opinion, though it sounds plausible, and this is why I included this to the article. But as to the assassination attempt, I found the story too obscure, and this is why I didn't include it to my first edit. Andres 04:42, 27 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I think the shooting at his home did happen, but it is not known who or why they did it. Dori

Yes. It is not sure it was an assassination attempt. Andres 23:44, 27 Oct 2003 (UTC)

If there are no articles criticizing Rama, this is no reason for leaving these articles out. I read them, and they are not redundant though different articles tend to say the same. However I think the best would be to include to the Wikipedia article as much information as possible. Andres 04:57, 27 Oct 2003 (UTC)

None of the articles mention corruption though. In Tirana there are only a few construction companies (sort of an oligopoly) and nothing happens without the government officials' approval. In exchange they get kickbacks. I have heard of constructors having to give up an entire floor of their building to officials (as personal property). Edi Rama as the mayor would surely be involved, yet none of the articles mention this. I couldn't find any info to back up these allegations though. I agree that the articles mostly repeated information, but they each had one or two things that the other ones did not have. Dori 14:01, Oct 27, 2003 (UTC)

You mean you only have oral information about corruption? What about his political opponents, and Albanian media? Are there any specific cases? Indeed it is difficult to write more that there are corruption allegations. This is what I read somewhere in the Internet but don't remember where. OK, I'll try to do some research and make the article more specific. Andres 23:44, 27 Oct 2003 (UTC)

POV sentance?

I removed the following sentance, "He has tried many radical ideas to improve the city and is a person who is not afraid to speak his mind which has led to some heated debates with other city officials and citizens." from first paragraph of the article. It seemed sort of POV; assuming he is known for this, maybe a more NPOV version would be "He has tried many radical ideas to improve the city and is well known for his frankness, which has led to some heated debates with other city officials and citizens." Or is another word better? Feel free to reinsert the sentance if you don't think it's POV. JesseW 01:16, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)