181–190 of 247 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
such a stark contrast with all the hysteria over foreign tourists avoiding the US due to Trump that was posted here a few days ago. "Oh noes Trump is destroying the tourist economy!!!" vs. "only a few maids salary to clean up the tourist's shit"
Do you unironically think that all tourism is resort tourism?
I wonder how many more things like this are happening under the radar around the world
The article says: "If it was not Jared, they would not give a shit about what is happening in Albania," Rama said."
> Rama, a long-time friend of the Trump and Kushner families
> The protests, which civil society and international media have called the Flamingo Revolution, have grown well past their environmental starting point into a challenge to Rama himself
(because of accusations he's bending regulations for Kushner that exist for other companies).
> On 30 December 2024, a Strategic Investment Committee chaired by Rama granted strategic investor status to Atlantic Incubation Partners, a firm affiliated with Kushner's Affinity Partners ... Reuters, which saw the written decision, reported .... the terms include no tax during the construction phase while the Albanian state underwrites the water, electricity and sewage infrastructure.
Yeah, forgive me if I don't exactly see his opinion as unbiased.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
what about tax revenue ?
Tax revenue, local jobs, and the possiblity for entrepreneurs to build businesses around that possibility of tourists leaving the premise. With all that being said, I still think that overreliance on tourism is bad for a place in principle. Those places fossilize, the wealth of tourists overwhelmes local culture, it will create wrong incentives, draw in junk vendors, pick-pocketers, and AirBnB vultures making life mo…
The secret ingredient is always money. Spain looks the way it does because that country was desperate for foreign currency and jobs in the 60s and 70s. Economic development is hard and Albania does not have much going for it unfortunately.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you suggesting that immigrants are to blame for electing the current administration that's robbing them blind?
Most people in my social circles that do not feel the US is in an existential crisis are first generation immigrants. They see the checks and balances that we used to have, and assumed those structures would constrain the administration to mostly tow the line. On the one hand, it’s true they came from places with weaker institutions. On the other hand, they’re used to leaders that face real threats of coup, asset sei…
This island was a Russian naval base in the cold war with hundreds of underground nuclear bunkers. Kushner apparently wants to build a billionaire resort with the protections required to insulate billionaires from their actions. Maybe UAE is too dangerous now. Here is another article. Try not to be put off by the Rothchild connections, they are mostly irrelevant and based on Kushner's own statements: https://tomselli…
A billionaire resort with 10,000 hotel rooms...
[flagged]
If you've read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html , this is obviously not what this site is for, so please don't post like this.
If I were tasked to do it, the Albanian coast would be a top choice for me too; it has near perfect conditions for such an enterprise.
Don’t we discuss viruses, exploits, dark patterns, scammers and fraud when it comes to other things? Why would it be objectionable to call out the top civilization hackers and scammers and exploits? Everyone can talk about meaningless scams and exploits. Is there any bigger, worse exploit and hack than hacking a whole country and civilization and extracting trillions in sum?
[flagged]
This kind of talk used to be a lot more common in our grandparents' time. It's sad to see the best and the brightest of our times going back to it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This kind of talk used to be a lot more common in our grandparents' time. It's sad to see the best and the brightest of our times going back to it.
Your point is that the rhetoric of the late 1800s running into WWII was, by far, the worst thing that happened during that time period, just like now? I emphatically disagree. However, there was widespread vilification of cephalopods on all sides of multiple wars during that time period: https://neverwasmag.com/2017/08/the-octopus-in-political-car... (To be clear, I don’t hate any sea creatures.)
I simply don’t understand how American voters are fine with being robbed blind. Many countries have far more corrupt administrations than the current U.S. one, but even in the most degenerate ones none of them are as open about it. And it’s not just a political thing. Consider how the Chinese owned Smithfield’s is polluting lakes and land all over the Midwest with their highly intensive (and incredibly cruel) pig far…
Americans aren’t “fine with it.” Trump’s approval ratings are very low. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/trump-approval-stays...