What Albania's Protesters Want Travelers to Understand

Perhaps the most relatable thing Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner ever did was to marvel at the unspoiled beauty of Albania and wonder, “How is it possible that not everyone is here right now?” But where most people would then text their friends or maybe post on social media, President Trump’s son-in-law gathered a group of investors to buy an uninhabited island. That the former military base sat within an environmentally protected area was a non-issue for them, thanks to recent laws granting foreign-backed luxury tourism investments special exemptions. In May, when fences went up on the fragile wetlands and bulldozers arrived on Sazan Island, residents of the nearby town of Zvërnec in the south of Albania protested, using one of the region’s beloved species as their symbol. “The Flamingo Revolution” quickly spread to the capital, where the nightly, peaceful demonstrations in Tirana are now in their third month. The pictures and cutouts of the symbolic birds stand tall, bright, and pink, as signs declare “Albania is not for sale,” the simplest distillation of the protestors’ demands. Protestors gather in front of the Albanian Prime Minister's office to demonstrate