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by totetsu 2 days ago
I wonder how many more things like this are happening under the radar around the world
3 comments

Every time you hear about some corpo or another getting to "play a role in the development of $nation" it's pretty much always going to be some kind of bullshit that will employ a lot of locals for shit wages to provide a product or service to residents of the Global North.

There are exceptions of course but the vast, vast, vast majority are tourist trapping and wealth extraction.

The article says: "If it was not Jared, they would not give a shit about what is happening in Albania," Rama said."
Oh, this Rama?

> 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.

Jared or some of the other White House insiders trying to offshore their recent financial gains.
This is hardly under the radar, it’s all over the news.
They mean an attempt like this, but one that they manage to keep quiet and out of the press.
I wonder, if I asked the next dozen people I meet, whether they would have any idea about this.
The only people this is relevant to are Albanians. I don't expect an Albanian to know about data centers being built in Texas. Hell, I don't expect Michiganders to know about them.
> The only people this is relevant to are Albanians.

That's a short-sighted view. Nature destruction is relevant to people everywhere. The locals might not even care much (unlike in this case, fortunately).

What if this construction project would wipe out animal species x, y or z? That's a permanent, irreversible loss for the world as a whole.

What if some species loses its breeding ground, decimating a population elsewhere? Or takes out a stop halfway a migration route?

Destruction of nature always has 2nd order effects. Don't ignore just because you don't live there.