Ivanka and Jared Kushner have triggered a revolt in Albania with a planned 10,000 room luxury sea-side complex on a wildlife site. The ‘flamingo revolution’ is rapidly widening since bulldozers began clearing clusters of forest and ancient dunes which are important habitats for flamingos, monk seals and loggerhead sea turtles, a major migratory route for hundreds of rare birds and more than 70 endangered species. It has turned into defiance against the establishment and perceived excesses of “a rotten oligarchic class” just as Albania hopes to complete accession talks with the EU.
Albania remains one of Europe’s poorest after a chaotic transition from repressive Stalinist rule but to date has no tradition of civic unrest.
Edi Rama, the four-term prime minister, is a politician, artist, writer, and former professional basketball player. During his tenure, Albania has seen economic growth and judicial reform, but there has been sustained criticism over democratic backsliding, corruption, public procurement, media freedom, and the concentration of political power around the ruling Socialist Party. Various sources have described his rule as autocratic. He argues that the €1.4bn investment is vital if Albania is to become the Mediterranean’s “most attractive high-end tourist destination”.
Born 4 July 1964, only a few days after UK former PM Boris Johnson he is a Sun Cancer with the same chaotic, hair-trigger impulsiveness from Uranus Pluto in Virgo opposition Saturn square Mars in Gemini. He will be rattled, more so from July 7th onwards for several years ahead as tr Uranus starts to move in hard aspect to his Mutable T square which hints at a hair-raising and turbulent time ahead. He looks blocked in at the moment with his Solar Arc Sun conjunct his Pluto.
His Term chart, 11 September 2013, does not necessarily indicate a departure instantly but it will be a time of high anxiety, slippery words and increasing tension over coming years.
Albania, 28 November 1912 10.42am Valona, has a Sagittarius Sun conjunct Mars in late Scorpio opposition Saturn, so is used to hardship but could have a short fuse. There is a can-be-fanatical, independent-minded Uranus in the 1st opposition Neptune Moon and a confident Jupiter Mercury opposition Pluto. It is a chart with a good deal of potential which has clearly been untapped before now.
What is intriguing is that both Ivanka and Jared Kushner have their Uranus in Scorpio conjunct Albania’s Mars setting off an explosive crisis. Ivanka’s Mars in Virgo is also in an inflammatory square to the Albania Sun; with Jared’s super-determined Mars in Aquarius falling in the Albania 1st house – all designed to light the touch paper. It looks a sticky path ahead with a few bends in the road between the happy Trump couple and Albania over the next few years.
Shades of the Gaza Riviera, which was Jared’s last bright thought. Utterly no shame.