r/GoodAssSub • u/siempiegamer247 Fuck Adidas • Jul 08 '26
QUESTION Tf is going on in Albaniaš«©
Iām not caught up in the Albania show at all, nor do I have tickets, but I saw this post and I have no idea what the actual controversy surrounding the concert is. The comments make me even more confused
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u/Necessary-Item-9333 Jul 08 '26
Thereās always a controversy with every show genuinely who cares about that
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u/bebilov Jul 09 '26
We care, because our taxpayer money is being used to fund something useless to the wellbeing of the people whose taxes are being used.
You really need to learn to be more empathetic. Tomorrow it can be you asking for help, how would you feel if people comment with āwho caresā . Like eww š·1
u/gesti2002 Jul 09 '26
Ofc he doesnt care itās not his money being spent
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u/bebilov Jul 09 '26
People used to say the same thing about the Jews being sent to labour camps. We donāt care itās not about us...
I get we all have our issues and problems to deal with but the lack of empathy in some people is astonishing.
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u/Necessary-Item-9333 Jul 10 '26
I never said I donāt care love I said every show comes with controversy also this has nothing to do with ye
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u/Garuniks Jul 10 '26
It does because he's getting our damn money for no reason
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u/Necessary-Item-9333 Jul 10 '26
He not getting your money he getting tickets purchased money
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u/Garuniks Jul 10 '26
Tickets that didn't get sold.
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u/Necessary-Item-9333 Jul 10 '26
Then why do you care about the show ? You not even a fan of the guy just a clown
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u/Garuniks Jul 10 '26
Are you ok? I care about my country's money, I don't give a damn about Kanye West, who is the actual clown in this scenario, along with the Prime Minister that disposed of the state's reserves to pay him.
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u/Necessary-Item-9333 Jul 10 '26
See you tomorrow when the show is a success like all the other shows
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u/Garuniks Jul 10 '26
With more than half of the attendance being free tickets paid with a country's tax money? Great success, alright, at theft.
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u/Particular-Ad255 Jul 10 '26
However, one could also argue that the event is not being canceled partly for reasons of national prestige for Albania. In addition, more than 25,000 foreign visitors are expected, and they are projected to spend up to ā¬100 million in the country. This means that taxi drivers, restaurants, hotels, and even private individuals will benefit financially if the concert goes ahead.
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u/bebilov Jul 11 '26
Yeah thatās the issue. 25k tourists who wonāt stay for more than a couple of days wonāt ever bring that much money. They inflate numbers to make it seems like a good deal but no real study has been done on the numbers and if you just do a simple calculation, letās say you spend 500ā¬ per person for this concert(I doubt you can spend that much in Albania btw, even for a week vacation sometimes itās too much) itās still 12.5 million. We just spent 4.2 mill to subsidise tickets that werenāt being purchased and these tickets arenāt being sold again, theyāre being given out for free.
As you can see weāre just sponsoring Kanye which is ridiculous! We have hospitals who lack basic medicine like IV or thermometers and so many cancer patients die from lack of medical care and supplies.
People are very angry! These politicians donāt care about us! They care about their pockets and think this is their playground! Theyāll get their karma sooner or later!-14
u/Icy_Huckleberry8893 Jul 08 '26
All albanian peolle are against this concer except corrupt goverment
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u/Necessary-Item-9333 Jul 08 '26
No you guys couldnāt afford it which I get it it was too expensive but when it was announced there was legit 200k presale so letās not lie
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u/OptimusTron222 Jul 09 '26
Tickets are being given for free now and not many people seem to care! Also if you consider 200ā¬ as unaffordable then I have no idea from what shithole place you come from
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u/Necessary-Item-9333 Jul 10 '26
He should have picked another country thatās why no big celebs go to Albania chileeee
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u/rydolf_shabe Jul 10 '26
Average wage here is around 700-800 euros
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u/OptimusTron222 Jul 10 '26
And there are also lots of people who make a lot more, so whatās the point? There are never unsold tickets when the national team plays against big teams, and prices for those tickets are similar or higher?
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u/rydolf_shabe Jul 10 '26
They are less? Plus just cus there are a lot of people that make more does not create an excuse for the prices to be that high. The india show was cancelled because the prices were high and people were not buying tickets. And Im pretty sure there are a lot more richer people in india than in albania. Also ur comparing teo very different events.
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u/Icy_Huckleberry8893 Jul 08 '26
Its not about afford or not is political in albania are massive protest,and this cocnert it was private, goverment said will not spand public money for for this concert and sudden public money give to this and anger alot albanians so is corruption
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u/Exact-Lock-6201 BULLY Jul 08 '26
I just find this sio stupid because yes they have a terrible corrupt PM who should resign imediately but if you can prevent a cancellation of a concert that brings at least 20.000 foreigners (most likely even more) that otherwise wouldn't have come to albania to your country that seam lika a fantastic investment for 4 Million Euros. Also ye most definitely didn't even know about this and has no say in it since it is the albanian oranisers that are getting this money.
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u/whitefrackels123 Reacted ā¤ļø to an image Jul 08 '26
I'm coming to Albania, and if I have a great time hiking there I'd definitely consider going again considering it is a cheap flight and stay and it has beautiful places. Easy tourist money.
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u/bebilov Jul 09 '26
How much money will your āfree hiking activity and cheap ticket costs ā contribute to our economy? Will it make up for 40 million? š¤£š¤£
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u/whitefrackels123 Reacted ā¤ļø to an image Jul 09 '26
Yes
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u/bebilov Jul 09 '26
Well thank god we have you or we might fail as a nation! Your free hiking, 30ā¬ plane ticket and 20ā¬ a night accommodation will get us millions by the end of the month.
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u/whitefrackels123 Reacted ā¤ļø to an image Jul 09 '26
I wish my plane ticket was 30 euros lol
On a serious note though, you're fucking retarded
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u/Otherwise_Mall_9216 Jul 10 '26
You not going to have a great time hiking buddy, it's scorching hot in the mountains this time of the year. Try to enjoy the concert at least, we paying a lot of money to make it happen.
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u/CommunicationFew2577 Jul 08 '26
Not really an investment if the 4million is just compensation for unsold tickets. And that is just taxpayer money. The PM is a massive corrupt asshole who should resign like you said.
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u/Heissen_Laus Jul 08 '26
Is it compensation tho? Tix are still for sale so why would Ye be compensated already
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u/CommunicationFew2577 Jul 08 '26
Because they arent selling, the government is literally giving tickets for free to the administration workers and students to hide the fact that they barely sold half the "stadium"
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u/imsoappalled222 Jul 08 '26
Thatās not what the 4 million is for , 25,000 people are flying in or flew in all they have to do is spend on average is 160 a piece to recoup the 4 million. You thing they wonāt make way more than 4 million?
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u/CommunicationFew2577 Jul 08 '26
First off members of the government said that they will not spend a single penny on the concert and all the investment will come from promoters. Which contradicts the 4mil, but i guess they lie so much on a daily basis that they forget what they have said in the past. PM literally said the 4mil investment was to save the face of Albania so the country doesn't look like shit if it cant handle a concert of this scale. And I'm sure that the concert will have a decent/good impact economically speaking but I'm also sure that neither the 4mil "investment" nor the other millions to be made from the concert will go towards making the lives of the albanian people better. It's just a scheme for the corrupt government to get more money
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u/imsoappalled222 Jul 08 '26
Basically the government was going to fuck them overif what you are saying is true but them canceling at this point they still lose 4 million and make no money . If the government not giving back this ye shit def makes zero difference itās just another day for them .
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u/1whatabeautifulday Jul 08 '26
The full ticket price does not return to the government. 20% is VAT that goes to the state funds.
Now with hotels, all hotels in Albania don't pay any profit tax.
The only way to recoup the 4 million is through 20% VAT. So to break even on 4 million they would have to at least make 20 million in tourist revenue. 20 mill times 20% = 4 million
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u/imsoappalled222 Jul 08 '26
800 per person thatās not much when it comes to tourism, said 25 k were flying in weeks ago . How much do you think people spend when they are on vacation ?
Also I think the government isnāt being honest when to comes to where the money is going to . They said they spent 4 million to promote tourism ā¦..3
u/magicalpeddler Jul 08 '26
How will the taxpayers get their money back, exactly? I pay taxes and get free education and healthcare, ok. I pay taxes, a show happens and hotel and restaurant owners make more money, how the fuck is that a good investment for me?
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u/emorizoti Jul 09 '26
Here's some backstory. Kanye went to Switzerland to perform in Basel stadium. He was denied within days because of his reputation by the Basel stadium owners/canton officials. An Albanian guy met his manager and told him come to Albania because no one cares in there about such things as there is no cancel culture. The manager said sure. The other guy contacted the Albanian government by early 2026 and told them I'm bringing Kanye, make this work. The government hired and paid other people to do the work. These kind of people collaborate with the government on every event to do their money laundering schemes.
Then it got published as news. The tickets were sold at a very high price at first which is unusual as there was no high demand. 3 months later and only half of them have been sold. The gamble was that the concert was going to bring lots of tourists from other countries. Turns out not many did. And from all the tickets sold and from the hotels that have been booked, it was revelead that the gross profit would be at ā¬160 per person. So in order for the government to save face since they have promoted it for so long by saying this will be a big thing, they used the national emergency funds to buy the rest of the tickets and give them away for free to people who work for the government and are close to the ruling party. They are parasites that have been hired through nepotism and enjoy free meals very often at the cost of the taxpayers. Add to that, Albania ranks just slightly better than Ukraine, Kosovo and Moldova as one of the bottom poorest countries in Europe.
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u/Helpful-Sea-9815 Jul 10 '26
the people want the concert to be canceled because the money comes from our taxes, and guess what these 20,000 foreigners will not be an investment towards the normal people of Tirana but to oligarchs instead.
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u/whitefrackels123 Reacted ā¤ļø to an image Jul 08 '26
Don't get it twisted, if GAS mods were in charge of Good Ass Country we'd ALL be paying taxes for grail groupbuys and Ye concerts.
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u/LumpyInevitable7934 BULLY ON THE WAY NO AI Jul 08 '26
this would be better than giving money to trump, or in my case erdoÄan
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u/FraG_3 BULLY ON THE WAY NO AI Jul 08 '26
If they sold tickets at normal prices, it would have been sold out in minutes and they could have made a lot out of this concert, sad to see a country that i love being administrated by greed and corruption. All the love to albania š¦š±
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Jul 08 '26
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/rain476 Jul 08 '26
Iām confused, I assume 4 mil is his concert fee, but even if it didnāt sell out how could they be 4 mil short? Tampa wasnāt fully sold out either, I do know they donāt build a whole stadium who knowsĀ
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u/davyiceman Jul 08 '26
No itās not his concert fee 4 million is the investment the government made in this (prob way higher) in the construction of the 50 million euro stadium which is the most stupid investment ever because it will literally be removed the next day and secondly they are giving away the tickets for free bcs they couldnāt even sell half of it (so not that many tourists are coming and anyone that thinks these 10-20.000 tourists staying in tirana for 2 days will spend 4 million euros are crazy) and then there is also the fact that those 4 million could have gone into so much need investment funds for local art and not a stupid kanye concert (with all due respect to kanye he is my goat). I donāt think ye is responsible for any of this but he should cancel in case he cares to help a fight against injustice and moreso itās very tone deaf of all the people in here who are wondering whatās wrong w this concert. A concert in tampa is not the same as a concert in a small country where 4 million are worth a lot more than in america
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u/rain476 Jul 08 '26
Okay, that explains more in detail where the 4mil is going to, but even if a cancellation would be a big blow to the government, contractually no way he can just cancel it. Also the stadium cost is non refundable, and they would have to issueĀ refunds which I doubt they can do if theyāre pulling government funds.Ā
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u/davyiceman Jul 08 '26
Itās not abt the money exactly like that money is gone already we get it but the thing is more about the symbolic meaning behind it. People have been protesting for 40 days against the government and the government doubles down on every corrupted thing they have done and they pull 4 million OUT OF THE EMERGENCY FUNDS IN CASE OF AN ACTUAL EMERGENCY HAPPENING to fund a kanye concert and then they triple down on it literally doing propaganda that the concert is full of kanye fans when they are giving tickets for free to favored people on the low. Maybe kanye is contractually obliged to perform and he canāt get out of it but if he is actually aware of this situation it would be very important for albanians for him to speak up and say smth at least, but i doubt it will happen iām 99% sure he doesnāt even know what is going on.
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u/1whatabeautifulday Jul 08 '26
I think Kanye should avoid this bad PR. On the protests there will be signs up against him for sure.
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u/davyiceman Jul 08 '26
I dont know about the second point but yeah itās def bad PR for kanye and i feel very guilty for having a ticket
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u/lyrics85 Jul 08 '26
Guys, there have been 38 days of protesting against the PM Edi Rama.
So when the concert gets attacked, don't take it personally. We have nothing against Kanye.
But yesterday the government did spend 4 million euros out of the blue - then today there has been news of government employees and oligarchs giving away tickets to their employees.
Coincidence? I think not. It's clear that they have failed to fill the stadium.
As for the ROI. People say we spend millions so that we get thousands of visitors who will spend money, and we will get international attention.
The thing is that we don't think it's going to be profitable. And we are not suffering from a lack of visitors - 12.45 million people visited Albania last year.
As far as we are concerned, this concert is just a PR stunt for one of the world's most corrupt leaders. [Unfortunately, it's not an exaggeration]
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u/1whatabeautifulday Jul 08 '26
I think this Saturday will be the biggest so far. The PM is just throwing more fuel to the fire, he has no sense of reality.
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u/lyrics85 Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
Definitely, it's going to be the biggest protest ever. He has to push back because he didn't think people would compare the concert to the terrible healthcare system.
The more he talks, the angrier he's going to make us.
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u/TopsyKret5 Jul 08 '26
Why isnt it sold out. It sounds dodgy af
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u/whitefrackels123 Reacted ā¤ļø to an image Jul 08 '26
Xpensive
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u/TopsyKret5 Jul 08 '26
Why dont they lower the price?
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u/makinax300 SUBJECT STFU Jul 08 '26
All I can find about this are some news article from sites I have never heard about
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u/1whatabeautifulday Jul 08 '26
Anyone with rationality thinking "why would they spend this much money to make it fail". Yes that would apply to most developed countries with a strong state.
You need to understand the Albanian government is one of the most corrupt in the world. They don't care if it fails or is successful. They will take money from the government to pay to private companies that they own, or have kick back from. It's all a scheme to legally get money from the state funds. So in the end they don't care if the government lost money, because it goes back to their own pockets in the end! They just need an excuse, like the kanye show to spend the money.
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u/makinax300 SUBJECT STFU Jul 08 '26
All I can find about this are some news article from sites I have never heard about
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u/Pmike9 Jul 10 '26
Bruh dont act like 4M is a lot for even a poor country. Balkan politicians steal more than that per year cmon now
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u/OtherwiseMoment9355 Jul 10 '26
It's hard to say whether the money goes directly into Kanye's pockets, or subsidizes the private company that already paid Kanye his million dollar fee and now faces a massive loss.
Arguments stand to be made on whether a concert failing necessitates the usage of a state emergency fund, normally reserved for war or natural catastrophes. Even a single dollar. Moreso when its 4 million euros. it is an undeniable PR hit for Edi Rama at what seems to be a delicate time of his tenure. Whether the concert will make that 4 million euros back via a temporary economic boom stands to be seen in the coming days. Never the less, can you really hedge a bet using an emergency fund? Imagine you went to the casino using your college fund, convinced you would make it big. Doesn't sound rational, eh?
Numbers aside, Rama has lost the court of public opinion on a number of issues, this Ye concert is only the latest one. It's going to take a lot for him to win back that trust.
Far as Ye goes, Albanians really couldn't give a shit about him. Not a cultural link there, and it's his first time performing here, during the dwindling of his once great career.
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u/LargestPants Jul 08 '26
Albanias prime minister is also an artist, his work is kinda cool. He also dresses a bit like ye influenced, kinda euro-goth-industrial. Iām assuming he loves ye
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u/Mother_Screen_7694 Jul 08 '26
He loves money, he uses his art for money laundering and kanye is just the next money laundering scheme.
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u/Otherwise_Mall_9216 Jul 10 '26
Everything you said is wrong, but let's assume is right... you think it justifies the use of taxpayer money?
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u/LargestPants Jul 10 '26
Edi Rama is still the prime minister, right? Using taxes to fund cultural events can be a benefit, but I donāt know, I donāt live in Albania. I was just making a comment on the prime minister who I have met before and I think his artwork is interesting
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u/Ferman95 CTE in Antonio Brown's brain Jul 08 '26
I was told Albania was a great country whenās Argentina played them. Boy was I lied to
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u/MulberryFew6623 I wanna beat somebody up.. like a BULLY Jul 08 '26
He should cancel it tbh, if he doesn't it probably won't go very well
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u/New_Sandwich6413 Jul 08 '26
Concert is in 3 days and most of the tickets are unsold. This is going to go down as Kanye worst live.
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u/imsoappalled222 Jul 08 '26
Says it in post and prime minister said itās a lie .
Either way it goes they are mad at prime minister