Prime Minister Edi Rama’s remarks at opening ceremony of the TUMO Centre for Creative Technologies at Air Albania stadium:

 

First of all, allow me to greet our friends from the United States and you may be comforted by the fact that at this interesting stage of our life we are on the same boat, since neither we Albanians, nor you the Americans are allowed to travel to the European Union member states, as the EU has closed it borders to both American and Albanian visitors to protect themselves from the infection we may export to the EU. So this is a consolation, humble as it may sound, even though I would have been very happy today, when a long-standing idea is finalized, if our active partner in this endeavour to make Albania better and friend as well Michael Granoff was to attend this ceremony here together with his all colleagues in the Board of the Albanian-American Development Foundation, who since the very beginning has been willing to listen to us, ready to try to understand us and above all, willing to build success stories with us.

This is a beautiful success story, this time in favour of those who are the most vulnerable in our society in terms of the opportunities the country’s infrastructure and our cities’ infrastructure offers, and I mean children. 

And I can say this from not very positive personal experience as the father of a 6-year-old son and this is the reason why we are working to go beyond schools, beyond kindergartens, beyond nurseries and beyond neighbourhood parks and playgrounds, which have been a must and are a basic necessity across communities and to offer children new addresses, new opportunities in a new era. Otherwise all of us, the parents or all older siblings than the younger ones would be held accountable for a serious guilt, so to say, that in the absence of other alternatives we lend iphones to them.  They are actually much more adept than anyone of us at using the iphone and any other touch screen technologies. We often marvel at their adeptness and skilful use of this technology, yet in the meantime we make a mistake that can be considered blameworthy when it comes to their future.

With every one of us as parents face the huge dilemma what we should really do and how to succeed without harming the children’s beautiful mind, their imagination and without hurting their future by making the uncontrolled access, the unpredictable access to technology easier, TUMO comes as a kind of God blessing.

TUMO is an extraordinary product and creation of minds that in a remote country we do not happen to often hear about, Armenia, have gone beyond anxiety, beyond dilemmas and dared to create a space that connects children with technology and is designed to provide them the tools needed to develop, tools to understand technology almost physically and to make it part of their whole process of imagining and interacting with the world.

However, this blessing from God would certainly be impossible to turn into a reality that today is actually ready to welcome the first 1.000 children, if it were not for the fantastic TUMO creators and if there was not a bridge of friendship between Tirana and the TUMO creators, as well as a bridge of partnership, but also a bridge of love for this country, which is the Albanian-American Foundation.

It is actually a non-profit Foundation and I know pretty well what it takes for Michael Granoff to secure the funding. It is not that they do not have money, but their greatest value is that they primarily believe thinking and then they stick to the principle that it is not all about having money, but having the right idea. Then when it comes to money, they give it with one hand and they want you to pay back with the other, then someone else comes in, but this is a story in itself, it is the way they work.

The most important thing is that apart from their money and in addition to their knowhow, those who today keep this bridge intact and increasingly stronger, from Michael to the Albanian guys here, Michael has become an Albanian, while these guys are Americanized. This is for them a kind of an inner conflict that I do not want to intervene. They have a strong sense of connection to this county and a sense of belonging and love for the work they do.  It makes things always great or always pinpointed, as we call it – I’m convinced the interpreter is going to make a scandal now and I do not know how this pinpointing word will sound to Michael, but you know what I mean – and always be inspiring to move further forward. 

I would make an optimistic prediction, though maybe a wrong one, but I do not think this centre here will ever be closed. I think that this center here will remain open and another will open soon Tirana that will become the first city to host TUMO 1 and TUMO 2 centre, because I am absolutely sure that the demand will be exponential. It will be impossible for what will be built here and what connections will be made here to take everything away and move it as if moving into a bigger house, while the need for space, the need to do more will increase and Michael will certainly become the first to say, look, let’s not close it, therefore, if you give a few more money, this will be an ideal solution for everyone.

However, it does not matter how much money the Foundation provides, how much the government and the municipality allocate. We work as single body in whole this process and this is the best part of it, because the Foundation helps us to overcome several barriers that otherwise, when the project takes place only within the walls of the state, only within the walls of the government, the municipality, or both together, seem insurmountable. So it gives us the opportunity to think “out of the box.”

I am convinced that together we will do something fantastic with the Pyramid too. And I am also convinced that if today, thanks to this successful interaction Tirana is as far as I understand the third capital outside Armenia to host a TUMO centre, after Paris and Berlin, we are not in bad company in this case, we are in pretty good company, then it will be the first capital to host TUMO 1 and TUMO 2 centres.

I was very pleased that one of the TUMO creators, while speaking in a distance, said he liked this centre a lot, though I don’t know whether he has looked at this space closely in person. I like it even more because it is for me a kind of retaliation against all of those who used to describe reconstruction of the former Qemal Stafa stadium from scratch a scandalous decision. This is somehow also a kind of retaliation against all of those that the stadium is being rebuilt to serve as shopping mall, against all of those who spared no remarks to claim that the stadium’s steps would become completely useless and not only that, they would also have a considerable ecological impact on the area because of the acids due to evaporate and emitting into the atmosphere all the debaucheries and loos conduct of the citizens in the late night here. But no, it is a fantastic space. Upon entering here, I even honestly thought they were mirrors reflecting the space further and only when i saw, maybe it was the girl here who entered the mirror and I said this is either a technological trick or the space is infinite. The space is infinite indeed.

I would sincerely like to thank everyone for this beautiful moment. I felt somehow hesitant at first when I saw the allowed age to enter sign, it is under or Zaho is under the allowed age to enter and we will still have to wait, but I am extremely happy that first 1000 children will have the opportunity to enter this magical world and be privileged to have in their hands the same devices used by their peers in Berlin and Paris. The TUMO location history – I am sorry, Moscow also hosts TUMO, I didn’t forget it for geostrategic reasons, Michael, sorry, fantastic capital – is that TUMO is not expanding everywhere like a market chain to sell cheese or sell cheese and sell everyday consumer goods, but it is a strategy and a vision. 

I am extremely happy that by opening this centre, we also open another page in the chapter for children, to which we want to add more pages. We definitely want to give the kids finally, oh God every time I remember, the Zoo Park and indeed the work has been difficult and complex regarding the Zoo Park, but, finally, now things are in the right direction and the construction site there now is operational. Give children a worthy puppet theatre and a worthy children’s theatre.  Let’s give children a children city along the New Boulevard, as we discussed and already decided together with Tirana Mayor. In this way, we will expand to other cities across the country, because we really all have alternative addresses. We want everyone to have the opportunity to go to the theatre after work, have the opportunity to go to a restaurant and be out of the city and off on an ace day trips. Students, elderly and children share all the same opportunity. So we need to increase this dimension for children. This is an extraordinary cornerstone that raises the stakes high indeed, but we are not afraid of challenges and we are convinced that thanks to the Albanian-American Foundation, thanks to others who will surely join us along the way, we will be able to be back together, to celebrate new ones for the kids.

Thank you everybody. A very special thanks to the man who transformed this area of ​​Tirana into such an attractive place externally and now internally, the man who is here in this hall and thank you all those available via Zoom program, a part of the staff have come to contribute here to take on this so beautiful, so difficult challenge, but also so identified with the word future.