Prime Minister Edi Rama today was welcomed at the Georgetown University campus in Washington. The Premier was honoured by the University’s official staff in recognition of his government’s work to welcome, shelter and provide safe harbour and assistance to more than 2000 Afghan refugees fleeing the Taliban.
“Albania was one of the first countries to open doors to the Afghan evacuees. We have the privilege to recognize the Prime Minister’s merit for the continued efforts in support of Afghan refugees and to welcome 2,000 of them, demonstrating significant commitment to our global community,” a Georgetown University official said as he welcomed Prime Minister Rama on behalf of the Georgetown community. During the ceremony, PM Rama was presented with a special award in recognition and gratitude for his contribution.
* * *
I feel very humbled by all this and honestly I was taken by surprise because no one had told me I would be presented with such a wonderful recognition, this amazing bird.
Those in politics usually fear the events and the events are usually not welcomed. So, having events like this is something I very much welcome and it is something quite rare. So, I would like to thank you and also express my gratitude for that, and in the meantime I have to honestly acknowledge that I feel a sense of embarrassment anytime I come across such laudable and admirable remarks about what we have done regarding the Afghan refugees, Afghan women and Afghan activists, because what is so special should have actually been the norm for everyone. It is sad that a tiny country like Albania is so highly commended and lauded after others, much bigger, more powerful and wealthier nations walked away from the plight of people in Afghanistan, who faced imminent death threat just because they trusted us just, because they followed us, just because they worked with us, with the whole NATO community and just because they dreamed of a different future for their country, backed by our promises and encouraged by our support, all of a sudden it all disappeared and many others disappeared together with it, but we could not do so. We feel more than honoured to have had the opportunity to help as many Afghans as we could, just as we were provided help when we were “the Afghans” fleeing our own country in a bid to find a better future along the way, fleeing a rather savage regime, which was not founded as a fundamentalist regime, but which relied on the most ruthless form of atheism.
My presence today in this temple of the academic world in my capacity as a painter who has never been an academician and never had the chance to be part of this world, even though I used to work as a lecturer at the Academy of Arts, something extraordinary, but in the meantime makes me think how much that regime suppressed the faith, the right to believe, and how much suffering it caused to the Catholic community just because it represented the most direct connection to the “degenerated West.”
On the other hand, I feel quite humbled at hearing all the praise from the women community in this outstanding network of very brave and courageous women in this country, who are so influential on women’s rights, about women who need to be protected and I have to say that the choice to have a government with more women than men, is not for the fact that I am a genuinely democratic man, but I have realized that women are better than men and are better in doing work. I believe we need more women because men are good at talking; women are good at doing things. This is something I have learned from experience; I have heard it before from Margaret Thatcher who said: “’If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman,” even though she never had another woman in her cabinet.
Concluding, I would like to add that I am a Catholic, and my wife is a Muslim. Our two children, the oldest, from previous marriages are Orthodox. We have a little one, who may decide to convert into a Jew and it’s up to him to make the decision, but I highlighted this example simply because I think this is Albania’s most beautiful heritage and we should further celebrate it and make sure that our children will follow in the footsteps of our ancestors, who saved the Jews and made Albania the only European country with a higher number of Jews after World War II than before it and they were mostly Muslims, who provided shelter to the Jews.
Then they opened doors to half a million Kosovo refugees fleeing ethnic cleansing. Half a million people sought shelter in small Albania, but here we are. We survived and got richer culturally and morally. Subsequently, the MEK members, the Iranians to whom we provided shelter, saved them from the atrocities they faced in Camp Liberty in Iraq due to the malicious activity of the Ayatollah’s regime and now with the Afghans.
It’s all a great treasure, a treasure we want to make sure it is celebrated by future generations and for those people, many people who have asked me why we did it, I answer you and keep answering you, because these are us we want them to be our children. We are not rich and maybe that is why we don’t have a short memory, so I am very proud that Albania could do it, and, once again, I consider this as something I should not personally be credited for, but the Albanian people because it was a political decision, but at the same time it was a decision, which was fully accepted by the vast majority of people and was a decision that was not politically opposed by anyone. We in Albania face not an easy political life, even though it seemingly feels somehow better right now, because we have seen that politics has become difficult in the U.S. and elsewhere too, so now you are part of a big club but we may not fall also agree on what time it is. Well, guess it, when it came to sheltering Afghans we faced no disputes and this is really a very nice thing, I am proud of it and I think that this sign of gratitude, every good word for Albania is fully deserved, not for me personally, but for all the Albanian people, for all the political parties, for all the representatives of Albania because none of them spoke up to say “no” and yes, they are with us. We were initially told that they would be sheltered temporally, for a few months only. Frankly speaking, I didn’t believe it and I told our American friends: don’t promise this, because we know how it works with you. When it’s not in the news, it almost does not exist.
We have no problem with that as they can stay as long as they wish to, but, hopefully, they will obtain visas to come to the US one day, but if they decide not to do so, they are welcome to stay in our country and stay with us because they are wonderful people.
We understand each other very well, even though we speak completely different languages. It’s our history, it’s our way of existence, it’s our pain we share, as well as our very strong will to build a future that makes us quite close as human beings and after all, it all has to do with human beings.
Thank you!
