Prime Minister Edi Rama’s remarks at ceremony celebrating 100th anniversary of Tirana as Albania’s capital:
I don’t recall the exact year, but I remember that the position of the European Union’s Ambassador to Albania had fallen vacant and back then I happened to meet the then EU diplomacy chief who said: “What is happening with Albania?”
I didn’t understand the question. “There is a number of vacancies for ambassadors and we have launched call for applications. There is a common average of 9 to ten applications for the position of the ambassador to the EU member states, while as many as 41 candidates have applied for the post of the EU ambassador in Tirana. What is that country? Why they want to serve in Tirana? Apart from that, there are current ambassadors, who are serving in high-level positions at very important embassies around the world, but they used also to serve in Tirana too and wish to return to Tirana.”
Who are they? – I asked. I can’t tell you that – said.
I happen to learn the name of one of them. I knew him. He used to serve as First Embassy Secretary in one of the biggest embassies in the wold and I sent him an e-mail. Is it true that you have applied to return to Tirana – I asked him? Yes, it is true, he replied. Once in Tirana, there is no continent good enough for you.
I can guess what many of those watching us now are thinking and what kind of insults are throwing now as they keep day and night saying this country is like hell, is not liveable and suffocated by concrete. But the truth is that this is a city that I have seen and witnessed for myself that in the eyes of all of those who visit it, this is a city where they would wish to come back to. Whole Albania is like this, but we are talking about Tirana today. And perhaps, those coming from the EU are tired of stricter rules and discipline, more standards and monotony. And most probably those coming from America are happier as they feel just like Pope when visiting Argentine. While others who think they are coming right at the heart of Europe, they perhaps find out a lot of things missing in Europe and things that remind them of their own countries.
100 years ago, Tirana was a very small city with a population of only 10, 000 people, although in the 20th century it featured four main streets only, like the ones known by names, Durres street, Kavaja, Dibra and Elbasan streets. It was built in a way like few other cities, by many hands that relied on each other by hook or by crook and laid their bricks, bringing different cultures, different visions, perceptions and ways of living with reality. It all started with the first institutions, the religious communities, and then Austrians came followed by the Italians, then the Communists followed by the freedom-seeking democrats, and finally Lali Eri came.
Throughout this long journey, Tirana was built like an eclectic city; a city that like no other around the world, or like few others so to say in order not make Tirana a unique city of the world although we can afford bragging about as we are celebrating the 100th anniversary and because Lal Eri likes exaggerating a bit.
What is worth thinking today is: Ok, right. This is what has been taking place over the past 100 years. But what is going to happen in the next 100 years? What would Tirana be after 100 years? If its population was just 10,000 people in the 19th century and the city is what it is today, how is going to be by the end of the 21st century?
It is a very difficult question to answer, but I believe that strategies, policies, and plans never prevent Tirana from being startling and eclectic. I can’t predict how that will happen, but I think it will always be a city with everyone seeking to establish some order, but with everyone also wanting to somehow break the rule a bit, which I believe is what makes the city attractive and interesting in itself.
I started by mentioning an ambassador and I will go on with an international VIP, of course, from a very serious country who arrived in Rinas airport for an Albanian visit. He was accompanied by policemen and reporters. Of course, he conveyed strong messages about the fight against crime. It is understandably the easiest thing to do when departing from somewhere to arrive here, because this is how it works in other countries, but he refused to leave Rinas airport’s VIP room. That’s why I told you he is a VIP. He refused to do so and he was asking for armoured cars and automatic weapons. He was thinking he was visiting a country where he could be killed, kidnapped, tortured or become victim of forced marriage or I don’t know what.
After several minutes of negotiations – since I was informed about the case – I told him we couldn’t provide him armoured cars and Kalashnikovs, since this is not part of our offers portfolio, so he could return back to his country. He decided to come. He “sacrificed” himself to arrive safe and sound in Tirana and he met me next morning. I don’t know whether he was aware about the fact that I had been informed about what had happened just a day earlier, but he said: “I apologize a lot, and I’m really embarrassed. Because I’ve seen so many countries, but I’ve never found myself so stupid that what I was expecting was completely opposite to what I found here.” And that’s a fact.
It is also a fact that just like it produces everything, Tirana also generates abundant self-destructing energies.
Of course, I haven’t forgotten the fact that once I used to serve as Tirana Mayor. Having had a hand in everything here and having passed the relay hand through my own hands, I can say that more than any other philosophy or rhetoric it can be worth defining an era, an episode I have had with an illegal builder along the Lana River. It was somebody who had built a higher building, while the illegal constructions along Lana River were being demolished. I used to walk up and down to inspect the demolition and cleaning process and at some point, right in front of this building, I see people unloading glass windows ready to be fixed. Excavators, other vehicles, municipal police members and State Police officers were operating along the road’s entire stretch as part of the demolition process, while many onlookers had gathered as, you know, we all enjoy looking when someone’s house or building is being razed down. I thought it was someone challenging us, as if saying: “Do whatever you like to do, yet you can’t demolish my building.” I got off the car. I asked who is the building’s owner. I was told he was fixing the glass windows. It was a six or seven-storey building, or even higher and a massive one. I told him to come down and I was convinced I was dealing with someone who was challenging the state.
Once he came down and approached, I asked him: “Why are you doing this?” “What am I doing?” – he replied. “Do you see what is happening here?” “I do” – he said. “But why are you fixing the glass windows?” – I went on asking him.
“Look – he said – what has happening around is actually your obsession. What I am doing is my obsession.” “It will be demolished” – I told him. “I know, but I started building in 1991 and I want to see it complete. Once I complete it, you can demolish it,” – he said.
In other words, there is a deep sense of the need for protagonist and the need to reach for the heights and everyone wants to be as higher as possible.
To conclude, I would like to quote Ismail Kadare’s verses as following:
“Tirana wakes up treacherously gracious,
And you don’t know whether it is a delirium or a city.”
This verse says it all. It has it all, the beast and the beauty, the illegal constructions and the high rise towers, the Skanderbeg Square and the New Bazaar, and everything else. So, I believe it is time to acknowledge the truth that one is not that lucky to have been born, grown up or been given the opportunity to move into Tirana, just like it is not a bad luck that since things changed and everyone was given the opportunity to move and settle in Tirana and become part of the city. It is a miniature version of America when it used to resemble us a lot, but, of course, things have changed nowadays and America rightly ask us to become like America in every respect. And this is the place where people are born, or settle here, dreaming big and dreaming small. As long as we can say it, and as long as we experience it by ourselves and seeing the glow in the eyes of the friends who visit our country, seeing the glow in the eyes of the Ambassadors who live here in Tirana, I think we are not that bad. We are blessed to live in Tirana!
Thank you very much! I would invite you all to switch on your smart phones, because I am sure there are news websites reporting stories under the title: Edi Rama like the one who once said: “We are blessed to live in Puke.”
