it is time to think differently

By Pilo Zyba

Every day on the internet we read wordy people who have taken a basin in their hands and are banging it, so the noise of their thoughts can be heard. A noise that, in fact, is of no use to anyone regarding the topics they raise with such fanfare, just so others will read them and think they are wise, clever in their myopic observations, and philosophers in their thoughts.

A lady who calls herself a philosopher and lecturer, the author of several books, leaves London; she drops a few eggs from her mouth in Tirana and, after she leaves, everyone else busies themselves with her words, her “philosophical” thought, and her works, which “fortunately” have made a great splash in the world due to their values and acclaim.

One person makes her prime minister, while she herself speaks up and says she has no idea who is saying these things!

Someone else insults her for her views, questioning why, having been persecuted under the communist system, she now embraces and sides with the enemies of her family, as well as the enemies of many others who suffered under that system.

So, in this world, in this tiny country, there is such great hatred and such a great war over the opinions everyone holds. Everyone has a right to their own thoughts, just as one family keeps a dog and another family keeps a cat. It does not mean that someone who had a flock of sheep in 1940 must absolutely still have a flock of sheep in our time. Eventually, looking at his history, a man realizes that his tribe did not prosper with those sheep; therefore, he changes his old way of thinking into a more advanced thought and action. And this, to me, is called development and culture, if it is for the good of the individual and society.

The time has come to look at things differently and act differently. The internet has given us the opportunity to open our eyes, to read and understand more of what is happening, and to learn lessons from it; not to view these as passing events and repeat them endlessly.

I see that we have all become thinkers, we have sharpened our pens and we write. We do write, indeed, but I personally do not see any clear thought in these writings. All the writings, in general, revolve around the puddle of truths, without drawing any conclusion or turning on any green light to take us where we want to go.

Today we have taken our homeland and placed it on the canvas of old-time movies. We look at it from all sides, we criticize it, we curse it, but no one asks: why?

Many of these opinion-writers are still continuing with the autopsy of the dead man from 41 years ago. Even though they perform their autopsy on him, they draw nothing from the analyses. Whether this is due to their incompetence or the strength of the doors the dead man closed when he left, I do not know.

After they do a superficial, unconvincing analysis, we remain in the dregs of the last century. Because, if a serious analysis were done and the real disease were found, we could say that today, after 41 years, we would be different and would not have stood for 41 years beside the dead man: in his thoughts, in his work, in his ideas and in his way of ruling.

Our people have a proverb: “The dead with the dead, the living with the living.”

But no, in this specific case we do not want to separate the dead from the living, because, by hiding behind the dead man, we act more easily, persecuting and playing with the lives and feelings of the living.

I think the best way to move forward and to call this a new era is, with a clean knife of thought, to discard the past once and for all; to take from it the pain and suffering, to keep them as a benchmark for change, and to move forward.

You who read me will say: “You too, in your writing, are doing the same thing; you are simply listing the facts of the past. You are doing what everyone does in their writings.”

And I answer you: no, no! I threw away that tin-sheet propaganda back in 1990, when I left my homeland. I view the actions in my homeland with a cool head. When I hear it said that on December 24th there will be a great demonstration, I laugh. I laugh because the struggle in the form of a demonstration has been tried; it is a failure.

Why is it a failure?

It is a failure for two reasons. First, because the bulk of the youth in Albania has left; they are fighting for their future, because they have their lives ahead of them. What do you think, dear readers, does the broad mass of my people not know that those who rule are stealing? Do they not know that they have sent their children off beyond seven mountains and will not see them again, perhaps until the day they die? They know it all, but they stay silent; they wait.

Second, does the Albanian people not see that the party seeking power is not a party with a clear political vision? They know it very well. This party that fell from power, I personally thought would be eternal in leading my nation when I left, but I was wrong. I was wrong, because the party whose arrival I thought of and dreamed of was wrong. It killed, it stole, it destroyed the industry and the army, creating anarchy in Albania.

My homeland stands on these two legs: both legs sick, without strength, but also with a head devoid of ideas.

My people have reached such a critical state that they would rather accept being robbed than being killed; therefore they stay silent and bear the suffering on their shoulders.

And you, quite rightly, will ask me: “And how long will my Albania endure, my brothers, my parents, etc.?”

And I answer you without hesitation…

Albania does not change because Lea Ypi comes with a provisional government. My Albania does not change from one article or dozens of articles by an Erë-vina Toptani. Top-tani must become those who have a vision for the future, or we get the balls, as my late grandmother used to say.. The prime minister, not even a provisional one, because he remains eternally provisional; we all know this. No matter how wise and philosophical a prime minister who comes from the sky or is catapulted to us by others may be, he can never make Albania.

Albania is made by that visionary politician, a prime minister who emerges from the internal struggle of great social movements, taking the masses with him, just as democracy took them in the 1990s.

The people and the broad mass of my nation see that such a visionary is missing; therefore, like a wise old man, the Nation stays silent and waits. And at the right moment it will become a river, which will sweep up all the debris of the times and pour it into the sea, so that it can then afforest my Albania with new oak trees and new visions…

London...2026