Prime Minister Edi Rama is currently the political individual who carries all the anger and resentment not only of the opposition, but also of many individuals and businesses whose affairs are not going well with his power. For the sake of truth, he has found the opposition, sometimes with permission, sometimes with favors and sometimes by employing them, he has brought them into line with his flow. Justification: Contribution to the homeland!
The confused eyes of individuals who seek meritocracy are struck by his immense power from above, while in front of them he mocks them and when he is not at home he sends them greetings from foreign chancelleries as if they adore him, looking down on him. Oh, what is left for others who are short! How much does the prime minister like this fable and how often does he mention his height...
In this chaos, the opposition becomes ridiculous with its names, when its collaborations outside of politics are revealed (We are left waiting for real cooperation for the country. Reforms are waiting there...without an answer); the propaganda continues with its successes; the theft with the terrifying overtaking in front of SPAK. Oh, how many others...
In this wonder we blame time and politics and that permanent disease of the tandem that has started since the time of Ismail Qemali with Esat Pasha. Both badly finished and almost forgotten, except the first revived after '90, while the second with the attempt to retouch it. For the other tandems, there is no place and time. This comes to mind, when you think that we will remain hostages of the crowd and even more so of the real reflection of reality and facts. Today's with Prime Minister Rama and the opposition leader Berisha, do not understand that they have been far from the people for a long time and the reality they convey is far from Albanians. Very far. Even though, we have them in front of us and they continue...
We would write endlessly on this explanation, if we didn't remember one of the bitter facts, among many others. We still don't have the history of the flag codified!! Yes, and when two personalities say this, you count the others. It is about the flag that was raised in Vlora on November 28, 1912. The first Minister of Justice and then of Education Petro Poga gave this version in 1936, when, welcoming the fourth edition of the newspaper "Drita", he explained, according to his knowledge, the much-discussed problem of where the flag that Ismail Qemali raised in Vlora came from: "... the first flag that was raised in Vlora was a red cloth three meters long and two meters wide, on which the two-headed eagle was printed, in black. With that eagle, 4-5 smaller ones were also prepared. The red cloth was bought from a merchant named Diamant and sewn by a tailor named Thoma, because there was no time to raise a luxury flag. The way it was raised was because the sea was blocked. The account occupied by the self-willed, across the Vjosa River the Turkish army, in Tepelena the Greek army, that is, only Vlora was surrounded on all four sides.
In his memoirs, Eqerem bey Vlora has another version and tried to tell it as follows: “I have somewhat extended the story of the raising of the flag, because in recent years completely untrue versions have circulated and I want the exact event to be described and remain once and for all”. The story is very different: “A week after my return to Vlora, I took Murat bey Toptan and Hydaj Effendi to Ismail Qemali, begging him to return the flag that I had lent him. They promised to return it to me immediately, as soon as Mrs. Marigo Posjo (a great democratic patriot, but who liked advertising) had sewn and embroidered the new flag. Well, on November 28, the main object of the day, the flag as a symbol of independence, was forgotten with that typical Eastern Albanian carelessness. Moreover, most people did not know what it was like. No one had ever seen it or held it before.
No one in Vlora had a flag at home. The state-builders were in a state of confusion and looked at each other in confusion. Then my friend Hydai Effendi stood up and said that in Eqrem Bey's bedroom there was an Albanian flag hanging on the wall, in a beautiful frame. And he asked if it could be taken without the owner being there? Ismail Bey gave him permission and so the flag that Don Aladro Kastrioti had once solemnly given to me in Paris, traveled to the neighboring guest house and fell into the hands of Ismail Bey, who handed it over to Murat Bey Toptan, with the order to hang it outside, while he himself stood at the window.
Thousands of people gathered in the square in front of the house and in the garden, chanting "long live, long live" even though many of them did not really understand what was happening. Later, when I raised the Albanian flag in front of our house on the festive days of the declaration of independence as a free and independent state, some good Kosovars told me: "You wise people did very well to raise the flag of Father Krali (that is, Emperor Franz Joseph) because now neither the vile Serb nor the scoundrel Montenegrin can do anything to us." When I asked where I had seen the black eagle, they proudly replied: "With Father Krali's soldiers, in the New Bazaar."
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The epilogue is even more pleasant and we bring it again through the memories of Eqerem Bey Vlora: “But of course, there were also those like a certain Haxhi Muhamet Efendi, an important and fanatical cleric in Vlora and a strong follower of my father, who expressed himself angrily that Ismail Bey had chosen a raven as the symbol of free Albania. (If only Syria Bey had made Albania, he complained, - now we would have the beautiful eyes of the Quran on our flag. But what else can you expect from Ismail Bey, who has spent his whole life in the land of the French?)!
When I told the story to Ismail Bey, he laughed out loud, but also threatened me with his finger that he would tell the hoxha that he had not found the flag, but me!
What is the truth? What was the real flag? Like, where is the first document of Independence? How was the Albanian flag chosen?! We have no one to ask about this, only to let individuals tell versions and historians argue and prove… But who cares today? Everyone is concerned with Epstein and the enlightenment that Rama and Berisha have given to this country. Apparently, our moral abyss is there created by our ignorance of vanity in every field of life throughout history. And, therefore, we have an orphaned flag.
