By Ben Andoni
Do we have a real elite that can be trusted to lead our country? Is there one that can open the eyes of Albanians and prepare them for the challenges of the future? Can one like ours, which often flirts with power, be respected? On the other hand: Why is there so much anger towards them? Why are so many intellectuals slandered and trampled on on social networks? A series of questions arise in these times when the "Flamingos" are being scrutinized not only politically but also from an anthropological perspective.
There is an extraordinary photo of the time, where Prof. Çabej next to Enver Hoxha, the communist leader after World War II, gives him the sign “No. So far”. The author of these lines has tried to find a more accurate answer to this moment, which he learned to some extent from his daughter. Yes, - the father, tells Hoxha about the limitations of one of his studies regarding the history of language that one could not go in that direction, the daughter expressed. The face of the One of that time, which does not look Çabej in the face, is angry and full of rage, but he has the calmness of a man who cannot make a pact against science. The professor did this on other occasions, while the list of courageous actions also includes a minority of Albanian intellectuals, who, without wanting false protagonism, respected the principle.
The latter, increasingly disrespected today among their fellow countrymen, made their lives difficult. The fate of a part of the elite is truly tragic, as they experienced oppression, stripping of their title and employment outside their profession, often with a contemptuous sense. The renowned orientalist Vehxhi Buharaja was expelled from his job at the Institute of History in Tirana in 1975 and returned to his hometown, in Berat, where he was “entrusted” with the job of cashier in a barbershop!
Meanwhile, a personality of left-wing culture and politics, Sejfulla Malëshova, former chief secretary of the Noli Government, later a deputy, minister and well-known translator, would end up selling samaras in Fier!! Çabej would be bombarded with successive Lightning Bolts!!! The list continues bitterly even after the '90s...
But why this anger from the elite? Why this evil greed for their work? Why are there so many chameleons? Where is this selfishness leading us? Why is artificial intelligence showing us so empty and rightly so, as is observed today, some amorphous beings achieve and make syntheses that they do not even understand themselves, in order to seek status. The answers are found in the countless creations of bureaucracy and emptiness: From the Flamingo Mirrors and Rama's anti-corruption platforms, to the ideas and confusion of the motley groups of the Protest, which is already declining in quantity and degenerating in quality.
In the Cambridge Dictionary, the word “elite” identifies “those people or organizations that are considered the best or most powerful compared to others of a similar kind”. A minimalist definition, for those who are considered the cream of a social stratum at a given time in the face of situations and their importance increases if they have an impact on the direction of the country. Precisely, this last sense, where the concentration of power is done only in ONE person, makes it difficult for intellectuals, scientists, teachers or researchers to stand out and have an impact, because everything is relativized in the country. Just like a professor of philosophy, political sciences and social sciences “faces” and someone thanks to artificial intelligence!
Meanwhile, such institutions, such as the various institutes that are subordinate to the Academy (itself), but also other institutions, find it impossible to think differently, because they can be penalized peacefully. Even those individuals who do not have the burden of the financial challenge or the confrontation with the survival sphinx, like the comfort and above all the status quo that power offers them. In this rut, the most bitter are the chameleons, once part of the parties that now satisfy the disappointed and shout more than anyone against Rama, the system and Soros, without forgetting Berisha etc.
What is the real Albanian elite then? The 30s are a great laboratory of how the Albanians of that time, even before the power of Zog, expressed their thoughts on the problems of Albanians and the lessons of how we could progress. That handful of people, who represent the thinking of the 30s, were truly elite. The fate of a large part of them would be fatal. Unfortunately, this sense continued even in democracy, a time when free thought would flourish, intellectuals would raise their voices about the country's economic model, the future of development, the taxation system that Albania would need, universities would be hotbeds of debate, and the political system would properly serve the development of the country.
Unfortunately, today, it is enough to find a corner of comfort (read: conform to power) where you can be in this status quo so as not to annoy the state and be calm. You usually have a peaceful salary, a villa or a holiday home on the coast, a car, insured holidays, trips abroad, a good pension awaits you. You do not talk about the Elephant in the Room, but you can talk nonsense about great philosophy, in front of a people who have a taste for philosophy. Mehdi Frashëri in “Albanian Problems” gives us an impetus to better understand ourselves: “…if greed and selfishness are not mitigated, to a certain extent they form an obstacle to the creation of a strong state, because the greed and selfishness of some strive with that of others and thus cause internal strife”.
And, we have these immensity, so the power remains in single hands like those of Rama and Berisha and we are endlessly writhing in a spiral of suffering that has no end. In canonical form, society is led by an elite, which due to the dynamics of development must later give way to other elites with individuals who adapt to those times. This is in the sense of Pareto, but in the case of Albania, it remains in the hands of a minority, which is recycling itself.
Day by day it is showing us that there are intertwined interests (see the owners of buildings in the country and interest groups), the flow of tenders and officials who already have their children abroad to prepare to form the new Albanian elite, educated in foreign schools, or the nepotistic flow of politicians thanks to marriages and other connections. Could this be the Albanian elite we want? Will they really help the country? There are some good signs with urban planners and architects with their reaction to the "Albanian Files", but this reaction should have been a long, long time ago.
The consequences of all the indifference and lack of our elite are Surrender, Great Corruption, Weak and Cynic Administration, while the economic status of Albania shows that we are together with Kosovo at the end of the Balkan development. And, if we add to this equation the insoluble problem of Property and Justice, what remains is bitter: Quo vadis our Elites (?!) or more simply: The Elite's Dead End before the Albanian Question of the 21st Century! (Homo Albanicus).
