When punching above your weight
The conflict in Ukraine reshaped the world overnight. Albania could not be an exception.
Covid-19 disappeared. Reported infections rate and death cases dropped as if someone had waved a magic wand. Nobody talks about vaccinations anymore. All eyes are on the most evil man in the world: Vladimir Putin! And the death toll in Ukraine.
First, Albanian people were comforted to realize there are worse leaders than their own. The young could not understand why a polar bear like Russia would launch an attack in winter. The old evoked the communist party’s decision to cut ties with Russia and all the girlfriends they lost. Their wake-up call was the PM’s instruction: We are at war! We have to endure it in unity!
Then they felt protected. Especially when Albania’s Prime Minister and the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs publicly called on Putin to reflect and stop the invasion. A threat coming from a small strategic NATO country that is warming the seat at the UN Security Council. Their PM guaranteed Albanians that the country is safe, the people are safe. We are in NATO, we are brothers in arms with the US. We sit at their flank, adhere to the sanctions and dare to punch that robust bear – Russia. But this comes with a cost that has to be borne by the people. In fact, it is us citizens who have to pay for all the skyrocketing prices and more.
Almost two months into the new “it’s complicated war status” people feel angry and cheated. Standing up for the speculative surge of prices, for the mismanagement of energy resources, for the bad governance of public assets labeled them as pro-Russians. No problem, we protest and wave a Ukrainian flag too! The arrogance of PM Rama and his cabinet is not that digestible anymore. Good news!
Those angry at the arrogance and corruption on display are many, and together they are powerful. The bad news is they are not aware of their power. The tiger looks at himself as a filthy cat in the mirror that government media minions have put up.
The tiger is not aware that the king of the zoo fears to death the power of the hungry.
So the king is punching above his weight. Distracting those who awaken! Attracting those who have been blinded! Inflating domestic power! Exaggerating international leverage!
He is punching under the belt too. Brand those who dare speak up as Kremlin minions. Frame those who dare to stand up as sponsored by dark forces. Frame mass discontent as being limited to one or two price hikes. Shame them all!
But this is not all. One needs to unleash one media-dog or two to question: how can a successful painter and skillful politician, ruling for a third term, who managed to turn the opposition into his minions and the President into a clown – be challenged by a crowd of starving kids who don’t understand anything of the great diplomatic skills like sitting next to superpowers and threatening the most dangerous evil man on earth: Vladimir Putin?!
Were sanctions against Russia written on ice?
Albania’s adherence to NATO/EU sanctions against Russia were communicated vigorously, receiving well-deserved compliments from allies and like-minded figures. A wonderful list of measures Albania would take against the Russian Federation made national and government sponsored-international headlines.
A young researcher writing his thesis asked: “Where is the press conference and press statement of Albanian MEFA translated into law/s, bylaws, acts, normative acts, published in the official gazette? I need to quote!”
Well, there is only one sentence published in official documents you can quote, young man. Albania has limited its airspace and Russian flights. But that is OK. Those Russian fat birds need no Albanian strips, as long as the Serbian ones are more comfortable.
That young researcher will grow a white beard till he finds those sanctions carved in paper. They were carved on ice on a freezing winter day, while spring is around the corner.
Is Albania a paper zoo?
Anyone born earlier than 1977 would have flashbacks to their childhood “paper tiger” from communist propaganda. Albania had no Zoo at that time. Tirana still doesn’t have a real one, even though it deserves to be called “the capital that turned a lion into a vegetarian”. In those days, the imagination of the young pioneers, aspirants to become communists, could not go far with the paper tiger.
Those pioneers and communist daddy’s boys and girls are sitting today in the Albania oval room. They manage the Albanian Zoo. Some can sing beautifully and convince the world that Albania is the jewel of the Balkans. Some can roar loud and pretend Albania is second to Switzerland or Germany for that matter. Some are skillful enough to shoot the best pictures of a vegetarian lion that promised to eat no votes. Others can sell Open Balkan tickets of a ‘negotiating act’ with Serbia put on stage. And of course there are tigers who make sure the artist misses no brushes or colors when painting Albania’s supremacy.
Unfortunately the Russian bear’s heavy breath is everywhere. But none feels it inside the Zoo. Because the zoo is not a real one. It is the Albanian paper zoo.
