Ad Xhindi was one of the best students in physics in our class. He was made for abstract concepts and theoretical science.
Ad Xhindi was brave and hot-headed. He was one of the few students at the time that harbored a strong, masculine hate against the regime.
Naturally, he was at the forefront of the students’ protest in December 1990. Active and avid he immediately caught the eye of the security officers, which “snatched” him from the crowd together with 3 or 4 other people, during the second day of the protest, close to the Art Lyceum. He defied and mocked the investigators who asked him questions. When asked where he was born, he kept his calm and informed the security officers that he was born in the maternity. He was released in a few hours and he joined the protesters right after.
During the hunger strike, Adi made us swear that we wouldn’t leave the strike until the end.
A few weeks after the strike, he embarked on a ship to Italy. He has lived there since. He has been working for a long time now as a truck driver in Italy.
He visits Albania when he can. He loves Vlora and says that when he reaches his senior years he would retire there.
He has never spoken again about February or December.
Like him, many others have kept their silence.
Turi never spoke; he died in a road accident in Greece, where he worked as a pizza deliverer. Niko never spoke; he was one of the main characters of December protests. He emigrated in USA and no one knows where he is. Gazi has not spoken either, after he spent a long time roaming in Italy and Greece. He is now a nurse in Florida and still hopes to realize his dream and become a doctor.
The other Turi has not spoken either. He was a math genius then and works as a teacher in Korça now. Arjani has not spoken; he sends a greeting every eighth of December, in the morning. A message filled with irony and mockery for our contribution to the “democracy” that our country now enjoys.
Every December and February, the Tirana elite organizes its pompous ceremonies. The participants in these parades are the usual “heroes” of December and February. Twice every year they give interviews, make declarations, pose, idealize, and speak on freedom and democracy.
If these “heroes” of December and February were the real ones, Albania would not have had autocracy, bad government, and corruption for the last 25 years.
The brave spirits that were not afraid of Enver Hoxha and his fierce dictatorship would not have been scared of Berisha, Nano, or Rama.
(The other former Prime Ministers Ilir Meta and Pandeli Majko consider themselves idealist Decembrists and Februarist “heroes”).
The elite of December speaks from the podiums of halls and televisions; Ad Xhindi drives his truck, alone, in the streets of Italy.
Honk your horn today Adi. Its sound is certainly freer and more honest than the choir of Tirana “heroes.”
