Albania’s long wait in the delivery room

Debating with teens and twenty something-s about Albanian History’s missing links.

By Merita B.McCormack
Washington DC

I have been wondering for sometime now, as to what motivates some very smart, extremely patriotic, energetic Albanian youngsters, who live both in Albania and overseas, to have such a zest and fervor to fight at every instance the argument that the current Albanian Socialists are  to be identified with the Communists of 1941 and beyond.

This I have noticed while I have been expressing my thoughts and have received comments. Nothing unusual for any one who wants to say what he/she thinks, and I have been met with some brilliant minds, but to oppose basically everything I write pertaining to Communism and some even trying to convince me, with what they believe, is somehow puzzling as to why.This has  subsequently has motivated me to research further as to what is behind all the fervor and zest that seem to have engulfed some young people to have such a determination for the matter and here it is what I have concluded:

These beautiful people were born in the early 90s or mid to late 80's...that in itself explains a lot.... these people were being raised in transitional times, when the transition from Communism to the supposedly Democratic system in Albania has brought much suffering and much pain to the nation. They were born and raised in very difficult times. They were born with the supposed fall of Communism and as many other youngsters, they are experiencing the labor pain. Something is being delivered. And that is the Dawn of the New Era, which will finally mark the death of Communism.

Hence I understand this generation's frustration and pain, the disappointment and the ideals and I hope we have many youngsters like that, who voice their concerns and hope for the best, expecting the best.

Yet I, as the rest of my generation, for the sake of the coming generations, have to testify to the history that is not being written yet and these young people don't know much about. We can't build upon broken structures, we can't raise walls without proper foundations and we must do a deep and thorough clean up. We must remove the pus from the deep wounds, and that will continue to be still a very painful process.

When I was a teen and witnessed history being made, and saw what no eye should see, heard  what no ear should hear and felt what no body should feel, the Albania we all know today was a different world some twenty five  or more years ago.

Unfortunately, friends, we did see Devil being pleased in Albania. God was not sought , invited or embraced. For fifty years Albania agonized as an atheist state.

Having said that, there are so many who can testify to this, but unfortunately not many are writing and speaking about it.

A partial history is being told through the mouths and through very few daring souls like Fr. Zef Pllumi with the book "Live to Tell" or Leka Tasi with "Grabjani Rreze Kodrave" (Grabjan –The village on the Hills Side)”

There is not yet, as far as I know, an institutionalized effort on behalf of Albania as a nation, to write the Communist history of my nation and tell it as it was, a history from which we all can learn from or can testify to.

Arguing with some young men and women born in the 90s , is like talking with my American born teens who have no idea as to what really happened in the sixties and seventies in Albania when we grew up godless and almost died of starvation many times, when my mother lived for a full year (1948) on boiled potatoes while going through puberty. To the nation, religion was banned. To my mom’s family many other horrible things were done. Her family was wealthy before Communism hence they were given the infamous title “Kulak” –banning them from Society's life  in general. After many of the close family's men defected Albania, the roller coaster of a very difficult life on Earth, due to human persecution, which had already began in 1945, took a very difficult course and we all, the respective generations, can testify with our own witnessing. The beautiful houses and material possessions were taken away by the government and my mom's family was left with nothing, barely some personal belongings, when her cousin-who couldn't defect as he was only fifteen years old and away from home on forced labor camp, on that September night, was jailed several times for agitation and propaganda,-which he had no idea what that was about,- when my great uncle was insulted and called names in front of the whole village as a kulak and a reactionary as he used to own a lot of land and a lot of livestock, when my mom's home was turn into the socialist state owned cooperative's depot and her living room turned into the village's soviet type cooperative ‘s blacksmith's place; when the head of village council looked lustfully upon the young girls of the family and told them to pull the transportations carts, just like an ox and horse does- he had joked- to bring their personal belongings to a mountain mad hut where my mom and her young siblings  spent several years with nine other people-kulaks as well- in a single room, when the communist comrade got his burning cigarette out of his mouth and put it over the face of my great aunt and asked her to tell where her husband and sons were,(they defected Albania)- otherwise her eyesight would be gone by being burnt with the hot ash of that cigarette- when my grandfather died, and as the casket was transported to be put in the final resting place, the head of the village council ordered the cultural centre clerk of the socialist cooperative the following: " Play Loud Revolutionary Music and make sure is being heard. The reactionaries are dead, hurray"!

I will never forget the wedding of a loved one and other loved ones couldn't come. My family could not be together as some people were not happy to mix with kulaks. I will never forget the tears of my mother, covering the Devoll region's land everyday when her children, myself and my two brothers, could not get permission to go to the local high school as we had the "bad anti -communist biography", or when my brother was kicked out of school after three days of starting as apparently he was the “wrong” person to be sent there for an education apparently not being from a communist family , or when, my older brother was sent to serve in the army for three years in a terrible place and conditions, and as he was never permitted to get an education....

I will never forget what my grandmother witnessed when the wives of communists, on a mission to psychologically insult the non and anti-communists, were yelling and calling in the streets of the village, at our house's door, to go and see the dead man who was hanged... (he was my father's cousin who tried to escape Albania, was caught at the border, was hanged and his dead body was dragged in the streets...)

This is very little of what my experience of many years in Communism have to tell, or nothing to what other people have gone through, but is just an illustration of what is “the missing link” and is not for the purpose of complaint, neither to seek revenge, but once these are written, are acknowledged, are taught as true and real happenings, and most importantly those who committed the crimes truly apologize and repent, Albania will continue to be in the delivery room for a long time and we will continue to hear more and more crying babies...as the mother will be too sick to nurture and the doctors will be coming and going without much result of aid from the delivery room or other "hospitals"

The past needs to be examined and  seriously considered as  both the source of  that suffering and also the source and means of a national healing. Unless Albania sees the past and heals it, nothing much will change even with the new elections at the door. Albania needs to be its own doctor and also seek real and effective help from friends;  Every Albanian has his/her own part to do to speed the delivery and healing. Healing begins with acknowledging the wrong, feeling and showing true sorrow for it and resolve to stay away from the evil ways.  Let's hope every Albanian and the whole society does so!

September 2010 (revised June 20 2013)

The author Merita B.McCormack serves as Washington DC VATRA Chapter President.