"Les Miserables"-Reflection on the musical movie of 2012

By Merita B.McCormackWashington DC

It had been a while since I went to the movie theatre. I have been discouraged by many Hollywood movies that include violence, promiscuity, expensive ticket and snack prices, and the majority of them not really delivering a naturally ordered message. So I had given up on watching pop-culture movies.

But last night my outlook, at least for now, changed. As I recalled the story of Jean Valjean, which I had read and seen as a movie a few decades ago, I agreed to watch the new creation of “Les Miserables”, directed by Tom Hooper. I am not going to discuss movie-making techniques, such as set design. Instead, I will delve into the deeper messages embedded within the spiritual journey of Jean Valjean.

So thanks to Alicia Sutherland, my good friend and neighbor we went to the local theater to watch “Les Miserables”.  I rarely review movies, as I am not qualified, but I felt compelled to write something about the message “Les Miserables” uses as its theme.

I found it great that the movie was released on Christmas Day since the movie is about grace and redemption. Grace permeates our souls when we are open to receiving it. Redemption is granted to all who seek the grace and pray for it.  The characters are very much like each one of us, struggling with the issues of this world and the spiritual world. Jean Valjean’s past, no matter what circumstances, are conditioning his status in life. Labeled as a perpetual thief, many times he broke parole. The state and society’s punishment was that of captivity. Little did he know that the physical captivity was nothing compared to the slavery of his soul. This is slavery to sin and death until he meets the amazing Grace of God and is truly free.

The Bishop Myriel of Digne from whom Valjean stole valuable silverware, tells the police that he has given the treasure to Valjean. The Bishop’s appearance is that of  “In persona Christi”.

Christ comes to us and dwells in us through the Sacraments and Prayer.  The forgiveness and the Grace of God are readily available to anyone who seeks them and the clergy is there just to deliver that grace. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is the fastest way to remove those walls we build and to soften our hardened hearts once we are truly sorry and fearing the Lord.

Having offended God in the past, after being forgiven, Valjean’s conversion of heart begins, but is truly a struggle. His kneeling and pacing up and down the Chapel, in front of the Crucifix, is an evidence of an interior struggle. His crying and agony is a reminder of our own struggles, yet Valjean triumphs once he offers the struggle and trouble up to the Lord. He unites his pain with that of Christ on the Cross. It is not easy, yet is not impossible. Valjean knows that he can now have a personal relationship with God who is a just, forgiving, loving and caring Father. The strong presence of the Christian symbols in every part of Valjean’s life from this point on, is very telling on how long and tough the battle is and how important it is to hold on to the Sacramental life and Prayer. Once Valjean recognizes who is his Lord, everything works out for him, whether it is personal prosperity or taking care of Cosette .

Cossete is the young abused girl, who was an illegitimate child of Fantine, the beautiful hardworking woman turned prostitute turned martyr.  Cosette represents the innocent life, whose life and fate was left in Valjean’s hands. With God’s grace Valjean secures for her a good education at the Convent and as a child of God she gives back love and care for her “papa” who raised and loved her all these years. Cosette meets the love of her life, Marius, the young, devout and energetic revolutionary whose life again, was miraculously saved by Valjean, whose Christ like figure permeates the whole movie.

The Thernardiers, the couple who abuse Cossette and own a town “Inn”, have an opposite life to that of Cossete and Valjean. Their own children, though better characters then those of their parents, are one a run away boy and the other a girl wrapped in misguided feelings of jealousy and envy, which she considers love. They were both “educated” on the streets and killed in the barricades during the revolution. The couple claim to be Christians, yet their life is anything but Christ centered. They are thieves, envious, immoral and greed is their God.

The antagonist character, Javert, the representative of the law and state, (how fitting I thought!)  played by Russell Crowe, is well presented and convincing. Javert, a Deist, believing in predestined paths, is a person who thinks he is doing everything right in the name of the Lord, is also a self – absorbed, self centered man. He “prays” outside of God’s house, is wrapped in envy and jealousy, he is vindictive and doesn’t believe in Grace and redemption though many times the opportunity is presented. The queen of intercessors, Our Lady, through the rosary beads is also made available to him, yet he rejects it all and thus commits the sin against the Holy Spirit by believing that he will never be forgiven for what he has done.  He walks the fine line and eventually ends up committing suicide.  The symbols are very well presented and while Jean Valjean is inside the Church, humbly kneeling in God’s presence, Javert, dressed in black, is outside and convinced that there is nothing new to be created.

Hugh Jackman does a superb job at acting and singing and although in this material world’s Globe and Oscar awards are important to many, if a true conversion like that of Valjean happened to him personally, I think he should care less if he wins Globe or Oscar. His character, I bet  has converted many hearts.

Many have sung praises to Anne Hathaway’s   performance of  “I dreamt a dream”.

She seems to be a fine young lady and a good actress.  All I can say about it is that the burden to play Fantine, and singing a well-known classic such as  “I dreamt a dream”, I thought was too much for her.  Her character, though shortly presented in the movie, along with the holy innocents and other martyrs, represent the communion of Saints and the prayer of Valjean in the end to Fantine is very much a testimony as to how important the prayer to those gone before us, is for our salvation.

Well done Tom Hooper and team and hope everyone sees this very good movie.

A book review by Merita B.McCormack

A book review

"Albania and the European Union: A tumultuous Journey towards Integration and Accession", written by Mirela Bogdani and John Loughlin, and published by I. B. Tauris (London - New York).
By Merita B. McCormack
Published at Illyria Newspaper, New York, 31 August 2007
Is it going to be 2010? 2020? Or maybe earlier then that, maybe 2014?

These are the years of the future when Albania may be able to see itself as an EU member. Is it really going to happen? Probably. Why is it not happening earlier?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of Albania joining the EU, what are the obstacles for integration and accession? What favors the process?

These and many more questions are analyzed and clearly answered in
"Albania and the European Union: A tumultuous Journey towards Integration and Accession", written by Mirela Bogdani and John Loughlin, and published by I.B.Tauris (London - New York).

The book opens with theoretical and contextual issues by stating the
meaning of nation-state and the definition of the European Union, and by going into details describing the most influential theories of the
European Integration.

A detailed and well written history of Albania in 1990-s follows in
chapter two. This explains the crossroads between Communism and Democracy and analyzes in great detail and very objectively Albania at the eve of democracy. Elez Biberaj is quoted at the opening of this chapter: "The Albanian road to democracy is strewn with land mines in the form of cumulative political, economic and social legacies of Hoxha Communist dictatorship, which made genuine democratization seem almost impossible".

A statement that says it all! The authors elaborate on political,
historical, economic and cultural legacies of the past, beginning with the Ottoman empire and ending with the communist period.

Meeting the Copenhagen Criteria is a separate chapter that "grills" the
transition period as one of most important steps of Albania toward
integration into the EU. The domestic political and socio-economic current situation is analysed in depth, focusing on the elections, public administration, rule of law and judicial system. In the economic area the authors point out that they are two sides of the Albanian economy: a miracle macro-economy and a poor real micro-economy. Authors emphasise that many changes have happened in these areas, but the reforms still proceed very slowly and changes are mainly cosmetic. The incorporation of acquis communitaire and its 35 negotiation chapters are analyzed further.

Ensuring approximation of EU legislation and applying it are the two
emphasized challenges that Albania faces in this area. The authors
conclude that Albania is still far from fulfilling the Copenhagen Criteria
and a lot of work needs to be done.

A specific and important place in this long and enriching chapter takes
the Albanian religious issue. The concept of EU as a "Christian Club" has raised many eyebrows for EU membership for Turkey and other Muslim countries. Authors, one of them a native Albanian, have given a true picture of what is really going on religious way in Albania and what is the real religion in Albania. What faith dominates and why? What are the real statistics and what are the trends of embracing Christian Faith? And most importantly, does religion represent an obstacle for Albania's chances of accession, as in the case of Turkey? This is a very hot topic today in both European informal and official debates and a "thorny issue" of the EU Enlargement Policy.

Western Balkans and the SAP regional framework are analyzed later in the book, pointing out that each of the 6 WB countries are at different stages of the accession journey, but they are all "passengers of the same train", they have a clear destination, the EU membership, which will be achieved on merit-basis only when they fulfil all the Copenhagen Criteria. The other important goal, the NATO membership, is also analysed briefly. The statement"Future of Albania lies with the EU" closes that chapter.

Political system of post communism takes place ? in a separate chapter as to bring into light the successes and failures of the Albanian political class. Parties, coalitions, and other issues, such as internal party democracy, parties' funding, etc, are also analysed in this chapter.

Corruption, one of the main obstacles for Albania's EU integration, and
other phenomenons like clientelism, nepotism and most importantly the organised crime, are subjected to an objective and open critique. They point out that corruption and bribery have affected every cell of life, but especially in public administration, judicial system and customs. The organised crime is very difficult to combat as the criminal individuals are in many cases connected with the politics and protected by politicians. The authors list facts, refer to certain events and previous works and have themselves very well observed the situation, closely monitoring Albanian society development as a whole and subsequently drawing well sounded conclusions on the issues.

The role of the elite and domestic actors is developed and analyzed in
chapter eight. This is the largest by detail and one of the most important chapters of the book, as it gives a proper insight of why and how Albania is this country on the world map today. Authors should be prepared to receive pats on their backs just for this particular well written chapter.

Government, Parliament, President and other structures of governing bodies in Albania are analyzed in detail. Dr. Bogdani's previous involvement in the Albanian party politics and her experience in the Albanian Public Administration have tremendously helped to gain such a sound knowledge and to further evaluate in a very realistic and impartial way the situation in Albania in these areas. The "brain drain" is brought to the attention of the reader as an unfortunate phenomenon that has happened to Albania during the years of transition and the causes of these phenomena are analysed. The country's elite both during communism and in transition period is analysed. Unfortunately, the handful of rich and intellectual people that emerged at the end of the War World II were crushed and
jailed, properties confiscated, leaving thus a huge gap between the
dictator's clique and the broad masses. The authors emphasize that if any intelligentsia survived, that was mainly concentrated in Tirana, country's Capital. A well-known exiled Albanian political analyst, Shinasi Rama, is quoted when today's "elite" is defined. It is with sadness a true fact that the today's Albanian elite is not even close to any nobility feature, as Mr.Rama states.

The country's local government bodies are shown in its history, since
communism, followed by the current days' role and future challenges that the local government structure face.

In the book is emphasised the great role that the EU is playing for
Albania in three directions: firstly through the prospect of EU
membership, which provides an incentive for carrying out domestic reforms, secondly the concrete processes of SAP and SAA and thirdly the financial assistance and programs (past, present and future ones). This and other external factors, such as the Globalisation, the influence of other CEE countries, the USA, Albanian Diaspora are called to attention in the last chapter.

The concept, the reality and the prospect of the "Greater Albania" (or
"Ethnic Albania", "Pan-Albanism"), as well as the "Future of Kosovo
issue", are objectively and extensively reviewed and analyzed in the book. Authors conclude that the question of "Greater Albania" should be seen under the full light of prospective future accession of Albania, Kosova, other Albanian territories in neighbouring countries, and all Balkan countries into the EU.

As a conclusion, authors point out that many obstacles and challenges remain, but the factor they blame the most is the Albanian political class, who with its incompetence, irresponsibility and selfishness, is the main obstacle for Albania's journey towards the EU. They argue that what will make this journey shorter and less bumpy and what Albania really needs is a new political class, a new generation of leaders, equipped with real democratic principles and values of integrity, decency and honesty, committed and willing to sacrifice and make a difference for their country and its citizens, for a country and a nation which deserves more and has lost a lot of time.

A well written book. Well researched and very interesting, that has been needed long time ago. It could be of interest for a quite a wide range of audience and I think this book should be in the shelves of every foreign scholar, professional or official that is involved in Albanian issues.

Every foreign government body that has engaged itself in projects with Albania should use this book as a very good source of valuable information regarding Albania and the Balkans. The greatest importance of this book is that it is (along with its previous version) the first book which analyses the relationship between the EU and Albania and its accession and integration process.

Congratulations to the authors. The book is available at www.amazon.com

Merita Bajraktari McCormack, BSc, MBA
Long Island, New York, USA

A thought before the Midnight of the Night Before Christmas :-)

When we are away from God we are always making something else to be "our god" in Communist Albania the dictator wanted the people to venerate and worship him, in other countries, other aspects of life became "gods" . In  the developed world sexuality(all forms of sexual relationships outside marriage), consumerism(money.money, money...), pride (I can do anything, I am good and strong and superperson....) materialsm (I must have everything that the Joners have...)  etc ., have become "gods" of the daily lives....The human heart is designed to reach its Creator and during the way, we, the people, make many detours and some of those detours can be fatal for our souls. Our soul does recognize these detours and our behaviors, our restlessness, our sadness, desperations, un-satisfactions, addictions, escapism etc etc,.....are symptoms of these detours... .. Our hearts yearn to rest in our Creator, the God of Abraham, Moses and David, who loved us so much that he stooped down from Heaven and became man....JESUS is his name! .This Christmas, let us recognize our true God and embrace him as he is waiting for our love in return...He gave us Free will so let us will that love, to love Him back so we can find the way to our Eternal Happiness.....We are all called to holiness and eternal Joy! ...Let Him come and dwell in us......Let us start this Christmas! If you don't know any prayer, pray from your heart...pray a simple but meaningful prayer like this:" Dear God, please come and dwell in me. I dont know you but I want to meet you and be a better person in every aspect of my life. Please help me and shed light on my path. My heart will be restless o Lord until it rest in you. Please help me! Amen!" :-) see what happens....xoxo (M.M)