Itinerary:
National Museum - Chamber of Commerce – Durresi Street – Napoli Square – The Mosaic of Tirana – Partizani Neighborhood – FIN – Old Airport – Lapraka – Breglumasi – Treshi Intersection – Tirana Durres Railway – New Polis – QTU
Not our usual starting...not a usual day...
Friday, 21st of January 2011 was a sad-bad day for Tirana and Albania. In the morningof that day with my family we drove first our sun to the kindergarten. The teachers there were concerned and they told us: it is advisable to pick up your son sooner today, preferably not latter than noon! We asked why? Normally we were supposed to be there at 17.00 o’clock. Don’t you know – they said politely- the opposition has a protest today at 14.00! I smiled and said well it is not 1997 folks! Albania has changed now. (someone would even say we are NATO members and approaching EU accession now…) But simply said: we don’t have luxury to make troubles any more...! So after we drove peacefully to the new Polis campus to continue hard-working for settling the new school according the deadlines...
At 12.00 a clock my wife asked Eranda to pick up urgently our son from kindergarten. Ladies have more pragmatic sense than man. Indeed, latter it appeared he was the only one left there with teachers. Everyone seemed to be afraid,and picked children much earlier. Well it is not that we do not care, but I didn’t know and I was not even aware of what was going on… At 14.00 o’clock many busses with protesters from all over country embarked on Tirana streets… Central Tirana was paralyzed. While “Tirana-Durres highway” motor-city or the core business district of Albania was just working as usually…
During lunch break I just asked someone, and he told me it was a smooth protest. But than after 2-3 hours I hear from my wife that some fire is set around Prime-minister office. I couldn’t believe it, but I said this is democracy. People protest, some times even angry, but that is all… Well, in the evening when arriving home I hear the news at my car radio: 3 people died today in the protest of opposition. Hundreds of people and policemen were injured. I shocked and become aware of real situation. The main boulevard in front of Government and Parliament was transformed in a battlefield, while the rest of city, including us were working hard. And I believe I am not an indifferent person politically… I care about society and I am active when I think its worth to be… I felt sad and revolted! I lost optimism you get by setting up a new university and a new campus. Is it worth what we are doing? My friend Sotir called me and asked cynically: is it smart that we decided to stay in Albania?
Than I recalled my mind: but we have announced “Walking the City 3” tomorrow… Should we go on under such circumstances, or should we cancel everything? Back home TV stated that PM quoted the protest as a kind of “coup d’etat”. The oppositions leaders indeed added: 3 victims are nothing, we will fight to win even if there will be 3,000 ones… My goodness this is too far, I said. But immediately I though: we must go on with Walking to ignore such kind of pseudo-politics. We must continue our lives and not be scared of irresponsible. Indeed our fear is exactly their victory… So called Sotir and decoded: tomorrow we go on! However deep in my soul I felt also responsible for particpants. But I don’t suffer usually by the lack of courage… So tomorrow the sky was again blue and sunny, despite the bad taste in mouth by the events of last day… We all meet again next to the National Historical Museum.
Besnik Aliaj, Sotir Dhamo & Eranda Janku
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Saturday, 22 January 2011
One week latter from the last city walk we decided that “Walking the City 3” would explore further the western part of the city and further demystify the distance of city center with the new campus of Polis University. Of course we thought for another alternative itinerary, including areas we have been working 15 years ago. We were curious to see parts of the city we have not seen quite for some times, and curious to monitor changes. I was hopping for positive changes…
