Rama shares AAK’s Labinot Bislimi post: “The flamingo seeks comfort, while the eagle seeks the horizon”

This Wednesday, Prime Minister Edi Rama shared a post involving AAK political representative Labinot Bislimi. In his post, Rama says that Bislimi, through a status update, describes the protests in Albania as being organized with aims he considers anti-national.

Status by Prime Minister Edi Rama:

I have never met Labinot Bislimi, but I couldn’t help sharing with you this piece of writing of his from ten days ago, while thanking our mutual friend who sent it to me today; better late than never 🙂

THE LAND OF FLAMINGOS OR THE LAND OF EAGLES

Did you know that the name Albania means the land of eagles? Foreign media often describe us that way as well. And yet, sometimes I wonder whether we truly are.

These days I have been closely following developments in Tirana.

It seems to me that we are dealing with a beautiful, creative, and extremely peaceful protest.

In fact, I get the impression that Albanians needed to rediscover themselves through one another. To come out together, to talk among themselves as they perhaps never have before. More than a revolt, this looks like an expression of love. A way of saying to Albania: “We love you.”

But what kind of love is this?

I believe it is the love of those who feel that Albania is transforming at such a rapid pace that it is slipping through their hands. A longing for a poor, untouched Albania still far from the rhythms of globalization and mass tourism.

It is a longing for “bread, salt, and heart.” For the Tirana of old neighborhoods, where children played in the streets and in one another’s yards. For a simple happiness, often found in poverty, which today seems to be dissolving into the outlines of a new economy, where people no longer walk, but run.

They run because they are competing with their neighbor. With their friend. With other generations. With themselves.

In this new Albania, no one fully owns it, but everyone seeks to keep it under control. Each person wants to shape it according to their own point of view.

The ideologues of the left and the right want it for themselves. Conservatives and liberals. Nationalists and globalists. Pro-Americans and anti-Americans. Secularists and the religious. Everyone says they love Albania, but each sees it through their own mirror.

The problem is that many of them do not know how to love it together with one another.

That is precisely where the clash with development begins.

Because economic development pulls society out of its comfort zone. It pushes it to change. It forces it to accept new rhythms, new people, new ideas, and new competition.

The flamingos are not the real cause of the protest. They are simply the symbol.

A symbol of an old comfort, of a familiar and understandable stagnation. A desire to stand sometimes on one leg and sometimes on the other, without gathering momentum toward the unknown.

The eagle is different.

It does not stand by the water enjoying the calm. It does not wait for the world to come closer. It flies high. It sees far. It takes risks. It goes in search of prey.

The flamingo seeks comfort. The eagle seeks the horizon.

That is why I do not believe this protest has anything to do with Edi Rama. Nor with hatred. Nor with putting bread on the table. Nor with most of the slogans being waved in people’s hands.

All of these are merely different forms of the same concern:

“We cannot keep up with the speed of change. We want to bring it under control.”

But who will control it?

Those who have replaced knowledge with Facebook theories?

Those who talk about development without understanding what development is?

Those who imagine the future as a return to the past?

Those who live outside Albania, never want to return, but love the country only as a memory of the poverty they left behind?

Those who love Albania through Palestine or hate it through Israel?

Those who love Albania through Greece, Turkey, or Serbia, but not through Albania itself?

In the end, all of this resembles a protest with many slogans, with many demands that contradict one another, with a great need for attention and a strong desire to meet one another, but with little clarity about the destination.

And that is why it seems to me more like a protest of flamingos than of eagles.

Flamingos can stand for a long time, sometimes on one leg and sometimes on the other.

But the land of eagles has no time to lose.

It must fly. It must seek new horizons. It must go through its economic and historical transition.

We must talk about the eagles now.

There will be time for the flamingos later.

Cristiano Ronaldo continues to write history in world football. The Portuguese striker became the only player in history to have scored in six different editions of the World Cup.

The 41-year-old scored two goals in the first half of the match against Uzbekistan, responding in the best possible way to his critics and taking his career total to 975 goals.

With this brace, Ronaldo also moved into first place among Portugal’s top scorers in World Cup history. He reached the mark of 10 goals, surpassing the legend Eusebio, who had held this record until now.

The Portuguese captain also became the second-oldest goalscorer in World Cup history, at the age of 41 years and 138 days. The record is still held by Roger Milla, who scored at the age of 42 years and 39 days.