Shameless Audacity for Propaganda

A video of a helicopter precisely fighting a fire in the United States is being presented as action in Albania, accompanied by the hashtag #atthehelmofduty and, of course, with the Albanian national flag alongside it.

An Australian tourist was surprised when the Ministry of Health took up her case and turned it into national news in highly positive terms. The tourist, who found herself on Google, had not only not sought publicity, but received help only after speaking with the owner of the guesthouse, while she was unable to get through to the 112 emergency number.

It has become almost routine for Albania’s natural beauty—especially places where the hand of “strategic investors” has not yet reached—to be presented as an achievement of the government.

As if the mountains, rivers, sea and canyons were public works completed during the government’s terms in office, rather than the work of God.

These hot days, a female MP posted a video of a visit to a pensioner who, according to her, needed to do his grocery shopping. The MP had thought about the heat, too: she had brought him several cold beers. The camera, naturally, happened to enter the pensioner’s home entirely by chance, along with the beers.

I do not know whether anyone has been spared the annoyance of the famous inspections at construction sites where, according to the videos, work is always proceeding “at a rapid pace,” but it is impossible to understand why the road never gets finished.

What is gained from this unrestrained, ugly and by now extremely tiresome propaganda? Are fires in Albania extinguished by posting helicopters fighting flames in the United States? Does the emergency service work better when a tourist’s story is turned into propaganda? Does a road get completed faster if it is inspected ten times?

The audacity devoted to propaganda is now surpassing even the courage of the Good Soldier Švejk. In fact, Švejk’s courage was within acceptable parameters.

It is propaganda that has long been trying not only to beautify reality, but also to replace it.

But sometimes reality does not wait long to take revenge.

Just 24 hours after the interior minister and the tourism minister guaranteed maximum safety for tourists and holidaymakers in videos, two serious incidents followed in Sarandë and Ksamil.

It is interesting how the less work there is to show, the more propaganda increases.

It is worth recalling Chomsky’s saying: “Propaganda is to democracy what the bludgeon is to the totalitarian state.”

It is time for the government to remember that many of the problems it now presents as battles, construction sites or new challenges, it promised to solve during its first four years. It is now in its fourth term.

After so many years, #atthehelmofduty should show what work the government has done—not Nature!

By Lutfi Dervishi