25 Rreshtat e Mirës

Lea up close!

Lea up close!

By Mira Kazhani / We recorded the interview with Lea Ypi on December 28, to post it in "Tiranapost" in the first week of January. She was one of the characters of 2021. Albanian pedagogy in London, which came to the fore after the publication of the book "Free, to grow at the end of history". A personal story, which comes from Lea's childhood memories, but shown by the analysis of an adult woman and lecturer of one of the basic philosophies of the left, Marxism.

The book has been published so far in 17 other languages. Success!

The guys I shoot with have, as rarely, curiosity and desire for this episode. One said he already had the book in hand, but the better he would have the opportunity to meet and listen "live" to Lea Ypin.

Lea came! Along with the aura of polite but cool intellectual.

During the conversation with him, I caught a glimpse of Albania in relation to other countries about the success of the book. Here she felt prejudiced, even though she said she "forgave him".

In Albania they had a lot to do with who he meets, with whom he stays, with whom he drinks coffee, instead of talking about the book. They were dealing with Lean and not her work. While a part had bullied the book as well. I read the latter in the article of "The Guardian" together with the phrase "sexist attitudes".

Lea had found herself in Albania "more like a show girl than an academic".

As, on the other hand, the portrayal of the homeland by a well-known academic (although Lea Ypi for "The Guardian" speaks of a minority) as a bullying society was pessimistic!

I was reminded of the guys I shoot with, who came so eagerly on the cold morning of December 28th to shoot the interview with the famous author of the moment.

One thing is for sure: we put our tails on each other, just as much as we burden the successful with the burden of "saving the country".

But, on the other hand, for whom he grew up at the end of history, criticism is organic, because communism still releases strong emotions among us.

A book always produces criticism. Even masterpieces.

But why in this case the critics from Albania were bruised, so much so that an academic was responding to them in English? Someone said he was being victimized for fame, etc., etc.

In our interview we talked about frequent trips to Tirana. About the book and the criticism, about which Lea told me from the beginning: "Only you in Albania want to talk about the criticism", which I took as a joke.

The purpose of this interview was a curiosity / insistence to look at the political and social Albania through the lens of an academic and writer living in London. How did she understand today's Albania, from coffees, lunches and dinners with high-ranking people. How does he manage to remain critical in the end? How should we who are inside the spider behave? Dialogue says Lea. Man eats with the difference.

It is a complex of ours, but we expect both Dua Lipa and Nancy Dojaka to give us a message, an impression, and no longer from an academic!

Lea, in a complex way, answered me that she does not know Albania: "I feel very little oriented here".

We also talked about the rumors that her name is circulating as an idea for presidential candidates in the summer. Here Lea Ypi "caught me off guard" with the perfect recognition of the article for the president in the Constitution of Albania…!

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