What has Prishtina got to do with the Tirana Theater! I'm talking to you as a man who lives between two realities
2020-05-19 21:14:15
Albatros Rexhaj
The controversy over the theater in Tirana and the outpouring of the debate beyond Albania has prompted me to think about something I have been examining for a long time.
I consider that it is not okay for the Albanians of Albania to be involved in the internal political debate in Prishtina and also it is not okay for the Albanians of Kosovo to be involved in the political debate in Tirana. As someone who under normal circumstances (without Covid and the like) lives apart from Tirana and Pristina and with sensitivity to our two worlds, I think that this disrespect for each other's internal affairs only brings dissension and deepens intolerance and the stereotypes we have of each other. And that’s dangerous, because telling the truth isn’t that we need as much as we say, as our local discourses are full of absurd stereotypes about each other.
It is not enough to have an opinion on a certain development in Tirana or Pristina, but you must also have local sensitivities and we do not have this for each other. In countless conversations with friends and other acquaintances in Tirana, but also following closely the public debates on Kosovo, I realized that the Albanians of Albania, especially analysts, have no real sensitivity to reality and political developments in Pristina. but the same is true in reverse, as Pristina's analysts are almost alien to the Tirana world. We are a people, but mentally we live in two very different worlds and this is a fact that can hardly be denied. As a result, Tirana cannot change Pristina from within, nor can Pristina change Tirana. I even think that such a thing should not be tried, because in addition to being useless, it is also insulting.
We are brothers and sisters, but we have separate houses. As long as we are like this, the special specifics of the two roofs must be respected to the maximum, otherwise we risk leaving each other even more. And this would be a truly modern tragedy, one of all Albanian character.
By Albatros Rexhaj
Blog: Urban Philosophy
