FLASH
Shkruar nga Artur Ajazi
When I saw the video of Parashqevi Simaku, the star of the Albanian song, stranded on the streets of New York, I did not feel surprise, but only pity.
Almost 26 years ago, a person close to me fled with his family to the USA. Run away with the American account. In Tirana, he was a school principal, his wife an economist, and 2 children in school. They received good salaries and enjoyed good health. Don't prolong it. After 2 years of going to America, (where he worked as a security guard at a shopping center) my cousin was put on crutches, which he still has to this day. My wife cleaned the windows of 4 bars and supported the family. The children grew up, and of course took the right direction.
Today they do not live with their parents, and meet together 1 or 2 times a month. That's it. But their parents today feel the loneliness, as much as they also feel the lack of health. In the first few years, I often spoke on the phone with my cousin. The first few months, he was enthusiastic. At the end of the first year of my stay in the USA, I remember that he said to me "oh brother, it was not what I thought, America was not "HA-GET-IT", but it was work and only work". He worked from 07.00 in the morning until 20.00 in the evening. The money he and his wife got, they accumulated and bought a house, which today is almost empty, (and they are looking to sell it) since the 2 children have run away and are looking at their lives. Even the boy is 700 km away, and the girl is 1200 km away from the city where they lived with their parents.
Often in the phone calls I made, he cried "I didn't think it would turn out like this, I'm disappointed, we're left alone, but because of the shame I can't go back to Tirana". It seems that my cousin's American dream turned out to be a disappointing "NOTHING". He became disabled himself, his wife is still working, since it takes 1 more year to receive his pension, he rarely sees his children, and the longing for his country of birth, Albania, is burning him forever. I told this story briefly, because it would take pages and pages to tell the hardships of my cousin in America. It is true that the USA (without having tried it yet) remains the dream of many Albanians, just as it is true that there is neither security, nor peace, nor humanity, nor life like here in Albania.
America is a place where you work, not a place where you hang out in coffee shops all day. Capitalism is wild there, and whoever forgets it, and believes that they will find the "laid table", will be disappointed like my cousin. And he is not the only one. Many Albanians have dreamed of winning the lottery, or a long-term visa in America. But there they have either adapted themselves, or they have been disappointed. There are hundreds of cases that have come back, even though they have had to face criticism from people here who have no idea of the intensity of American life. Everything changes when it comes down to the "Promised Land".
The greeting with the neighbor (who doesn't look at you at all) changes, waking up in the morning, leaving for work, working hours, coffee and daily food changes, the barbecue you make, the walk, where no one cares who you are and where you come from. When I saw the video of Parashqevi Simaku, the star of the Albanian song, stranded on the streets of New York, I did not feel surprise, but only pity. Here, Parashkevia, would be the beloved "queen" of music, and would have the respect and all the love of the Albanians.
She fled there, at the beginning of the 90s, believing that she would "touch Hollywood", perhaps never thinking of the life catastrophe. Now her return to Tirana, and the accommodation down to the details, is up to the Albanian government and society, to put in place the name and contribution of an Artist, who in America turned to beggar on the streets of New York.
Lini një Përgjigje