FLASH
Shkruar nga Ben Blushi
It seemed unfair to me that this wonderful fishing town should have its name changed.
I just read with pleasure that Pjerin Ndreu had no plans to change the name of Shëngjin.
The other day, I, like many others, was surprised when the press presented as an official proposal by Pjerini, the possibility of naming Shëngjin "Wilson City", after President Woodrow Wilson.
For several months, Shëngjin kept this name when Fan Noli, the prime minister, approved a proposal by Faik Konica to honor the American President who had recognized Albania's independence.
This happened in 1924. A hundred years ago.
Later, Shëngjin could not keep that name and returned to the beautiful name it has had for centuries.
I wrote a novel about Shëngjin and, for this reason alone, it seemed unfair to me that this wonderful fishing town should be renamed.
Albania once tried naming cities after foreign world leaders.
Kuçova was called "Stalin City" for almost 30 years. When communism collapsed, the residents returned to the name they had always had.
Of course, there is an uncanny resemblance between the two cases.
Wilson saved Albania from dismemberment at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, while Stalin taught Albanian communists how to imprison and kill their opponents for 45 years.
Albania remained a Stalinist country even when the Soviet Union split from Stalin after 1960.
However, changing the name of a city is not always beneficial, regardless of the reasons.
100 years ago Fan Noli had other reasons. He had met President Wilson and America's support at that time was vital. Today things have changed.
If the fashion of changing city names begins, the people of the field can propose that their city be called "Bush City" or "Bush Field", because in 2007 President Bush, who joined us in NATO, came to this city where he was showered with much love.
Bush is the only President to have come to Albania and I will never forget how smiling he was when I met him at the plane's steps on June 10, 2007.
But, following this fashion, surely many cities in Kosovo would be queuing up to be called "Clinton City", after President Bill Clinton, who liberated Kosovo from Serbia in 1999.
And of course it wouldn't end there, because when he learned of these changes not approved by him, President Trump's narcissistic appetite would not be satisfied until another city in Albania or Kosovo was called "Trump City."
And who can resist this request from the man who two days ago forced Pakistan, this savage Islamic country with nuclear weapons, to nominate him for the Nobel Prize?
So, anticipating that the chain of these surprising baptisms could be endless, I was glad today when I read that Pjerin Ndreu even plans to change the beautiful name of the city of Shëngjin.
I decided to make this comment in continuation of the note about the Lezha Assembly that Pjerin Ndreu so generously organized a week ago.
There I wrote that, since I've known him, Pjerini has surprised me three times.
Today I'm very glad that I left it at that and it didn't surprise me for the fourth time.
I often go to Shëngjin to photograph the breathtaking sunsets and I wouldn't want, when people ask me "Where are you?", to answer: "I'm waiting for the sun to set in Wilson, it's a little windy in Wilson City, I'm heading to Bush Field, but on the way to Tirana I'll also pass by Trump City, the city where I did my military service and which used to be called Mamurras."
Lini një Përgjigje