FLASH
Shkruar nga Skënder Minxhozi
Just a few years ago, Albania emerged as the country with the least robberies in Europe, a figure that surprised many. No surprise, actually. This is a reality that is related to our behavior, to what we are and do, excluding specific cases from which no country is immune.
Nigel Farage is a well-known figure in Great Britain and abroad. He is the man who has taken credit (the stamp, if you look at today's polls), for advancing, together with Boris Johnson, the famous Brexit campaign in the summer of 2016. In other words, the exit of Great Britain from the European Union after the referendum announced by the then Prime Minister David Cameron.
For several days now, Nigel Farage, the leader of a far-right political party, has been engaging in a remote debate with Prime Minister Rama regarding Albanian crime in Britain. “Get your criminals” is Farage’s basic message, which sounds in complete sync with the xenophobic and racist spirit that the European right is following these days, led by the Donald Trump administration, which has been hunting immigrants in the streets and cities of the US for months. Essentially, what Farage is pouring out in his messages to Rama is part of the exclusionary poison on a planetary scale that has mainly invaded the northern hemisphere after the American elections. We have entered a new world and we must coexist with it!
The Rama-Farage debate is just one of many, many episodes where hundreds of thousands of Albanians who work their hearts out in all kinds of hard work, who support their families with endless sacrifices, educate their children, who open businesses and pay taxes – this entire human community continues to suffer the image of a trafficker, criminal or lawbreaker with an Albanian passport. As if other nationalities are angels! As if the British themselves are not de facto the first orderers and consumers of drugs and other vices for which newcomers are pointed out!
Great Britain is currently experiencing an internal debate regarding immigration, which has been going on for years in a vicious circle. Leaving the European Union did not solve the problem of infiltration of clandestine refugees nor their integration into British society. It did not improve the economy or the social situation, which creates frustration and pushes towards the theses of characters like Farage. In this political stagnation, the stigmatization of a community like the Albanian one has long been on the agenda of some politicians and the media. However, reality is stubborn. The million-strong mass of immigrants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Middle East or Eastern Europe, together with the problems it has created over the years, cannot be covered with the modest "sweep" of Albanians. We are too few to be the scapegoat in a power of 60 million.
Nigel Farage is the classic case of a populist trying to build his political comeback on the British political scene, after the massive disappointment caused by Brexit, which he glorified, and after seeing that the Conservatives in crisis, the political sphere closest to his ideas, are now a vote pool where he can gain support and consensus. This is also the essence of his debate with Rama: to win points in the national political game.
Just a few years ago, Albania emerged as the country with the least robberies in Europe, a figure that surprised many. No surprise, actually. This is a reality that is related to our behavior, to what we are and do, excluding specific cases from which no country is immune. Great Britain first, as well as every major Western country.
When statistics speak, the truth comes out. When the ruling elite of a country like Great Britain seeks to wage propaganda and political war on immigration, the truth is hidden, distorted and manipulated. This is the case when the figures are inflated, the statistics begin to be watered down, as populists like Farage start looking for scapegoats for their inability to provide solutions to domestic crises.
Tirana and other cities in Albania are a much safer place than London or Liverpool, and this insecurity in those large urban centers is of course not due to the violent Albanians there. We cannot be angels in our own country and criminals and murderers around the world. It does not go with either logic or facts. It is more accurate to say that just as there is no forest without pigs, there are no immigrant communities without criminals and traffickers. The thing is that these latter regularly make more noise and are more noticeable than the hundreds of thousands of others who keep their heads down and try to cope with the difficult life of an immigrant.
There will always be a Farage to blow us this kind of speculative propaganda, which slowly and with great difficulty disappears from the brains of public opinion. As has happened with "Italians are mafia", "arrogant French" or "sly Jews" etc. etc. They are clichés that unfortunately only time will heal and the cure in these cases is usually slow. We are not mentioning the clichés about the British because the list would be very long and not very pretty!
Lini një Përgjigje