FLASH
Shkruar nga Prof. Mimoza Manxhari
May 11 gives us an opportunity to start a new chapter and turn this dignity into reality.
My friends, I share these words with you as a mother and as a citizen who loves her country and who believes that honest words and conscientious action have the power to awaken hope and responsibility.
May 1st was once a day of pride. It was celebrated with flags, with songs, even though with tired faces, but still smiling. It was a day for those who built Albania with their own hands — roads, factories, bridges, lives. They were not millionaires, but they were the pillars of this country. They did not ask for privileges. They only asked for respect and they earned it _ with sweat and honesty.
Today, May 1st is silent. Work has been insulted. Sweat has been desecrated. Honesty has been excluded. Albania has lost respect for itself, because it has lost respect for those who work honestly.
Have we forgotten how much our sweat is worth?
Institutions are silent. Arrogance rules. An entire generation is leaving, not because they don't love Albania, but because Albania no longer loves the truth.
Those who once swore by dignity, today remain silent in the face of inequality and sell the country for one more privilege.
Even during the dictatorship, honesty had a certain honor.
Today it is a shame to be honest and a glory to be a cheat!
We are tired. Not from work, but from injustice.
From facades. From lies. From empty titles, diplomats without knowledge, justice without law, politics without morality.
When a man earns his living by the sweat of his brow, he sees more clearly the difference between dignity and ridicule. He knows better the silence that has replaced the voice in this society. He understands more deeply what it means to sacrifice, to endure, to not give up. I too have lost faith sometimes. But it is not politics that has betrayed us. It is the wrong people we have allowed to remain there.
In our beloved Albania:
We do not lack people - we lack responsibility.
We do not lack diplomas - we lack knowledge and honesty.
We do not lack laws - we lack justice and the will to implement them.
We do not lack opportunities - we lack courage.
Universities are silent when a diploma becomes the currency of corruption.
The administration is silent when a vote becomes the price for favors. When power becomes a privilege, not a responsibility.
The media is silent when the truth is unpleasant for power.
The land is barren, not for lack of water, but for lack of direction.
Youth flee not for lack of love, but for lack of hope.
Once upon a time, people believed in a better future even when they had nothing. Today they have more freedom, but they no longer believe in freedom or the future! Once upon a time, we exported work. Today, we export our children and import the void they leave behind, filling it with foreigners who do not know our land or our pain.!
This is not development. It is surrender. May 11 of this year is not just a date on the calendar.
It is a division. A dividing line. A mirror where each of us must look at ourselves and honestly understand what we want, what we stand for. It is an opportunity to emerge from the depths of collective anesthesia.
It is a historical test: Do we still love this country and the future of our children? Will we continue to remain silent?
Will we choose the same paths that have led us to poverty, exile, and hopelessness?
Or will we have the courage to wake up and take responsibility into our own hands?
We all say we want change. Change doesn't come from beautiful words. Change comes from awareness, from responsibility, from action and above all, from the vote.
Let's not vote to punish, but to build.
Let's not vote out of fear, out of anger, or for a bag of promises.
Let us vote with conscience, as citizens who are not sold out and who are not silent.
Let's vote in such a way that tomorrow we won't lower our eyes in front of our children, because we didn't have the courage and didn't say NO to injustice, abuse, arrogance, and corruption.
Because a vote without conscience is another wound on the body of this country. We do not need orators and passive followers, but honest people who feel the pain of this country as their own wound, and who know how to heal with honesty. No more recitations of promises.
Our ears have been ringing with big words for 30 years. It's time for simple but honest deeds.
Before we ask our sons not to leave, let's show them why it's worth staying:
Not just for the beauty of the mountains or nostalgia, but for the honor of living in a country that respects work, knowledge, and justice.
May 1st reminds us that dignity is earned through work, and that change only comes when people work, protest, and choose.
May 11 gives us an opportunity to start a new chapter and turn this dignity into reality.
Let us no longer seek our homeland only in poetry or in the flag. Let us build it with action, honesty and courage. And let us honor it with a vote that does not deepen wounds, but heals. With a vote that does not shame, but raises our heads high, with dignity and hope.
Workers are not just part of the economy. They are the pillars of human dignity. For them, for our children, for those of us who still believe.
*Note; Mimoza Manjhari is a Professor at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Tirana.
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