FLASH
Shkruar nga Skënder Minxhozi
In one year, we have seen how the Trump presidency has fed the twisted fantasy of a portion of Albanians with the greatest expectations, followed by the most bitter disappointments.
January 20 marks one year since US President Donald J. Trump took office. In a year that has seen the world witness epochal upheavals that have put the US on a collision course with key Western allies, and witnessed a total reshaping of the major landmarks of American domestic and foreign policy, which have produced a tense and stagnant state across much of the globe.
However, this is a complex situation that deserves more than one analysis. It is enough to take a look at the world media and social networks to understand the fervor and hilarity that the Trump presidency has produced in one year. In the Albanian environment, the stagnation brought by the change of power in Washington has given rise, as is our tradition, to a wave of speculation about what was expected to happen to the country's political and economic elites as a result of Donald Trump's new policy. First, it was taken for granted that there would really be an American policy for this periphery of Europe that has been wandering for three decades in a state of political, economic and social suspense. Above all, a region that continues to be at risk from major geopolitical games.
Secondly, when Trump took office, there were (and still are) many who calculated that the new head of the White House would spend a good part of the workday worrying about the next quarrel in the Albanian Parliament, about this or that statement by this or that politician, or about this or that tender that was being investigated by SPAK by summoning or arresting this or that minister or MP.
It took a year to realize that this vision is, at best, narrow and naive. Because in the span of a year, we have seen Trump's "sheriffs" come to Tirana during electoral campaigns, who we later learned were paid very large fees. We have seen how these sheriffs have promised major overthrows and downfalls, but in the end we have learned that the government has increased the votes and mandates, and the sheriffs have returned from where they came after taking the money with them.
In one year, we have seen how the Trump presidency has fed the disintegrated fantasy of a part of Albanians with the greatest expectations, followed by the most bitter disappointments. Where lightning was expected to strike, the status quo has continued to reign, where it was announced that there would be "mass shootings" only the sound of fireworks in the neighborhoods has been heard. Where a grand scenario was expected to be implemented, not even a small drama of those that are forgotten in three days has been produced.
Albania has continued its course of efforts to get out of the prolonged cycle of transition, while the American administration has remained, in relation to our country, at similar, if not identical, milestones to the previous one. Those who were destined not to set foot in America have continued to be so during this year. Those who thought that the new justice would end now that a politician with a lot of investigations and accusations on his shoulders came to the head of the USA, have been disappointed again when they saw the Spak attacks on politics. Anyone who expected punishments by name and surname or rotations and arrests from those sensational ones in the middle of the night at the top of the state and power, has been forced to shrink expectations and continue to wait like old woman Nurihan.
This perspective also includes what we are seeing and experiencing these hours. Edi Rama was probably supposed to be in America "to be questioned as a person in the know in an investigation". The date of the trip was even circulating. Here's something else. Instead of a summons to the doors of American justice, Rama "receives a card" from Donald Trump for the resurgence of Gaza. This development also does not automatically erase what has been said and done before, but which shows in a dry and cynical way that when it comes to Americans, classic calculations must be weighed well. Very well, in fact.
Because they have proven with facts more than once that they know how to be completely unpredictable and unclassifiable by our provincial and often ridiculous criteria. The more we remember that we know, the less we prove that we know. It is little but certain!
Lini një Përgjigje