Tirana Times interview with Kozeta Çuadari-Çika, the director of the Open Education Albania non-profit centre and the 2013 recipient of the International Society for Individual Liberty Award
Q – Since almost two years you have been running the Open Education Albania non-profit centre. What can you tell us about this center, how was is it born and how is it going compared to your expectations?
A- The establishment of the Open Education Albania came as a continuation of my personal work for more than 15 years as a professor and translator of the English language serving students and other target groups. The Centre targets giving students equal access to educational means, promotes a free educational environment, eases access to information and applications in different fields of education, especially online ones and international exams, promotes the learning of foreign languages, the best universities in Albania and around the world, professionalism in translation and helps the promotion of free market ideas through publications and liberal activities. Of course, for a country in transition such as Albania, it takes time for successful expectations.
Q- You have also established cooperation with the American organization, the International Society for Individual Liberty (ISIL), which has supported some publications of your center. How were the liberal ideas of these publications received by the public in Albania considering the post-1990s developments in Albania but also the isolated society and market during the dictatorship in the pre-1990s?
A- Since 2000, I have been the Albania representative of the International Society for Individual Liberty (ISIL), based in San Francisco, U.S.
My contact with this libertarian centre came in 1998 when I was working as translator with Albanian Centre for Economic Research. One of the projects of this Centre included the translation into Albanian of the first edition “The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible,” a free market odyssey. It was a 1999 project in cooperation with ISIL, a book translated into more than 50 languages. The book provides insight into capitalism and market economy in very simple language in the form of a fable. Of course at that time, the book was a success in Albania and was distributed mainly free of charge.
As a translator of this book, I continued keeping contact with ISIL as a reporter on the economic and political situation in Albania, as well as by participating in their international activities, mainly annual conferences.
Then we had other projects in the field of liberal publications such as the translations of several books including “Hymn” by Ayn Rand, 2006; “The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible,” the second edition by Ken Schoolland, the current ISIL President, 2011; “Beyond Democracy” by Frank Karsten, 2013; “The Free Market and Its Enemies” by Ludwig von Mises, 2014; “The Logic of Classical Liberalism” by Jacques De Guenin, 2015.
Their translation into Albanian was carried out free of charge while the ISIL Foundation helped with their publication. These books and others will be included in the “Setting up Free Market Library” project.
The publications were received with interest especially by researchers, economy and law students. The books were distributed in university libraries, main Tirana bookshops and are part of the liber events organized in the past few years.
Q- Last year, Tirana hosted for the first time the annual ISIL conference. What did international experts think about the free market and individual freedoms in Albania?
A- ISIL organizes an annual conference in different countries each year. In 2014, it was decided that this conference is held in Albania in partnership with Open Education Albania. The conference was held in late August 2014 in Tirana bringing together more than 100 guests from four continents. The speakers were renowned academics from Europe, America, Asia and Africa. There was participation from Albanian students and guests from the Students for Liberty, a global youth organization with considerable activity even in Balkan and Eastern Europe countries.
The Albanian speakers, renowned academics in the field in the market economy made a presentation of the situation in Albania, which is still lagging behind true democracy. There was emphasis in the liberalization of the economy, decentralization, media independence, freedom of speech and respect of individual rights, fields where Albania still faces a lot of challenges.
Q- In 2013 you were given the ISIL Liberty Award for your work to advance liberty. How did you feel with this award and who do you dedicate your success?
A- The ISIL Liberty Award is awarded each year to an activist from different countries around the world. This award concludes the annual ISIL conference.
In 2013, at the annual conference in Lausanne, Switzerland, I had the honor to receive this award as an assessment for individual efforts under difficult economic circumstances, promoting liberalism and free market ideas in Albania. Of course, I felt privileged and proud for what I have achieved and what I can do more in the future.
Q- Apart from your work in non-profit organizations and in the field of publications, you are also known as the author of the book “Mjegull shpirti” (Spirit Mist). What can you tell us about this publication, the topics you treat, the messages you convey?
A- In short, I can tell you that writing has been one of my hobbies since school age. I wrote several small poetry books during the 1990s. Meanwhile, “Mjegull Shpirti” (Spirit Mist) is my first novel which also includes some poems at the beginning of each chapter. The story is set at the end of 1980s and early 1990s, unveiling the changes in Albania’s political system which affected everybody with the positive and negative aspects. The main four female characters of the book go through the ordeal of getting to know themselves at a difficult time of great changes, showing that virtue triumphs over the evil, love is not affected by distance and that life must be lived as it comes.
Q- Anything else you would like to add, such as a message for the further development of freedom of individuals and the economy in Albania?
A- We are still far from western democracies, so that education is the main and most powerful tool which can change our country and people. Apart from my everyday work in the center, this is what we target through our libertarian project, i.e. providing more knowledge about democracy and the free market because they are often both abused.
In Albania, it is difficult working with educational projects because you don’t always have the financial and moral support, but this does not prevent us from giving out from ourselves even without reward.
Today, it is almost impossible to find idealists, but I strongly believe in Nelson Mandela’s saying that “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
