By Frank Ledwidge
The Gaza crisis has been playing a great deal here in Britain. Seeing the Israeli tanks laying into civilian villages on the pretext of conducting anti-terrorist operations reminds me of the Serbs doing the same thing ten years ago exactly in Kosovo. They were doing it on a much greater scale in Bosnia before that. Albania has nothing to learn regarding this sort of behaviour from Croats, Kosovars or Serbs. Real Albanians have never engaged in ethnic cleasing or military attacks on civilians. Obviously I exclude Kosovars from this. They behaved appallingly to their Serbs, and continue to do so, in violation of all that is best in Albanian tradition. Since ’99 I have never thought of them as real Albanians any more than the Northern Irish Protestants are really British. Saying so don’t make it so, as the old saying goes.
But listening to the Israeli spokesmen got me thinking about your country. The Israeli case, on any objective basis is just indefensible. I am a barrister and often find myself trying to come up with novel ways of presenting criminal acts as, if not acceptable, then understandable. But I would be hard pressed to find any excuse for the wholesale murder the Israelis have been perpetrating. It has not stopped them from trying. And they do it well; their spokesmen and women always sound reasonable to the Western ear. They are fluent and often Australian or South African accented -native English speakers. They are good looking and well-presented. In other words they are what Westerners expect spokesmen to be. What they are saying is nonsense, but they say it well.
The Palestinians however, who have a good case, present it badly. Their Hamas spokesmen (it is always men) have poor English, and often come across as fanatical and somewhat hysterical. So what? you are thinking. Here is the point, it is about time Albania started to think seriously about who represents it to outsiders. So many of your diplomats are superannuated communists, recycled old dissidents, or simply ex-politicians. I have rarely come across one who spoke fluently and well. In todays world this is important. This is why Edi Rama is or might be your secret weapon. He presents himself and his country well. Friends of mine, opinion formers in the UK always vaguely remember ‘that artist guy’ who appears on our travel programmes. In time they may associate the country with him and people like him, more than the crime that is currently the keynote. There are so many credible and highly educated young Albanians. I worked with
dozens at the OSCE for several years, and there are hundreds more where they came from. Whenever a media visitor or TV journalist needs to speak with someone, get a beautiful (or handsome) fluent, educated young Albanian to speak to him. Fluency and credibility and a bit of wit, like those Israeli spokesmen, is the important thing. At all costs Keep the old politicians or diplomats in a cupboard until the visitor has gone – don’t allow them to speak. Same at the embassies. Leave the old boys at home.
Albania has a great case to put forward for itself, unlike Israel, politically and commercially. You need to shove to the front young people who can present that case. Edi might be getting on a bit now, but he’s done a good job. Lets find some more younger versions.
