As members of a people small in number, Albanians instinctively become interested when other Albanians make news internationally, either in the homelands or anywhere in the world. Albanians in America are particularly in focus, simply because that country has been a magnet for the best, brightest and the most daring from all over the world — and Albanians are no exception.
So this week, when a small news item came up noting that Laura Mersini-Houghton, an Albanian American physicist and university professor born and raised in Tirana, has become an official candidate for the Nobel Prize for her daring theories and complicated mathematical calculations on the existence of black holes, Albanians were naturally proud. She is Albanian, and hard work and sheer smarts have taken her at the pinnacle of global academia. She is not alone by the way. Ferid Murad, another American scientist whose father was an Albanian immigrant, has already won the Nobel Prize. I met Dr. Murad once at my former university a decade ago. He beamed with pride, telling me about his Albanian father and pride he felt of the many honors he had received in Albania.
Another American with an Albanian immigrant father who made international headlines this week is Martin Shkreli, whose name is so typically Albanian that when the stories came out describing him as “the most hated man in America” this week, it made news in Albania too, even-though Mr. Shkreli appears to have no respect for the homeland of his father, calling Albanian a worthless language on social media. You see, Mr. Shkreli does not find value in anything unless it involves money. A financier and profiteer, he took over a drug that is vital of people with weakened immune systems and jacked up the price 5,000 percent overnight – and then went off on a disastrous public tirade trying to protect his decision. The public backlash has been immense, and rightly so.
Albanians, like all the people of the world, have heroes and villains, at home and abroad. There are the people that get up with the sun, toil all day to provide for themselves and their families through honest hard work. These are the unsung heroes of Albanian life, who hardly ever get a spot in the media’s attention and are often treated with arrogance and disregard by those in power.
Then, there are the villains. Some of them are typical crooks — the thugs wearing jogging outfits. Others wear suits and ties — a few of these even sit in offices paid for by taxpayers, many Albanians believe.
Albanians have to live with both their heroes and villains, but they do not have to be defined by the latter. A society where everyday heroes working hard and honestly make up the majority of the people has the power to correct its course no matter how large the challenge is. It can do so by choosing to become inspired by the Mersinis and Murads of this world, not by the Shkrelis.
– Written by Andi Balla
