Forsaken Albania

By Artan Lame
Tirana, 1940. In view of the fact that we honoured Teacher’s Day only a few days back, I cannot fail to remember this day either, but in my own way.
In the dark years of occupation, the foreign occupiers did their utmost to distract our thoughts from the fight for liberty by building schools in Tirana.
The first photograph shows the initial work on the opening of the foundations and the erection of the walls of the “Kosovo” School. The building site has still not been cleared of the grass and weeds, trampled underfoot by the building workers as they go backwards and forwards with carrying their tools, bricks and mortar. Beyond the construction site is Elbasan Street, which at that time had still not been tar sealed; that was to take place about one year later. Worthy of mention here is that from then on this road remained unchanged for sixty years until 2004 when it was finally widened beyond the breadth the Italians left it at. In the left hand corner of the photo, you can see the corner of the villa that belonged to the Jupi Family, which to this day is still inhabited by that family. Further, in the centre of the photo there is a large, white building of neo-classic style the owners of which, which, unfortunately, did not enjoy it for much time. In 1945 it was nationalized by the State and entire generations of Albanians visited it as the “Lenin-Stalin” Museum. After 1990, Lenin and Stalin exited the scene and the Italian Ambassador in Albania made it his residence, which is what it remains to this day.
With a little more scrutiny, in the distance you can make out the building of the US Embassy which houses the same Embassy today too. To the right of the photo, in the distance, up on the hill, the structure of the Royal Palace under construction can be discerned which no Monarch ever got the opportunity to enjoy and this building went down in history as the Palace of the Brigades.
In the second photo, the school building has been completed and work is continuing on the play ground, but obviously it is almost ready to welcome the pupils you can see in the third photograph. Ever since that day, so may years ago, and up until somewhere in 2000, this school that bore the aspiring name, “Kosovo” welcomed and provided initial schooling for dozens of generations of children who grew to adulthood and grew old in this city, one of them being the author of these lines. But suddenly, on the dawning of the new Century the school was closed, then it fell into wrack and ruins, and then, one day we learnt that the property it had stood on had been given back to the original owners. And that occurred on the occasion of the millennium of the Internet.
To draw wool over our eyes, the Italian occupiers built schools for us, whilst we, the occupied, when our eyes were opened, we closed down schools and substituted them with business. Sure, we lost a school, but, hey, we gained a property owner!!