What do Naim Mala, Liam Neeson and James Bond have in common? You may well ask in return ‘ who on Earth is Naim Mala? The good (or maybe not so good) Mr Mala was recently proposed by the newly declared state of Kosovo as their Ambassador to Switzerland. Unfortunately for Mr Mala, the Swiss authorities turned down his nomination. No reason was given. Media commentators in Kosovo however have said that this might be because of a ‘police record’. I would venture a guess that Mr Mala’s police record in Switzerland did not involve parking violations.
And what of Liam Neeson. He stars in a rather entertaining film on release now called ‘Taken’. The plot is relatively simple. Mr Neeson’s daughter is kidnapped by human traffickers and the film revolves around his efforts to ensure her safe return. I won’t spoil the plot for you, but it is enough to say that the traffickers have a rough time of it. No prizes for guessing the nationality of these bad guys. Neeson says at one point to one of them ‘You need to focus , Marko from Tropoja’. This Marko is assisted in focussing his thoughts by being hooked up to the French national electricity grid at the time.
As for James Bond, the baddie in the last film ‘Casino Royale’ is
supposed to be Albanian too -although his name Le Chiffre is hardly what one might expect.
Now it is certainly gratifying to see traffickers tortured and
killed by Liam Neeson’s character. Human traffickers are the lowest of the low, true scum and I say that as a human rights lawyer! It is also amusing to see Kosovoar diplomats turned down for murky reasons. But the underlying message is that whether you like it or not Albanians have a serious image problem. Most sensible Albanians know this, and realise that crying ‘prejudice’ will not achieve anything. Ten years ago it was Serbs who were the Balkan pariahs for Europeans and Americans. Now it is Albanians.
What can Albanians do about this? Your politicians of course are far more interested in squabbling amongst themselves to address this problem. Albania has a very poor record of political leadership. The only hope from that quarter may be Edi Rama, who appears regularly in various UK TV travel shows. More educated Westerners know him as the man who painted Tirana. This is good as far as it goes. But image matters, as I am sure Mr Rama and many other Albanians (not the criminals or politicians of course) realise. There may come a time when Albania is a candidate for EU membership. It may be painful to read this but Serbia has a far better profile in most European voters eyers than Albania, and that is because of only one thing. Crime. Until that is seen to be dealt with, the problem will continue. Who knows, maybe one day Albania will produce its own equivalent to those Sicilian heroes Judges Falcone and Borsellini, whose names will far outlast any of the criminal mafia dirtbags who killed them.
As for the expatriate community, lets hope that over the next
decade or so a new generation of Albanian-IAmericans, Italians, Swiss and British do what the Italian-Americans did in previous years. The men who broke the power of the Italian mafias in the US were largely Italian-American. New York’s former Mayor Giuliani was only the most famous of many police and prosecutors who dedicated their lives to ensuring that Italy was seen not only as the home of the Cosa Nostra, and ensured
that the Sopranos did not define their excellent culture. Lets hope the time will come when an American District Attorney, a British Judge or an Italian senior Police Officer with an Albanian name bring honor to their ancestral home in the same way as Giuliani did for Italians.
Until this happens, look out as the honor of Albania continues to be besmirched by its criminals who continue to abuse the hospitality of their host countries, such as Britain, and bring shame on all Albanians.
