Endri
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Per ata qe dinė anglisht
Edi rama ka bere
RRuget , Parqet, Pastruar Lanen, Mbjell peme etj...
Me vone parkinget mos prisni ta kthej shqiperine ne Paris.
Kush eshte Edi Rama i vertet
Youve got to tear this old building down
Tiranas mayor: an artistic politician
Edi Rama, Mayor of Tirana, is an artist who has found a creative niche for himself in politics. He is working hard to engage the capital citys development problems and create a sound urban plan while living with the difficult past of his own life and his countrys.
In 1990, when communism was ousted and the Democratic Party (PD) was formed, Mayor Rama was a professor at the Albanian Academy of Arts. He said the school became "the avant-garde of democratic changes" and he was part of that. But that didnt last very long. "I left the democratic party after 20 minutes," Mayor Rama said.
He reasoned, what was created amongst the smoldering ashes of communism was not a democratic party, just a version of democracy. So, he continued to be an artist and professor of the academy, working and writing articles, going back and forth between Paris and Tirana and criticizing the ideas of the democrats and the socialists. He said, "I was always haunted by political life."
Then, in 1997 those fears became horrifyingly true. "I received a gift from Mr. Sali Berisha (President at the time). He decided to send me to paradise, before God, so he sent some people and they were waiting for me at the entrance of the house in full darkness with metallic pipes and all the instruments which you need to send someone to paradise." He was left for dead in a puddle of mud.
After a long period of recovery, Mayor Rama left Albania, with no plans to come back. He went to Paris to resume his career as an artist. A year later in 1998 as the government shifted and Prime Minister Fatos Nano took the helm Mayor Ramas father died. The Mayor returned to Albania. He said, "I went to my fathers funeral in the morning, totally depressed about not only his death, but the terrible situation Albania was in after the crisis of 1997."
That evening, Mayor Rama received a phone call from Fatos Nano, Prime Minister at the time. "I picked up the phone and I heard a voice saying to me, Mr. Minister of Culture, do you want to stay or do you want to leave again? And I recognized his voiceit was a proposal to become minister. Just like that. I didnt think and I said Ill stay." In that moment Mayor Rama decided to leave his life in Paris to become Albanias Minister of Culture. But he wasnt about to make this move without his wardrobe.
The Mayor confessed, "Now when I was in Paris I was very strange, I had no hair, I had earrings, all this stuff, and when I came for my fathers funeral I just took all those things off and bought a suit and tie for the respect of my father." He wore the same suit to become Minister, but the formality was eating him up. "Thats when I asked permission to go back and get my wardrobe. It was not the wardrobe of a minister, but I went to the PM and said, Listen, first of all I have no money to change my whole wardrobe, and second of all I dont want to. So you have to accept that the Minister of Culture will not have a tie." Permission was granted and the Council of Ministers had a new look about it.
One of the first things Minister Rama did was open cinemas in Tirana. In his own words: "We should open a window to this house." The only film Albanias knew were documentaries on Albanian communism made in the seventies and eightiessomething Mayor Rama calls "Communist Hollywood."
As Minister of Culture, Edi Rama got the attention of the Socialist party. The position of Mayor of Tirana had been held by the Democrats for ten years and the Socialist Party wanted to change that. Even though he was an Independent, Edi Rama ran for Mayor with the support of the Socialist Party. He won the position with 54% of the votes and came into office in October of 2000.
Edi Rama never wanted to become a minister, or a politician or the mayor either. Hes an artist. Politics, to him were "boring compared to being an artist." But like his country, he has changed a lot in the last ten years. Now he says being the Mayor of Tirana is "the most exciting job in the world, because I get to invent everyday and to fight for good causes everyday. Being the mayor of Tirana is the highest form of conceptual art. Its art in a pure state."
He is very suited to be Mayor of Tirana because he has a profound understanding of the changes that have taken place in Albanian mentality. But he also knows how patient he must be. Mayor Rama said, "Communism is like an atomic bomb in the brains of the whole society. Radiation has destroyed us very slowly; people have to live with that. You can change the system in one day, but you cant change the thinking. If you need 50 years to destroy, maybe you need 100 to rebuild."
For Mayor Rama, it is "much more difficult to renew an old house than to build a new one, especially if the old house is built in the wrong way." His work in progress is Tiranas urban planning, something that didnt exist before he took office. To start this masterpiece, however, Mayor Rama must first clear the canvas. He has to destroy what his predecessors permitted to be built sans plan.
Illegally built cafés, shops, hotels and restaurants have been a real headache for the capital. The construction of these buildings clogged vital drainages for rain water. Albania isnt a rainy place, but when it did rain, Mayor Rama said the "boulevard was like a river." Removing these buildings has been quite successful. This is how Mayor Rama acquired the space to build the park.
The businesses that have been displaced have saved enough money from not paying rent to afford new, legally built spaces. They are now helping the Mayor fight against the abuse of public space. Providing things like decent sidewalks for the citizens of Tirana is important to the Mayor, but protecting them is more important. Mayor Rama explained this phenomenon: "There has been a lack of education, tradition, experience and sense of community. After communism and in 1997 people were lacking a sense of belonging to the country. There was a rage against everything that was a state building because it was perceived as property of the enemy."
The solution was not only simple but has proved quite effective. The Mayor said, "We are trying to make people understand that what is public is also yours." Several sidewalks and roads have been laid in Tirana with financing from the community. In one case there was a space in the middle of several apartment buildings that was being used as a parking lot. The residents complained to the Mayor saying they wanted to put a garden there. The Mayor asked them to pitch in and they did. Mayor Rama said, "I wont build any sidewalks with exclusively municipal money, its also the money of the shops. Nobody will touch those sidewalks because the people are defending them."
The Mayor has meetings every day with Tiranas citizens to find out what they need, whats really going on in his city Its not the easiest job in Albania, but Edi Rama doesnt see his job as being the Mayor, he is an artistan artist who loves his job.
Edi rama ne syte e OKB dhe nderkombetareve
Modifikuar nga Endri datė 28/09/2003 ora 03:28
Denonco kėtė mesazh tek moderatorėt | IP: e regjistruar
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28 Shtator 2003 00:23
Forumi Horizont > Media dhe Politika > Politika Shqiptare > Arkivi i Politikes > Edi Rama apo Ngjela
