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Like the flight of swallows heralding the new season, the students’ refrain of December 1990 was a sure signal that the semaphore, which at that time had begun convincing us, told us that spring’s delay for us had been a fatal misunderstanding between one another. Thinking, then, that we had finally overcome a harsh winter lasting 50 years, all together we set out for Europe, with the firm hope that, by waving the sheets of poverty in the wind like flags of peace, the world would help us, and that we ourselves would do nothing but govern the seasons and absurd winds. But the years passed one after another, and the Albanian drama, unlike any Shakespearean act, having wrung out the tragedy of the masses, has meanwhile taken on grotesque proportions. Thus, from the very beginning until now, we have continually put anonymous people in charge of affairs, people to whom nobody has said “good luck”; we put in charge of commissions or the fight against smuggling those most notorious for dirty dealings; we put in charge of guarding the sheep and aid supplies people who, in truth, were entrusted with what Europe and the world had sent without sparing anything. And suddenly, at the climax of the effects [?], we saw students leaving, disillusioned by the medieval tragedy and crime. Then we understood that we had been wrong to place our trust and remain silent for so long, but it was too late... The students and young intellectuals who gave shape to December 1990 offered us a great chance to build democracy, but we did not know how to make use of it, because within the two largest parties, the PD and PS, the struggle for power took on unprecedented and unscrupulous proportions. Other students now can hardly wait to finish their studies so they can leave the country, and the first question they ask concerns whether “our diplomas are recognized abroad.” Meanwhile, the pseudo-politicians who spent the whole year quarrelling over ministerial portfolios set off for Student City in December to be labelled Decemberists. And yet, despite the general parody of the political camps, it can still by no means be denied that Albania is facing a great [?], connected with integration into Europe. Therefore, as we analyze the students’ lines of December, we must drive the angry extremists away from ourselves and finally become aware that we belong to the great community from which we have fatally isolated ourselves through the ghosts of the Middle Ages.

Satirical drawing: a building bearing the inscription “90”; a person covered in snow tries to reach the door.

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