Tuesday Morning - June 11

Last Thursday, the streets were quiet at 7 pm, the vegetable stands empty of vendors, only a few women and children were in the grocery store.  I have never been in Tirana when there are so few cars on the street - except for maybe the dead of night.  It is eery... and as I return from the grocery store I pass a coffee bar filled with men drinking coffee and... watching football.  Albania is playing Norway for a slot in some kind of finals - I think for qualifying to be in the run up to the World Cup next year.   

The afternoon is filled with men walking and driving around with Albanian flags draped around themselves - the colors were EVERYWHERE!!!  Traffic is at a standstill as, it seems, the whole world is heading for the stadium off of Rruga Elbasani where the standoff is to take place.  Tickets were sold out in the first 12 hours some days ago, I understand, and now scalpers are demanding double.  Pedestrians ignore traffic lights as they weave in and out of traffic.  Groups (of primarily men, and most of them young) have obviously already started to celebrate.  You can feel the tension in the air.

Early on, as the game begins, there are cheers and cars honking.  Then, dead quiet!  In the first few minutes - maybe 10 minutes - of the game Albania scores!  The ground rumbles with the collective cheer.  Then quiet again as the ball returns to play.  It is fielded back and forth - an attempt at a score - saved!  Gasps, sighs, coffee and a variety of liquid refreshments are consumed as the ball flies for the goal and misses, then off-sides; the first third is over and Albania is ahead.  The second third is punctuated with power plays, attempts at goal and heroic saves on both sides; it is finally over and Albania remains ahead.  Each third seems to last at least 90 minutes instead of the requisite 30 as the tension mounts.  The quiet is organic!  Down to the last 15 minutes of the last period and all is well for Albania - now 10 minutes and Albania remains in the lead!  Is it possible?  Could Albania actually win this game and the respect that has eluded them always?

Albania has never been at a world class level in football.  Not only is their soccer history one of domination, so is their national history.  Since before the time of Christ, these independent warriors were overcome first by the Greeks, then the Romans, then the Barbarians or the Italians.  Their history is one of other nations leering at them in greed - annex this small area and use it as a breadbasket.  This even continued during the Communist times when Yugoslavia maneuvered to annex this tiny nation.  This football contest takes on a new dimension - can Albania beat the competition and stand proud as an independent nation, alone and free from annexation to any neighbor?  We are down to the last 5 minutes of the game!  Albania remains ahead.  Four minutes... and, alas, Norway scores.  Oh, no!  There are only 4 minutes or so left.  Can Albania snatch this victory in only 4 minutes?  The tension mounts in the coffee shops and bars, in living rooms and in restaurants where large screen TVs have been erected.  Each kick of the ball is followed by collective eyes as heads move in concert with the movements of the game.  Three minutes... two minutes... the final buzzer!  Whoosh!  An opportunity lost, and the quiet remains.  There are a few tentative honks, no cheers, and the traffic remains uncommonly light as the fans console themselves.

There is no riotous celebration (for which I am a little thankful having seen the excitement and tension building all afternoon and the emotion with which Albanians approach football).  Albania remains in the same standing as before, and for this everyone is happy.  But, there is a  disappointment that the victory which was almost in their grasp is lost.

Illyricum is an area which extended at one time from the top of the Adriatic Sea to an area below Corfu.  It was populated by an ancient, proud and enduring people with a unique language.  They lived in territories, much like the American Indians did, usually in peace.  This proud people were overwhelmed by the Greeks before the time of Christ, and their "tribal" differences ignored as they became a Greek vassal state.  For more than three millennia, they remained conquered by one neighbor or another.  It wasn't until 1912 that these people were again able to be independent of others.  During the time since 1912, much has happened, but the country of Albania has remained, albeit with parts lopped off in the process of modern map-making.  Greece "took" Cameria, Syria "took" Kosovo.  So, the animosity continues today - the Balkan blood boiling on both sides of the imposed border, histories written dependent on the political sway of the author or government.  Is this not always the way of humans?

The idea that societies can "evolve" into perfect communities is foreign to the truth of humanity.  Human beings remain selfish, clannish, afraid of the "other."  The form that selfishness takes, or the lust for power takes, changes with the circumstances, but the basis is the same.  And, so many people are misled into raw emotion by the truism that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."  We know when it will all end, and all I can say is "Come quickly."  Amen.