Post by Teuta1975 on Oct 29, 2007 4:14:13 GMT -5
Have you seen this before??? It's a little bit old, but...I think somehow real yet..
26 Albanians and Greeks sign statement against discrimination in ticket selling for football match Albania-Greece, March 30, 2005
It is somehow obvious that the impending football match between Greece and Albania is not a game anymore. For several years now, it has become a show of intolerance, “public revenge”, an exercise of super-patriotism. Since 1999 and every time a “warring” atmosphere is surrounding the match.
Of course we know that the game as every football match is a “mimesis of war”, in the sense, however, that it replaces war with civil competition. When it is re-transformed into a war, then it looses its cultural mission.
And it also looses all taste.
Many Greek and Albanian Mass Media have set out, in recent years, to stir the most base and primitive instincts, to outwit common sense and the intention of us all to live together, rightly, peacefully and humanly.
Certainly Mass Media are not the only responsible. They are assisted and inspired by those politicians who are consistently engaging in a peculiar kind of “political marketing”. Last September, in the last football match between Albania and Greece, the present Albanian Prime Minister, Mr. Fatos Nano, went too far. Quite a number of his Greek colleagues, by keeping silent, mincing their words or even worse adding to the fire, rivaled him, fishing in the trouble waters of intolerance.
The pitiful culminations of it all were the racist attacks against Albanian migrants in Greece, who dared celebrate, when the Albanian national team won the match. Dozens of migrants were stabbed as Greek police were passively watching and for the first time we counted a dead football fan.
From singing abusive slogans, burning flags, and whistling when the
national anthems are heard, we ended up with blood and with the ultimate offense: murder.
As we see it, the perpetrators are the same people who, when migrants went out in the streets together with the Greeks to celebrate the winning of the European Championship by the Greek national team, shouted “You, Albanian, will never ever become a Greek”. They are the same people who are annoyed when Albanians hold either the Greek flag or the Albanian flag.
And all these things happen under the almost absolute silence of the so called “civil society”.
This time, a way was found of prohibiting Albanian citizens and Albanian migrants members of the Greek society to set foot on the ground, so that “troublesome incidents may be avoided”. It would be difficult to fancy a better way of discrediting Greece, a country of the European Union.
The Greek and Albanian societies have each to face their own big and different challenges. However, they still have to face a common challenge: that of co-existence. A difficult challenge: facing it is a one-way road, if we wish to live in peaceful not “warring” countries, neighborhoods, cities or blocks of flats.
After the end of the Cold War, Greeks and Albanians found themselves living very close, maybe as close as they never lived in their recent History. Yet today, new walls are being raised between them. The Berlin Wall may have been brought down 16 years ago; however, some people in both countries, starting with certain Mass media, try to raise it again in our souls, our cities, our football grounds and our minds.
This is why we, signatories of this text, Greeks and Albanians, Albanians and Greeks, Greek-Albanians and Albanian-Greeks, as things have reached that point, even if we love very much football, state that we refuse to watch this match, which is everything but a game anymore. This is the least we can do. Because when you cannot change things, for one, you cannot allow things changing you.
The list of signatories :
1. Gazmend Kapllani (publicist- historian)
2. Elsa Ballauri (writer- director of Albanian Human Rights Group)
3. Fatos Kongoli (writer- ‘Balkanica’ price for 2003)
4. Aurel Plasari (Prof.Dr. historian Director of national
Library, profess. in Tirana University)
5. Fatos Lubonja (publicist-writer)
6. Pirro Milkani (film producer)
7. Briseida Mema (journalist)
8. Andrea Stefani (publicist)
9. Fatmir Koçi (producer the price ‘ The Gold Alexander’ in Festival of
Salonica, 2001)
10. Ben Andoni (journalist)
11. Natasha Lako (writer)
12. Ardian Klosi (Doctor in Sciences,scholar)
13. Telemak Koçia (writer)
14. Andonis Kafexhopulos (actor)
15. Janis Janulopulos (historian Profess. of Panteio University, Athens)
16. Ana Vagjena (actor)
17. Takis Kambilis (journalist chief editor of ‘TA NEA’ newspaper)
18. Lukianos Kilajdonis (composer)
19. Petros Taçopulos (writer)
20. Kristos Homenidhis (writer)
21. Lena Dhivani (Profess. of Kapodistria University, Athens)
22. Stefanos Pesmazoglu (Profess. of Panteio University, Athens)
23. Jorgos Gramatikakis (Professor former Dean of Crete and Ionios
Universities))
24. Kostas Gjeorgusopulos (critic of theatre Profess. of Kapodistria
University, Athens)
25. Lukia Rikaki (producer)
26. Mihalis Miços (journalist)
26 Albanians and Greeks sign statement against discrimination in ticket selling for football match Albania-Greece, March 30, 2005
It is somehow obvious that the impending football match between Greece and Albania is not a game anymore. For several years now, it has become a show of intolerance, “public revenge”, an exercise of super-patriotism. Since 1999 and every time a “warring” atmosphere is surrounding the match.
Of course we know that the game as every football match is a “mimesis of war”, in the sense, however, that it replaces war with civil competition. When it is re-transformed into a war, then it looses its cultural mission.
And it also looses all taste.
Many Greek and Albanian Mass Media have set out, in recent years, to stir the most base and primitive instincts, to outwit common sense and the intention of us all to live together, rightly, peacefully and humanly.
Certainly Mass Media are not the only responsible. They are assisted and inspired by those politicians who are consistently engaging in a peculiar kind of “political marketing”. Last September, in the last football match between Albania and Greece, the present Albanian Prime Minister, Mr. Fatos Nano, went too far. Quite a number of his Greek colleagues, by keeping silent, mincing their words or even worse adding to the fire, rivaled him, fishing in the trouble waters of intolerance.
The pitiful culminations of it all were the racist attacks against Albanian migrants in Greece, who dared celebrate, when the Albanian national team won the match. Dozens of migrants were stabbed as Greek police were passively watching and for the first time we counted a dead football fan.
From singing abusive slogans, burning flags, and whistling when the
national anthems are heard, we ended up with blood and with the ultimate offense: murder.
As we see it, the perpetrators are the same people who, when migrants went out in the streets together with the Greeks to celebrate the winning of the European Championship by the Greek national team, shouted “You, Albanian, will never ever become a Greek”. They are the same people who are annoyed when Albanians hold either the Greek flag or the Albanian flag.
And all these things happen under the almost absolute silence of the so called “civil society”.
This time, a way was found of prohibiting Albanian citizens and Albanian migrants members of the Greek society to set foot on the ground, so that “troublesome incidents may be avoided”. It would be difficult to fancy a better way of discrediting Greece, a country of the European Union.
The Greek and Albanian societies have each to face their own big and different challenges. However, they still have to face a common challenge: that of co-existence. A difficult challenge: facing it is a one-way road, if we wish to live in peaceful not “warring” countries, neighborhoods, cities or blocks of flats.
After the end of the Cold War, Greeks and Albanians found themselves living very close, maybe as close as they never lived in their recent History. Yet today, new walls are being raised between them. The Berlin Wall may have been brought down 16 years ago; however, some people in both countries, starting with certain Mass media, try to raise it again in our souls, our cities, our football grounds and our minds.
This is why we, signatories of this text, Greeks and Albanians, Albanians and Greeks, Greek-Albanians and Albanian-Greeks, as things have reached that point, even if we love very much football, state that we refuse to watch this match, which is everything but a game anymore. This is the least we can do. Because when you cannot change things, for one, you cannot allow things changing you.
The list of signatories :
1. Gazmend Kapllani (publicist- historian)
2. Elsa Ballauri (writer- director of Albanian Human Rights Group)
3. Fatos Kongoli (writer- ‘Balkanica’ price for 2003)
4. Aurel Plasari (Prof.Dr. historian Director of national
Library, profess. in Tirana University)
5. Fatos Lubonja (publicist-writer)
6. Pirro Milkani (film producer)
7. Briseida Mema (journalist)
8. Andrea Stefani (publicist)
9. Fatmir Koçi (producer the price ‘ The Gold Alexander’ in Festival of
Salonica, 2001)
10. Ben Andoni (journalist)
11. Natasha Lako (writer)
12. Ardian Klosi (Doctor in Sciences,scholar)
13. Telemak Koçia (writer)
14. Andonis Kafexhopulos (actor)
15. Janis Janulopulos (historian Profess. of Panteio University, Athens)
16. Ana Vagjena (actor)
17. Takis Kambilis (journalist chief editor of ‘TA NEA’ newspaper)
18. Lukianos Kilajdonis (composer)
19. Petros Taçopulos (writer)
20. Kristos Homenidhis (writer)
21. Lena Dhivani (Profess. of Kapodistria University, Athens)
22. Stefanos Pesmazoglu (Profess. of Panteio University, Athens)
23. Jorgos Gramatikakis (Professor former Dean of Crete and Ionios
Universities))
24. Kostas Gjeorgusopulos (critic of theatre Profess. of Kapodistria
University, Athens)
25. Lukia Rikaki (producer)
26. Mihalis Miços (journalist)