Leave the Religions, Made in Albania!

By Lutfi Dervishi

The generation of Albanians who went to school in the '60s and '70s may remember Lej Feni.

Lei Feng was a young soldier who became a model for Maoist propaganda. He actually died in a trivial accident four years, or as we like to say today, a term, before the "Cultural Revolution" began, but he became immortal when Chairman Mao gave the message: "learn from Comrade Lei Feng."

At that time, Lei Feng appeared everywhere; in books, newspapers, photographs, posters. Sometimes helping an elderly person, sometimes a fellow soldier, and sometimes doing volunteer work. He read Chairman Mao's works with great zeal, thought about the Party, and, above all, never thought about himself.

Lej Feni did small but good things - Du, a Chinese translator who spoke Albanian like a Korçar, explained to me in 1999. Lej Feni was the ideal hero, the simple man who did good, helped others as much as he could and served the party selflessly!

It is truly amazing how much we took away from the Chinese Cultural Revolution in a relatively short period of time. We took away daci bao, which in Albanian was called lightning sheets, morning gymnastics in work centers and schools, peasant labor control, physical labor for intellectuals, cadre turnover, the use of human feces as organic fertilizer in agriculture, the abolition of ranks in the army, and of course, Lej Feni.

His story was published in Albanian in a red book in 1964 and he was offered as a model of a simple, modest, and selfless man.

A generation still remembers the macabre lyrics of the communist era like "Amanet, mother of Llesh Pal/never let life hurt your son/you have the party and the state for your son/you have Enver and Mehmet...

More than 60 years have passed. China has changed in an unimaginable way. Albania has also changed and transformed (the lightning bolts are now on FB and portals), but few could have thought that Lej Feni would return to Tirana in 2026!

As the citizens' protest has entered its fourth month, the government has reinvented the wheel: "let's listen to the people's concerns"

Let the new century's politicians come to the field to address the people's problems. The one from 60 years ago had a soldier's uniform and Mao's coat of arms, the one today has a suit and an iPhone.

The first was photographed helping an old man with a cane, the second was filmed listening to people on the streets, in bars, on beaches.

The original Lej Feni read the works of Chairman Mao, its Albanian copy reads the "Besa" document

But, for the sake of truth, the Chinese Lei Fen was more useful because he really helped as much as he could - our Lei Fens say: I will listen to your problem, I will address it where it needs to be, and I will check if your problem is solved.

Here the Albanian copy leaves the Chinese original in the lurch: the minister listens to the problem of the administration that the minister leads, the MP addresses the problem to the government that the MP supports, the political leader checks whether the government and parliament led by his party have solved the problem. A perfect circuit that will surely make a short circuit in the 12 districts of the country.

In short, the government has gone out into the field to listen to citizens who complain about governance and to convey their complaints to… the government.

Let the original Feni do something with it, its copies do gam-gam, even disrupting the Facebook algorithm.

In 1960 we imported Lej Feni from China, while today we produce it ourselves, "Made in Albania"! It's worth being proud of!