Mud Sweeter than Honey by Margo Rejmer

Author:Margo Rejmer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Restless Books
Published: 2021-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

I thought we’d succeeded in replacing the dreadful, flawed system with a new and better one and that, if God couldn’t punish the people who had harmed others, then the state would—the new, democratic Albania.

To heal the wounds, I joined an association of former political prisoners. At first I played a very active role in it, but I soon realized that nobody was particularly concerned about punishing anyone or about compensating us for our suffering. We were given a paltry sum of money and a pat on the back, some vague promises were made, and we were sent home.

But the representatives of the old system were never punished—the men who spilled all that blood were never held responsible for their actions. So many people suffered every single day, so many people died with an empty stomach, so many perished performing hard labor for which they were never paid. They hoped that when the system that had cheated them finally fell, a new and better system would condemn the crimes of the old one, and Albania would finally be democratic.

But that didn’t happen. The system didn’t change, only the form of it. The people in power are the same as before, they just talk in a new language. There’s no real democracy.

The young people need to learn about the crimes of communism, but as no one has been punished, what kind of lesson are they gaining from the past? Sometimes I give talks in schools about what it was like in prison, but the kids just shake their heads and say: “No, that’s impossible.” Nowadays, people only go to prison if they commit a serious crime, so the young people can’t conceive of someone being convicted without being guilty. And rather than condemning the old system, the state is only interested in how to get rich.

Corruption is rife, there are no principles, and without principles, there’s no true freedom. My daughter had brilliant results at high school, but for her to graduate, I still had to pay bribes. The children of rich families study abroad; they pay for university with their fathers’ stolen money. So where is freedom? Where is equality? Where is truth? Where is the dream of democracy?

We’re disappointed and exhausted. We’ve become beggars steeped in suffering. Twenty-six years have gone by since the fall of communism, laws have been passed that promised compensation for the years of prison labor, but we’ve never received a penny. It’ll only turn up when we’re all dead.

In the new Albania, the truth doesn’t count. What use is it to anyone? You can’t sell it or buy it. People have stopped hoping that the truth will bring liberation, that it will cleanse Albania. The world is still covered in mud.

I don’t want to take that mud with me to the grave.

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