BLENDI SALAJ –
Radio and Television Personality, Lecturer and Social Activist.
arkitektëza: We were present in one of your presentations. The concept of TRIBE, as you mentioned, is what we create in our life. What we do during life is to collect human experiences, events, and create our own tribe.
At this moment, today, what does your tribe look like?
Blendi:
What it looks like… let me draw it… hmm.
My tribe is spread worldwide. As time goes by, the world looks smaller to me. What happens in the US impacts our realities, our events, our perceptions.
arkitektëza: You just mentioned USA. I am sure, before going there, your idea of USA was a stereotypy. The feeling after visiting it, should have been something else.
How was your idea of the USA before going there?
Blendi:
Yes, I remember my impression and I will also explain the concept.
My image was built entirely by the television. It was all about palm trees, Miami, high buildings. But what was special to me, was the fact that, in my mind, the average American used to speak Italian. The whole concept was created by movies, dubbed in Italian. Everything was placed in this dubbed reality.
They were all smiling, happy. The first thing that I saw from the window of the plane, was New York. Skyscrapers appeared on the horizon, the skyline we had seen in the movies. It was afternoon. I had travelled a lot but only at that moment everything started to become real.
It was 1997, February 17 of ’97.
In Boston, there were no palm trees.
It was very cold.
Snow, winter.
arkitektëza: From your posts on social networks, you often try to escape from Tirana, spend time in nature, hiking, biking, etc.
From which Tirana you escape?
Blendi:
Tirana never was the most beautiful city in the world. I grew up here and I have love for it.
But now it is not the same now.
There is no place to move, to park, buildings are colliding above each other.
I grew up near the neighborhood called 21. Now I live near Petro Nini.
There have been built some new buildings, some that look like big cruise ships, one above the other, so you cannot see the sun, you cannot feel the spaces. It is a terrorized city. This is what I escape from.
This is a very exhausting Tirana, even if it remains our city.
This is the Tirana that I fear, its density, its lack of greenery.
arkitektëza:
So, which Tirana do you choose?
Blendi:
The Tirana that I choose has nothing to do with the city itself, but with the things that I will show you.
Here is my mother.
For me the city is not the place, but the people that live in it, the activities that I do in it. My bike, a book, the radio, family, my mother, all these have been reason to stay here. I wanted to be near to my parents.
arkitektëza: You frequently post fragments of your conversations with your son, BRIAN.
How can you describe this relationship, but not in the father-son aspect, but as a dialogue, as a interlocutor?
Blendi:
He talks a lot, even more than me.
I’m always surprised about his eager to learn, to know everything, to fill his mind with knowledge.
Some days ago, I told him:
“You are half daddy, half mommy. Your ADN is the reformulation of your parents’ ADN. You are unique, there is not a single human like you.”
He replied: “What about the others? Are they unique too?”
“Yes” I said.
“Well, everyone is unique. This doesn’t make me so special.”
arkitektëza: Reading is my self defence, says Woody Allen.
What is a book to you, how does it trigger you?
Blendi:
Let’s get back to the palms; a scenery of rivers, fruit trees, adventures.
In my childhood a book was a getaway. In the 80’s, there were just a few chances for entertainment.
Here’s Tom Sawyer, his friend as well, chilling by the river.
I wanted to visualize a world of adventures, travelling, getaways.
There are so many books I’ve read, for grownups too, but they cannot be compared to what the child books make me feel.
Literature is the opposite of fundamentalism, stating that the doctrine has the importance, not the person. Whereas in literature, the character is the center, thus the person.
There is no book where the character is the crowd.
arkitektëza: “I am the man with many faces, each one of them is real.” Kundera says.
How’s Blendi to you?
Blendi:
A child, always. Not as a young person, but as the feeling that there is still too much to learn.
I try to be good to people, to do good.
I had a religious period in my life, in a protestant church. I am a spiritual person, the heritage of that period to me was modesty. The attention of the people embarrasses me.
My core is simplicity, we have moments of pride, feeling good, but I would be embarrassed to brag.
Conflict is not about me; I’m a quiet man.
Things I like: books, love, nature.
