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Either the sea is crooked, or we are not sailing straight!

2025-07-31 15:41:00, Opinione Ardi Stefa

In a country where reality is often rejected as a mirror and for every failure we find a culprit: the weather, geography, history, imaginary enemies; it is understandable why the popular expression: "Either the sea is crooked, or we are not sailing straight," with a dose of piercing irony, remains so relevant.

We have built a culture of justification.

In administration, when a project fails, the question is not where we went wrong, but how much we stumbled. When cities suffer from garbage, traffic, urban chaos, and lack of basic services, the cry is the same: “Everyone is against us!”

No, maybe we're just not doing it right!

If you look at the public sector, there is often no plan, no vision, no honesty to admit mistakes. There is only a rotation of excuses. Investments that start but never finish. Reforms that are labeled as historic but do not change anyone’s life. Lack of responsibility masked with patriotic speeches. Some even try to convince us that the sea is really crooked – that Albania is a country that cannot be governed, cannot be cleaned, cannot function “like Switzerland” because we are cursed by geopolitics or “by nature”.

In society, it's the same. When citizens throw garbage on the street, they don't think they're part of the problem, but blame the municipality. When they decide not to pay their electricity, water, or taxes, or to steal them, they are "revolted" by the state that doesn't return their services.

When they see something is wrong, they blame everyone else but themselves.

Driving has become an anarchic act: everyone goes where they want, then wonders why we end up in a vicious circle.

The truth is that the sea is the sea!

Open, fair, deep, dangerous, the same for everyone!

It is the rowers who must see the horizon, adjust the direction, and learn to coexist in a boat called society, state, and citizenship.

It's not the waves that drown us, it's the lack of direction that drowns us.

And this is not a metaphor, it is a diagnosis.

Instead of complaining about the lack of opportunities, why not ask ourselves if we have built the structures that create those opportunities?

Instead of criticizing every government, have we built a civic culture that demands meritocracy, transparency, and accountability?

Instead of calling for brain drain, have we asked ourselves why young people don't see a future here?

Hey, it's not always the world that's wrong — sometimes it's us who don't understand, don't know, or don't want to steer our own course properly.

Albanian politics today suffers not only from corruption, but from the legitimacy it is given by a society that is tired, disappointed, and often withdrawn from civic responsibility.

A society that cries out for justice, but remains silent when a neighbor builds a house without a permit. A society that protests against injustice, (usually from the living room couch and in front of a computer screen), but never denounces it when it itself benefits from it.

We are not only victims of the system; we are often also its silent collaborators.

In social terms, the lack of solidarity and distrust in institutions have created a rigid, almost cynical climate. The culture of "indifference" has become the alibi for a status quo where no one changes anything because everyone feels powerless, or worse, satisfied with the small benefits of a great injustice.

But the truth is this: neither politics will clean itself up, nor society heal itself. We must learn to steer straight, in the often turbulent waters of democracy and active citizenship.

Because if we continue to blame the sea, without seeing the rudder in our own hands, we risk sinking not only our boat, but also the future of our children.

This article is not about shouting and pointing fingers. It is a call for reflection. It is time to stop blaming the sea and start learning how to sail responsibly.

Because, ultimately, it's not the sea's fault that our boats can't get anywhere.