Reclaim the Middle Ages

(Written on February 14th, 2018) The following is a personal attempt a Christian/libertarian to interpret Saint Valentine’s Day and the man “remembered” by it. This is also a public statement of my admiration for the “Dark Ages”, the Middle Ages and tainted glass in churches. Saint Valentine (226-269 AD, according to church history) was a Christian believer of apparently an important position in the Christian community of the time, later to be considered a personality in the history of Catholicism – at that time not yet the official faith of the Roman Empire. (To be clear, everyone who knows me also knows that I am not against Catholicism, on the contrary; I am just stating it was a later development in history.) Paganism continued being the main faith of the Empire or, better say, the mechanism by which the name “Emperor” was pronounced as “God”. (It is the same nowadays: tons of letters are altered from the word “Christianity”, God and the concepts of sin and et

The homemakers looking forward to the bright future ahead. (Article written on March 8th 2018) Why is the 8 th of March seen as Mother’s Day rather than Women’s Day in Albanian popular culture and who should we really celebrate? The question poses two issues for analysis. The first issue provides us with some historical background. A “holiday” of pure socialist/communist roots, the International Women’s Day was first proposed at the International Socialist Women Conference in August 1910. Scheduled mainly for the last Sunday of February, it took several years until the “holiday” was finally settled on March 8 th . The date coincides with Saint Petersburg’s textile worker’s revolt on March 8 th , 1917, as per the Gregorian calendar, a date that is also considered as the start of the bitter Bolshevik coup d’état. The “holiday” is closely tied to larger socialist progressive movements of the times and the push to ruin empires, traditions and values inherited through the

The Polish King John III Sobieski sending message of victory to the Pope after the Battle of Vienna, painting of Jan Matejko, 1880 The West eats the crescent for breakfast! It was the year 1683, and the ottoman forces had surrounded Vienna, with plans of invading the city in a surprise attack. They thought digging tunnels and taking advantage of the night would provide them the surprise factor, ruining the Austrian army before they knew what hit them. (Long gone were the days when Scanderbeg, Hunyadi and Vlad the Impaler told Turks "You shall not pass!") However, they did not account for the factor of Vi ennese bakers being awake due to the nature of their job. Their businesses having basement storerooms, the bakers heard the ottoman noises and alerted the Austrian army. Needless to say, the Turks did not pass!   The bakers then baked crescent-shaped pastries, as per the Turkish flag and the symbol of Islam, and all the city ate them to celebrate the victory

Fontana di Proserpina Catania is not love at first sight. It takes, in fact, several looks, or better say gazes, for her to strike your heart with the first spark of enchantment. I say enchantment, because Catania is not a city of moderate feelings. She is not a city that you can simply like. At least, I can’t. The entrance to Catania is a messy Mediterranean cocktail, memories of African warmth, highways and railways that help assure you are not in the above-Rome Italian regions. One travelling to Catania with the well-established mental image of Italy as “il bel paese” may need some time (and yards into the inner city) for this image to materialise itself. With the shining Ionian on the left and the fearful Etna on the right, the city promises amazement, which is not to be seen as of yet. Further in, a huge monument of Persephone’s abduction by Hades, surrounded by mesmerising fountains, introduces one to the first clue on Catania being a toast between earth and sea. Ev

John the Revelator “ The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John. ” - Revelation 1:1 In songs and sermons, Christian talks or environments, we often use the biblical expression “through faith and not vision”, but I must admit that oftentimes I have wondered at the literal meaning of this expression. I have often thought “what’s wrong with vision, when you already have faith?” And while I read the opening verse of the Book of Revelation, the book with probably greater visionary content than any other book in the Bible, my mind is made clear about the beauty of this statement. Beginning from the Book of Genesis and on with all the books in the Bible, God always has something to tell humanity - something all new or the renewal of a promise, the assurance of a blessing, or the warning of an eminent punishment. It is as

"Ata, kur e panë yllin, u gëzuan me gëzim shumë të madh. Dhe, mbasi hynë në shtëpi, panë fëmijën me Marien, nënën e Tij, dhe ranë përmbys dhe e adhuruan."- Mateu 2:10-11/a T ë marr diplomën, të gjej një punë të mirë, të bie në peshë...Lista e synimeve për t’u arrirë që radhisim çdo fillim viti mund të jetë e gjatë dhe me gjëra nga më të ndryshmet. Më duhet të pranoj: këto lista nuk funksionojnë për mua. Trysnia e një plani të shkruar nuk më ka sjellë ndonjëherë fryte. Gjithsesi, këtë vit do ta marr mundimin dhe kënaqësinë t’i caktoj vetes disa synime në lidhje me karakterin tim dhe marrëdhënien me Zotin. Në këto dy pika, unë kam gjithmonë nevojë të marr shembuj nga Bibla e të shoh si mund t’i përshtas ato praktikisht në jetën time. Gjatë kohës së festave të fundvitit, personazhet biblikë që më kanë lënë më shumë mbresa kanë qenë dijetarët nga lindja. Nuk besoj t’u kem kushtuar ndonjëherë vëmendje të veçantë ose t’i kem parë si më shumë se figura “zbukuruese” në

Princess Jerina Dushmani, wife of Arbër Prince Lekë Zaharia (1440s) “ I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing. ” - John 15:5 I better skip the next verse but, if you like, you can give check it out for yourself, so as to understand the fate of the branches that feel self-sufficient and wish to leave “home”. I am choosing to explain why this verse is getting stronger every day as my philosophy for life. I do not know if this ever happens to you, but as for me, at least once a month (especially during dark rainy days) I happen to fall into an “existential crisis” so deep that I start doubting my usefulness and relevance (!!!) in this world. My closest friends can tell me many things to encourage and bring me back to the right way of thinking, and yet they may receive from me answers similar to “yeah, yeah, that's right”. It is no easy task being around