DIOGJEN
ALBANIA
26 YEARS
"Maybe it is because I’m a nostalgic person or maybe it is because I‘m kind of rebellious, but when I see that something isn’t right, I can’t leave it like that and I have an urge to change it.
I want to make other people
think about it too."
The real achievement was not winning the re-election, Diogjen says. It was the feeling he had accomplished something worthwhile during his first term. At the age of 21, as the youngest city councilor of Kurbin, he was able to prove his ability to solve problems, and that his relentless drive to give Albanian youth hope for the future were of value to the community. To him, that is the real achievement - even if it cost him his degree.
Diogjen originally studied architecture and urban planning in Tirana, but he never worked in his field of passion. He was too busy following his mission: To promote political education among young people in Albania. He wants to empower them to use their voices, and he provides them with the tools to make their demands heard. He teaches practical ways on how to set up a petition, how to organize themselves into groups and how to find legal ways to resist the status quo.
When asked why he is so passionate about politics, he smirks and responds that he would rather prefer to enjoy summer and follow his creative pursuits, just like his peers, but when he sees things going wrong, he can’t just sit and watch. He must take action.
For Diogjen, the spark was ignited in his last year of school. At first, he argued, even fought, with his classmates about their plans to leave Albania. As a response he created a video blog in which he and a few friends traveled to the most picturesque places in the region and posted the footage on YouTube. The idea was to encourage others to step out of their comfort zone and understand that they are the ones who must convey the beauty of Albania to others - instead of waiting for others to tell them.
Looking upon his cherished hometown of Kurbin, where he grew up until 7th grade, surrounded by mountains, the sea, lagoons, idyllic lakes and religious harmony, there‘s one factor that moves him deeply: two-thirds of young people leave Albania and go to Europe or the USA after school, with no intention of returning. When they leave, society and its economy, education and pension systems will feel it. Ultimately, it will affect everyone. That’s what he tries to avert.
In his formative years everyone looked to the West. The economies there were as substantial as they were stable and most of the fathers he knew were migrants who earned money in the West to build their homes here in Kurbin. He and his friends dreamed about Albania being one of the big players themselves one day.
In light of the Berlin Process, he admires how far Albania has come today and he would like to see the Western Balkans Six move closer together to first build a strong region and then to work on the integration into the EU.
But who will keep that vision for the future alive if no one wants to stay? For Diogjen, the key is hope. In his opinion, it is what young Albanians dearly lack. It is not solely a consequence of the prevailing circumstances; rather it’s a deep-rooted expectation of how things will turn out in the future. Pessimism does not help, nor does optimism, because optimism only feeds the feeling that something will happen by itself. However, when you have hope, you are willing to do something to make things better.
