By, Marinko Leka, Irland (an observation as tourist)
As a tourist in Tirana, I see a city that is not the product of a well-thought-out plan but a reflection of individual ambition, economic power, and pure will. It is a city where absolute personal freedom shapes the urban landscape, where the horizon is not defined by a collective vision, but by those who have the power to impose their imagination upon it.
Tirana is a paradox—full of life, but chaotic; full of energy, but without cohesion. Its streets tell the story of a city built by individuals, not by a community, where each structure stands as a testament to the economic power of its creator, more than a reflection of a shared civic identity.
This is a place where freedom is boundless, but at a price—the price of order, long-term vision, and the common good. The infrastructure grows reactively, not strategically, and the pulse of the city beats to the rhythm of opportunism, rather than structured progress. Yet, in this chaos, there is something unique and true. Tirana is a living experiment—a city that challenges the idea that structure is necessarily progress. It is a city full of marvels and power, but also consequences—where the absence of a collective plan forces one to question whether true freedom lies in uncontrolled will or in a system that balances ambition and sustainability. But now, the time has come for those who have been left behind—those who have been sidelined in this race for individual power—to rise up. It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes a community to build a future.
Tirana must embrace the principle that either we rise together, or we fall apart. “I am because we are”—this must not remain just a phrase, but become the foundation of the city’s next chapter. True freedom is not just for personal ambition, but for collective responsibility—those who have built must now contribute, ensuring that their success strengthens the community, not isolates it.
For a visitor, Tirana is a city to be observed, studied, and questioned—a reflection of what happens when individual power reigns without limits. But it is also a city at a crossroads—a place that can reinvent urban freedom by uniting boundless ambition with the power of collective contribution.
