Big Development Through a Small Screen

Nikolla Gjura, 64 years old, now lives in Glendale, California embracing his life as he passes on his wisdom to the new generation. He was born in the village of Krutya , Albania in 1943.He was very poor when he was young and didn’t have a much of anything. He highly liked the idea of the television and how it revolutionized life in Albania . The television opened a window of opportunity for Nikolla. It was very daunting living in a Communist government and attending the army at a very young and inexperienced age but through immense hard times he was able to luckily come to the United States and create a better life for his wife and children. Currently, he leisurely enjoys the comfort of his home watching CNN, keeping up with current events. Also, he watches sports very often, as he was very athletic in his youth as well. He talks about his experiences with the television and how it has changed his life…

I remember how in my house the only thing we had was the radio which was the best thing we had in our house but as the years passed around 1965 to 1970, the Communist Regime had been supplying a television to each village. It was at the library for all the people to see. I remember now how everyone came around a small television and watch the news or whatever it had to give. I could have never have even imagined a television being in my house because we were poor and you had to be the richest person to have a television in Albania . It took many years; I mean it couldn’t be talked about for a normal family to have a television. A normal person had to work about six months and put together all of that money to get a television. It was very expensive.

  The television network, the only television network we had was called, uhhh, Radio Televizioni Shqiptar and it was a public channel. Our Communist government had control of this station and everything that was shown was censored. This network or program would only show for four hours, from 6:30 PM to 10:30 PM. Our televisions were like the biggest 16 to 18” and it was basically like a box. Now they have made many new developments. Not comparable to those. No not those. Ours had like a big back and very big.

Technology was very limited in such a small country like Albania and I remember the radio. We had one and even that was somewhat of a rarity. Not more rare than the television though because it was cheaper. Even the radio was censored by the regime. Before the coming of the television, this was the only way the regime could get their word out to the people.

It was very rare to have a TV. The Communist regime had a big fear of what people could gain out of these televisions and didn’t really trade openly with other countries. Because there weren’t many of them the demand wasn’t very high. But I do remember when someone got one and all of the people would gather around for the news report to be given. You can’t imagine how many people were in that small house. I hadn’t seen so many people in my life and it was even hard to get a good view of the television. It was quite a big event and very rare to have one. Numbers of fifty to seventy people came around to start watching it for interest and to see what is happening in the world and they started to discuss and comment on what the news program had been describing.

I believe the television united people in a way no other thing had in Albania . All of the people discussed about the programs on the television that they were given to us by the Communist regime but even with that it brought a new standard of progress to the lives of the people. More and more people started coming around the packed houses and discussing about whatever was on. I even see now as the television has so many channels to offer: sports, news, films, etc. Uh, now I enjoy to watch the news mostly, the CNN news because it’s really quick and gives very good up to date news.

  Among all the like the news programs and the rest the television had to offer, sporting games and contests was the one thing that the regime had left for the people. And so it was that sports had become apart of the Albanian television and apart of Albanian’s lifestyles. Normally they gave football, soccer as you call it today, and it was very interesting to watch how the professionals played and I even remember right after watching those games that I would go out and try to imitate their way of playing. Later and later I became quite an athlete myself. Even though now in America soccer is not emphasized much I enjoy to watch basketball. Very fantastic sport.

The television gave people very quick and fast information, not only in the way that they speak but also as a kind of visualization to see what you hear. This made a great progress in the respects of education of how they see the television and they could see how people eat, how people dressed, and how people essentially lived. This had settled as a problem for the Communist regime since the television had widely been spread and made communication amongst people.

The regime always feared that the citizens were going to figure out the truth and wonder where it was because they didn’t tell us how the outside world was or any information about it. But now that people have the television they get all these answers and start to see the world in a different way. This annoyed the Communist regime. The television had become an object to unveil many things that we didn’t know about. And now because of this, we Albanians quickly understood where the world was, how in ahead of our country it was. Such as today like you kids have the Internet in which to learn from and gain knowledge from, we had the television.