truth

After a lazy day at home catching up on rest and trying to make the most of my day without much electricity, I enjoyed a wonderful night out in the city. As usual I had class at 5:30 and gave the second exam of the semester. I have been tired this week, so I enjoyed the break from teaching tonight. As the students finished their exams they went out in the hallway and waited for friends to finish. Thankfully everyone finished fairly quickly and as the last student left those still in the hall invited me to join them for coffee, a typical after class event. So the usual gang (7 guys) and I headed to our normal spot and drank coffee and practiced some more English. They always say they will make me practice my Albanian, but English is usually spoken more than Albanian, especially tonight as the conversations were sometimes heated. I love this group of guys and making them think hard. After class over coffee we have had some great conversations throughout the past year or so.

Tonight the conversation ranged from Jewish traditions that are similar here to cheating to corruption to city pride. The conversation that interested me the most, even though I have had it often, was about cheating and corruption. Although many people here do not connect the two, I do. Somehow we started talking about cheating during a game, something this is done so often and not really seen as wrong. Its just a game. The competitive person in me, defended this idea with passion. Who cares if its just a game....it starts there and goes on to more serious things, an exam in school, paying your electricity bill, stealing money when in a political position. I tried to explain that children need to be taught that rules are important and are there for a reason. If one does not cheat in a game, I believe one is less likely to cheat in real life. These values need to be taught from childhood, and then they will be more likely to be followed as an adult in society. Most agreed with my reasoning, but still thought it was okay to cheat in a game. Its more fun that way, they explained. They weren't getting my point.

The conversation moved on to corruption, based off the question why is our electricity so bad right now. Everyone knows the power company has been given millions of dollars to make the system better, but nothing has changed. Where has the money gone? I heard from a friend this country is the 4th most corrupt in the world. I am not sure if I believe its that bad, but its bad. One student who works for the power company explained that the company was not to blame, the politicians and ministries are corrupt and therefore they can not change anything. They are the ones in control. Again and again I gave the example, if everyone was jumping off a bridge, would you do it? Of course they said no, but did not see the reason why they should be different. If your boss and your boss' boss and so on are all corrupt, how can you not be corrupt also?

Many times we have talked about truth and right and wrong. What do you base truth on? To me, it seems that this country does not have a basis for truth. Truth is what others have told them, what others do, what has always been done. There is no set standard to base a moral code on. Although most have heard of the Ten Commandments, they don't understand them, and the system has not been based on these.

How do you change a whole society? Where do you start to shape the future? Can one person really make a difference? These are questions my students often ask me, and I persevere to shine my Light as bright as possible, trying to make a difference in their lives, hoping to spread the Truth in this dark and confused land.