Interview: Communism Punished Her Family for Three Generations
00:00My name is Elida D'Cole.I'm a classical pianist.I was born in Communist Albania.Living in communism is just hard to describe.It takes away everything.Right of speech, right of thinking, right of family life.Here I am with my family as well as my father, H.R.Dacoli.
01:02Under the communist regime, we were considered with a bad biogram.a bad biography or a second-class citizen.That was with biography, not-to-myromanismbadechmoses that these people are from other.So, I'm a very much of family.Albania is located between eastern and westernin the northern side of the Balkan Peninsula.We are from Duras.
01:30Immediately following the Second World War in 1944,the Communists come into power.Their first priority was the first priority waswas eliminate the elite of the country.Unfortunately, this targeted both sides of my family.All right, joining us now is the lady that you just saw in the video there.I wanted to put that up there.So I was just telling her, since we're Americans, we don't have a sense of geography.
01:54So we've got to find out where Albania is.And we're also going to find out why so many people referred to Albania as the North Korea of Europe.And she had a very difficult childhood there growing up in that authoritarian regime.She has written a book called Beneath the Silence, names that the regime tried to erase.And she talks about what it was like growing up there, her family that was there,and the fact that she became a pianist.And she has a very successful career as a pianist.As a matter of fact, she came to the United States in 2003, got a master's degree from Baylor University,
02:29a doctorate from Louisiana State.She has performed in Carnegie Hall, which always reminds me of the joke,person asked directions. How do I get to Carnic Carol? And the guy said, practice, practice, practice.And she has an amazing story about what she went through to practice piano in Albania under the communist.And so she's also a Mason and Hamlin artist and a recording artist for piano disc.She founded the DFW Institute of Musical Advancement and has testified before the Texas legislature for the state's victims of communism Memorial Day.And it is important for us to understand what life is like in a communist country.We are so pampered and take for granted so many things that we have in this country.
03:14And it's not until you talk to people like Alida DeColi is her name,not until you talk to people like her,people like Shevan Fleet,who talked about growing up in communist China and Mao's China,that we really understand the blessings that we have hereand the danger that we face of losing themif we become complacent about it.So joining us now is Alida DeColi.
03:38Thank you so much for joining us.She's Albanian by birth, but American by choice, aren't you?Thank you for having me.I am very proud to be American and to call myself Americanand to raise my family in America.That's great.And you know your story, the hook that immediately got me was the story about your fatheras a child finding the Coca-Cola bottle.
04:02I'll let you tell it.Oh, yes, it's a very interesting story.Well, very unique here in the United States.Well, we were not allowed to have anything that came from the Western world, especiallyfrom the America.Americans were a revisionist country that wanted to take over Albania and they wereour enemies.That's what we were taught at school.
04:27So Coca-Cola, yes, Coca-Cola was a symbol of revisionism.The revision is the Americans, the bad people.And somehow it made its way through Italy to Albania.So my father found it in the, believe it or not, the little bottle.My father found it in the sea while playing with his brother and a sister.And of course, he found something very unique, very beautiful.And he gave it to his mother that had lost her husband in communist prison.So the moment that she saw it, she did not want to touch it.
05:07Her face, my father explains that completely changed and said,you cannot use this, you cannot play with this, and you need to send it back.So my father's idea was, we'll find some flowers, put some water, and make it a vase,because it's very unique, so make it a vase as a vase in our dining table.But my grandmother said, we are not allowed to have this in our home because it representsAmerica and you will not be able to see me anymore actually they will take the mother in prisonin communist prison and you grow up without parents it's that amazing because anything that camefrom America everything that was written in uh western words italian french was not allowed in our
05:51country wow wow and and you point out that at a birthday party that you had or some kind of aparty that you had as a child uh there were Popeye there was a pop-by um movie that kids saw and that gotyou on a blacklist, didn't it?Well, my friend came over.I was sick that day, so we had a simple birthday party.My mother cooked.Everything had to be cooked from scratch and make some cookies for my little friends.I think I was third grade or so.
06:21And of course, the TV was on.So when my friends came over, we did not have telephone so they could not contact us.We were coming at this time.I just knew that my friends are coming over.And so the TV was on and we were watching Papaya.And please understand, when I say the TV, it's not a TV in color and everything looks perfect.It was a TV black and white where you could basically not watch more than be able to watchbecause the antenna was made by a cane that we would keep in the balcony.
06:54The neighbors would not see that we had this antenna that we were trying to connect with international channels.So it's unbelievable when I shared these stories with my husband or my children,they're like, you're making this up.I promise you, I'm not.And yeah, so it was in a very blurry way I was watching papaya,but the moment that my friends came to the door,my brother opened the door, all excited that people, friends were coming over.And my grandmother gave a look to my grandmother that has gone through so much,
07:27gave a look to my father, basically, and then she said the TV,and that second my father turned off TV and said that,we don't watch international channels in this house.And we made a point in front of the kids, and of course, no one said anything.But, you know, we had to make that point so the kids don't go homeand tell their parents and someone spies on us.Wow. Wow. So you did pull in some international television channels.What about Radio Free Europe, things like that?
07:56Were you able to get that?The only radio that I remember listening to, no, overall no, no radio, but the only radio that I remember listening, it was in around 1989, 1999, where the changes started happening, and we were able to listen to Voice of America.And to us, that was a big deal, a huge deal, you know, whatever America thought of news about Albania.And of course, the Voice of America was in Albanian at that time.So we're very careful, and my father would very careful listen to it.And so with my mother, but I have to share this,that actually coming to United States,after a few years, Voice of America did, well, did a segment about me
08:47and my performance and my career and so on.And actually, afterwards, did a few segments,which I found it, you know, a circle that, and, you know, a circle that we, you know, it was a radio that we would listen in silence.And I was just so impressed to hear the voice of the speakers and just dreamed of America and the place at this radio station was, you know, was the speakers were at, and their desk that they were sitting and to be at their, you know, at the voice of America studios and speak.and they interviewed by that.Having Voice of American concerts was,to me, it was a drink and true and very significant,even more significant than Carnegie Hall, I'd have to say.
09:34You played radio for Europe.How about that?Yeah, I remember I interviewed a guyis a Navy SEAL, very successful Navy SEAL,and he was from a communist country.If I remember correctly, I don't know,was it Poland or Romania?But anyway, he talked about when he was younger, how they would try to listen to the radio and they would have to keep it under the pillows and all the rest of this stuff.
09:58And it really kind of inculcated in him a desire to be free, a desire to come to America.And I guess that's really what we're trying to tell people now in terms of your story.This is the other side of the story.This is what we take for granted in this country.And there are people who want to take that away from us for a number of different reasons, from a number of different directions they want to take that away.from us. And we have to be wise and vigilant about that or we wind up in that situation as well.You know, one of the things that your story reminded me of was you came from a family that hadyour grandfather and a great-grandfather had been successful in business. That was anathema.
10:37And so they had to have their property taken away from them. It kind of reminded me of Dr.Chavago that I saw when I was a child. And all the all the love affair and the adultery stuffthat was scandalous to my parents' generation or whatever, that just went over my head.I was the fact that they came in and took these people's homes, but you had, you lived throughthat. Tell us a little bit about that. Well, in Albania, when I was born, everything was ownedby the government. And it's starting, it started again as a way of brainwashing people.the socialism is this beautiful ideology where everyone is going to be happy.Everyone is going to be equal.
11:18Sounds like you'll own nothing and you'll be happy, doesn't it?It sounds like New York right now.Everyone, you know, those moving, changing topic very quickly when I saw those free stores inNew York, it reminded to me of communism in Albania, full disclosure.I was shocked.But, yeah, so everything was owned by the government.The way that they achieved this is by going back generations, my great-grandfather was one of the first founders of the First Albanian Congress, mayor of my city, Dutus, an attorney, very successful overall, and very big in charity.My grandmother would talk about that, so that people just come and actually stop by the house and you just welcome them, you know, huge in charity, very, very, with an amazing heart.
12:08And sadly, he was assassinated while walking in the street with my grandfather.This is by my mother's.He was giving the opening speech and the Albanian Congress in 1943.And, you know, the speech was about unifying the country, fighting against, you know,dictatorships, whether it is Mussolini dictatorship, whether it's a Nazi dictatorship,all or the communism.and then we need to build our country and be part of, you know, build capitalism.And he was assassinated because of this.
12:47He was assassinated from the partisans, from the Communist Party.Right before they were trying to take over,they eliminated the elite of the country or who they thought that would be a barrier for them to,you know, to take over and have a smooth transition into dictatorship.So that was our first.my family's introduction to communism, I'd say, and from that point, generations suffered.What Americans need to understand is that it doesn't end with just one generation.They eliminate and persecute every generation afterwards.
13:23I would not be able to speak to you today if I was not living in a free Albania or a capitalist country where pluralism is possible.I'm not able to be here.I have not be able to speak English.Because remember, my father and my mother grew up not being able to speak English.If they spoke English, they would end up in prison.If they spoke Italian, they end up in communist prison.Because the only language we were allowed to learn was Albanian and any language that the government would allow us, which would be Russian at that time.And so a lot has changed since then.
14:01But to me, as a lead end, I tell this to my children.and to my friends, what is important is that we protect our freedoms.We protect the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion.You were not allowed to believe in God during communism,and I've written a chapter about this.And so many more things, I mean, what you ate was dictated by the government.You know, you have to go through the lines that Toulon that we used to call.Basically, you'd go through certain lines where they tell you what food you can buy
14:35and what you're eating in your house.The furniture was dictated by the dictatorship, everything.And, of course, could not keep anything that you owned previous to dictatorship.Everything was taken from the government.In my family's case, they were kicked out of their home and thrown in the streetwhile they imprisoned my paternal grandfather.And your great-grandfather, there was a story about that.He was warned that they were looking.
15:05to kill him. And I love what he had to say. He said, it's better to live one day as a rooster than to dieas a chicken. I like that. That was perfect. I thought it's very impressive to say something like that.That's great. That's the kind of guy that they have to get rid of if they want to do what theywant to do to people, because he would stand up to them. But the story about when they took your homeand what your grandmother or great-grandmother said to them when they were, you know, showing them out,and she walked through all the rifles and the military that were there.What did she say to them?Well, here's a thing.
15:51So both sides of my family were persecuted.My great-grandfather on my mother's side was assassinated.And my grandfather, my father's side, died in communist prison.So both sides. My grandmother, paternal grandmother, once that she was taken out of her home,any jewelry that she had, including the wedding ring, was taken from her. Her children were notallowed to even put the shoes on to come outside. And when her brother came to pick her up,she pretty much the guards that she had, you know, that came to take her away from her own house,she knew them. I mean, it's a small city.
16:33And she told that we're not the children of these parents that, you know, I, I, I, you came to my store, to our stores and we fed you, you were our friends and now you are turning against us. So, I mean, she stood very strong and she said that she's not, they're not allowed to touch their children. And she's going to walk away with her children. And they can take it all as long as she has their family. That's all it matters to her.which that was what we grew up with as long as we have each other and we stay united and love andprotect each other everything will be okay that's great yeah that's why i said it reminded me a doctorchavago i mean i'll never forget seeing that as a child and what what is you know and yet i hear thisstory over and over again from people who lived under these communist totalitarian regimes talk to us a little bitabout so what was the strength that brought you through your very close-knit family but you talk aboutthe fact they also had to get rid of God in society. And we see this all the time in totalitarian societies.They want to be God. And so they don't want any competition. We still see that in China and other places
17:38today. You know, they have to dictate that. I thought one of the funny things in China was the fact thatthey dictated even in these compromised churches where they would allow people to meet. They said,if you're going to put up a cross, you've got to put up Mao on one side and she on the other side.And I said, it's perfect. The two thieves right there on either side of him.But talk a little bit about what they did with the persecution of Christians.So they destroyed Moscow's churches.Anything religious was destroyed.The Christians, including also Muslims, were imprisoned and they died in communist prison.
18:15Today, we are allowed to believe in Albania, to believe in God.I do believe that deep down people still believed in God,even though they did not share about that.We didn't talk about that.But everything was destroyed.Everything in the name of the party, in the name of the people, it was destroyed.And religious people were imprisoned.And I have to share a small story that I've actually written in the book about.
18:46We used to be in a two-bedroom apartment, two-bedroom, one-bathroom, two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment.And I used to stay with my grandmother.And she would wait, thinking that I was asleep and should start talking to herself, if it makes any sense.And she was actually praying.Oftentimes I was able to hear a little bit what she was saying.And the next morning, I asked her, I said, Grandmother, what was you talking?Who called her, yeah, yeah.What were you talking about at asleep last night?
19:20She was like, I was not talking to anything, to anyone.I'm like, yes, I heard you speak.And then I had to run to my father.Daddy, she was Bobby, I'd go, my dad.Nana was talking to someone.I don't know who she was talking to.And of course, my father, like, she talks to herself all the time.Just ignore her.
19:40And my grandma is like, probably I talked into sleep.But I knew that she was not, she was praying and asking for God to protect her children and her familyand support them.And of course, they have to kind of protect themselves and protect you,because as a child, if you, to learn that,you might tell that to somebody, right?That's what they would say afterwards.I would say, please don't share this,
20:04that the grandmother is talking to herself, to any friends.Or it was a religious holidays, and she would give us money.And we had asked, what is this for?And she'd say, it's my birthday.We're like, your birthday was four months ago.And I don't remember, just take it.And my parents are, but don't tell your friends it's a grandmother's birthday again.So it was always.
20:27Well, you know, when you look at this, one of the things that you say is that they would have it out for a particular families.You know, once you've got a family and they were successful as entrepreneurs or they were politicians that they thought might be a threat to them, they now have a black mark on them.And that passes down to you.They called it, what was it, bad biography?I think is what you said they called it.Yeah, and so they had it in for you,and you wanted to attend music school.Tell us a little bit about that,
20:54that your first choice was piano,but what did they do to,and what was it that caused younot to be able to get your first choice right away?Well, just so we put into a perspective of the listeners,you are not allowed to have cars in Albania.You are not allowed to take private lessons in Albania,in communist country.
21:16You are not allowed to,I don't know,you even had a TV when the government said that you can have it.But just having to control everything about your life.And we're starting to see that come in,aren't we, in America?I mean, there is this desire to control everything about our lifeand to own everything in our lives.
21:37And so that is one of the hallmarks of totalitarianism, isn't it?So I had to apply, get into, had an audition that was pretty, I'd say pretty strict for not having a piano where I could practice, but my mother would take me to the music school so I can hear the sound, the sound of music, I would say.And at some point I was able to touch a piano for just a tad. And I went to this audition that I had no idea if I did well.No one smiled. They asked questions and ask what songs I knew. And if I knew any song about our.leader, Uncle Enver, that's what you call him, Uncle. Uncle Inver and...Big Uncle.Everyone's uncle.And, yes, so once that I finished, and of course, I had to sing the song. I have to, you know, play
22:27the chords in the piano. I had to sing the chords in the piano. So basically, they sawhow much I can remember, how was my memory, how was my ear. So it was about a 30-minute, 30-minute audition.Then I was accepted as a violin student.So they said, yes, you are accepted to be at the music school.But as a violin student, of course, I did not like violin at all.I was the instrument.I don't know.You know, when you don't like something.
22:56It's difficult when you're first learning violin, isn't it?It gets really screechy, doesn't it?I had no desire to try the strings to hold the violin.I had no desire at all.And then I remember sitting not wanting to go to the violin lesson.sitting outside at the hallway in the school and the piano teacher said,when do you come upstairs with me?And so she sent me at the piano and I guess they had an internal talk with the leadership
23:26of the school and then they reached out to my family.I said, well, let's have her start piano lessons.So that's how it all happened after about a semester studying violin.I literally never touched the violin, but yes.You looked at it a lot, right?Professor Harold Hill in the think system.Just think violin.Well, that's a great story.
23:53And so then that was just kind of the beginning of it, wasn't it?Because you would have to go there, of course, to practice.You don't have a piano at home.And what happened when you go to practice?Well, I was assigned now as a piano student,but they told me we don't have room for you to play.practice. Again, I could not have a piano at home. So my parents drew a paper keyboard and I waspracticing on the paper keyboard. No sounds. In that silence, I truly imagined the sounds. I truly
24:24imagined the concert hall. Of course, I didn't know anything about Carnegie Hall, but I imagined thatwould perform the biggest stage in Albania. And that was, you know, I have goosebumps now thatI speak about it because I did perform in all of those stages and more.And to bring it in full circle, I do have, I do own a music school, as you mentioned,and I do have a nonprofit to help children that need help in musical lessons.But our students this year are performing at Carnegie Hall, January 17th at 1 p.m.So it comes in full closure.My music school students, if we have over 500 students, so selected students are performing.
25:09That's great. That's great. And so the title of your book, Beneath the Silence, that has a real significance there. You had to practice on a just a drawn keyboard, which is truly amazing. I go back in how I got into playing piano. We had an old piano. It had ivory keys. It was so old. And they were broken. You had to be careful about some of them because they were sharp on the edge. But I would just sit there and I would just go up and down the piano keyboard, just listening to the sounds. I was fascinated by it. That's when I was a toddler. So they started givingme lessons after that. But you went the other direction. I mean, you love the piano. How did you getto know the piano? I mean, did you hear recordings of it? I did watch, you know, people sing in,singers singing on TV and the pianist playing. And I was fascinated by all that. But my grandmother,my father side, had a brother that actually his daughter was a pianist. And he would always saythat Elida is going to become a pianist one day. Elida will study piano.So he kept repeating that.So my parents said, okay, I guess let's place her at this music school and see what she does and where she goes from there.
26:19But also what you need to understand coming back to all that is that they placed me into a music school,but they thought, okay, she can take piano for 40 years and then she'll go to a general school.Because if you went to school as a piano student, then applying to college, only about four students could get accepted from the whole.country to study piano three or four in university.And again, university at that time was owned by the government,and the chances that I would get accepted would be zero.I mean, the head of the police station,their daughter was in my class in piano.
26:59And so my parents are like, she's not going to make it there.So they tried to take me off, actually, from being a piano student.But then communism fell down, democracy came, and more universities were available in Albania and more choices.Of course, still it's just one music university.But I partner with on several programs with.But yes, they want to take me off now because they knew I didn't have much future in music.Well, it is an amazing story.And tell us a little bit about what happened.
27:34Was it the daughter of the police?police chief there that was playing the games on you with the practice sessions that you had,with the lights and things like that?There were several.One was a student that would have the time before me, because they wanted to stay for a longer time.What they would do is take the light bulb or the light fixture and they would say,there's no electricity, so we would go back home.And then one time I went with my father somewhere else and we were coming back at the
28:07had actually light, the room that we were, had light.And so, and then we found this family there,the student that actually was practicing before me.My father said, why are you here?They said, well, we stayed around, now it was fixed,the electricity was fixed.But keep in mind, it's just that room that did not have electricity.The rest of the school did, but they had a problem with my room.
28:36And after that, my father brought a light bulb, light fixture and all kinds of stuff that he had to bring with him to our practice time.It's interesting, all in that little bike that he had to carry everything, including my music, books,and including sometimes a little heater that you had to bring because it was cold in the practice room.So you had to even bring your own light bulb so you'd be able to practice because they're playing those kinds of games on your end.And it was because your family was marked because you had.bad biography, right?Yeah, we had bad biography, and we are not, if we complained, we'll be in troublebecause we're complaining against the people, the communist people that are actually the
29:19student, those before me, she was very much loved by the party.So we'd be complaining about people that actually are doing so much for the governmentand for the party that put us in big trouble.So we'd not say anything at all, would not speak.Now, that's one aspect of it that I've talked many times about an amazing story,American who went to East Germany.And she just loved the idea of communism.And she went there and she liked it.
29:47And she married a guy who was there.And the Stasi was following her all the time and had turned all of her neighbors into informants.And she didn't realize it until after the East German government fell and they had the release of all this information,she realized all of her neighbors that she thought were friends were informing on her.One of the things she talked about was how,people would change when they get into a situation and say running the butcher shop.If you go in there and you line up to get your merchandise, now they've got a little bitof power over you.
30:17And because everybody is being repressed by this kind of government and kicked, you wind up,once you get a little bit of power over somebody, you really kind of, you know, run it overthat.Is that something that you saw as well?As a child, I did not understand any of that.I would say that, for example, I would not be invited into certain things.I would not be invited to certain performances or the best students will get certain achievements and was not given to me.And I'd ask my parents why this person has it and I don't have it little achievements or why this person went to this competition and I did not.
30:59And my parents would say, you need to be, you need to study more, you need to study harder.That was their answer.And I always thought, okay, I guess I'm not good enough.I need to work.Which on one side I'd say that made me work more, work harder.But on the other side, I was always disappointed in myself.They could not tell me that you have a bad biography.Once, only once my mother, I was studying for a certain test to be part of a competition.
31:24It was the only competition in Albania that members, classmates were invited to go to.But the leadership of the school would choose who would.go. So there was kind ofwe had to do certain testsand I had to prepare myself forthat test and my mom saidElidae sit down, studyreally hard because you have no future
31:45you have a bad biography and if you arenot the best of the best, youhave no future at all.Andwith you have no future at all, basically you are justgoing to be cleaningaround andyou know what I mean so basically
32:00pretty no matter howhow much yousteadied and you'll have a very bad job that actually will not make me happy and or will notbring much to the family and of course nothing with piano but um so that's the first time thatI understood that I had a bad biography even though I still did not know what that means I did notknow my grandfather was a businessman or I had no idea who my great grandfather was because their names werehis name was never mentioned.And so there were so many things.
32:38I did not know that my paternal grandfather was killed in communist prison.I knew that he just died at a young age and left my grandmother alone.So I didn't know because it's also that part that we didn't know who was spying on us.If there was some kind of bug place in our homes that they were listening, everything that we were saying.And they were not shared anything with the children or with them.family members because you never know who was listening or who we could trust.Of course, we did trust our family much, very much, but still it was that fear that somethingwill happen and my parents will end up in communist prison.
33:19Yeah, so interesting.You know, I want to talk to Shee Van Fleet.She talked about the fact that they would have their struggle sessions.And she said it's very much like the anti-racism sessions that people have today.It's not enough to not be racist.you have to denounce yourself as being somehow tainted by this because, you know, you've got abad biography, you know, based on where you come from, based on your family, based on yourethnicity.
33:41We're starting to see elements of that kind of punishment, if you will, in DEI and things likethat.And right now, you know, DEI has kind of gone silent, but I think it's going to come backwith a roaring thing, and we're going to have to continue to fight that.It is a continuing Bolshevik tactic that we see all with the same.time. But talk a little bit about how Albania has changed. I mean, we had Albania in the newsthis last summer because you had Jared Kushner who's going to put in like a one-and-a-halfbillion dollar resort in a protected area, lots of flamingos, other things like that,
34:16and a wetlands area. There was massive protests against massive protests that were there. Theycalled the Flamingo Revolution. What is going on in Albania? Have the people discoveredtheir independence and gotten a taste of it? So they pushed back, or they worried thatKushner is a neo Bolshevik or something?What is happening there?What is the attitude of the people?I don't think that it's as muchhas to do with Kushner and, you know, the resort.
34:43It's more, it has to do more with the Albanian government.That's what happened.And no one has asked me this until now.And I'm, you know, I live here so I can share my opinion freely.I believe, I personally believe,that this was the Trump family and Kushner was, I'd not call him a victim, but it was a certain, you know,the country is all about building Albania, all about bringing beautiful things. I think thisresults have been something amazing for the country. The only problem was that there was no transparency
35:24from the government. And so people were suspicious of the government and corruption? Is that what you're saying?Absolutely. It's all about the corruption. It's all about the government taking advantage and doing everything behind the scenes. We didn't know. For example, yes, you can take that island, but what is the contract? Are you donating this island to the Kushners or to whoever is in charge of, you know, is building this beautiful resort? Or is there a certain third year, a hundred year lease? What are the water rights? But basically, we didn't know anything. And still the government does not.share any information regarding that.Of course, they say that we have not made any arrangements.You know what I mean?It's always something that comes that they're not being truthful.And I believe, and I'm very sure that this is the frustration that people have with the government.I would just share some example.
36:19It's the Albania, it's now a beautiful country.Tourism is booming in Albania.And I love going there.My children love going there.My American husband loves going there.However, the problem is that the level of corruption is still very high.And it's still like post-communism.It has not fully transitioned to full democracy.
36:47Just a few months ago, I had lunch.My son takes place soccer.And one of his teammates said, oh, why don't we go and have lunch, the parents?So we sat down and had lunch between games, and he said, you know, I've been to Albania.And actually, we started the business, oil business with Albania and other Eastern European countries.But we went bankrupt, he said, because for the simple reason that we just get receiving bills, you have to pay this bill.You have to pay this bill.You've got to pay this politician and that politician, right?
37:20And he said at some point it came several million, seven point something million dollar bill, and we didn't know what that was.for. And at that stage, he said that we declared bankruptcy. But he said it was very, very hardto work there because still the government has power. Yeah, it's really always an issue. That'swhy I asked what there's an attitude of the people there. It's difficult to get your, to get outof that hole once you're in that authoritarian hole, especially because it draws in the wrongkind of people. And it's very easy, you know, to just replace one gangster family with anothergangster family, isn't it? Very true. Very true. I could not have said it better. Yeah, it's a,it's a pattern we see everywhere, unfortunately. But it is wonderful that you were able to escape that,
38:12and I really appreciate you telling people about this. It is very important to understand thesestories, folks, and to tell these stories to your children, to make sure they value freedom.fortunately we haven't experienced this stuff but we're starting to see the edges of it especially when we talkabout things like bad biography and it looks like DEI in so many different respects and so we understandhuman nature we understand a lot of these things will look very similar they'll not exactly repeatbut they will rhyme and they come from the same kind of heart that wants to impose this kind of totalitarianism onus and so I think it's very important that people see this see thisbook. Again, the title is,
38:54Beneath the Silence,The Names, the Regime,tried to erase.And let me just,before we stop,there was another storythat was in there,and that was a stadium that's
39:04going to be built.Tell us a little bit about that.It was going to be builtin an area where a lot of peoplehad been buried.Tell us a little bit aboutthat story and your family's involvement.Well, my great-grandfather,
39:15my maternal great-grandfather,was buried there.And, of course,all the loved ones had to,to take their parents or grandparents remains in order for the stadium to be built.And my paternal grandfather went with his son that actually carried the name of his grandfather.And I believe it was one that was persecuted the mosque from the family because they did not like that, you know,the new Hussein now it's coming and it's alive.
39:50And it very much looks like his grandfather.So actually the young Hussain, I believe he was less than 10 years old, went there with his father to pick up the remains of his grandfather.And he started, you know, he held the, I'd call the head and that he could see the bullets, where the bullet came from.And in his friend, he shared this story with me.in his mind he's starting to imagine his grandfather and how he died and the whole you know the wholeexperience and you know putting the connecting you know the bones to the body and it's just so traumatic i can'timagine having my child go through that experience and you know to me it was a shocking experience thatI did not know until actually he shared it with me
40:46when I was writing this book.It's important to pass those stories on.And of course, it is their desire to controland to own everything.We see that happening a lot right now as well.And it has to be, you know,we have to understand with this head.I'm sorry, go ahead.
41:07Yes.I just want to share, right now it does not happen anymorethrough that kind of violence, but there are other ways.It's social media.It's bullying.It's trying to keep people under control and not speak about a certain thing.Or, you know, you said, I believe that if you send a child to school,you need to know what they're studying about, what they're learning at school.
41:32To me, that's extremely important.I want to educate my child the way that I want to,and I send my son to school or my daughter,and they have to follow certain curriculum that actually it's being shared with us,not anything extra to be added.And sadly, it was happening.And to me, that was frightening and devastating at the same time.Yeah, it is always, they always target the kids, don't they?
41:57Because they want to get them at an early impressionable age.Absolutely.They have brainwashed them at the answer.So they continue thinking that way.That's right.Someone told me a few days ago, actually, I did not know.I did not think of it this way.But what happened is that in post-communists or in communist countries, their leadership
42:18when they failed, when the communist countries failed in 1990s, their leadership, the peoplethat actually knew what was happening in the Western world that had these connectionsleft the country one way or another.And we were able to get positions in the Western.Western Europe, including America as professors or, you know, leadership.And so that.And then they pass that on.Yeah.
42:47And, of course, they have, for the longest time, schemed about marching through the institutionsand taking the institutions over from the top.I mean, you can have a revolution in the streets or they can march through theinstitutions and take it over from the top.There's a lot of different ways that they can come after you.But it's always the same tactics that they use in every country, isn't it?Oh, absolutely. It's the same way. I'm talking here about Albania, but most of Eastern Europeis the same. And I mean, the fear is Western Europe. We want to make sure that the Western
43:20Europe stays Western and civilized. Capitalism is in charge, I would say. I mean, raisingtaxes as high as these countries are in Western countries are doing its control. The governmentcontrol over the other. When we're another, they're not able to function the way that they would like to.I'm a big believer in donating. I'm a big believer in giving. But I choose who I want to give.I choose who I want to donate, where I believe that my money, my heart earned money goes.I came to this country, to America. I do like to share this with my children a lot.And I'm sure you have heard it. But I did not have much. I came here as an international student.I was given the opportunity to work at the university.
44:08And everything went from there.I was able to have a managing company and have this life that I built it all on my own, all by myself.And I work a lot.I'd say there are days that I sleep three hours.And I change to donate to people that actually do not have the opportunity to succeedbecause they don't have, their parents are very, you know, from poor income familiesand don't have the opportunity to give everything that is possible to their children.And I'm okay with donating there.
44:39I actually am a big believer in donating in things that I believe.However, I don't want to give my money to someone that does not work.And here I am working 18 hours a day or 20 hours a day at times.And just I'd say giving it to the government or throwing it all away.So I'm a big believer that you need what belongs to you and share the way that you believe.it's the best way to the best use of your, your heart earn money or, uh, that's exactly whatAlexis de Tocqueville saw when he came to the U.S. from socialist France. He said, you know, we needsomething in France. We always turn to the government for it. He said, here in America,
45:19people will come together voluntarily and support people. And when you do that, you can tell whoreally needs it and who's just a slacker who's just, uh, kind of gaming the system.if you have the charity at the interpersonal level, at the lowest level, there is a checkagainst that kind of fraud and abuse and waste and things like that.But once it becomes institutionalized, that's not there.And it's really the government's purpose and all this stuff is not really to help peopleanyway.The government's purpose is to make people dependent on it.
45:50Just take a look at what's happening with the universal basic income and the push for doingthat that's coming from the technocrats.they want people just to own nothing and to be dependent on them for everything and to get theirpermission for everything. It is a system of totalitarianism, if ever there was one. And so you can havetotalitarianism can come to you with a variety of different political philosophies that can comeat you from a variety of different angles. But the key thing is to go back and to look at someone'slife like yours. And that cuts down to the essence of it. And so we get rid of the differentjustifications, economic or political for these different systems, and you look at how it actually
46:33operates and what it does to people and where it comes from, the human heart that producesthis type of thing. And once you see that human heart, I think, and once you see the resultsof how that looks in a particular country like you see in your life story, then it is somethingthat you can spot, I think. The people who have grown up and lived in a communist society,they can spot it a mile away.That's why these biographies like yours are so important, I think.It's very interesting because not very many people from Albania have been able to write a biography about the communismor to write about the country's communism.
47:14Most of it has been from international voices writing about Albania and communism and, you know,the dictatorship and, you know, socialism.because that's what we call ourselves.We call the people socialist republic.And so it's very...They always use that word, don't they?I mean, the Nazis used it.The Soviets used it.
47:40The communists used it everywhere, socialist.Because they always come to you and say, you know,this is all about supporting the community.You know, communism is about the community.We're all going to come together and help each other.It's not like that at all, is it?In real, that's just the...The way that they come to you with it, isn't it?
47:57Absolutely not.They come to you in the name of the people, in the name of wanting to have everyone,everyone basically not being unique, but everyone needs to fit in,and it's all about the community, and it's very far from that.So actually, such a common in some, it's all about divisive,very divisive, I'd say.The classes are very, very divisive.If you are the class of the people that support the party that are their, I'd call them their puppies, do whatever the government tells them.
48:28And then there is the people that actually do not believe in it, but they cannot say much.They cannot do much because they're being watched at all times.And that and my families were watched at all times 24-7.And you said an example that the friends were not, you know, you don't have friends because I remember my family.had friends, had people that actually loved them, but, and they spoke with them.But what is extremely important that I wrote that in the book, I did not know about thatuntil my mother shared it, but I always was shocked that my grandfather, by my mother's side,would never sit at the restaurant for coffee, for lunch, for dinner. They always ate at home.
49:15And they went to the grocery store. They never spoke of anything other than the way.weather and that was it.One story that my grandfather, my maternal grandfather, because I did not meet the paternalone, my maternal grandfather would have jobs, very random jobs from, you know, every threeto six months, the government would move him because they were scared that he might createrelationships and might start a clan against communist.So one person, and I have changed the.name in the book and he's still alive today. One day went to my grandfather and told him that
49:57it has been three months that we have been working together. I have goosebumps while I speak.It has been three months that we have been working together. You have been just such an amazingperson, so positive, so kind. I do have to share with you that I have worked with you so closely.I am trying to be your friend, but the government actuallyI'm a spy from the government.He was straightforward.I'm supposed to share every singlestep that you
50:29take, every singleconversation that you share.And my grandfatherdidn't say a word. He saidthen this ex-person,the spy, told to my grandfather,just one piece of advice. Do not sitat a restaurant, don't go to a restaurant
50:48or don't go for a coffee anywhere because something might happen,that a result will be you being imprisoned.My guess is that perhaps someone might attack him, might take him,so they will take him.They could not find one thing to imprison my family.And so to that point, none of my family members ever said at a restaurantor at a coffee shop or anywhere that it might endanger them.you know, their life.
51:20And so where do we see that today?I mean, that's what we should think about when we see surveillance out there, isn't it?We should look at that and say, well, if somebody has authoritarian designs on things and, you know,they're looking to monitor people that disagree with them politically or that they might findto be enemies of the state, however, they define that at a given moment.They will with the listening devices that we've got now.Your refrigerator is listening to you.In this kind of technological environment, they wouldn't be safe eating at home because
51:48the refrigerators are spying on you, your appliances are spying on you, your Samsung phone istaking down everything.You've got an Apple Watch is going to record all your conversations for the day.But we're supposed to believe that those are not available to anybody who has a governmentor somebody who wants to look into our lives, but that's the reality that is being set up there.And it's going to be a very, very difficult situation if we don't go back and recover thefoundations of this country, the Constitution of the Bill of Rights that were there to keep thattype of thing from happening. I think that is the key thing. And people just, again, they don't
52:27think twice about it. They don't really value it. As we see free speech being prescribed andpunished in various ways for various agendas, especially in the UK, even the home of George Orwell.They're doing everything that he talked about. And I think that's a very concerning thing. But when welook at the life that they lived. Again, they had to rely in Albania and in Eastern Germany.They had to rely on individual human spies. Now they have apps for that and they have devices forthat and they can single us out and we don't even know why we're being singled out. And we'renever able to confront our accusers. As a reporter, one of the first stories I covered was a guywho got on a no-fly list and he couldn't find out why he was on the no-fly list and he couldn't find out
53:12how to get off of it. You know, they weren't going to confront himwith what they had against them.And apparently they didn't have anything at allbecause eventually as he got it odd of press out of it,they removed that.But that's the kind of world that we are so close to in this country.It could very easily flip in a moment,just as it did for your family.
53:33And I have to share that I'm a big believerthat this is the country that we can actually still live freeand be ourselves.There's nowhere to go from here.So we need to make sure.that we protect, that we need to make sure that we raise our voice and on what we, for what we believe.And, you know, brainwashing, it's so true nowadays, especially with the younger generation.That's my biggest fear.
53:58We need to educate them about the values of freedom, the values of, you know, hard work, ethics.And, you know, built a strong, strong, strong next generation of leaders of this world.I agree.and all of these biographical stories of people who lived under totalitarianism,yours especially, I think are real warning to people.This is what happens when human nature is given uncontrolled power.This is what they will do every single time.It doesn't matter what country it is.
54:32It doesn't matter.You can split Germany, east and west, and you can split Korea, North, and South.But it's going to be the people who live under that political system.and what it's going to do to them.It's going to turn them into monsters.It's going to make the country poor, oppressed, and all the rest of this.And we see this happening over and over again.And it really is your personal story and others like it that I think are the key for people to really understand this.
54:57You can talk to people about economic theory.You can talk to people about political theory.But the thing that gets it across to people is to see a life story that is there.They can relate to that.Yeah.And so again, the book is Beneath the Silence.The names, a regime tried to erase.This is by Alida DeCole.
55:16Do I pronounce your name correctly?And thank you.Yeah, thank you so much for joining us.And thank you so much for taking the time to do this book.I know that you spent a lot of time talking to family members to get these stories.And it is a story that honors your family, but it is also a warning to the rest of us.Thank you so much, Alita.Appreciate it.
55:36Thank you.It has been the honor of my life of writing this book.I've been very fortunate and I do believe that I have to give back.And this is one of my ways of giving back and educating the next generation.Thank you so much for having to your show.Thank you.It's a wonderful way to give back.And I guess everybody can find this wherever books are sold or do you have a special website
55:58that people can get it directly from you?They're more than welcome to go to the Simon & Schuster website or on Amazon or directlyon my website, elida.com.Okay. And we have that under your name there on the screen so people can see that as well. That's great.Book launch. The book is available November 3rd, anywhere where books are sold.Okay, great. So we're about a month out from it, not even a month, I guess we're about two weeks out from it releasing.So be on the lookout. Again, the name of the book is beneath the silence. The names a regime tried to erase beneath the silence.Thank you so much, Alita.
56:37The book is still available, although at this time the book is available for pre-sale.Oh, okay.Great, great.So people will be able to find it.Absolutely.Well, thank you very much for joining us.And thank you for the book.Thank you.
56:48Thank you.The common man.They created common core and dumb down our children.They created common past to track and control us.Their commons project to make sure the commoners own nothing and the communist future.They see the common man is simple, unsophisticated, ordinary.But each of us has worth and dignity created in the image of God.That is what we have in common.
57:32That is what they want to take away.Their most powerful weapons are isolation, deception, intimidation.They desire to know everything about us while they hide everything from us.It's time to turn that around and expose what they will.to hire. Please share the information and links you'll find at the Davidnightshow.com.Thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing. If you can't support us financially,please keep us in your prayers. The Davidnightshow.com.
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