What should we do before the "Tigers" are released?

2500 years ago, Confucius aimed to create the new model of man in China, through the model of superior man. This man would reflect the search for the perfect, which is based on morality, justice, wisdom... and which deals with himself and not others. Through this model to be followed, and through definitions of the inferior man to be avoided, he thought the world would be a better place to live.

But his ideas conflicted with the policies of the time - from rulers with inferior virtues who created and maintained power with these low principles. As Confucius began to implement his ideas in the state of Lu and with them crime decreased in the country (some of these ideas are modern for today, such as the fact that the state should take care of the food of children and the elderly), the rivals of afraid of these reforms, they sent a fish with 80 beautiful dancers to the Ding ruler. Greed and lust cause Dingu to spend days not dealing with the affairs of the state, with what he should be doing, but with the women who easily took his mind with sly intentions. Disappointed, Confucius left this country.

"What a superior man looks for is in himself, while what a small man looks for is in others", is one of his best sayings, current especially in Albanian societies, everywhere in the Balkans. It is enough to listen to the discourse of the parties, who see evil and failure only in their rivals, to understand that the mass is led by those whom Confucius called inferior, and that in the Albanian reality they are camouflaged with the cloak of patriotism, idealism and justice . Mass follows them, because it does not seek the solution itself, but waits for it from others. And, as long as the solution does not come, the blame is only sought on the rival or the foreigner.

Almost everyone, especially the Albanian rulers, have the "Emperor's New Clothes". No one dares to see the truth at the moment, but in this procession of deception one day a child will come out and talk about nudity. Because, ashes and diamonds, enemy and friend, all will be equal in the end!

He saw this one day, an orphan of the war, when he realized what happened when "the Tigers were released". His name is Roger Waters, founder and lead author of the rock band Pink Floyd. As a member of this group, like any rock star, he was once in search of fame. Perhaps as an inferior man, the product of his themes was once the other, as he dealt with the tragic fate of madness and isolation of childhood friend and former band leader Syd Barrett. Later, when he realizes that the absurd quest for fame creates nothing but bricks in the human mind, he will reflect on himself ("The Wall”, 1979).

Thus, from the 80s of the last century, his life destiny and the absence of the father he never knew became his inspiration. Today he is a declared radical atheist, so he sees every social failure in man. For him, deities are not a good basis for making decisions, for the present and especially for the future.

Childhood trauma follows a person like a curse throughout life, so Waters is no exception. His father was a great believer, but he himself remained an orphan. He expresses this disappointment towards religion especially in the album "Amused to Death" (1992), with the song "What God Wants", when he says that what God wants he gets - the good and the bad. While, like every person, "God wants his secret never to be revealed", because "God wants security/ God wants protection for himself"! Someone describes this song as blasphemy, because Waters says that "God loves crusades/ God loves jihad/ God loves good/ God loves evil". But, in fact, it should be seen more as a blow to those who hide every bad action with the cloak of religion and who avoid the truth and its search in order to leave good deeds for future generations.

Waters seeks the truth; seeks answers to the pros and cons of life. Everything in his life resembles the character of the instrumental "The Ballad of Bill Hubbard" ("Amused to Death", 1992), and the dilemma of whether we could have done more, something better, at certain moments of life !

William Hubbard died in "no man's land" during the First World War as a member of the Royal Infantry. The last man beside him, in the ditch, was Alf Razzell. Hubbard, badly wounded, chooses death over falling into the hands of the Germans. The memory of him comes back 67 years later, in 1984, when Razzell sees his name on the Memorial to the Disappeared in Arras, France, an image that brings to his mind the dilemma: Could I have done more?

"What should we do?" ("What Shall We Do," the 1980-81 "The Wall" tour and the 1982 film of the same title), is the dilemma that Waters has raised before—as a struggle between real needs, what to others require and desire to embrace the criteria and trends of others. This dilemma still haunts the "old" rock star today! Thus, on the BBC, in the "HardTalk" show, Waters says that he is happy to have his father's genes. Meanwhile, his eyes fill with tears when he remembers a veteran who told him during a concert in the USA: "Baba would be proud of you"! Although at an "advanced" age, he says that he would like to know what his father could have thought of him. The grandfather of first fame, who has achieved what he once set out to do, would like to know that answer. This for him today is consolation, rest and personal realization: so what would Eric Fletcher Waters say today?

Eric was born on December 28, 1914. He was a devout Christian, with communist and pacifist views. But the Second World War made him change his mind: despite the fact that he had a university degree, he joined the Royal Infantry (of which William Hubbard had once been a part). His new ideal was to avenge the crimes of the Nazis. In this attempt he died at the Battle of Anzio in Italy on February 18, 1944. His son Roger was five months old. Eric's body has never been found.

At the age of 70, Waters goes to Anzio to find out again what happened to his father. There he meets the British soldier who lives in Italy, and who participated in the battle of Anzio - Harry Schindler. "Eric Fletcher Waters was killed in a ditch at 11:30 a.m. when his brigade was surrounded," he said, pointing to the location in downtown Aprilia, 10 miles from Anzio, where Eric was killed. Waters put a memorial monument to his father in Aprilia, which rested his soul a little, as before a memorial spiritually liberated Alf Razell. There Waters put the words that in a way forgive even the soldiers who killed his father, since they were prey to illusions and false patriotism. "Grey and diamond/ enemy and friend/ We were all equal/ In the end".

With these words ends the song "Two Suns in the Sunset" ("The Final Cut", 1983), which spoke about the paranoia of the nuclear Holocaust - the fear of the 60s of the last century, which Waters had experienced in his youth - with the end fatal and still the dilemma that "maybe this is" what should have been done in life! These verses show in a way that Waters' life could have been different, better, if everyone would be more conscious in the actions they do; if only everyone were more honest and aware of the justice that no one can avoid – equality… death… “in the end”!

So, even though it was the Germans who killed his father, Waters blames human nature. As a fighter for the Palestinian cause, he who in the 80s of the last century mocks the frightening image of "Arabs with knives", while ironically "the skies of West Germany" are actually an allusion to the British planes carrying out the bombings largest in history against civilian targets ("Arab With Knives and West German Skies" from "Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking", 1984). Because crime for him is a cycle. "And the Germans killed the Jews/ and the Jews killed the Arabs/ and the Arabs killed the hostages/ and that's the news" ("Perfect Sense I", from "Amused to Death", 1992). "So, is it any wonder that the monkey is confused". The monkey is Waters and everyone who falls prey to the news, to the avoidance of the truth, to the bad actions that are the result of blind faith in those who hide behind the cloak of lies and do not dare to say it.

Waters, the author of one of the most beautiful songs about the war in Kosovo, "Each Small Candle”, in September of this year has announced the premiere of a film related to one of the biggest tours that can be remembered, “The Wall Live” (2010-2013). We are talking about the theatrical staging of the album "The Wall", which was finalized in 1979. During this tour, 218 concerts were given in the world, in one of the most complex and expensive realizations ever.

The song "When Tigers Broke Free" (Tigers - German tanks), found in the film "The Wall" of 1982, directed by Alan Parker, was not performed on this tour. And, in fact, this is the song that best breaks down Waters' wounded soul and his transformation with different concepts about life. It is precisely this song where for the first time he could not be indifferent to the suffering that war brings and when he first spoke to the spirit of the child who noticed "The Emperor's New Clothes"!

“It was just before dawn, on a dreary morning in black '44, when the marching commander was ordered to trust when he asked his men to withdraw. The generals gave thanks, while the other ranks stopped the enemy tanks for a while. The position at Anzio was held at the cost of several hundred ordinary lives. And wiry old King George sent his mother a note when he heard that father was gone. It was, I remember, in the form of a rolled paper, adorned with gold leaf. And, I found it one day, in the drawer of hidden old photos. Well, my eyes still water when I remember that His Majesty signed it with his wax seal. It was dark everywhere, there was ice on the ground when the 'Tigers' were released. None of the 'Z' Battalion of the Royal Infantry survived. All were left behind, most dead and others dying. And, this is how the High Command took my father from me", is the text of this song.

Waters released this song at the age of 38. Since then, he no longer deals with external enemies, real or imaginary, but internal ones, starting from himself.

One day, even among Albanians, someone will no longer think with the logic of the "monkey", but will demand an account for the lost childhood, for someone's mistake in the invasion, in war and in peace. Today he can be declared a traitor, but one day everyone will get tired of the "infallibles", because they will see the "Emperor's new clothes" around which there will no longer be 80 dancers.

During his life, Confucius was humbled by Ding, but in the end, death made them equal. Today, the Ding ruler and his dancers are not remembered like Confucius. Waters will also die, but he will be remembered more than those who took his childhood - "Tigers" and mistakes from "High Command"!

So what should we do?