“It Will Be Us”: Imitation is the Best Form of Flattery

I’d like to present to you G99’s latest ad.  It’s pretty awesome. Please watch.

G99 – Po Vjen Ndryshimi (Change is Coming)

Translation: Something wonderful is happening in Albania. Change is coming. And this change is coming from youth.  If there is a group, if there is a power who holds in their hands the fate of Albania, this is Albania’s youth. We cannot sleep because Albania is asking us to be awake. This is our moment. This is our time.  Yes we can.

Last week, we were talking about putting together a new ad for G99 for the last few days of the election and throwing some ideas around.  Playing my role as the consultant, I showed the group this ad that gives me chills no matter how many times I watch it.  I used to watch it over and over again in the final weeks of the U.S. general election for inspiration:

One Day to Change the World

Now, it’s Albania’s turn. This Sunday, June 28th will greatly determine the future of this small country.  Throughout my time here, Erion keeps joking with me that it must be strange that so much adeiu is being made about a country the size of Maryland with a population less than the size of Washington, DC.  Stating the obvious, I reply that it may be a small country, but there is so much more at stake for the some three million lives who live here… obviously.

This is Albania’s moment.  Either this youth movement will succeed or it will fail.  Sure, they can keep pushing for another four years, but the levels of cynicism I have seen in this country, the amount of skepticism that exists after so many years of communism and then so many years of corruption indicate that they need this victory.  They need to prove to themselves that the grassroots can rise up and have a voice. The stakes are less about education than they are about people having a reason to hope.  America has seen rich times.  We knew it was possible because we had seen it before or our parents or grandparents had seen it.  We had seen the American dream played out.  Here, they need to see it a little more.

Mind you, imitation is the best form of flattery.

Tags: Albania, albanian election, campaign ad, change, communism, corruption, cynicism, education, erion veliaj, G99, hope, obama, skepticism