The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern is an ideal leader for me in a lot of ways – she is young, savvy, thoroughly modern, compassionate, progressive and she gets things done. Also, unlike most politicians in the world, she seems to have a sense of humour! Jacinda Ardern recently posted a two-minute video where she briefly detailed the achievements of her government in the two years she had been at the helm. Her video quickly went viral.
She speaks of job creation, tree plantation, housing, better medical care, increase of minimum wage, more classrooms and educational funding, ban on single use plastic, more police officers on highways, increase of wages, the banning of assault weapons and more. She quotes facts and figures which lend credence to what she says.
The video quickly went viral across social media platforms.
Journalists, activists and citizens from different countries expressed their appreciation – and their envy , it must be said, for New Zealand.
Ardern’s video has led people in other parts of the world to demand accountability and similar progressive action from their own governments. This tweet from a Pakistani citizen asks the ruling party to offer a similar list of their own achievements.
As this tweet points out, this video is especially pertinent for recent times when autocratic regimes have gained power across the world. At a time when the stifling of democratic ideals in the name of security, strength and development has become common, Ardern is seen to uphold these democratic ideals.
Many want her to be their leader. Her reactions in the wake of the mosque attacks in her country were compassionate but not confined to mere hand wringing. Her government acted quickly and promptly banned assault-style weapons in the aftermath of the attacks.
YouTuber Akash Banerjee tweeted, calling upon people to tag their own local leaders to present such a video – detailing not just promises but actual achievements.
Many of the Indian tweeple did not have too many hopes of their own leaders.
People from other countries took the opportunity to list the wrongs committed by their own governments. Jacinda Ardern's viral video seemed to trigger a strange case of 'leader-envy'; the like of which we haven't often seen before.
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