Blogger and human rights activist extraordinaire Ethan Zuckerman has a fascinating post up about a Tunisian version of the 1984 Apple ad video mash-up that predates the now famous "Vote Different" Hillary 1984 video by three years.

Apparently after Larry Lessig gave a speech in Doha last week and pointed to Phil de Vellis' video as a turning point in political discourse, "where open culture and open politics could merge and bring to an end the 20th century trends of increased centralization and control in media and politics" (Ethan's words, not Lessig's), a Tunisian free speech activist who heard Lessig's talk sent the above link to Zuckerman. The video is an attack on Tunisian strongman Ben Ali, who, as Ethan points out, runs his country in a far more Orwellian fashion than anything we Americans might experience here. The girl who opens her eyes at the end of the video is meant to represent the Tunisian people (and why do I think I've seen her in a different Apple TV ad?).

I think it's incredibly inspiring to realize that this imagery can speak across cultures (more evidence that the marketing people at Apple are geniuses, to be sure), and also to recognize that politics is being flattened all over the world as more people master the new technologies of communication and talk back to the powerful. Kudos to Ethan for helping unearth this (and to Ruby Sinreich for bringing it to my attention).

P.S. Something tells me that Ethan saw a preview of the speech Lessig is going to present at Personal Democracy Forum next month...All I can say is, I can't wait.