Whatever works

More than 10,000 Moldovan youths protested Tuesday against their newly-elected, communist government, which they believed tampered with the election.

What fueled this fire? A secret meeting held by twenty-something students wearing berets and smoking clove cigarettes?

Sorry, those days are over.

Twitter just killed the image of a poetic radical. You can now organize a protest while in your boxers. Rebellious attire is optional.

The networking site now has a surprisingly useful purpose beyond declaring what you had for breakfast or what you thought of this week’s episode of “Lost.”

Sure, Facebook and text messages were also revolutionary catalysts for the Moldovans.But the leaders of this attempted revolt created a searchable tag (#pman) to access information and details.

The government was ruffled up, and the youth eventually gained full control within a day.

Authorities then cut off Internet access in the capital of Chisinau. Out of nowhere.
Big Brother much, President Voronin?

While this protest might not have ended in any tangible, positive results for the Moldovan youth, it is certainly a way for them to declare their presence and persistence.

Maybe using Twitter isn’t as poetic as berets and clove cigarettes, but when the United States gets a targeted age group to vote via P. Diddy and free Starbucks, the acts of these Moldovans is enormous.

The Internet was also a tool for protests in the Ukraine in 2004 and Belarus in 2006.

What was the most relevant thing about Twitter before? Finding the real Shaq or getting instant news about celebrity breakups?

It was only a few years ago when the worst mode of severing ties was via e-mail, text message or even a Post-it note.

In a new era of Twitterati, Myspace is way creepy and cancelling a Facebook relationship is passe.

Everyone’s favorite celebrity Lindsay Lohan broke up with “girlfriend” Sam Ronson by tweeting.

“Being cheated on does wonders to you. I’m doing this publicly because u&ur friends call People mag,” Lohan wrote this past weekend.

As much as I love LiLo, observing attempts to change a government is slightly more fascinating.

The Twitter site for the activists is still going strong, and comments range from “Communists take ur dirty hands out of our country! Don’t cheat! Don’t block sites and communications! Don’t block path to our freedom!” to “I still can’t believe there are thousands of people coordinating a revolution on Twitter right now. Amazing.”

And I can’t help but agree with the latter.

Moldovan citizens truly deserve something good. Their cultural and geographic identity has been passed around like a redheaded stepchild that nobody wants to deal with, but everyone will boss around. Being on the edge of or below the poverty line is the norm.

And as a native Romanian, I can’t help but empathize with my neighboring country.

Whether it’s Twitter or carrier pigeons or smoke signals, change is still change.

So I must say: whatever works.