Great news! The day Wales becomes independent will come. The biggest party in the history of this country is somewhere on the horizon. It will be a day the likes of which this small nation has never seen before. We don’t yet know the date for our diaries, but it will come.
As the arguments for staying in this dying union are finally burnt away like dew on a summer morning, we all know the only possible way forward is self-determination. Wales as a thriving, forward-looking independent nation, standing proudly on its own feet, is within our grasp. But when?
Independence when?
Will it be within our parents’ lifetimes? Will it be within our lifetime? Will we leave it to our children or grandchildren? Should we order the champagne, fireworks, and bunting, or shall we leave it for now? One thing is for sure: it’s up to us to determine when, and no-one else.
In our drive towards independence, our mission right now is to inform the people of Wales what we all know: that the facts, figures, and ideological arguments stack up in our favour. But how do we decide when this unknown date is going to appear in our diaries?
In his book Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell puts forward the case that you can achieve personal greatness with 10,000 hours of focussed effort. You may become a concert pianist with 10,000 hours of practice. You might become a physics expert with all those hours of study, or become a snooker champion by putting in those hours at the table. Anything is possible.
A million hours to indy
But what about reaching a monumental achievement of independence for your country? Well, let’s pluck a figure of 1,000,000 hours out of the air. Surely that’s achievable? If you could play a concert on the stage of the Albert Hall with 10,000 hours of music practice, then surely other amazing feats could be achieved with a million hours of effort?
What could we do with our million hours? The answer is: anything. As long as we devote those hours to the goal of achieving independence for Wales, we can do anything.
The hours mostly, probably, need to be spent on the nitty-gritty, day-to-day stuff. Leafleting, organising, letter writing, email writing. But there’s more. Everything counts towards these hours. Chatting about indy Wales in the canteen at lunchtime or in the pub; writing a song or poem; even babysitting the grandchildren whilst the parents take to the streets to campaign.
How about sky-diving for independence, or setting up a YesCymru Gin Drinkers group? Basically, anything that involves walking, talking, and doing all things annibyniaeth counts. Everything.
Everyone’s invited
So how about a million hours? That’s a lot of hours. It’s around 114 years of 24/7 campaigning for any one of us, and Wales cannot afford to wait that long to gain independence. So how are we going to do it?
Well, if we divide the hours between a hundred of us we can achieve a million hours in about 13 months. But that would involve not sleeping, eating, or doing much else at all. If a thousand of us take on the challenge, then we’re getting there. How about ten thousand? That’s around 100 hours each. Across a year, that’s little more than two hours a week. More than manageable.
So how about it? What is 100 hours in today’s terms? A few dozen box sets, a few months’ commuting time maybe? Are we all up for fixing Independence Day in our calendars? Are we up for the collective task of putting in the hours together?
Can we do it? Can Cymru do it? Yes, we can. Perhaps we’re getting closer than we think to the day we can put that champagne on ice after all.
It’s going to be one hell of a party … and everyone’s invited.
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