What difference can it make?
What difference can one word,
one message,
one thought,
one wish,
one prayer,
really make?
As the world watches in shock, one country continues to face immense trauma. Over 4 million people have fled their country in desperate hopes of finding a place of peace. Over 6.5 million have found themselves internally displaced. All in just over one month. (Source: UNHCR)
What difference does it make for one voice to call out, to express a thought, to say a prayer?
For millions upon millions seeking shelter, seeking safety, seeking to not be left alone and forgotten, it makes all the difference in the world.
In just a matter of hours one of the world’s most unifying events will come to a close: EXPO 2020. A six-month celebration of unity across 192 nations, EXPO will have brought together close to 25 million people of different countries, cultures, faiths, ages, and ideologies from across the globe – all sharing a commitment to a stronger, safer, more sustainable and sincerely unified future world.
At the heart of EXPO 2020 has been three central, symbiotic themes: Sustainability, Mobility, and Opportunity.
In the closing weeks of EXPO there was, however, one theme that emerged in one national pavilion which eclipsed all others: Humanity.
The pavilion: Ukraine.
The creators of pavilion architecture: the nation.
The exhibition curators: ultimately the world.
The indication of the message to the world from the outside: invisible.
The impact on entering the pavilion and feeling its message: an immediate flow of tears that was simply unavoidable.
What was once a national pavilion exhibition showcasing opportunities for connection to the world through innovation and investment had, in the past month of 2022, and last month of EXPO 2020, become a global show of sympathy and solidarity.
Immediately entering the pavilion visitors walked straight into literally a world of messages from the world to the people of Ukraine. Thousands and thousands. Everywhere, as far as the eye could see and heart could reach.
Unplanned, un-curated, and un-campaigned, the building had turned into a love letter from the world to the people of Ukraine across the world.
The power of the sight was penetrating. Thousands and thousands of times over, visitors to the pavilion left their mark:
one message,
one voice,
one expression of love,
one prayer,
times thousands and thousands and thousands.
One message,
one prayer,
can indeed unite the world,
including those who have watched from afar and found themselves voiceless, helpless, yet wanting to do something to show their solidarity, their care,
even if simply sharing a message of love.
The Ukraine EXPO pavilion became, so beautifully and so powerfully, a way of magnifying one voice, one message, and one prayer to tell the people of Ukraine that they were not alone.
Through a small pavilion a huge contribution was unexpectedly made to the legacy of EXPO, the Ukraine reinforcing the heart of the meaning, of EXPO:
one pavilion,
one people,
reinforcing the message that wherever we are in the world, no one nation, no one person, no one prayer, should ever stand alone. X
Copyright: ANITA MENDIRATTA 2022