As the month of March began, the first anniversary of the disappearance of MH370 was just days away. One year on, not one concrete clue has emerged around what happened to the aircraft with its 239 souls on board. The one great aviation mystery of our generation still hangs heavy on our hearts and minds. One aircraft, one hurt, one enduring hope that maybe, just maybe, one day we will know…
Just a matter of days on, as the month has moved on, the eyes of the world were forced to suddenly shift. From Malaysia our eyes travelled to other points on the world map suddenly gripped by crisis. Often they were places unfamiliar to sight. Just this past weekend it was Vanuatu, a pure, picture-perfect, tiny island paradise forced into the headlines as Tropical Cyclone Pam forced her way through, leaving a path of destruction and despair not seen since the tragedy of 2013’s Super Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban. http://reliefweb.int/report/vanuatu/infographic-tropical-cyclone-pam-march-2015. At once, the world’s eyes watched with anxiousness, seeing the hurt, looking for the signs of hope.
And then suddenly, like the switching of a television channel, and in fact through the switching of a television channel or refresh of a webpage, the eyes of the world travelled from the South Pacific to North Africa. Tunisia, the nation seen as the single success story of the Arab Spring, shaken to its core by a brutal terror attack in Tunis, one carefully targeting a high profile centre of culture and tourism. A single blow hits at the hearts of Tunisians and several nations, as 23 lives are lost (as of 19 03 2015 count) including those of 18 foreign tourists. Horror where once there was such hope. Today, the day after the nightmare the day before, the shadows still block the sun, the darkness and fear thick. The threats of “more” echoing.
Again. And Again. And again.
As the 2015 calendar moves through the months ahead, again and again the world’s eyes will be shifting to new locations of loss, learning of places and people whose lives are suddenly left in one overwhelming state of shock. More prayers will be said. More sadness will be felt. One world….united by one hurt.
Yet despite, or maybe it is because of, all of the physical separation of geography, and often separation of ideology, an invisible yet powerful unification is taking place. One world’s shared hurt, one without borders, is emerging as one shared need to hold on to hope.
Hope – the innate, deeply rooted need to believe that tomorrow will be a better day. And with that, tomorrow our world will be a better, safer, kinder place.
Some call such hope ‘audacity‘, some ‘naïveté‘, some ‘impossibility‘, some a reflection of being out of touch with reality.
And yet, the human spirit continues to hope, turning to those right next to us and across the globe to fuel its ability to endure. Because it has to.
It might not be tomorrow, but soon, no question about it, something else will happen to shift out focus, to shake our faith. Something will scare our inner child.
In that moment, once again, we will be forced to dig deep, turning our shock and chilled states of heart into a glue that binds us all together with a need to believe that tomorrow, maybe tomorrow, we will be better. Our world will be safer. The sun will break through the cloud.
One world, with the remarkable ability to turn one hurt into one unextinguishable hope….with all of its beautiful, borderless, breathing easy, bonds.
Copyright: ANITA MENDIRATTA 2015