Date: 17/03/22
By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEAT.

On this day in 1973, a very famous photograph was taken by the photographer, Sal Veder, at an airforce base in California. The image shows a US Airforce Colonel being reunited with his family after spending more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. The photograph was given the title ‘Burst of Joy’ and was awarded the famous Pulitzer Prize for journalism.

There are a number of reasons why I thought about this photograph. Perhaps the most obvious reason is that every newspaper this morning has on its front page a photo of Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe, who was basically held hostage by the Iranian government for six years and has finally been released. No doubt tomorrow’s editions will have a photo of Nazanin reunited with her husband and their daughter, who she hasn’t seen since she was baby.

Both photographs can give us joy and hope, two things which have been in very short supply recently. They also remind us that war and conflicts will eventually end and there will be a better future. The photo of the Colonel reminds me too that when powerful countries start wars which can’t be justified then they will eventually lose. This is particularly true when they invade a country where people are as brave as the Ukrainians.

The other event which offered hope this week was the bravery of Marina Ovsyannikova, the Russian journalist who interrupted a live Russian TV news broadcast to protest against the invasion of Ukraine. She held up a poster which was half in Russian and half in English to tell the Russian people what is really happening in Ukraine, but also to show people outside of Russia that many ordinary Russians are against the war. Her actions have led to a number of other Russian journalists and presenters to resign as they are not prepared to follow President Putin’s propaganda and lie to Russian people about the invasion of Ukraine.

When people act like Marina, and we see the incredible bravery of ordinary Ukrainians to defend their country from invasion then it keeps hope alive. Let us pray for peace so then we can experience the joy at the end of a needless war as families are reunited.