Opinion | Let’s give thanks for what the long winter of the pandemic brought out in us


Opinion | Let’s give thanks for what the long winter of the pandemic brought out in us

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AdvertisementCoronavirus pandemicOpinionCommentSiddharth ChatterjeeOpinion | Let’s give thanks for what the long winter of the pandemic brought out in usIn Chinese art, pine, bamboo and plum


blossom symbolise fortitude, modesty and endurance – traits that help us through dark days. These traits have helped us through the pandemic as we emerge into a hopeful springReading Time:3


minutesWhy you can trust SCMPSiddharth ChatterjeePublished: 7:00pm, 10 Apr 2021Updated: 7:00pm, 10 Apr 2021 Throughout China, people are celebrating the arrival of spring. I, too, am


excited about what flowers I may see or smells I might savour this spring, my first as the UN resident coordinator. As the days go by, temperatures will rise, frozen lakes will melt, and


farmers will get to work in their rice paddies. Cities, towns and villages will be showered with rain or shrouded in soft mists.


Advertisement We’ll be seeing and smelling pear blossoms and peach blossoms, azaleas blooming, and cherry blossoms carpeting the land. In Beijing, I am told that we can look forward to


apricot flowers, lilacs and peonies.


There is much to celebrate. The whole world, we can now hope, is seeing the first signs of spring, emerging from the long winter of the pandemic. As vaccines proliferate and as people return


to work and school, we have much to be grateful for, even as we mourn our many losses.But before we turn fully to spring, let us give thanks for winter. Not thanks for the pandemic, which


has been so catastrophic, but thanks for what it brought out in us. Many of y0u will already know something that I just recently learned. That is the “three friends of winter”, a motif in


much Chinese art and poetry. For those who don’t know, these three friends are pine, bamboo, and plum blossom. They are symbols of fortitude, modesty and endurance – traits that help us


through the frosty, dark days of winter. And they have helped us through the pandemic.Plum blossoms are in bloom in the Meihuashan scenic area, seen against the skyline of Nanjing city in


eastern China’s Jiangsu province, on February 21. Photo: Xinhua I feel a kinship with the three friends of winter. At the United Nations, we often speak of resilience, equity and


sustainability. They are the marks of a peaceful and prosperous world that the UN is working towards for all of us today and countless generations to come.


Advertisement In “resilience”, we see societies that have been made strong enough to withstand what shocks may come their way, be it violence or disaster or disease. By “sustainability”, we


mean a world in balance, one in which we enjoy the fruits of the earth but do not gorge on them; we cultivate them for future generations. By “equity”, we mean to focus on the basic equality


and dignity of all human beings, no matter their birth or their station.


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