02.11.2024 / A drop in the ocean

I have to admit I have been taking refuge from the tumultuous uncertainty of a precipitously changing world in intense intellectual labors over that past month. I am eager to share one of the fruits — from the latest issue of the London Ukrainian Review, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk in Conversation with Maria Tumarkin.

The entire long-read is well worth your time, and Oleksandra Matviichuk’s clear, principled thinking offers relief from the endless swirling of surface emotions that the news and social media stir up. The following passage is particularly potent when you are feeling overwhelmed by what you see and hear around you.

“But people continue to ask me [what they can do to help Ukraine] — and often it’s the people who are already doing so much. Because this is not really the question they are asking. They are asking: What can I do to end this war? Because everything a single person does looks insignificant when viewed against the backdrop of the horror of full-scale war, since all their actions cannot put an end to the Russian atrocities.

The fact is that every effort matters. There is no such thing as an insignificant effort. We are people, we are not God, we cannot stop Russia with just our individual efforts. But without our actions and engagement this war will never end.

This feeling of helplessness is imagined. I remember when this feeling started showing up in society during the Revolution of Dignity, as the corrupt, authoritarian, pro-Russian government was brutally cracking down on the peaceful protest. At the time I was heading the Euromaidan SOS initiative, and every day we responded to hundreds of people who had been beaten, arrested, tortured, convicted on fabricated criminal charges. We were in a situation where the law was not working, and all the government organs that had been created to protect people were now trying to physically break the peaceful protest and the people involved.

That was when a group of Ukrainian artists produced a series of posters with very significant messages. One of these posters had an image of a droplet with the caption: ‘I’m a drop in the ocean’. And this is our response to the feeling of helplessness. Yes, I am a person, and maybe my efforts are a drop, but together we are an ocean. And together we can change history. And not only that. Yes, I am a person, and maybe my efforts are a drop that will not end anything, but without my efforts, without all these drops, none of this will ever end.”

This entire issue of LUR, dedicated to justice, is excellent: https://www.londonukrainianreview.org