Pangea Day

In
school, I learnt in geography that Pangea was the unified land masses of the
unified continents about 250 million years ago, a super continent which existed
before the Continental drift separated the land masses into the present day
continents. Under this theory the continents were all huddled up together
before the land mass divided into individual continents.

I
am not about to give you a Geography lesson, the reason I mentioned this is
because “Pangea Day” (it was celebrated 10 May 2008) on was in the news recently as a wonderful venture
to promote universal brotherhood all over the world. This was the brainchild of
Jehane Noujaim a film maker who worn the TED (Technology, Entertainment and
Design) award for the best documentary. The TED committee is made up of world
famous people such as Bill Gates, Bill Clinton and C.E.O of NOKIA, sponsor for
the event, and others. The idea was that short films would be screened
simultaneously at different locations throughout the world; people all over the
world would watch these films, which were collected from film makers who sent
in their films from different parts of the world.

In this unique project short films from all over the world were invited and a
short list of 12 winners was selected from them. These films were then screened
simultaneously at predetermined locations in different parts of the world where
people got together and in vast numbers and watched the films. The films were
screened in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio
de Janeiro. For
more details on this event you can visit the “Pangea Day” site.

Pangea
day was meant to be a global celebration of film and culture where people got
together to celebrate not only a common humanity but also the varied
ethnicities and ways of life from all over the world. The event was meant to
convey that people all over the world connected in a positive and meaningful
way and that although geographical, economic other limitations tend to create
an unequal world, these are minor compared to the universality of human spirit
which can triumph against all odds in the end.