United Buddy Bears comes to Jerusalem - here I am between the Buddy Bear from the United States (that's the big green one holding the torch and wearing the Statue of Liberty's crown) and
the United Kingdom (Union Jack, y'all).Yes, as befitting an art installation whose title is: "United Buddy Bears: The Art of Tolerance," the bears line Jerusalem's Safra Square in alphabetical order. Israel's Buddy Bear (wearing a Kotel-inspired motif) is sandwiched between Iraq and Iran (pictured).
There are even Buddy Bears from countries that exist either in memory only (i.e. Armenia) or in fantasy (the Palestinian Authority, see picture of Palestinian Buddy Bear with kafiyah around neck next to Pakistani Buddy Bear).
2 comments:
Armenia exists in memory only? But it does exist!
Apologies from me to Armenia, indeed it DOES exsist again as a soverign country after the political entity formerly known as the U.S.S.R. which swallowed it up dissolved in the '90's. I guess I'm so used to walking through the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City and seeing maps of the Armenian Genocide EVERYWHERE on every wall throughout the Quarter that I actually forgot Armenia is a politically independent entity again, and not just the place of the first GENOCIDE of the 20th Century (but not the last). Jerusalem is home to the second largest Armenian population in the world (outside of Armenia itself)numbering several thousand. Of course Armenia is the OLDEST country in the world and the first to be mentioned in the Bible (Genesis). God bless Armenia!
Post a Comment