Newsroom

Avery in London writes,

The cobblestones are clean, the lights are rigged, the stage is set with Rokia's harp just in the right spot: 12 hours 28 minutes 48 seconds until Pangea Day! Everything is in place here at Somerset House for the world to gather one by one, two by two, group by group around our cinematic campfire. Despite all being ready for show-time tomorrow, recent events in Lebanon have abruptly brought our own experience and Pangea Day's call to action haltingly into perspective. Earlier this evening, we took a moment to sit with two of our speakers, Christian ex-soldier Assaad and Muslim ex-soldier Muhieddine, both from Beirut, and heard with deep concern how both their families had fled the night before to shelters, bullets continually whizzing by their children's heads. Muhieddine's seven year old daughter asked her mother, "will the shooting stop when Daddy gets home?" The Beirut airport is closed now and we are struggling to find flights to get them home to their families as soon as possible on Sunday. It is their moving story, past and present, that reminds us that Pangea Day will be a rare chance to share their untold stories, and others, from a personal and compelling perspective.