The pandemic has levelled the playing field between different countries, because we are all in the same big soup together across borders. But there were certain injustices that were meted out regardless of nationality even before this year turned out to be the way it did. These have mainly to do with state oppression towards particular groups of people in places like the US, Brazil, the Middle East and — dare we way — even India. That's why a Belgium-based humanitarian organisation called Action for Hope started a programme named Landscape for Hope last year, seeking to unite like-minded groups from across the world to spread the message of peace and unity using the arts as a medium.

Arundhati Roy