Plaster Wall Event: “Compassion for Earth” commemorating the 60th anniversary of Japan’s Membership in the United Nations

 
        On December 19^th, the Permanent Mission of Japan held an event at the United Nations Headquarters entitled “Compassion for Earth” to commemorate the 60^th anniversary of Japan’s membership in the United Nations.
 
          This event, which showed the creativity and meticulousness of the Japanese people as well as the culture and tradition of plaster walls in Japan, included a talk and demonstration by Master Plasterer Naoki Kusumi, after which he invited students up for a workshop, and ended with a reception in the evening.
 
          Among the attendees of the evening reception were UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Head of the UN Department of Public Information Cristina Gallach (MC), and the Ambassadors of Afghanistan, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Bhutan, and the Netherlands. During his opening remarks at the reception, Ambassador Koro Bessho stated, “We are hopefully reminded that humans, regardless of religion, belief or ethnicity, can and must co-exist and prosper on the soils that we share.”
 
          Guests were invited to engrave their “message of peace” on the plaster wall in their native languages, with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon writing the characters “平和“ (peace) and Ambassador Koro Bessho writing the character “信“ (believe, trust), making this a very appropriate event to commemorate the 60^th anniversary of Japan’s membership in the United Nations,