Snapshots from a time of crisis - various displays of solidarity with Ukraine in Norwegian public outlets

 
In my previous blogpost, I talked about a small token of solidarity with Ukraine that I encountered in the centre of Oslo. In this blogpost, I present a range of other examples of solidarity that I have encountered in the course of my work days. When I became aware of how various Norwegian public institutions declared their solidarity with Ukrainians by employing the colours of the flag, or the flag itself, I started to record some of these instances.

Public displays of solidarity can often become very problematic, especially when they are displayed by businesses or companies that are trying to present themselves as socially conscious and kind-hearted. Such efforts are in most, perhaps all, cases very cynical marketing that I have no interest in taking seriously.

When it comes to public institutions, however, things are fortunately different. While there might still be a degree of social capital involved in the decisions to take public standpoints on an issue, the point remains that these institutions do not automatically or directly earn any form of income from these displays, and these institutions represent the Norwegian people. Consequently, I believe it is very important and valuable that representatives of the people provide such public displays, especially because these institutions are probably encountered more easily by Ukrainians, be they refugees or not, and the signal that is being sent is therefore more solid, more valuable, and have a more constructive impact. Granted, these tokens need to be backed up with actions, and as Ukrainian refugees are arriving in Oslo, I hope that our system and our society will welcome them and make them feel safe, although I am painfully aware that we have a very bad history of not doing right by refugees from across the world.  

The Ukrainian flag shown on monitors in the reading room of Oslo University Library
(March 01)

A display of books related to Ukraine in the reception hall of Oslo University Library
(March 01, morning)

A display of books related to Ukraine in the reception hall of Oslo University Library
(March 01, afternoon)

The Ukrainian flag as the background for Store Norske Leksikon (the great Norwegian encyclopedia) on February 28. Store Norske Leksikon is a free, public and professionally maintained encyclopedia. This is one of those cases where there is absolutely no money in showing solidarity, and it is moreover very forceful in that this is a page accessible to absolutely everyone, and it is a cornerstone in our democratic structure.

The Ukrainian colours in the title of Universitas, the student newspaper of Oslo University 
(March 07)

The Ukrainian flag against a black background, a picture made by Jagnik Gorasija, used as the background of Store Norske Leksikon on March 02. The text at the bottom of the picture linked to the encyclopedia's entry about Ukraine. 

Further down on the front page of Store Norske Leksikon on March 02 were recommended articles, one about the history about Ukraine, one about the war itself, which was called the Ukraine conflict. 

Even further down on the front page of Store Norske Leksikon on March 02, which displayed three categories of articles. On the left, an overview of the previous day's most read articles, namely oligarchy, oligarch, Ukraine, and Nato. The middle category is called "read unusually much" and the one on the right is called "read sadly little". The middle category includes an article about the Putin critic Boris Nemtsov, and the entries for the terms "skirmish" and "combatant". The category of sadly neglected articles does not contain any entries related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

The Ukrainain colours used at the top of the website ukenr.no (March 07), which is a calendar containing the number of the weeks of the year.

The profile image of Oslo University's Twitter account, March 14. 

These are just a selection of displays, and I continue to record them as I encounter them. At the very least I hope that these displays of solidarity will serve as reminders to do good. And I also desperately hope that we will start doing this for refugees and crisis-stricken people everywhere, not just in Europe.