Saturday, February 25, 2006

Almost Forgot

How could I forget the cartoons that are getting people killed?

Well, really, they aren't cartoons as such, they are caricatures of the Prophet (it's forbidden to depict him in the Muslim religion), that the editor of a Danish newspaper requested from local 'cartoonists'. I don't know if he expressly asked these 'cartoonists' to caricature the entire religion as terrorists, but he seemed to have a very deliberate agenda, so it wouldn't surprise me if he spelled out the brief. For me, It was a shabby trick designed, for whatever reason, to cause the maximum offence possible. And now that the 'cartoonists' who were 'responsible' for the drawings are in hiding, for fear of their lives, I hope he will step forward and exonerate them and take the entire blame for the fiasco.

Over here many of the brave editorial cartoonists drew cartoons that somehow showed them as heroically drawing cartoons in favour of free speech under fear of death. And yet, some of their newspapers have made little or no mention, in cartoon form or otherwise, of the gradual erosion of freedom of expression in the UK. I mean, you try going near Downing Street and reading out the names of British soldiers killed in Iraq, or try shouting 'rubbish' at a Labour party conference. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that some editorial cartoonists are little more than Cartoon Ho's - editors cartoon bitches, if you will.

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