Dilip Simeon's blog

Since we were babies, we've been told that the world "just is" a certain way. As we get older, we start to ask ourselves that even though the world "is" like how we were told, should it be? Polish artist Pawel Kuczynski and Austrian artist Gerhard Haderer have been using their talents to answer that question through their satirical observations of humankind’s habits and obsessions in ways that are not only thought-provoking but are also a reminder that we must do better. Take a look at these unbelievably powerful illustrations and ask yourself if you agree or disagree with what the artists are trying to convey. Either way, you will not be able to stop thinking about them for the rest of the day…. https://en.wackojaco.com/30-brutally-honest-illustrations-show-whats-wrong-with-today?utm_source=email&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=share&utm_term=0&ly=native_one

The selected cartoons appeared first in other publications, either in print or online, or on social media, and are credited appropriately. Alok Nirantar | Twitter https://theprint.in/last-laughs/ecs-too-little-too-late-decision-and-indias-kafka-esque-reality/647537/ Election Commission responsible for spreading Covid-19, should probably be booked for murder: Madras HC // Bharat Bhushan on the departing CJI: Good riddance Reality of Lucknow’s Covid funerals stands in stark contrast to UP govt’s claims BBC on India coronavirus: Round-the-clock mass cremations

The October 7 issue of The New Yorker Magazine features artwork by cartoonist Barry Blitt https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/9/27/1888366/-The-latest-New-Yorker-cover-is-a-real-hit-job?utm_campaign=trending Very interesting. The "whistleblower" may not be just one person, but rather a group Richard Wolffe: The Trump-Ukraine scandal is a taste of how dirty the US elections will get 300 national security officials say Trump’s actions are ‘unconscionable abuse of power’ Whistleblower report reveals how far Trump’s dubious ethics have spread Trump's mafia-style

Michael de Adder , a Canadian cartoonist who has been drawing professionally for almost two decades, saw his contract with four newspapers terminated after his depiction of the U.S. president and the border crisis went viral.  https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/cartoonist-michael-de-adders-viral-trump-cartoon_in_5d196927e4b07f6ca57f8517?utm_hp_ref=in-homepage

Naked Books January 7, 2013

The conversation about intolerance and pluralism may have hit drawing rooms in the past few weeks but for graphic artist Orijit Sen, it has been all-consuming for over a year-and-half.  It started as a reaction to Penguin's decision to pulp Wendy Doniger's book on Hindus, and let to a series of over 50 cartoons through which Sen expresses his angst against the muzzling of free speech.  "That was the immediate trigger. It set me thinking. I realised that the pulping of the book was symbolic. We had succumbed to the intolerant fascist forces and it served their objective," he says. He is happy that people who didn't speak out earlier because they were beneficiaries of the Modi government's largesse have also decided to join the movement. Sen's  cartoons  were first curated by eminent writer Githa Hariharan. But his anguish is not limited to one political dispensation; he calls out leaders on all sides of the political divide for what he sees as ...

This poster and card was released at a festival of the History Society of Ramjas College 

More than 100 years before militant Islamist gunmen murdered journalists at France's satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, another magazine very similar in style was playing an important role among the Muslim populations of both the Russian and Persian empires. (See cartoons ) Azerbaijani weekly magazine Molla Nasreddin was revolutionary for its time, bravely ridiculing clerics and criticising the political elite as well as the Russian Tsar and the Shah of Persia. Founded in 1906, it pulled no punches in tackling geopolitical events and also promoted women's rights and Westernisation. The editor-in-chief of the magazine was Jalil Mammadguluzadeh (known as Mirza Jalil), a famous Azerbaijani writer, who was also a well-known novelist. In his book, The Dead, the main protagonist is a drunken atheist, treated as a madman for telling the truth about his backward society, where girls as young as nine are forced to marry 50-year-old men. The magazine's title, Molla Nasreddin, c...

Shirin Dalvi, the editor of the Mumbai edition of Urdu newspaper Avadhnama, has become the latest victim of the running saga over cartoons. Since mid-January, when she unwittingly published a Charlie Hebdo cover, she has been slapped with criminal charges, her newspaper shut down, its employees rendered jobless, and she herself forced underground. Vicious threats are sent to her via social media. All this is happening despite her printed apology. The police have opposed anticipatory bail on the ground that it would cause a law and order problem (aren’t they paid to deal with such matters?). The man who filed the complaint heads an Urdu journalists’ body. He is cited as saying, “I filed a case against her and I am happy that she was arrested. If she was in an Islamic state, she would have been beheaded as per law.” That the freedom of speech could be so flagrantly attacked in the name of religion is by now a common experience. Self-appointed guardians of faith have attacked our...

Muslim netas especially need to raise their voice against the injustice being meted out to Ms Dalvi in the name of Muslim sentiments. The Muslim leadership has for long pandered to the most illiberal sections of the community. Time to say in one voice "Enough of this offence-taking business." It's time to change. Shirin Dalvi, the editor of the Bombay edition of Urdu newspaper Avadhnama has been forced to go underground . Two vendors, who in all probability didn't know the content of the newspaper they were selling, have been arrested. The Shirin Dalvi saga is getting worse every day.   She is being hounded, harassed and threatened - and nobody is in her corner. She carried a story on French magazine Charlie Hebdo, whose cartoonists and other staff were shot dead by some Islamists for publishing cartoons of the Prophet. Her crime: she carried the magazine cover with a cartoon of the Prophet with the story. She has said she doesn't understand French and didn'...

People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) joins all freedom loving people in denouncing the attempts to harass Ms. Shirin Dalvi, the reputed editor of the Urdu daily, Avadhanama, Mumbai in the name of hurting religious sentiments of Muslims. She had published a news story on the Charlie Hebdo massacre and republished a cover of the French magazine. Though she has apologized and stated that she did not have any intention to hurt religious sentiments of anybody she, however, has been charged with several different cases offences and even arrested. The newspaper she works for has had to close down and all its employees have been deprived of their jobs. All this is happening in the name of someone’s sentiments.   Ms Dalvi has received threatening phone-calls and messages. In brief, she is being subjected to physical intimidation and has had to take refuge in hiding. She is frightened for the sake of her children. She is being mentally tortured because the BJP governmen...

Mumbai:  She's been accused of intentionally offending the Muslim community by publishing the Charlie Hebdo cover featuring Prophet Muhammad and is now accused of trying to ferment riots, but former editor of Urdu daily Awadhnama, Shririn Dalvi, on Friday said that the allegations against her are motivated by 'personal jealousy'. PRESS CLUB CONDEMNS WITCH-HUNT OF URDU DAILY EDITOR Sandip Roy: Harassment of Urdu editor proves our own hypocrisy Defend this reporter! Case over Paris cartoon forces Mumbai editor to go behind a veil “Despite publishing an apology in the front page of the newspaper and other media, and seeking forgiveness, these people are saying ‘ maafi nahi milegi ’, which had made me insecure. What do they mean by this? Are they planning to take law into their hands? It is Prophet Muhammad who has preached forgiveness but these people are not forgiving me," she told  Firstpost ... "These people, out of personal jealousy and due to a grou...

STOP WITCH HUNT OF EDITOR SHIREEN DALVI The Press Club condemns the hounding of journalist Shireen Dalvi by filing police complaints against her across the city and state. Ms Dalvi, as editor of the Mumbai edition of the Urdu daily Awadhnama, has already published a Page One apology for having reproduced a cover of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo in its January 17 issue, which had a cartoon of Prophet Mohammed. She has explained that it was an inadvertent act. Despite that, complaints continue to be filed against her under Sec 295 A, which pertains to "outraging religious sentiments with malicious intent’’. The slander being spread against Ms Dalvi in sections of the Urdu press as well as on social media, have made it difficult for her to live at home. Since January 17, Ms Dalvi, who is a single parent, and her two college-going children have been staying with friends; the latter have not been able to attend college. The Mumbai edition of Awadhnama has been closed down,...

NB: If democrats in India cannot defend this journalist from fascist intimidation they should hang their heads in shame - Dilip Defend this reporter! Case over Paris cartoon forces Mumbai editor to go behind a veil WE are being slaughtered by YOUR secondary enemy ! Open Letter to the Left Je suis Shirin Dalvi anyone? The plight of Shirin Dalvi quickly proves that freedom of expression remains a luxury in India especially if you are not part of the English-language media. English might not be much of a protection when it comes to intolerance, but at least it generates #IStandWith hashtags on social media that go viral dispelling the sense of isolation. Both  NDTV  and  Mint  published some of the cartoons from Charlie Hebdo as a gesture of solidarity with the magazine. They were shared on social media, and the publications hailed for standing up to the terror. No one called for their heads and if they had there would have been waves of social media outrage...