martes, 13 de enero de 2015

The New Cover of Charlie Hebdo. Liberté, Égalité, FRATERNITÉ

The new cover of the weekly Charlie Hebdo. As it is, and as it should have been (assuming that certain people were able to respect their own as much as others).* Maybe it's too much to ask when the pain is so close to their hearts, but maybe they aren't as brave as they pretend. What I mean is that it is precisely because of the respect they owe to their cartoonists, that they should have come up with this better (in my opinion) option for a cover.

Anyway: ‪Liberté,‬ ‪égalité,‬ ‪‎fraternité‬.

By the way, I never understood why brotherhood (fraternité) ended up at last. I guess it is because you can't keep on cutting heads if you give more importance to fraternity (than to equality and freedom), I wonder when the realization will come that therein lies precisely the problem, and therefore also the solution to this type of conflicts of hatred and revenge. Let us give brotherhood a first place every now and then.

What happened in Paris on January 7th is tragic and horrific. A slaughter caused by hatred towards those that have offended you is deplorable. However, we will fail to prevent something similar happening again (as we have failed to prevent so many wars, violent conflicts, and terrorist attacks), if we fail to reach a joint solution as fellow men.

[And one last thought, forgiveness is granted unconditionally (or it is not forgiveness).]




The cover as it is:



The cover as it should have been (in my opinion):



P.S. Before anyone tell me I'm in favor of censorship, let me clear something. The cover that I think would've been best, is black because of mourning and grief. I also believe that not depicting a cartoon would've been best because it would've been an act of magnificence, not because I believe that Charlie Hebdo's cartoonists should "capitulate" before terror, ultimately black would be better because it would present the irony and absurdity of what the attackers of the weekley journal wanted (to silence them). Probably an even better cover would be a cover with black and white photos of the murdered cartoonists.

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*Idealy, you should treat others as you would like them to treat you, i.e. with respect.