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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOne Cartoon Sums Up the Insanity of Syria’s Crackdown
On August 25, the 60-year-old Syrian political cartoonist Ali Ferzat was driving home from his office in Damascus when a car with tinted windows blocked the road. Men dragged Ferzat from his car, stuffed him in a van, beat him severely and broke both his hands in what they called a warning and dumped him on the side of the road.
Once my fingers have healed, Ill go back, Ferzat told an interviewer in December, after finally leaving the hospital.
Above is Ferzats latest, a stunning indictment of Syrias absurd and self-defeating crackdown. Egyptian blogger Bassem Sabry called it one of the most amazing cartoons I have ever seen. The man in the blindfold has Ferzats unmistakable beard, though the cartoonist is using himself as a stand-in for Syrians as a whole.
Syrian security forces have so far killed over 5,000 civilians, including hundreds of children, and have imprisoned, tortured, and often killed many outspoken critics such as Ferzat. Syrian troops are believed to be defecting with increasing rapidity, creating a nascent insurgent movement. As Ferzats cartoon suggests, President Bashar al-Assads decision to wage total war on his own people may in fact be dooming his regime, a process of self-destabilization that seems to be accelerating.
http://mar15.info/2012/01/one-cartoon-sums-up-the-insanity-of-syrias-crackdown
barbtries
(28,813 posts)i hope he'll be all right.
riverwalker
(8,694 posts)Between this artist with fingers broken by Syrian army, and the waiter in Florida whose finger was broken by a displeased billionaire, the meme of the day seems to be broken fingers. There is a deeper meaning there.
Written by Carl Sandburg 1942
THE MAN WITH THE BROKEN FINGERS
by Carl Sandburg
The Man with the Broken Fingers throws a shadow,
Down from the spruce and evergreen mountain timbers of Norway
And across Europe and the Mediterranean to the oasis palms of Libya
He lives and speaks a sign language of lost fingers.
From a son of Norway who slipped the Gestapo nets, the Nazi patrols,
The story comes as told among those now in Norway.
Shrines in their hearts they have for this nameless man
Who refused to remember names names names the Gestapo wanted.
tell us these names. Who are they? Talk! We want those names!
And the man faced them, looked them in the eye, and hours passed and
No names came hours on hours and no names for the Gestapo.
They told him they would break him as they had broken others.
The rubber hose slammed around face and neck,
The truncheon handling pain with no telltale marks,
Or the distinction of the firing squad and death in a split second
The Gestapo considered these and decided for his something else again.
Tell us those names. Who were they? Talk! Names now or else!
And no names came over and over and no names.
So they broke the little finger of the left hand.
Three fingers came next and the left thumb bent till it broke.
Still no names and there was a day and night for rest and thinking it over.
Then again the demand for names and he gave them the same silence.
And the little finger of the right hand felt itself twisted,
Back and back twisted till it hung loose from a bleeding socket.
Then three more fingers crashed and splintered one by one
And the right thumb back and back into shattered bone.
Did he think about violins or accordions he would never touch again?
Did he think of baby or woman hair he would never again play with?
Or of hammers or pencils ho good to him any more?
Or of gloves and mittens that would always be misfits?
He may have laughed half a moment over a Gestapo job
So now for a while he would handle neither knife nor fork
Nor lift to his lips any drinking -cup handle
Nor sign his name with a pen between thumb and fingers.
And all this was halfway there was more to come.
The Gestapo wit and craft had an aim.
They wanted it known in Norway the Gestapo can be terrible.
They wanted a wide whispering of fear
Of how the Nazis handle those who wont talk or tell names.
We give you one more chance to cooperate.
Yet he had no names for them.
His locked tongue, his Norwegian will pitted against Nazi will,
His pride and faith in a free mans way,
His welcoming death rather than do what they wanted
They brought against this their last act of fury,
Breaking the left arm at the elbow,
Breaking it again at the shoulder socket
And when he came to in a flicker of opening eyes,
They broke the right arm first at the elbow, then the shoulder.
By now, of course, he had lost all memory of names, even his own.
And there are those like you and me and many many others
Who can never forget the Man with the Broken Fingers.
His will, his pride as a free man shall go on.
His shadow moves and his sacred fingers speak.
He tells men there are a thousand writhing shattering deaths
Better to die one by one than to say yes yes yes
When the answer is no no no and death is welcome and death comes soon
And death is a quiet step into a sweet clean midnight
ellisonz
(27,711 posts)Capitalocracy
(4,307 posts)his first cartoon after having his hands broken:
tabatha
(18,795 posts)Some of the cartoons are excellent.
?w=440&h=520
?w=640&h=420
http://aparadigmofcolors.wordpress.com/2011/09/06/cartoonists-support-ali-ferzat/
ellisonz
(27,711 posts)Thank for posting all this tabatha!
Quantess
(27,630 posts)k & r
Duppers
(28,127 posts)Attention: Mods/"Hosts" - I was on my smart phone some minutes ago and accidentally altered on this topic when I meant to have recommended it. Dang the tiny phone screen! Sorry.