Last Thursday Ali Farzat, the political cartoonist mentioned in the previous post was invited to visit the Institute for the Creative Arts to have an open discussion with the students. As degree students it was compulsory for us to attend and to be honest I was not that keen on staying at first. Surprised by the turnout of the number of students in the hall I started thinking that I might have underestimated what an influence this cartoonist is to some. The only issue during the talk was the language barrier between us as the translator could not fully translate what he was saying and fully show the emotions behind the words.
Farzat stated that "An artist must practice what he preaches". I agree with this statement since there is no point in drawing something for the whole world to see if you don't believe in it yourself. If Farzat agreed with the political system and all the other misfortunes the country has gone through he wouldn't be illustrating it. Through his drawing he is able to portray images understood by any language. He focused a lot on the current issues in Syria and how the Mafia benefits from such events, another act of greed by people who have power. Almost all the tragedies happening at the moment seem to be revolving around politics and this is what Ali Farzat tells us in his cartoons. Instead of carrying guns to defend his country he carries the most powerful weapon of all, a pencil, which allows him to express himself and show the world the truth in a single image. After he was assaulted by the Syrian forces for drawing a cartoon ridiculing president Bashar al-Assad, he remained in Syria for another month living in fear. Farzat mentioned that if he wasn't know for his cartoons and illustrations and if people didn't like his art, he would of been killed without anyone noticing. Although its hard for us to truly understand what he and his country have been through, we can definitely agree on the fact that we all want peace, not only for this country but the entire world. He couldn't of ended the talk any better by saying " Syria will forever remain for the Syrians" and no one is going to take it from them no matter who and how powerful they are.
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Rita Curmi2nd year Student Archives
May 2017
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