The ZANETTI CARTOON SITE - Cartoons from the Australian cartoonist, Paul Zanetti

Feedback

The following comments are feedback from newspaper readers and internet surfers

Your cartoon of President Bush regarding the tragedy at Virginia Tech is disgusting, via and repulsive. Your hate for that man will destroy you, before it will have any affect on him.

Jackee Allen
Randolph, NJ, USA

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Paul Zanetti,

Very good cartoon showing Bush asking "Why" related to the Virginia Tech massacre.

If only Bush would look at himself and ask "Why".....

Agpilot
USA

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Paul,

Excellent, but watch out for visiting American flag waving Nazis in your area.

Bill Kubow
USA

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You’re a sick bastard Paul – if it wasn’t for American guns (and blood and guts) you’d most likely be speaking Japanese now!

Denis Greaney
USA

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Your cartoon shows a great deal of laziness on your part.

Can't come up with something better................just pull out the old Bush trick!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pathetic!!!!!!!

Wanda Delacerda
USA

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You are a misguided person to say the least.

Phil Jones
USA

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As alumni of Virginia Tech, I condemn your decision to use this senseless attack against my fellow Virginia Tech Hokies as a means to promote your opinion on a political issue.

Our hearts are broken. Our families are grieving. Our minds are sickened by media responses such as yours. Our prayers are for our loving God to comfort the hearts of those who have lost their children and friends. Our prayers will also be with you and the other members of the media who chose to add abuse to the injured...
My wife and I spent 3 weeks in Australia and adore it's citizens. I can't understand why you would do this.

Sincerely,

Alan Downie, AIA
Virginia,
USA

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Bush pulling a wagon with shells... Dopey Cartoon, as if its a gun problem.

Sir, it is not a gun problem.

Barrett Smith
USA

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You got it. Thank you.

Cynthia Everett
Editor, University Computing Services
Florida State Universtity
USA

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Hi Paul,

Thank you for your cartoons for Steve Irwin. Tasteful & Steve is chuckling to himself right now!

We in Florida are shocked & very, very sad....

Mary McBride,
10 September
USA

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The complaint (below) was sent to the editor of The Northern Star, Lismore (NSW) regarding the cartoon below, published on May 29, 2006.

The complainant (Mr Glenn Woods, Head of School, GNIBI College of Indigenous Australian Peoples, Southern Cross University, Australia) alleged the cartoon was 'racist'. The cartoon was drawn in response to aboriginal abuse of children and women, defended by elements of the aboriginal (indiginous) hierarchy that such sexual abuse of women and children is acceptable under Aboriginal Customary Law and aboriginal culture. The Prime Minister, John Howard responded that there should be "one law for all", regardless of culture in regard to criminal behaviour and abuse of women and children.

The editor of The Northern Star decided to give the complainant fair comment in the newspaper, re-running the cartoon, and I was invited to give my response and reasons for drawing the cartoon.

The following responses were published.

Why the cartoon is racist.

Glenn Woods
Head of School,
GNIBI
College of Indigenous Australian Peoples,
Southern Cross University,
Australia

There are two fundamental issues to deal with before I explain why this cartoon is racist.

First there needs to be a shared understanding of what racism is. Contrary to popular belief racism is not something that is enevitable and not an something that is an isolated individual act of indisgretion or deviancy. Racism is a constructed process designed for particular outcomes. It is part of an ideology or even more deeply, a philosophy. Racism as we know it and practice it in Australia has a common ideological ancestry with the racism that is deeply embedded in the Anglo/European cultures of the USA and South Africa. Indeed most of the race theory (now absolutely discredited in scientific terms) and subsequent race laws we embraced and perpetuated in Australia for generations had their origins in the USA.

It is a little known fact that Australia via the Queensland government developed and practiced the apartheid policies and laws that were subsequently adopted by the South African Government in the 1940’s. These laws were designed exclusively to segregate and control the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Today all governments in Australia agree that these laws were brutal and destructive. They have had disasterous outcomes for Indigenous communities, families and individuals.

This cartoon follows a well-established Australian tradition of mocking and lampooning Aboriginal Australian people.

It adopts a typical style in its depiction of an almost grotesque and certainly hapless character, drunk and poor.

Even at this point the image is a negative stereotype, clearly based on race/ethnicity and completely unsympathetic. There is no alternative image for balance or reference.

This aspect alone makes it a racist image.

It gets more complex and more offensive in terms of the context of the cartoon and the comment it is making.

The cartoon appears in the midst of the ‘scandal’ regarding crimes of sexual violence and law and order more generally in remote Aboriginal communities.

Lets not play this situation down.These problems are real. These are Australian communities in a state of deep socio-economic crisis. Australian citizens living in conditions and situations that no other group of Australian citizens, of any ethnicity, would have to endure day in day out.

Fact is government both state and federal have known full-well about this crisis for decades. The media has had access to report after report generated by international human rights agencies, individual academics and even government departments yet it has chosen not to report.

Just as government has chosen not to get involved. Now we have a media frenzy and the inevitable sensationalism and misinformation associated with the issue of the sexual abuse of children. Perhaps the most bizarre outcome has been that Aboriginal cultures (therefore Aboriginal people) have been identified as the problem and further more that Aboriginal Customary Law, via the men, not only allows but supports this practice. This myth is perpetuated by government and the media yet there is not a single anthropological or ethnographic study that describes or even mentions this as part of any Australian Aboriginal culture.

Significantly Aboriginal peoples in Australia, particularly from the Central Desert are some of the most studied people in the world. If this is part of ‘culture and law’ why wasn’t it ‘discovered’ earlier. I don’t think anyone would be willing to say that because the Catholic church has had to deal with large scale issues regarding the sexual abuse of children by clergy that sexual abuse is part of the ‘custom and culture’ of the Catholic Church or that is widely accepted by parishioners.

The cartoon depicts an Aboriginal man, drunk, poor and hopelessly confounded by the idea that he must obey the law. To add the final touch his equally lampooned family (his victims?) cower like scared animals behind a tree. This is a profoundly racist image that relies on well-established racial stereotypes within a society where acts of racism have been so common and frequent that they are normalised. Why publish it?

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Why the cartoon is not racist.
Paul Zanetti

I read with interest the complaint that the cartoon was deemed racist.

At first I was dumbfounded by the writer's claim of racism in the cartoon. Mainly because the writer's interpretation of the cartoon is so far off the mark that his interpretation can hardly be considered serious by any reasonable observer. Even by the writer’s own definition of ‘racism’ this cartoon does not fit the bill.

I make the following points in regard to the cartoon and the reason for drawing it:

• The cartoon refers to the cowardly claims by aboriginal elders that male ang & elder abuse of woman and children is acceptable under indigenous law, and is in fact indigenous culture (their claims, not mine).

• The issue of indigenous male rape, abuse and paedophilia has been brought to the surface, as a serious national problem, and disgrace, by the Federal Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Mal Brough.

• The PM, when interviewed on that Sunday morning on TV, stated that a crime is a crime, and that there should be 'one law for all'.

I 100% agree with the PM's comments, and drew the cartoon to support and reflect that view.

Similarly in Sydney in recent years, members of young male middle-eastern gangs have attempted to hijack their religion as a justification and endorsement for their brutal rapes of women. These criminals were charged, tried and convicted under Australian law, as should all criminals. There is no justification under the guise of religion or culture for criminal behaviour.

I don't subscribe to the 'politically correct' notion that certain topics should be ignored, sanitised or swept under the carpet because a person is white, yellow, red, pink, black, brown or brindle, or of a particular religion, whatever the case may be. A criminal is a criminal. A bully is a bully. A paedophile is a paedophile. A rapist is a rapist, irrespective of colour, creed or age.

I also bring to the attention of the letter writer, the comments two days after my cartoon appeared of one of the country’s most prominent media executives, John Hartigan - now Chairman and CEO of News Ltd, delivering the third annual Australian National University reconciliation lecture in Canberra.

"THE Australian media must reveal the "unvarnished and unembroidered" truth in assessing and reporting Aboriginal sex crimes and substance abuse", Mr Hartigan said.

"The media's job is to expose what's really going on. Australia can only confront and deal with these intractable issues if we look at the cold, hard facts of [reconciliation] failure," Mr Hartigan said.

"Murder, rape, drunkenness, drug abuse, domestic violence, civil disorder, trauma, apathy, despair, imprisonment and suicide: they are all at levels many times higher among indigenous people than they are in the non-indigenous population.

Mr Hartigan said any form of censorship that hid Aboriginal criminality must give way to "the blowtorch of public scrutiny".

"The old argument that media coverage of these crimes only reinforces negative stereotypes of indigenous Australians doesn't wash," he added.

"The sensitivities of Aboriginal traditions need to be respected. But there are lives at stake. We need to get at the truth and give the problem its real name."

Substance abuse, domestic violence and sexual assault had to be "seen for what they are: crimes".

Mr Hartigan said European and Aboriginal communities were best served when the media revealed the facts and it was counterproductive for Aboriginal communities to try to prevent the truth emerging.

Let's hope that in this debate, the real core issue is not lost, and the pain and suffering of our indigenous people is further exposed and addressed. More importantly, that a solution to their plight is sought. In which case I, and my fellow cartoonists and journalists will not have to shine a light on it.

I ask the ultimate arbiter, the reader, to look at the aboriginal cartoon in question and decide if the cartoon is racist.

Paul Zanetti
cartoonist

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Hi - my name is Shayla. I was surfing the computer the other day and saw your cartoon. Very funny. I mean the one with Bono. I am in the states but thought i would let you know a fellow artist apreciates your work.

Shayla
USA
11 March 2006

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OUTSTANDING !

I was pleasantly surprised to see that you're an Australian cartoonist. Needless to say, you've got a better insight into America than the Americans do, and I was born and raised here !

Perhaps you should consider running for office in this country like Arnold Schwarzenegger! We need all the help we can get. Thanks for pointing out the lunacy, let's hope it does some good!

Captain BuckSnort
Seattle, WA, USA
20 Jan 2006

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I'm writing to you from Manhattan. I don't understand all your local political references, but I loved the cartoons I did get, especially one with a guy named "Jeffrey" answering a customer service call somewhere in Central Asia. Talk about one world and shared culture. How I hate those out sourced phone conversations.

I'm making your site a favorite and hope to enjoy a good laugh often in the future.

Sylvia,
NYC, USA
22 Jan 2006

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The following cartoon was widely syndicated internationally after the extreme Muslim reaction to Danish cartoons of the prophet Mohammad. My position when cartooning is often to highlight extremism or hypocracy in any form. Hence, my label on the cartoon 'extreme view'. This is not the view of most Muslims, and I want to make that clear. Many peaceful Muslims abhor and condemn the views of extremists who embrace violent or criminal acts in the name of religion. I take people as I find them. I had Lebanese tardesmen work on my wife's classic Tbird, and I could not have met a better or more professional bunch of guys. Even when the car restoration costs blew out, they stuck the their quoted price. Great honest folk!. Yet I have had bad experience with shady Anglo tradesmen. My point here is that I am aware to not fall into a trap of generalising - or lumping all people, races or religions into one basket based on the conduct of extremists. Thanks for all your feedback. Paul Zanetti.

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Excellent - you summed it up exactly. I absolutely love political cartoons - If only I could draw.

John Santorello
USA
7 Feb, 2006
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Right on the point!

I think these particular Muslims seeing Mohammed in the original cartoons is like the psychiatrist asking the patient what they see in the ink blots.

Unless the cartoon is really specific, how would anyone know? Are all guys in turbans in cartoons automatically Mohammed? It's okay for the Muslims to disparage the Christians and Jews everyday, but if they even think that someone is maligning the Prophet then, "off with their heads". Crazy!

How is it that these terrorists can preach and display their hatred everyday, yet a series of cartoons critical of their actions is offensive? So-called artists can put a crucifix in a jar of urine or dung on the Virgin Mary without fear of death and destruction, or even loss of employment? The Muslims destroy Christian and Jewish holy sites including the birth place of Jesus and care not. During the siege of the Church of the Nativity they riddled the walls with bullets and used the prayer books as toliet paper! But their defilement isn't just exclusive to Jews and Christians as is evidenced by the Taliban's destruction of the statues of Buddha in Afghanistan.

It must be equally amazing to know that your work is being seen all over the world. What a kick!

Good work! Keep it up!

All My Best From the US!

Deborah
Los Angeles
7 Feb, 2006

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Wow, I just saw your cartoon on MSNBC and I have to tell you, you really nailed the issue. I totally agree that some of the muslim world is very backwards in its views on whats "offensive" great job! I look forward to finding more of your work!

Tyler Penney
America
8 Feb, 2006

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On your 02/06/06 cartoon where you have a muslim with a sign saying "that's offensive!" to the cartoons, but "that's acceptable" to the british bombings, really shows what's wrong with Islam as a religion and the people who live by it. I'm starting to believe this is the begining of World War 3.

Julio Perez
USA
8 Feb, 2006

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Kudos for your 'Offensive - Acceptable' piece - you captured the irony perfectly.

Simon
Clevelend, Ohio, USA
8 Feb, 2006

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Excellent political cartoon. The hypocrisy of words vs actions in real life is vividly displayed by this cartoon. I am Christian. The same type of drawing has been done for those of my faith as well.

Too bad the extremists or those who claim to have a faith but practice something completely different destroy the positive attributes of faith.

Craig Stout
USA
8 Feb, 2006

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…your “Extreme View” Cartoon about Cartoons about Mohammad gets my vote for best! (Saw it on Daryl Cagle’s index.)

Pamela Wise
USA
8 Feb, 2006

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An excellent cartoon. You have precisely pointed out the hypocrisy in the Muslim reaction to the cartoons. I realize there is a vast gulf in perception between the viewpoints of those in the Western world and those in Middle East, but still the reaction seems over the top and manipulated by those with an agenda separate from freedom of expression.

Grant
Canada
9 Feb, 2006

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Are you indicating that all muslims are terrorist? If you are then im sorry but you have a small closed mind. Shall I call all Americans retarded because they are represented by one?

Kyle Braswell
USA
9 Feb, 2006

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Paul Great!!!

your design is the best and the truest :-((

Regards from Italy

Federico
Milan, Italy
10 Feb, 2006
Ps: we are one of the world hugest factory of Catholic Holy Cards

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I liked your cartoon the best of all the ones I saw. It speaks volumes about the distortion of thinking involved.

G-day!

Dawn
USA
10 Feb, 2006

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Dear Paul,

Since the cartoon row, I created a website that gives the background on the whole cartoon issue, shows the original offending cartoons and, as an example of the hypocrisy behind some of the protests, a selection of cartoons original published in the Arab media, all of which could be considered by Jews or Israelis to be equally insulting.

I'm now looking to include cartoons that have been published in response to the crisis. I am therefore writing to ask permission to reproduce your cartoon.

It will be reproduced on my website, with full credit given including a link back to your website.

Kind regards,

Dan
Auckland, New Zealand
10 Feb, 2006

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Paul,

You hit the nail on the head with your cartoon "Extreme View". It's so true. I believe the cartoonist will have the last to say about this controversy. This outrageous and sometimes violent reaction in the Middle East and elsewhere over cartoons will only encourage more cartoons...power of the pencil. I bet the Mullahs and Imams wished they would have never brought it up. It has backfired on them.

Dean
The Netherlands
12 Feb, 2006

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Thanks for the wonderful cartoons. I hope we can keep up our free expressions and lighten up a little.

Regards,

Rev Ron Lake,
USA
12 Feb, 2006

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As an ex pat Sydneysider I love to stay in touch with your cartoons each day. Thank you for your wit and spirit,as they are excellent. Please keep up your political cartoons and the captions are wonderful, witty and enjoyed across this side of the Pacific ocean.

Cheers,

Peter Dickinson-Starkey,
British Columbia
Canada
22 Feb, 2006

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