The L.A. Times caught up with Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro) to talk about his controversial cartoon that ran last Sunday. In the interview, Zapiro is asked what he was trying to say with the cartoon, if he hesitate to publish it (he did) and the reaction from fellow citizens and close friends. When asked what roll he plays in South America as a political cartoonist he said:
I see the role of a cartoonist here to be the same role as a cartoonist wherever there’s freedom of expression and that is to really knock people off their pedestals if they look as if they need knocking off. It’s also to maintain a watchdog role when it comes to democracy and justice. It’s also to be rude and offensive and to make new connections and start debates and to be hard to deal with.
If you would like to get an overview of the whole story about this controversial cartoon then link to http://www.zapiro.com/scripts/Zapiro/hfclient.exe?A=Zapiro_Live&L=0O1227797091&AS=FIND|MP|50.40&F=1,
It appears that the system could not handle the syntax of the URL so if you wish to get an overview of the Zapiro controversial cartoon then go to http://www.zapiro.com select the Link menu and then the “controversial cartoon” item or copy and paste “http://www.zapiro.com/scripts/Zapiro/hfclient.exe?A=Zapiro_Live&L=0O1227797091&AS=FIND|MP|50.40&F=1” into the URL slot on your browser.
In your introduction you make a massive mistake by saying that Shapiro is a political cartoonist from South America, when he is in fact from South Africa. Keith