mackaycartoons

Graeme MacKay's Editorial Cartoon Archive

  • Archives
  • Kings & Queens
  • Prime Ministers
  • Sharing
  • Special Features
  • The Boutique
  • Who?
  • Presidents

revolution

Tuesday February 22, 2011

February 22, 2011 by Graeme MacKay

February 22, 2011

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday February 22, 2011

Libya corruption, cult of personality drive Qaddafi’s grip on power

Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi is a skillful politician who has manipulated local rivals and his own sons so that he could remain in power, according to a series of US diplomatic cables on Libya, published this week by WikiLeaks. The cables describe Qaddafi’s consolidation of power over the last four decades and reveal some of the challenges Libya will face if the embattled leader steps down.

The United States and Libya have had a rocky relationship in the past and Washington at one time had Libya listed as a state sponsor of terrorism. Ties began to improve in 2003 when Qaddafi agreed to give up Libya’s nuclear weapon program, and three years later the US embassy in Tripoli was reopened.

Marvellous Maps

Since then, US diplomats have been able to unearth some of the details of the workings of the Qaddafi government, in place now for more than 40 years. A cable dated Jan. 28, 2009 and written by Gene A. Cretz, the United States’ first ambassador to Libya since 1972, suggests that Qaddafi is a micromanager who continues to be involved with the everyday work of the government:

Despite a carefully cultivated image as a philosopher-king with no formal title and persistent rumors that he is passing day-to-day decisionmaking as part of an orchestrated succession by one of his sons, Muammar al-Qadhafi remains intimately involved in the regime’s most sensitive and critical portfolios. He has used an influential but obscure administrative entity to politically vet commercial contracts involving GOL [government of Libya] funds and ensure that opportunities to extract rents from those contracts are distributed to key regime allies. In addition to his activist role in commercial affairs, al-Qadhafi’s recent interventions in other high-profile issues undermine the claim that he is an oracle above the fray. (Source: Christian Science Monitor) 

 

Posted in: International Tagged: blood, clinging, coup, dictator, Gadaffi, Gaddaffi, Gaddafi, Libya, map, Moamar, power, revolution

Tuesday February 8, 2011

February 8, 2011 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday February 8, 2011

Hosni Mubarak offers pay rise to buy time

THE Mubarak regime has tried to win over Egypt’s popular uprising by announcing a 15 per cent increase in pay and pensions for public servants.

February 3, 2011

In the first meeting of the cabinet since the uprising began on January 25, the government of President Hosni Mubarak announced yesterday that the increase would begin from April.

In another gesture, the police said they had released Wael Ghonim, the head of Google’s Middle East operations, who has become a figurehead of the revolt after organising a Facebook page for protesters.

He had been detained while taking part in protests and held incommunicado and without charge under the reviled emergency law that has been in place for three decades.

Mr Mubarak also pledged to launch an “independent” investigation into deadly violence between his supporters and demonstrators last Wednesday at Tahrir Square that left 11 dead and nearly 1000 injured, according to official estimates.

The President “has given instructions for the creation of a . . . transparent, independent and impartial investigatory commission,” the official news agency MENA reported. The commission will investigate “the terrible and unacceptable violations that made some protesters innocent victims”, it said.

The pay hike might buy Mr Mubarak some time by reassuring his partisans in Egypt’s large bureaucracy and security forces but there was no sign that the demonstrators were ready to cede ground. Campaigners sat under the tracks of army tanks deployed around the square. Activists also kept up the pressure by barring access to the Mugamma, the heart of Egypt’s bureaucracy, which dominates the square. (The Australia)

 

Posted in: International Tagged: Arab Spring, autocrat, Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, pyramid, revolution, shoes, throwing, uprising

Wednesday June 26, 2008

June 26, 2008 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday June 26, 2008

Mugabe believes he’s `appointed by God’

As African and Western countries struggle to find a plan to remove Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe – before he declares himself winner of an uncontested election Friday – the aging strongman is turning on his people with renewed ferocity.

Observers are calling it the last thrash of a regime that has beaten, starved and murdered Zimbabweans for years. And observers say the violence may continue even if he is ousted.

Mugabe, 84 and reportedly in poor health, considers himself “appointed by God,” and says he will never give up power. But he is under increasing pressure from his neighbours to step down.

Before a meeting of the United Nations Security Council yesterday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Mugabe to abandon the runoff election, after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew his name and took shelter in the Netherlands embassy in Harare, saying he wanted to avoid deadly reprisals against his supporters.

“There has been too much violence and too much intimidation,” Ban told reporters. “A vote held in these conditions would lack all legitimacy.”

A draft statement tabled by Britain asked the council to give “full support” to Tsvangirai, in the absence of a legitimate runoff. In the first round of voting in March, his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won a parliamentary victory, but the electoral commission said he had too few votes to win the presidency outright. (Source: Toronto Star) 

Commentary by Graeme MacKay, June 27, 2008

Summer is the time for international cartoons, among other subjects I’ve written about on this blog. Here and here and here, too. Throughout the year I tend to draw on local and national events before I’ll consider drawing on other stuff going on in the world. There are regions of the world where I deliberately stay away from commenting on because the complexity of certain situations simply baffles me. The situation around Israel is a prime example. Perhaps when I was newer at cartooning I’d attempt to do something on the whatever peace process was being negotiated upon between Israel and the Palestinians. Now, however, I’ve joined others who may be fatigued by it all and wondering why such a tiny piece of the planet gets so much attention.

By comparison, the political situation in Zimbabwe is so uncomplex it makes it so easy to comment on. Having a despot control any country in the 21st century makes for an easy target for editorial cartoonists. The degree to which they cling to power makes it even easier.

In Mugabe’s case, it’s not just how he clings to power that is so outrageous, it’s the fact that he clings to the one noble ideal that energized him to rally the black majority of Rhodesia … 40 years ago, when Zimbabwe was controlled by a white minority of British colonialists (before reforms brought in by Ian Smith). He courageously fought against minority rule, and spent time in jail for his outspokeness, much like Nelson Mandela in South Africa. Consequently, he became a hero and rose to become leader of a new nation in the horn of Africa in 1980.

It sounds like the foundation of what could have been the rise of a great African hero, doesn’t it? But from the start to the conclusion of the 2008 election of Mugabe’s reign over Zimbabwe tactics of violent intimidation have been so blatantly used to keep him in power. The expropriation of white owned farms, disasterious economic policies leading to unbelieveable inflation, food shortages, oil shortages, internal displacement and starvation are all part of Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. The best he can do to deal with these problems is to harken back to the one ideal he started with 40 years ago — that it’s the colonists fault and now the west is only fueling the problems.

That’s Mugabe’s 28 year reign in a nutshell. Pretty straightforward stuff.

But even now the blaming of Zimbabwe’s problems on colonials, the west, and generally the “white man”, Mugabe has gone to new lengths of legitimizing his power as a God given right. A modern day absolute monarch – the exact same people who sent colonials around to settle far off lands and oppress the people in the name of a king ruling by divine right. Another easy international cartoon, and yet so outrageous it’s actually going on before our eyes.

 

Posted in: International Tagged: Africa, dictatorship, divine, french, God, International, King, mirror, Monarchy, opulence, revolution, right, Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe

Social Media Connections

Link to our Facebook Page
Link to our Flickr Page
Link to our Pinterest Page
Link to our Twitter Page
Link to our Website Page
  • HOME
  • Sharing
  • The Boutique
  • The Hamilton Spectator
  • Artizans Syndicate
  • Association of Canadian Cartoonists
  • Wes Tyrell
  • Martin Rowson
  • Guy Bado’s Blog
  • You Might be From Hamilton if…
  • Intellectual Property Thief Donkeys
  • National Newswatch
  • Reporters Without Borders Global Ranking

Brand New Designs!

Your one-stop-MacKay-shop…

T-shirts, hoodies, clocks, duvet covers, mugs, stickers, notebooks, smart phone cases and scarfs

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets
Follow Graeme's board My Own Cartoon Favourites on Pinterest.

Archives

Copyright © 2016 mackaycartoons.net

Powered by Wordpess and Alpha.