It had not even been a week since year 2015 was ushered in, that the world got to face an agonizing event. The terror attack on Charlie Hebdo’s office and people in Paris on January 7, 2015 is the wrecked Wednesday that has left people all over the world with a sense of agony. While all of us have felt solidarity to the victims on many levels, the fact that a creation of the mind could beget such mindless violence must leave us wondering where we can draw the line.
For many, it may yet be just another terror attack, not very unlike others happening across the world these days. For the creative community, it paints a whole different picture. For years, this weekly newspaper has been a paradigm of free speech and expression; a voice that mocked extremist fanatics through satire – the cartoons being the silence of many victims screaming out for attention.
Guns may make noise, but the pen is mightier than the sword, and we all know it. The Charlie Hebdo incident has proved that all it takes to bring the world together is the stroke of a brush. “Je suis Charlie” (I am Charlie), has become the singular voice of millions across the globe. Post the terror incident, cartoons have started to ignite the underlying unity and ubiquitous wish to eliminate negative elements trying to divide the world on extremist presumptions and the resolve to achieve absolute freedom – freedom of speech and expression. Sinapse commemorates the victims of the inhuman attack of January 7, 2015. Sinapse also commemorates the loss of great creative minds that were doing more than their bit to make the world a better place.
