Dear Charlie Hebdo
This is my first, and hope the last letter I will write to you either privately or publicly, but I hope you pick up a few points from my epistle, and hopefully you remain safe till the very end, protecting yourself and also your staff.
First of all, I am deeply sorry for the senseless killings of your members of staff by the 2 brothers on 7 January 2015. I am sure that the pain still lingers in your mind just like it is what we remember whenever we hear the name Charlie Hebdo or read about you online, before now, you were just another comic magazine in Paris.
After the attack, and seeing how people all over the world came together in solidarity and created the hashtag "Je suis Charlie", I did not use that word, all through the day, I went about my normal day, though said one or two prayers for you, and most importantly, it was the day a whole town in Nigeria, Africa was bombed for no reason. The people in Baga did not draw a cartoon, it was another act of terror.
After the years, I have seen what you guys have posted, which prompted me to do my little research on Charlie Hebdo itself, and what I see on your website amazes me, such as
Charlie Hebdo is a punch in the face....
Against those who try to stop us thinking.
Against those who fear imagination.
Against those who don’t like us to laugh.
I am not sure what you mean by a punch in the face, but what I know is that when you keep on punching people, two things are meant to happen
1. You get punched harder
2. You are crushed.
If getting punched back harder is Ok for Charlie Hebdo magazine or getting permanently crushed is fine, then I suggest you should move on with your satire. If it is ok to have police safeguarding your office, following you to your office, restaurants, home and everyone just to monitor you are not beaten or shot on the street, then it is Ok.
I have read all the things you have drawn, maybe I agreed with it or not, but some of the jokes are tasteless, and why art could be used to send a message, I have read through the different scenarios of your art, but it is just a pencil and another drawing to me.
There are lots of ways to make a mockery of any situation and still be able to do it right, but your recent issue on the earthquake that killed people in Amatrice in Italy is an indication you are just set of people that live in a world where you are promised freedom of speech, but say it and hid behind the police, your drawing doesn't make people think, instead incite violence.
What is Satire
Satire is a genre of literature, and sometimes graphic and performing arts, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations, government or society itself, into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society. -Wkipedia
What have the people that died in the earthquake as to do with your magazine? Is there something we don't know as people, or was it the government that created the earthquake? Why did you have to mock those people and ridicule them to pasta dishes.
You make fun of people/government shortcoming. One question of what I am about to see is when will you make a cover design of your tragedy in 2015 as a front page cover? I would like to see that as a satire.
The moment you can draw how the two brothers came in and started shooting, and your people running around the office for cover as a front cover, then we can believe you are actually satirical, and you can overstep all boundaries.
There is freedom of speech, and I am happy you are using it for what makes you think and laugh, but I am sure you know I enjoy the same freedom of speech and also the freedom to criticize, and I think I just use both to ask 1 question:
Is it satirical or dumb?