Abbas Naaseri / Watching a beautiful series is very pleasant — unless you realize its budget came from money laundering and the embezzlement of public funds that were rightfully yours.
Seeing an urban development project that makes cities beautiful excites you — unless you realize that the biggest embezzlements took place in its budget.
The efforts of the country’s leaders make you feel good — unless you hear about their corruption, abuse of power, and the contradictions between their words and actions.
The signing of peace is beautiful and fills your heart with joy — unless you remember the tens of thousands killed by weapons made by the very people who signed it.
Watching a comedy movie makes you laugh — but your laughter fades when you learn the dark realities behind the scenes, or when you hear that one of the actors you laughed with has taken their own life.
Those cartoon festivals can still create good memories for you — until you realize the deep-rooted corruption behind them: unfair prize distribution, breaking rules, uncertain results, unpaid commitments, and judges who are often elderly artists that haven’t drawn a cartoon in thirty years and are far from being up to date.
And dozens more…
All the good things in the world seem beautiful as long as you look at them only on the surface — but when you dig a little deeper, they turn into another wound instead of a cure.
But can you see and simply look away? Can you see and still deny? Can you see and forget? Can you see and remain indifferent?
You and I — cartoonists whose art is our very way of thinking — can we really choose not to think deeply about these things?
If we pass over everything on the surface, won’t we also end up passing over the very issues that shape our own art?
I wish the world would move toward a place where, while we are still alive, the owners of wealth, power, and deceit would let us simply enjoy its beauty.
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Weekly Single Page of Cartoonmag
No 60
Saturday , 25. Oct . 2025
This single page has been prepared to remind the news and calls published on the cartoon magazine website and it is supposed to be published every Saturday.
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