Shock, sadness and quick spontaneous reaction worldwide almost immediately after tragic events of terrorist attacks on “Charlie Hebdo” offices and kosher market at Porte de Vincennes in Paris. 17 people lost their life in this act of barbarism and several were wounded.
Many of my relatives and friends ( including those, who live in Paris) do not accept nor support the offensive cartoons and content of ” Charlie Hebdo ” magazine. Many of them do not like either the manner those tragedy was used for the politicians private agendas.
I am also offended by widely spread in the Internet brutal and vulgar cartoons, attacking Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam. Is that mean that I will kill for that?
I will certainly ignore their publication, don’t buy it and don’t read it. I always had this choice, like everyone else. However it will be much harder now, when the terrorists made such a great publicity for this weekly magazine, which they intended to annihilate. The cartoons in question are all over the Internet and even the people who never before knew about it, now have it in full display in their computers and smartphones.
More than 3 million people participated in Unity March on January 11 across the France after the terrorist attacks in Paris.
Before the attacks Charlie Hebdo was not very well known publication, edited only in French, it had a circulation of 30 000 copies every Wednesday, “Charlie Hebdo” gained in his popularity after the first offensive cartoons of Prophet Mohammed were published in 2006. The front page showed the image of weeping Prophet, saying : ” It’s hard being loved by the jerks”.
Now, after the recent attack the same magazine was published in16 languages and its first edition after the tragic events was sold almost immediately, despite being distributed in 3 millions copies. 2 more millions of copies are promises to be printed.
Why? Because ” Charlie Hebdo ” is become suddenly the symbol of Western Democracy, the freedom of expression, the scream against the terrorism. ENOUGH maybe will be the better slogan, but was is done, is done. The rapidity of reaction, widely send in the world by the technology tools and social medias was overwhelming, without the time for philosophical reflection and without analyzing, which slogan will be the best in the face of such of tragedy. The crowd reacted by emotions and they were intense. Once the slogan was present on the Internet, send and resend millions of times in every country in the world, the change was impossible.
Who invented the ” Je suis Charlie” slogan ? It was first used by French man, artistic director of the free magazine ” Stylist” ( accordingly to ” Le Progrès”), Joachim Roncin, who send it on Twitter at 11. 52 am, not even 1 hour after the assassins killed 12 people in Paris. Did he intended to name the magazine or rather used the name of the personage from children book ” Oú est Charlie?” ( Where is Charlie). In this colorful book, which Joachim read often with his son, Charlie is hiding in the enormous crowd, he is difficult to find and identify, he become one of thousands others. Just like every person who participated in the French Unity march became one of millions others.
Washington DC, people of US in solidarity with French victims of terrorism. January 7, 2015
Source: http://www.newseum.org/
Is Freedom of Speech means, that we should defend it, even when sometimes we have to defend the freedom to express the ideas, we do not believe in? Even when we find those ideas offensive and racists? Unfortunately the real Freedom of Speech doesn’t leave us with freedom of selection.
It’s keeping the democracy alive, it’s giving the freedom to the press, even when we do not share all of the published views and ideas. Attacking this freedom, it’s attacking the fundamental bases of society in the democratic countries, where people living there can enjoy it.
Who is Charlie? Charlie is a symbol, it’s a scream of all those, who does not accept any form of terrorism. Would that be better, if we all adapt another slogan?
Maybe….. I scream :
I am, I am …, I am……. I am……., I am…….
I AM NO NAME VICTIM OF TERRORISM. ENOUGH !
