essay: #055: Mightier than the Sword

Escher's Tower of Babel

The ink, it seems.
Is still mightier, than the sword.
Reaction to satirical depictions.
Of Prophet Muhammad.
Reaches hysterical proportions.

"In Iran, the thirst for revenge has even lead the government-controlled media to announce a gruesome contest to draw the most offensive Holocaust cartoon possible in order to avenge the lampooning of Islam.

"In Gaza, a Muslim cleric has called for the beheading of those European
editors who published the anti-Islamic cartoons, while others are demanding
that the hands of the cartoonists be amputated..."
Cameron Stewart, The Australian Newspaper.

Savage words of indictment.
From the enraged.
And growing, in numbers.

Ideology and fanaticism.
Thirst, that is never quenched.
Drives planes into buildings.
Bombs into backpacks.
Flames to the cloth.

Bloodshed is bloodshed.
Hypocrisy, the same color, in any tongue.
Tower of Babel.
That’s how it looks, right now.
Everyone’s shouting.
But no one’s listening…

# #

essay: #054: Complicit in Fiction

Touched.
By the melancholy beauty, of it all.
Of how the camera lies.
Complicit in the fiction.
Of our own making.

http://www.robertdoisneau.com

Meanwhile.
Ferries sink in sandstorms, in the Red Sea.
1400 people depart.
Only 324 return...

# #

Thinking about.
A body of ocean.
8,000 miles wide.
About, what separates.
And what unites us.

Thinking of United Colors.
Of this Benetton world.
Of Syrians, torching embassies.
Over caricatures, of the Prophet Muhammad.

Of dialogue, burning with hatred.
Across continents.
And throughout history.
Broadcasting, via the newswire.
And beyond.

# transmission ends #