At the Opening and Closing of a Week

Below are not drawings on James Foley. This is his portrait and how his family and colleagues wish us to remember him:

James Foley (1973-2014), journalist, photographer

No, of the following drawings the one directly below was made about four days before his murder. It is a portrait on those claiming to be fighting on behalf of a religion in its entirety. Using the black and white elements of ISIS'/Daesh' flag, Khalid Wad Albaih has nailed the true nature of the status they claim for themselves, literally cutting it to its bone:

Khalid Wad Albaih, ISIS Killing Islam not fighting for it, August 15, 2014.
https://www.facebook.com/KhalidAlbaih.

Yesterday Angel Boligán published his analysis on the situation in Ferguson, Missouri, where the killing of the one unleashed the frustrations of the many, only to be met with a severe reaction from the police. In both drawings the armed one is taking over the paper to a degree that the beaten one is relegated to a corner in Boligán's drawing.

His police officer is a mountain of many-layered lights and shadows. While Khalid's IS-murderer has a wavering contour to simulate the rugged lines of the lettering on the flag, accentuating his active killing, Boligán has created an officer of immobility, but all the more so not one of calm. The police officer constitutes all the dark layers of what should not be in a democracy.

And yes, his captive is dressed in Guantánamo-orange, which we saw yet again this week at another continent. A color, which is on us too, since the police is facing us all. We are part of the impossibility of the classical composition of setting up a meeting to let a exchange take place. I cannot help add another situation this week, when the police in Malmö, Sweden interfered when two demonstrations - one extreme right-wing and the other its counteraction - were nearing each other. As it turned out, the police became the aggressor, as described by the author and film director Lukas Moodysson in the daily Sydsvenskan today:


"And yet the violence was not the worst. The worst was the lack of contact. The silence. I did not hear any of the police officers say a single word.

I believe in dialogue and openness.
But how does one talk to someone, who doesn't answer?
How do you talk to anyone, who slams a shield in your head? How can you talk to someone, who doesn't care if you live or die?

Why did they behave like monsters? I am sorry, but I cannot come up with a better word. (No, I am not saying that the police are monsters, I am just saying that they behaved like monsters). They were distanced, inhuman, like automatons.
Why did they not answer a single question?"

Angel Boligán, FERGUSON, August 23, 2014.

The artworks shown are courtesy of their artists and must not be reproduced without their permission.