Political cartoons have been used by artists to send a message to the politicians on the current events. The artists usually criticize the politicians for overreacting to the current events, but ignore the usual events that have been affecting the society. Let us consider the following cartoon.
In this picture, we can see:
- Listed causes of deaths, that is, obesity, Ebola, tobacco and alcoholism.
- A politician in a USA T-shirt.
- One hand of the politician is holding cookies and the other one alcohol.
- Cigarette in the mouth of the politician.
- Other consumable staffs in front of the politician.
In this cartoon, we see a picture of the United States of America’s Politician. The Politician is smoking a cigarette in his mouth. He is also holding a tin containing alcohol. There are also some cookies and juices in front of him. Around the Politician, there are some mentioned causes of deaths that have happened in the year and the total number of deaths claimed. The list contains obesity with 300,000 deaths, Tobacco with 450,000 deaths and alcohol with 88,000 deaths. The outbreak of Ebola in the western Africa led to the announcement of the first Ebola case in the United States of America. The Disease is highly feared as it causes death to the person infected within 48 hours of infection. The politician seems to be very astonished by the news. The words EBOLA and USA are written in capital letters to show the exaggeration that the United States of America’s politicians fear the disease.
The message that the cartoon conveys to the readers is the ignorance that our politicians have to the diseases that affect the citizens; they included, year after the other. The politicians do not do anything concerning the diseases and their causes, but encourages the occurrence of those infections. Since they are our leaders, we usually copy everything that they do. In other words, it is the leaders who give us the direction to follow.
Considering the picture, the artists demonstrates that 300,000 deaths occur annually as a result of obesity. We see our politician holding cookies, meaning that he has been feeding himself with the foods. The huge body size clearly tells us that he is affected by obesity, one of the leading causes of deaths in the United States of America. We expected the politician to have a normal body size that shows he is eating healthy food.
Secondly, cigarette smoking accounts for the largest numbers of deaths in the United States of America. A total of 450,000 people usually die from tobacco-related diseases. We know that tobacco is the main cause of cancer, one of the killer disease globally. As a leader, the politician ought not to use tobacco. He is supposed to be advocating for the use of tobacco.
In addition, the politician is holding a tin of alcohol that the artist tells us that it contributes a total of 88,000 deaths annually. Our leader is advocating the use of alcohol since he is holding it. The most astonishing thing is that the politician does not know about the effect of the things he is using. What makes him fear is the announcement of Ebola that has not yet killed a person in the country. The disease is under control in the west of Africa so that it does not spread to other parts of the world. The reported cases in America have been dealt with, and safety measures have been taken.
The moral of this political cartoon is that our politicians being our leaders need to focus on the things that are major causes of deaths in our country. They should carry out campaigns on healthy living and how we can avoid deaths occurring as a result of our lifestyles. In order to effectively success in this campaign, our leaders need to show us by examples.