Cartoons against monotony

(This article is sourced from the web)

The party goes on. Once again, there are many cartoons against monotony at the World Press Cartoon Sintra 2008. Monotony has the grey face of global warming, the sad gaze of insolvable crises, the arrogance of dictators or the shallowness of democracies that have lost their souls and blow down the cold corridors in which the law of the market is always the law of the strongest.
Cartoons show that there are screams of protest, and smiles of innocence, and vivid colours of hope to give us the will to live on. Always more and better. As with this event, now into its fourth year, and get ready for another four, and another, and another... Oil at 100 dollars a barrel. Scandals are amusing! What E.U. Babel is under construction in Brussels, how do they understand each other? Have they caged the Dalai Lama? If it is all too bad to be true, it makes you laugh... That's the cartoon festival! The vitality of World Press Cartoon is the vitality of the universal humour revealed year after year on the walls of this exhibition in Sintra - and that is then taken, with costs to be met certainly, to other parts of the world.
The words of encouragement that we receive, we pass on to the cartoonists. And the editors of those publishing them. Today more cartoons than ever before are getting published. There are so many humorous drawings and caricatures in circulation whether in the traditional press or in the new media, wherever you go and in so many languages or no language at all. Every year, we receive new work from new authors, in new countries and from new newspapers and magazines, seeing the quality rise, delighting at the technical details of some, blown away by the critical genius of others... how utterly marvellous! In this organisation, as in all, there are its highs and lows as it is never easy to ensure the ship safely reaches harbour year after year. The waters are too dangerous and the obstacles unexpected. We count on those who share our belief in the virtues of freedom of speech as the cumulative strength behind this project. Support, large and small, combine to enable that this unique moment arrives each April.

Our respective seasons may be well defined but for us, our true Spring arrives in January. It is fantastic to see arrive, from the four corners of the earth, the cruelties that these artists are capable of doing to the great and mighty. They mix it with kings and princes, with stars and financiers, with presidents and ministers. And, beyond all of this, they enjoy themselves at the expense of each one of us, setting out the weakness of so many firmly held convictions and the ridiculousness of so many other prejudices.

Special thanks must go to the Sintra Municipal Council - whose support is critical to the viability of this event - to the Olga Cadaval Cultural Centre - that so hospitably annually welcomes in the jury meeting and the awards ceremony - and to the Sintra Museum of Modern Art Berardo Collection - that decently gave up some of its best rooms to host the 2008 exhibition even while having to alter its own programming for this purpose. As always, we must also thank those who undertook the effort of selecting what they considered to be the best of what they had done throughout the previous twelve months, cut out the newspaper page, wrap it up very carefully and send it off to people unknown and in a far distant place. And we have also to thank all of those who have rendered support and assistance in putting on the exhibition and publishing this catalogue that is the collective pride of all. To many here and there go our special thanks. And what now: do you want more? Then send more! So the party can restart and the smiles multiply.