Month: September 2018

Political Cartoon Analysis

This is a political cartoon about development. You can see two sides on the boat. With a man in suit and boxes in the front, and people resembling residents of LEDCs at the end of the boat. The front of the boat is sinking because there is too much weight applied by the boxes onto it, and the people at the end are refusing to row. The first immediate impression you get is that the man in suit is in charge of this boat. He represents the developed nations, the MEDCs. He is not rowing and shouting at the people originally working. However these people are not to blame for the boat sinking. The imbalance between the weight in front and the weight at the end is causing the boat to sink. This is the first layer of this cartoon’s meaning, the inequality between MEDCs and LEDCs.

If you look closely on these people at the back, they are clearly displeased about what the man in suit is doing. They refuse to obey his command because it is simply impossible to keep the boat balanced with so much boxes weighing them down. The inequality is irritating them. This is a boat of development. Which leads to the second layer of this cartoon’s meaning. The MEDCs are sitting and causing harm to the LEDCs, then accusing them of not working to improve development.

Now let us dig deeper into the reason why the boat is tipping over. You see, the weight on both ends are unevenly distributed. We have “Economic Growth”, “Wealth”,  “Profits”, “Consumerism”. The man in suit is hogging all of it, and refusing to distribute some to the back, where LEDCs are. The MEDCs are expecting the boat of development to go smooth and even when they are taking all the resources, accelerating the inequality issue.

Maybe the problem isn’t just the distribution, maybe the boat is carrying too much weight. This is the fourth layer of meanings of the cartoon. The boat of development is carrying too much weight. The MEDCs have too much hopes and plans for the LEDCs to carry out. But it is simply too big and too heavy a task to begin with.

The man in suit is not working, this is quite apparent, he is giving out orders. While the poorer people are rowing the boat, the man is sitting on his collection. It’s obvious that the people are the back, the LEDCs are empowering this boat. This is quite true in terms of real life. Most production industries are in LEDCs due the lack of regulation and cheaper labour. These LEDCs are also supplying raw materials for lower prices, due to the commercial treaties they signed with MEDCs. Whenever LEDCs are not abiding these unequal treaties, the developed nations accuse them of breaking contract, and trying to sabotage economy.

The box labels are also worth discussing, you have “Economic Growth”, “Wealth”, “Profits”, “Consumerism”. However, we also have “Denial”. This is not a positive step of development, it has little to do with development. We can relate to this word despite the lack of connection between the word and development. MEDCs, have been denying their production industry in LEDCs. They also deny how most of their high end corporations and firms profit from either production or raw materials supplied by LEDCs through means that would be considered illegal in the eyes of western laws.