MODEL QCS ANSWER: Interview a prominent cartoonist
Interviewer: Good day, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Denton Lu and welcome to another edition of Personalities Live Today we have the pleasure of interviewing prominent cartoonist and social commentator Chris Maddern on-line live on-camera from San Diego CA. Good morning Chris.
CM: Good morning, Denton.
DL: Your cartoons are syndicated across the world and are enjoyed by millions of readers. How can you account for their appeal, Chris?
CM: Well most of the time I try to show the foibles of modern life and the fact of human error. We live in an imperfect world and everyone suffers the short-comings of their fellow citizens. I find this fact is common to everyone across the globe and one that appeals to our difficulties in putting up with human error. It's everywhere in business, in industry, in technology. Look at NASA- their best-planned and most expensive plans fail them sometimes with disastrous effect might I say too.
DL: Tell us about some of your favourite cartoons, Chris.
CM: Well I have covered so many subjects over so many years but I do enjoy revisiting the one showing a skip truck removing the moon after replacing it with the golden arches. Though impossibly amusing, I suggest that McDonnell's world-wide has power over the land and sky! This is clearly ridiculous but plausible too, don't you think?
DI: On 26th October you published what some read as an attack on business, in the form of a cartoon showing the human genome readily available in a can on from the supermarket shelf. It is the normal process for scientists to claim patents on their discoveries and to transfer them into commercial gain. Your cartoon however presents the discoveries in a critical light as if to infer that business is somehow bad or overpowering. Is that your view?
CM: Well as you know, medical research is big business in the world today and fights a multinational race for cures. But I believe it is a legitimate concern of business to derive fruits from patents. I just want people to be more critical and less credulous.
DL: I guess you are foregrounding the fact of different points of view in every facet of life. You seem to value having a rich diversity of points of view and you have offered some approaches towards bringing differences together. The point could well be made that mistakes often centre round different points of view. Would you agree?
CM: Yes definitely it's all in the perceptions and that's where the cartoonist can undercut perceptions and expectations most people all hold. I have a social purpose in society to acknowledge and evaluate the different points of view. My work is all about democracy and critical thinking. Too many people today believe anything they hear.
DL: Well I guess we have run out of time as my studio manager is waving his arms about here afraid the satellite signal will cut out. We have enjoyed meeting you today Chris. Best of luck in future endeavours. We say goodbye from Brisbane.
CM: Thanks Denton. Goodbye from California. Keep buying my work!
END. fade to station identification.
Author: G Smith 10-6-06
Webmaster: G. B. Smith Brisbane Australia 11/6/06