Cartoonist tackles U.S. image abroad, at home with artwork

Boston University students took a good look into Uncle Sam’s mirror Monday night when former political cartoonist Joe Szabo, who has been published in Hungary, Germany and the United States, spoke about the U.S image as it is presented to the rest of world.
Szabo showed that Americans must examine global perceptions of themselves by presenting the nine attendees, who assembled in a College of Arts and Sciences classroom, with cartoons.
‘It throws an image at you, and you have to try to understand it,’ he said. ‘But, you can interpret it in different ways.’
Szabo passed around four volumes of cartoons he edited, depicting subjects ranging from the United States’ abuse of Native Americans to the rule of Iraq’s former president, Saddam Hussein’s. Technical difficulties prevented Szabo from presenting a slideshow of cartoons for the first 40 minutes of the discussion.
Once the projector began working, Szabo showed American-themed cartoons, one of which depicted the Earth enveloped by a ring of black smoke with ‘U.S.A.’ written inside. Meant to convey the United States’ responsibility for global pollution.
Szabo, who is originally from Hungary, said his ‘fascination’ with American images began when he made his first trip to America.
‘My friend said that if I walked into the city of New York, and something happened to me, people would probably step over me,’ Szabo said.
About three years ago, Szabo began traveling around the world and speaking to different people about their views of the United States. He said he talked to people ranging from monks to political prisoners to scientists, some of whose photographs he displayed in his slideshow. Eight or nine out of every 10 people he questioned conveyed negative opinions of the United States.
‘It is easier for them to know about us than it is for us to know about them,’ Szabo said. ‘They think we don’t care.’
The Center for International Relations at BU hosted the lecture. Vivien Schmidt, the Center’s director, said Center officials thought the opportunity for Szabo to speak at BU would be helpful.
CAS graduate student Maral Balayan said she thinks the talk was ‘enjoyable.”
‘It was really funny and interesting,’ she said. ‘It was great to see how people look at America.’
‘Americans are very naive and are not very knowledgeable,’ Szabo said. ‘We need to go about it by learning from people who observe the U.S. so we can see that everything we do can be judged from different points of view. We have to learn that there are other perspectives, and we have to learn how to respect them.’