animals are important

August 29th, 2009 pianist

chicken trap, 2009, ICZ

I am not saying animal traps and animal experiments in the name of science are a cruel representation of our relationship with nature. In fact, I find these traps and experiments a necessary process and development between our relationship with animals and nature. This may sound ironic but we live in ironic times. I am not an activist and I approach my observations through art.

My friend who worked for one of those ’society of prevention of cruelty to animals’ once told me that he felt the society’s agenda had an objective play on subjectivity and their political agenda was problematic. My friend later moved to Africa and opened up a wildlife hunting ranch. His ranch, along with other hunting ranches, now supports some of the biggest wildlife conservation projects in Africa.

Zoos are important to us today. Zoos must be important because without Zebras in Zoos, my niece might never comprehend the true meaning of the alphabet ‘Z’. She could not remember what Z was for until I brought her to the Singapore Zoo. Now, to her, Z is both for Zoos and Zebras. The idea is not so much that animals are living in un-natural spaces and that they are suffering but rather it has become of one the last ‘refuge’ which animals can still survive alongside humans.

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The Animal Crusade

November 10th, 2008 pianist

Some of us will love animals.

http://hypnozoo.blogspot.com/2008/10/frre-le-tigre.html

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medicinal tigers

May 11th, 2008 pianist

I was speaking to Tako from the institute of critical zoologists earlier this evening, and he told me that the concept of tiger farming reflects a unique situation of our present age. Not only are we living in an era where we, as a civilization, are not able to personally kill our chicken for poultry, but we are also selling our magnificent tigers in order to save it. The situation reflects closely to what is being done in Africa where wild life ranches are being set aside for hunters to kill wild game. The ranches are being set aside for hunting and at the same, preserve wildlife.

from http://www.criticalzoologists.org/projects/medicinal_tigers/medicine_tiger.html

“This proposal is based upon the premise that biodiversity is best preserved by commercialization. Medical farming may possibly be the most positive and widespread economic incentive for the conservation of tigers in Asia.

Maintaining a species survival will be more profitable as a sustainable resource, whether as a spectacle for tourists, coffee for Star Bucks free trade, ingredients for skin lotion, quarry for big-game hunters, or raw material for pharmaceutical firms. Our medicinal tiger farm model closely follows the wildlife ranches in Africa.

In Zimbabwe, to promote the conservation of the wildlife resources found on communal lands, private game reserves have been established where revenues from hunting are paid to local communities. Recreational hunting is now the most positive and widespread economical incentive for the conservation of large mammals in Zimbabwe.

Jeffrey A. McNeely, “Economic Incentives for Conserving Biodiversity:
Lessons for Africa,” Ambio 22 (1993): 147.

Since poachers have decimated the wild tiger population, commercial captive breeding of tigers appears to be smart resource management. Huge financial resources has been allocated for wild tiger preservation to date and the results has been disappointing.”

Posted in General, asia, circus, curios, farms, natural history museum, oddity, spain, zoo | 1 Comment »

not imagination

January 8th, 2008 pianist

jungla, spain, 2007

The dangers of zoos is not that it presents entertaining animals, but that all animals is presented as entertaining. The immediacy of the animals is that it is always entertaining.

Whatever the designs of the zoo, it is still someone’s perception of a proper relationship between man and beast. Surreal pockets of nature which are the extreme opposites of barred cages has always indicated danger and the need to subdue nature. What is radically different is the sort of message intended, for here the attempt is to present the animal on its own terms rather then as a cultural artifact. Whereas the separation of human and animals is unambiguous in the iron caged zoo, in surreal zoos the attempt mars any room for imagination. I use to believe that we live with animals in our imagination, now I am convinced we have left no room in our minds for them to even exist as a form of nostalgia.

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tunisia

December 26th, 2007 pianist

Tunisia, Tunis Zoo, 4 horned sheep,
the only living specimen in the world

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tiger father, goat boy

September 18th, 2007 pianist

xiongsen bear and tiger mountain village

Brief introduction (as on the leaflet)

Bear & Tiger mountain village is located in Shateng Big Disc, Liangjiang Inte’ l Airport Rd, Guilin, which the landscape is the most beautiful in the world.
With 50o thousand square meters or so, Mountain Village boasts about 1700 tigers including Siberian tiger, South China tiger, Bendadesh tiger and white tiger also 400 black bears and other wild life, such as lions, panthers, snakes, monkeys and birds.
By international fund for the Cherish of Animal and International Association for Protection of Wildlife agreed with, Bear & Tiger Mountain village is the largest base for science research, breading, wildizing, sightseeing and amusement of black bear and tiger in the world.

Grand meeting of bear and tiger : 1100 1610
Theatre of dream : 0930 1440
Wildizing : 1140 1640

We were in the theatre of dreams.

It was the middle of the show. The tigers ended their performance and left the stage, roaring away.

A few men ran onto the stage and starting setting up the obstacles for the next act, it was the tight rope.

We’v seen several tight rope acts through out our trip, from tigers, ostriches to parrots. The tiger acts previously were disturbing, none the less, impressive. There were ( we were told they were trying a tiger act previously for the first time just for us ) 88 siberian tigers roaring in a single unison. It wasn’t a medley of messy gongs. It sounded nothing I could really describe in words. It took the tigers a whole 5 minutes to form up into a circle round the trainer, whom they called ‘tiger father’. Tiger father was shouting, cracking his whip lightly, ushering the tigers into their circular formation. Some were already standing on their hind legs. We could see where this act was going. After the last tiger got onto his hindlegs, there was a sudden stillness in the air.

Tiger father cracked his whip once. None of the tigers stirred. They stood still on their hind legs. He cracked his whip again. Some of the younger tigers mouthed a roar, but still there was silence. Then the 3rd crack came, a sharp one. The 88 tigers roared. They roared in unison, a single roar that lasted about 12 seconds. By the 6th second, I was looking for a possible exit. It was disturbing. You could see everyone face squirming up into a shock. So loud was the roar that I actually wondered if I’ll be blasted away. The chinese couple beside us were hugging each other tightly. The kid behind us started crying. An old lady was shouting but I cant really hear her. It looked like the end of the earth was coming and a comet the shape of a tiger head was crushing towards earth.

I clapped. Tiger father smiled at me and I snapped a few photographs, which annoyed him.

Then came the goat and the boy. We were told the boy was adopted by the goat from a tender age of 3. The boy could speak goat language and the goat looked like it understood him. The show ended with the crawling on all fours out of the stage

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distance

September 7th, 2007 pianist

Siberian Tiger Forest Park, Photo-op, China, 2007

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pianist in the zoo

January 7th, 2007 pianist

I begin interested in the zoo after a tuesday afternoon in 1998. I was trying to get to the front of the enclosure. The crowd was just not moving off, in fact, it got bigger and bigger. I could hear a piano playing from within the cage. ( I only found out recently it was actually Moonlight sonata ). I gave up trying to squeeze my way through. I stood where I was and listened to the piece that was being played live from the cage. I could hear now, that there was actually 2 pianos playing. It was a compassionate duet, where obviously one pianist was more skilled then the either.

The pianist which played more like an accompaniment did not sound inferior. In fact, I felt I needed to hear the somewhat fancy notes he was adding to the piece. Although he only plays as an accompaniment, he completes the piece in his little way. There was to be no climax to this piece. The piece followed a same, serious tone throughout. Near the end, both pianos played in unison, branching off to a different melody, but keeping within the same key through out. Although both were playing their fare bit towards the end, there was an uneasy tension in the blend. It ended with one of the pianist striking the keys rather gently, as if the shrug of the performance.

The piece ended with a feeble applause. As the crowd cleared, I saw a young boy and a little monkey in the cage, each with their own little piano. Both pianos adored a huge red ribbon. That was to be the last show of the day, and the only time I ever heard that haunting piece. I cannot tell for sure who completed who in that piece.

Moving on to the next cage, there were a small group of school children. They were throwing scraps of bread into the cage of another monkey. The monkey refused to react. He refused to begged. That angered the little children which started throwing instead, stones at the monkey. The monkey refused to be provoked as well. Frustrated, the school kids left

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