Guillermo Vargas Habacuc

Hello all!

How are you? I hope this finds you well. Sorry I've been out of touch for a while, but I can be like that sometimes. I do sincerely apologize. Especially since I have so many things to write about!

The first thing that comes to mind is in regards to the above-mentioned person: Guillermo Vargas. Ever heard of him? I hadn't until a couple of my friends joined a group called 'Starving Dogs is Not Art - Please Stop this Artist!' on Facebook. Needless to say, I followed the links and found out (through many many links and several twists and turns and convoluted allegations) that this man (allegedly an artist) tied a starving dog to a wall in an art gallery in Costa Rica, placed a bowl of food just outside the dog's reach, and allowed it to die. This was his 'art' piece.

The reason I have used the word alleged more than once is that, as with many sensational stories found on the web, there are many different threads one might follow and it's not always easy to determine the truth.

The truth, as far as I could determine, is that the artist did pay some local kids to catch the stray dog, he did tie the dog to the wall of the gallery, and he did place dog kibble outside of the dog's reach. The patrons of the gallery did not seem to do anything to try to save the dog. The dog did ultimately die (it was already a hungry stray, and it happened in a couple of days). This happened last August. The judges of some art contest decided (on the basis of this show) that Vargas would be among those who represent Costa Rica at the Central American Biennial Exhibition of Art 2008 in Honduras. There has been considerable public condemnation of this artist and his art and there is an on-line petition asking that he not be allowed to show at the biennial. The petition has over one million signatures on it.

Here is a link to one of the original stories published in a Costa Rican online paper, nacion.com. It's in Spanish. You can translate the page using babelfish or you can believe me.

Some people are suggesting that the whole thing was a hoax and that the artist made his point. However, from what I can tell, the dog died. Snopes claims that the status is undetermined. The artist has pulled his website and his myspace pages. Prior to pulling them, he had apparently claimed that the dog would have died anyway, so the fact that the dog died after a day tied to a wall in a gallery makes no difference. He wanted to show people the hypocrisy of humans who ignore stray and dying dogs on the street, but feel anger when one is tied up in a gallery and denied food. Another sound bite from him (translated and paraphrased of course) was that if they were so worried about the dog, why did none of the people call the police or try to remove the dog. He also claimed the exhibition was in honour of a man who had been attacked and killed by two rottweilers in a factory: Mr. Natividad Canda.

This is a link to a page which claims to have the whole true story...

Regardless of why he did it, it seems pretty clear that it was done. Apparently, the Costa Rican powers-that-be in the arts realm have decided to let Vargas go to the Biennial because he will not be using a live animal in this exhibition, so it will not be like the last one. Care2

Wow... that was a pretty long back story wasn't it? I was considering not writing this post because I did not want to contribute to the press, but figured I wouldn't really be adding much.

So, what do we think about this? I don't mean about the poor dead dog. Obviously it's a bad thing for any being to die cruelly of starvation. Tethering a dog to a wall is as bad as putting it in a cage and I don't like putting any animals on display in an enclosure from which they cannot escape. No, I don't like zoos, and I leave it at that.

... but I digress.

My take on this story (and the ensuing public backlash) is that I don't think that Mr. Vargas counted on the power of the internet to spread his cruel photos all over the world. I think that he may have wanted to make the point about hypocrisy (and garner some extra publicity via the sensational nature of his exhibition), but didn't take into account the fact that animals have different rights in different parts of the world. Particularly in North America (I'm sure they do in Europe too, but I've no direct experience with that) where the family dog is literally a part of the family, and stray dogs are essentially a thing of the past. Of course, we all know that there are still strays, but not nearly to the extent that there are in other places in the world I've been, and apparently, in Costa Rica. A stray dog would not last long here before someone called the SPCA or Animal Control to take the dog to a shelter. We love our dogs! (Well, I love my cat, but I was using the royal 'we'.)

Thus, I think his mean (and I use that word in it's truest sense) exhibition and intentions have backfired against him and have shown that he is primarily sensationalist, rather than insightful commentator on the human spirit. He would not be allowed to show that exhibition in Canada (I'm not sure about the States, but I doubt it), not only because we have laws about the prevention of cruelty to animals, but also because there would be far too much public outcry even before he could set it up.

I don't really have much else to say about this. I sincerely hope that we (humans) do not become so debauched and desensitized that someday we will view torture of living beings as art or entertainment because that would be wrong.

Poor little Minou has been in hiding since she read about this... I told her she didn't need to worry because I would protect her!




Thanks for tuning in peeps!

I Climbed the Tower in 47:51.5!!!

Hi everyone,

I survived my annual trek up the 1,776 stairs in the CN Tower (yes, you read that right, 1,776). This was my first climb as a non-smoker, but that did not improve my time in any way. In fact, I was about 5 minutes slower this year than last. However, I do not race up the tower to prove anything; I climb the tower to raise money and awareness for the World Wildlife Fund of Canada and in this, I believe I succeed.

So, since it takes me a while to get to the top of the tower, I had a little time to think as people were rushing past me; striving to attain personal bests (I'm actually beginning to recognize some of them since we see each other every year at the corporate challenge [and I have a freakishly good memory for that sort of thing]). So, back to my thinking...

At the corporate challenge, there were 350 teams of 4 people each. That's 1400 people (give or take) climbing the tower in a few hours. The stairway is like a normal fire exit stairwell. It's metal and concrete. Not very well ventilated. I think there are about 143 flights (give or take). There are St. John's Ambulance people stationed every 10 flights (or so) in case of medical emergencies. The WWF people tape children's artwork to the walls at almost every landing on the way up in an effort to liven the atmosphere and encourage us, which is kind of nice.

Anyway, back to my thoughts: It struck me that there were more than 1500 relative strangers gathered together for a common purpose. Yes, it's a little bit different when you're doing the corporate climb than when you're doing the public climb, but there are still a whole whack of strangers clambering around you, getting in your way, breathing heavily and generally crowding your space.

If you take the subway (or any other form of public transit) you probably come into contact with a number of strangers every day who are rushing to get somewhere and are sharing the space you're using. I've been there; I'm sure almost all of us have. I live in Toronto, which is not a bad place for manners... but it's not the best anymore either. When you're on the subway (or streetcar or whatever) you're mostly in your own space (this has only been exaggerated in recent years by the proliference of Ipods and their ilk) and while you're not necessarily going to be rude, you're not going to strike up a conversation with anyone either. If (God forbid) you make eye contact with someone, it's hasty and almost embarassing and you quickly turn away after the briefest of barely noticeable nods.

However, this strange detachment does not exist when one is climbing the CN Tower. It's almost as if we're all one big team that has gathered together to do some good and have some fun while we're doing it. Wait! Wasn't that the purpose... strange though, that these could be the very same people that we studiously ignore on the subway on the way down to the Tower, and the next day on the way to work, but for those few hours, we are comrades and the camraderie is nice. People encourage each other. People are polite to each other and let others pass without nasty looks. People talk and share groans as they pass each other and then pass again. It's nice. Afterwards, there's a party where we're served dinner and people compare times and awards are handed out and a good time is had by all.

The reason I'm writing about this is that as I was gasping my way to the top this year (and taking much needed breaks every ten flights), I was thinking about the camraderie. It really doesn't take much for us to let our 'stranger' guards down and be nice to people we don't really know. I think it has something to do with the idea that we're 'in this together'; and there's something to be said for the safety of sharing with someone 'like us'. Someone who is willing to raise money for the WWF and climb the stinky stairs inside the CN Tower. Someone we may or may not see again next year. It often amazes me what we can do when we just try. This is going to sound really corny, but when we start to work together, and forget about the competition in life for a little while, we can accomplish so much in a fairly short period of time.

I'm sure I'll get back to this idea again. I'll be participating in the Labatt 24 Hour Relay for Easter Seals Kids again this year (that event usually raises around $425K) so I'll probably be thinking along these lines again.

Make sure you wish the O-Dawg a happy birthday this Saturday if you see him!

TTFN,

Seals, Seals Everywhere...

Hi,

It's me again. Hope you've all been well. I've had a bad head cold myself. The picture is from CBC's website (http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/sealhunt/).

As you all know, I'm a member of the World Wildlife Fund (I have been for more than a dozen years), I climb the CN Tower every year to raise money and awareness, I care about the environment and want to help leave our children a living planet. I'm not a member of PETA or anything radical (I'm not a terribly radical person in any way really), but I think that the earth and its inhabitants are important (and thus worth saving) for a couple of very simple reasons: 1) we haven't got another one. If we use this one up and kill everything off, then where will we go? 2) It's just mean (not to mention stupid) to eradicate something vibrant I think.

So, having said all that, I've been paying slight attention to the recent spate of celebrity visits to Canada to protest the seal hunt. Sir Paul McCartney, Brigitte Bardot and now Pamela Anderson have all weighed in (rather publicly) on how wrong the seal hunt is. They have all tried to convince our Prime Minister to stop the seal hunt. Now I remember the pictures of the little baby harp seals from the 80s; you know, the white ones, the really cute ones with the black eyes. Who wants to imagine anyone clubbing them on their little heads and then skinning them for their pelts? I certainly don't. Heck, who wants to imagine anyone clubbing their grey parents to death and skinning them? Not me. They're seals for crying out loud! We see them at the aquarium when we're kids and we go there on field trips (at least I did). Seals are fun-loving sea mammals, they don't hurt anyone; why would anyone want to club them to death?

Well, why would anyone want to slaughter a cow? Or a baby cow? Where do we get veal from? From baby cows who are confined to the point that they can't move from the moment they're born so that their meat is tender. They don't hurt anyone either. As I was looking into this further, I was thinking, maybe this is such a big deal because of the visual. Maybe people don't eat seal; I don't know. However, seals are cute looking and fun to watch when they're frolicking. Cows are not quite so cute and how many times have you seen one slaughtered? It's not something they do out in the open so that PETA can take pictures.

You may be wondering where I stand on this issue at this point... I'm still kind of wondering myself. I'm not a fan of cruelty in any form, but I've always worn leather and I started eating meat again last year. I've always eaten fish and dairy products. Does that make me cruel? I don't think so, but I guess Sir Paul would. I was looking into this because I'm not sure what to think, and apparently, during the hunt, the hunters don't skin the seals alive (which is something that I had heard), but they do kill pups (seals who are not less than 15 days old, but are less than 90 days old). I'm also still not sure what they use the seals for other than fur. I think I have a bit of a problem with that. At least we eat cows. People in the articles I read defended the seal hunt as 'traditional' and 'centuries old'. I think that traditionally, the Inuit people probably used the whole animal, (which I support), and probably took only as many animals as they needed. However, does that make the current practice wrong? The world has to change to survive.

So, I haven't solved any great dilemmas today, but I wanted to mull a bit I guess. One thing I think we can safely conclude is that celebrities who are not on the top of their game clearly still crave the spotlight.

Peace out,

ps - You still have plenty of time left to sponsor me to climb the CN Tower this year (no pressure):

https://wwfcentral.ca/NetCommunity/SSLPage.aspx?&pid=249&srcid=249&tab=1