Today is World Elephant Day. Elephant is kind of the symbol of all the animals who are spending their lives in captivity to entertain human beings. They are torn from their natural environment, locked in too small cages and forced to perform tricks. And all just that a few people can enjoy themselves! Humane live in captivity is not possible for elephants (and other animals); neither in a zoo neither in a circus. In their original habitats elephants daily walk up to 20 kilometres. Therefore it is very easy to imagine how bored must be these animals in too small cages, without the opportunity to live the life they originally would. According to recent statistics 200 elephants are currently living in Germany. All (except one) circus elephants were born in the wild, captured at a young age and transported to Germany...  Just use google or any other search tool and You will find a lot of information about that.
I'd like to take this occasion to call to all the people and make them to think about non-human animals who have to suffer in captivity. I hope for a day when all of animals are free. . .

And when someone says that I can't decide what is the best for animals, just because I cannot ask them or because they would have different opinion than I do, I have to admit that many times they are right. Many animals would have different opinion than I do. Well, what I can say, ask average human if (s)he would like to be completely free? Or let's back to the near past, when it was believed that slaves did not want freedom. So, was it ethical to end slavery? Now, I imagine all of You thinking about ethics and getting the idea that not, we can't free the slaves, they do not know better, and it's ok to keep them. They can't survive on their own, they need to have the master (of course the good and fair one, who does not beat them and so on). But to free them? No, no, no, they do not want freedom. . .

And even if elephant I know could tell me what she wants, and would choose to stay in captivity, it would mean absolutely nothing to me. And not because I do not respect her opinion. Of course I do! But we have to admit that in some situations someone's very important Opinion is meaningless. When oppressed women are coming back to their husbands, who rape and beat them again and again, are we saying that it is ok because they chose to come back? Are we saying that this life is ok and we can't change anything, because they simply do not know better? Shouldn't we try to free them and teach them to have a life of their own? Don't we understand that this is only because they know no better, they have nothing else and the love they love their husbands is the same love slaves loved their masters? Of course we do (or at least people claim so). So why can't we see the parallel between this situation and animals in captivity?

It is very humanoid to own everything around You. Everything around teaches that this world was created to You. No one cares that we build roads on someone's house. No one cares about snails and run over them. No one cares about worm who is sinking in the pool. And no one ever would step into the ice water in the middle of winter just to rescue it (except those crazy people like me). Even religions teaches You that Man owns the world. To separate from that idea on Your own You need to have a very strong personality. If You are not surrounded by people who think so, it is very hard to make a decision on Your own and to be the one who stands up the first. It is easy to follow others. But to stand up alone, to dare to speak and admit that You were wrong is hard. It is fucking scary and so hard. You need to believe in what You are doing infinitely. . .

Many animal rights activists believe that people in zoo or circus do not love animals. How can You love someone and let them suffer? How can You love someone and ignore their pain? To understand that paradox You need to separate Your personal feelings and facts. So, yeah, I won't be popular between animal rights activists (not only because I would not listen to animals' opinion), but I believe when a person from circus says that he loves animals. There is no one way to love. Love is not a thing that You can put into strict definition. You can't say that only this type of love is right, and the rest is wrong. Anyway, many parents who beat their children still love them. They just do not know better and believe that this is the right thing to do. It is very wrong to cause pain to others, does not matter what circumstances. But how can we judge someone? People should understand that not another person is bad or wrong, but his actions. People love to dehumanise others. Everyone who is different in one or another way, everyone who do not follow one's moral norms is considered as scum, freak, villain and very often labelled as a bad person. Animal rights activists dehumanise animal trainers from time to time. And opposite, people from circus dehumanise animal rights activists. Why? Because the fact that both are the same people are just too disturbing. Most of humans feel very close connections to each other, so no one wants to accept that the killer is just a person like You with feelings, wishes and minds. . .

And still if You want to change something, You have to understand that everyone is different, and there is no one truth. I wish that there were more animal rights advocates out there, I wish that people would finally realise that it is ok to be different and by criticising someone's action, You do not attack the person. We all want to live in a better (one or another way) world, but still so stick to our own truth that cannot realise that there is a lot of place for many of them and they do not necessary contradict each other. . .

Ok, have a wonderful World Elephant Day!

And I simply cannot not to share the text about the protest that was my favourite protest of the year 2012 (originally I wanted to add the link, but website where it was published is closed due some circumstances) - World Elephant Day in Kaufbeuren:

"Protest am Welt-Elefanten-Tag, 12. 8. 2012, vor Circus Krone in Kaufbeuren
Am Welt-Elefanten-Tag, 12. August 2012, fanden in vielen Städten Demonstrationen vor Einrichtungen statt, in denen Elefanten ihr Leben in Gefangenschaft zubringen müssen. Um 12 Uhr fand sich eine Gruppe von sieben Aktivist_innen vor dem Circus Krone zusammen, der seine Zelte in Kaufbeuren aufgeschlagen hatte, um dort zu protestieren. An diesem Tag sollten zwei Zirkusvorstellungen gegeben werden.
Ziel des Protests war, die Zirkusbesucher und Passanten über die für nichtmenschliche Tiere unwürdigen Umstände der Tierhaltung in Zirkussen aufzuklären und die Forderung nach Abschaffung von Tierhaltung in Zirkussen bekannter zu machen. Dazu wurden zwischen den Eingängen zum Zirkuszoo und zum Zirkus selbst Plakate aufgehängt, die mit Slogans wie "Artgerecht ist nur die Freiheit" und "Kein Applaus für Tierquälerei" die Anliegen der Aktivist_innen unterstreichen sollten.
Die Aktivist_innen teilten sich in zwei Gruppen auf, um sowohl die Besucher des Zoos als auch die des Zirkus ansprechen zu können. Die Aktivist_innen verteilten Flyer an die Passanten und führten mit Interessierten und mit Zirkusbesuchern Diskussionen. In den Diskussionen ist das Argument, dass es nichtmenschlichen Tieren in anderen Tierausbeutungseinrichtungen schlechter ergehe als im Circus Krone, sehr häufig gefallen -- als ob das Leid eines anderen nichtmenschlichen Tiers das Leid eines anderen rechtfertigen würde.
Zwischen den Vorstellungen machten die Aktivist_innen eine kleine Stärkungspause und unterhielten sich mit Schere-und-Papier-Tricks, die neuesten Erkenntnissen der Möbiusband-Forschung entstammen.
Danach ging es in die zweite Runde der Informationsveranstaltung, die im Wesentlichen wie die erste verlief: Es wurden viele Diskussionen geführt. Um 18 Uhr beendeten die Aktvist_innen die Aktion, mit dem Wissen um die guten Ergebnisse dieser Aktion: Es konnten viele Personen auf die Umstände nichtmenschlicher Tiere in Zirkussen aufmerksam gemacht werden. Außerdem entschlossen sich einige Passanten, die ursprünglich eine Vorstellung besuchen wollten, das unwürdige Spektakel des Tierzirkus nicht mit ihrem Geld unterstützen zu wollen, und machten kehrt. "
© Jonathan Ott, 26.08.2012

What next?

• Visit our project Boykott Circus Krone to find out more about our actions concerning the biggest animal circus in Germany and probably in the whole Europe.
• Visit Elephant Haven website, and in case You feel like supporting a very great project, feel free to do so! I find it very important to have elephant sanctuary in Europe and support this initiative whenever I have time.
• Raise as much awareness about animal rights as possible every day.
• Organise protests in Your area, write letters to local media and educate others whenever You are able to.
• And of course, boycott all zoos and circuses with animals.

There are many many other ways how You can dedicate to this very important topic. The fact that You already think about is already a big step to this direction, because most of the people don't.
I'd love to write about, raise awarenesses, participate in every action and help organising things concerning animal and human rights, but I'm just one person, and there is not enough time for me to do that. But everyone of You are the same human beings as I am, and You can do many great things! Anyway, feel free to share everything that is relevant (or not) to the topic, I appreciate every single mind. Unfortunately it's simply not possible to react to every email and note I get, but I read them all. Keep writing to me. Thank You!

• Live vegan. Think vegan. And act vegan.

I'm so tired of people who claim to be respectful to different opinions and life styles, but still discriminate everyone who do not fit into their imaginary pattern. I cannot understand why if person is not heterosexual, the rest of humanity feels the necessity to start questioning all aspects of everyday life, beliefs and sex experience of that person.
For example, relative to heterosexuals, and even relative to homosexuals and bisexuals, humans expressed more negative attitudes toward asexuals and desired less contact with them. Moreover, of all the sexual minority groups studied, asexuals were the most dehumanized! Asexuals were dehumanized not only mechanistically, but as well animalistically. They were seen as relatively cold, emotionless and unrestrained, but as well as impulsive  and less sophisticated. Surprised? I'm not, conclusions just showed what I always knew: most of humanity is simply lack of understanding.
If someone claims to be asexual, that means that this person is asexual and all questions should be over. It does not mean that person did not find the right partner or the sex was not good enough. You do not need to have sex with marguerites to be sure that You are not attracted to flowers (or do You?), so why another person should try to have sex if feels no necessity?

Statistic in the work of Cara C. MacInnis showed that those who disliked homosexuals also disliked bisexuals and asexuals (and other queers). But what really sad is that asexual people are not fully accepted by LGBTQ community;  very often it is claimed that asexuals seem to be “perfectly normal human beings” trying to claim an orientation. Perfectly normal? what is that at all? If someone does not have sexual desire, that means just that person feels no sexual desire and has nothing to do with Normality. In fact, asexuals also suffer from heterosexism in society, they are currently even more invisible than any other LGBTQ groups. . . I agree that the discrimination asexual people experience is different from the one homosexual people get, but there are a lot of similarities. Asexuals as well get suggestions to be healed, their existence is denied (in fact, more often than any other queer group). And most importantly asexuals have a common cause with other LGBTQ  people - to challenge the prevailing heteronormative presumptions.

Another group that gets similar problems in queer world is pansexuals. Many people even did not heard about them! And still many deny their existence. Pansexuals are erased, ignored or disrespected. . . Well, to be pansexual is not the same as bisexual. There are more genders than cis-women and cis-men. Pansexuality teaches to accept and embrace the fact that there are more genders in the world.
I'm kind of lucky that I met so many bisexual, androgynous and transgender people in my life. I'm very lucky that when I was young I had a possibility to spend my time with my queer friends instead of mainstream. I'm kind of lucky that I never had to question other people's sexuality and never doubt the genders they introduced themselves.

I'm going to Christopher Street Day (CSD) on Saturday (that was created in memory of the gay uprising in New York’s Christopher Street in 1969). And so much looking forward to that!
Many people told me that there is nothing to improve for homosexual people's rights in Germany. But they forget that there are a lot of others people who are neither homosexual neither heterosexual. There are not only monosexual people in this world. There are not only two genders.
way to go till EVERYONE will be able to live their own lives without being judged, threatened and abused.

Well, most of humans are simply lack of real possibility to understand others, and one of their greatest hobbies is to intervene in other people's lives. Everyone who thinks differently tries to destroy safety or just wants to show how special they are. Haha, no one asks for exclusive rights, just for respect and understanding that everyone is different. And it's OK to be different. It's OK challenge the society. And everyone should be free to choose their gender.
And love should be about LOVE, not GENDER!

And another thing that has happened to me is fabulous Jérémy who came to South Germany. Thanks to wonderful Japanese culture not only for promoting queer rights and androgynous people, but as well for letting me to meet Jeremy. We "knew" each other for about 5 years and discussed about Japanese culture, Visual Kei and queer rights from time to time, but I was really surprised when he came to Germany and suggested to meet. Normally I do not have intentions to meet with strangers, but for J I did an exception, because with his own existence he fights the norms of the heteronormative society. That is a great challenge and everyone who does that is awesome.
Perhaps I just like to disagree with society.

So, I would like to thank Jérémy for posing and spending time together. You are wonderful and so beautiful! Everyone who dares to say differently, should go and fuck themselves or whatsoever. And there is no such rule that real men do not wear make-up or cannot have long nails. Decision to be a man, a woman or to have any other gender does not start with penis or vagina, it stars in one's brain, and everyone is free to choose who they want to be. And for the rest of humanity (that is not able to make their own choices) we can just feel sorry about. Thanks for the inspiration!

And when we had a great photo-shoot!

For those who like to follow me, my life, interested in my works and so on, it's a very good place to do that. In meanwhile all other blogs got lost, were deleted or forgotten, so from now, You can read some "news" here. Who am I You may ask. I'm a weird invention, that got stuck in this planet (by accident or not). I like to critise mankind, search for the justice and do not belong here. What else do I like? I like to discuss and cannot stand argumentation fallacies (but I use them sometimes on purpose as well, just the rest of world seems not to notice), I'm obsessed with the first perfect number and Alice in Wonderland Syndrome as well as works of mister Douglas Adams. I like to drink tea, but only with people I love or on special occasions (or on my own of course!), because Tea For Two is kind of an answer to the Universe.
I was going through my old interviews and found this quote from an interview I gave to Vociferous magazine long time ago "In philosophical point of view, everyone’s death is an apocalypse for him. You don’t know if world will continue without you, maybe this world is just a creation of your imagination." And I find that it is still very interesting to think about this.
What else? I'm excited about Dirk Gently (he is brilliant! If I would know someone like him in real life, that person would be my favourite person ever and I would do almost anything just for a possibility to have social interaction with him!). And it seems that his "holistic" methods are quite universal not only for detective investigations, but for a normal life as well. At least in my life quantum mechanics are working pretty well.
As well, I'm planning to visit Icon of Coil concert in the near future, continue to work on my old projects and start some new.

So, like one person asked in his book, should I kill myself or have a cup of coffee?
What do You think, fellow earthlings?
Just that I do not drink coffee. . .

And something very different (my works from this spring).

As well of course You are more than welcome to check my other social networks:
Facebook
Twitter
ModelMayhem
DeviantArt
and perhaps many more : )