Saturday, December 29, 2012

Hitler Praying by Maurizio Cattelan

A statue of Adolf Hitler praying on his knees is on display in the former Warsaw Ghetto, the place where so many Jews were killed or sent to their deaths by Hitler's regime, and it is provoking mixed reactions.
The work, "HIM" by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, has drawn many visitors since it was installed last month. It is visible only from a distance, and the artist doesn't make explicit what Hitler is praying for, but the broader point, organizers say, is to make people reflect on the nature of evil. (Source
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This piece of art sparks so many emotions in my that I keep coming back to it. No one is "pure evil" though we like to picture it so in books, films and our imagination. All those evil persons we see also have a good side, though I admit it can be very small and well hidden. I think it's important to remember that. Evil is not always obvious and it's easy to be fooled. When we face evil persons in our everyday life they may look humble and harmless.

It also reminds me about the story of a boy who almost drowned a January day in 1894. One of many fears a mother carry, the death of a child. There are claims that the boy was a young Hitler, though it has never been confirmed. You have to be very cold hearted to not sympathize with the mother and feel her fears and worries, yet, many express the wish that the boy had not been saved that day. Isn't wishing the death of an innocent boy and act of evil?

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Snow Snow Snow...

I'm so tired of the snow.

Right now we have 3 hours of daylight and the sun raises 1.3° above the horizon. This mean that we don't get enough sunlight during clear days to fill up on the well needed vitamin D. That's bad enough, but we rarely have clear days as it is. 

This summer we had about 4 days a month without rain, and now we seem to get the same statistics with the snow.