Hello,
I read about Japans escalation of whale hunting and unilateral breach of conventions in the newspaper yesterday. I feel so outraged that I have to put my thoughts to paper. I hope this forum will lead to widespread debate and ultimately have a tangible effect:
The practice seems in great discordance with the tradition for serenity and honour that exists in Japanese culture - along with its busy economical life. While we may have to make allowances for the traditional hunter culture of certain peoples of the "High North" and let them catch a handful of whales each year, it is hard to understand that one of the biggest economies in the world still finds it necessary to marginally supplement this economy by perpetuating crimes of the past against an already greatly decimated species whose intelligence and emotional capacity we are only beginning to understand. - For scientific purposes - my foot !
There are scoundrel states on the geopolitical scene. There are certainly also a few on the environmental / ethical scene - with Japan as the spearhead and oil-rich Norway following close behind. One cannot help wondering if the Japanese flag really symbolizes the rising sun - or rather a bloodstain on (what ought to be) a largely pristine Antarctic region. Although fond of the seas and what sails and swims in them, I am not a watermelon (green on the outside and red on the inside) but I am nonetheless disgusted by both the act of whaling in the 21st century and the bad excuse for it. So, unless Japan and the "whaling club" see the error of their ways, I can only say: Go get them Greenpeace - and to thinking people in general: Let us stop buying their consumer goods whenever possible
Kind regards++