Whale spin
Three cheers for Greenpeace!
Their campaign to save the whales from Japanese harpoons is to be applauded.
The Greenpeace website contains some fantastic footage of Greenpeace bods taking on the Japanese whalers.
One can only admire the courage and tenacity of those activists clinging to their rubber inflatables in the face of water cannons, trying to get in the way of the Japanese operations.
However, it was a little surreal to see on the deck of the Japanese ship a crew member holding a sign saying, “Greenpeace misleads the public”.
That was in keeping with a press release issued yesterday by the Japanese scientific whaling body Institute of Cetacean Research.
In the release ICR Director General Dr Hiroshi Hatanaka says:
“Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd and other anti-whaling organizations have been misleading the public with their anti-whaling campaigns for years. The campaign has no conservation or scientific basis, and is simply a continuation of the misinformation and publicity stunts they’ve used before for fundraising purposes.”
What a load of spin! What Dr Hatakana fails to realise is that we all know if there’s anything that has no scientific basis it is the scientific whaling that his country is carrying out.
Whale statistics? Hardly! More like whale steaks!
Tomorrow part of the protest will move to Australia when one of the Japanese ships plans to dock in Hobart to off-load a sick crew member. Protestors are planning to stop the ship from heading back to Antarctic waters.
December 27th, 2005 at 10:26 am
Can we assume that if there really was a conservation or scientific basis for the anti-whaling campaign, you would have told us what it is?
December 29th, 2005 at 3:38 am
No reason to assume that, Nige: the point of the post was to point out the obvious absurdity and hypocrisy of the Japanese whaling industry’s statement.
Here they are, after all, claiming that Greenpeace doesn’t really care about saving whales, but they are only in it for the money… an interesting claim… (I guess they must be short of funds since the end of their subsidies from the Soviet Union!)
whereas the Japanese whaling industry, dedicated to serving the prized delicacy of whale meat to Japanese tables, has been masquerading under the banner of “scientific research” for decades.
January 1st, 2006 at 3:14 pm
Damn that selfish Greenpeace, using the anti-whaling campaign to raise money to fund their anti-whaling campaign. Have they no morals!!
January 1st, 2006 at 6:10 pm
Nigel - As far as I am concerned, they are relatively intelligent and as a consequence it is relatively immoral to kill them and eat them. Since I regard intelligence as one of the essential arbiters of whether something may be regarded as food the relative intelligence exhibited by the many right-wing trolls that visit the board causes me to regard them as relatively edible, though the taste of the resulting sausage would probably require excessive amounts of tomato sauce.
That’s my version of relativity in a nutshell… an appropriate receptacle
respectfully
BJ
January 2nd, 2006 at 1:04 pm
bj…..do you chow down on pigs..?….more intelligent than dogs..so i hear….
and as the issue of greenpeace fundraising has already been raised….could someone from that august institution…(um..fundraising to self-perpetuate a viable query/point..?.hmmm?)….
anyway..i digress..could someone from greenpeace please advise just why it is ok to cook/eat baby cows etc…to fundraise to save baby seals…?
and..um..are these questions ever asked/discussed in greenpeace circles..?
or do they just all ignore that elephant in their room….?
phil(whoar.co.nz)
January 2nd, 2006 at 8:01 pm
Phil
I am not going near your argument.
I have no idea what the Greenpeace policy is on what we eat. Ask them.
respectfully
BJ
January 3rd, 2006 at 4:30 pm
um bj..i didn’t ask you about greenpeace..i asked you..about the subject you brought up..namely some equation of intelligence (or lack of it)..qualifying or disqualifying animals from being eaten…
but if you feel uncomfortable going there..i understand….(discomfort can often be the start of a journey..eh..?..)
phil(whoar.co.nz)
January 6th, 2006 at 3:37 pm
“Can we assume that if there really was a conservation or scientific basis for the anti-whaling campaign, you would have told us what it is?”
There would be no need. The whaling lobby, backed by the powerful Japanese government, and, it appears, the Australian government, would certainly have sufficient resources to let us know should they have any genuine, scientific arguments. As it is, they are relying on threats, intimidation and bluster, which suggests there is no real substance to their morally bankrupt activity.