Shame on Japan!!!
This is video of the Japanese whale hunt. I'm not some soft Western soul who only protests about animal cruelty. I've blogged before about Dafur and many other appalling human rights issues. Nor am I for a moment anti Japanese, I admire many aspects of their culture and have Japanese friends and indeed relatives.
But if we cannot protect the most wonderful creatures of the ocean then we really don't deserve to inhabit this planet.
This is not scientific research, it is a brutal, unnecessary slaughter.
It is a Japanese Government decision to undertake this hunt.
Governments respond to bad press and the economic consequences of their decisions. Protest now to help try and stop it!!
But if we cannot protect the most wonderful creatures of the ocean then we really don't deserve to inhabit this planet.
This is not scientific research, it is a brutal, unnecessary slaughter.
It is a Japanese Government decision to undertake this hunt.
Governments respond to bad press and the economic consequences of their decisions. Protest now to help try and stop it!!
posted by apprentice at
1:36 pm
7 Comments:
Apparently the vast majority of ordinary Japanese don't even eat whale meat. Many civil service and governmental figures in the upper echelons of Japanese society want to preserve some ancient masculine tradition that they believe defines them as Japanese and indeed makes them superior. The whale meat is for them, I've read.
It's despicable.
I can't bring myself to watch the video but I support your view entirely. My mother's family were whale hunters (Norwegian). I cannot see the purpose in the senseless killing of these magnificent animals, it is not necessary, no one needs whale meat to survive.
Each year I go off to "talk to the whales" as they come past our coastline to mate and calve. I cannot, as I sit there watching them play, imagine how anyone would want to kill them, particularly using such a brutal and cruel technique as harpooning.
I think you are right Sam, they are holding on to some vestige of the past.
Meanwhile irreplacable lives are being lost.
Frankly I'm kind of sick of where pride, and particularly male pride gets us these days. A 360 degrees look at the world and all you see is men with fixed positions butting their heads off each other, while others suffer horribly.
AV, I know how you feel about not looking, but that's what they hope we'll do.
It must be lovely to see them go by like that. I've been lucky enough to see one whale in my life, when I was a very small child sailing from Africa to the UK, and it was fantastic.
We saw it on tv the other day; I am interested in Japan as a place, it's somewhere I'd like to visit, and (Anglo-)Japanese friends we have are among the gentlest, most vegetarian people we know, but this makes one feel very outraged.
Any ideas where to write or register to protest? I'll look about...
It's completely horrible and hypocritical. When I visited Japan in 2003 I saw no whalemeat outlets, and none of the restaurants we ate in had it on the menu. Admittedly we were on a budget so we didn't go to high class places, so that's maybe why we didn't see it. The food we had was fantastic, none better than in a Zen vegetarian place in Kyoto (though I'm not vegetarian myself).
I am sure Japan must in the end bow (excuse oun!) to international pressure. My only fear is that they become a little obstinate and pride becomes an issue. But we must keep voicing our displeasure; our revulsion.
Colin I think you'd be hard put to find it marketed. CN did a piece which showed just how comtaminated the meat is -which is another sorry tale given it must affect whales life expectancy and reproduction.
CB you're righ we don't want the to become entrenched, but I think all attempt at diplomacy have failed so far.
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