Australian Waters
As I sit here on board the Sea Shepherd ship the Steve Irwin it is strange how staring at the ocean seems to cause one to think.
I know why I am here volunteering my time... I hope to bring some sanity to humans’ innate ability to shit where they eat. I mean whaling in the 21st century? Give me a break. Whether it’s the Japanese doing it or the Australians and Americans looking the other way... this annual whale kill is ridiculous.
“Research” the Japanese ships exclaim to the world in 10 foot high lettering on the sides of their ships... in English by the way. What research? Never a scientific paper published, never a serious study done and yet their subjects are eaten after. Kind of like space aliens cooking us up after the famous anal probes we hear so much about from “the abducted”. I’m sure like the whales, I wouldn’t mind the study so much, but the dinner appointment after would upset me for sure!
And research is not cheap. It is amazing these Japanese scholars need to spend over two million dollars and kill 1000 whales to do it. Oh yeah did I mention they are researching why whales are dying... First let’s be frank, generally the whales in question are dying due to exploding harpoons. Pretty simple I would think, even for the Japanese who have shown few intelligent tendencies in the past.
I know the Japanese government is stubborn and does not accept defeat easily, but as any world war two vet can tell you, you hit them hard enough and they get the point. Historically many of their atrocities have been ignored, forgotten, or forgiven due to their growing economic might. But really does anyone born before 1940 forget or forgive when they view the Arizona Memorial? My dad never did. How will future humans view dead oceans and the disease and famine that will follow?
Well here we go again. It is December and the Japanese fleet is heading south to begin harvesting whales in an International Whale Sanctuary ... like harvesting babies in a nursery... or perhaps like clear cutting Mount Fuji to make toilet paper?
I assume they go to a sanctuary because that’s where the whales are... But really a sanctuary. I am sure the Japanese people might care if I were wiping my ass with pulp harvested from their sacred mountain? I am equally repulsed by what they do to the whales.
Well even though governments such as the US and Australia have no balls to take a stand, a small group of individuals from around the world do. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is also heading south to put an end to this whale slaughter once and for all.
In three or four weeks they’ll try to kill whales, and we’ll try to stop them. Water cannons, flash bang grenades, ships colliding, the whole nine yards... makes great TV! And the world will be watching.
But will anything change. We are out here risking everything to save a species from extinction, and corporations are making big bucks off us. I hope the whales benefit as much as Animal Planet and advertisers expecting to get rich off of our blood. And blood their might very well be as each year ups the ante with ships, action, and the occasional violence... add pretty young women, a celebrity or two and you have a hit. The world will watch, but will they care?
Hopefully even as the generation of Americans who suffered most from Japan’s past national arrogance and entitlement are dying off, a whole new generation is being brought up to hate all over again. Do the Japanese care what the rest of humanity thinks today or in the future? Perhaps they should learn from history: When Himmler was asked what future generations would think of the genocide he was ordering, he replied that if the world found out, no one would believe it. Well he was wrong and Germany will forever bear the burden of their past. Never to be forgotten...
In the case of the whales, extinction is forever, and future generations will remember. The world will finally believe too, and hopefully Japan will finally suffer the fate they seem to have escaped in the past. “Barbarians” intent on the destruction of humanity is a title that will follow them forever. Today they are marching through the world’s oceans much like they marched through China, Indonesia, and the Philippines in the 1940s. Will history forget again just because they have economic might?
Watch it on TV, read about it in the newspapers and take which ever side you like, BUT DO SOMETHING. Now is not the time to do nothing and ignore what is happening. The Southern Oceans Whale Sanctuary belongs to all of us. These are our whales. So stand up, support us, and let your government and the Japanese people know you care. If one more whale dies to protect their delicate egos, or “for the bottom line” then the Japanese are pigs and their culture, government, and economy should fail. It is important that we save the whale if we ever hope to save humanity... save the whale, save ourselves, it’s all one in the same.
Peter Brown