JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

sydenham's past comments

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  sydenhamNov. 21, 2008 - 06:08AM JST

  A few reasonable talking points I've noticed on this topic:

  1. If the whales aren't hunted in Australia's internationally recognized territorial waters, Australia has no business dictating what Japan does to them. It smacks of pure cultural imperialism.

  2. If Japan is hunting whales in defiance of international laws, the crews and owners of the ships need to be punished, and the ships need to be dry-docked.

  3. If Australian-based members of the Greenpeace vandalize or otherwise try to obstruct Japanese operations at sea, they are breaking international laws and need to be punished by the Australian government.

  4. If whale research can be conducted without actually killing whales, Japan has no business killing whales.

  And on the domestic front:

  1. The Japanese government and people need to come clean about motives for whaling. Is it for science, to satisfy a non-existent consumer demand, to just thumb its nose at what it regards as cultural imperialism, or to support a relatively insignificant local tradition?

  2. The Australian government people need to come clean about their motives for being against whaling. Is it purely out of concern for the well-being of whales, a righteous indignation at the flouting of international laws, a territorially-hegemonic mindset, or just more anti-Japanese sentiment?

  The way I see it, both sides are wrong on many respects, and hypocritical on many points. I think both sides are acting pig-headed, so I'm not supporting either.

  Posted in: Australia invests in whale research to challenge Japan

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