On Whaling

Well, here we go again, Japan off to my backyard to cull a bunch of mammals all in the name of cultural right.

Right.

Lets actually have a look at this cultural right. Japan never ventured south of the equator until after the end of the Second World War. They lost, and got hungry, so they headed down south for a cheap source of protein.

Hmm, since 1945? So for Japan, that counts for culture?

Look, I fish. I love fishing (and yes, I know whales aren't fish but are mammals). But I acknowledge that we all take resources from the sea. But this is my sea, my backyard, not yours. We take care of it, and we are doing our best to reinvigorate it.

I have no problem with Japan swinging around their own islands, nailing every last thing with a fin in order to feed their starving population. Feel free, and when all the fish are gone and you're hungry give us a call, sure we can send you some, at a price.

I do get a bit pissed off when they come to my backyard, and start nailing the fins that we have been working so hard to preserve though. While, at the same time, preserving their whales around Wakayama etc. for "whale watching tours".

Huh? So you can happily kill off whales in another jurisdiction, but keep the few you have left in your own for the tourists?

There is a tree, on an island in the south of Japan. The island is called Yakushima. The tree is called the "Jomonsugi" (UNESCO rated by the way). It is a cedar tree meant to be literally 1000's of years old, and is a declared national treasure of Japan. I wonder how the Japanese would feel if I sailed up and chopped it down, turned it into weatherboards for my house, because my "culture" had a right to cedar weatherboards. Fair enough? I mean, we have had cedar weatherboards in NZ for more than 60 years, right?

Sorry Japan, but in this case you have no moral or cultural right to come into my backyard, pull out all the vegetables from my garden that I have painstakingly nurtured over the last 30 years, and claim it is your cultural "right" to harvest them.

Shame, shame, shame.