German whale dumping!

[gigi smack]

Dont know if any of you guys saw this in the news this week but what happened is thus:

A dead whale floated into a German harbour this week. The Germans are feverently enviromental and have always disagreed with the Japanese about their practice of whale hunting, particularly their very lame claim that it is for scientific research, not to be served up as a delicacy in Japanese resterants. Whales, as you know are an endangered species.

Anyway the German government, not knowing what to do with the whale carcass decided to dump it on the steps of the Japanese embassy, with a note saying that any scientific research needed to be done on whales could be done on this cadaver, thus negating the need to go out and harpoon anymore!!!!

How fucking brilliant is that. And it was the German government who did it, not PETA or some such organisation.

In an interesting coincidence another whale has just swam itself up the river thames in London. Its now on a barge and they are trying to get it back out to sea. Unfortunatly the whale seem rather ill and the vets (or marine vets or whatever they are) are very concrened about the whale and fear he may not make it.

What do you think the chances of Tony Blair sticking it on the steps of the Japanese embassy in London as a similar protest? Its certainly something i would endorse and be proud of.

I dont think he has the balls to be honest, but i thought this might be of interest to somebody.

Save the Whales people!

[understory]

well gigi - knew about the thames thing - didn't know about the german thing <-- fucking hilarious.

[Rock Diva]

What do you think the chances of Tony Blair sticking it on the steps of the Japanese embassy in London as a similar protest? Its certainly something i would endorse and be proud of.!

Yeah great, why don't we all just jump around and make fun of a dead innocent animal who spent its final hours fighting for survival while a worthless bunch of bastards looked on with cameras trying to sensationalise the situation.

[Sean]

u got my attention.

[gigi smack]

Yeah great, why don't we all just jump around and make fun of a dead innocent animal who spent its final hours fighting for survival while a worthless bunch of bastards looked on with cameras trying to sensationalise the situation.[/quote]

Dont get me wrong, iv no desire to make fun of a dead whale, i just wanted to draw attention to the act mentioned. I was highlighting the fact that the Japanese still hunt whales, which i feel is deplorable, and the positive stance the german government made. Of course its a shocking act, but nowhere near as bad as killing live whales. I find no humour in what happened, but i do think it was a very valid form of protest, and something the British government would be incapable of doing.

peace y'all.

[Rock Diva]

Cool.

[vince232]

it wasn t the german gouvernment who did this but green peace,
i dont think that it s a good way to protest against whale hunting

[Rock Diva]

It's like a bunch of people protesting against starvation among African children by videoing a starving child until it dies, and then sending a copy of the tape to all the rich people out there.

[magnificent_me33]

the truth hurts

[gigi smack]

it wasn t the german gouvernment who did this but green peace,
i dont think that it s a good way to protest against whale hunting

Fair play, i was misinformed by my mate, who to be fair is usually very reliable on these things. I think it was a good protest though.

[gigi smack]

It's like a bunch of people protesting against starvation among African children by videoing a starving child until it dies, and then sending a copy of the tape to all the rich people out there.

I dont think its entierly like that, this whale died of natural causes. As for sending the tape out to rich people, is that not what Bob Geldof did with Live8? Or any TV telethon ever for that matter?

[Rock Diva]

You've completely missed the point.

No that's not what Bob Geldof did, and we all know most of the children whose plight he highlighted were saved by his actions. What I wrote up there is very different, and is the same as what Greenpeace or whoever did with the whale.

Dumping a dead whale at the doorstep of an embassy serves no purpose whatsoever than to generate negative publicity for Animal rights groups. It was immature and irresponsible and insensitive in the eyes of people who genuinely care about the fate of these beautiful animals. They seem to be more interested in rubbing everyone up the wrong way than actually saving animals from persecution.

[understory]

I thought it raised awareness. is the problem disrespecting the corpse of an animal? cuz the movement of an already dead animal corpse to raise awareness on why it's dead in the first place is hardly the place to start. People stuff dead animals and hang them in their living rooms, and people stitch the fur of dead animals into coats. hell - a lot worse was done to those living whales. Now, it's not fair to justify an evil with greater evils but I don't think moving the dead whale is so condemnible - and morality is relative to a certain degree. The body wasn't defaced nor was anyone invited to jump around and make fun - and I don't know if anyone even did do that. I mean I don't even know what goes on in the disposal of a huge mammal like that (and niether did the german government as the original story went....and Thus its solution - hand it over to an "experienced" government in a tongue in cheek way) but it probably involves worse than simply moving it.

So upon reading the first post - I agreed with gigismack and thought there must be some clever people in the german government who took a such a strong stance against something immoral that another government does (this is RARE!), and in one single action drew so much attention to this, yes beautiful creature ....more than any speech and now a bunch of gnr fans are talking about it - when's the last time people here thought of whale hunting - for me it sure as hell wasn't lately!

now to be fair to greenpeace - I can't change my opinion so quickly just because the organization that did this turned out to be one that I roll my eyes at more than support. so maybe it was good for me that gigismack make the mistake in the first place so that I could look at this more objectively.

what tv telethons do IS the same. they are trying through tv to place starving kids on people's doorsteps to ask what are you going to do about it.

Anyhow, I'd appreciate more if someone can explain to me the issues with whale hunting in the first place (seriously I'd like to know) than talk about bob geldof (how'd he get in this thread!) I mean discussions of starving african kids in a whale thread obfuscates the real point.

[Rock Diva]

1 - In talking of the starving children I clearly pointed out I was making a comparison.
Not going off-point.

2 - And it wasn't the Japanese people who killed that whale that floated up, so NO the Japanese embassy is not why it was "dead in the first place".

3 - Fact is no one here heard about his until gigi posted it here, so clearly it did NOT raise any awareness. Only imposed stupidity. I'm glad you found it "fucking hilarious" though.

4 - Dumping a whale on the doorstep of an embassy of a country that hunts whales is ridiculous, and has absolutely NO validation or justification for whatever reason. I am not being moral, and I am not talking disrespect for carcass, or desecration of building. It is a tasteless act of stupidity, plain and simple, and is a degenerate stunt that pushed no point, LET ALONE highlighted the plight of whales.

5 - And for the people who will think worse of Greenpeace for this, whale hunting now seems like an even less deal. When the people who are vocally critical of it are this fucking retarded, why would anyone start now to care about the critically dwindling whale population ?

I'd appreciate more if someone can explain to me the issues with whale hunting in the first place (seriously I'd like to know)

Apparently the whale-dumping "raised awareness" right ? Great.

And in spite of ALL the "awareness" this action has raised, you are STILL 100% ignorant to the plight of whales, as are most people who read this story.

So thank you for flat-out proving my point with that incredible final thrust of blatant ignorance.

[gigi smack]

Just to tackle your points Rock Diva:

1: I dont think its an appropriate comparison because this whale was found after it was too late to help it.

2:You are correct, it wasnt the Japanese embassys fault the whale died. However it was brought there in protest at the Japanese governments insistence that they hunt whales for scientific study. A poor reason for the hunting, what do the hunters (or should i say politicians?) hope to achieve with this 'study'? You have to remember that the remains of these 'scientific studies' are served to people to eat in gourmet resteraunts. Perhaps there is a health and saftey issue there?

3:Well it raised awareness for Understory, as she confirmes in a later post. The issue was also raised for me, which is why i posted in the first place.

4: We will just have to agree to disagree here, but please also see point 3.

5: I dont care much for Greenpeace either.

In my capacity of raising awareness then, here is a link to an informative article...

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/30179/story.htm

Please accept my appologies for bringing Bob Geldof into a thread. I accept that this act of gross negligence may have caused unnecessary distress and disgust. This is not the place for mentioning such persons and i am very very sorry.

[Rock Diva]

Please go back and contradict my final point if you can.
If you can't then that automatically negates your points 3 and 4.

My comparison was justified, because it pointed out how unnecessarily and unhelpfully voyeuristic the whale-dumping incident was.

And she claimed the whale-dumping highlighted awareness, but then admitted she still doesn't know anything about the plight of whales. How exactly does that illustrate AWARENESS ?

I really hate repeating myself just because people are too lazy to read what I've typed clearly.

[Rock Diva]

In my capacity of raising awareness then, here is a link to an informative article...

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/30179/story.htm

That's MUCH better as awareness-raising news.

BUT if you want to laugh at dead whales, at least admit that's what you're doing, and don't claim it's raising awareness.

[gigi smack]

Honestly, i didnt mean to cause a fight. I personally think it was a bold stunt, and if im honest it was the radicalness of the action that i was impressed with, not the vulgarity.

To be fair to anybody who found amusement in my original post, i did write it as a fairly lighthearted post. Im not an active protester for anything, but the action prompted me to post, the subsequent discussion leading me to the news article. Therefore the action did promote awareness, even if only for me.

I was, however, laughing at the Japanese government. (And i DO mean their policy on whale hunting (as opposed to Japanese people, i hope that bit is clear).

I hope that goes some way to clarifiying my reason for posting.

[Rock Diva]

Disagreeing is not fighting.

[gigi smack]

This is true.

As a sad follow up to the original post im sorry to announce the demise of 'Whaley', the whale who swam up the thames. His body became crown property, which means the Queen 'owns' it. But, having no use for the body herself she has given it to a marine research organisation who are going to use it for genuine research. The watering can which was used to keep it moist whilst trying to save it is being autioned to ebay. I presume the proceeds will go to a relevent charity, because the total has already reached £5k+!

[Rock Diva]

Apparently he was a she.

Reading in the press that she'd died really ticked me off.

[iconic_lust]

Thats a shit load of soap.

[understory]

Disagreeing is not fighting.

nope.
I think I disagreed with you calmly and fairly and brought up what I thought were relevant points hoping for a discussion. and I think you tried to pick a fight with me by calling me stupid and ignorant wow lol, basically overreacting dramatically because I disagreed. Again I'm disagreeing with you in saying that you aren't fighting and trying to provoke me, and I am choosing to do so again calmly and fairly without insulting you. You probably are smart, so it'd be a pretty vacant statement.

I did think the move was funny actually. there's a lot in this life worth laughing about - even if ironically. I've never heard of a government making such a bold move and like I stated with examples - I didn't feel much harm was done at all: they moved a dead whale. nobody's laughing that whales are getting killed but that the german government responded in such an in your face respond NOW statement. presumably whale hunting is prevalent in japan. and presumably it leads to dead whales. it's great I thought! a statement I repeated in my second post.

but it sure as hell did raise awareness! hahaha of course it did. gigismack brining it up here is just one example - he heard about it word of mouth too... who knows how many other instances this occurred. I've in turned told other people as well. It raised awareness by me being inclined to ask questions, of course. Isn't this how most issue awareness campaigns happen? actually it precisely is! just too many examples to even start. bringing up an issue and hoping people ask more questions. this is a forum and if people here are knowledgable, why not ask them to help me out? I know a lot about somethings but I'd be the first to admit wholeheartedly when I don't. but I'm willing to learn. There are millions of issues in this world vying for my attention. This one jumped out at me like I'm sure it jumped out at many people, because a governement again: made such a bold move. so I don't feel I've "made your point at all". but you're welcome anyway for my "incredible final thrust of blatant ignorance." hahaha - funny statement to me even if it was supposed to insult me and i disagree with it.