gaijinpunch wrote:I guess I was too stupid to figure out when it became cool hate on anti-poachers.
I think both sides are just as stoopid.
The anti-poachers are mostly ratbags trying to get publicity for their rebellious ways and doing anything except getting a "real job". These were the Student Union "leaders" (rich white lazy kids) from uni who were finally kicked out of their part time arts degree after 15 years of hanging around the refectory and not going to lectures as they were not interested in graduating and just wanted to be professional activists and would swing from protest to protest depending on the "cause" du jour. Most people grew out of dreadlocks, weed and tie-dye when they graduated, but these guys are holding onto their glorious youth. If this sounds snobby so be it. But there are plenty of better ways to get action to stop the poaching but they do not involve riding an inflatable zodiac up against a whaling ship and unlikely to get their scruffy, hairy mugs on the evening news which is the main motivation anyway - the protesting is just a sideline.
The poachers are just stubborn fucks who have been brain washed by their bosses to believe they are preserving the Japanese culture and that whaling is their birthright. To be fair, the Japanese whaling industry survived and was sustainable for a very very long time and it was the whaling industry (ie the west) who fucked it all up and nearly drove most of the species to extinction. But come on - hardly anybody eats it anymore and it can not be economical viable so why they continue with this pissing contest is beyond me.
The sneaky thing is that Japan has donated so much money for public works - buildings, roads, bridges - in tiny Pacific Island countries (such a PNG, Fiji and Vanuatu) in exchange for votes in the International Whaling Commission to allow the loop hole to continue. Without the support of these tiny countries, it just wouldn't be possible but most of these places are tax havens and so have no public money and rely on Japan to build roads and bridges. It is a political minefield. If the activists were serious, they would raise the money to buy the votes back from these countries and the loop-hole would close and boom, no more whaling. But again, this is not as exciting as being on an inflatable zodiac up against a harpoon on a whaling ship on the 7 o'clock news.