Here we go again...

[iiyama]

Yet the dolphins live free happy lives until they get killed in an hour of terror at Taiji.
Cows have no freedom and just eat and shit until they get a bolt to the brain.

I know which one I think is worse.

It's a matter of perspective. Though it's hard to have good perspective when you're looking down all the other cultures but your own - the "normal" , white, Western culture.

[matsuki]

I'm in the "animals are tasty" section here but I thought the whole issue with Japanese whaling was more about it just being a huge corrupt leak in the government safe that only continues because it's been politicized and turned into a "Japanese culture" issue? (Despite some massive stockpile of whalemeat nobody wants to buy) I still can't understand how none of the PETA nutjobs who equate animals to human haven't straight up started bombing the Japanese boats?? Maybe they should sacrifice themselves to remove the spent fuel rods at Fukushima and feed them to the whales. That'll ruin the whole argument from Japan.

[Wage Slave]

Indifference to and even enjoyment of cruelty to animals is far from exclusively a Japanese phenomenon. There are plenty of examples all over the world. Hunting foxes with hounds, throwing goats off towers, bear baiting, cock fighting, dog fighting, bull fighting ...........and on.

Whether it is a good thing from any cultural perspective, at any time, for any reason, is another question. As is, how important an issue unnecessary and avoidable cruelty to animals is in the greater scheme of things.

Simply saying a cruel practice is a traditional aspect of a particular culture doesn't cut it in my book. I don't mind a bit of cultural relativism, but there are universal values that transcend that defence. Otherwise, you have to condone such things as female genital mutilation.

[IparryU]

Yet the dolphins live free happy lives until they get killed in an hour of terror at Taiji.
Cows have no freedom and just eat and shit until they get a bolt to the brain.

I know which one I think is worse.

It's a matter of perspective. Though it's hard to have good perspective when you're looking down all the other cultures but your own - the "normal" , white, Western culture.

I thought they kept them locked up so people can pet them and then kill them when season comes?

[matsuki]

Seemed appropriate here...

[kurogane]

Hehehe.

That one should come with a warning. I scrolled half blind very quickly through the stills on a news site, and that was plenty for me.

[matsuki]

snip

he official, who did not wish to be named, said Kennedy, the only surviving child of assassinated US President John F. Kennedy, should also see for herself how the hunt supports the local economy.
"This is a very small town in the countryside. We have no other major industries," he told AFP.
"I want her to come and visit so that she can understand how we make a living from it. Many fishermen make a living from the hunting, and many others also earn their living by working at food processing factories."
Kennedy stepped into the row on January 17 when she tweeted: "Deeply concerned by inhumaneness of drive hunt dolphin killing. USG (US Government) opposes drive hunt fisheries".
The mass killing of the animals came to worldwide attention with the Oscar-winning film The Cove, which showed how the fishermen of Taiji corral dolphin pods in the bay.
Some of the prettier animals are removed and sold to aquariums while others are butchered for meat, which is consumed in a small number of coastal communities. It is not widely eaten in Japan.

snip snip

Kennedy's weekend intervention was followed Monday by the publication of an open letter by John Lennon's Japanese widow, Yoko Ono, who called on the fishermen to end the hunt because of the impact it had on the image of Japan abroad.
Japanese officials have hit back, accusing campaigners of double standards and saying the hunt is part of the country's culture.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... 7be3c4ec37

[wagyl]

It is interesting that this is presented as the personal work of Caroline Kennedy. She tweets bilingually about this and about Martin Luther King: it is very clearly an officially sanctioned twitter account. I mean, not one photograph of a lunch or a puppy dog (although we do get to see the family at Kyoto and Jackie O Jr eating powder at Niseko).

[chibaka]

It is interesting that this is presented as the personal work of Caroline Kennedy. She tweets bilingually about this and about Martin Luther King: it is very clearly an officially sanctioned twitter account. I mean, not one photograph of a lunch or a puppy dog (although we do get to see the family at Kyoto and Jackie O Jr eating powder at Niseko).

She is one of those special gaijin that mysteriously became fluent in Japango the minute she got off the plane, Japanese like that..... and I'm convinced believe it to be true.