Daily Lessons from Life 31 October 2009

This is the last day of October 2009. 2 more months to go for 2009 and it is 2010!! Wow!!

"Japan's PM: 'I hate whale meat'
Unusual confession for PM of country that defies Western criticism of whaling. -Sat, Oct 31, 2009 AFP

TOKYO, Oct 31, 2009 (AFP) - Japan's Yukio Hatoyama said: "I hate whale meat," during a meeting with his visiting Dutch counterpart Jan Peter Balkenende on Monday at the prime minister's office, the Sankei Shimbun reported.

The Netherlands is one of several anti-whaling countries that allows the radical environmental group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to register a vessel in the country. The group's activists have repeatedly harassed Japanese whaling vessels in Antarctic waters. During the last hunt a Sea Shepherd vessel collided with a whaling ship, sparking allegations that the group was behaving irresponsibly.


Despite Hatoyama's reported dislike of whale meat, however, he urged Balkenende to take action against the group over its attacks on Japanese whalers in the Antarctic, government officials said.

Japan hunts whales by using a loophole in the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling that allows "lethal research" on the creatures, but makes no secret of the fact that the meat often ends up on dining tables.


Tokyo often accuses Western critics of insensitivity toward its culture and heritage. Hatoyama's centre-left government, which took office in October, has deviated little from the pro-whaling policies adopted by the previous administration, which had traditionally close ties with farmers and fishermen."

This is a very strange situation. For some reasons, the Japanese insisted that whaling is one of the old cultures. This even when the Scandinavians who used to have a vibrant and prosperous whaling industry totally stopped killing the mammals that are disappearing from the face of this world. They have found alternative proteins supplement to eating whale meats. The Japanese deemed this unacceptable.

Lessons for me are:

1. when one insists on carrying on a cherished culture that is probably out-of-date and have alternative, it is difficult to expect others to 'understand' the need for the continuation of the culture. Japanese has been known to say that they cannot digest American rice as their digestive system is different from the Americans to resist allowing import of American rice!;

2. when the issue is turned to something emotional, it is easier to arouse emotion and leave rationality, which is how one normally rely on to solve disagreement as one debates the pros and cons and costs and benefits, etc. So, it can be dangerous when emotion run high in the 'confrontation';

3. I have seen the activists' actions in trying to force the Japanese 'whale research' ship from hunting and it can be a dicey situation. Life may be lost due to these maneuvers. With the PM publicly saying he hates whale meat, maybe something may change. At the same time, we know that whale meat has become rare and is costing more than ever. So, when there is profit to be made, the commercial hunting disguised as 'research' will probably never stop!

Like the World Wildlife Fund's slogan: When the buying stop, the hunting stop!!

So, it is up to the Japanese people to decide. Is this whale eating culture something to keep vs. the potential extinction of a relatively harmless plantains eating whales!