Warning: the following contains a rant.
Yes, I am in full blown rant mode. Forgive me if some of this doesn't make sense, or if it offends - when I get cranky about something like this, I tend to go a little berko.
I don't know how much it's been covered overseas, but the whole whaling situation has risen to new levels of stupidity. Firstly, the stuff that makes sense. The Australian Federal Government yesterday passed a law making whaling a criminal and therefore illegal act. We know that this wont make the Japanese turn around and abandon whaling, since they have refused to recognise the fact that the area of the Southern Ocean they use to hunt whales is not only Australian Territory but also Australian and Internationally protected as a whale sanctuary, but it is a step in the right direction.
Here comes the stupid part.
The Sea Shepard is a group of protesters with their own ship (called the Steve Irwin) who have been following the Japanese and trying to stop their whaling. Yesterday two of the crew members, an Australian and a Brit, took a notice to the Whalers informing them of the new law that was passed. The Japanese then proceeded to take them hostage, tie them up, and apparently beat them. They have yet to release them, and the governments getting quite cranky, obviously.
Seriously, what are the Japanese thinking? Bloody idiots. Not only have they disobeyed International and Australian law in regards to the whaling, but they've also resorted to kidnapping. I hope the Tasmanian officials go through with their plan to not refuel the Japanese vessel.
Bugger em.
What also makes me mad is that people are actually trying to defend the Japanese, saying it's a part of their culture and that they will never change because of that. It's ridiculous. Anyone who has taken an introductory anthropology or history course will be able to tell you that culture is not something that is fixed - like any other aspect of humanity, it evolves and changes, and grows into something more. It adapts to it's environment. Surely when something effects the ecology of a place the culture has to adapt and change. I'd just like to kick em in the bum, maybe knock some sense into them.